by People have been urged to swear allegiance to King Charles on his coronation day, but not everyone is convinced.
On Saturday, millions of people attending the coronation around the world will be asked to shout and swear allegiance to Charles.
It is the first time in history that the public will have an active role in the ceremony, which will be attended by the royal family, as the coronation is modernized to include the first tribute of the people.
Lambeth Palace said it hoped the significant change to the historic service would result in a “great cry across the nation and across the world of support for the King” from those watching on television, online or gathered on the air open on big screens.
It replaces the traditional Homage of Peers in which a long line of hereditary peers would kneel and make a promise to the monarch himself.
However, there has been considerable backlash against the plan, which some have criticized as “feudal,” saying it “feels very Game of Thrones.”
And the pressure group Repubblica described the oath of allegiance as “offensive, jarring and a gesture that despises the people”.
Graham Smith, spokesman for Republic, which campaigns for the abolition of the monarchy and its replacement by a directly elected head of state, said: “In a democracy it is the head of state who should swear allegiance to the people, not the other way around .
“This kind of nonsense should have died with Elizabeth I, not survived Elizabeth II.”
Green Party co-leader Adrian Ramsay has advised the BBC’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg not to say the words on coronation day.
“I’m going to watch it because I think it’s a key moment for the nation, but I think the idea of an engagement is perhaps somewhat outdated.”
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The new Homage of the People has been introduced to allow “a choir of millions of voices” to “join this solemn and joyous moment for the first time in history,” said Lambeth Palace.
A Lambeth Palace spokesman said the tribute was “more of an invitation than an expectation or request”.
The Archbishop will invite “all people of good will in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and in the other Kingdoms and Territories to pay homage, with heart and voice, to their undisputed King, defender of all”.
The order of the service will read: “All who wish, in the Abbey and elsewhere, say together:
“Everyone: I swear that I will pay true allegiance to Your Majesty, and to your heirs and successors according to the law. So help me God.”
A fanfare will follow.
A spokesman for Lambeth Palace, the archbishop’s office, said: ‘The People’s Homage is particularly exciting because it is brand new.
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“This is something we can share through advances in technology, so not just the people in the Abbey, but the people who are online, on television, who are listening and who are gathered in parks, on big screens and in churches.
“Our hope is that at that point, when the Archbishop invites people to participate, that people everywhere, if they are watching at home alone, watching television, will say it out loud – this sense of great cry throughout the nation and throughout the world for support for the King.”
