King Charles III's Coronation Invite Unveiled: A Look At Old Invites Through Centuries From Royal Archives

Buckingham Palace has shared on Twitter images of old coronation invites remembering the journey of Kings, Queens and the changes in the designs.

Buckingham Palace on Wednesday unveiled the royal invitations for the Coronation ceremony of King Charles III and “Queen Camilla” at Westminster Abbey scheduled to take place on May 6th, this year. The official Twitter handle of the Royal Family shared the post containing the coronation invite featuring a floral and leafy pattern to be printed on recycled paper.

Notably, King Charles III’s wife Camilla, so far known as Queen Consort, has now transitioned to the title of Queen Camilla. Through the invitation, the 75-year-old royal family member has been referred to the Queen for the first time.

The Royal Family also shared the coronation invites from the Royal Archives describing a journey of evolution the ceremony and the invitation designs have gone through in decades.

The first was a specially illustrated invitation that the young Prince Charles received for Queen Elizabeth II’s Coronation in 1953.

 

The oldest Coronation invitation in the Royal Archives, is for the Coronation of King George III and Queen Charlotte, which took place on 22 September 1761, the tweet mentioned.

 

This one is an admission ticket for The Royal Family’s box at Westminster Abbey for King George IV’s Coronation on 19 July 1821. It is believed to have been designed by Sir William Congreve.

 

As per the tweet thread, this invitation was for the Coronation of King William IV and Queen Adelaide on 8 September 1831. The invitation took a very simple design, featuring the personal cyphers of Their Majesties. 

The last in the thread was this admission ticket that The Duchess of Kent used for the Coronation of her daughter, Queen Victoria, on 28 June 1838.

 

The BBC cited a royal source as saying that it made sense to use “Queen Consort” in the initial part of the new reign as a way of distinguishing her from the late Queen Elizabeth. But from the Coronation it would be an “appropriate time” to officially change to “Queen Camilla”, BBC report mentioned.

The announcement is said to be in line with tradition for the partner of a monarch to be referred to as Queen and that Queen Consort had been used in the aftermath of the passing of Queen Elizabeth II to smooth that transition.