Although King George IV's death was the official reason for the election, its importance in British constitutional history was that electoral reform was the major issue of the day, especially with the ongoing Swing Riots.

[2] As Strong says, William's insistence "signalled the end of a whole litany of symbolic acts going back to the Middle Ages, including the coronation banquet, the ritual of the King's Champion throwing down the gauntlet, and endless petty actions related to land tenure".

[2] William IV's coronation established much of what remains today the pageantry of the event, which had previously involved peerage-only ceremonies in Westminster Hall (now attached to the Houses of Parliament) before a procession on foot across the road to the Abbey.

At 5 am, a gun salute was fired in Hyde Park and at 9 am, the royal family left the palace followed an hour later by the King and Queen in the Gold State Coach, the first time that it had been used at a coronation.

Some amendments were made by the archbishop of Canterbury, William Howley, who presided at the service,[6] including the addition of new prayers intended to reflect the constitutional changes brought about by the Reform Bill.

Handel's Zadok the Priest and Hallelujah Chorus were included again, and it seems likely that Knyvett's The King shall rejoice and William Boyce's Te Deum in A were both reused, although records are incomplete.

The final anthem by Attwood was an elaborate new setting of O Lord, grant the King a long life, which incorporated part of the melody of Rule, Britannia!, probably a reference to William's naval career.