What Prince Harry and Prince William’s Silent Coronation Showdown Means

During the coronation service for King Charles III and Queen Camilla on Saturday, one moment served to remind viewers of the family at the center of the ceremony: Near the service’s end, Prince William dropped to his knees and pledged an oath similar to the one his grandfather Prince Philip uttered at the 1953 coronation of his grandmother, Queen Elizabeth II. “I, William, Prince of Wales, pledge my loyalty to you and faith and truth I will bear unto you, as your liege man of life and limb,” he said. “So help me, God.” 

In the audience three rows back sat Prince Harry, who had traveled from Los Angeles. He had kept the details of his trip so tightly under wraps, as cohosts Katie Nicholl and Erin Vanderhoof explain, that his family had to remove a place setting for him at their informal coronation luncheon when they realized that the spare was already long gone, having flown immediately back to California. 

Despite the melancholy lingering over such tangled dynamics, the event went off without a hitch—not counting the rain.

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