I’ll watch the crowning

This coming Saturday, King Charles the III will be crowned as King of New Zealand (and some other places). I certainly don’t care what others will do, but I’ll be watching it on television. I have a very simple reason: It’s historic.

The TV coverage I’ll be watching begins at 7pm NZST Saturday evening. I assumed that because of the way such things usually go, there’d be many hours of blather until the actual event. Today I realised I should actually look that up.

It turns out that the coronation itself is scheduled for 11am London Time, which is 10pm New Zealand time—and not the wee small hours of the morning our time, as I’d assumed. I take this as a win: I don’t have to stay up later than I normally would (which is still later that many people I know).

I can’t recall hearing anyone tell me they plan to watch the coronation, but I’ve heard a few saying they won’t—some fairly adamant about it, too. I don’t personally care what others do or don’t do, as always, however, I’ve come to care a little bit about explaining why I’ll be watching. Good thing I have a blog, then.

I am, as I’ve said many times, a republican (lower case “r” only, thank you very much), and while I’m not exactly a fan of the institution or the new king, that doesn’t mean I’m opposed to either one. I still believe that New Zealand will become a republic some day, but it’s certainly not something I’d personally lobby for or work toward. I am, in a sense, more indifferent than anything.

Be that as it may, every coronation of a new monarch is an historic event. I’ve seen footage of the late Queen’s coronation, and of some of her predecessors, as well as paintings of others from throughout Europe. I’ve never seen a coronation live before, and there’s no way of knowing whether I ever will again: There’s no way I’d miss this opportunity.

This comes naturally for me: My minor at university was history, and it’s a subject I’ve always loved and been fascinated by. In fact, there were times I wish I’d double-majored in political science and history (I didn’t mainly because it would’ve extended my time at university, and I was eager to start doing life). This lifelong fascination and interest in history has led me to watch all sorts of historic events live.

Some of those events also had other things going on for me. For example, I watched the Queen’s funeral because, like a lot of people, I respected her, and I was sad when she died. I watched her funeral as a mark of respect every bit as much as because it was an historic event. Even so, the vast majority of historic events I watch don’t have any emotional tone to them, and the coronation will be one of those.

Watching the coronation will also be a kind of logical progression for me: I watched then-Prince Charles’ investiture as Prince of Wales on July 1, 1969 (this merely gave him the traditional title; he was already the “heir apparent”). Back then, I had no feelings one way or the other about the monarchy (I was ten, after all…), but I was fascinated by all the pomp and circumstance. That was pretty much how I felt all the years afterward.

For several years, and especially after the death of Charles’ first wife, Princess Diana, there was a commonly expressed opinion that New Zealand might become a republic when the Queen died. People’s reasons for thinking that varied, but mainly centred on the view that the respect/affection was for the Queen personally, not the institution, and that people didn’t much like Charles. In fact, I remember a lot of people expressing hope that Charles would abdicate in favour of William.

These days, Britons’ support for the monarchy is clearly declining, and the same thing is happening—slowly—in New Zealand. In September of last year, , shortly after the Queen’s death, 1News released a poll. It found that 50% of New Zealanders wanted to retain the monarchy, and 27% wanted to abolish it, which was a slight improvement for the monarchy from the previous November, and that improvement was certainly affected by the death of the Queen. Overall, support for the monarchy is likely to have a plurality of support, though not majority support, for awhile yet.

What all of this means is that the institution of the monarchy will be around for for some time. This is a good thing because the Reserve Bank of New Zealand has a stockpile of currency with the Queen’s portrait and won’t replace it until the end of its useful life. That “would be wasteful and poor environmental practice,” they said. The environmentalist King and his heir apparent no doubt approve of this decision.

I’d thought about making Coronation Chicken (just for fun, though I like the recipe Nigel used), and certainly not “The King and The Queen Consort's Coronation Quiche” [WATCH], which frankly doesn’t sound very nice. We’ll see.

There’s one more thing I absolutely won’t be doing: I will not take part in the "homage of the people," an oath of allegiance to the King—been there, done that. When I became a New Zealand Citizen in 2010, I was required to state that I “solemnly, sincerely, and truly declare and affirm that I will be faithful and bear true allegiance to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth the Second, Her heirs and successors, according to law.” When the Queen died, the “heirs and successors” part kicked in, and the “true allegiance” automatically transferred to Charles, just as it may one day automatically transfer to William (depending on a lot of variables). So, I consider myself to be automatically exempt.

There’s a more serious reason I wouldn’t do the "homage of the people": The wording. People becoming citizens of New Zealand have the option of swearing an oath (like the “homage”) or making an affirmation. The difference is that an oath ends with “So help me God”, just as the NZ Citizenship and parliamentary oaths do. The affirmations, however, are secular—no deities mentioned—and that’s precisely why I chose the affirmation when I became a citizen. As I’ve said many times, I believe that appeals to one religion’s deity is never appropriate for a purely secular purpose. The fact that the king is also “defender of the faith” for England’s official religion is irrelevant for non-English people and non-Anglicans of whatever description (something, by the way, that the king seems to essentially agree with, though possibly/probably not necessarily in quite those terms). So, if I wouldn’t make a religious-based oath to the queen, I certainly ain’t about to do it for the first of her “heirs and successors according to law”. Besides, the old one was transferrable. Again, though, I couldn’t possibly care less what other people choose to do—or not do.

So, I’ll be watching the broadcast of the coronation as a witness to history. I won’t be taking part in any of the hoopla surrounding the event, which isn't unusual. What choices others make is entirely up to them. This has merely been about my choices, and why I made them. Pretty much like every other post about the choices I make. Good thing I have a blog.