The Coronation

On one of the coldest June days of the century,

after 16 months of planning, and watched by millions of people

throughout the world, Her Majesty the Queen set out to be crowned.

One of the world's oldest ceremonies

was to mark the dawn of a new, Elizabethan age.

Now, in what has become the longest reign of any British monarch,

the Queen talks for the first time about that day.

When you're taking part in something you don't actually see it.

Her Majesty reveals her intimate knowledge of the Crown Jewels.

-He hands it that way, you see, so that I put it on...

-Right.

..when he hands it, and I put it on straight,

so there are some disadvantages to crowns,

but otherwise they're quite important things.

No British monarch has ever talked

about their coronation on camera until now.

And with unprecedented access to the Royal Collection,

this programme unlocks the story of the Crown Jewels.

The Crown Jewels matter -

they are conductors for a feeling that we have about our country,

and that is something that comes alive when they're actually used.

We meet those who witnessed the events of that day.

Everybody thought the Queen had arrived so everybody stood up,

8,000 people stood up, when from underneath the organ loft

came four cleaners with carpet sweepers.

In a Britain recovering from war and austerity,

nothing could be allowed to go wrong.

Under there, we had a phial of smelling salts.

Finally, after 65 years, we tell the inside story of the Crown Jewels,

and the Queen's coronation.

I mean, I've seen one, one coronation,

and been the recipient in the other,

which is pretty remarkable.

Today, the two crowns used in the Queen's coronation

have just left their heavily guarded home in the Tower of London

for an unprecedented assignment at Buckingham Palace.

For the first time since her coronation,

Her Majesty the Queen has agreed to

talk about the ceremony that marked the start of her reign 65 years ago.

With coronation expert Alastair Bruce,

she is about to reacquaint herself firstly with the crown

she has only ever worn once - at the moment of coronation.

St Edward's Crown was made in 1661 for the coronation of Charles II.

This priceless piece can only be handled by the Queen,

the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Crown Jeweller.

Today, it's been summoned from its fortress home

to Her Majesty's throne room.

Encrusted with 440 precious and semi-precious stones,

and with a frame of solid gold, it weighs 5lb.

Is it still as heavy?

Yes, it is.

It weighs a ton.

It's very solid, isn't it?

Ma'am, I don't suppose you've seen it much...

-No, I haven't. Thank goodness!

-..since the coronation!

And it is impossible to tell which is front and back, I suppose.

It's identical, I think.

The crowning with St Edward's Crown

is the centrepiece of the coronation.

It's the ceremony that marks the moment when the new sovereign

is formally recognised in front of God and their people.

And it goes back more than 1,000 years.

The ritual of the coronation has been being performed

pretty much exactly along the same lines, other than being

translated into English from Latin, since the Anglo-Saxon period,

and that is an extraordinary thing.

The order of service was written down more than 600 years ago

in a medieval manuscript.

It outlines the five stages of the coronation.

They move from the recognition, where the monarch shows they

aren't an impostor, via an oath, and an anointing, to the crowning.

And finally, the lords of the land pay their homage to the monarch.

And central to each stage are the Crown Jewels.

In the collection,

there are 140 items,

containing more than 23,000 precious stones.

Most are used in the coronation and are known as the Regalia.

We have this incredible continuity in this country

in the form of the coronation.

Other countries still have a monarchy,

but very, very few have a medieval... In fact,

none has a medieval coronation in the way that we do.

And that we have a collection of regalia that is

used for that...is astonishing.

The concept of the crown dates back at least 2,000 years.

Originally a simple band, a halo of light,

it represents the sovereign as head of the nation.

Then, there are the other sacred items in the collection

that throughout the ceremony symbolise different aspects

of the monarch's powers.

The orb is an expression of religious and moral authority.

The sceptre embodies power.

The ampulla and spoon represent the most holy part of the ceremony,

when the monarch is anointed with the coronation oil.

And the Sovereign's Ring, known by some as the Wedding Ring of England,

symbolises the lifetime commitment of the monarch.

It's an amazing thing to see these objects which, in a way,

are very familiar to people from afar, but to see them

up close like this, actually, that proximity is extraordinary

because you can really appreciate what astonishing objects they are.

For many, the role of the Crown Jewels has been

largely forgotten after 65 years without a coronation.

They're not just objects of tremendous beauty and skill

and craftsmanship and so on,

they are an expression of the way in which authority has worked in this

country, the relationship between the sovereign and the subject.

So there's a kind of an expression of all of our history

in that relationship in those objects.

The most important items used in the coronation

are the monarch's two crowns.

If the Queen has only worn St Edward's gold crown once,

she is much more familiar with this -

the diamond-encrusted Imperial State Crown.

She wore it at the end of her coronation

and for most State Openings of Parliament since.

You see, it's much smaller, isn't it?

-Significantly.

-I mean, it was... It was the same height.

You know, it would have been up to about there when my father wore it.

I mean, it was huge then.

Yes. Very un... Unwieldy.

It's difficult to always remember that diamonds are stones,

and so they're very heavy.

Yes.

Fortunately, my father

-and I have about the same sort of shaped head.

-Hm.

But once you put it on, it stays.

I mean, it just remains itself.

-You have to keep your head very still.

-Yes.

And you can't look down to read the speech -

you have to take the speech up.

Because if you did, your neck would break, or it would fall off.

So there are some disadvantages to crowns,

but otherwise they're quite important things.

Can I ask if the crown could be brought a little bit closer to the Queen?

Oh, there we go.

This is what I do when I wear it.

Can I look at this end?

-Yes, certainly, ma'am.

-I like the Black Prince's Ruby.

This crown contains the story of 1,000 years

of the history of the British monarchy.

The ruby, actually a semi-precious stone mined in Afghanistan, is said

to have been worn by Henry V in 1415 at the Battle of Agincourt.

He is supposed to have placed a feather in the hole

drilled into the ruby.

It's fun to see, I think.

Well, the idea that his plume was put into the stone...

..for his... On his helmet.

Bit rash, but that was the sort of thing they did,

I suppose, in those days.

Four pearls hang underneath the arches.

Two of them were said to have belonged to Mary, Queen of Scots,

and were bought by her rival Elizabeth I

after Mary's execution.

They were meant to be Queen Elizabeth's earrings.

Um...but they're not very happy now.

They don't look very happy now.

Most pearls like to be sort of living creatures,

so they've just been out, hanging out here for years. It's rather sad.

So they don't look very happy.

Quite dead.

Well, I'm afraid so.

I mean, the trouble is that pearls are sort of live things...

-Yeah.

-..and they need... They need warming.

The Queen's relationship with the Regalia began in 1937,

at her father King George VI's coronation.

Her Majesty is about to look at footage of what happened

when her father was crowned.

The coronation didn't quite go to plan.

The Archbishop of Canterbury, who conducts the service,

thought he'd cunningly

marked the front of St Edward's Crown with a piece of cotton...

..but at the vital moment, he couldn't find it.

Now, this is when they'd lost the little piece of thread

that the organisers had placed through the front arch.

The King wrote in his diary, "I never did know

"whether it was put on the right way or not."

I don't think the King was best pleased.

No, he wasn't.

An 11-year-old Princess Elizabeth attended the service.

Her father was determined that his daughter's coronation

would run more smoothly.

I remember my father making me

write down what I remembered about his coronation.

It was very valuable. Have you never seen it?

The Queen's own account, written in a child's exercise book,

contains remarkable insights.

"I thought it all very, very wonderful,

"and I expect the Abbey did, too.

"The arches and beams at the top were covered with

"a sort of haze of wonder as Papa was crowned, at least I thought so."

The events left a lasting impression on the Queen.

Can you remember that one almost better than yours?

Much better because I wasn't doing anything - I was just sitting there.

From that moment on, guided by her father,

the Queen was preparing for her own coronation.

No-one was more aware of the importance of the Crown Jewels

to the coronation and to the nation than the Queen's father.

In the Second World War,

when Britain faced the threat of Nazi invasion, the King was

intimately involved in plans to keep the jewels out of Hitler's hands.

To protect them, they were taken from the Tower.

Only a handful of people knew where they were hidden, until now.

Recently uncovered private correspondence

reveals that the Crown Jewels were actually hidden

under Windsor Castle.

Librarian Oliver Urquhart Irvine,

who discovered the letters, is showing Alastair Bruce

their specially built secret hiding place, 60 feet below the castle.

It was accessed by a medieval tunnel known as a sally port -

a secret passage with a concealed entrance

that was used in times of siege.

Oh, my goodness, look down there!

-You'd better lead us down.

-Yes, absolutely.

Descend right underneath the castle.

One imagines that, you know, the King was determined to make sure

that right down here, the Nazis would never find the Crown Jewels.

So here are the chambers built to hold the jewels.

It is far bigger than I thought.

And so, literally all the symbols,

the regalia of this nation that go back centuries, held here.

Of all the things that were to be kept close by

and guarded most securely at the largest

and most significant of the Royal palaces and fortresses,

it is those actual jewels and I think that is... That's a measure,

really, of the importance which he attached to the jewels.

The correspondence also reveals that some key items

were prised from their settings and placed in a biscuit tin.

It meant they could easily have been spirited away to an even more

secure location had the Nazis closed in on Windsor Castle.

For Her Majesty the Queen, it's an intriguing and unknown story.

Do you think they were at Windsor?

-They were definitely, ma'am, yeah.

-Oh.

The librarian gouged the principal stones out of the Crown Jewels

and put them into a... Wrapped them up and put them into a jar

and put them in a Bath Oliver tin.

Hm.

And hid them.

Brilliant, absolutely brilliant.

Did he remember where he put them?

In the sal...

Because he might have died in the middle.

I think the King was told, ma'am.

The Queen, like the Crown Jewels, spent the war at Windsor,

but she was never aware of the treasure beneath her feet.

I mean, we were told nothing.

I mean, we were only children then, but, I mean,

we didn't know anything,

I mean, all the pictures disappeared and all... Everything disappeared,

and one was never told anything.

It was... It was, you know, a secret, I suppose.

The road to the Queen's own coronation

began on February 6th, 1952.

The 25-year-old Princess Elizabeth was on royal duties in Kenya,

standing in for her father, George VI.

The King, suffering from lung cancer, was too ill to travel.

The Princess filmed these images

at the famous Treetops Safari Lodge.

They were taken at a moment

when the Princess's life was about to change for ever.

Hours later, on the morning of the 6th February,

the King died at Sandringham in his sleep.

At that moment, in Africa, the Princess became Queen.

Losing a parent for anyone is tough, particularly if,

like the Princess, you're as close as she was to her father,

but knowing that everything has changed now, she's now

the Queen, the head of state, it's a very lonely place to be.

The Queen flew home for the lying in state of her beloved father.

The Imperial State Crown, the sceptre and the orb were

taken from the Tower to lie on the King's coffin in Westminster Hall.

After a period of mourning,

the date for the coronation was set for Tuesday 2nd of June, 1953.

There were 16 months to get everything ready.

The preparations were overseen by a coronation committee,

chaired by the Duke of Edinburgh.

In charge was the formidable Bernard, Duke of Norfolk.

He had masterminded George VI's coronation.

Since 1386, the Dukes of Norfolk

have had a role in organising great state occasions.

Even though it be 1953,

everyone in their procession

will either drive in a carriage,

ride a horse, or walk,

and there will not be any mechanisation at all.

The plan was to deliver the perfect coronation for a new

Elizabethan age in a country still suffering from the ravages of war.

Rationing was still in place, the country was still physically

very visibly damaged by the impact of war.

This was an opportunity to celebrate both the future and the past

and the accession of a young woman as sovereign

provided a wonderful opportunity to do that,

to sort of feel like it was a fresh start.

The very long period of time that it took between the death

of George VI and the coronation of the Queen

was used to design something that would have a Hollywood movie glamour

to it as well as all the ancient tradition to it.

The plan included organising food

and accommodation for 30,000 troops from across the Commonwealth...

..and building 27 miles of seating along the processional route.

It put the whole country to work to achieve the greatest

coronation show ever.

The world's widest power loom is being used to make the great

coronation carpet at a factory in Glasgow.

When it is completed,

the carpet will measure 188 feet long by 17 feet wide.

Home to every coronation

since that of King Harold in 1066 is Westminster Abbey.

It's witnessed the crowning of 39 kings and queens.

John Hall is the Dean of Westminster.

It is the Dean's responsibility to ensure the abbey becomes

the perfect stage for the coronation.

For six months, they closed the abbey.

They laid a railway track down the centre of the abbey,

bringing in tonnes and tonnes of wood and iron.

The stage on which the ceremony takes place is called the theatre -

a specially raised platform at the central crossing of the abbey.

The rest of the abbey had to be transformed into a stadium

for thousands of guests.

I think there were 400 people in the choir, and they were all up there,

and there was an orchestra on the choir screen.

2,200 people can sit on the floor of the abbey.

8,000 people were in here in 1953.

They took a long time, actually, to get the whole thing ready.

But all these impressive preparations were no guarantee

that the Queen's coronation would run smoothly -

in the past, they'd gone notoriously wrong.

I think Queen Victoria's coronation here was absolutely amazing,

because they hadn't got much of a clue how to handle it.

And she writes very clearly about how chaotic the whole thing is

and how long it lasts, it goes on for ever.

And she goes into the St Edward's Chapel, behind the High Altar,

earlier than she should, and she finds the whole place

a litter of bottles and sandwiches, and is rather disgusted by this.

Afterwards, the Archbishop of Canterbury wondered

if they should have had a full rehearsal.

In May 1953, with a month to go,

building work within the abbey was complete.

Outside, London was being transformed,

with giant stands for the spectators,

temporary accommodation in World War II air raid shelters

and a tented city in Kensington Gardens.

As the day approached, the rehearsals to deliver the perfect

coronation reached fever pitch.

The Queen practised at Buckingham Palace

and attended several rehearsals at the abbey in secret.

The press offered workmen £50 to find out what had happened.

Lady Anne Glenconner, then aged 19,

was chosen by the Queen as one of her six maids of honour.

We had to be daughters of earls, marquises, or dukes,

and have sort of nice figures and that sort of thing.

In post-war Britain, they provided much-needed glamour.

In those days,

there weren't any sort of girl bands like there are, and I always,

perhaps rather sillily, say we were rather like the Spice Girls

because suddenly we were in all the newspapers, the press followed us.

Well, this is my box I've got my coronation dress in.

A huge box.

It's very, very fragile, my old dress.

The maids of honour's costumes were designed by Norman Hartnell,

the designer of the Queen's coronation dress.

It was all beautifully embroidered.

The pearls and gold, and I think they're zircons.

And there are leaves, little golden leaves there.

And it was all hand embroidered,

and we just felt like princesses, actually,

because we were all brought up in the war when there were rationing

and clothes coupons, and we never had an amazing dress like this.

The rehearsals were so secret, even the dresses were kept under wraps.

The last rehearsal, they said, "Wear your dresses," but they didn't

say, "Completely top secret, and you've got to wear a coat."

So anyway, I just had a white shawl

and as we came out with the wind blowing it blew my shawl back,

and there was I exposed head to toe in this wonderful dress.

And, so embarrassing, on the front of a newspaper, headline saying,

"She didn't know it was a secret."

So I felt, "Well, I'm going to be struck off. I'm going

"to get a telephone call by the Duke of Norfolk saying,

" 'Sorry,' you know, 'we're going to have to find somebody else.' "

But anyway, it didn't happen.

For the final dress rehearsal, four days before the coronation,

all the key participants other than the Queen

were brought together for the first time.

The ringmaster, Bernard, Duke of Norfolk, was in his element.

That brings back lots of memories.

There am I, second from the right, by the train.

The Duke of Norfolk was absolutely fantastic.

He'd done the coronation of the late King,

so he knew exactly every detail about exactly what

we were to wear, the jewellery, the height of our shoes.

Duke Bernard was an absolute stickler for discipline.

When a bishop took an unauthorised holiday,

the Duke sent a police car to drag him back.

I think it must have been pretty scary to be at a rehearsal

with Bernard Norfolk!

He knew minute by minute where every single person should be,

and when you see the plans, it is literally a ballet.

Things move, everything moves precisely,

and when Randolph Churchill, who was the son of Winston Churchill,

thought it looked like a bit of an untidy ballet,

very quickly Bernard's representative came over and said,

"I think you need to remember, there's room in the Tower still."

For the dress rehearsal, Bernard's wife, the Duchess of Norfolk,

stood in for the Queen.

There is the Crown. The Duchess of Norfolk is being crowned.

It all seemed so much more real.

We realised what it was going to look like.

On the eve of the coronation, two million people

descended on the rainy capital.

6,500 extra trains and 6,000 coaches

had been laid on to get them there.

-ARCHIVE:

-Up went the umbrellas, on went the raincoats,

and under the shelter of blankets and newspapers they stuck it out.

As people settled down for the night,

the Crown Jewels were brought to the abbey.

James Wilkinson was a 12-year-old choirboy at the coronation,

and has subsequently written about the event.

This is a most historic room - this is the Jerusalem Chamber.

This is where, the night before the coronation, the Regalia is set out.

And now, it comes with 12 Yeomen warders of the Tower,

and it's set out on this table, and they were all armed with

revolvers, and they each had 12 rounds of ammunition.

What would have happened if they'd had to discharge it, I don't know -

it would have left a few holes around this very significant room.

I would have thought that these days they would have probably had

slightly more sophisticated ways

of making sure that the Crown Jewels are untouched.

Amongst the most valuable items guarded that night were two gems

from one of the most famous diamonds ever discovered.

The Cullinan Number One sits in the sceptre,

and is the largest colourless cut diamond in the world.

Its smaller sister, the Cullinan Number Two,

is mounted in the Imperial State Crown.

In total, nine diamonds were fashioned

from the legendary Cullinan.

It was discovered in 1905 and, astonishingly,

sent to Britain in the post.

In 1908, the cutting of this priceless rough diamond

was entrusted to Antwerp jeweller Joseph Asscher.

He was reputedly the best diamond cutter in the world.

I always wish I'd been there when they smashed it into pieces.

These are the chips that were left. There are two other...

Two or three other bits, too.

He hit it with his...whatever you hit a diamond with to get

the right thing, and he spent hours looking at it, you know,

and then he fainted when he'd done it.

But I don't know if that's just a story.

It had a brown flaw in it.

He hit it and all the bits fell out and the brown bit disappeared.

Well, I think these have never seen each other since they were smashed.

Really? That is amazing.

As dawn broke on June 2nd 1953,

the scene was set for the greatest show on Earth.

Parliament Square, quarter to six this morning.

Many had never been out so early before, yet here they were,

rapidly filling every vantage point.

More than 8,000 specially invited guests rushed

to their places in the abbey before the doors closed at 8.30.

European royalty mingled with sheikhs, sultans and maharajahs.

Thousands of aristocrats in their ermine picked their way

through the puddles.

Many had hidden strong drink

and sandwiches in their coronets to get them through the day.

Among the 8,000 was the choir of 400 voices.

Today, James Wilkinson is meeting three of his fellow choristers

from the Abbey Choir School.

At the time, Richard Watts, William Wallace

and David Brown were aged between nine and 13.

Well, it's a very long time since I was up here.

My goodness me. But it hasn't changed very much.

And what a superb view you get, don't you, now?

Yes, this is marvellous to be back.

And we're so close to where we were.

I mean, you, David, were standing just there on the corner there.

Absolutely, right on that corner there.

And we were just lined up on the front two rows,

-and it was extremely cramped, if you remember?

-Yes.

By 11am, the abbey was ready for the arrival of the Queen.

The penultimate procession was the procession of the Queen Mother

and Princess Margaret.

Everybody got terribly excited because the next one was

the Queen, and then there was this sort of bustle at the west end

and everybody thought the Queen had arrived so everybody stood up.

8,000 people stood up,

when from underneath the organ loft came four cleaners with

carpet sweepers, and started to sweep the carpet to restore it to

its pristine state and everybody, of course, laughed and sat down again.

At Buckingham Palace, the Queen is viewing film of her coronation.

Cameras filmed throughout the day,

and even though the Queen commissioned some of the footage,

it's the first time she has ever reviewed the event.

A very long day.

When you're taking part in something you don't actually see it.

No. I don't suppose you've seen these films very often, ma'am?

I don't suppose I've ever seen it.

As the Queen's carriage left the Palace courtyard,

her children remained at home.

-Now, there are your children watching.

-Mm-hm.

And Prince Charles says that you rehearsed wearing the crown

before the event - in fact, he says at bath times,

which is rather sweet.

Because only Prince Charles actually witnessed it -

-Princess Anne stayed back here.

-Hm.

And he only came for ten minutes, I think.

What did the two children do for most of the day -

can you remember, ma'am?

No idea, I wasn't there.

-No!

-I wasn't there. I have no idea what they did.

There were a lot of other people in the palace as well, I think.

Lots of children.

The Queen set out for Westminster Abbey in the Gold State Coach.

It weighs nearly four tonnes.

Horrible. It's not meant for travelling in at all.

I mean, it's only sprung on leather.

So, it rocks around a lot.

Yes, not very comfortable.

Were you in it for a long time, ma'am?

Halfway around London.

-Really?

-We must have gone about four or five miles.

-It can only go at a walking pace.

-Yeah.

-The horses couldn't possibly go any faster.

-Right.

It's so heavy.

-Really?

-Mm.

But you look really high up there, so I presume the view...

It is very high.

I mean, look at the size of the man.

Yeah.

As the carriage approached the abbey, Lady Anne's

first task was to greet the Queen.

Oh, yes, that's the golden... The lovely golden coach.

There's me, there's me looking through the window there!

Well, this is the Queen coming... Well, there's the Duke of Norfolk,

there's me on the left taking up my bit of the train.

There I am going past.

It was so exciting seeing her. I mean,

she looked absolutely beautiful, you know.

We hadn't seen her in her dress, and she had the tiniest waist

and the most wonderful complexion

and she was beautiful - absolutely beautiful.

And of course the Duke of Edinburgh looked pretty dishy, too,

but he was a little bit fussy.

I think he wanted it all to go perfectly and he was

sort of telling us, "Do this, Anne," or, "Do that," that sort of thing.

After a moment's pause in the annexe, it was time.

She hadn't said anything. People said, "Did she say something

"when she arrived?" and we said, "No, nothing."

Anyway, we were all waiting like this,

and she just turned around and she said, "Ready, girls?"

And we nodded and off we went.

The 8,000 guests were packed to the rafters

to see a 27-year-old crowned Queen.

They were so high up, they were massed up in the... I mean,

we were in the bottom and everything was happening, you know,

they were all sitting at the top.

It was so full...

..that it rather takes away the height of it.

And here we are coming up. I'm on the right there.

There's the Queen.

But, of course, at that point she hasn't got any of her regalia on,

so we felt she should have had some flowers or something

but perhaps that wasn't correct.

# Vivat Regina! Vivat Regina!

# Vivat, vivat, vivat! #

The Queen's coronation dress

was embroidered in silk with pearls, and gold and silver bullion thread.

Well, I remember one moment when I was

going against the pile of the carpet and I couldn't move at all.

-Really?

-Yes, they hadn't thought of that.

In the organ loft, choirboy David Brown was one of three soloists.

There were just four bars' intro

and I came in...

And there were three of us who were going to do this solo

and I think, looking back, to have three boys on standby, as it were,

to do the solo, you never know what's likely to happen

in a situation like that.

Nerves weren't the only difficulty for the choir -

they were so spread out, they needed three conductors.

Some of the choir were stuck further back or even behind the organ pipes.

-Behind the organ pipes.

-They couldn't see anything

that was being...

-They needed a sort of relay system of conducting.

-Yeah.

The ceremony began with the first stage, the recognition.

The tradition dates back to the year 973.

I here present unto you Queen Elizabeth, your undoubted Queen.

The Queen faced the peers of the land to confirm

she wasn't an impostor.

Are you willing to do the same?

God save Queen Elizabeth!

Then, after the second stage, where the Queen signed an oath,

she was stripped of all her regalia

and dressed in a simple gown for the anointing, the third stage.

The only thing we couldn't remove were the earrings.

That would have taken too long.

We had enough trouble with the necklace.

Awful lot of walking backwards, wasn't there?

It's such a ballet, isn't it?

Everyone knows precisely where to go.

Well, they jolly well should have done

after the number of rehearsals we had.

The anointing of the monarch with holy oil is so sacred

it's carried out under a canopy.

The secrecy transforms the moment into a deeply personal experience

between the Queen and God.

Shakespeare's Richard II summed up its power -

"Not all the water in the rough rude sea

"Can wash the balm from an anointed king."

This was when the TV cameras,

broadcasting a coronation live for the first time, turned away.

The anointing oil is held in a solid gold flask called an ampulla.

It is eight inches tall and shaped like an eagle.

It's to give the biblical impression that

the word of God is flown down to us

from heaven on the back of the greatest of the beasts of the air.

And so the essence is that the oil is being brought to

the point of coronation from God himself.

The oil is then poured into a golden spoon -

it's the oldest item of the Regalia.

And the only one to survive

the darkest days of the British monarchy.

In 1649, Charles I became the only English king ever to be executed.

Civil war had led to the creation of a republic

presided over by Oliver Cromwell.

The Crown Jewels, the symbols of monarchy,

were melted down and sold off by Parliament.

But after the death of Cromwell,

the monarchy was restored in 1660 under Charles's son, Charles II.

This is the one object which absolutely unquestionably

survived the destruction at the end of the Civil War.

This is a 12th-century piece,

and, like all the other objects that were in the collection

before the restoration of the monarchy, it was sold.

But the man who bought it held on to it,

and when the restoration of the monarchy happened, he very sensibly

presented himself to Charles II saying how thrilled he was

that the restoration had happened

and how it was what he always wanted.

So it is a really, really special object because everything else

is essentially a creation of the 1660s or later,

and this isn't just a little bit before - it's 400 years earlier.

The anointing oil is traditionally held in great secrecy

by the Dean of Westminster at the abbey.

It's kept very safe in the Deanery,

in a very hidden place in a little box here...

..which has in it a flask containing the oil from 1953.

And it's not just olive oil -

it's quite a complex mixture of different things.

This is the recipe for the coronation oil.

The composition of the oil was founded upon that

used in the 17th century.

Then you see what it consists of - sesame and olive oil,

perfume with roses, orange flowers, jasmine, musk, civet and ambergris.

Each item of the Regalia has a role in the coronation.

The Jewelled Sword of Offering was originally

designed for the coronation of George IV, in 1821.

The handle is emblazoned with English acorns and oak leaves,

in emeralds and diamonds.

It represents the monarch's defence of their kingdom.

Then, just before the crowning, the Queen received the orb

and the sceptre, the most important items after the crowns.

The heavily jewelled orb represents earthly duty,

and the cross above it, both religious and moral authority.

Then the Queen receives the sceptre, the symbol of power.

She holds it wearing a glove, to remind her to use that power wisely.

The sceptre expresses something of the sovereign's

military strength or authority, a baton of power, if you like,

with the fact that it incorporates this, arguably, most important

gem in the world, the largest flawless diamond in the world.

And it is something to behold, it really is.

CHORISTERS SING

On the floor of the abbey in 1953,

Lady Anne's tight dress was making it difficult for her to breathe.

They were very, very, tight, and this was one of the reasons

that I felt faint in the abbey.

But we did have, in order to help us in case we felt faint, they had

little buttons here, and under there we had a phial of smelling salts.

And one of the maids of honour,

Rosie Spencer Churchill, she was then, saw the Archbishop advancing

so she shook his hand, "Hello, Archbishop," there was

a terrible crack and everybody then, you know, our eyes started to water.

Luckily, we laughed, actually, we thought it was quite funny.

I was also told to wriggle my toes in case I felt faint.

Luckily, I was standing with my back to a pillar and a wonderful

gentleman called Black Rod saw me and I was sort of swaying about and

I thought, "I cannot faint in front of millions and millions of people,

"I just can't," and then luckily he put his arm like that,

sort of pinning me to the pillar

and just gave me that amount of time to recover.

Then the fourth stage of the ceremony,

the supreme moment everyone had been waiting for.

St Edward's Crown, used solely for the moment of coronation,

was blessed by the Archbishop of Canterbury

and placed on the Queen's head.

God save the Queen!

God save the Queen!

God save the Queen!

I now crown you, with a crown of glory and righteousness,

that having a right faith and manifold proof of good works,

you may obtain the crown of an everlasting kingdom.

I imagine your principal memory is wearing it, ma'am.

And how heavy and unbalanced it was.

One wonders whether it had a special frame beneath it

to fit Your Majesty's head.

I think it must have done.

The St Edward's Crown we see today was made in 1661,

and represents the return of monarchy after the Civil War.

I think St Edward's Crown is pretty hard to beat.

Made for Charles II when the monarchy itself was being restored,

not just an object being made, but a whole institution recreated.

They called it St Edward's Crown because it was to replace the one

that had supposedly belonged to Edward the Confessor.

Edward the Confessor, who reigned until 1066, represented

hundreds of years of tradition that had gone before the Civil War,

and that heritage was of particular importance to those restoring

Charles II to the throne.

When they were making this in 1660, people were brought out

who could remember what the old crown looked like,

and there was an attempt to try and recreate something

that had been lost in 1649,

and so, it's a sort of echo of the Middle Ages as well as being

a really beautiful piece of 17th-century goldsmiths' work.

It absolutely mattered

in 1660 that this should be done to the highest possible standard,

and it should be an expression of the clarity and the certainty

of a people who had decided that they wanted monarchy back.

For the fifth and final stage of the ceremony, the enthronement

and the homage, the Queen was symbolically lifted onto

a raised platform, by the Bishops of Bath and Wells, and of Durham.

You can see that the Bishop of Bath and Wells is very attentive.

Yeah, he was very good.

Now, the role of those two bishops is supposed to take

the weight of the crown, but they never needed to do that, ma'am.

-Really?

-Hm.

-I thought they were just there to hold one's clothes.

Stop one...falling over them.

After her peers had paid homage,

the Queen retired to the shrine behind the altar.

This time, unlike at Queen Victoria's coronation,

there were no half-finished sandwiches or bottles of wine.

This is the shrine of Edward the Confessor.

It's the place where five kings and four queens are buried -

Edward the Confessor...

..Henry V,

and Edward III.

The Queen was surrounded by 1,000 years of royal history.

Here, St Edward's Crown, the symbol of the moment of coronation,

was replaced with the glorious, gem-encrusted Imperial State Crown.

Within its cross is a blue sapphire said to have been

taken from the ring finger of Edward the Confessor's body

as it lay within the shrine.

In the circlet

is a second, larger sapphire of 104 carats known as the Stuart Sapphire.

It's a pale...

But never mind, it's...

And also it's extremely useful

because it tells one which is the back and which is the front.

Very useful. No difficulties like the Archbishop.

No. Well, the Lord Great Chamberlain has to hand it properly.

Which way round does he hand it to you?

-Well, he hands it that way, you see...

-Right.

..so that I put it on, when he hands it.

And I put it on straight.

-Yeah.

-Yeah.

It fits very...

Heavy?

Well, I think it's 3lb or something.

Quite heavy.

-Comfortable, ma'am?

-No!

-Nothing like that is comfortable.

-No.

The more jewels the better.

George IV invented that, didn't he?

-I think so, ma'am, yes.

-Hm.

He loved jewellery and colour.

George IV's coronation was the most expensive and extravagant ever.

Following revolution and republicanism in 18th-century France

and America, he delivered a much-needed show of regal splendour.

When you go to Parliament, ma'am,

you wear what he originally wore on the way to his coronation.

That diadem.

Yes. Can you imagine a man having that made for him? Fascinating.

He did have a sense of some style.

Oh, he did.

At the coronation, after private contemplation within St Edward's

shrine, the Queen emerged wearing the Imperial State Crown.

Oh, here we are. We've been behind the rood screen, we've got

a different train on, as you can see -

it's got much more embroidery, this train. The other one was plain.

We were having to walk down these steps. I remember thinking,

"I must look... I mustn't look down," you know,

we were told not to look down, but it's quite difficult.

I thought, "Oh, goodness, if one of us trips...!" But we didn't.

16 months of preparations

had delivered a day of perfectly executed ritual.

As two million well-wishers cheered her on,

the Queen began her triumphant journey through the capital.

It took the 29,000 troops from 129 nations

two hours to march along the five-mile processional route.

The Queen's reign may have begun at the moment of her father's death

in 1952, but it was launched by the coronation in 1953.

She was projected on to the world stage, she was seen to be steady

and as a young woman to do her duty perfectly.

It recognised in a moment an old-fashioned ancient kingdom

marking the start of this new and vibrant reign.

Five-and-a-half hours after leaving the Palace, the Queen returned home.

As the crowd rushed to celebrate at the palace gates, the Queen's

personal footage reveals a more informal mood behind the scenes.

What did I do with the sceptre, then? It's gone.

In that few moments they've given it back to you,

I think, because there you are with both.

Somebody picked up and took it out.

That's Jane Stewart. She tripped - she was rather embarrassed.

Look at the Queen smiling. We're all smiling.

I've got the giggles behind Jane. There I am, laughing.

Such fun for the children.

Not what they're meant to do.

Not what they're meant to do.

Must be such a relief for her not to have the crown on.

But it was lovely. I mean, that bit was such fun,

because, you know, everything had gone exactly as it should have.

People say, "Oh, was your wedding the most amazing day of your life?"

and I have to say, "Well, actually, it wasn't,"

because the coronation was.

It was something absolutely extraordinary,

and I was so lucky to have been part of it.

For the very first time, after 65 years,

Her Majesty has added her unique voice to the events

that announced her reign and marked the start of a new era.

It's a sort of... I suppose, the sort of beginning of one's life,

really, as the sovereign.

It's a sort of pageant of chivalry

and old-fashioned way of doing things, I think, really.

But it's quite interesting to have it, you know, done again.

I mean, I've seen one, one coronation,

and been the recipient in the other,

which is pretty remarkable.