King Charles III Coronation Details Revealed

King Charles III became the U.K.’s monarch shortly after his mother, Queen Elizabeth II, died on Sept. 8, but his coronation ceremony is still months away. On Tuesday, Buckingham Palace announced that the ceremony will take place on Saturday, May 6, 2023. Queen Consort Camilla will also be crowned.

The coronation ceremony will take place at Westminster Abbey in London and will be conducted by the Archbishop of Canterbury. “The Coronation will reflect the monarch’s role today and look towards the future while being rooted in longstanding traditions and pageantry,” Buckingham Palace said in a statement. It is unknown if the U.K. will have a second bank holiday in May since there is already one scheduled for Monday, May 1, reports BBC News.

This will be the first coronation of a U.K. monarch in almost 70 years. Queen Elizabeth’s coronation took place on June 2, 1953, over a year after King George VI died in February 1952. King Charles’ coronation will also be the first on a Saturday since King Edward VII’s in 1902. Coincidentally, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s son Archie will celebrate his 4th birthday on the same day his grandfather becomes King.

King Charles will also be 74 at the coronation, making him the oldest person to be crowned a new monarch. He was the longest-serving heir apparent in U.K. history, having been first in line to the throne since 1952. Royal sources told BBC News his coronation is expected to be much shorter than his mother’s three-hour ceremony and will have a smaller number of guests. The current capacity for the Abbey is about 2,200.

“Charles became King Charles the moment his mother died, but the coronation is to do with the job and being the monarch in the eyes of all the people,” royal historian Robert Lacey told PEOPLE. “I would imagine the coronation ceremony will have much more interfaith quality to it.”

Queen Elizabeth’s coronation was historic as the first one ever televised. It reportedly drew about 27 million viewers, helping boost the popularity of the then-new medium. Millions more will likely watch King Charles’ coronation. Queen Elizabeth’s funeral was watched by 37.5 million viewers in the U.K. alone. Before the funeral, King Charles issued a statement thanking people around the world for their condolences.

“Over the last ten days, my wife and I have been so deeply touched by the many messages of condolence and support we have received from this country and across the world,” Charles said on Sept. 18. “In London, Edinburgh, Hillsborough, and Cardiff we were moved beyond measure by everyone who took the trouble to come and pay their respects to the lifelong service of my dear mother, The late Queen. As we all prepare to say our last farewell, I wanted simply to take this opportunity to say thank you to all those countless people who have been such a support and comfort to my Family and myself in this time of grief.”