The two monarchs who did not have any coronation were Edward V (the boy king), who was presumed murdered in the Tower of London before he could be crowned, and Edward VIII who abdicated 11 months after succeeding his father and before the date set for his coronation.

Since the coronation of William the Conqueror in 1066, almost every English and British monarch has been crowned at Westminster Abbey, with only two notable exceptions: Edward V and Edward VIII. Edward V, one of the "Princes in the Tower," succeeded his father in 1483 at the age of twelve but was deposed by his uncle, Richard III, before his coronation could take place; he disappeared shortly thereafter and is presumed to have been murdered. The second exception is Edward VIII, who ascended the throne in January 1936 following the death of his father, George V. His reign lasted only 326 days before he famously abdicated the throne to marry the American divorcee Wallis Simpson. Because a coronation is a religious ceremony that typically occurs several months into a reign, Edward VIII's decision to step down occurred before the scheduled date of his ceremony. Consequently, while both were officially kings, neither ever felt the weight of the St. Edward's Crown upon their heads in the historic Abbey, making them unique outliers in over a millennium of British royal history.