Photograph of HM Queen Elizabeth II seated beneath a canopy of cloth of gold supported by four Knights of the Garter during the anointing of the new Monarch. The Bishop of Durham and the Bishop of Bath and Wells stand either side of the image. [From the Country Life Picture Book of the Coronation].

Following the oath, The Queen removed the Crimson Parliamentary Robe, and was seated under a canopy of cloth of gold held by four Knights of the Garter, on Saint Edward’s Chair. The chair contained the ancient Stone of Scone (the ‘Stone of Destiny’), captured by Edward I in 1296 and used at every coronation since 1626. The Archbishop of Canterbury then anointed The Queen, the central and most sacred act of the ceremony. It is during this act that the choir sings the anthem ‘Zadok the Priest’ by Handel, which was written for the coronation of George II in 1727.