The Royal Family has celebrated the one-year anniversary of King Charles and Queen Camilla’s coronation by releasing a tribute video accompanied by a new poem from Poet Laureate Simon Armitage.

The three-minute highlights video, which briefly features the Duke of Sussex, includes footage from the coronation service at Westminster Abbey and the royals interacting with fans along the Mall in London.

More than 2,000 guests were invited to witness the historic service, including foreign dignitaries and members of the public recognized for their charitable work.

The poem titled ‘An Unexpected Guest’ offers a perspective of the day through the eyes of a member of the public and incorporates prose from Samuel Pepys.

The video opens with a scene of a train journey through the English countryside as the Poet Laureate recites the opening lines. The poem describes the guest’s journey to London by train and her seating arrangement beside various individuals invited to the event.

Armitage also references Max Woosey, a boy who raised over £700,000 for the North Devon Hospice by sleeping in a tent in his parents’ garden for three years.

The footage transitions to scenes of the public gathering along the Mall before the coronation, followed by a shot of Tower Bridge during golden hour.

The video then shows the exterior of Westminster Abbey as Armitage’s ‘imagined guest’ arrives to attend the coronation. A brief shot of Prince Harry inside the Abbey sitting beside Princess Eugenie’s husband, Jack Brooksbank, is included.

The Duke of Sussex was in the UK for only 28 hours to attend his father and step-mother’s coronation before returning to Montecito, California.

Subsequent scenes depict the coronation procession, with Lord President of the Privy Council Penny Mordaunt carrying the Jewelled Sword of Offering.

Armitage’s poem continues to describe the solemnity and grandeur of the coronation ceremony, culminating in reflections on the significance of the event for an ordinary individual watching the news at home.

The video has garnered over 92,000 views since its upload on X, formerly known as Twitter, and has been well-received by royal fans for its emotional resonance and portrayal of communal pride.

The anniversary of the coronation was also marked by gun salutes across London, with celebrations including a carriage procession, a fly-past, and a Royal Salute by 4,000 troops at Buckingham Palace gardens.

As King Charles resumes public engagements following his cancer diagnosis, Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby praised his sense of duty and commitment to serving the nation.

The past year has presented the King with personal challenges, but his continued dedication to his duties and openness about his health condition have earned him admiration and support from the public.

‘An Unexpected Guest’ by Poet Laureate Simon Armitage

She’s treated herself to new shoes, a window seat

on the fast train, a hotel for a night.

She’s been to the capital twice before,

once to see Tutankhamun when she was nine

and once when it rained. Crossing The Mall

she’s just a person like everyone else

but her hand keeps checking the invitation,

her thumb strumming the gilded edge of the card,

her finger tracing the thread of embossed leaves.

In sight of the great porch she can’t believe

the police just step aside, that doors shaped

for God and giants should open to let her in.

*

She’s taken her place with ambulance drivers

and nurses and carers and charity workers,

a man who alchemised hand-sanitiser

from gin, a woman who walked for sponsored miles,

the boy in the tent. The heads of heads of state

float down the aisle, she knows the names

of seven or eight. But the music’s the thing:

a choir transmuting psalms into sonorous light,

the cavernous sleepwalking dreams

of the organ making the air vibrate,

chords coming up through the soles of her feet.

Somewhere further along and deeper in

there are golden and sacred things going on:

glimpses of crimson, flashes of jewels

like flames, high priests in their best bling,

the solemn wording of incantations and spells,

till the part where promise and prayer become fused:

the moment is struck, a pact is sworn.

*

And got to the abby…raised in the middle…

Bishops in cloth-of-gold Copes…

nobility all in their parliament-robes…

The Crowne being put on his head

a great shout begun. And he came forth…

taking the oath… And Bishops…kneeled

…and proclaimed…if any could show

any reason why Ch. …should not be the King…

that now he should come and speak…

The ground covered with blue cloth…

And the King came in with his Crowne…

and mond…and his sceptre in hand…

*

She’ll watch it again on the ten o’clock news

from the armchair throne in her living room:

did the cameras notice her coral pink hat

or her best coat pinned with the hero’s medal she got

for being herself? The invitation is propped

on the mantelpiece by the carriage-clock.

She adorned the day with ordinariness;

she is blessed to have brought the extraordinary home.

And now she’ll remember the house sparrow

she thought she’d seen in the abbey roof

arcing from eave to eave, beyond and above.