How Queen Elizabeth’s coronation made the Jubilee happen

Seventy years is a long time to rule a country and its accompanying enclaves.

Queen Elizabeth II and her loyal subjects will commemorate her seven decades on the British throne with her Platinum Jubilee starting Thursday, June 2.

But how did the 96-year-old descend to her coveted chair? Aside from the crown being instantly bestowed upon her following the death of her father, King George VI, on Feb. 6, 1952, the then-25-year-old was granted a grand coronation ceremony full of pomp and circumstance.

In honor of her Jubilee, let’s take a look back at her special day that officially made her Queen of the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Pakistan and Ceylon (now Sri Lanka).

Despite becoming a sovereign over a year prior, her actual coronation wasn’t held until a full 16 months later, on June 2, 1953.

The ceremony was put in place months later to allow for adequate time to pass between a departed royal’s death and an elaborate extravaganza.

The entire three-hour service was held at Westminister Abbey and cost a whopping, estimated £1.57 million (about £48,000,000 or $59,952,960 today).

The crowning was the first coronation to be televised by the BBC back in the 1950s and was watched by a staggering audience of more than 27 million people. Her husband, the late Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, was chair of her coronation committee and had the novel idea to allow cameras into the Abbey in an effort to modernize the ceremony.

Elizabeth, the Queen Mother and then-Prime Minister Sir Winston Churchill were adamantly against the suggestion, with the latter noting at one point that he was “horrified” at the idea of filming the event in such a sacred place of worship.

“It would be unfitting that the whole ceremony, not only in its secular but also in its religious and spiritual aspects, should be presented as if it were a theatrical performance,” he told the House of Commons before the event.

However, as time passed, Elizabeth took a liking to the idea and thought televising the bash was a way to bring people together.

An extra 11 million people also tuned into the radio broadcast of the global event, listening to the Queen’s speech to the people of the Commonwealth.

“The ceremonies you have seen today are ancient, and some of their origins are veiled in the mists of the past. But their spirit and their meaning shine through the ages never, perhaps, more brightly than now,” she said over the airwaves. “I have in sincerity pledged myself to your service, as so many of you are pledged to mine. Throughout all my life and with all my heart I shall strive to be worthy of your trust.”

She was a young mother by the time she had the weight of the country on her shoulders; her son and heir, Prince Charles, now 73, was a mere 4 years old, and his sister, Princess Anne, 71, was just 2.

As Anne so young, she was barred from attending; however, Charles, the Prince of Wales, was given a cute hand-painted invitation to the ceremony. “By Command of The Queen the Earl Marshal is directed to invite His Royal Highness Prince Charles to the Coronation,” the invitation read at the time. He was the first child and heir-apparent of a reigning monarch to attend a royal inauguration.

It was a rainy Tuesday morning when masses of spectators arrived by the Westminster Abbey gates to watch Elizabeth and Philip make their grand entrance. The couple had made their way to the enthronement in a gilded stagecoach.

Three million onlookers also took to the London streets to watch their soon-to-be queen ride from Buckingham to the Abbey. The whole journey took two hours despite the structures being a close distance from each other.

During the coronation procession, she slipped on the George IV State Diadem crown and wore the Robe of State. The tiara, made in 1820, features a jaw-dropping number of jewels: 1,333 diamonds and 169 pearls.

The sheath she wrapped around her divine body for the enthronement was fashioned with white linen, as well as maroon and gold velvet stitched to the shoulders.

The primordial venue was filled with politicians, dignitaries, royal family members and religious figures on that fateful day to bow down to their new sovereign. The Abbey has been the site for every coronation since 1066. Some 8,000 guests attended alongside Churchill, including representatives from the royal families of Sweden, Japan and Denmark, plus delegates from 129 countries.

Once she arrived at the service, the Act of Consecration began. That part of the ceremony was done privately, with Elizabeth disrobing her dark, burgundy cloak and then sitting on King Edward’s chair.

Her trusty Knights of the Garter guarded her from the rest of the congregation as the Archbishop of Canterbury, Geoffrey Fisher — who presided over the liturgy — poured holy oil onto her breast, hand and head.

The chaplain blessed her with a prayer as he anointed her, thus officially consecrating her as “Elizabeth the Second, by the Grace of God, of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and of her other Realms and Territories, Queen, Head of the Commonwealth, Defender of the Faith.”

She was then gifted the scepter — a symbol representing her earthly power — as well as her orb and her coronation ring known as “The Wedding Ring of England.” The circlet was placed on the fourth finger of her right hand.

The finger ice has been sported by every ruler since William IV in 1831, with the exception of Queen Victoria — whose fingers were reportedly too small and dainty fingers for the ring.

The orb is the famous gold ball that is embellished with a cross. The crucifix is garnished with an eye-popping medley of diamonds, emeralds, rubies, sapphire, pearls and amethysts.

The Queen then took the coronation oath and was beautified with the 4-pound gold St. Edward’s Crown. The regalia was the same one that her father was crowned with 16 years prior in 1937. The hefty tiara is only used for the crowning portion of the commemoration.

Philip later knelt before the newly-crowned monarch and pledged to become her “liege man of life and limb, and of earthly worship.”

Following the service, the royal family made their way to the balcony of Buckingham Palace to wave to their adoring public. A Royal Air Force aircraft flew over the Mall — a road in central London — and fireworks lit up over the River Thames to salute the new empress.

As for the British royal’s historic and unforgettable gown, it took eight months to construct it before the big day. The Norman Hartnell-designed garb was intricately embroidered with symbols from across the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth realms.

Emblems included the English Tudor rose, the Scottish thistle, Welsh leek, Irish shamrock, Canadian maple leaf, Australian wattle, New Zealand silver fern, South African protea, Indian lotus flower, the Lotus flower of Ceylon and Pakistan’s wheat, cotton and jute.

Hartnell reportedly presented her majesty with nine different designs to choose from in October 1952 before the frock went into production. The dress was created using white satin and silk from Lady Hart Dyke’s silk farm at Lullingstone Castle, Kent. The gown was adorned with gold and silver thread, as well as pearls all over the fabric.

The Queen replicated her look during events years later, including the opening of parliaments in New Zealand in 1954 and Canada back in 1957.

Perhaps the most fictitious portrayal of Elizabeth’s investiture was in the Season 1 episode of “The Crown,” entitled “Smoke and Mirrors.” Claire Foy’s Queen Elizabeth faces hurdles from her husband Prince Philip (played by Matt Smith) as well as her government while planning her coronation.

The real-life Queen, meanwhile, recalled her joyous day in the 2018 BBC documentary, “The Coronation.”

“It’s the sort of, I suppose, the beginning of one’s life really as a sovereign,” she noted.

“It is sort of a pageant of chivalry and old-fashioned way of doing things, really. I’ve seen one coronation and been the recipient in the other, which is pretty remarkable,” the Queen added.