What is the controversy around Camilla’s coronation crown? – National | 24CA News

The crown that can be worn by Camilla on the upcoming coronation has change into a thorny affair, reopening outdated wounds of British colonization that noticed jewels plundered as spoils of warfare.

The coronation ceremony of King Charles III and his spouse Camilla, quickly to be topped queen, is about to happen at Westminster Abbey on Saturday.

Royal watchers can be protecting an in depth eye on the proceedings and the crown jewels that can be on show because the King and Queen are topped within the U.Ok.

The Royal Family might need dodged one controversy by not together with the disputed Koh-i-Noor diamond in Camilla’s crown, however the determination to characteristic another problematic jewels is ruffling feathers forward of the coronation.

“We’re going to see jewels and items and regalia being used that only get pulled out for this event,” mentioned Justin Vovk, a royal historian at McMaster University.

“There’s going to be a level of attention and scrutiny that the monarchs have never had at what is supposed to be this really ancient sacred ceremony.”

Originally mined in India hundreds of years in the past, the 105-carat Koh-i-Noor diamond is likely one of the largest lower diamonds on the planet.

It was seized by the East India Company in 1849 and offered to Queen Victoria.

It is about in a crown final worn by Charles’ grandmother throughout her coronation in 1937, however was beforehand utilized in different settings, as effectively.

India has lengthy demanded the Koh-i-Noor be returned and people requires repatriation have been renewed after the demise of Queen Elizabeth II final yr.

Pakistan, previously a part of British-ruled India, and Afghanistan have additionally claimed possession of it since Indian independence in 1947.

Vovk mentioned there are questions round how Britain truly acquired this object.

“It was given to Britain as part of a treaty in the 19th century between the maharajah, the ruler of the Sikh empire, and Queen Victoria, but the maharajah was a child … and there are questions about how the conditions of this treaty were negotiated.”

The financial worth of the diamond is unclear, however that isn’t essentially driving the dispute, says Hira Singh, a colonialism professional and professor at York University

“Its value as a material object is not important. What it represents symbolically that’s very important,” he mentioned.

Singh mentioned it a was “farce” that the Royal Family has chosen to go together with a South African diamond as a substitute of the one from India.

In February, Buckingham Palace revealed Camilla’s decide for the coronation crown, which won’t characteristic the Koh-i-Noor, steering away from the controversial crown jewel.

Instead, Camilla will put on Queen Mary’s crown, which has been reset with the Cullinan III, IV and V diamonds that have been mined in South Africa.

The Cullinan diamond, the most important diamond ever discovered, was found close to Pretoria, South Africa in 1905.

It was lower into 9 massive stones and named Cullinan I to IX after the chairman of the mining firm, Thomas Cullinan.

The Cullinan was bought by the British colonial authorities in South Africa and later gifted to the Royal Family.

While the Cullinan isn’t the identical image of plunder because the Koh-i-Noor, the choice to indicate the jewels off on coronation day has drawn criticism in South Africa.

“It’s basically a spit in the face,” mentioned Vuyolwethu Zungula, president of the African Transformation Movement, one in every of South Africa’s opposition events.

“Those diamonds they were gotten through the spilling of blood of innocent people.”

Zungula mentioned the stone is an emblem of Britain’s exploitation and the lasting affect that led to deep racial inequality.

“It is very important that the previous colonizers and the current colonizers, they need to take responsibility. Otherwise there will never be justice.”

Cullinan I and II have been integrated into crown jewels, whereas the remaining have been a part of the late Queen Elizabeth II’s private jewellery assortment and have been usually worn by her as brooches.

Because the Cullinan diamonds are immediately owned by the Royal Family, their use in Camilla’s crown isn’t fairly as controversial because the Koh-i-Noor would’ve been, mentioned Vovk.

And so the inclusion of the Cullinan diamonds “de-politicizes” the selection, somewhat than utilizing one thing just like the Koh-i-Noor, he mentioned.

“It sends the message that certainly the monarchy is aware that there is controversy around the Koh-i-Noor,” Vovk added.

“They are aware that there is a colonial legacy associated with the British monarchy that they have to be mindful of.”

This isn’t the primary time that Cullinan diamonds have been set into Queen Mary’s crown. They have been additionally used at Queen Mary’s 1911 coronation and inserted when the crown was worn as a regal circlet at King George VI’s Coronation in 1937, in accordance with Buckingham Palace.

“The choice of Queen Mary’s Crown by Her Majesty is the first time in recent history that an existing crown will be used for the Coronation of a Consort instead of a new commission being made, in the interests of sustainability and efficiency,” the palace mentioned in a press release in February.

— with information from Global News’ Michelle Butterfield and Sarah Do Couto and Reuters.

&copy 2023 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.