An old joke says that in hell the organizers are Germans; the mechanics, French; the lovers, Swiss; the bankers, Italian, and the cooks, English. Instead, in heaven the Swiss are the bankers, the French are the cooks, the Italians are the lovers, the Germans are the mechanics and the English are the organizers. No one rides a tail as well as an Englishman.
The great organizer of the kingdom is Edward Fitzalan-Howard, a 65-year-old man, Eddie to friends, father of five, Oxford-educated, Catholic, recently divorced from a wife to whom he was married for three and a half decades, passionate car racer, who made his fortune with a bottled gas company. His work consists of organizing the funerals and coronations of the English monarchs, he was responsible for the farewell of Queen Elizabeth II, and is in charge of the great party to celebrate the arrival to the throne of Charles III.
But this is not a position that is advertised in the newspapers or that job interviews are held. It is hereditary and belongs to the highest-ranking duke in Great Britain, which is that of Norfolk, based at Arundel Castle in the county of West Sussex. His father passed it on, and before that his grandfather had passed it on to his father. It is these traditions that are so valued in the United Kingdom, and that make the country a little different from others.
The responsibility is enormous, because the eyes of the world are watching the events he organizes, but we could say that it does not entail exhaustive hours, weekends at the foot of the canyon or emergency calls in the middle of the morning. The last coronation that was celebrated was that of Queen Elizabeth II, in 1953 (70 years ago), and the longevity of the Windsors means that State funerals are not exactly abundant either. The salary is not discussed, but the Duke of Norfolk, with a fortune of 120 million euros, does not need to be paid.
He hopes that the coronation of Charles III will go as well as the funeral of Elizabeth II. There was no shortage of time to prepare it. He has been working there for 20 years with a small group of a couple of dozen collaborators, with whom he meets… once a year at Buckingham Palace to review the protocol. More often now, so the occasion is approaching, but without losing sleep.
The new monarch has expressed a desire (and his wishes usually come true) for a ceremony “adapted to the times”, less pompous than his mother’s coronation, with a smaller procession, with a return trip from Buckingham in Westminster Abbey. Camilà will wear Queen Mary’s crown instead of the much more ostentatious Koh-i-Noor, with colonial implications and claimed by Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan and India.
The big headache in Eddie’s preparations is everything to do with Henry and Meghan, the Dukes of Sussex, whether or not they will come from California, and what role he should give them in the coronation considering, for a on the one hand, his rank and, on the other, the poor state of his relations with his family after the explosive claims in books and press and television interviews, including accusations of racism and discrimination. Will they be invited to appear on the balcony and say hello? Where will they sit in the abbey? The palace has recognized their children, little Archie and Lilibet, as de facto princes since Charles became king. There is no need to add fuel to the fire.
The weekend of May 6 will have an additional holiday (Monday, the one that was missing from the country’s productivity index and an economy on the verge of recession), there will be a concert of laser lights, which will be projected on the Windsor Castle, pubs will open an extra two hours at night and subjects have been enthusiastic about organizing lunches, picnics and street snacks.
More than 4,000 million people followed the funeral of Elizabeth II on television, which was organized by Edward Fitzalan-Howard. The audience for the coronation of Charles will not reach this figure, but it will also be a big thing, and it does not want to fail. In any case, there is no danger that he will be fired.
