The newly coronated King Charles III has greeted his subjects while travelling in a golden coach originally built in the 18th century.
King Charles III was joined by his wife, Queen Camilla, in greeting his subjects from the Gold State Coach, a 4-ton coach made of wood and coated in gold leaf built in 1762 while flanked by members of the armed forces from the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth nations.
Likely a special moment for many Britons, it may be one experience Charles might actually want to forget, with the late Queen Elizabeth II describing her experience travelling in the coach to and from Westminster Abbey for her 1953 coronation as “horrible”.
According to The Telegraph, the visually impressive carriage — though immaculately maintained — shows its age in other ways, with its abundance of golden statues and velvet and satin upholstery doing nothing to render the ride bearable, with the construction only boasting suspension made of leather strips.
Perhaps the King will forgive the vehicle its rather stiff ride however, with the gold-coated construction ultimately being the second-oldest working coach in the country, only beaten out by another royal carriage — the Speaker’s State Coach — which was built in the 17th century.
Unlike his late mother, however, Charles appears to have taken this issue into account, with his procession length being dramatically cut down compared to the route taken by Elizabeth in the 1950s, with the royals’ journey to the church being undertaken not in the Gold State Coach, but a far newer carriage built in Australia in 2012.
What the Diamond Jubilee Coach lacks in age and a lower amount of golden coating it makes up for in basically every other way, with the 21st-century vehicle boasting air conditioning, a heating system, electric windows and — perhaps most importantly — a hydraulic suspension system.
King Charles’ use of the coach can also be justified as an attempt to bring part of the Commonwealth into the ceremony, a loose confederation of countries, most of which are former client states to the United Kingdom from the time of the British Empire.
At least two nations from within this grouping have threatened to dump Charles as head of state in recent days, with the royal likely having a tough time ahead of him if he wants to keep the organisation together.
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