Coronation Clause

The Coronation Clause was a clause included in the concluding parts of the will written out by the late King Charles III. Noted later for its controversial nature, the clause became a subject of prominent interest during the months leading up to the coronation of Queen Alexandra, as it generally advocated for a progressive, albeit controversial reform towards the coronation ceremony.

Background

Although the date of when the overall will, or the clause itself was exactly written was never published, it was believed to had been done so around the late 2000's, just prior to the passing of the late King Charles III on March 2011.

The clause itself, later termed as the coronation clause", according to popular belief, had been primarily proposed by the then King William VI whom, due to his own sense of modernity, had reportedly sought a major change towards his heir apparent's future coronation ceremony. Thus, as the suggestion supposedly came during the last few moments of drafting the will, it was thus included as being among the last few clauses inserted into the will.

Use

Around November 2017, in the month prior to the coronation of Queen Alexandra, a private dispute was said to had arose between Justin Welby, the Archbishop of Canterbury, and the then recently abdicated King William VI. As it was supposedly told, the former king's proposed ideas specifically mentioned in the will's particular clause itself received great opposition from the Archbishop whom saw it as a process of "de-Christianisation" of a traditionally Christian ceremony. At the time, as the former monarch was said to had been initially unaware of the will itself due to the decrease in its relevancy overtime, reportedly proposed a private coronation in return, whereby in the much more privatised version, the usual form of the coronation would be conducted before being followed by that of a publicised one which would incorporate William's reforms. However, the question of holding two royal coronations one after the other was also quickly refused, then deemed as being "impossible and unthinkable".

Eventually, after a supposed period of truce between the two men, the debate itself ultimately turned out in favour of William whom, having supposedly remembered the will and its according clause, finally presented it to the Archbishop, whom in turn was said to had finally conceded to the demand, out of a supposed fear of violating the will of a largely popular and respected monarch, that is, the late King Charles III.

Legacy

Despite its initial fall from relevancy, the clause's significance, coupled with its overly controversial nature quickly regained much relevance in the buildup to the current Queen Alexandra. Generally, while the clause itself was mostly presided by progressive commentators for its own similarly progressive nature, it was however criticised by some as being a "loophole in subverting traditional and accepted societal norms", as detractors suggest that such an event could set a precedent for future monarchs to be able to posthumously exert their own influence in the future through the use of their wills which, irrespective of its actual nature, would be less likely to be repudiated due to the said monarch's ideally positive reputation.