Today we saw the humanity beneath the crown

In the end, after months of speculation, the coronation was a success. In the run-up, the distracting aspect had been the ‘will they, won’t they’ presence of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, fanned by their desire to make themselves the centre of attention. Yet in the event, Prince Harry was an inconspicuous, even diffident presence, placed several rows back, next to Princesses Eugenie and Beatrice. It was also fitting that Harry and Andrew, the two disgraced royals, entered simultaneously and that the Duke of York was wearing his Garter robes, an ermine-trimmed cloak that made him look rather like a minor villain from a Star Wars film.

But the day was not about the controversial members of the firm. The drizzly, grey weather – not quite as bad as it was for Elizabeth II’s coronation in 1953 – was thoroughly outshone by the dazzling pageantry that took place within Westminster Abbey.