Why a Coronation?

The abbey could only hold a few hundred people so only those selected by duke william and his advisers would have been allowed inside the building. As for the atmosphere outside, well, there's nothing in the records that indicates anything resembling the public reaction to a coronation that we've seen in later years. There were no throngs of people in goofe hats flooding the streets in hopes of catching a glimpse of the new monarch. Instead, virtually all the residents of london remained home, and for good reason, because the abbey was surrounded by knights who, only days earlier had been killing anyone who looked at them.