New screen will give King Charles privacy during coronation anointing

Queen Elizabeth used just a canopy during her 1953 coronation but Charles has opted for more seclusion behind a three-sided screen.

The King will have greater privacy than afforded previous monarchs during one of the most sacred moments of the coronation.

Charles will be shielded by a new partition, featuring an embroidered design celebrating the Commonwealth, when he is anointed by the Archbishop of Canterbury during his crowning on May 6.

Queen Elizabeth used just a canopy during her 1953 coronation but Charles has opted for more seclusion behind a central decorated screen, with further screens on either end that will enclose the King on three sides.

Painter Aidan Hart created the design and was asked by the King to take inspiration from the Golden Jubilee stained glass window at the Chapel Royal, St James’s Palace, which depicts the “family of nations” as a thriving tree.

Project co-ordinator Nick Gutfreund described organising the Royal School of Needlework, livery companies and fabric firms – including one using machines to embroider parts of the design – as a “privilege and absolute pleasure”.

Before the crowning and out of sight behind the tree-sided screen, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, will anoint Charles making the sign of the cross on his hand, breast and head with holy oil – regarded as a deeply spiritual moment for a monarch.

Speaking about the Queen’s anointing during her coronation, Mr Gutfreund said: “Previously it was just a canopy over the top, so it was figurative privacy rather than actual privacy.

“Whereas the King this time wanted actual privacy and wanted to take the opportunity to communicate with people rather than it just being something that’s just decorative, it’s actually communicating a message.”

The main panel of the screen, which will face the congregation, features a tree with the names of the Commonwealth’s 56 member states embroidered onto individual leaves, while the two side screens feature an embroidered cross. All screens are 2.6 metres high and 2.2 metres wide.

A dove is in the topmost branches and either side of the tree  is a trumpet-blowing angel representing heaven and earth brought together, and at the root is the cypher of the King who serves the Commonwealth and its people.

Birds are seen in the branches and roses are dotted among the leaves denoting growth and in the sky is a stylised sun which gives life to planet earth.

Embroidered at the bottom is the quotation “All shall be well, and all manner of thing shall be well” from the medieval mystic Julian of Norwich, the author of the earliest surviving book in the English language written by a woman.

Mr Hart, who lived as a hermit in Shropshire for six years before marrying, specialises in painting and sculpting sacred icons and drew on the stained glass window that marked the 50th year of the late Queen’s reign.

He said: “The inspiration of the Chapel Royal stained-glass window was personally requested by His Majesty the King.

“Each and every element of the design has been specifically chosen to symbolise aspects of this historic coronation and the Commonwealth, from the birds that symbolise the joy and interaction among members of a community living in harmony, to the rejoicing angels and the dove that represents the Holy Spirit.”

Some of the 150 people involved in creating the screen, gifted by the City of London Corporation and participating Livery Companies, attended a short service of dedication at the Chapel Royal when the screen was blessed on Monday.

In March, Charles saw the screen being embroidered during a private visit to the Royal School of Needlework based at Hampton Court Palace with the Queen Consort, the institution’s patron.

Mr Gutfreund, a cabinet maker from the Worshipful Company of Carpenters, created the screen’s pole frame which is topped by two gilded eagles, a reference to the eagles embroidered on the canopy used by Queen Elizabeth.

The military will play a part, and the screen will be carried by six servicemen from regiments of the Household Division holding the Freedom of the City of London – a Trooper from the Life Guards and a Guardsmen from each of the Grenadier, Coldstream, Scots, Irish and Welsh Guards.

Modern technology was used to help speed up the process with London-based company Digitek using embroidery machines to create the outline of the tree and the trunk with sustainable thread, while the cloth was made from Australian and New Zealand wool woven and finished in UK mills.

Anne Butcher, head of studio and standards at the Royal School of Needlework (RSN), described how RSN students, staff and the Livery Companies of the Broderers, Drapers and Weavers were involved in embroidering country names onto leaves.

She added: “They all came back to us to be assembled onto the tree, so that was the really important collaborative part of the process, and it was just amazing to be working with so many people – so we think probably about 150 have been involved.”