King Charles III Crowned at London’s Westminster Abbey

By Staff, Agencies

King Charles III was crowned on Saturday in Britain's biggest ceremonial event for seven decades, a sumptuous display of pageantry dating back 1,000 years.

In front of a congregation of about 100 world leaders, the Archbishop of Canterbury, the spiritual leader of the Anglican Church, slowly placed the 360-year-old St Edward's Crown on Charles' head as he sat upon a 14th-century throne in Westminster Abbey.

The historic event dates back to the time of the 74-year-old's predecessor William the Conqueror in 1066.

Charles' second wife Camilla, 75, will be crowned queen during the two-hour ceremony, which while rooted in history, is also an attempt to present a forward-looking monarchy, with those involved in the service reflecting a more diverse Britain and leaders from all faiths.

The nation, meanwhile, is struggling to find its way in the political maelstrom after its exit from the European Union and maintain its standing in a new world order.

Saturday's event was on a smaller scale than that staged for Queen Elizabeth in 1953.

Charles automatically succeeded his mother as king on her death last September, and the coronation is not essential but regarded as a means to legitimize the monarch in a public way.

More than 11,000 police were deployed to stamp out any attempted disruption, and the Republic campaign group said its leader Graham Smith had been arrested along with five other protesters.

"It is an unequal and out of date system because it has a hereditary billionaire individual born into wealth and privilege who basically symbolizes the inequality of wealth and power in our society," said lawmaker Clive Lewis, who was among the anti-monarchy protesters.