Princess Anne and Prince Edward tipped to be 'prominent' at King Charles' Coronation ceremony

Princess Anne and Prince Edward have been tipped to be 'prominent' during the Coronation of King Charles III.

• The Coronation of King Charles will take place on 6 May at Westminster Abbey.
• Siblings of the monarch aren't required to play in a role in the service, but it's thought that Princess Anne and Prince Edward will still be prominent.
• In other royal news, this is how Princess Charlotte made royal history at the age of two.

Dr George Gross - Visiting Research Fellow in Theology at King’s College London - believes Princess Anne and Prince Edward, who have been working royals for decades, will play a key role during the Coronation.

Asked what role Anne and Edward could play at the Coronation according to past services, he told Express.co.uk, "In terms of paying homage, that would be the key role that they may play.

"I suspect they would be prominent. Whether they play a role... they don't have to. There's nothing that says they have to."

He added, "Because there isn't a particular moment in the service where they have to play a role besides the paying homage element.

"It's not critical [to have members of the Royal Family playing a role during the service] partly because of course if you go back in time there would not always be those figures around [the monarch], the key figures tend to be bishops or other set figures rather than Royal Family members."

While the Earl of Wessex and the Princess Royal may not play a key role during the Coronation, they have already been given a new important duty by King Charles, just months into his reign.

After the Counsellors of State Act was given royal assent, Prince Edward and Princess Anne were added to the number of people who can act as stand-ins for the monarch whenever he is temporarily ill or abroad - a move undertaken to increase the number of working members of the Firm available to carry out Constitutional duties.

While Buckingham Palace hasn't yet confirmed how long the service will be, it has been reported it won't be as long as the Queen's Coronation, which lasted for three hours.

It's hardly surprising that Princess Anne will be prominent during the service, as she has defended her hardest-working royal title for many years. She claimed the title yet again in 2022, having carried out an impressive 214 royal engagements. Anne also led the royal engagements league in 2021, when she attended 387 engagements, as well as in 2018, 2016 and 2015.

King Charles came in second place, with 181 royal engagements over the past 12 months, many of which took place before Queen Elizabeth's death in September when he acceded the throne. 

Prince Edward and his wife Sophie, Countess of Wessex took the third and fourth places on the list, respectively, with 143 and 138 royal engagements in 2022.