Cost of the crown part 5: the coronation of Charles III – podcast

In a ceremony on Saturday steeped in history, King Charles III will finally receive the crown. At 74 years old, he will be the oldest monarch ever to take the throne. At the same age, his mother was gearing up for her golden jubilee. And as the Guardian columnist Jonathan Freedland tells Maeve McClenaghan, this means there will be a very different tone from the last coronation.

Rather than a country crowning a young queen who was virtually unknown as a public figure, Charles’s views on everything from architecture to ecology have been widely aired. And his reign will be as an old man.

He also arrives on the throne with a lot more known about his private wealth. As we have shown during this week’s series of episodes, he can lay claim to assets of more than £1.8bn. As Britain faces a cost of living crisis, the Treasury has coughed up an estimated £100m for the weekend’s event. Should the family have funded it themselves?

Photograph: Yui Mok/AFP/Getty Images

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