Britain Making Plans for King Charles’ Coronation Transcript

The coordination of King Charles III is just a few weeks away and Buckingham Palace is revealing new details ahead of the big celebration.

King Charles will arrive at Westminster Abbey for the ceremony in the newest state coach and then he will depart in the oldest state coach. Coach, I believe, is a horse-drawn something or another, it’s a procession route that will be far shorter than that of the late Queen Elizabeth II’s 1953 coronation, 1953, the 1.3-mile trip will go along The Mall down the south side of the square there, past Parliament Square to arrive at Westminster Abbey. I made a little walk through there during my week in London this past week.

You were just just there, Tony.

I was just there.

Is that what you were doing, were you just-

I was waiting for the call, I was doing research.

You were doing research-

Watch my expense report.

… following that trajectory. Well, CBS News’ foreign correspondent, Ramy Inocencio is there now in London. Look, Ramy, I’m just going to cut right through what is in a lot of people’s minds. Are Harry and Megan going to be there?

That is the million-pound question, I suppose, Lilia. Right now, we actually don’t know. We don’t even know if they have actually gotten an invitation from the King’s office and there definitely has been no word on whether they have accepted anything. But there is the belief that if they did come or one of them came, Harry or Megan, that it would be a very brief visit here because of all the tensions, the anxieties that have happened over the past few years. Now, talking about the guest list though, you were saying that you were waiting for your own invitation, Tony, but you probably won’t get it, not because it’s you, but because they’re taking down the number of people from 8,000 guests in 1953 to 2,000 guests. They are-

You’re on the 5,000 mark, Tony.

Yeah, I was 5,001.

2,001.

Story of my life.

But we can expect the entire Royal Family, Harry and Megan maybe not so much there, and one thing that they are breaking with tradition is with royals from around the world. That is something that has not been the case in the past for fear of upstaging the British Monarch. We might see Scandinavian royals, Middle East kings and sultans, and as for heads of state, some that have already confirmed from Ireland, France, Spain, Japan. We do know though that President Joe Biden will not attend, the First Lady, Jill Biden will represent the United States here.

I trust that any of our viewers still watching this segment do care about the monarchy and so we’ll ask for a little more detail if you could provide it about the two coaches, the new and the old that the King and the Queen consort will be traveling in.

Sure. Hey, this is momentous. This only happens once in a generation, really. It’s really interesting here because they’ll be riding in Britain’s oldest and then its newest royal carriages. They’re going to ride from Buckingham Palace to Westminster Abbey, in that map you showed us, in a coach called the Diamond Jubilee State Coach, and it was built especially to mark Queen Elizabeth II’s 60th year on the throne. A gilded crown sits on top of that. That crown was carved from oak from a very special ship, one of the flagships of the Royal Navy from the 18th century, the HMS Victory.

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Then, for their return trip, probably this one is even more impressive, they’re going to travel in a coach called the Gold State Coach, there it is right now on your screen. This one is 260 years old, 12 feet high, 23 feet long, 4 tons in weight, and that’s why it’s going to go slow. It’s been used at every coronation since 1831, and 1762 was the first time that actually came up in history. Put this into American context guys, 1762, 15 years earlier than the independence of the then United States. King George at the time was actually still king of the American colonies then, so that coach, when you look at it, older than the United States.

Yeah, for perspective. I mean, when it came to the Queen, it was many generations, so once for many generations for King Charles.

We declared our independence in 1776-

In 1776 and I told-

… as you pointed out, but not our independence from our interest in the comings and goings. Glad we got that information about both coaches. It’s very interesting. [inaudible 00:04:18] Ramy Inocencio, thank you very much.

Yep, you bet.