“He takes a view even more strongly than the queen that the monarchy has to be shown to be useful,” said Vernon Bogdanor, an authority on the constitutional monarchy. Yet the hoary rituals of the coronation are a reminder of how - in a secular, multiethnic, digital-age society - the crown is fundamentally an anachronism. In the seven months since he ascended the throne, royal watchers say, the new king has worked to make the monarchy more accessible, forward looking and inclusive. Such are the problems vexing Charles as he prepares for his coronation, Britain’s first in 70 years. It was meant as a democratizing gesture: At Queen Elizabeth II’s coronation in 1953, only members of the hereditary aristocracy swore allegiance. Justin Welby, who will preside over the service, insisted that the oath would be purely voluntary. “More like the stuff of a Stalinist people’s republic,” wrote the columnist Mick Hume. “Discordant and potentially tone deaf,” posted Anna Whitelock, an expert on the monarchy at City, University of London. “A spectacular misjudgment,” said Graham Smith, whose group, Republic, wants to abolish the monarchy. But it’s not without its traps, as King Charles III learned last weekend when the organizers of his coronation invited millions of Britons to pledge an oath of homage to the monarch during the ceremony on Saturday.
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