Queen Elizabeth II’s Coronation on this day in 1953 brought youth, hope, innocence and beauty to the throne – but one secret royal romance received unwanted attention, writes CHRISTOPHER WILSON

It was the best present on earth. 

Extra spectacular than the enthronement of essentially the most well-known of her forbears, Queen Elizabeth I – who was topped on the similar age in 1559.

Queen Elizabeth II’s Coronation on at the present time 71 years in the past was essentially the most magnificent royal pageant the world had ever witnessed.

It dropped at the throne an image of youth, hope, innocence and sweetness in a single compelling, historic combine.

It was additionally the day that hints of Princess Margaret’s romance with Group Captain Peter Townsend emerged – when she was noticed choosing a chunk of lint from his shoulder. 

Upwards of 45,000 troops from fifty completely different nations marched or lined the four-mile procession route, designed in order that an unprecedented three million spectators might personally witness the daybreak of the New Elizabethan age. 

Eight thousand folks crammed into Westminster Abbey, falling right into a profound silence because the newly-crowned Elizabeth II pronounced her Coronation Oath.

Whereas outdoors in The Mall 1,000,000 folks waited to cheer themselves hoarse when their new sovereign stepped out on to the Buckingham Palace balcony.

All this for one modest, 25-year previous girl.

Even immediately, regardless of King Charles’s historic coronation a yr in the past, it stays a excessive level within the nationwide historical past books – a chunk of magic which might by no means be replicated once more.

The famend creator Dame Rebecca West was overawed by the spectacle, describing Elizabeth as ‘the logo of the state, the image of our nationwide life, the guardian of our self-respect.’

Whereas author Nancy Mitford put it extra jauntily: ‘How a lot NICER to have a younger queen than that very boring previous man!’

However whereas the nation celebrated with 5 thousand road events, garlanding the streets with bunting and themselves in fancy costume, inside the historic partitions of Westminster Abbey an act of immense sobriety was going down. 

‘She was consecrated,’ mentioned Canon John Andrew, the senior chaplain, ‘and that makes her Queen. It’s the most solemn factor that has ever occurred in her life. She can not abdicate. She is there till demise.’

On the day she did cross – on September 8, 2022 – 70 years and 214 days after turning into Queen – Her Majesty was nonetheless attending to her obligation, nonetheless pledged to offer her all to the nation and to the broader Commonwealth.  

Simply two days earlier than, when she met incoming prime minister Liz Truss, she was seen nonetheless smiling, nonetheless exhibiting herself to the folks as greatest she might, even on the age of 96.

Her Coronation – June 2, 1953 – got here after a yr of preparation. Britain was nonetheless reeling from the aftermath of World Struggle II, and rationing was nonetheless in pressure. 

The financial system was solely slowly recovering from the price of the battle, however prime minister Winston Churchill needed to point out the nation, and the world, that we had turned the nook.

As Princess Margaret, then 22, remembered: ‘It was like a phoenix-time. The whole lot was being raised from the ashes. There was this gorgeous-looking beautiful younger woman, and nothing to cease every thing from getting higher and higher.’

The second that she brushed a chunk of lint from her secret beau’s shoulder was harmless sufficient, however one so intimate that it instructed its personal story. 

Actually, the couple had pledged to marry solely weeks earlier than, however postpone an announcement in order to not detract from the large day. 

Large stress from all sides compelled the couple to desert their romance two years later.

However again to the Coronation – for weeks and weeks, Elizabeth had utilized herself to studying each nuance of the three-hour ceremonial. 

The Archbishop of Canterbury instructed her within the non secular significance of the varied rites, giving her prayers to say.

She practised her traces, and every single day within the ballroom at Buckingham Palace rehearsed her steps which might be witnessed by tens of millions of tv viewers the world over. 

Tied to her shoulders had been bed-sheets stitched collectively and carrying heavy weights to simulate the heavy gown and practice she’d need to put on on the day.

Prince Philip, whose entry into the British royal household simply six years earlier than had been greeted with suspicion – even from the Queen Mom herself – was given the job of chairing the committee organising the nice day. 

However nearly instantly he discovered himself sidelined – many of the selections had been being taken by the Coronation’s ringmaster, the Duke of Norfolk.

‘After Queen Victoria, the monarchy modified,’ he recalled ruefully years later. ‘It had grow to be an establishment. I simply had to slot in with that.’

The foundations decreed that he couldn’t strategy the altar alongside his spouse – as Camilla was capable of do when Prince Charles was topped – however as a substitute needed to observe her at a distance. 

‘That will need to have been onerous for Philip, however that is how issues had been accomplished,’ recalled courtier’s spouse Homosexual Charteris. ‘She was the monarch. But if she’d been a person, the spouse would have been there.’

The night time earlier than, a whole bunch of hundreds of spectators turned as much as stake their place alongside the procession route, bedding down in unseasonably chilly temperatures and making ready to endure robust winds and lashing rain.

The parade, which began the subsequent morning at 9am, integrated 29 army bands and 27 carriages, in addition to regiments of soldiery shipped and flown from throughout the globe. It took an entire two hours to cross by.

Elizabeth travelled to Westminster Abbey within the Gold State Coach, with gilded sculptures and door panels painted within the eighteenth century. 

Among the many crowds was Jacqueline Bouvier, a reporter for the Washington Occasions Herald – seven years later she’d rise to fame because the spouse of President John F Kennedy.

She wrote: ‘All of the deposed monarchs are staying at Claridges,’ including that the women must rise at 3am to have their hair accomplished in order that they might be of their seats at 7am sporting their tiaras.

Others famous that a number of of the lords getting into the Abbey had hidden sandwiches and small flasks of whisky of their coronets as they entered the hallowed portals. It was going to be a protracted day.

‘I used to be struck by how younger, susceptible and alone she appeared’ recalled lady-in-waiting Girl Pamela Hicks, now 95, who attended the Queen on the day.

Within the royal gallery, the four-and-a-half yr previous Prince Charles, sporting a white satin shirt, sat between the Queen Mom and Princess Margaret. 

‘The inheritor to the throne watched wide-eyed, variously excited and puzzled, whereas the Queen Mom leaned right down to whisper explanations,’ wrote Elizabeth’s biographer Sally Bedell Smith.

All too quickly the ceremonial, so historic, so transferring, so stuffed with hope, was over. 

All that was left was for Elizabeth to point out herself to her folks, and off she rolled within the Gold State Coach, Prince Philip eventually by her facet, for the two-hour, four-mile progress by way of London within the pouring rain.

Ringing nonetheless in her ears was the exultant shout which proclaimed her sovereignty.