The invitation list: From heads of state to refugees, who's going to the King's coronation?

May 02, 2023

More than 2,000 people will fill Westminster Abbey for the King and Queen Consort's coronation.

Members of the Royal Family, heads of state and foreign royals will sit alongside celebrities and charity workers to watch the couple being crowned.

As well as the 2,200 guests inside, a further 400 from charities chosen by the royal couple and the government will be able to watch the service from inside St Margaret's Church at Westminster Abbey.

Buckingham Palace has confirmed 203 countries will be represented by "approximately 100 heads of state" and other dignitaries.

Here's who will be there:

Members of the Royal Family

The Prince and Princess of Wales will be there with their children Prince George, nine, Princess Charlotte, seven, and Prince Louis, five. George and Charlotte have been given the role of 'page of honour'.

Charles's siblings Princess Anne - the Princess Royal, and Prince Edward - the Duke of Edinburgh, will both attend. Prince Andrew, who stepped down from public duties over his association with paedophile Jeffrey Epstein, is understood to be going, but will not play a major role after being stripped of his military titles.

His children Princess Beatrice and Eugenie, 10th and 11th in line to the throne, are likely to be there with Princess Anne's daughter Zara Tindall and her husband Mike.

Prince Harry has confirmed his attendance, but a Buckingham Palace spokesperson said in a statement: "The Duchess of Sussex will remain in California with Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet."

Harry's children are sixth and seventh in line to the throne.

Friends and other family members

The Queen Consort's ex-husband Andrew Parker Bowles is coming, according to a report in The Times, as well as her son Tom Parker Bowles.

Her sister Annabel Elliot and friend Lady Lansdowne will also be there and take on the role of ladies in attendance.

Camilla's three grandchildren Gus and Louis Lopes, Freddy Parker Bowles and her great-nephew Arthur Elliot will be pages of honour like the Wales's children.

Lord Oliver Cholmondeley, 13, Nicholas Barclay, 13, and Ralph Tollemache, 12, all sons of the King's friends, will be there too.

Foreign royals

Traditionally the royals' foreign counterparts have not attended coronations.

But this time Prince Albert II and Princess Charlene of Monaco, King Willem-Alexander and Queen Maxima of the Netherlands, King Philippe and Queen Mathilde of Belgium, King Carl XVI Gustaf and Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden and Dragon King of Bhutan Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck and his wife Queen Jetsun Pema Wangchuck, will all attend.

Heads of state and foreign ministers

Buckingham Palace hasn't published a list of leaders set to attend - only that 203 countries will be represented.

US president Joe Biden isn't coming and will be represented by the first lady, his wife Jill Biden, instead.

French President Emmanuel Macron has promised to come after the King's visit to France was cancelled due to protests over his pension reforms.

EU leaders Ursula von der Leyen, Charles Michel and Roberta Metsola will also be there.

Germany and Italy are sending their ceremonial presidents Frank-Walter Steinmeier and Sergio Mattarella, rather than heads of government Olaf Scholz and Giorgia Meloni.

Chinese vice-president Han Zheng, who oversaw the response to protests in Hong Kong, is also on the King's guest list.

Governor-generals and Commonwealth prime ministers

Leaders from the Commonwealth - including prime ministers Anthony Albanese of Australia, Chris Hipkins of New Zealand, and Shehbaz Sharif of Pakistan - will be inside the Abbey.

Each Commonwealth country also has a governor-general who represents the King and all have been invited.

Further representatives have been nominated to travel to London by each country's High Commission and diplomatic corps.

UK government and devolved nation leaders

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and his wife Akshata Murty, will represent the government along with a select number of ministers. Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer will be there as leader of the opposition. Former prime ministers have also been sent invitations.

Humza Yusaf will represent Scotland and Mark Drakeford Wales.

With no government sitting at Stormont, Sinn Fein leader Michelle O'Neill will attend the coronation with the party's speaker Alex Maskey to represent Northern Ireland - in a first for republicans.

Lord-lieutenants and lord-provosts

These are the King's official representatives in each of the lieutenancy areas of the UK. In Scotland they are called lord-provosts.

Church and other faith leaders

The coronation service will be carried out by the Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby and attended by other Church of England leaders. Other faiths will be represented by the likes of the Chief Rabbi Eprahim Mirvis.

The Prince's Trust

The Prince's Trust is the charity for young people founded by Charles when he was Prince of Wales.

Presenters Ant and Dec will be at the coronation as the charity's goodwill ambassadors.

British Vogue editor Edward Enninful will be there in his capacity as a global ambassador, alongside pop star Lionel Richie, who is chairman of the trust's Global Ambassador Group.

Magician Dynamo, whose real name is Steven Frayne, was given a business start-up loan by the Prince's Trust and is attending on Saturday.

Stereophonics singer Kelly Jones will also be there, having received support from the trust earlier in his career.

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Charlotte Mensah is one of the leading UK stylists for Afro hair. She got a grant from the trust in 1999 to set up her salon The Hair Lounge. She now supports young people in Ghana through The Charlotte Mensah Academy and more widely in Africa through her charity L.O.V.E. (Ladies of Visionary Empowerment). She will be at Westminster on Saturday.

Healthcare assistant Funmilola Sosanya, 31, who lives in southeast London but is originally from Nigeria, and Tesco worker Hassan Alkhawam, 24, who sought sanctuary in Northern Ireland having escaped conflict in Syria, will both be at the coronation. They both credit the trust with finding them jobs in the UK, with Hassan awarded the Prince's Trust Young Achiever Award in 2021.

These people have been chosen to represent the trust internationally:

Susan Nakusi Ekalale, from Kenya, is a high school graduate who was awarded the Prince's Trust Global Award 2021 for her part in its enterprise challenge.

Akeme Magregor Cox, from Barbados, went on to set up his own hot sauce and catering company after getting involved with the Prince's Trust International's team programme. He won the Global Award in 2020.

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Chigozie Anozie, from Nigeria, was part of the Prince's Trust International Get Into Renewable Energy programme.

Sara Arah Abu al Wafa, from Jordan, is a genetic engineering graduate and was the recipient of the Global Award in 2022.

Gulfsha, from India, also won a Global Award in 2022 following her work with the Get Into programme, which is partnered with the Magic Bus India Foundation there.

Jay Patel completed the Prince's Trust Canada's youth employment programme having moved there from India. He now works as a chef at Toronto's CN Tower.

Tasmyn Roach, from New Zealand, completed the Prince's Trust Enterprise Workshop 2022 and was given a grant for her business that makes Maori designed baby blankets.

Tayla Fay Green-Aldridge, is visiting London from Australia for the coronation. She graduated from the Prince's Trust Australia's Get Into Maritime programme.

The Prince's Foundation

The Prince's Foundation was another charity set up by the King during his time as Prince of Wales. It promotes education around architecture and urban design. The following people are representing the foundation:

Jay Blades, of the BBC's The Repair Shop, highlighted the work of the Prince's Foundation when the King appeared in the episode A Royal Visit.

Nicole Christie, 27, from East Kilbride, recovered from an eating disorder to take part in the foundation's Modern Artisan training programme and was named Scottish Fashion Designer of the Year at the Scottish Fashion Association Awards.

Arron Goodfellow, from Sierra Leone, completed the foundation's residential summer school at Swansea University in 2017 before completing his master's degree in engineering there.

Sourabh Phadke, 37, from Mumbai, graduated from the foundation's building craft programme and its school of traditional arts. He was one the students who took part in the 'live build' of the summerhouse at Hillsborough Castle in 2018.

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Esme Walker, 31, from Lancashire, honed her skills as a decorative plasterer at the foundation's building craft programme.

Reece Wilkie, 75, from East Ayrshire is a longstanding member of the Dumfries House Sewing Bee. She was heavily involved in the foundation's knitted art installation - a mosaic of 9,000 handmade squares, which was draped over the bridge at Dumfries House by the King and Queen Consort in 2021.

Queen Consort's patronages

Camilla is patron or president of more than 90 charities, which Buckingham Palace has said will be represented at the coronation.

Emergency, legal and public service workers

People who work in various parts of the public sector and legal profession have also been selected to attend.

British Empire Medal recipients

More than 450 people awarded a British Empire Medal (BEM) have been invited.

Among them is record-breaker Max Woosey, 13, dubbed "the boy in the tent", who raised more than £750,000 for North Devon Hospice by camping in his garden for three years.

Nobel Prize winners

Recipients of 2022's Nobel prizes have been invited.

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