Royal Central - Prince Ricardo De La Cerda
By BiblioArchives / LibraryArchives from Canada – Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II / Couronnement de la Reine Elizabeth II, CC BY 2.0, Wiki Commons
When the whole world is watching, the pressure to pull off an event perfectly like a coronation is immense. It’s been 70 years since the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II and during the three-hour service, it’s reported the then 25-year-old made only one mistake.
It was a first-of-its-kind event as modern technology meant that this was the first British coronation to be televised live, in history. During the service, Her Majesty made a minor mistake (and luckily many didn’t notice) as she did not curtesy with her Maids of Honour at the north pillar of The Abbey. With more than 300 million viewers, most probably missed the small mistake. But, the Archbishop of Canterbury at the time, Geoffrey Francis Fisher did.
In 2013, The Telegraph reported the late Archbishop wrote in his diary: “The Maids of Honour regretted it because they had taken much time to get it just right, and I regretted it because from the Altar the sight of the Queen and the Maids of Honour curtseying was a very lovely one.”
Despite the small mistake, The Queen was widely congratulated for her performance during the historic event and, for helping to lift the national mood following World War II.
Queen Elizabeth II was crowned on June 2 1953.