As a British coronation has not taken place for 70 years, we are going to make an educated guess that you, dear reader, do not remember the previous occasion. The 1953 iteration was a postwar bonanza that hoped to illustrate Britain’s place in the world — a global family of dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates, military might and tradition. It combined ancient ritual and Christian covenants with expressions of who we were and who we wanted to be. Charles’s coronation in May will almost certainly contain the same expressions.

We have always held the belief that an understanding of who we might one day become stems from where we have already come from, and this edition of The Rake leans into that particular thesis. Welcome to the Coronation Issue.