[Footnote 33: Being first given by Sandford to his description of this
part of the ceremony of James II.'s coronation.]
[Footnote 34: Doleman's Conferences concerning Succession, &c.]
[Footnote 35: MS. Cott. Nero, c. ix. p. 172.]
[Footnote 36: See his curious Speech in M. Paris, Hist. Major, 1640, p.
197.]
[Footnote 37: Hoveden, Walsingham, &c. are quoted to this effect by
Taylor.]
[Footnote 38: History of the Anglo-Saxons, b. iv. chap. 1.]
[Footnote 39: Titles of Honour, p. ii. c. v. 26.]
[Footnote 40: Wharton's Troubles of Archbishop Laud, p. 324.]
[Footnote 41: Inserted on the union with Scotland, in 1707.]
[Footnote 42: In the oath recently taken by His Majesty the latter
members of this clause, read 'within England and Ireland, and the
territories thereunto belonging.']
[Footnote 43: Stow's Annals.]
[Footnote 44: In France we read of the exaltation of king Pharamond on a
shield, so early as the year 420; of the chairing of Gunbald, king of
Burgundy, A.D. 500, in which that prince fell from the supporting arms
of his subjects, nearly to the ground; and of king Pepin being elevated
on a target in 751. (Greg. Turon. Hist. lib. vii. cap. 10. Mezeray Hist.
de Pepin, &c.) In Navarre, the king and queen, after being anointed,
were thrice elevated before the altar on a shield emblazoned with the
arms of the kingdom, and upheld by six staves.]
[Footnote 45: Thus in the ordo of Henry VII.'s coronation; "the
cardinal," it is said, "sitting, shall anoynte the king,
kneeling."--IVE'S _Papers_.]
[Footnote 46: Vide Taylor's Additional Notes, p. 347, &c.]
[Footnote 47: It will complete the sketch of the history of an
institution closely connected with our subject, to observe, that George
I. on restoring it in 1725, constituted it a regular military order of
thirty-six companions and one grand-master, having as officers a dean,
genealogist, king at arms, register, secretary, usher and messenger; and
a seal, on one side of which is the figure of the king on horseback in
complete armour, the shield azure and three imperial crowns with the
circumscription, _Sigillum Honoratissimi Militaris Ordinis De Balneo_;
and on the reverse the same, impaling the royal arms.
The badge of the order exhibits a happy specimen of the art of moulding
old institutions to modern purposes. It consists of a rose, thistle and
shamrock, issuing from a sceptre surrounded by three imperial crowns,
enclosed within the ancient motto _Tria juncta in uno_. Of pure gold
chased and pierced, it is worn by the knight elect pendant from a red
riband across the right shoulder. The collar is also of gold, weighing
thirty ounces troy, and is composed of nine imperial crowns, and eight
roses, thistles, and shamrocks, issuing from a sceptre, enamelled in
proper colours, tied or linked together with seventeen gold knots,
enamelled white, and having the badge of the order pendant from it. The
star consists of three imperial crowns of gold, surrounded by the motto
upon a circle of red, with rays issuing from the silver centre forming a
star, and is embroidered on the left side of the upper garment.
The installation dress is a surcoat of white satin, a mantle of crimson
satin lined with white, tied at the neck with a cordon of crimson silk
and gold, with gold tassels, and the star of the order embroidered on
the left shoulder; a white silk hat adorned with a standing plume of
white ostrich feathers, white leather boots, edged and heeled, spurs of
crimson and gold, a sword in a white leather scabbard with cross hilts
of gold. Each knight is allowed three squires, who must be gentlemen of
blood, bearing coat armour, and who are entitled during life to all the
privileges and exemptions enjoyed by the esquires of the sovereign's
body, or the gentlemen of the privy chamber.
We need hardly add, that both in the number of knights and the
brilliancy of its appearance, this order maintained its full splendor at
the coronation of the fourth sovereign of the House of Brunswick.]
[Footnote 48: Johnes' Froissart, v. 12. p. 160, 1.]
[Footnote 49: King Richard II.]
[Footnote 50: Rot. Parl, vi. 278.]
[Footnote 51: Lingard's History of England, v. iii. p. 662, 3.]
[Footnote 52: Ives' Coronacion of Queene Elizabeth, p. 120.]
[Footnote 53: Ives' Coronacion of Queene Elizabeth, p. 120.]
[Footnote 54: Hall's Chronicle.]
[Footnote 55: Hall's Chronicle, Henry VIII.]
Sec.3. ANECDOTES OF THE ASSISTANT OFFICES OF THE CORONATION.
The assistant offices of the coronation are, for the far greater part,
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.
As early as the Norman Conquest, this privilege of the see of Canterbury
is spoken of as well-established; and but two subsequent instances occur
of its being overlooked or denied: both remarkably associated with the
history of the papal power in this country[56]. In the first, that of
the coronation by the archbishop of York of prince Henry, son of Henry
II., may be traced the incipient cause of the assassination of
archbishop Becket, whose martyrdom became conducive to the highest
triumphs of that power: in the second, queen Elizabeth's coronation by
Oglethorpe, bishop of Carlisle, and the refusal of all the other
prelates to assist in the ceremony, we behold its dying struggles for a
dominion never more to be renewed.
Mr. Lingard, who, as a Catholic, may be supposed to state these
transactions with a sufficient leaning to his own church, as expressly
connects the murder of Becket with a jealousy on this subject as any
other of our historians. Henry II. had employed the known enemy of the
archbishop, Roger of York, in the consecration of his son above alluded
to; but the primate and the king met on friendly terms at Rouen, in the
following month; they compromised their differences; and the former set
out on his return to his diocese. The Pope, however, "before he heard of
the reconciliation, had issued letters of suspension or excommunication
against the bishops who had officiated at the late coronation." The
archbishop had at one time resolved to suppress these letters, our
historian admits; and surely it was now an imperative duty so to do. But
the prelates concerned, it seems, who knew that he carried them about
him, had assembled at Canterbury, and sent to the coast Ranulf de Broc,
with a party of soldiers, to search him on his landing, and take them
from him. Information of the design reached him at Witsand: and "in a
moment of irritation," says Mr. L., "he despatched them before himself
by a trusty messenger, by whom, or by whose means, they were publicly
delivered to the bishops in the presence of their attendants. It was a
precipitate and unfortunate measure, the occasion, at least, of the
catastrophe that followed."
The prelates hastened to Normandy to demand redress and protection from
the king; who, irritated by their representation, exclaimed: "Of the
cowards who eat my bread, is there not one, who will free me from this
turbulent priest?" and the blood of Becket flowed a few days after in
reply. When he asked one of his assassins, "What is thy object?" he was
told that he must instantly absolve the bishops--"Till they offer
satisfaction, I will not," said the primate. "Then die," exclaimed his
murderers, and closed around him[57].
The _Lord Great Chamberlain's_ office commences with carrying the king
his shirt on the morning of the coronation, and assisting the
chamberlain of the household to dress his majesty. Queens regnant depute
this office to some of the ladies of the household: we are told that the
celebrated duchess of Marlborough last enjoyed it, at the coronation of
queen Anne.
The office gives a claim to all the furniture of the royal chamber, in
which its duties begin. The idea of our ancestors was, that the
coronation, and particularly the consecration of a king, conferred new
honours and talents of the most sacred and extraordinary description. He
was now made a new man, and elevated into a new order of beings;
"Consideration, like an angel, came
And whipt the offending Adam out of him;
Leaving his body as a paradise,
To envelope and contain celestial spirits[58]."
Hence every part of his office was new and kingly. Froissart describes
the consecration of Henry IV. immediately after the recognition, thus:
"after this the duke descended from his throne, and advanced to the
altar to be consecrated. This ceremony was performed by two archbishops
and ten bishops: he was stripped of all his royal state before the
altar, naked to his shirt, and was then anointed and consecrated in six
places; that is to say, on the head, the breast, the shoulders, before
and behind, on the back and hands: they then placed a bonnet on his
head; and while this was doing, the clergy chaunted the litany, a
service that is performed to hallow a font[59]." The lord chamberlain is
official governor of the palace for the time being, and the principal
personal attendant of the king.
The _Lord High Constable_ also attends the royal person, assists at the
reception of the regalia from the dean and chapter of Westminster, and,
together with the earl Marshal, ushers the champion into the hall.
_Of the Royal Championship._
Whether we consider its uninterrupted exercise, and that by one family,
for so many centuries, its feudal import, or its present splendid and
imposing effect, the office of champion certainly eclipses all the other
services of the coronation.
Since the coronation of Richard II. A.D. 1377, (of which there is in
Walsingham a detailed account) this office has been performed by a
Dymoke, the head of the family of that name who have held the manor of
Scrivelsby in Lincolnshire, worth about L1200 per annum, by the tenure
of this service. During the reigns of Edward II. and III. the right was
in dispute: prior to that period and from the days of the Conqueror it
was vested in the far-famed family of MARMION, whose chief, as
"----Lord of Fontenay,
Of Lutterworth and Scrivilbaye,
Of Tamworth tower and town,"
came from Normandy with William, and is there supposed to have held the
first of these possessions, on condition of performing the service of
champion to the successive dukes.
At the conquest the feudal system was established in England in its
maturest and strictest forms; and the present office being the most
perfect relic of that system known to modern times, a slight sketch of
its peculiarities will not be uninteresting.
The foundation of all the subsequent customs of homage, suit, service,
purveyance, &c. is to be traced in the original connexion between the
vassal and his lord, or the chief and his retainers, which Tacitus
notices as remarkable in ancient Germany. According to this, every
follower was to be found fighting by the side of his chief in time of
war, as the very first duty of social life--and in time of peace to look
up to him as the only legitimate fountain of honour and justice.
Certain it is, that this relation was, in substance, as well known and
supported by our Anglo-Saxon ancestors, before the accession of William,
as it was by our Highland neighbours, down to the rebellion in 1745. A
striking instance of the romantic and desperate courage to which it gave
rise occurs as early as the reign of Cynewulf, king of Wessex, A.D. 784.
Sigebircht, the deposed predecessor of this prince, was, in the first
year of his rival's reign, found murdered in the forest of Andreswald:
but left a brother, of the name of Cyneheard, who cherished for
thirty-one years the secret purpose of avenging his death. At last he
returned, with eighty-four retainers, into the neighbourhood of
Winchester, the royal residence; and, tracing the king to a country
seat at Merton, the abode of a favourite lady, surrounded the house at
midnight. Cynewulf was quickly roused; but his followers were scattered
throughout the place, and could not be collected until, after a brave
personal conflict with the enemy, the king's life-blood had satiated his
vengeance. Cyneheard now offered the royal train their liberty and
possessions, on condition of their peaceable departure; but they
rejected his proposals with scorn, and to a man died on the threshold of
their master. On the intelligence reaching the court, in the morning,
Osric and Wavirth, two powerful chieftains, surrounded themselves with
their vassals, and rode to Merton, where they were met by Cyneheard,
with professions of friendship. He called their attention to the
injuries of his family, the duty of avenging which had devolved upon
himself; urged his claim to the vacant throne; made them the most
liberal offers, in case of their acknowledgment of him; and concluded by
reminding them, that many of his adherents were their own near kinsmen.
"Our kinsmen," they indignantly answered, "are not dearer to us than was
our lord. To his murderer we shall never submit. If those who are
related to us wish to save their lives, let them depart." "The same
offer," rejoined the followers of Cyneheard, "was made to the attendants
of the king, who refused it. We will prove to-day that our attachment is
equal to theirs:" and Cyneheard, and all his adherents except one, were
slain[60].
But the Conqueror, owing his crown to the sword, more strictly adapted
the system which he found in use to his own military notions and future
safety. Having divided all the principal estates of the country amongst
his vassals, he converted the English military tenures into a regular
obligation, called knights' fees, which compelled each tenant in chief
to have a certain number of knights, or horsemen, always ready to assert
the rights of the crown, and to fight under its banner, in any cause,
"We will," says a law on this subject, yet extant, "that _all_ the
freemen of our kingdom possess their lands in peace, free of all
tollage and unjust exaction: that nothing be required or taken from them
but their free service, which they owe to us of right, as has been
appointed to them, and granted by us with hereditary right for ever, by
the common council of our whole kingdom." "And we command that all
earls, barons, knights, serjeants, and freemen, be always provided with
horses and arms as they ought; and that they be always ready to perform
to us their whole service, in manner as they owe it to us of right, for
their fees and tenements, and as we have appointed to them by the common
council of our whole kingdom, and as we have granted to them in fee a
right of inheritance[61]." This free service required the due quota of
horsemen, which each vassal was to furnish, to come, completely armed,
on his requisition, and to be maintained under the royal command, at the
charge of the party sending them, for forty days. Even the dignitaries
of the church, and monastic bodies holding lands, were not exempt from
this service.
Each tenant in chief subdivided his property into sub-vassalships,
imposing a similar service, and carrying downwards all the obligations
of homage, fealty, and personal attendance on all important occasions.
Out of such a system, that a favoured vassal should be selected to
assert the personal right of the monarch to his throne, will appear very
natural: it is only surprising that the violence and constant habit of
appealing to the sword, in which this with the other feudal claims
originated, should have left it to flow on in such an uninterrupted
course--a course of succession far more regular than the transmission of
the crown it is supposed to defend.
The championship is connected also with a remarkable feature of ancient
jurisprudence, the wager of battle, recently abolished. This was
regarded as an appeal to the judgment of _God_; and succeeded, at the
Conquest, the fires and other ordeals of our ancestors, which the
Normans affected to despise. The reader, however, may be disposed to
conjecture, that as much of the divine interposition might be expected
to decide the healing of a burn or scald, as the issue of a battle. The
older custom was for the accused to plunge his hand into a cauldron of
boiling water, and take out a stone or piece of iron of a given weight;
the depth of the vessel being proportionate to the magnitude of the
crime charged: or for him to seize, at the end of a religious service, a
bar of iron placed on a fire at the beginning of the service, and run
over a certain length of ground with it: the method in which the wounds
healed, in either case, being the criterion of guilt or innocence.
The wager of battle was certainly of more splendid pretensions, and was
introduced at first with these stipulations. If the opposite parties
were countrymen, they were to follow their national customs, whatever
they were; if the appellee were a foreigner, or of foreign descent, he
might offer wager of battle, and on its being declined, purge himself by
his own oath and that of his witnesses, according to the Norman law; or
if a native of the country, he might have his choice of the trial by
ordeal or by battle.
The solemn feelings and great religious sincerity with which our
forefathers regarded combats of this description, cannot be more
powerfully or more accurately depicted, than in the memorable combat
scene of IVANHOE:--
"The draw-bridge fell, the gates opened, and a knight, bearing the great
standard of the order, sallied from the castle, preceded by six
trumpets, and followed by the knights preceptors, two and two, the grand
master coming last, mounted on a stately horse, whose furniture was of
the simplest kind. Behind him came Brian de Bois Guilbert, armed
cap-a-pee in bright armour, but without his lance, shield, or sword,
which were borne by his two esquires behind him.--He looked ghastly
pale, as if he had not slept for several nights, yet reined in his
pawing war-horse with the habitual ease and grace proper to the best
lance of the Order of the Temple. His general appearance was grand and
commanding; but looking at him with attention, men read that in his dark
features from which we willingly withdraw our eyes.
"On either side rode Conrade of Mont Fitchet and Albert de Malvoisin,
who acted as godfathers to the champion. They were in their robes of
peace, the white dress of the order. Behind them followed other knights
companions of the Temple, with a long train of esquires and pages, clad
in black, aspirants to the honour of being one day knights of the
order."
After these walked the accused in a coarse white dress, surrounded by
wardens in sable livery.
"The slow procession moved up the gentle eminence, on the summit of
which was the tilt-yard, and entering the lists, marched once around
them from right to left, and when they had completed the circle made a
halt. There was then a momentary bustle while the grand-master and his
attendants" took their places: when "a long and loud flourish of
trumpets announced that the court was seated for judgment. Malvoisin,
then acting as godfather to the champion, stepped forward and laid the
glove of the Jewess, which was the pledge of battle, at the feet of the
grand-master.
"Valourous lord and reverend father," said he, "here standeth the good
knight Brian de Bois Guilbert, knight preceptor of the Order of the
Temple, who by accepting the pledge of battle which I now lay at your
reverence's feet, hath become bound to do his devoir in combat this day,
to maintain that this Jewish maiden, by name Rebecca, hath justly
deserved the doom passed upon her--condemning her to die as a sorceress.
Here, I say, he standeth such battle to do knightly and honourably, if
such should be your noble and sanctified pleasure."
"Hath he made oath," said the grand-master, "that his quarrel is just
and honourable? Bring forward the crucifix and the _Te igitur_."
"Sir and most reverend father," answered Malvoisin readily, "our brother
here present hath already sworn to the truth of his accusation, in the
hand of the good knight Conrade de Mont Fitchet, and otherwise he ought
not to be sworn, seeing his adversary is an unbeliever and may take no
oath."
"The grand-master having allowed the apology, commanded the herald to
stand forth and do his devoir. The trumpets then flourished, and a
herald stepping forward, proclaimed aloud, "Oyez, oyez, oyez. Here
standeth the good knight Sir Brian de Bois Guilbert, ready to do battle
with any knight of free blood who will sustain the quarrel allowed and
allotted to the Jewess Rebecca, to try by champion in respect of lawful
essoigne of her own body; and to such champion the reverend and valorous
grand-master here present allows a fair field, an equal partition of sun
and wind, and whatever else appertains to a fair combat." The trumpets
again sounded, and there was a dead pause of many minutes.--
"The judges had now been two hours in the lists, awaiting in vain the
appearance of a champion.
"It was the general belief, that no one could or would appear for a
Jewess accused of sorcery, and the knights, instigated by Malvoisin,
whispered to each other, that it was time to declare the pledge of
Rebecca forfeited. At this instant a knight, urging his horse to speed,
appeared on the plain, advancing towards the lists. An hundred voices
exclaimed, 'A champion,' 'a champion!' And, despite the prepossession
and prejudices of the multitude, they shouted unanimously as the knight
rode into the tilt-yard. The second glance, however, served to destroy
the hope that his timely arrival had excited. His horse, urged for many
miles to its utmost speed, appeared to reel from fatigue, and the rider,
however undauntedly he presented himself to the lists, either from
weakness, weariness, or both, seemed scarce able to support himself in
the saddle.
"To the summons of the herald who demanded his rank, his name and
purpose, the strange knight answered readily and boldly, 'I am a good
knight and noble, come hither to sustain with lance and sword the just
and lawful quarrel of this damsel, Rebecca, daughter of Isaac of York;
to uphold the doom pronounced against her to be false, and truthless,
and to defy Sir Brian de Bois Guilbert as a traitor, murtherer, and
liar; as I will prove in this field with my body against his, by the aid
of God, our Lady, and of Monseigneur Saint George, the good knight.'
"The stranger must first show," said Malvoisin, "that he is a good
knight, and of honourable lineage. The Temple sendeth not forth her
champion against nameless men."
"My name," said the knight, raising his helmet, "is better known, my
lineage more pure, Malvoisin, than thine own. I am Wilfrid of
Ivanhoe."--"Rebecca", said he, riding up to the fatal chair, "dost thou
accept of me for thy champion?"
"I do," she said, "I do!" fluttered by an emotion which the fear of
death was unable to produce.
--"Ivanhoe was already at his post, and had closed his visor, and
assumed his lance. Bois Guilbert did the same.
--"The herald then, seeing each champion in his place, uplifted his
voice, repeating thrice, _Faites vos devoirs, preux chevaliers_. After
the third cry, he withdrew to one side of the lists, and again
proclaimed, that none on peril of instant death should dare by word,
cry, or action, to interfere with, or disturb this fair field of combat.
The grand-master, who held in his hand the gage of battle, Rebecca's
glove, now threw it into the lists, and pronounced the fatal signal
words, _Laissez aller_. The trumpets sounded, and the knights charged
each other in full career."
The result arising out of the peculiar situation of one of the
combatants toward Rebecca, was his almost immediate death: but, seeing
him fall, Wilfrid assumed the rights of a victor, and "placing his foot
on his breast, and the sword point to his throat, commanded him to yield
or die on the spot. Bois Guilbert returned no answer.
"Slay him not, sir knight," said the grand-master, "unshriven and
unabsolved--kill not body and soul. We allow him vanquished."--"This is
indeed the judgment of God," said he, looking upwards--"_Fiat voluntas
tua_[62]!"
But Froissart records a most curious instance of the motives that were
sometimes assigned for "a deed of arms" of this description.
Shortly after Henry IV. had ascended the throne of our feeble Richard
II. Louis duke of Orleans sent him a letter of the following tenor.
"I Louis, by the grace of God, son and brother to the kings of France,
duke of Orleans, write and make known to you, that with the aid of God
and the blessed Trinity, in the desire which I have to gain renown, and
which you in like manner should feel, considering _idleness_ as the bane
of lords of high birth which do not employ themselves in arms, and
thinking I can no way better seek renown than by proposing to you to
meet me at an appointed place, each of us accompanied with one hundred
knights and esquires, of name and arms without reproach, there to combat
together until one of the parties shall surrender; and he to whom God
shall grant the victory, shall do with his prisoners as it may please
him. We will not employ any incantations that are forbidden by the
church, but make every use of the bodily strength granted us by God,
having armour as may be most agreeable to every one for the security of
his person, and with the usual arms; that is to say, lance, battle-axe,
sword and dagger, and each to employ them as he shall think most to his
advantage, without aiding himself by any bodkins, hooks, bearded darts,
poisoned needles, or razors, as may be done by persons unless they be
positively ordered to the contrary."
He then states, that "under the good pleasure of our Lady and my lord
St. Michael" he will wait the answer of the king at Angouleme: and
concludes,
"Most potent and noble prince, let me know your will in regard to this
proposal, and have the goodness to send me as speedy an answer as may
be; for in all affairs of arms, the shortest determination is the best,
especially for the kings of France, and great lords and princes; and as
many delays may arise from business of importance, which must be
attended to, as well as doubts respecting the veracity of our letters,
that you may know I am resolved, with God's help, on the accomplishment
of this deed of arms, I have signed this letter with my own hand, and
sealed it with my seal of arms. Written at my castle of Coucy, the 7th
of August, 1402."
Henry replied to this curious challenge, by expressing his surprise at
such an invitation from a sworn friend and ally.--"With regard to what
you say, that we ought to accept your proposal to avoid idleness," he
adds, "it is true we are not so much employed in arms and honourable
exploits as our noble predecessors have been; but the all-powerful God
may, when he pleases, make us follow their steps, and we through the
indulgence of his graces have not been so idle, but that we have been
able to defend our honour." He declines the meeting, at that time,
principally on account of the inequality of rank between the
parties,--but intimates that he shall be ready to afford all proper
satisfaction to his challenger on his next visit to the continent. This
affair ended in a mere war of words; but the real motive of Louis was
subsequently avowed by him to be the revenging on Henry what he had
"done against king Richard," the son-in-law of the king of France. "With
regard to your high station," he smartly says, "I do not think the
divine virtues have placed you there. God may have dissembled with you,
and have set you on a throne, like many other princes, whose reign has
ended in confusion; but in consideration of my own honour I do not wish
to be compared with you."
An _Inquisitio post mortem_, dated in the 7th of Edward III., speaks of
the tenure of the manor appertaining to the royal champion as follows:
"That the manor of Scrivelsby is holden by grand sergeanty, to wit by
the service of finding, on the day of coronation, an armed knight, who
shall prove by his body, _if need be_, that the king is true and
rightful heir to the kingdom."
It is remarkable that this important document neither prescribes the
absolute appearance of the lord of the manor as knight, but only that
he is bound to '_find_ an armed knight' if required; nor does it
describe the office as hereditary. With regard to the latter point, it
would seem that possession is the entire law of the case, and we suppose
the office would pass with the property by sale: with respect to the
former, the honour seems to have called forth the valour of every
successive lord, and princes have seldom imagined that their subjects
can in such a cause overstep their duty.
Anciently, the champion rode with the royal procession from the Hall to
the Abbey, and proclaimed the challenge on his way, as well as at the
feast: some instances have occurred of its being repeated also in the
city, as at the coronation of Henry IV. At his predecessors coronation
it is remarked by Walsingham, that sir John Dimmock, being armed
according to custom, came to the door of the Abbey with his attendants
before the service was concluded: and that the earl marshal of the day
went out to him and said, he should not have made his appearance so
soon.
The fate of our recent and future champions has become of late duly
regarded by law. To challenge all who should dispute the pretensions of
the king is rightly enough a post of honour; to accept the challenge
would always, we know, have been still more bold; but an act of
parliament passed during the regency (59 Geo. III. cap. 46.) abolishes
altogether the trial and actual battle; so that the champion's lands,
after being held with manifest peril for centuries, have at last become
a peaceable possession; and all dispute respecting the crown is of
course as fully disposed of. It no longer rests on the valour of a
single arm--not even on that of a Marmion, or a Dymoke.
There was another office, that of the _Lord High Steward_ of England, to
which in former times much authority was attached. He possessed a kind
of vice-regal power on the demise of the crown and until the coronation
of the rightful heir, and was a governor of the kingdom immediately
under the reigning monarch, so as to be able to control or remove the
judicial servants of the crown, at any time. What was once the
importance of this office is still indicated by the temporary
guardianship of St. Edward's crown being committed to an officer bearing
this title on the day of the coronation, and his honourable place of
walking immediately before the king in procession. The Earls of
Leicester once enjoyed this great dignity hereditarily; through them it
descended to the De Montford family, until, on the attainder of the last
Earl, it was granted by Henry III. to his younger son Edmund, by whom it
became transmitted to John of Gaunt, and eventually to Henry IV. while
Duke of Lancaster; since which period it has been prudently suffered to
merge in the crown.
The _Court of Claims_ takes its origin from the ancient prerogatives of
the Lord High Steward, who sat judicially in the Whitehall of the king's
palace, at Westminster, to receive the applications and decide upon the
claims of all those who held lands on the tenure of performing some
personal service at the coronation. It is a court, in fact, exercising
this part of his ancient office by commission. These services had the
name of _magnum servitium_, or grand sergeanty, as being attached to the
person of the king, and involve the honour of knighthood in all cases;
no person under the rank of a knight, nor a minor or female tenant,
being allowed to perform them.
Numerous offices occur in the list of claims, to which our limits will
not allow us to pay attention. Toward him who is "every inch a king"
every sort of service is supposed to confer honour; and many
comparatively trivial duties have been long connected with the more
substantial rights of property. The preceding offices require no
recognition of the Court of Claims for their exercise; but those which
follow are to be substantiated before this tribunal at each successive
coronation.
The hereditary _Grand Almoner_ of England is an honour attached to the
barony of Bedford. Its duties are to collect and distribute certain
monies at the coronation from a silver dish; which the Almoner claims
for his fee, together with all the cloth on which the king walks in
procession from the door of the hall at Westminster to the Abbey church.
The _Chief Butlership_ is traced by authentic records into the hands of
William de Albini, who came to England with William the Conqueror, and
has been exercised by some of the noblest families in the country since.
It is now an hereditary right of the Duke of Norfolk as Earl of Arundel,
and entitles the possessor to the best gold cup and cover, with all the
vessels and wine remaining under the bar, and all the pots and cups,
except those of gold and silver, which shall be in the wine cellar after
dinner.
In the remote periods of our history, when the assassination of princes
was practised by various arts, a faithful guardian of the royal cup
might well be esteemed an acquisition to the court. A "chief butler" was
one of the most ancient attendants on royalty, we know from Scripture
history, and, according to the same details, was instrumental in
bringing about that singular revolution in the court of Egypt[63],
which resulted in planting the Jews there, for the accomplishment of
some of the most extraordinary purposes of God. The same kind of office
seems to have been held by the Jewish chieftain Nehemiah in the court of
Persia, and to have given him considerable influence in accelerating the
return of his countrymen from their captivity in Babylon[64].
The _Dapifer_ or _Sewer_, who, "in his surcote, with tabard, sleeves,
and a hoode about his neck, and his towell above all, served the
messes," or arranged the dishes on the table of the coronation feast of
Elizabeth, Henry VII.'s queen, is an ancient worthy of the royal day,
whose office has become extinct. If the dishes are not become more
tractable, or the royal observation less nice, royal feasting has
become, perhaps, less rare in modern times, and this kind of skill,
therefore, more common.
The _Grand Carver--Grand Panniter_, or provider of bread, and the Royal
_Napier_, are offices that have also become extinct, while good carving
and good living have been still found at the royal table; and while the
_Chief Cupbearer_ has retained his office and the possession of the
manor of Great Wimondley, in Hertfordshire, as his reward.
The _Chief Lardiner_ is also still entitled to notice, as having the
care and management of the royal larder, and being duly careful of "the
remainder of beef, mutton, venison, kids, lard, and other flesh; as also
the fish, salt, &c. remaining in the larder," which fall to his share of
the feast. This office has been attached to the manor of Scoulton, in
Norfolk, from the reign of Henry II.
Nor should we omit to notice that the Lord Mayor and Citizens of London
claim a snug "seat next the cupboard, on the left side of the hall," in
virtue of their right to assist the Chief Butler in his duties at the
coronation feast; or that his lordship serves the king after dinner with
wine in a gold cup, having the cup and its cover for a fee. It is
remarkable that the city claims a right to perform the same service, and
to receive a similar fee, at the coronation of our queens: but as this
escaped Her Majesty's law officers in the late argument for her
coronation, we will not suppose it had any connexion with the strong
desire for that event at the Mansion House. The mayor, bailiffs, and
commonalty of Oxford also claim to assist in the office of butlery, and
receive the humbler reward of three maple cups.
With other presents--of grout or gruel, maple cups and napkins, _to_ the
king, gentle reader, we will suppose thou hast of late been sufficiently
acquainted; but the conspicuous duty of the Barons of the Cinque Ports
must not pass unnoticed.
These ports claim to furnish sixteen supporters of the royal canopy, in
the following proportion, _i.e._--Hastings, 3; Dover, 2; Hithe, 2; Rye,
2; Sandwich, 3; Rumney, 2; Winchelsea, 2. It is called in an account of
the coronation of Richard I. "a silk _umbraculum_, borne on four
lances:" but is now generally composed of cloth of gold, having a gilt
silver bell at each of the four corners, which are supported by four
staves of silver. The origin of this claim is involved in such remote
antiquity, that a charter of Charles II. speaks of "the time of the
contrary being never remembered to have been." We have seen that a
crown, ascribed to the days of King Alfred, bore a couple of bells on
its sides. These accompaniments of royal and pontifical dignity, appear
to be of Eastern origin; but the modern application of them is curiously
contrasted with the ancient design. At the doors of the tents or houses
of grandees a bell or sonorous body was generally placed, that
applicants for admission might announce _their_ desires[65]: thus the
Jewish High Priest wore bells round the lower border of his sacerdotal
garments, "that his sound might be heard" on approaching the presence of
God. It was clearly designed to indicate an application for the audience
of a superior: but in the roar of cannon, the clatter of church bells,
and the warm gratulations of such a people as received His Majesty on a
late occasion, _what_ tidings of any kind could the feeble bells of the
canopy convey?
We shall notice but one other claim, that of the lord of the Isle of Man
to present the king with the interesting present of two falcons on the
day of his coronation. "Hawks and falcons were favourite subjects of
amusement, and valuable presents in those days," says Mr. Turner[66],
"when the country being much over-run with wood, all species of the
feathered race must have abounded. A king of Kent begged of a friend
abroad two falcons of such skill and courage as to attack cranes
willingly, and seizing them to throw them on the ground. An Anglo-Saxon,
by his will, gives two hawks (hafocas), and all his stag-hounds (head or
hundas) to his natural lord." And similarly to this claim of the king on
the lord of Man, "Ethelstan," according to this writer, "made North
Wales furnish him with as many dogs as he chose, whose scent-pursuing
noses might explore the haunts and coverts of the deer; he also exacted
_birds_ 'who knew how to hunt others along the atmosphere[67].'"
The Isle of Man was given in the reign of Henry IV. to the
Northumberland family; on the forfeiture of that earldom Sir John
Stanley became possessed of it, on the present tenure of presenting the
kings of England with two falcons on the day of their coronation; and
although the sovereignty was purchased from the Duke of Athol by the
crown during the late king's reign, that nobleman still holds his
manorial rights by the performance of this duty.