Crowning a king is enough to make anyone nervous. But imagine the pressure of being told one wrong move could kill him.

That was the situation faced by former Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby at King Charles’s Coronation in May 2023. 

During a rehearsal in the Buckingham Palace ballroom, Dr Welby put his hands up to mimic holding the crown. As he prepared to place it on the monarch’s head, King Charles told him: ‘You have to jam it on.’

He added: ‘It has to come down to here first – and then push down. Because otherwise, if it’s at the back, it’s fatal.’   

Concerned about hurting him, Dr Welby said to Charles: ‘I don’t want to break your neck, sir. It might ruin the service!’  

The King, who grew up watching his mother wearing the Imperial Crown around the palace to practise before events, reassured the archbishop that it wouldn’t cause any harm, the Mail’s Robert Hardman reveals in his book Charles III: New King. New Court. The Inside Story. 

The archbishop very carefully places the crown on Charles’s head 

Justin Welby appeared to be nervous about breaking Charles’s neck in rehearsals

Dr Welby at the entrance to Westminster Abbey before the Coronation ceremony on May 6, 2023

Dr Welby, who stepped down in January amid controversy over the Church of England’s handling of child abuser John Smyth, then placed a replica of the 4.9lb St Edward’s Crown on Charles’s head. 

The King was sitting on St Mary’s Chair, rather than the real Coronation throne.

Dr Welby’s nerves showed in other ways, as BBC footage of the rehearsals revealed last year.

The then-archbishop was seen fumbling his lines during one of the run-throughs.

He said: ‘And the blessing of God Almighty, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, be amongst you and remain with you now and…no, that can’t be right.’

The Archbishop of York then leaned over and added, ‘and always’. He joked: ‘You must have said this before?’ 

‘Uneasy lies the head that wears the crown’, Shakespeare famously wrote 

… but Charles was all smiles as the archbishop fumbled his lines during the rehearsal

The off-the-cuff remark prompted laughter from everyone present – including the King. 

A grinning Charles shook his head and laughed, then added: ‘You knew that was coming.’ 

Dr Welby finished the blessing with: ‘Be with you and remain with you always. Amen.’

There was even a humorous father-and-son moment between Prince William and Charles.

The Charles III: The Coronation Year documentary, co-produced and written by Mr Hardman, showed the scene when William practised giving Charles his ‘Stole Royal’ – an embroidered cloth band symbolising the sacred nature of kingship.

The Prince remarked on how fiddly the catch was and joked to his father: ‘On the day it’s not going to go in, is it?’

The King laughed and replied: ‘[But] you haven’t got sausage fingers like mine!’

Prince William and Charles share a moment of father-and-son bonding during Coronation rehearsals

King Charles III stands solemnly after being crowned at Westminster Abbey

Queen Camilla is crowned by Dr Welby during her Coronation ceremony

During the Coronation itself, Queen Camilla backed away from Dr Welby when he was holding her crown. 

One of the ladies-in-attendance, Lady Lansdowne, revealed: ‘But I think that was just because she was worried that the archbishop was going to tread on her dress so she was just pulling herself back.’

The Queen’s sister, Annabel Elliot, her other lady-in-attendance, added: ‘She was obviously incredibly nervous. She doesn’t show it a lot, but I know her well enough. 

‘I think he [the King] was very proud of her. And I think there was a sense of, “I can’t believe it. We’ve made it.”‘