On Wednesday, King Charles III and Queen Consort Camilla released the invitations to the Coronation, which will take place on May 6, along with a new official portrait that shows the couple posing in the Blue Drawing Room at Buckingham Palace. The photo was taken in March by Hugo Burnand, who also took an official portrait of Prince William and Princess Kate after their 2011 wedding.
Instagram content
This content can also be viewed on the site it originates from.
According to the palace, the invitation will go out to 2,000 guests who are expected to attend the coronation. The invitation was hand-painted by heraldic artist Andrew Jamieson in watercolor and gouache, and will be reproduced on recycled paper. The invitation features a border of British wildflowers, including lilies of the valley, bluebells, and wild strawberries, and the palace noted that flowers appear in groups of three on the envelope to symbolize that Charles will be the third monarch of his name.
They also explained one of the symbolic figures that appears on the invitation. “Central to the design is the motif of the Green Man, an ancient figure from British folklore, symbolic of spring and rebirth, to celebrate the new reign,” the palace said. “The shape of the Green Man, crowned in natural foliage, is formed of leaves of oak, ivy and hawthorn, and the emblematic flowers of the United Kingdom.”
Instead of referring to Camilla as the Queen Consort, the invitation refers to her as “Queen Camilla,” confirming previous speculation that she would eventually follow in the footsteps of previous consorts and drop the word. Palace aides confirmed to Tatler that they would refer to her as “Queen Camilla” from now on.
One source explained about the reasoning behind the change. “It made sense to refer to Her Majesty as the Queen Consort in the early months of His Majesty’s reign, to distinguish from Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II,” the source told the magazine. “‘Queen Camilla’ is the appropriate title to set against ‘King Charles’ on the invitation,” the source said. “All former Queen Consorts have been known as ‘Queen’ plus their first name.”
Along with the invitation, the palace announced the names of royal pages for the coronation, confirming reports that Camilla’s grandchildren would participate in the ceremony. Her pages will be Gus and Master Louis Lopes, the sons of her daughter Laura Lopes, and Freddy Parker Bowles, the son of Tom Parker-Bowles, and her great-nephew, Arthur Elliot.
Nine-year-old Prince George leads the list of the king’s pages, which also includes Oliver Cholmondeley, the son of Prince William’s friend and neighbor the Marquis of Cholmondeley, Nicholas Barclay, the grandson of the king’s second cousin Sarah Troughton, the Lord-Lieutenant of Wiltshire, and Ralph Tollemache, the son of the king’s godson Edward Tollemache.
Listen to Vanity Fair’s DYNASTY podcast now.
