King Charles III's famously swollen fingers, which he has jokingly referred to as 'sausage fingers', caused genuine concern during rehearsals for his Coronation, sources have revealed. The Coronation ring, made for William IV's crowning in 1831 and worn by all monarchs except Queen Victoria, proved a challenge to fit onto the King's finger.
A plan to have the ring altered was reportedly abandoned, and Charles decided to simply touch it symbolically. On the day, Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby would have struggled to force it onto the traditional fourth finger, compounded by the need to wear the Coronation glove over it. The King declined to commission a new glove and instead used that of George VI, which was a tight fit even after being well-stretched by flunkeys.
Perhaps the King wanted to avoid Queen Victoria's experience. Her dainty fingers were too small for William IV's ring, so a new one was commissioned. However, Archbishop William Howley forced it onto the wrong finger, causing Victoria great pain when trying to remove it. She wrote: 'The Archbishop had (most awkwardly) put the ring on the wrong finger, and the consequence was that I had the greatest difficulty to take it off again, which I at last did with great pain.'
