King Charles III will be crowned on May 6, Buckingham Palace announces

Mark the calendars: Buckingham Palace announced Tuesday that King Charles III will be crowned on Saturday, May 6, 2023, but offered few clues about how the ancient religious ceremony of coronation might differ from the last one in 1953.

The new king's coronation will take place at Westminster Abbey, as per tradition; most of the United Kingdom's monarchs have been crowned there over the last 900 years.

The Archbishop of Canterbury will conduct the service and crown him, as has been tradition since 1066. The current leader of the Church of England is Justin Welby.

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And His Majesty will be crowned alongside his second wife Camilla, the Queen Consort, the palace statement said.

The king is expected to sign a proclamation formally declaring the date of the coronation at a meeting of the Privy Council later this year, the statement added.

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Expectations of good weather could be possible in May. But holding the coronation then will allow for the hugely popular Trooping the Colour parade celebrating the monarch's official birthday to go forward in June. (The king's actual birthday is in November, when he will turn 74.)

There were some small clues for royal fans hoping for coronation details signaling what kind of king Charles will be.

"The Coronation will reflect the monarch’s role today and look towards the future, while being rooted in longstanding traditions and pageantry … The Ceremony has retained a similar structure for over a thousand years, and next year’s Coronation is expected to include the same core elements while recognizing the spirit of our times," the statement said.

© NEIL HANNA, AFP via Getty Images King Charles III, wearing a kilt as he usually does when in Scotland, with Camilla, Queen Consort walk to meet members of the public after leaving city hall and heading to Dunfermline Abbey in Dunfermline in southeast Scotland on Oct. 3, 2022.

What does that mean? "Further details will be announced in due course," the palace said. So it may be some time before those invited to the first British coronation in 70 years learn if they need to pull out their heavy ceremonial robes and set aside hours in their diaries on May 6. 

Leaks about the details of the coronation have been turning up in the British press for weeks, including reports that there will be fewer guests, the ceremony will last only about an hour and guests, even the most posh of aristocrats, will be allowed to wear morning suits instead of ceremonial robes. None of that has been confirmed. 

Another detail not mentioned: As is tradition, Charles will be crowned while sitting on King Edward's Chair (made in 1300 and used by every sovereign since 1626), under which sat the "Stone of Scone" or Stone of Destiny, a hunk of sandstone used at Scottish coronations and stolen by the English at the end of the 13th century. In 1996, the stone was returned to Scotland by the British government with the understanding it would be borrowed for coronations. The Scots announced last month the stone would be used in King Charles' coronation before being returned to Edinburgh Castle's Crown Room.

© Pool photo by DANIEL LEAL The coffin of Queen Elizabeth II, adorned with a Royal Standard and the Imperial State Crown and pulled by a Gun Carriage of The King's Troop Royal Horse Artillery, is pictured during a procession from Buckingham Palace to the Palace of Westminster, in London on Sept. 14, 2022.

It is no secret that King Charles, for years while he was Prince of Wales, indicated he wanted a "slimmed down monarchy" when he became king, in order to demonstrate to the people that the monarchy is worth keeping as a cost-effective benefit to the nation. Coronations are expensive to mount and are paid for by the government, meaning taxpayers. 

The coronation of the king's mother, the late Queen Elizabeth II, took place in June 1953, more than a year after she became queen in February 1952. It was a near-four-hour ceremony, most of it televised. Some 8,000 people, many wearing coronets and draped in their ermine robes, were crammed into the abbey to watch the young queen, then 26, be crowned with St. Edward's Crown, the 360-year-old crown traditionally used for the actual moment of crowning.

Among those watching was her son and heir, Prince Charles, then 4, seated with his widowed grandmother, Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother, and his aunt, Princess Margaret, both of whom died in 2002. 

© Intercontinentale/AFP via Getty Images Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, wave to the crowd in London following her coronation on June 2, 1953.

For the first time, millions watched the coronation on TV. In fact, many Brits rushed out and bought their first TVs just so they could see the ceremony and the celebrations in the aftermath, when the queen, now wearing the Imperial State Crown, emerged with her family on the balcony of Buckingham Palace to wave to exultant crowds still feeling the effects of Britain's post-war gloom. 

(Those who watched the queen's funeral last month will remember the Imperial State Crown, the Orb and Scepter were on the queen's coffin during the ceremony. That crown is the one the monarch wears for all official ceremonies after leaving the abbey from the coronation. These "Instruments of State" were removed from the coffin, as a sign that her reign was over, just before it was lowered to her burial place beneath the floor of St. George's Chapel at Windsor Castle.)  

© AP Queen Elizabeth II on her throne after her crowning on June 2, 1953, in Westminster Abbey, as she receives the fealty of the archbishop and bishops of the Church of England.

Also still up in the air officially are the roles 40-year-old Prince William, Charles' heir and the new Prince of Wales, his wife, Princess Kate of Wales, 40, and their elder son, Prince George of Wales, will play in the coronation.

Like the queen's funeral last month, planning and carrying out a coronation takes time and military organization and precision. A coronation typically takes place months after accession to the throne, following a period of national and royal mourning, which ended Sept. 27. 

Operation Golden Orb, the codename for King Charles' coronation, has been planned out for years. For the next eight months, expect the palace to dribble out more details gradually. And expect more leaks. 

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: King Charles III will be crowned on May 6, Buckingham Palace announces