Lambeth Palace hopes there will be a ‘great cry around the nation’ in support of Charles (Picture: PA)
Millions of people around the world are being urged to show their loyalty to the King when they watch the coronation.
Charles’s coronation has been modernised to include the first-ever Homage of the People, giving the public an active role in the ancient ceremony for the first time in history.
Lambeth Palace said it hopes the significant change to the historic service willresult in those watching on TV, online, or at big screen open-air events letting out a ‘great cry around the nation and world of support for the King’.
It replaces the traditional Homage of Peers in which a long line of hereditary peers knelt and made a pledge to the monarch in person.
The words and actions of the coronation service – known as the liturgy – have been revealed after they were decided upon in close consultation with the King, the Archbishop of Canterbury and the government.
The new Homage of the People has been brought in to encourage ‘a chorus of millions of voices’ to be ‘enabled for the first time in history to participate in this solemn and joyful moment’, according to Lambeth Palace.
During the ceremony, Archbishop Justin Welby will call upon ‘all persons of goodwill in The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and of the other Realms and the Territories to make their homage, in heart and voice, to their undoubted King, defender of all’.
The coronation of Charles III will take place on Saturday, May 6 (Picture: Getty/AFP)
The order of service on May 6 will read: ‘All who so desire, in the Abbey, and elsewhere, say together:
‘All: I swear that I will pay true allegiance to Your Majesty, and to your heirs and successors according to law. So help me God.’
A playing of a fanfare will then follow.
A spokesman for Lambeth Palace, the Archbishop’s office, said: ‘The Homage of the People is particularly exciting because that’s brand new.
‘That’s something that we can share in because of technological advances, so not just the people in the Abbey, but people who are online, on television, who are listening, and who are gathered in parks, at big screens and churches.
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‘Our hope is at that point, when the Archbishop invites people to join in, that people wherever they are, if they’re watching at home on their own, watching the telly, will say it out loud – this sense of a great cry around the nation and around the world of support for the King.’
The ‘Homage of the People’ is new (Picture: PA)
The words printed in the service are for ‘everyone to share in’.
Before the Homage of the People, the Archbishop of Canterbury will pay homage representing the Church of England, followed by the Prince of Wales – performing what is the only Homage of Royal Blood.
Just like his grandfather Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh did for his wife Elizabeth II at her coronation, William will kneel before the monarch, place his hands between his father’s and vow to be his ‘liege man of life and limb’.
He will say: I, William, Prince of Wales, pledge my loyalty to you and faith and truth I will bear unto you, as your liege man of life and limb. So help me God.’
Lambeth Palace said it hopes everyone around the world will join in by showing allegiance to the King (Picture: AFP)
The symbolic act means the heir to the throne, as ‘liege man’ to the King, has a mutual obligation to the monarch.
In the past, other dukes of royal blood would pay homage, but this time, with only William taking part from the royal family, it removes the need for the Dukes of Sussex and York to undertake this role.
The removal of the homages of hereditary peers also has the benefit of helping to reduce the length of the service, which is now two hours instead of around three as it was at the late Queen’s coronation.
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William has another duty during the service.
He will enter the coronation theatre earlier in the ceremony in the investiture segment and help clothe the King in the robe royal, also known as the mantle, ahead of the crowning.
William will join Baroness Merron, former Board of Deputies of British Jews chief executive, and help bishops to lift the ‘robe of righteousness’ on to his father.
The robe represents what the King, as sovereign, has been given by God.
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It’s the first time in history the public will have an active role.
