Media Tip Sheets

The King’s Coronation: a historical oddity?

Thursday, April 27, 2023, By Ellen Mbuqe

Next week, the world will watch the coronation of King Charles III, but what is the ceremony’s purpose?

Alan Allport, Syracuse University history professor at the Maxwell School, said the coronation is a “historical oddity.”

  • “The fact that British monarchs still undergo a coronation at all is a historical oddity. None of the other European kings or queens bother to do it. It’s not legally necessary to take the British Crown. Charles’ great uncle Edward VIII wanted to skip the fuss entirely and as it turned out was never crowned, but we still consider him a (briefly ruling) king. So it’s a ceremony in search of a purpose. And it is reinvented on each occasion to serve whatever seems to be the needs of the moment,” said Allport.

Allport specializes in the history of Britain and his most recent book is “Britain at Bay: The Epic Story of the Second World War 1938-1941.”

Reporters who would like to schedule an interview with Professor Allport, please contact Ellen James Mbuqe, Syracuse University’s executive director of media relations, at ejmbuqe@syr.edu or 412-496-0551.