Royal Fans Think Princess Anne Won The Coronation
King Charles' coronation has come and gone, and those who watched the coronation are buzzing about one particular attendee's uniform.
Anne, the Princess Royal, is King Charles' younger sister. She has been the Colonel of the Blues and Royals British Army regiment since 1998, and was granted the title of Gold-Stick-in-Waiting for Charles. The Gold-Stick-in-Waiting position has been around since the 1400s. The Gold Stick was traditionally responsible for keeping the monarch safe, so Anne's official role at the coronation was that of Charles' bodyguard — at least symbolically. She accepted the role and rode in the coronation procession on horseback, riding behind the carriage with King Charles and Queen Camilla and in front of the military.
Princess Anne wore her army uniform for her role as Gold-Stick-in-Waiting. The uniform included a hat, a dark green cloak, sashes, medals, and more regalia. In an interview with CBC News, Anne said wearing her uniform as Gold Stick "solves my dress problem." The uniform has also successfully kept Anne off Women Lifestyle's coronation worst-dressed list. However, one of her uniform's accessories caused a stir online due to its interesting placement.
Prince Harry's face was obscured by Anne's red feather
One piece of Princess Anne's military uniform is a hat with a tall crimson feather in it. She was seated one row in front of Prince Harry for the coronation, so when she had her head up, the feather hid Prince Harry's face. In some of the coronation footage, he was shown trying to look around the hat for a better view of the ceremony.
Some viewers believe the seating chart that placed Anne and her hat in front of Harry was an intentional choice made by the monarchy. TikToker @gemmaalster posted a video with the text, "Watching the coronation thinking Princess Anne knew exactly what she was doing when she put this hat on this morning." In the caption, Gemma referenced the iconic meme about how Kris Jenner works harder than the devil and added, "Forget Kris Jenner, nobody works harder than Princess Anne's feather hiding Prince Harry at the Coronation of King Charles."
People on Twitter have come up with a hashtag to describe the situation. One Twitter user posted a screenshot from the coronation with the caption, "God save the FEATHER ... " and the hashtag "#Feathergate." Another Feathergate tweet calls back to when journalist Omid Scobie said Prince Harry would not be purposefully hidden behind a pillar or something similar during the coronation, adding: "[Omid] did not foresee the feather!"
People love how supportive Anne is of Charles
Whether or not Feathergate was an unfortunate coincidence or a plan that went off without a hitch, people seemed to love Princess Anne at the coronation — and especially loved her role as Gold Stick. One tweet deemed Princess Anne a "Boss Lady," along with a video slideshow of photographs of her in the procession and at the coronation. Another tweet described how nice it is that in the official portraits from the big event, Princess Anne and King Charles are standing next to each other — just like they did in portraits from their mother's coronation in 1953.
Royal commenter Wesley Kerr described Anne's relationship with Charles and the monarchy to Tatler: "She is the person The King has known longest. She can be relied on for complete discretion and unconditional love. Anne is wise, intelligent, incredibly plugged into the modern United Kingdom." The article also calls her Charles' "secret weapon."
Anne's support of King Charles' ascent to the throne and their close relationship means she was the perfect choice as his Gold-Stick-in-Waiting, although she may have stolen a bit of thunder by being the only royal on horseback – and because of Feathergate.