As an Officer of Arms I had the privilege (and duty) of attending the Coronation of the King. Heralds have taken part in coronations for over 500 years, wearing their armorial tabards and leading the royal procession into Westminster Abbey before flanking the Lantern, facing the Sacrarium where the most solemn parts of the ceremony take place.
Such an event includes early starts, much hanging around, and now – alas – obtrusive security. But it is still an extraordinary experience to impersonate a medieval manuscript, standing in the same place as one’s fifteenth-century predecessors against the thirteenth-century Purbeck columns. Waiting in the cloisters, there was much to see and talk about.
