The Associated Press is reporting that King Charles of Great Britain has an unpleasant surprise waiting for him when his royal entourage conducts its procession to his coronation on Saturday. An anti-monarchy group known as “Republic” will be dressed in bright yellow costumes and they plan to chant “Not My King” as Charles passes by. They claim that more than 1,500 people will join their ranks. And to add a bit more insult to injury, the protest will take place at the feet of a statue of his namesake, King Charles I, who was deposed in 1649 and had his head lopped off.  So is this anti-monarchy sentiment growing in the UK?

At Trafalgar Square stands a large bronze statue of King Charles I, the 17th-century monarch deposed by Parliament and executed in 1649. On Saturday, more than 1,500 protesters, dressed in yellow for maximum visibility, plan to gather beside it to chant “Not my king” as the royal procession goes by.

“We’ll try and keep the atmosphere light, but our aim is to make it impossible to ignore,” said Graham Smith, chief executive of the anti-monarchist group Republic.

The coronation, he said, is “a celebration of a corrupt institution. And it is a celebration of one man taking a job that he has not earned.”

Recent polling data suggests that support for the goal of Republic may be steadily growing. A recent survey by the National Center for Social Research showed that only 29% of Britons regard the monarchy as “very important.” That’s the lowest level of support that the group has recorded in the forty years that they’ve been asking the question.

That shouldn’t be surprising during a time when large parts of the world, including Great Britain, are experiencing economic challenges and instability, with rising prices impacting nearly everyone. The royal family sits on significant quantities of prime real estate and they have hordes of incredibly valuable jewels and treasure that they have amassed over the past 1,000 years. And none of them have to hold down an actual job unless they feel like doing so. (Most of the men do serve in the military, however, to their credit.)

Wouldn’t it be likely that a growing number of the King’s subjects might be feeling a bit resentful while they struggle to come up with enough money to put food on the table? And that entire royal structure is in place to support a monarch that has almost no actual power or duties related to the operation of the government. The crown technically gets to appoint the Prime Minister, but that’s a formality. The Prime Minister is voted on and tends to be the leader of the majority party in the Parliament. If Charles tried to pick someone else there would likely be a revolt. Aside from that, he gets to appoint a couple of officials in some of the smaller island nations in the Commonwealth, but that’s about it.

The British Monarch is probably taken far less seriously in the United States, particularly given the awkward nature of our nation’s founding. There are still many Americans who seem to enjoy “royal watching” as a hobby, but I seriously doubt you could find many people who would figuratively bend a knee to that crown.

But if the Brits did want to rid themselves of the monarchy could they even do it without taking someone’s head off? How would that work? Literally executing the King or Queen doesn’t do the trick as long as there are any heirs left from the bloodline. Monarchy is the one thing that travels faster than light. The moment the current monarch dies, the next heir in line instantly becomes the new monarch. But there actually is a formal process in place. A public referendum would have to be called by the government and a majority of people would need to vote in favor of it. Then Parliament would need to draft a constitutional referendum and have it approved by the legislature. So will that happen in our lifetimes? It still appears doubtful. Breaking a habit that you’ve maintained for more than ten centuries can’t be easy.