WHEN BRITAIN CROWNS A MONARCH.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 72, 27 March 1937, Page 27 (Supplement)

WHEN BRITAIN CROWNS A MONARCH.

Origin of Coronation Ceremony Hidden In Mystery, RICHARD I. CROWNED THREE TIMES.

* The Coronation ceremony always has played an important part in J j English history. In a series of articles, of which this is the first, is J • told the story of Britain's Coronations, and their aftermath, from the | j days of Richard the Lion-Hearted down to the present. ! (By WILLIAM C. McCLOY.)

THE Coronation of King George VI., scheduled for May 12, has a deeper historical significance than any other such ceremony for centuries. A changed Kuropc—a. changed England, indeed— finds this ancient ceremony greatly altered, although the essential requirements remain the same. So head that wears a crown may attend English coronations. Other kings may only send their representatives. At the last crowning—that of George V. in 1911 ; — they did so. From Russia, Spain, Germany, Austria, Italy, Turkey, China and elsewhere came a- glittering troop of imperial kinsfolk and royal, cousins to do honour to the English Sovereign. Dictators will send their representatives to George Vl.'s coronation. The reigning kings now left in Europe are few in number; their countries are relatively unimportant. Unless things political change very much between now and next May, the great nations of Russia, German}', Austria, Turkey and China will send. emissaries from the people of those countries. Spain, torn by civil war, .may not be able to send anybody. Italy's shadow king—most helpless of European monarchs—will do just what his dictator dictates. Origin Wrapped in Mystery. The origin of the coronation' ceremony is wrapped in mystery. Rut from time immemorial the crown has been the symbol of authority, both for Church and State. The bishop's mitre is the ecclesiastical crown. Crowns were also the insignia of victory and recompense; they were the emblems of martyrdom. Such crowns tisually amounted to little more than a wreath of bay or laurel, but the kingly crown was always expensive. Its cost in precious stones and metal was as much as the country conferring it could afford—sometimes more. Just why a crown should be an emblem of power is not clear. • One of the earliest coronations known to history is that of King Ramescs 11., of the twen-. ticth Egyptian dynasty, 1200 R.C. In the Great Harris Papyrus, Ramcses describes at length and with great detail his own crowning, ending with the dim a*: "I was crowned with the Atef crown." In ancient Egypt no woman, except the queen, was allowed to participate in the grand procession of a king's coronation. Assyrian kings had magnificent crownings', according to the records upon their baked clay tablets which have come down to us. Throughout these records, centuries apart, runs a kind of refrain, occurring periodically: "So be it of the crown." The ceremony seating Sardanapulusjupon the throne was especially gorgeous. Like Ramcses 11., lie wrote the description himself (or his chroniclers pretend he did), and he was fully convinced of his own importance in all things. "For the substantiation of 1113' royalty, the sovereignty of Assyria I made. The gods I offered them. I conferred decrees with joy." At the coronation of Ptolemy Philadelphia, King of Egypt in 283 8.C., 3200 crowns of pure gold were carried in the procession, with a single conse-

crated crown, 120 ft in circumference, that was adorned with a profusion of precious stones. Seven other large crowns were supported by young virgins richly attired. One sucll crown measured 3ft in circumference. Alexander Loses Crown. Hastening to his coronation in a boat across the lake of Babylon, that strenuous young monarch, Alexander the Great, became separated from his part}'. In his hurry to rejoin them, the diadem he wore upon his head while travelling caught upon the branches of a tree, to fall later in the water. One of the king's rowers dived after it and brought it up successfully, but in order to swim, faster he put the crown upon his own! head. Alexander regarded this as an ill-1 omen. When lie readied the shore, and the crown once more was safe on the,

king's own head, the "diver was. put to death. '. ' '""■'•.

Marc Antony's coronation of Cleopatra,- 33 8.C., is- one of the most celebrated because it was so costly. Not only were there crowns and sceptres of gold, richly gemmed, but the immense throne accommodating two persons was of solid gold—the ascent to which was by several steps of silver.

Charlemagne's coronation was remarkable for tlie way lie -was anointed. He was undressed and literally bathed in oil from bead to foot, the only instance of the kind on record, though the anointing is the oldest part of coronation rites. Why such a modern as King George VI. must have a few drops of oil poured on his head, to be wiped off immediately before putting on his crown, is puzzling, though it is generally recognised as of religious rather than temporal significance.

The' crown of the early Saxon kings of England was hardly more than two

Richard I. Cuts Crowning Rilual. — Richard Coucr dc Lion was crowned three limes. At the first and most impressive ceremony in Westminster Abbey, Richard overlooked the Dean of Westminster's duly to hand the crown to the Archbishop of Canterbury, impetuously look the crown from the altar himself and handed it to the Archbishop. The Primate then placed it on the sovereign's head.

helmets joined together. Saxon kings were war kings, and crowns have ever reflected the temper of those who wear them and the people they serve and represent. Among English coronations from the time of the Norman Conquest, that of Richard the Lion-Hearted stands out conspicuously. He was the son of Henry 11. and Eleanor of Aquitaine. Richard's road to the throne, like his whole life and that of his mother, was stormy. His mother was. the. divorced wife of Louis, VII. of France. She had been Queen of France long enough to be the mother of two daughters. She accompanicd her husband, Louis VII., on the second crusade and quarrelled violently with him most of the time. Vicious gossips said their differences resulted from the attentions paid to the Queen by her uncle, Raymond of

Antioch. The more authentic chroniclers attribute the divorce to her failure to bear a son. Two years after- their return from the crusade, Louis officially had the marriage annulled on the ground of kinship. A Political Marriage. Eleanor's marriage to Henry 11. of t England was a political rather than a j love match. He was but 19 and she f was 30 years old, but she brought him 2 tlio rich province in France as her i dowry. Through her marriage with l Henry, she became the mother of five sons and three daughters. The third - son, Richard, succeeded his father. i Richard I. is England's only king who i was crowned three times —first at Westi minster, September 3, 1180, second on i the Island of Cyprus, in 1191, and- the i third time in the old city of Winchester., : I where so many Saxon kings had been * crowned. Richard I.'s was the last eerer mony there. . He did not want this third > crowning, but his advisers insisted upon • it in order to reassure his subjects after ■ his long absence from England. His reinvestiture in the coronation robes was i regarded .as so important that he was > ultimately buried in them. '* . The coronation at Cyprus was at the suggestion of the allied crusaders,, who had arrived at that lovely island in the month of May, when the Mediterranean region is at its fairest, to assist at Richard's marriage with Berengaria of Navarre. Richard, who had just conquered the Cypriotes, was crowned king of Cyprus, while Berengaria was crowned queen of the English and of Cyprus. All the Anglo-Norman kings, from William the Conqueror down to Richard I. inclusive, styled themselves kings of their people, not of their dominions. That, came later. Richard I.'s first coronation, which took place at Westminster Abbey, as will. CJeorge Vl.'s, was less significant perhaps than that at Winchester, as it -■ was less romantic than the one at Cyprus, but it was the most splendid of the three though marred slightly by several ill omens. The augurs were not alone in regarding the inhuman massacre of the Jews upon the same date as of evil portent. All the ; chroniclers allude to the massacre in guarded terms and with profound regret. Bat Circles Monarch. A less obvious ill omen, was contributed by . a bat that appeared at the Abbey about midday to flutter vainly about until Richard seated himself upon the throne when it described circle after circle about the monarch, though at such heights no one could capture it. Another disturbing factor to the peace of the superstitious that September day was a peal of bells rung without any agreement or knowledge of the Abbey Hamsters or those in charge of the coronation ceremonies: This unaccountable peal of bells is a matter of record. All the chroniclers mention it, though "it was of such portentous omen as was , then hardly believable to be related even in a whisper." The very date of Richard's Westminster coronation 'was. unlucky. The astrologers and soothsayers remarked that September 3 was an "Egyptian Day." An ancient manuscript in the British Museum' enlightens us upon Egyptian Days. "Three days there are in each year which we call Egyptian Days—that is, in our language, 'dangerous days' on any occasion whatsoever to the blood of man or of beast." Excellent accounts exist of-Richard ! I.'s Westminster coronation—better than those of any previous ceremony. Many of the rites' details, remain astonishingly the same to this day. Like Richard 1.George.. VI. will,-first of all, take the oath and next, be anointed as was Richard I. Finally, George VI. will hand liis crown to the Archbishop of Canterbury, who will place it. upon the king's head, just as Canterbury's archbishop .in 1 ISO placed it upon the head of Richard the Lion-Hear ted. . The very names ot many of the nobles active in Richard I.'s coronation will appear in the accounts of George Vl.'s crowning. On the cfiigy of Richard 1., in the Abbey of Fontevral, France, where he is buried with Berengaria, are seen the coronation gloves, each with a large jewel on the back—symbols of royal dignity.—(2s.A.N.A.)