When it comes to the details of the coronation of King Charles III, it seems like Princess Anne is going to be just as surprised as the rest of us come Saturday. In an interview with Adrienne Arsenault of the CBC, Anne said that Charles hasn’t given her too much information about the coronation because they haven’t talked about it. She added that she is looking forward to her role riding in uniform with the Household Cavalry unit.
“I have a role as the colonel of the Blues and Royals in the Household Cavalry regiment as the Gold Stick [in Waiting], and Gold Stick was the original clothed protection officer,” she said. “That is a role I was asked if I would like to do for this coronation, so I said yes, not least of all, it solves my dress problem.”
The princess sat down with the Canadian public broadcaster at St. James Palace in advance of a trip to Canada later this month. In the wide-ranging conversation, Anne discussed her relationship with her brother, her opinion on what the monarchy provides to Britain, and discussed the final months she spent with her late mother and father, Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip.
Anne also spoke about how her brother is adjusting to being king. “Well, you know what you’re getting because he’s been practicing for a bit, and I don’t think he’ll change,” she said. “You know, he is committed to his own level of service, and that will remain true.”
As for the other senior royals, she said that they are still figuring out how their roles will change during his reign. “For the rest of us, it’s more a question of, we have to shift the way we support, and that’s what we need to do,” she said. “There was an order to the years, because my mother didn’t change very much. We knew what the rhythm of the year was, so things like that will change.”
She said she understood why more people were talking about the monarchy in the run-up to the coronation, though she emphasized that the family does not discuss it, only the monarch themselves. “I think it’s perfectly true that it is a moment where you need to have that discussion,” Anne said. “But I would just underline that the monarchy provides, with the constitution, a degree of long-term stability that is actually quite hard to come by any other way.”
She touched on the impact that COVID-19 had on her parents during their final months. “I tend to think it stole a bit from my father, who lost a lot of the people who would have gone to see him and talked to him and had those conversations that kept him interested,” she said. “He lost all of that.”
The late queen sat alone during his April 2021 funeral due to coronavirus restrictions, and Anne agreed when Arsenault said the pandemic caused that. “In some ways I’m glad we didn’t see that at that moment,” Anne added, referring to the fact that the rest of the family was seated in front of the queen. “When you see the photograph, it’s much worse somehow.”
She emphasized that the coronation isn’t just a celebration. “There is so much in that service that you really have to do,” she said. “It is a very essential part of the responsibilities of the crown.”
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