'May the king live forever'?!

[BarbaraVineFan]

Just seen this on BBC News...apparently during the coronation people around the country will be asked to pay 'homage' to the king from their living rooms, including reciting the phrases 'God save King Charles. Long live King Charles. May the king live forever.'

I mean, I'm not a royalist, but surely even a royalist would think this is ridiculous and cringey? Saying 'may he live forever' as though he is some kind of deity?! WTF?

Nauseating claptrap. I don’t want the institution of any king to go on forever. It’s a ridiculous concept. Kings, queens, princes etc - need consigning to the history books.

Is it not a reference to his eternal life in line with the Christian faith? He is head of the C of E afterall.

Or to the crown living forever rather than KC3 specifically?

That is beyond cringe and I will in no way be doing that 😂

All a load of old cobblers. Nearly every house in our affluent village made an effort for Queen's jubilee. Only a handful of houses with bunting for the coronation. He is not very popular at all.

Fed up with media outlets trying to drum up support for him and their coverage. First royal event I will not watch.

Mumm-Ra

🤣🤣🤣

They can fuck all the way off, and then fuck off again. The utter audacity and vulgarity of it all. NO human is more important than any other human. I am noone’s subject, he is not my king.

And if you’re a snivelling peasant cheering it all on, then I think you’re an idiot who needs to start thinking critically pronto. Morons.

I don't want him to live forever. I like the bank holiday you get when a monarch dies.

The whole royalty thing just needs to disappear now. It's a bit embarrassing. Or just nominate a random UK family every year to be the royals (like jury service).

Let's get that crown estate money in to fund the public sector.

The C of E's official line is that we all get eternal life anyway, so it wouldn't make sense to wish it for an individual.

It's from Handel's Coronation Anthem. A marvellous piece of choral music which we sang in the choir at school.

As I recall, historically they were seen as a kind of deity, being gods representatives on earth and answerable to no one but him. I love the historical aspect, I mean, a prayer written by Thomas Cranmer will be included amongst a shit ton of other historical references.
The homage business is a modern twist on an old concept. No one's policing it.
At least amidst the pomp and circumstance (ha) he's actually tried to differentiate to bring the ceremonial aspects forward towards modernity instead of just fully backward.

Well how is that any different than humanity praying to the false God's e.g. The various human created religions ?

It's from Handel's Coronation Anthem. A marvellous piece of choral music which we sang in the choir at school.

And? The question is still why on earth any rational person would do this. Handel or not.

Does if you realise that it's in the context of King Solomon - after all the wisdom stuff, the story goes that he started an emotional affair with other people's Deities and G-d told him that when he died, his kingdom would be toast, as was a risk for any country when Kings were military leaders.

It's another bit of cultural/historical knowledge - I don't have to be in favour of it to understand it. And it's a banging choral piece that Handel wrote referring to it.

@Sensibletrousers

"They can fuck all the way off, and then fuck off again. The utter audacity and vulgarity of it all. NO human is more important than any other human. I am noone’s subject, he is not my king.

And if you’re a snivelling peasant cheering it all on, then I think you’re an idiot who needs to start thinking critically pronto. Morons."

👏👏👏👏👏

The phrase ‘may the king live forever’ is from the Bible. It’s found several times in the book of Daniel, and a couple of other places. But it’s not exactly what the biblical Zadok says when he anoints Solomon as king - he doesn’t say much actually, but all the people say something like ‘may the king live’ or ‘long live the king.’

The person who does say ‘may the king live forever’ in that chapter is Bathsheba, the mother of Solomon - but she’s speaking to David, the father of Solomon, while David is on his deathbed. She has just persuaded David to name her son as the next king. So she clearly doesn’t expect David to live forever. In fact, she’s banking on him dying very soon.

From that background, it’s somewhat ironic that all the people are requested to say the same words at the coronation of Charles!

Happy for him to have his coronation, I may w en out the telly on for a short time, but I'm not saying those words ... I really don't care to be honest

I'm with you on this!!

I think requesting that people acknowledge him as king is probably the first step they need to take.

If you read the information, you would learn that this is the first time the plebs have been ordered invited to swear allegiance.

This is not a tradition.

TV existed in 1953 too, as did radio.

People just say anything in the name of tradition, pimp and ceremony

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It seems atavistic to me, suggesting the nation pledges allegiance.

Zadok the Priest is a great piece of music though. Here is a slightly more modern royal getting married to it.

What a charming society we live in.

I assume you are being sarcastic? In which case I agree. A corrupt government, feeding at the trough. A vain and spoiled man allowing millions of pounds to be spent on a pointless ceremony at a time when people are struggling to afford the weekly shop. It really is the opposite of a charming society, isn't it?

This has some helpful explanations, by an American choral singer, includes clip of QEII's coronation and the Handel anthem containing the words:

www.debisimons.com/handel-coronation-anthems-zadok-the-priest/