ROBERT HARDMAN: The King and Queen seemed moved by the warm welcome to Edinburgh’s Royal Mile

Presented with crown, scepter and sword (carried with great poise by a lady in a striking blue outfit), serenaded by a beautiful repertoire of both sublime and uplifting music, the king must have felt a slight sense of deja vu. The rest of us certainly do. Haven’t we all just been through that?

However, we could not call this a coronation, even if the Scottish Government had tried to do so. Some of his earlier statements had referred to a ‘Scottish coronation’ before being quickly corrected by Buckingham Palace.

This was a service of thanksgiving and devotion. That extraordinary rainy day in May was when Charles III was crowned monarch of the United Kingdom. He had certainly not come to St Giles’ Cathedral in Edinburgh to be crowned again.

Rather, this was a celebration and recognition of Scotland’s own unique royal heritage and Charles III and Queen Camilla’s place in it. Also here were the Duke and Duchess of Rothesay (as the Prince and Princess of Wales automatically become on Scottish soil). Central to it all was the awarding of the Royal Honors of Scotland to a 650 strong congregation encompassing all aspects of Scottish public life.

The presence of a small but noisy Republican road protest, waving “Not My King” flags, was neither a surprise nor a distraction. The King and Queen seemed genuinely touched by an overwhelmingly warm welcome all the way up the Royal Mile.

No doubt the King would also have been cheered by a sermon with plenty of nods to the planet and spiced up with a hearty dose of Church of Scotland fire and brimstone – literally. “Blessed are we to understand that our children do not inherit this earth from us – we borrowed it from them,” said Sally Foster-Fulton, moderator of the Scottish Church’s General Assembly. “And it’s our duty to return it still singing and heaving and bathing, not baking crisp.”

The Scottish Crown Jewels may not be as elaborate as that great accumulation of gold and diamonds in the Tower of London’s Jewel House. However, they can still rank. The Crown of Scotland is considerably older than any of those Johnny-come-last crowns the King wore at Westminster Abbey. It was made for James V in 1540 and was used to crown Mary, Queen of Scots.

Ditto, the scepter. It may not have a stone like the 530-carat Star of Africa in its head, but it was a gift from Pope Alexander VI to James IV of Scotland in 1494.

Yesterday, the Stone of Destiny was also present, the throne of early Scottish monarchs. It stood in pride of place in the sanctuary of the cathedral and was guarded by two policemen and a beady-eyed cohort of the King’s Scottish bodyguard, the Royal Company of Archers. How anyone could expect to squeeze a 250-pound block of pink sandstone from under the noses of this staunch Royalist mob was beyond belief.

That was a new touch. The Stone was not in the cathedral when the late Queen came to Edinburgh in 1953 to receive these honours. So they marched for honor on their journey from Edinburgh Castle to St Giles’ Cathedral, where ‘The Procession of the People of Scotland’ arrived.

The Prince and Princess of Wales, known as the Duke and Duchess of Rothesay, arrived in Scotland yesterday at St Giles’ Cathedral, Edinburgh

This included representatives from traditional organizations such as the Girls’ and Boys’ Brigades, the RNLI and the Royal British Legion, as well as the Robert Burns World Federation, Lothian Buses and the Royal & Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews. This may also be the first state affair with a delegation from Central Taxis, Edinburgh.

Similarly, although the Household Cavalry looked good, the Prime Minister, Humza Yousaf, and his team had decided not to allow the Royal Family to ride up the Royal Mile in open carriages, as the late Queen had done in 1953. escort cars, instead. Safe but gloomy. I understand that the Scottish office in Westminster had offered to pay all the bills for the carriages, but the Scottish Government stood its ground. If anything, the SNP leadership embraced the event, realizing that this was a global showcase for Scotland.

He may be an outspoken Republican, but Humza Yousaf read Psalm 19 with polish. The day before he had been an enthusiastic handshaker at the King’s garden party at Holyroodhouse. His coalition partners in the Scottish Parliament, the Greens, on the other hand, decided to boycott yesterday’s procedure. Their leader, Patrick Harvie, said he would attend an anti-monarchy rally on the other side of the Royal Mile instead.

The king took a great interest in every aspect of this service, as well as in the order of service at his coronation. Several new pieces had been commissioned at his request, including a delightful Song of Thanksgiving sung in the Doric Aberdeenshire dialect. The combination of a new orchestra, the Honors of Scotland Ensemble, the RAF’s Fanfare Trumpeters plus the cathedral organ, produced a rousing debut for a processional piece called The Call of Lochnagar (a nod to his children’s book, The Old Man of Lochnagar). Expect to hear that at future royal events.

The Household Cavalry’s Kings Life Guard continued up the Royal Mile on their way to the National Service of Thanksgiving and Dedication for King Charles III and Queen Camilla

Demonstrators on Edinburgh’s Royal Mile ahead of the National Service of Thanksgiving and Dedication for King Charles III and Queen Camilla

The Queen’s performance at this 1953 event had not been without controversy. Many old-fashioned Scots were disappointed that she did not appear in her coronation robes and arrived in daydress with handbag. Perhaps recalling that faux-pas, the King, Queen, and Duke of Rothesay were all in the green robes and regalia of the Order of the Thistle. The Duchess of Rothesay, yet to be named Lady of the Thistle, wore a Catherine Walker ensemble plus a Philip Treacy hat and necklace from the late Queen’s collection.

There was also widespread panic in the palace in 1953 after the Dean of St Giles’ insisted that the Queen hold the Scepter of Scotland if given it. The case went all the way to Downing Street and then to the Lord Chancellor, who warned that any regal grasp of the scepter “would imply Her Majesty’s recognition of Scotland as a separate kingdom.” She was instructed to just touch it.

The king did the same thing yesterday, gently tapping his treasures instead of carrying them.

Dame Katherine Grainger carries the Elizabeth Sword to a national service of thanksgiving and devotion for the coronation of King Charles III and Queen Camilla

Lord President of the Council, Penny Mordaunt, with the Sword of State, in the procession through Westminster Abbey ahead of the coronation ceremony of King Charles III and Queen Camilla

The most spectacular regalia was the newest. Since State’s original is deemed too fragile to leave Edinburgh Castle, a massive new Elizabeth Sword has been added to Scotland’s crown jewels. It also weighs 16 pounds, twice the weight of its Westminster counterpart.

At the coronation, the main sword was carried by the Lord President of the Council, Penny Mordaunt. She became an unexpected star of the show, both because of her blue cape dress and her ability to stand for two hours without flinching.

Not to be outdone, Scotland had invited Dame Katherine Grainger to take on the same role, wearing an equally elegant blue dress, coat and hat. She was a wise choice. Dame Katherine is not only Chancellor of the University of Glasgow, but also a former Olympic gold and silver medal winning rower.

“I didn’t really have much time to train for this, but I had 20 years of training to fall back on,” she explained afterwards. “It weighs a lot, but it’s actually very well balanced.”