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yesterday that further details about the coronation – which will incorporate a mix of the traditional and the modern – would be announced in due course.
But the issue of regalia – particularly the Queen Consort's crown – is likely to prove a sticking point.
Queen Elizabeth (pictured here with the late Queen, her sister Margaret and King George VI) wore the crown without its arches at the State Openings of Parliament during the reign of King George VI, and again at the coronation of her daughter, Queen Elizabeth II, in 1953
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Queen Elizabeth (pictured here with the late Queen, her sister Margaret and King George VI) wore the crown without its arches at the State Openings of Parliament during the reign of King George VI, and again at the coronation of her daughter, Queen Elizabeth II, in 1953
The Koh-i-Noor diamond: A priceless gifted gem at the center of one of the world's most famous crowns - and an international row
The Koh-i-Noor, translated from Persian to English as the 'Mountain of Light, is one of the largest cut diamonds in the world.
It weighs an astonishing 21g (105carats). However it is significantly smaller than the world's largest cut diamond, the Cullinan I, also one of the famed Crown Jewels, which is mounted on the Sovereign's Scepter, which weighs 530.4 carats (106.08 g).
Though there is no official record of its original weight, the Koh-i-Noor may have weighed as much as 38.2g (186 carats), before it was cut, according to well-attested reports.
It is impossible to know exactly where the diamond came from, although there is no doubt that it was panned in India. The earliest reference appears to relate to a powerful Mughal ruler in 1628.
The first verifiable report of the diamond, however, comes from the 1740s when it was noted as being one of many stones on the Mughal Peacock Throne, which was looted by the Iranian Afsharid leader Nader Shah from Delhi.
It returned to India in 1813 and become a potent symbol of power until it was acquired by Britain in 1849.
The diamond was given to Queen Victoria in 1855 by 10 year-old Duleep Singh, the last emperor of the Sikhs.
Although much has been made of the fact that it was 'given' to this country, critics point out that this was only after the mother of the ten-year old heir to the Punjabi throne was held prisoner and he was forced to sign it away.
It then became a special possession of Queen Victoria and displayed at the 1851 Great Exhibition in London.
However, British people were reportedly unimpressed by the gem. 'Many people find a difficulty in bringing themselves to believe, from its external appearance, that it is anything but a piece of common glass,' wrote the Times in 1851.
Since then it has become part of the Crown Jewels, and a point of dispute between the UK, India – as well as several other nations – ever since.
William Dalrymple, who co-wrote Koh-i-Noor: The History of the World's Most Infamous Diamond with colleague Anita Anand said: 'It is not a small sensitive issue in the eyes of India. It is a massive diplomatic grenade.'
'One of the reasons we wrote our book was that we don't believe anyone in this country has the slightest conception of how much it matters in India. For people here it is the name of an Indian restaurant or a brand of pencils or maybe something they have seen on a school trip to the Tower of London.'
holiday one week later to Monday May 8.
Some have even called for an extra bank holiday on top of the eight that are already scheduled for next year – those being January 2, April 7, April 10, May 1, May 29, August 28, December 25 and December 28.
Labour today said moving the early May day off would be a 'good idea', while Business Secretary Jacob Rees-Mogg said a bank holiday would be 'appropriate' to mark the 'splendid historic' event.
No10 said the Government was 'carefully considering' the issue amid the clamour for a three-day weekend to celebrate the Coronation.
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