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    Royal Coronations
    Royal Coronations
    Royal Coronations
    Ebook123 pages1 hour

    Royal Coronations

    By Lucinda Gosling

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    About this ebook

    An exploration of coronations from before the time of William the Conqueror through to Elizabeth II's glorious coronation in 1953.

    The monarchy has made many concessions to the modern age, but the affirming rituals of the coronation – the pageantry, the theatre and the symbolism – are centuries old. Looking at the British coronation from its beginnings, Lucinda Gosling takes the reader on a thematic journey through the history and meaning of these elaborate ceremonies.

    She reveals the finely tuned planning involved, explains the symbolism of the regalia, and reminds us that past coronations did not always go according to plan. She also looks at the increasing public involvement in the coronations of the twentieth century, from street parties to the advent of television, showing how the event evolved into the glorious global celebration of 1953 and became an internationally recognised expression of Britain's heritage and national identity.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBloomsbury Publishing
    Release dateJun 10, 2013
    ISBN9780747813774
    Royal Coronations
    Author

    Lucinda Gosling

    Lucinda Gosling studied history at the University of Liverpool and has worked in the picture library industry since 1993, currently at historical specialist, Mary Evans Picture Library, and formerly as manager of the Illustrated London News archive. Her interests and areas of specialisation include illustration, royalty and World War I. She has written articles on a wide range of subjects for magazines such as History Today, Illustration, Handmade Living and BBC News Online and is a regular contributor of features on royal history to Majesty magazine. She authored the successful Illustrated Royal Weddings and Diamond Jubilee by Haymarket and ILN Ltd and Royal Coronations for Shire Publications, as well as Brushes & Bayonets, an exploration of the First World War through the cartoons and drawings in the Illustrated London News archive, published by Osprey.

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      Book preview

      Royal Coronations - Lucinda Gosling

      ORIGINS AND HISTORY

      ON 2 June 1953, millions sat in living rooms across the United Kingdom to watch one of the most celebrated events of the twentieth century. For over three hours, families, friends and neighbours huddled around the small screens of recently purchased television sets. Through a grey, miasmic fog they could just about make out the young queen solemnly giving a faultless performance as she went through the rituals of a centuries-old ceremony. It cannot have escaped the notice of many that they were in the privileged position of witnessing the coronation – an inauguration ceremony with the most remarkable longevity dating back more than one thousand years – through one of the most recent inventions of the modern age.

      The first account of an English coronation comes in a life of St Oswald, Archbishop of York, written by the monk of Ramsay in around the year 1000. King Edgar’s coronation, presided over by St Dunstan, Archbishop of Canterbury, took place at Bath, on Pentecost, the feast of the Holy Spirit, in 973; the features of the 1953 coronation bear striking similarities to those recorded at the beginning of the eleventh century. Edgar, the great-grandson of King Alfred of Wessex, was anointed, invested with an orb and sceptre and acclaimed with the familiar cries of, ‘Long Live the King, may the king live forever.’ The anthem Zadok the Priest and Nathan the Prophet was sung and later, at Chester, six other kings of Britain came to swear their allegiance. Taking place fourteen years after he came to the throne, Edgar’s coronation was a ceremony intended to celebrate the glorious culmination of his reign, not an initiation rite. Nevertheless, all the elements of his coronation are otherwise found in its modern-day counterpart.

      These features had been found variously but not wholly in recognising previous kings. The defining ritual of royal unction, the anointing with fragrant holy oil (chrism), representing the Holy Spirit, dated back to the Old Testament. There were references to the practice in Celtic Ireland and Visigothic Spain from the end of the seventh century, and a life of St Columba recounts the story of the saint anointing Aidan, king of Dalraida, as far back as 571. The Frankish king, Pepin I, was anointed first at Soissons in 752 and a second time in 754 at the Basilica of St Denis by Pope Stephen II, but the coronation of Pepin’s son, Charlemagne, as Holy Roman Emperor by Pope Leo III in Rome on Christmas Day 800 set a blueprint for other kings of Western Europe: Charlemagne was crowned.

      The coronation of Charlemagne, King of the Franks and Holy Roman Emperor, on Christmas Day, 800, as depicted in an illuminated fourteenth-century manuscript. It shows Pope Leo X placing a crown on Charlemagne’s head – a novel concept in the ninth century but one that was to form the central focus of the coronation ceremony in the following centuries.

      It was these two biblically inspired actions, the anointing and the crowning, which formed the basis for the coronation service; glued together with more pagan features such as the carrying of spears or long staffs, and the use of a throne, an idea first imported by the Vikings. The Christianisation of Europe during these years meant that, in the days before primogeniture, kings could have their claims supported and their actions sanctioned through consecration during a powerfully symbolic and spiritual ceremony. In an age when church and state became integrally bound, it gave a king mystique, portrayed him as pious as well as powerful and, above all, gave him the spiritual stamp of approval.

      What we know about the coronation service from the medieval era is documented in surviving liturgical texts known as ordines, or recensions. Of the four major documents tracing the development of the English coronation, two pre-date the Norman Conquest and while they tell us what blessings and prayers were said, and their sequence, there are no rubrics (ecclesiastical stage directions). We know what was said, but we do not know how this was arranged, what was worn or what might have been sung. The First Recension, is represented in three separate texts including the Leofric Missal, which dates from around 900, was written at the Abbey of St Vaast and brought to England by Leofric, Bishop of Exeter. It marks out the coronation ceremony in the clearly defined stages we might recognise today – election, oath, consecration, unction, investiture and blessing. Scholarly debate continues as to whether this first ordo was ever used for any actual ceremonies in England. The Second Recension, of which at least five text versions survive, introduces new items of regalia such as the ring and the sword. It also records the role of the queen consort and her anointing as an important and integral part of the ceremony. It is this version of the coronation script that was followed by King Edgar in 973, though information about other coronations beyond that is frustratingly scant.

      The Bayeux Tapestry brings us some visual idea of kingship by the eleventh century. King Harold, whose brief and quickly contested reign followed the death of Edward

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