The Coronation of Charles III: Self-Serving Tradition and Repugnant Pomposity

On May 6, 2023, within the ancient space of Westminster Abbey, Charles III was formally anointed as King of the United Kingdom, with his second wife, Camilla, sitting alongside him as Queen Consort. The coronation of Charles III was, in keeping with the character of the monarchy that it celebrated, a vulgar display of fraudulent observance, awash in decrepit practices that combined self-serving tradition and repugnant pomposity. For the British masses, the ceremony in London provided a bit of mindless diversion, a silly excuse for a neighborhood party, and a one-off bank holiday, but apart from those few things, it accomplished no earthly good whatsoever, in spite of having drained a huge fortune from the public coffers.

After a thoroughly grim winter in which the United Kingdom was torn by widespread strikes, rampant infections of Covid-19, alarming signs of breakdown in the NHS, ongoing damage from Brexit, and perpetual scandal in the Conservative government of Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, the laughable sight of Charles Windsor having a bejeweled crown put upon his head was the supposed highlight of a dreary ceremony that can only be described, in honest terms, as an empty, tasteless show. From its ornate start to its overblown finish, it reeked of the deep, abiding scorn for common humanity, and the arrogant demand for undeserved advantage, that defines the haughty outlook of every monarch who has ever reigned.

My mother was English, and I myself was born in England, in 1953, which happened to be the same year in which Elizabeth II was crowned as Queen. For anyone of British descent who is my age or older, H.R.H. Queen Elizabeth II was a given, a constant figure, an inscrutable sovereign who was generally perceived as both dignified and reliable: always there, always regal, and always careful to hold herself far above the untidy fray of everyday problems. With her passing in September, 2022, the Royal spell was irretrievably broken and the British monarchy was suddenly, and perhaps fatally, diminished. Charles III is, in every way, and after a lifetime of having to wait for his own moment of kingly glory, an exceedingly poor successor to his mother.

Charles, an awkward man who has never appeared entirely comfortable with the "duties" that he must perform as a Royal personage, comported himself in a most unseemly manner during his first marriage to the late Diana Spencer, openly cheating on her with Camilla Parker-Bowles, a former girlfriend whom he subsequently married after he and Diana were divorced. He can hardly be said to represent the best qualities of the British nation. He should, instead, be seen as being what he undeniably is: a weak, inbred, spineless fool who was, from his birth, brought up to imagine, quite wrongly, that because of his particular bloodline, he is fully entitled to rule, as King, over millions of obeisant "subjects."

Prince William and Prince Harry, the two sons of Charles and Diana, are no more than a grubby pair of shameless grifters, primarily dedicated to maintaining their own wealth and luxury. William (who is destined to follow his father to the throne) and his wife, Kate, are wholeheartedly uninspiring, with no more charm than two pieces of damp cardboard. Harry (who is even more lacking in charm than William) and his pushy American wife, Meghan, are brazenly annoying, living a life of flashy avarice in Southern California, where they unceasingly promote themselves as trendy celebrities. As an institution, the Royal family is rotten, utterly corrupt to its core, and has no higher purpose, no actual purpose at all, other than the relentless preservation of itself.

Prince Andrew, younger brother of Charles, is the worst of the lot. As a dim-witted wastrel with a well-known partiality for the company of underage girls, he has repeatedly dived into the depths of ill repute (especially as regards his untoward friendship with Jeffery Epstein, the infamous supplier of frisky playthings to members of the jet set), and should have been locked up a long time ago. His habit of unrepentant perversion, financed by money taken from taxpayers, has left a glaring stain on the British nation. Andrew and the rest of the Royal family have proven themselves unfit to command the trust of the public. Why should any British citizen be forced to defer their own rights, for the sake of such unworthy people?

Throughout its many centuries, the United Kingdom has been encumbered with a monarchy of kings and queens, underpinned by an aristocracy of dukes and duchesses, marquesses and marchionesses, earls and countesses, viscounts and vicountesses, barons and baronesses, all of whom have taken for granted that the finest of everything is owed to them by virtue of the "nobility" of their birth and the "excellence" of their family connections. In 2023, when many Britons are suffering in poverty, unable to make ends meet, struggling to buy food and to heat their homes, the depraved fantasy of having a lofty sovereign with unquestioned exemption, who looks down at the nation from on high while being treated as a deity, can no longer be sustained or justified.

The shallow activities of Charles III and his greedy brood of graspers add nothing of value to the daily lives of British citizens. All monarchies are fundamentally at odds with the essential principles of freedom and fairness, and all monarchies constitute an overt assault on democracy. The British monarchy of the 21st century, headed by Charles III, is no different. Its continuance is unwise, unnecessary, and unsupportable, and it clearly needs to be abolished. The people of Britain do not require the expensive burden of a useless monarch. As a citizen of the United Kingdom, and moreover, as a human being, I subscribe to the firm belief that the British monarchy belongs on the scrapheap of history.