Written by: euronews with ap
About 2,300 people are expected to attend the coronation ceremony of King Charles III in London, and the guest list abounds with presidents, kings and dignitaries. But the list of absent or uninvited is also interesting.
About 2,300 people are expected to attend King Charles III’s coronation, far fewer than the more than 8,000 guests who packed Westminster Abbey for Queen Elizabeth II’s coronation in 1953.
The following are the most prominent personalities expected to be present or absent:
the audience
- Prince Harry, the youngest son of the king, who withdrew from royal life and directed a barrage of criticism of his family.
Prince Harry is expected to attend the coronation ceremony itself and not the other events scheduled for that day.
- Among the world leaders: Australian Prime Minister Antwi Albanese, Chinese Vice President Han Jing, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, French President Emmanuel Macron, German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, New Zealand Prime Minister Chris Hepkins, Northern Ireland First Minister Michelle O’Neill Pakistani Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif, and Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos.
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and his wife Akshata Murti, along with members of the government and about 80 members of both houses of parliament. It is noteworthy that Sunak received some of the invitees at the government headquarters in Downing Street who arrived in London on the eve of the coronation ceremony.
- Hundreds of community heroes such as student Max Woozie, who slept in a tent in his garden for three years to collect donations for charity.
- Among the kings and princes of the world, King Felipe VI of Spain and Queen Letizia, Crown Prince of Denmark Frederick and Princess Mary, Crown Prince of Japan Fumihito and Princess Kiko, Prince Albert II of Monaco and Princess Charlene, King Abdul II of Jordan and Queen Rania, and Emir of Qatar Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad, Māori King Tuihitia, King Maha Vigillalongkorn of Thailand and Queen Sutida.
- American pop star Lionel Richie, the first global ambassador for Prince Charles’ Charitable Trust.
- Camila’s children are cookbook author Tom Parker Bowles and art expert Laura Lopez, and their father, Camilla’s ex-husband Andrew Parker Bowles.
absent or uninvited
- US President Joe Biden will be represented by his wife, First Lady Jill Biden.
- Prince Harry’s wife Meghan will stay in California with their children Lilibet and Archie.
- Most members of the British aristocracy include the Earl of Carnarvon, the godson of the late Queen Elizabeth and a close friend of the family, whose family owns the stately Highclere Palace, where the drama Downton Abbey was filmed.
- The elite of British society usually expected to be invited to the ceremony. But the matter is different this time, given Charles’ desire that the list of invitees be according to “merit, not aristocracy.”
- Sarah Ferguson, the ex-wife of Prince Andrew, the King’s brother, who still lives with him at Windsor Castle.
- Lady Pamela Mountbatten, 94, his son Louis Mountbatten, mentor to Charles, and one of two bridesmaids still alive who witnessed the marriage of Queen Elizabeth II in 1947.
