---- ----"The hallowed crown
Shall round the mortal temples of a king,"
or Shakspeare's celebrated "Richard II." be extant. The march of his
successor, Bolingbroke, from Ravenspur to London, and the rapid
increase of his followers from twenty men to sixty thousand, his
peaceful entry into the metropolis, and ultimate possession of the
kingdom, without striking a blow, have only been exceeded, in modern
times, by the celebrated march of Napoleon from Cannes to Paris.
HENRY IV. challenged the crown partly by right of conquest[99]. In his
coronation, which took place on the 13th of Oct. 1399, he caused the
sword which he wore when he landed at Ravenspur to be carried naked, on
his left hand, by the earl of Northumberland. Froissart's description of
"the progress" of this monarch we have before noticed.
Of HENRY V., Holinshed says, "This kyng, this man, was he whiche,
(accordyng to the old proverbe) declared and shewed that honour ought to
change maners: for incontinent after that he was stalled in the siege
royall, and had received the crowne and sceptre of this famous and
fortunate region, [he] determined with hymself to put on the shape of a
new man, and to use another sorte of livyng, turning insolence and
wildnesse into gravitie and sobernes, and wavering vice into constant
virtue." It was this prince, our readers will recollect, who, while "the
immediate heir of England," was committed into custody by the Lord Chief
Justice, for disturbing the court in which he sat as judge, and who
afterwards, when king, so nobly commended that officer's conduct.
Shakspeare has a similar train of thought with the old chronicler.
----"Princes all, believe me, I beseech you,
My father is gone wild into his grave;
For in his tomb lie my affections;
And with his spirit sadly I survive,
To mock the expectations of the world,
To frustrate prophecies, and to raze out
Rotten opinion, which hath writ me down
After my seeming. Though my tide of blood
Hath proudly flowed in vanity till now;
Now doth it turn and ebb unto the sea,
Where it shall mingle with the state of flood,
And flow henceforth in formal majesty[100]."
Fabian gives a splendid account of the coronation of Katherine, the
queen of Henry V. "upon whose ryght hande satte at the ende of the same
table the archebyshop of Cauntorbury, and Henrye, surnamed the ryche
cardynall of Wynchester. And vppon the lefte hande of the quene satte
the Kynge of Scottes in hys estate, the wyche was served wythe covered
messe, like vnto the forenamed byshoppes, but after them." "And ye shall
vnderstande, that this feaste was al of _fyshe_." Each course had its
"sotyltye," however, embodying the wit of other parts of the creation;
as "a pellycane syttyng on his nest with her byrdes, and an ymage of
saynte Katheryne holdyng a boke and disputyng with the doctoures,
holdyng a reason in her ryghte hande, saiynge: 'Madame le roigne' and
the pellycan as an answere, 'Ce est la signe et du roy, partenir joy, et
a tout sa gent, elle mete sa entent,'--a sotyltye named a panter with an
ymage of saynte Katheryne with a whele in her hande, and a rolle wyth a
reason in that other hande, sayeng: 'La royne ma file, in ceste ile, per
bon reson, aves renoun.'" &c.
HENRY VI. had the high honour of being solemnly crowned as king, both
at London and in Paris--"in infant bands." In the ninth year of his age
"he was leyde upon the high scaffold" in Westminster Abbey, "and that
was covered all with red soy between the high autere and the quere. And
he was set in his astate in the middes of the scaffold there, beholdynge
the people all abowte sadly and wisely." The archbishop "made a
proclamacion on the iiij quarters of the scaffolde, seyend in this wyse:
Sirs, heere comyth Henry, kyng Henryes sone the Vth, on whos sowle God
have mercy, amen. He homblyth hym to God and to holy cherche, askynge
the crowne of this reame by right and defence of herytage; if ye hold ye
pays with hym, say ya, and hold up handes. And than all the people cryed
with oon voyce, Ye, ye. Having been crowned, he rose vp ayen and wente
to the shryne; and there was he dyspoyled of all his bysshopp's gere,
and arayd as a kynge in rich cloth of gold, with a crowne on his hede;
which crown the kyng dyd doo make for hymself[101]." The following
account of the appearance of the champion at the coronation feast, will
show the antiquity of the present observances. "Settynge at the mete the
kyng kept his astate; and on the right hand sat the cardynall with a
lower astate, and on the left hande satt the chaunceler and a bysshop of
Fraunce, and no mob at that table. And on the righth hand of the table
at that boord sat the barons of the V. portes. And so forth the clerkes
of the same chauncery. And on the lefte hande of the hall sat the mayre
of London with the aldyrmen. And so forth worthy cominers: and in the
myddes of the hall sat the bisshoppes, justices, and worthy knyghts and
equyers. And so they filled bothe the midde boordes of the hall. And
upon a scaffold stoode the kynges herawdes of armes all the tyme with
crownes on thyr hedes; and at the fyrst cours they came down from her
scaffold, and they wente before the kynges champyon Sir Phelip Dymok
that rode in the hall bright as saynte George! And he proclaimed in the
iiij quarters of the hall that the kyng was a rightfull kyng and heyre
to the crowne of Engelond: and what maner man that wyll say the contrary
he was redy to defende it as hys knyght and hys chaumpion, for by that
offyce he holdith his lande[102]."
At Paris, in his eleventh year, this prince was "honourably accompanied
to the church of our Lady, where he was anointed and crowned by the
cardinal bishop of Winchester, after which he departed to the palace,
having one crown on his head, and another borne before him." "But what
should I speake," continues Grafton, "of the honorable service, the
dayntie dishes, the pleasant conceytes, the costly wynes, the sweet
armony, the musicall instruments which were seene and shewed at that
feast, sithe all men may conjecture, that nothing was omitted that
might be bought for golde, nor nothing was forgotten, that by man's wyt
could be invented[103]."
Our fourth EDWARD, like John, affected an elective right to the crown.
What is now called the Recognition, being at this period what Burnet
terms, "a rite of an election, rather than a ceremony of investing one,
who was already king." "A question was asked of the people then
present," says Fabian, "if they would admitte hym for their kyng and
soveraigne lorde, the which with one voice cried Yea, yea."
RICHARD III. and his consort Anne, were crowned with great state at
Westminster, 6th of July, 1483; there being an unusual concourse of
nobility at this festival, according to Walpole, including three
duchesses of Norfolk. Some preparations seem also to have been made for
the appearance of his deposed nephew, Edward V., in the procession, but
whether he in reality wore his "apparel and array" there, will ever
remain, among "Historic Doubts." The circumstance of such an
arrangement being publicly made, however, demonstrates the confidence of
Richard in his own title. Lord Orford, who first brought forward the
evidence of this singular arrangement, says, "Though Richard's son did
not walk at his father's coronation, Edward V. probably did. I conceive
all the astonishment of my readers at this assertion, and yet it is
founded on strongly presumptive evidence. In the coronation roll itself,
is this amazing entry: 'To lord Edward, son of late king Edward IV., for
his apparel and array, that is to say, a short gowne made of two yards
and three quarters of crymsyn clothe of gold, lined with two yards and
three quarters of blac velvet, a long gowne made of six yards of crymsyn
cloth of gold, lynned with six yards of green damask, a shorte gowne
made of two yards and three quarters of purpell velvet, &c.' Let nobody
tell me that these robes, this magnificence, these trappings for a
cavalcade, were for the use of a prisoner. Marvellous as the fact is,
there can be no doubt but the deposed young king walked, or it was
intended should walk, at his uncle's coronation[104]."
HENRY VII. was crowned "both in form and substance" on Bosworth Field.
Grafton's remark is, "Lord Stanley took the crown of king Richard, which
was found amongst the spoyle in the field, and set it on the erle's
head--as though he had been _elected_ king by the voyce of the people,
as in auncient tymes past in divers realmes it hath been
accustomed[105]." This monarch, it is well known, endeavoured to
strengthen the substantial claims of conquest by those of marriage with
the daughter of Edward IV., and his own hereditary rights. To the
people, he seems to have promised a joint coronation with "dame
Elizabeth his wief," according to a "Little Devise" of his coronation at
Westminster, which has reached the present times. But in point of fact,
she did not appear there. Unwilling to lose the influence, Henry was
still more determined not to appear to rely on the importance, of his
matrimonial title: he did not, therefore, marry the heiress of the house
of York, until after his coronation, and delayed to invest her with the
diadem, until the 3d year of his reign. We have a fine description of
her coronation in Mr. Ives' Select Papers relating to English
Antiquities, to which we have already adverted.
No English monarch ascended the throne under happier auspices, or with
more splendour, than HENRY VIII. "The ordre of the services" of this
"high and honourable coronation" is given at great length by Hall: in
which the disused custom of a progress through the metropolis
constitutes no small part of the pageantry.
Katherine of Arragon appeared on this occasion, borne on a litter by two
white palfreys, "apparelled in white satyn embroudered, her heeire
hanging doune to her back of a very great length, bewtefull and goodly
to behold, and on her head a coronate set with many rich orient stones."
The entrance of the champion, and his challenge, are in the highest
style of feudal pomp, and in strict accordance with the old mode of
trial by combat. "The seconde course beyng served, in at the haule doore
entered a knight, armed at al poyntes, his bases rich tissue
embroudered, a great plume and a sumpteous of ostriche fethers on his
helmet, sittyng on a great courser trapped in tissue, and embroudered
with tharmes of England, and of Fraunce, and an herauld of armes before
him. And passyng through the halle, presented hymself with humble
reverence before the kynges majestie, to whom garter kyng of herauldes
cried and said, with a loude voyce, Sir knight, from whence come you,
and what is your pretence? This knight's name was Sir Robert Dimmocke,
champion to the kyng by tenure of his enheritaunce, who answered the
saied kyng of armes in effecte after this manner:--Sir, the place that I
come from is not materiall, nor the cause of my repaire hether is not
concernyng any matter of any place or countrey, but only this; and
therewithall commanded his heraulde to make an O yes: then saied the
knyght to the kyng of armes, Now shal ye here the cause of my commyng
and pretence. Then he commaunded his owne herauld by proclamacion to
saye: If there be any persone, of what estate or degree soever he be,
that wil saie or prove that King Henry the Eight is not the rightfull
enheritor and kyng of this realme, I, Sir Robert Dimmocke, here his
champion, offre my glove, to fight in his querrell with any persone to
the utteraunce."
The coronation of Anne Boleyn was distinguished by the appearance of
"marvailous connyng pageauntes" in the city: all the Graces were seen on
Cornhill; the Muses hailed her approach "in Cheap;" and the Cardinal
Virtues (how are times changed!) paraded Fleet Street. At the banquet
the king took his station, incog. in a little closet made out of the
cloyster of St. Stephen's, on the right side of the hall.
We are informed by Burnet, that at the coronation of EDWARD VI. the
office for that ceremony was revised and much shortened; there being
"some things that did not agree with" the existing "laws of the land,
as the promise made to the abbotts for maintaining their lands and
dignities;" and "for the tedious length of the same, which should weary
and be hurtsome, peradventure, to the king's majesty, being yet of
tender age, fully to endure and bide out[106]."--"The most material
thing in it," he adds, "is the first ceremony, whereby the king being
shewed to the people at the four corners of the stage, the archbishop
was to demand their consent to it; and yet in such terms as to
demonstrate he was no elective prince, for he being declared the
rightful and undoubted heir, both by the laws of God and man, they were
desired to give their good wills and assent to the same, as by their
duty and allegiance they were bound to do." Yet 'King Edward's Journal,'
preserved in the Appendix of this writer, says, "and it was asked of the
people whether they would have him _to be the king_? Who answered, yea,
yea." The young monarch did not, of course, understand the doctrine of
his own "legitimacy" so well as his loyal courtiers.
MARY, our first queen regnant, was crowned at Westminster, Oct. 1, 1553,
by Gardiner, bishop of Winchester; the archbishops of Canterbury and
York being both involved in the rigorous persecution of the Protestants
which had now begun. In Cheapside the chamberlain of the city presented
her majesty with a purse containing a thousand marks of gold. It is
somewhat remarkable, that with all the personal fondness of Mary for her
husband, Philip of Spain, she should never have proposed his coronation,
in any form: it would have been quite as regular and constitutional, we
imagine, as that of a queen consort, and much more so than many of her
fruitless efforts to promote his influence and authority over her
subjects.
Queen ELIZABETH, according to the usual custom, resorted to the Tower at
the death of her sister. Every part of her conduct, until finally
established in the most unbounded sway over the hearts of her people, is
from this moment interesting. On entering the Tower she is said to have
been immediately impressed with the important change that had taken
place in her condition since she was imprisoned in that fortress, and in
constant danger of her life. She went on her knees in gratitude to
Heaven, and spoke of her deliverance being as great as that of Daniel
from the lions' den: an "act of pious gratitude," says Hume, "which
seems to have been the last circumstance in which she remembered any
past hardships or injuries." Cautious and temperate as she was in the
restoration of Protestantism, the prelates almost entirely refused to
grant her episcopal consecration. At length, Oglethorpe, bishop of
Carlisle, was prevailed upon to officiate--but he was the only bishop
present.
Whether the solemn presentation of the Bible to the sovereign, at his
coronation, was an improvement upon the pageant in which an English
Bible was presented to this princess during her progress through the
city (see p. 60), or at which of our Protestant coronations it was
introduced, we know not. It clearly is a Protestant and most
appropriate symbol of the royal duty, and of the best means of
performing it.
In her first communication with her parliament, there is an allusion of
this princess to one part of the coronation ceremony, which we must not
omit to notice. The Commons, after granting a liberal subsidy, ventured
to recommend the queen to marry. In reply she told them, that as the
application was general, without presuming to direct her choice as to a
husband, she could not take offence at it; but that any further
interposition on their parts would have ill become them to make, or her
to bear: that even while she was a private person, and exposed to much
danger from the malice of her enemies, she had always declined that
engagement, as an encumbrance; much more at present must she persevere
in that sentiment, when the charge of a great kingdom was committed to
her, and her life ought to be devoted to its interests: that as
_England_ was her husband, wedded to her by this pledge (and here she
exhibited her finger with the CORONATION RING upon it), Englishmen were
her children; and while she was employed in rearing or governing such a
family, she could not deem herself barren, or her life useless and
unprofitable: that if she ever entertained thoughts of changing her
condition, the care of her subjects' welfare would be uppermost in her
thoughts; but should she live and die a virgin, she doubted not but
divine Providence, seconding their counsels and her own measures, would
be able to prevent all dispute with regard to the succession;--and that,
for her part, she desired no higher character or fairer remembrance of
her should be transmitted to posterity, than to have this inscription
engraved on her tombstone, "Here lies Elizabeth, who lived and died a
maiden queen!"
The accession of JAMES I. to the throne was distinguished by nothing
remarkable connected with our subject, except the numerous creations of
peers and other titles. He is said, during the first six weeks after his
entrance into the kingdom, to have bestowed knighthood on 237 persons.
It was at this period that an advertisement was affixed to the door of
St. Paul's cathedral, offering to teach a new art of memory, to enable
the people to recollect the names of the additions to the nobility.
There has been a recent publication of Sir Edward Walker's "Account of
the Preparations for the Coronation of King CHARLES II.;" but his
"minute detail" adds nothing important to the history of that splendid
ceremony, unless we so account the "double felicitie" of the prince and
people, "that as hee was the object of innumerable multitudes of his
subjects, so by no accident from Towre-Hill to his own palace, no one
suffered the least prejudice; and that the sunne shined gloriously all
that day and the next until after his coronation, not one drop of raine
falling in all that time, as very much had done at least ten dayes
before, and as many after those two great solemnityes[107]."
Sandford, the "most dutiful author and collector" of the details of
JAMES II.'s coronation, has furnished the only complete text-book of
our subject. Mr. Taylor, and all subsequent writers, follow him
throughout the entire ritual of the church service, and in "every thing
relating to practice[108]." In an address to "the King," he speaks of
"the pomp, the dignity, and the many glorious circumstances which
accompany this matter and occasion," "being such as would _endanger the
tempting_ of another man to swell a dedication to the bulk of a
History;" and dilates upon "the boundless antiquity of the imperial
descent," with the splendour, "both in war and peace," of the kingly
progenitors of His Majesty--not forgetting the "_series of miracles_,"
which he asserts to have been still following in that descent, and to
have been specially "wrought in favour of His Majesty's life and
government." "If I should presume to follow the impulse of my zeal," he
adds, "I should _enlarge_ myself upon this theme; but being conscious,
that it is as little my faculty as it is my province, and that long
importunities from a subject to his sovereign are neither good
discretion nor good manners; I will take care not to be needlessly
troublesome, by being over officiously thankful," &c. This is modest
enough for the introduction of a folio on the royal occupations of one
day.
The book describes the preparations for the coronation, the
performances, and the subsequent claims arising out of the performances
of the day: but it is as stiff and stately throughout as in the
dedication. Omitting no one Christian name of a dowager peeress, nor of
any "individual person who went in the grand proceeding," nor even of
"such who _ought_ to have gone," it furnishes not a single personal
anecdote of the day, nothing that stirs our sympathies: the king is a
sort of demi-god, "most high, most mighty, and most excellent," and his
nobles a number of well ordered automata moving round him. They speak
all the day "out of a book held before" them. Nothing is heard, even at
dinner, but grace and defiance from the bishop and champion.
Something human, however, appears in their appetites. In the Journal of
Preparations, we find His Majesty's pleasure declared in council, that
"a particular account" should be obtained "of the dinner kept in
Westminster Hall, at the coronation of His Majesty King Charles II., as
also that provided at the coronation of his royal father; together,"
gentle reader, "with the whole _expense_ and charge of the said
dinners." And we accordingly find the feet and inches of the royal table
of Charles II. duly given; the courses of meat, hot and cold, and the
dishes in each course; as likewise the orders of the "_banquet_," served
in plate, on each of the tables of the Hall: that term (our future
commentators on Shakspeare must observe) being confined to the
"confections dried and wet, with fruit of the season." In another minute
of council is a recommendation that there "be provided a magnificent
table for their Majesties in the nature of an ambigue; but with two
courses, in regard to the ceremonies that are to be performed at the
second course." On turning to our books to understand _this_ method of
good living, we were somewhat startled to find the following
contradictory recommendation, quoted by Johnson, from an old Art of
Cookery:--
When _straitened_ in your time, and servants _few_,
You'd richly then compose an ambigue,
Where first and second course, and your desert,
All in _one single_ table have their part.
St. George's day, in 1684-5, was happily chosen for the ceremony; and a
letter of summons, which seems to constitute the actual right of
appearing at a coronation, was ordered to be drawn up by the Earl of
Sunderland. This document, the form of which continues to be followed,
runs thus:--
"JAMES R.
"Right trusty and well-beloved cousin, we greet you well. Whereas we
have appointed the 23d day of April next for the solemnity of our
royal coronation. These are, therefore, to will and command you, all
excuses set apart, that you make your personal attendance on us, at
the time above mentioned, furnished and appointed, as to your rank
and quality appertaineth, there to do and perform such services as
shall be required and belonging to you. And whereas we have also
resolved, that the coronation of our Royal Consort the Queen shall
be solemnized on the same day; we do further require the [Countess]
your wife to make her personal attendance on our said Royal Consort,
at the time, and in the manner aforesaid: whereof you and she are
not to fail. And so we bid you heartily farewell. Given at our Court
at Whitehall, the 21st day of March, in the first year of our reign,
1684-5."
In the "Explanation of the Sacred and Royal Habits, and other Ornaments,
wherewith the King was invested," Sandford mentions a tablet which hung
to the royal chair, and on which were "written, in the Old English
letter, these verses"--
Si quid habent veri vel chronica cana fidesve,
Clauditur hac cathedra nobilis ecce lapis,
Ad caput eximus Jacob quondam patriarcha
Quem posuit cernens numina mira poli:
Quem tulit ex Scotis spolians quasi victor honoristhan
Edwardus Primus, Mars velut armipotens,
Scotorum domitor, notis validissimus Hector,
Anglorum decus, et gloria militiae.
This must, therefore, have been destroyed since King James's coronation,
for it is now lost. There is but one objection to ascribing the verses,
with Mr. Taylor, to Edward the First's reign--would he have written
"Edwardus _Primus_?"
The queen's crown of state, or that worn on her return from Westminster
Hall, seems to have been the most valuable part of the regalia of that
day. It is regularly set forth, in its component pearls and diamonds, as
of "value 111,900_l._" (an immense sum at that period), and weighing
only eighteen ounces ten pennyweights.
King James and his Queen slept at St. James's Palace on the vigil of St.
George, "for the greater convenience of performing their devotions,"
&c.; and joined the peers and other dignitaries at the Palace of
Westminster, by "half an hour after ten." Here the latter were
marshalled according to their respective classes, _four_ in a rank;
placing the youngest on the left, pursuant to what had been before
resolved on by his majesty in council, for "the greater glory of the
solemnity:" and "note," says our accurate chronicler, "that at _all_
former coronations the classes proceeded only by two abreast." The king
and queen entered Westminster Hall at half past eleven o'clock
precisely; when the dean of Westminster "having, early in the morning,
with the assistance of the prebendaries, consecrated the holy oil for
their majesties' anointing," (in what manner we are not informed),
presented the regalia to the king. Then the queen's regalia were placed
before her; and the several noblemen and gentlemen who were to bear the
different symbols of royalty to the Abbey were summoned to receive them;
the whole procession being ready to move forward exactly at _noon_.
Now came the stately pomp of England's royalty and nobility "through the
New Palace Yard into King Street, and so through the Great Sanctuary
unto the west door of the collegiate church of St. Peter," as depicted
by Sandford in "nineteen sculptures following," or, as modern
book-manufacturers would say, in thirty-eight well-executed folio
plates, which give the exact appearance of "each degree and order of
person in the same," and really form an admirable memorial of such a
procession.
The twelve principal ceremonies assigned by this writer to the Abbey are
the same in substance with the modern observances. It is noticed by Mr.
Taylor that Sandford is the author who _first_ terms the presentation of
the monarch to the people, and their reply, "the recognition."
The king sat down in St. Edward's chair; and the archbishop, assisted by
the dean of Westminster, "reverently put the crown on the king's head"
at three of the clock precisely. The queen, having been first anointed
on her head and breast, was now crowned and enthroned, and the
procession returned to the Hall at "five of the clock."
The first course of the "ambigue" appears to have consisted of
"ninety-nine dishes of the most excellent and choicest of all sorts of
cold meats, both flesh and fish, excellently well dressed, and ordered
all manner of ways;" and the whole feast of 1445 dishes, of the placing
of which we have a numbered scheme (a folio plate), and catalogues
corresponding. Could this _provoking_ volume present its viands to some
of our other senses in equal perfection with that in which "the first
course of hot meat served up to their majesties' table" meets the eye,
it were more reasonable to detain the reader over this part of the work;
but, at the late hour of the morning at which we write this, it is too
much to dwell on the "cocks' combs," and "petty-toes" and
"turkeys-a-la-royale," and "partridges by the dozen," with which it
abounds.
The appearance of the champion and the challenge were exactly according
to modern usage.
Sandford concludes with an abstract of the record of the Court of
Claims, giving both those which were admitted and those which were
rejected. The following is a form of judgment respecting the office of
lord great chamberlain:--
"Quarum quidem petitionum consideratione matura habita, eo quod idem
Comes de Lyndsey modo existit in possessione et executione officii
praedicti, et quod Robertus non ita pridem Carolum Primum faelicissimae
memoriae, tunc Regem Angliae, de advisamento Dominorum in Parliamento;
quod quidem officium Montague nuper Comes Lyndsey pater ejus, cujus
haeres ipse est executus est in coronatione Caroli Secundi nuper
Regis Angliae. Ideo consideratum est per commissionarios praedictos
quod clameum praedicti Comitis de Lyndsey ad officium praedictum eidem
Comiti de Lyndsey allocetur, exercendum praedicto die Coronationis;
et quod clameum praedicti Comitis Derbiae non allocetur; sed quoad
feoda et vadia per dictum Comitem de Lyndsey clamata, clameum ejus
quoad poculum de Assay non allocatur, eo quod non constabat
praedictis commissionariis Magnum Angliae Camerarium dictum poculum
aliqua precedenti coronatione habuisse. Sed quod alia clamea
praedicta eidem Comiti de Lyndsey allocantur.
"Et postea et ante coronationem praedietam dicta quadraginta Virgatae
Velveti eidem Comiti deliberatae fuere: et pro reliquis feodis
praedictis compositio facta est cum praedicto Comiti, pro ducentis
libris sterlingorum, et praedictus Comes de Lyndsey officium Magni
Camerarii Angliae in die Coronationis adimplevit."
And thus the reader has a summary of the contents of this important
work.
James II. boasts, in his Memoirs, of having saved the country 60,000_l._
by the omission (for the first time) of the royal procession through the
city, at his coronation.
The coronation of WILLIAM and MARY presented the singular feature of a
joint sovereignty over these realms, conferred by public consent. The
only alteration this made in the ceremonial was, that another symbol of
sovereign power, the orb, was required, and presented in due form to
the queen as well as to the king. The new-modelling of the coronation
oath, at this period, we have before noticed[109].
It is certainly remarkable that neither of our married queens regnant,
MARY or ANNE, should have obtained the coronation of their husbands: in
neither case was conjugal influence wanted; but the superior force of
the people's jealousy of foreign sway was, perhaps, wisely deferred to:
in neither reign were other subjects of strife wanted between the crown
and the people.
The princes of the illustrious House now seated on the throne have
affected no novelties in their coronation ceremonies--except, perhaps,
that they have endeavoured to simplify and abridge them. GEORGE I.
ascended the throne at the age of fifty-five, and was crowned at
Westminster, on the 20th of October, 1714. His consort, the Princess
Sophia Dorothy of Zell, having fallen under his displeasure for alleged
infidelity to her marriage vows, and having been, it is said, divorced
from him by the Hanoverian law, was never brought into this country; and
never, therefore, acknowledged Queen of England. GEORGE II. was crowned
with his consort, at Westminster, on the 11th day of October, 1727.
Our late beloved monarch had the happiness of exhibiting to his people
the splendid spectacles of his marriage and coronation within the same
month of September, 1761. On the 8th of July, in that year, the king
first announced to the privy council his intention of demanding in
marriage the Princess Charlotte of Mecklenberg, sister of the reigning
Duke Adolphus IV., and on the same day signed a proclamation for the
assembling of the Court of Claims, and for his own coronation. The
queen, being detained by contrary winds, did not arrive in this country
until the 6th of September; on the 8th the nuptial ceremony was
performed; on the 11th a second proclamation directed that her majesty
should be united with her royal consort in the pending coronation
ceremonies. These so far varied from that august ceremonial which has
recently occupied the public attention, as the presence of a queen
consort in the procession to the Abbey, and at the royal feast; her
personal attendants; and the body of the peeresses, may be thought to
give additional interest and splendour to the scene. The queen entered
Westminster Hall the same hour as his majesty, and occupied a chair of
state at his left hand, while the regalia were presented by the Dean of
Westminster and his attendants. In the procession to the Abbey her
majesty's vice-chamberlain took his place immediately following the
gentlemen who personated the Dukes of Aquitaine and Normandy, and was
succeeded by the other part of the queen's state in the following
order:--