Coronation

“ The king and the queen being both of them the mere creations of the law, the solemnities of their coronations were mere creations of the law also, and were known to it in no other light than as the rights of the whole realm of England. He, therefore, who was ready to take one step, and to get rid of the queen's [Pg 308] coronation, as a mere optional ceremony, ought to be ready to take also another step, and to get rid of the king's coronation, on the ground of its being a vain, idle, empty, and expensive pageant. ”

“ There is not only an unction but a coronation, and also a formal delivery of kingly insignia, in the English rite, of Sceptre, Verge, and Crown; in the French rite, of Crown and Sceptre. It will be noticed that if the act of crowning was first observed in the West at the coronation of Charlemagne, it was very speedily introduced into the Western rite for the consecration of a king. ”

“ Some, again, are memorials of the triumph of our princes over the liberties of the people, while others present the plainest proof of the noble and successful struggles of the people against the encroachments of the crown. [Pg 31]
The Recognition, with which the coronation, strictly so called, begins, is an elective rite, in which some of the more direct terms of appeal to the people are disused. Its title, "the Recognition," is of modern date [33] . After reciting the coronation oath, a respectable writer of queen Elizabeth's time thus gives the "sum of the English coronation." ”

“ The peers having done their homage, they stood all together round about the King; and each class or degree going by themselves, or (as it was at the coronation of King Charles the First and Second) every peer one by one, in order, put off their coronets, singly ascended the throne again, and stretching forth their hands, touched the crown on his Majesty's [Pg 240] head, as promising by that ceremony to be ever ready to support it with all their power, and then every one of them kissed the King's cheek. ”

“ A sort of coronation scene was at this time exhibited. The nobles renewed their homage [Pg 121] to the monarch, who received them at once as his guests and dependents—seated on his throne, with a crown on his head, and a sceptre in each of his hands. Public officers were at this time appointed, laws, on some occasions, enacted, while for eight days it was forbidden for any man to slay, maim, or assault his enemy, or to distrain upon his debtor's lands. The return of these festivals has sometimes been mistaken by our historians for a repetition of the coronation, strictly so called [82] . ”

“ At the present time [1] the coronation is the Rome towards which all roads lead; and if a walk down Oxford Street lands us among ‘coronation’ cuffs and collars and soaps and souvenirs it is only to be expected that a Mediæval Byway should bring us into the subject of coronations. For of all the survivals with which we are surrounded in this conservative country the coronation ceremonies, though shorn of much of their grandeur and significance during the last hundred years, are still the most unchanged in spirit and in detail. ”

“ CORONATION (Lat. corona, crown) , a solemnity whereby sovereigns are inaugurated in office. In pre-Christian times in Europe the king or ruler, upon his election, was raised on a shield, and, standing upon it, was borne on the shoulders of certain of the chief men of the tribe, or nation, round the assembled people. ”

“ The oldest of all existing rituals for the coronation of a king is contained in what is known as the Pontifical of Egbert, who was archbishop of York in the middle of the 8th century. The coronation service in it is entitled Missa pro rege in die benedictionis ejus, and the coronation ceremony is interpolated in the middle of the mass. After the Gospel the officiant recites some prayers of benediction, and then pours oil from a horn on the king’s head, while the anthem “Zadok the priest,” &c., is sung. ”

“ They bear the symbols of kingship: the crown, the spurs, the orb, the sceptre, and the swords of mercy and justice, The Child Century receives these at their hands, standing raised high up behind the throne; whereupon there shall be enacted that portion of the coronation ceremony which symbolises the choice of the people and so links it with the past; till at the crowning the whole company being now gathered together, shall shout aloud:
GOD SAVE THE KING! ”

“ And if any one have a claim against another, let him proceed by way of action, and not by violence or force."
At the coronation, February 1st, 1327, a similar assertion of the late king having resigned by his free-will, and with the consent of parliament, was made. The medal distributed during the ceremony, represented the son resting his sceptre on the heart of his people, within the motto, "Populo dat jura volenti;" having on the reverse a hand receiving a fallen crown, with the inscription, "Non rapit, sed recipit." ”

“ With respect to a queen-consort, when she was crowned, there was no recognition of her by the people, no compact towards the people. There was no engagement between her and the subjects of the realm. This fact established that, with respect to a queen-consort, a coronation was an honorary ceremony, unaccompanied by any acts. That the coronation neither was, nor had been considered to be essential to the possession of the crown, was proved by the fact of considerable delays having often taken place between the accession of the monarch and his coronation. ”

“ The crown is then solemnly put upon his head—the sceptre into his hand—and he swears in the presence of the nobles and chief of the people to rule according to law: and any subsequent dereliction of duty would be called a breaking of his coronation-oath. ”

“ I beg your Holiness to come and give a religious character of the highest degree to the ceremony of the consecration and coronation of the first Emperor of the French. That ceremony will acquire a new lustre if done by your Holiness. It will bring upon us and our peoples the blessing of God, whose decrees govern according to His will the lot of empires and of families. ”

“ It is the custom at a coronation that all the peers and peeresses should be present, and that they should all dress alike in rich robes of crimson velvet and white ermine, and each peer and peeress has a little coronet which he or she does not put on at first, but keeps on a cushion until the King puts on his crown. Then all the little coronets are put on at the same instant. Now, the arrangements for the coronation were very difficult to make, for all the peers and peeresses had to have seats in the Abbey given to them, and there were so many that it was difficult for them all to get in. ”

“ What they did was perhaps a little cruel, a little Styrian, as Victoria and I used covertly to say of such harsh measures; but how valuable a lesson on the state and fortune of kings! The King is one, the man another. The King is crowned, the man is lashed; they give us greatness in words: in fact, we are our servants' servants. Little as I liked the thing at the time, I can not now regret that I was chastised on my coronation day. I was thus put into an attitude eminently conducive to the perception of truth, and to a realization of the facts of my position. ”

“ The assistant offices of the coronation are, for the far greater part, [Pg 63] ecclesiastical or hereditary. They are connected therefore with all the religious changes, and family honours of the empire. The nobility bear in person a part in the royal day, and approach and actually touch that crown, from which, as the fountain of honour, they seem to renew, and re-invigorate, their most ancient claims to distinction: while the metropolitan of the English Church enjoys the exclusive right of consecrating and crowning the monarch. ”

“ The Imperial Coronation. Published by R. Ackermann.—The platform which has been erected for this celebration is more suggestive of an execution than a coronation; a body of the old Guards, in their bear-skin caps, surround the raised space. The Pope is present in full canonicals, to perform the ceremony in person. A gallows has been considerately provided, in order to lower the imperial crown on to the brows of the future wearer [45] more conveniently. ”

“ The medieval ceremony of coronation means to the Americans merely a gorgeous pageant which it is worth while to witness, even if one has to pay a stiff admission fee. To the subjects of European monarchies, and particularly to the inhabitants of those parts of the Hapsburg empire that were formely independent states, coronation still means much the same thing that it signified for their ancestors five hundred years ago. ”

“ To dream of a coronation, foretells you will enjoy acquaintances and friendships with prominent people. For a young woman to be participating in a coronation, foretells that she will come into some surprising favor with distinguished personages. But if the coronation presents disagreeable incoherence in her dreams, then she may expect unsatisfactory states growing out of anticipated pleasure. ”

“ This crowned representative of the union of the throne and the altar did not comprehend royalty without coronation. Not to receive the holy unction would have been for him a case of conscience, a sort of sacrilege. In opening the session of the Chambers in the Hall of the Guards at the Louvre, December 22d, 1824, he announced, amid general approval, the grand solemnity that was to take place at Rheims in the course of the following year. "I wish," he said, "the ceremony of my coronation to close the first session of my reign. You will attend, gentlemen, this august ceremony. ”

“ The king reigns in contempt of any such pragmatical distinctions. They are set aside, proscribed, treasonable, as it relates to the august person of the monarch; what is likely to become of them in the minds of the people? A Coronation overlays and drowns all such considerations for a generation to come, and so far it serves its purpose well. ”

“ The full coronation service was now commenced and performed in all its parts, including the consecration, the anointing, the crowning, and the enthronement, followed by the obeisance and kissing of hands, and ending with the coronation anthem ”

“ All in one single table have their part.
St. George's day, in 1684-5, was happily chosen for the ceremony; and a letter of summons, which seems to constitute the actual right of appearing at a coronation, was ordered to be drawn up by the Earl of Sunderland. This document, the form of which continues to be followed, runs thus:—
"James R.
"Right trusty and well-beloved cousin, we greet you well. Whereas we have appointed the 23d day of April next for the solemnity of our royal coronation. ”

“ There is prefixed to the order a feature unique among English coronation rites, an Order of Morning Prayer to be said on the morning of the coronation because ‘it is fit and congruous, and accordingly the king is to be desired that he will be present at Morning Prayer in Whitehall, and so begin that glorious day with Him by whom kings reign.’ The Order is derived from the Form of Prayer and Thanksgiving authorized by James II for the day of his accession. ”

“ This coronation also involved the father in a rupture with the court of France. Prince Henry had married a daughter of that crown, to which the omission of her coronation with her husband was in the highest degree offensive: the king of France entered the Norman territories of Henry in consequence, and it was not until that monarch had promised to supply the omission, and that the prince and princess should be together crowned by Becket, that either the French king or the [Pg 133] primate were appeased. ”

“ The Regalia of England are the symbols of a monarchical authority that has been transmitted by coronation ceremonies for upwards of ten centuries. But the incorporation of England, Scotland, and Ireland, into one united kingdom,—an event peculiar to the coronation of George IV, to have recognised,—has connected the history of the Imperial Regalia with some tales of legendary lore, the truth of which, if this circumstance does not demonstrate, be assured, gentle reader, nothing [Pg 2] will. ”

“ The function of the king’s champion, when the ceremonial of the coronation was carried out in its completeness, was to ride, clad in complete armour, on his right the high constable, on his left the earl marshal, into Westminster Hall during the coronation banquet, and challenge to single combat any who should dispute the king’s right to reign. ”

“ No English monarch ascended the throne under happier auspices, or with more splendour, than Henry VIII. "The ordre of the services" of this "high and honourable coronation" is given at great length by Hall: in which the disused custom of a progress through the metropolis constitutes no small part of the pageantry. ”

“ At the late age of twenty-nine, a bride was provided for the young monarch: her father, who accompanied her to England, was only bishop elect of Valence; but the beauty of the queen seems in this case to have been the sovereign recommendation; and all the eloquence of the historian is exerted by Matthew Paris, in describing the ceremonies of her marriage and coronation. The nobility of both sexes, the clergy in their various orders, all the vassals of the crown and the citizens are assigned their several places and offices, with an amusing precision ”