A new batch of Coronation oil has been made using olives harvested from groves on the Mount of Olives, the burial place of the King’s paternal grandmother, Princess Alice of Battenberg, Buckingham Palace has announced.
The olives were pressed just outside Bethlehem and the oil, which will be used to anoint both the King and the Queen Consort at Westminster Abbey on May 6, was consecrated in Jerusalem.
The Archbishop of Canterbury, the Most Rev Justin Welby, will conduct the Coronation. He revealed that it was his idea to use oil from Jerusalem to reflect the King’s “personal family connection with the Holy Land and his great care for its peoples”.
The formula was based on the same ancient recipe used to create the oil used at the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in 1953 and her many predecessors dating back to Charles I in 1626.
However, in a break with tradition, it does not include any of the controversial animal products traditionally used, such as civet oil and ambergris, popularly known as whale’s vomit.
It was perfumed with essential oils – sesame, rose, jasmine, cinnamon, neroli, benzoin and amber – as well as orange blossom.
The Archbishop added: “Since beginning the planning for the Coronation, my desire has been for a new Coronation oil to be produced using olive oil from the Mount of Olives. This demonstrates the deep historic link between the Coronation, the Bible and the Holy Land.
“From ancient kings through to the present day, monarchs have been anointed with oil from this sacred place. As we prepare to anoint the King and the Queen Consort, I pray that they would be guided and strengthened by the Holy Spirit.”
The Chrism oil was created using olives harvested from two groves on the Mount of Olives, at the Monastery of Mary Magdalene and the Monastery of the Ascension.
Princess Alice of Battenberg, the late Duke of Edinburgh’s mother who became an Orthodox nun, is buried below a Russian Orthodox church on the Mount of Olives.
The King made a pilgrimage to his grandmother’s tomb in January 2020, laying flowers in her memory and paying tribute to the “selfless actions” of the Princess, who was renowned for saving a Jewish family from the Nazis during the Holocaust while living in occupied Greece. She died when Charles was 20.
The decision to source the Coronation oil in Jerusalem marked a notable shift from tradition. A family-owned pharmacy called Squire & Sons made the anointing oil for monarchs from Queen Victoria.
The company was acquired in 1928 by Savory and Moore, which blended the anointing oil used for the late Queen’s 1953 coronation after the previous batch was destroyed during the Second World War.
The surplus 1953 oil, created using a formula devised by Peter Squire, has since been stored in a glass Guerlain Mitsouko perfume bottle at Westminster Abbey, but experts thought it unlikely to have been suitably preserved to be used seven decades later.
Savory & Moore later became part of the Lloyds Pharmacy chain.
Last month, The Telegraph told how Mark Hutton, a church minister and Lloyds pharmacist from Hull, had been asked to create a new batch in 2000, using the original ingredients list passed, and gradually adapted, from the Squire family. In the event, his oil was not required.
Arrangements for the Jerusalem oil’s transportation back to the UK are currently being finalised. It is thought likely that it will be blessed again on arrival in the UK.
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