
Life
An ancient clan that moves with the times
“Whenever I write about the royals, says Helen Lewis in The Atlantic, I find myself wondering how a family that owes its position to the “illegitimate son of a Norman noble invading Sussex in 1066” can so credibly claim to be at the vanguard of social change. But this ancient clan has a genius for moving with the times. Its latest chief, King Charles, has always embodied a unique blend of “eco-radicalism” and “deep traditionalism”, and the Coronation is no different. The oil used for his anointing will be vegan – he chose to spurn the traditional ambergris (derived from a whale’s guts) or civet musk (squeezed from a tree mammal’s anal glands). But tradition comes into play too: the oil will be from olives harvested from next to his grandmother Alice’s grave in Jerusalem. “It has been blessed by an Orthodox patriarch with a huge beard.”