King Charles III has been king from the moment his mother died, legally confirmed in his Accession Council—so is the coronation legally necessary? The answer is no. If previous examples need to be referred to, then the boy king Edward V was not crowned, nor was the abdicating Edward VIII; yet both are counted in the list of our kings. In both cases, the coronation prepared for them served for their successors.
More than a secular sovereign
The coronation may be compared, in this instance, to the two elements of a marriage: the contract is the legal part, and the religious part, if that follows, is the sacramental part. To the public in general, the splendour and ceremony of the coronation is the visible sign, and that is enough; however, the ceremony is so much more than that, as it reflects not only the sovereign as a secular ruler or head of state, but also the sovereign as
