Kam EDWARD the olde,
Faire man he was and wis, stalworth and bolde.
He was distinguished for those successful inroads on the Danish
possessions in Britain which resulted in the entire dominion of England
being united under the sceptre of his successors.
On the same authority we learn that he "toke the croun at Saynt
Poule's," London: if by this his coronation is intended, Stow and Speed
contradict the poet, assigning this honour to the town of
Kingston-upon-Thames. But the proclamation of the monarch in London may
be the meaning of the old chronicler.
ETHELSTAN, the first monarch of England, was crowned at Kingston, (id
est, villa regia, says an early writer), "according to the ancient
laws," A.D. 924, by Athelm, archbishop of Canterbury. On this occasion,
as we have before noticed, a high scaffolding was erected in the
market-place of that borough, for the better exhibition of the prince
and of the ceremonies to the people.
The coronations of EDMUND I. and EDRED, his brothers, (both of which
took place at Kingston,) present nothing remarkable to our notice.
But that of EDWY, the eldest son of Edmund, was distinguished for a
remarkable outrage on the person of the king. The popular account of
this affair is, that the young prince had espoused a beautiful young
lady of the royal blood, Elgiva, who was pronounced by the monks to be
within the canonical degrees of affinity. Before his accession,
therefore, she had been a source of dispute between the dignified
ecclesiastics and the king. On the coronation-day he did not obtrude her
claims upon the people; nor, on the contrary, would he forego his
private comforts in her society. When the barons were indulging
themselves in the pleasures of the feast, Edwy retired to his domestic
apartments, and in the company of Elgiva and her mother, laid aside his
crown and regal state. Dunstan, the aspiring abbot of Glastonbury,
surmised the cause of his retreat; and taking with him his creature Odo,
the nominal primate, penetrated into the interior of the palace,
upbraided the prince with this untimely indulgence of his passions, and
after branding his consort with the most opprobrious name of woman,
brought him back with considerable personal violence into the hall[75].
Mr. Turner, our able Anglo-Saxon historian, regards the transaction as a
bold attempt of Dunstan to subdue the regal power to his ambition. He
represents the nobility as evincing some displeasure at the king's early
departure, and the anxiety of Odo to communicate the state of their
minds to Edwy. That the persons he first addressed excused themselves
from undertaking this errand: and the commission devolved by a sort of
general wish on Dunstan and Cynesius, a bishop, his relative. "But with
the delivery of the message," he observes, "his commission must have
terminated; and on the king's refusal [if he did refuse] it was his duty
to have retired. As an ecclesiastic, he should not have compelled him to
a scene of inebriety; as a subject, it was treasonable to offer violence
to his prince[76]."
The latest, and not least able of our English historians, however, would
place these events in a different light. He insists, somewhat in the
spirit of the monkish writers, on this amour being highly disgraceful
to the king; and while he represents it as "the scandal of the age"
(whose sources, in the king's disputes with the ecclesiastics, Mr.
Lingard in any other instance would have readily traced,) he states it
as not altogether incredible that both Ethelgiva, the mother, and her
daughter, whom he does not name, had sacrificed their honour to the
equivocal ambition of _one_ of them becoming queen. The nobles, he adds,
accompanied their demand for the king's return with an injunction in the
name of the whole assembly, for Ethelgiva to leave the court. The rest
of his account does not materially differ from that of former
historians. But with all the unfeigned respect for his impartiality,
with which the perusal of this writer's volumes has inspired us, we
cannot hold him successful in this attempt to disengage the character of
Dunstan and his associates from the imputation of great indecorum.
Were the lady the king's mistress and not his wife, was a dignified
ecclesiastic justified in following him into her apartments? and had
the amour been ever so unbecoming, was this a species of conduct likely
to detach him from it? But the story of the wife and daughter together
speculating upon his affections is surely improbable in the highest
degree: we know that the monkish writers, who furnish the only account
we have of the transaction, would call a wife espoused in opposition to
the will of the church, a mistress; and the sufferings of the young
monarch from this interference with his affections, should teach us to
exercise the judgment of charity on his memory.
EDGAR, the successor of Edwy, surnamed "the Peaceful," his whole reign
being exempt from the scourge of war, delayed his coronation for
thirteen of the sixteen years to which it extended; a circumstance for
which none of our historians assign a reason. The royal investiture was
celebrated at last, (A.D. 973,) with great pomp at Bath, Dunstan,
archbishop of Canterbury, presiding.
"There was bliss mickle
On that happy day
Caused to all"--
says a poem in commemoration of the event, preserved in the Saxon
Chronicle,
"Of priests a heap,
Of monks much crowd,
I understand."--
The monarch, indeed, was as celebrated for his magnificence as for the
talents suited to his station. From Bath he proceeded to Chester, to
receive the homage of eight tributary princes, _i.e._ Kenneth, king of
Scotland, Malcolm of Cumberland, M'Orric of Anglesey and the Iles, Jukil
of Westmoreland, Iago of Galloway, and Howel, Dyfnwel, and Griffith,
princes of Wales. A splendid procession by water introduced the
ceremony. Edgar assumed his seat at the stern of the royal barge, and
his tributaries taking the oars, rowed the monarch to the church of St.
John; the bishops and noblemen following in their state barges, and
returning the acclamations of the populace who lined the shores. The
king is said to have remarked, "When my successors can command the
service of the like number of princes, let them consider themselves
kings[77]."
A remarkable objection was made, according to the Saxon Chronicle, to
the right of EDWARD, the son of Edgar, to the throne, viz. that he was
born before the coronation either of his father or mother[78], and the
pretensions of his younger brother, Ethelred, were so successfully urged
by the Queen dowager, that a convocation of the witan was held to settle
the dispute[79]. Here the claim of Edward was fully admitted, and he
was crowned and anointed by Dunstan, at Kingston, accordingly, in the
year 975--to be sacrificed to the ambition of his cruel stepmother, in
less than four years afterwards.
Stained with the blood of its former wearer, even the ambitious prelate
Dunstan "hated much to give the crown" to ETHELRED II., as Robert of
Gloucester informs us; he assisted, however, at his coronation, and,
according to the most perfect Anglo-Saxon ritual that has come down to
us, addressed some admirable counsel to the monarch on the duties of his
new station. The following is a translation of the coronation oath of
this period. "In the name of the Most Holy Trinity, I promise; First,
that the church of God, and all Christian people, shall enjoy true peace
under my government; secondly, that I will prohibit all manner of rapine
and injustice to men of every condition; thirdly, that in all
judgments, I will cause equity to be united with mercy, that the most
clement God may, through his eternal mercy, forgive us all. Amen[80]."
The ceremony was performed at Kingston, on the festival of Easter, 978.
EDMUND II., surnamed Ironside, was also crowned at Kingston; he
struggled nobly for seven months against the overwhelming power of the
Danes, who, at the moment of his coronation, had an army of 27,000 men
on board their fleet in the Thames; and who, in the fatal field of
Ashdown, extirpated almost all the old nobility of the kingdom, ere this
unfortunate reign closed. This hero led them, during his short reign,
into five pitched battles against the enemy.
CANUTE is said to have been chosen by the unanimous voice of the nation
to the vacant throne; and received consecration from Levingius,
archbishop of Canterbury, at London, A.D. 1016. He first surrounded the
throne with regular guards, called Thing-men, for whose government he
compiled a set of rules still extant. The king himself having violated
one of them in a transport of passion, by slaying a private soldier,
assembled the whole corps, and having referred to the law prohibiting
such excesses, acknowledged his crime, descended from the throne, and
demanded punishment. The Thing-men were silent, and being urged, on a
promise of perfect impunity, to state their sentiments, they left the
decision to the king, who adjudged himself to pay 69 talents of gold,
more than nine times the ordinary pecuniary mulct in such a case.
The Scots refused homage to this prince, because he had not obtained the
crown of hereditary descent; but on his assembling an army to assert his
claims, they submitted: shortly after which occurred the memorable
effort of his courtiers to persuade him, that the monarch of six
powerful nations--England, Scotland, and Wales, Denmark, Norway, and
Sweden,--could command the ocean tide to retire from his feet. Having
convinced them of their folly, by making the experiment, he took the
crown from his head, it is said, and placed it on the great cross in
the cathedral of Winchester, refusing ever after to wear it, even on
occasions of public ceremony.
At the coronation of HAROLD I., who in fact usurped the throne in the
absence of the legitimate claimant, Hardicanute, Egilnoth, archbishop of
Canterbury, refused the episcopal benediction. He placed the royal
insignia on the altar, and addressing the king and his surrounding
prelates, said, "There are the crown and sceptre which Canute intrusted
to my charge. To you, I neither give nor refuse them, you may take them
if you please; but I strictly forbid any of my brother bishops to usurp
an office, which is the prerogative of my see[81]."
EDWARD THE CONFESSOR'S name is attached to too much of the Regalia, to
allow us to overlook his accession to the throne. He was crowned at
Winchester, A.D. 1042, on Easter day; and being a Saxon, was hailed by
the people as a native prince. The archbishop, Eadsius, read to him a
long exhortation on the duties of a sovereign, and closed by reminding
him of the paternal government which England enjoyed under his
predecessors in the Saxon line. All our early historians dwell with
great zeal on the manner in which he fulfilled these duties. He was "the
good king Edward," for whose "laws" the people were always anxious, when
under the subsequent despotism of the Normans, they found an opportunity
of expressing their desires; and his reign, forming an interval between
the Danish and Norman Conquest, was long remembered as an era of
deliverance from foreign thraldom. It is principally from these
feelings, that historians account for the crown itself wearing for so
many ages the name of St. Edward's--St. Edward's staff, as it is called,
being carried before our monarchs at their coronation, &c. The people
literally applied to him that celebrated maxim of our constitution, the
king can do no wrong; for, although his reign was chequered by many
internal commotions, on his ministers and not on himself, was the blame
uniformly cast.
This prince, however, seems to have committed a pious fraud on his good
people. Being importuned by his council to marry, he espoused the
daughter of the powerful Earl Godwin; to whom he privately disclosed a
vow of perpetual continence under which he had bound himself: but
offered to raise her to the regal seat (and she was accordingly publicly
crowned as queen), on condition that he should be allowed without
molestation to observe his vow. She is represented by our historians as
a very learned lady.
The coronation of the unfortunate HAROLD II. took place on the day of
the funeral of his predecessor--a striking proof of the importance
attached to this ceremony at that period. But William, Duke of Normandy,
having previously extorted from him an oath of fealty, protested from
the first against his consecration, and in the memorable battle of
Hastings caused him to pay the penalty of his life for the momentary
honour.
At this point of our progress through the history of these ceremonies,
it will be interesting to review briefly the political character of the
Anglo-Saxon _cyning_ or king. The rites in question will always derive
the greatest illustration from being considered as the reflected light
of ancient opinions respecting the monarchy.
The eorl and ceorl were the great distinctive appellations of noble and
ignoble descent: none were or are admitted, it will be seen, to any
important office in the coronation ceremonies but the former class. They
were said to be "ethel-born," and every member of the royal family was
an "etheling," or son of the noble, emphatically. Ere Christianity
dispelled the fables of divine descent, the pedigree of the monarch was
always to be traced to Woden, and after the demi-god was no longer
revered, the first of earthly families and "full-born" blood was seen in
him.
Yet our Anglo-Saxon ancestors unquestionably _chose_ the identical
member of the family whom they would acknowledge as king: the witan
regularly assembled on the death of a monarch, and proceeded to the
election of his successor.
"The Saxons could not comprehend," says Mr. Lingard, "how a freeman
could become the dependent of another, except by his own consent: but
the election rendered the cyning the lord of the principal chieftains,
and through them of their respective vassals."
His revenue, derived from the fines and amercements known to the
Anglo-Saxon law for crimes of every description--from territory obtained
by conquest, or forfeited by treason--and from those gross bargains for
obtaining the king's peace, which were only exceeded by those which
purchased at this time, what was called "the peace of God," (both being
an exemption for certain days, or in certain places, from the pursuit of
every enemy or claimant), was far larger than that of the most powerful
of the nobles who were, in fact, _his_ feudal tenants, in whatever
portion of lands they possessed. Thrice in the year this proud
muster-roll of noble tenants was examined, _i.e._ at the festivals of
Christmas, Easter, and Whitsuntide, where they appeared before the
monarch in all the pomp of state. A sort of coronation scene was at this
time exhibited. The nobles renewed their homage 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].
The monarch exercised, as at the present time, a supreme command over
the national forces. He consulted the witan, but he himself determined
on, and proclaimed war or peace. He was also, as now, the supreme judge,
and received appeals in person, from all the ordinary courts of
judicature: the ealdormen, sheriffs, and other officers of those
courts, holding their appointments at his pleasure. The intelligent
reader will thus find the substantial duties of the royal office as
remarkably similar at this distant period with its present functions, as
the pageant of a coronation can be uniform[83].
WILLIAM I. may be said to have been crowned in character as a conqueror.
Christmas-day 1066, being appointed for his coronation, at Westminster,
he was surrounded by his Norman barons, and a full attendance of the
English nobles and prelates--when Aldred, archbishop of York, put the
questions of the Recognition to his new subjects; and the bishop of
Constance, who was in his train, to the Normans, The assent of both
nations was given with loud acclaim. So boisterous, indeed, was their
loyalty at this part of the ceremony, that the Norman soldiers of
William, on the outside of the Abbey church, affected to consider the
shouts as the signal of insurrection, and immediately set fire to the
houses of the neighbourhood (a singular remedy for riot), and began the
congenial work of plunder, to the great mortification of the king. All
now became confusion in the interior of the Abbey: the Norman barons
prepared for battle; the native nobles regarded themselves as victims
selected for slaughter, and the king is said to have been left alone,
with the ecclesiastics, to conclude the ceremony. That the shouts were
but the pretext for a preconcerted attack and plunder of the people,
appears but too clearly from the subsequent remonstrance of the king
with the barons, whom he warned against the certain result of oppressing
the English; while he strictly prohibited the soldiers from appearing at
taverns, or molesting the private abodes of the citizens; and appointed
a commission to enforce his regulations.
Matilda, duchess of Normandy, was not brought into England until William
had fully subdued his refractory subjects--when, on Whit Sunday, 1068,
she was crowned queen at Winchester, by the archbishop of York.
WILLIAM RUFUS, though a second son, was the Conqueror's favorite, and
duly elected his successor by the prelates and barons of England. His
coronation, as it was principally procured by the influence of the
church, was conducted with great splendour by Lanfranc, archbishop of
Canterbury, at Westminster, 20th Sept, 1087.
Of this prince the Saxon Chronicle furnishes an anecdote, of which the
naval excursions of his present Majesty are calculated to remind us.
While hunting in the New Forest he received intelligence of the defeat
of his Norman forces by Helie de la Fleche--and would hardly suffer the
messenger to conclude his tale, ere he exclaimed, "Let those that love,
follow me;" and rode immediately toward the sea shore. He leaped into
the first vessel that presented itself: the master remonstrating that
the weather was very stormy, and the passage perilous in such a bark,
"Hold thy peace," said William, "kings are never drowned[84]."
HENRY I., who was near his brother at the time of his death in the New
Forest, hastened to Winchester to secure the royal treasures. So
precipitate was the prince on this occasion, as to neglect all care for
the decent interment of William, whose body was carried in a cart to the
royal city, and without any religious rites interred in the
cathedral[85]. The treasurer of his predecessor seems to have been more
respectful to his memory. He ventured to tell Henry that he held the
money for the rightful heir, his brother Robert; and blood would have
been shed but for the interference of the surrounding nobles, who
overcame the scruples of the minister. Having obtained possession of the
royal castle and treasures, Henry proceeded to Westminster, where on the
third day after his brother's death he was crowned by the bishop of
London, the see of York being vacant, and Anselm, archbishop of
Canterbury, abroad.
This was the first of our monarchs who thought it needful to strengthen
the attachment of his subjects to him by a formal charter; which seems
in some measure to have been regarded as a condition of his election to
the crown. It was, at any rate, promulgated on the day of the
coronation, and is a document of no small historical importance, as
professing to abolish all the grievances that had been introduced by the
Norman princes, and to restore the laws of Edward the Confessor. We can
only notice a few of its items. 1. The people were exempted from all
taxes which they had not paid under their Saxon rulers; and the venders
of base or light coin were to be punished with severity. 2. The church
was reinstated in all her ancient rights, and the king engaged never to
sell or farm vacant benefices, or to retain their revenues for the use
of his exchequer. 3. He granted to all the barons and immediate vassals
of the crown (requiring them to make the same grant to their respective
tenants) the right of a free disposal of personal property: that for
breaches of the peace they should not be placed as heretofore at the
king's mercy, but be adjudged to pay the sums prescribed by the Saxon
law; that their heirs should pay the customary reliefs for the livery of
lands, and not the arbitrary compensations which had been exacted by his
two predecessors; that the wardship of minors, and the custody of their
lands, should be committed to their nearest relations; that neither
heiresses nor widows should be compelled by the king to marry, but the
daughters and female relations of noble families should be given in
marriage without any impediment being offered by the crown, or any fee
being required for the exercise of such liberty. He at the same time
granted a very beneficial charter to the citizens of London. Two queens
of this prince were successively crowned.
STEPHEN was the fourth monarch in succession from the Conqueror who
claimed the crown without an hereditary title. Any settlement of the
government was preferred by well-disposed men to the anarchy that
usually succeeded the decease of a feudal sovereign: and the promptitude
of this monarch, and his former popularity in the country, united with
the antipathy of the people to a female reign, gave him an easy access
to sovereign power. He was crowned at Winchester, by the archbishop of
Canterbury, Dec, 22, 1135; stipulating in the coronation oath that he
would not levy the danegelt[86] which his uncle had so frequently
extorted, nor retain for his own profit the vacant benefices of the
church, nor molest clerks or laymen in the possession of their woods or
forests.
By a compact entered into with Stephen and the assembled barons, in the
latter days of that prince, HENRY II., grandson of Henry I., succeeded
to the throne, and was crowned at Westminster, Dec. 19, 1154, attended
by a great concourse of foreign nobility. His queen received the royal
unction on Christmas-day, 1158.
During the disputes between this monarch and the celebrated Thomas a
Becket, we find the king adopting a singular expedient for strengthening
and perpetuating the authority of his family--the coronation of his son
Henry. Historians are divided as to his design in this ceremony; but a
probable opinion is suggested by Mr. Hume, that when the thunders of the
Vatican were every day expected to dissolve the ties of allegiance
between Henry's subjects and himself, he was anxious by the new oaths of
allegiance now taken, to secure their obedience, at least, to his family
in the person of his son.
But in the manner of conducting this unique coronation he added new
matter to the existing strife. It had long been esteemed a right of the
metropolitan to anoint and crown the kings of England; and Becket had
been diligent enough to procure the pope's letters prohibitory against
the interference of any other prelate with his privileges on this
occasion. The coronation however proceeded; the archbishop of York
feeling no scruple in supplying Becket's place:--all the royal makings
of a king were bestowed on the young prince, at Westminster, June 15,
1170, and his father waited upon him during the coronation feast, at
table. It being remarked to the prince how great was the honour for him
to be thus attended, he is said to have replied haughtily, "That he
thought it no such great condescension for the son of an earl to wait on
the son of a king."
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 primate were
appeased. The ultimate issue of this circumstance, in the assassination
of Becket, we have noticed in another part of this work. Hume remarks on
the whole affair--"There prevailed in that age an opinion which was akin
to its other superstitions, that the royal unction was essential to the
exercise of royal power. It was therefore natural both for the king of
France, careful of his daughter's establishment, and for Becket, jealous
of his own dignity, to demand in the treaty with Henry some satisfaction
on this essential point[87]." The second coronation of the prince (in
which his consort was duly associated) took place Aug. 27th, 1172.
Nor did the calamitous consequences of this event thus terminate. It
seems to have sown deeply the seeds of ambitious discord in the family
of Henry. The young prince, after a visit to France with his consort,
formally demanded of his father some substantial share of the royal
power with whose insignia he had been invested. The intrigues and civil
commotions that followed, it is not within our plan to detail; but the
conduct of his different children, instigated by the example of this
unworthy first-born, eventually brought the parent to his grave.
The coronation of RICHARD I., is the earliest upon which our historians
dilate. It took place September 3, 1189, at Westminster; differing in no
material point from the modern ceremony. The archbishop is said to have
solemnly adjured the king at the altar, "not to assume the royal dignity
unless he were resolved to keep the regal oath." An infamous outrage on
the unoffending and oppressed race of the Jews closed the coronation day
in London, and was followed by equally cruel treatment of them in
several large towns. They seem on this occasion to have tempted the
cupidity, by appealing to the generosity and humanity of the court.
Numbers of them came to the metropolis with presents for the young king,
who forbade them, however, to appear at his coronation. In the evening a
few of the richer Israelites endeavoured to pass into the hall of the
palace; when they were repulsed, insulted, and pursued into the city. A
report now spread that the king, regretting the unhallowed forbearance
of his father toward this apostate race, had given orders for a general
attack upon them. The populace quickly murdered the first that had
appeared; they then attacked the houses of all the richer Jews, and
after stripping them of every thing valuable, left them in flames. At
York, five hundred of this hapless nation who had retired into the
castle for protection, and eventually seized it from the governor,
murdered their own wives and children, to prevent their falling into the
hands of their enemies, and then despatched each other nearly to a man.
On the return of Richard from his romantic expedition to Jerusalem, in
1194, he is said to have been crowned a second time; "to put awaie, as
it were, the reproofe of his captivitie[88]." A solemn council was held
at Nottingham, to review the affairs of the kingdom, and the conduct of
his brother John during the king's absence; the last or third day being
occupied in discussing the question, whether it were necessary that the
king should be crowned a second time; the king voted in the negative,
but his peers and prelates were of the contrary opinion, and the
ceremony was accordingly performed at Winchester, by Hubert, archbishop
of Canterbury[89].
JOHN was declared by Richard, on his death-bed, to be his legitimate
successor: but the people being divided between his claims and those of
Arthur, his nephew, a great council was held at Northampton, in which
the nobles resolved unanimously on swearing fealty to him; and the
coronation was ordered to take place at Westminster, 27th of May, 1199.
The primate introduced the ceremony by a speech intended to maintain
the claim of John. He observed, that all his auditors well knew the
crown to be elective, and could only be held by the unanimous agreement
of the nation with regard to the personal merits of the wearer: that it
was the gift of the people, who chose generally from the members of the
reigning family the prince who appeared most deserving of that honour.
Such was the selection in the scriptural case of David, and others: and
that having that day met to perform this important duty, they, on these
principles, brought forward their future sovereign, John, earl of
Montaigne, brother to the deceased king[90]. John, who was present,
signified his concurrence with these sentiments; and a few days
afterwards, (June 7) we find a law published from Northampton in which
he asserts, that 'God had given him the throne by hereditary right,
through the unanimous consent and favour of the clergy and people[91].'
The friends of Arthur made a faint resistance to the claims of John, as
duke of Normandy, but that unhappy prince, we know, soon met an
untimely death, by the means, if not by the dagger of his uncle.
This prince, having procured a divorce, on the pretext of consanguinity,
from a wife to whom he had been married twelve years, negociated a new
marriage in 1200 with the princess of Portugal. Ere his overtures,
however, could be answered, he was by accident diverted to another
choice. Isabella, daughter of the count of Angouleme, was a celebrated
beauty of the day, who had been publicly promised and privately espoused
to Hugh, count of La Marche. But John, in one of his visits to Normandy,
became enamoured of her: and the lady found the crown of her new lover
an irresistible recommendation. The princess of Portugal was
disappointed, the count de La Marche enraged, and all Europe surprised
at the event, when the monarch conducted his bride in triumph to
Westminster early in the month of October, and assembled his peers for
her coronation, on the 8th of that month. Hoveden represents king John
himself to have partaken of the benediction on the occasion: some
writers state, that he was a second time crowned.
Soon after this event, we have a formal demand of feudal homage made by
John on William king of Scotland, with which the latter promised
promptly to comply. The two monarchs met at Lincoln, and, on an eminence
near that city, in the presence of the assembled nobles of both
kingdoms, the king of Scotland swore fealty of life and limb to
John--against all men, saving his own right. He, at the same time, is
said to have acknowledged by a written document the feudal superiority
of the English crown, to have engaged to keep the peace with its king
and kingdom, and to have bound himself not to marry his son without the
permission of John, as his liege lord[92]. But this is a little
inconsistent with another recorded fact--rising from his knees, he
explicitly demanded of John the restoration of the three counties of
Northumberland, Cumberland and Westmoreland, as the heir of his
grandfather David, from whom he alleged them to have been unjustly
wrested in the wars of Matilda and Stephen. The kind of homage rendered
by the Scottish princes to the English crown, in this and succeeding
ages, was always proportioned to the strength or weakness of the
respective governments, and was hardly construed to mean the same thing
during two successive reigns. On the whole, this singular interview
seems to have been consented to on the part of the wily Scot,
principally with a view to sound the dispositions of the new sovereign.
The profligate and pusillanimous John is well known to have exposed his
own rights, and the liberties of his people, to all the evils of
protracted civil wars, and foreign invasion. At the period of his
decease, the capital and the southern counties were in the hands of
Louis, king of France.
HENRY III., his son, had but just completed his tenth year when the
title of a king descended to him. But his youth and innocence
conciliated that regard to his person, which the conduct of John had
long estranged from himself; the claims of Louis were disowned by the
holy see; and the more powerful of the barons saw an object worth
contending for in the direction of the young king's affairs. Ten days
after the death of his father, (October 28, 1218), he was brought in
procession to the cathedral of Gloucester, and crowned by the papal
legate Gualo, assisted by the bishops of Winchester, Exeter, and Bath.
It is remarked by the contemporary historians[93], that a plain circle
of gold was used on this occasion in lieu of the crown, which had been
lost with the other jewels and baggage of John in his passage across the
wash near Wisbech. A proclamation was next day issued, lamenting the
dissensions that had existed between the king's father and his barons,
and promising, on the part of Henry, to bury them in oblivion. By the
same instrument he commanded the tenants of the crown forthwith to
appear, and do him homage; and enjoined upon all persons appearing in
public, to wear a white fillet round their heads during the ensuing
month, in honour of his coronation.
Henry was crowned a second time, on the final deliverance of his kingdom
from the French invaders, _i.e._ in May 1220; by Langton, archbishop of
Canterbury:--"all the estates and subjects of his realme," meeting him
at Westminster--"to the end; it might be said, that now after the
extinguishment of all seditious factions, he was crowned by the general
consent[94]."
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;
nor does he forget the trumpet's clang, or the minstrel's pipe: the
various banners that streamed in the procession; or the viands and wines
of the banquet. Eleanor, the pride of the day, was a queen amongst
beauties--the whole world, he says in conclusion, might be challenged to
produce a spectacle equally glorious and enchanting.
This monarch rebuilt the whole of the abbey church at Westminster from
its foundations; and was interred in the tomb out of which he had
removed the bones of Edward the Confessor. At his funeral his successor
was proclaimed by the earl of Gloucester; who, before the deceased
king's body was covered, stept forward, and putting his hand upon it,
swore fealty to the then absent prince.
EDWARD I., at this period returning to Europe from the Holy Land. He is
said to have received the news of his father's death with those tears of
sincere grief, which surprised some of his princely companions; and did
not much appear to quicken his progress toward England. Being challenged
to a tournament, by the count of Chalons, the exhortations of the
reigning Pontiff could not induce him to forego the combat; he felt his
honour, as the champion of the cross, at stake; and appeared in the
lists at the appointed day, attended by a thousand knights. The trial of
skill was converted into a deadly battle, in which the count seriously
attempted the king's life; and out of which, the English only came
victorious after a sanguinary conflict. Edward succeeded to the throne
in November 1272; but did not arrive in England, until August 1274, when
his first object was to receive, with his consort, Eleanor of Castile,
the regal unction. He was crowned with this affectionate[95] companion
of his crusade, at Westminster, on the 19th; Alexander, king of
Scotland, being present, and doing homage as a vassal of the English
crown. Several of the orders for provisions required for the coronation
feast, are preserved in Rymer, among which are, 380 head of cattle; 430
sheep, 450 pigs, 18 wild boars, 278 flitches of bacon; and 19,660 capons
and fowls. Holinshed informs us, that there were five hundred horses
"let go at libertie" on this occasion, "catch them that catch might." In
Rymer we also read of a singular stipulation originally made by Richard
I., that, whenever a king of Scotland should attend at the summons of
the English king, to do homage, or service at his court, he should be
attended, and provided for, by the bishop, sheriffs, and barons of each
county, through which he came; 5_l._ per day being allowed for his
expenses on the road, and 30_s._ per day so long as he remained at the
English court, together with twenty-four loaves, four sexterces of the
best, and eight of inferior, wine, four wax tapers, forty better, and
eighty inferior, candles, two pounds of pepper, and four pounds of
cinnamon. At this time, it appears, the Scottish party received
regularly the 5_l._ a day, and purchased their own provision:
Alexander's whole disbursement was 175_l._
Edward, in the first year after his coronation, forbade the Jews to
erect, or hold any synagogues in his dominions; to hold fiefs, or any
free tenement; or to demand interest for the loan of money: at seven
years of age they were to wear two pieces of woollen cloth, sown into
their outward garment, and at twelve to be subject to a capitation tax
of three pence, to be paid annually at Easter. Thus cut off from their
ordinary modes of living, they had recourse to the clipping of money and
other illegal modes of debasing the coin; and after trials, fines, and
executions of the most oppressive and unjustifiable description, were
finally banished the realm, A.D. 1290.
EDWARD II. ascended a throne that, by the energies of his father, had
extended its sway over almost the whole island of Great Britain. At the
period of his decease, Edward I. was prosecuting the conquest of
Scotland, and left, according to Froissart, a solemn charge to his
successor, "to have his body boiled in a large cauldron, until the flesh
should be separated from the bones; that he would have the flesh buried
and the bones preserved; and that every time the Scots should rebel
against him, he would summon his people, and carry against them the
bones of his father: for he believed most firmly, that as long as his
bones should be carried against the Scots, those Scots should never be
victorious[96]." The young prince first visited the court of France, and
married Isabella, the French king's daughter; whom he brought to England
with her two uncles, and a magnificent train of foreign nobility, to
participate in the splendors of their joint coronation, which was
celebrated at Westminster, February 25, 1308. It was well attended also
by the English nobility; but the king's marked preference for a personal
favourite, (Piers Gaveston) was resented as a general insult. He
appeared the sole dispenser of all the honours and favours of the day;
for the promotion of his friends and dependents, the claims of
inheritance and the precedents of former reigns were alike disregarded.
Three days afterwards, the barons met in the refectory of the monks, at
Westminster, to petition for the banishment of Gaveston, and thus began
the unhappy differences between this monarch and his nobles, which
resulted in his final deposition.
This involved the singular circumstance of the barons formally
withdrawing their homage. The favourites of the king, against whom they
had armed, being slain,--a parliament was called by the queen Isabella,
and _her_ paramour; which was opened by a long speech from the bishop of
Hereford. He painted in strong terms the incapacity, and what he called
the vindictive and treacherous disposition, of the king; and declared,
that to liberate him from the confinement under which he was now placed,
would be to expose to certain death, a princess, who, by her wisdom and
courage, had been the salvation of the state. He, therefore, desired
them to retire, and to consider, by the next morning, whether it were
not better to deprive the father of the crown, and elect, forthwith,
his son. On the following day this motion was carried by acclamation;
the temporal peers, and many of the prelates, swore fealty at once to
the young Edward: a bill of impeachment, containing six articles, was
drawn up against the old king; and the reign of Edward of Carnarvon was
declared to have terminated, and that of Edward of Windsor to have
begun.
But the queen now affected great scruples and grief at these
proceedings; declared her fears, that the parliament had exceeded its
powers, and exhorted her son, it is said, to refuse the crown. On the
ground of this delicacy of feeling, a deputation of both lords and
commons was appointed to wait on the deposed monarch,--to give him
notice of the election of his son; tender him back their homage, and
"act as circumstances might suggest." Their measures are variously
related by the partisans of the new and old king. They flattered and
they threatened him; they exhorted him to show that greatness of mind,
which could sacrifice a throne to the good of his people, and promised
him an ample revenue and the indulgence of all his personal wishes, if
he should freely resign the crown. At last he was brought, dressed in a
plain black gown, into a room where the deputation had been arranged to
receive him; and sir William Trussel, a judge, addressed him in these
words: "I, William Trussel, procurator of the earls, barons, and others,
having for this full and sufficient power, do render and give back to
you Edward, once king of England, the homage and fealty of the persons
named in my procuracy: and acquit and discharge them thereof, in the
best manner that law and custom will give. And I now make protestation,
in their name, that they will no longer be in your fealty, or
allegiance, nor claim to hold any thing of you as king, but will account
you, hereafter, as a private person, without any manner of royal
dignity." Then sir Thomas Blount, the steward of the king's household,
broke his staff of office, as is usual on the death of a king, and
declared all persons once in his Majesty's service, to be discharged
from their former duty.
On the return of the deputation, the new king was proclaimed in the
metropolis by the heralds, in the following unprecedented form.
"Whereas, sir Edward, late king of England, of his own good will, and
with the common advice and assent of the prelates, earls, barons, and
other nobles, and all the commonalty of the realm, hath put himself out
of the government of the realm, and has granted and willed that the
government of the said realm should come to sir Edward, his eldest son
and heir, and that _he_ should govern the kingdom, and be crowned king,
on which account all the lords have done him homage; we cry and publish
the peace of our said lord, sir Edward, the son, and on his part
strictly command and enjoin under pain and peril of disherison and loss
of life and member, that no one break the peace of our said lord the
king. For he is, and will be ready to do justice to all and each of the
said kingdom, both to the little and the great, in all things and
against all men. 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." The best comment on the "free-will" of the deposed monarch,
appeared in his being murdered by the queen's party, in the course of
the year following.
EDWARD III. married Philippa of Hainault, in 1327, on which occasion she
was crowned at Westminster. She bore the king a son, the celebrated
Edward the Black Prince, before he had reached his 19th year.
RICHARD II. succeeded his grandfather in 1377, being then in his
eleventh year; and no coronation in our annals was more magnificent.
The Liber Regalis, still preserved at Westminster, contains the ritual
used on this occasion, and a record of the proceedings of the Court of
Claims is also extant[97].
On the day after the death of Edward, this prince entered London in
great state: triumphal arches were erected, conduits ran with wine, and
the usual pageants of the coronation procession were displayed in the
streets. Walsingham mentions in particular a turreted building, erected
in the market of Cheap, out of which ran streams of wine, and at the
angles of which, on the top, four young maidens of the age of the king
were placed, dressed in white. On the approach of the sovereign, shreds
of gold leaf were blown to him, and florins _of paper_ were showered on
his head!--such was what at this time was regarded as the "superior
ingenuity of the merchants of Cheapside."
The progress through the city on the day preceding the coronation, (15th
of July, 1377) was similarly distinguished. The king dined at the
Tower, from which he came forth dressed in white garments, and placed
himself under the escort of the mayor and citizens, who conducted him to
his palace at Westminster. On the following morning he rose early, and,
having received mass in his private chapel, came down into the great
hall "arraid in the fairest vestments, and with buskins only upon his
feet." The procession from Westminster Hall to the Abbey, was now
marshalled in the usual order. While the litany was chanted the young
prince lay prostrate before the altar, whence he was conducted to his
throne on a platform in the centre of the nave. The entire ceremony of
the coronation so much exhausted him, that he was borne back to the
palace in a litter carried by knights. He soon, however, appeared at the
banquet, where he created four earls and nine knights, and partook of a
splendid though turbulent repast. The next morning a council of regency
was formed, to exercise the royal authority, during the minority of the
king. It is remarkable, that in the first parliament of this monarch's
reign, we find the archbishop of Canterbury recommending the young king
to the affection of his subjects, because he was not an elected
sovereign, but the true heir and representative of their former
kings[98].
On the 22d of January, 1382, this monarch espoused Anne of Bohemia,
daughter of the late emperor Charles IV., and sister of Winceslaus, king
of the Romans. As usual, she was crowned at the same period; and is said
so entirely to have possessed, during the twelve years of her union with
him, the affections of her husband and his people, as to be long
remembered among the latter by the title of the good Queen Anne.