World News for Students of English

09-05-2023 15:00

King Charles III was anointed and crowned on May 6th in a ceremony that sought to marry a thousand years of history with a monarchy fit for a new era.

Charles, 74, automatically succeeded his mother as king of the United Kingdom and 14 other countries, including Canada and Australia when Queen Elizabeth died last September.

In front of a congregation including about 100 world leaders and a television audience of millions, the Archbishop of Canterbury placed the 360-year-old St Edward’s Crown on Charles’s head as he sat upon a 14th-century throne in Westminster Abbey. During the two-hour service, Charles’s second wife, Camilla, was also crowned queen. A huge military procession followed and there was a scaled-down flypast by military aircraft as the king and queen waved from the balcony of Buckingham Palace to cheering crowds who gathered on The Mall boulevard.

Despite being rooted in history, the ceremony was an attempt to present a forward-looking institution and to reflect a more diverse country.

Difficult words: anoint (to put water or oil on someone in a religious ceremony), congregation (a gathering of people), scaled-down (smaller than planned).

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