How to and how not stage a coronation

What separates a crowning success from a right royal fiasco? Drawing on a thousand years of Britain's coronations, Tracy Borman offers her dos and don'ts for pulling off the ceremony without a hitch

- Tracy Borman

1 Do... Make a plan. And don't forget the sausage rolls

Queen Elizabeth Il's coronation was held in Westminster Abbey on 2 June 1953. Extensive preparations had been under way for months. The pressure was on: it was the first coronation in British history to be televised, and it attracted an estimated worldwide audience of 277 million.

The Duke of Norfolk, who as earl marshal was responsible for the proceedings, had drawn up no fewer than 94 diagrams, "each depicting different parts of the ceremony in which every minute was worked out, and every movement within each minute prescribed". No detail was overlooked: the Royal Mews staff even strapped a hot-water bottle under the seat of the Gold State Coach because it was an unseasonably cold, wet day.

It was a long and exhausting day for Elizabeth and her attendants, who had been up since 5am getting ready for the three-hour ceremony. Luckily, Geoffrey Fisher, the archbishop of Canterbury, was just as prepared. When the queen and her entourage retired to St Edward's Chapel towards the end of the proceedings so that she could change her gown and crown, he handed round a flask of brandy and sausage rolls. All the meticulous preparation was worth it: Elizabeth Il's coronation has been widely hailed as one of the most impressive ever staged.

2 Don't... Panic!

England's first Norman king, William the Conqueror, chose Christmas Day 1066 for his coronation. The symbolism of a new king being crowned on the anniversary of the heavenly king's birth was not lost on his Saxon subjects. But it was a tense, sombre affair. The crowds that had gathered outside the abbey were silent and subdued, and the only cheering came from the conqueror's own men.