A Washington state park and the coronation of King Charles III

Forty years ago, Queen Elizabeth II visited Seattle on the last stop of her West Coast tour. She spoke to more than 8,000 people at UW’s Hec Ed Pavilion, visited Children’s Orthopedic Hospital, rode the Monorail, and greeted crowds along 5th Avenue. Meeting local dignitaries on the royal yacht before she departed for Victoria, British Columbia, she told then-Mayor Charles Royer that he looked like her son, Prince Charles.

Washington hasn’t seen a British monarch since. Now, five months after the Queen’s death last December, King Charles is just hours away from his coronation. And the state has a quirky connection to the event.

It’s Saint Edward State Park in Kenmore, named for the seminary honoring the English monarch whose crown, staff, and chair are central to the coronation ceremony. Saint Edward Seminary was founded by Catholic Diocese of Seattle Bishop Edward John O’Dea, who wanted to train more priests to serve in the Pacific Northwest. In 1925, O’Dea purchased land on a high spot along the northeastern shore of Lake Washington in Kenmore to build a seminary. When it opened in 1931, Saint Edward was the first seminary training Catholic priests in Washington. By the mid-1970s, declining enrollment forced the Catholic Archdiocese of Seattle to close Saint Edward Seminary. In 1977 the Church sold most of the property to the State of Washington for $7 million. The following year, Saint Edward became a state park. Which brings us back to the coronation.

The seminary honors Saint Edward the Confessor, who started out as King Edward. One of the last Anglo-Saxon kings of England, he ruled for 24 years. In 1042, the first year of his reign, he commanded the construction of a new church for royal burials. Westminster Abbey was consecrated in 1065, a few days before the king died, and has gone through a number of iterations since then. Edward is entombed in an elaborate shrine there. 

King Edward appears in the first panel of the famous, 225-foot-long Bayeux Tapestry, which depicts the Norman Conquest of England in 1066 and England’s transition from Anglo-Saxon to Norman rule. Dispute over who would succeed Edward as monarch contributed to William the Conqueror’s eventual victory. 

Edward was an improbable saint, canonized for political rather than religious reasons. After the king’s death, the prior of Westminster Abbey, hoping to raise the church’s profile, began to campaign for Edward’s elevation to sainthood. After a contentious papal election in 1159 was resolved with help from King Henry II, a grateful new pope, Alexander III, canonized Edward. He is the only English Anglo-Saxon king to be canonized.

The tradition of coronation regalia, the ceremonial items used when a new monarch is crowned, began with King Edward. On Saturday, the world will see King Charles III wear Saint Edward’s crown, sit in Saint Edward’s chair, and hold Saint Edward’s staff. 

Fans of Netflix’s The Crown or the British royal family will likely recognize one of Saint Edward’s most enduring and recognizable legacies: Saint Edward’s Crown. Made of solid gold and encrusted with 444 jewels, it weighs a hefty five pounds (put a bag of flour on your head and see how that feels). The crown is used only at coronations, and has been used at the coronation of every English monarch since the 13th century, including that of Queen Elizabeth II in 1953. It is considered the most important of the Crown Jewels. The original was destroyed in 1649, but the current version, made for King Charles II in 1661, is displayed in the Jewel House in the Tower of London. 

When the coronation ceremony is finished, the new king will swap Saint Edward’s Crown for the Imperial State Crown, which weighs a mere three pounds and is traditionally worn by the monarch for the state opening of Parliament and other formal events. Queen Elizabeth II called it “unwieldy,” noting it’s impossible to bend one’s neck while wearing the crown. Its most prominent jewel is Saint Edward’s Sapphire, mounted in the diamond-encrusted cross at the top of the crown. The rose-cut sapphire is believed to have been in King Edward’s coronation ring, which was buried with the king at Westminster Abbey in 1066, then removed when he was re-interred in 1163. Queen Victoria added the sapphire to the Imperial State Crown, and viewers will see it atop King Charles III’s head after the coronation, perhaps while he sits on Saint Edward’s Chair, a high-backed, uncomfortable-looking wood seat that is known as the Coronation Chair. Saint Edward’s staff, a long, narrow, gold scepter, is carried during the procession.

Although visitors won’t see the crown jewels at the state park, the exterior of the historic Saint Edward Seminary features stylized carved images of the Saint Edward cross and of the saint himself, looking sternly out over a door, framed by a Latin inscription translated as, “The Kingdom of God is within you.” After decades of deterioration, Washington State Parks struck a deal with Seattle-based Daniels Real Estate to rehabilitate the seminary into a luxury hotel, which opened in 2021 and preserves many of the building’s original features. Inside Father Mulligan’s Heritage Pub, named for the seminary’s first president, you can order a Confessor’s Old-Fashioned, made with bourbon and smoked rosemary syrup. Raise a glass and toast the new king of England, or the saint who added serious bling to his coronation.

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An update: First, many thanks to those who have reached out, wondering where the heck I’ve been. My break that was supposed to last a few months ended up lasting almost a year. I’ll spare you the boring details except to say that I have pretty much finished the state parks quest. The only parks left to visit are Mount Pilchuck (I won’t attempt it until the access road is repaired, which may happen this year) and a few small islands (looking for a friend with a boat and a few days free to explore!). I’ve also written and submitted a book proposal based on my experiences in the state parks, and I’m waiting to hear back on that. If I’m going to write another book (a phrase I never thought I’d be uttering), I need to focus on that. In the meantime, I’m going to continue posting about the parks I’ve visited, albeit in more abbreviated fashion. Look for the first post in a week or so, and enjoy this fun story now.