If you have somehow been living under a rock the last few weeks, you might have missed that here in Blighty, we officially have a new monarch.

I mean, we had one since last year, but today, it becomes official in a legal, spiritual, and governmental way.

Charles III was crowned today!

As a medieval historian, I have a huge fascination with kingship, coronations, and what it means to transform someone of the royal bloodline into a ‘monarch’, with a few traditions and pieces of clothing.

There was a lot of speculation about this coronation. There are literally hundreds of rules and regulations when it comes to crowning a monarch, but honestly, because we haven’t done it in this country for so long, I don’t think most of us had ever seen a coronation in the flesh!

For a long time, Charles was clear that he didn’t want to have as complicated a coronation as Queen Elizabeth II, his mother, and that made me sad for two reasons. Firstly because I love a bit of pageantry, but secondly because my great-grandfather was knighted for his leadership in organising Elizabeth II’s coronation. I wanted to see another spectacular coronation in my lifetime.

But having said all that, I think Charles was onto the right lines.

Our attention span as a generation is short, and our awareness of the environmental impact of big events like coronations means that it’s a good thing to keep it short. Short and sweet.

And memorable. I don’t think I’ll ever forget watching this coronation, a truly amazing part of history.

Did you watch the coronation? What did you think?