IN MORE RECENT TIMES.

Press, Volume LIX, Issue 11347, 9 August 1902, Page 5

IN MORE RECENT TIMES.

UNLUCKY OMENS AND OCCURRENCES. We nsed not concern ourselves here with the vexed' question of Henry VlH.'s motives in seeking a divorce from Katherine of Aragon, nor discuss what share the Pope's refusal to grant it may have had in bringing about the momentous rupture with the see of Rome, Sufficient to remember that, although Henry's marriage with beautiful Anne Bolcyn took place in November, 1532, it was not publicly announced until May, 1533, when Archbishop Cranmer, in a court held at Dunstable, pronounced the King's marriage with Katharine to be null and void. In anticipation of that decree, preparations had been in full swing for a considerable time for the Coronation of the new Queen with ail possible solemnity. It is not an agreeable matter for contemplation. Katharine of Aragon. although five years older than Henry, 'which was no fault c€ hers, had been to him a faithful, loving spouse. She had administered ably the affairsoosf s the realm as Regent during j Henry's absence in France, and she had been judiciously blind to his infidelity as a" husband. Ii was deemed cxpadient to efface Queen Katharine's unjust lot from the | memories of her people, by the splendour of her successor's Coronation. The citi- , zens of London have always been eager for pageants, and on this occasion the Lord Mayor and City companies allowed no point cf morals, sentiment, or decorum to interfere with their ostentation of loyalty. On the morning of 31st May the cannon bellowed exultation, the citizens roared acclaim as the fair Queen issued from the portals of the Tcwer, clad all :n white tissue, with her golden hair flowing loose over her shoulders, and was drawn by two white palfreys along streets spread with 'fresh gravel, between house fronts all resplendent with brilliant fabrics, to take up her lodging in Westminster for tlie ceremony on the racrrow. Where were the prophets? Was there no one in those exulting crowds to foretell that when next Anne Boleyn should leavte the Tower, three summers hence, it would be to bow that beauteous head upon the scaffold? Archbishop Cranmer, all unconscious of the fiery doom by which his memory was to be purged—Cranmer, whose sentence had just blasted the life of the late, but still living, Queen —placed St. Edward's crown upon the new Queen's brow, and anointed her on head and breast and arms, thereby conveyings, as Archbishop Grosstete, of Lincofn, once expounded to Henry ni., the sevenfold grace of the Holy Spirit. Whoever desires a nearer view of the scene in the Abbey on that summer Sabbath morn, let him lend an ear to the conversation of the three gentlemen introduced by Shakespeare into the 4th Act of his Henry VIII. THREE CORONATIONS IN ONE REIGN. Three Coronations in one reign were surely enough and to spare; but it was no sense of decency which restrained King Hal from having a fourth for Jane Seymour, whom he married on 20th May; 1536, the day following Queen Anne's execution. It was only the prevalence of the plague that caused the ceremony to be omitted. His three later queens were not crowned publicly. Edward VI. came to the throne as supreme head of the Church of England, but the ceremony of his Coronation was still the Roman Mass, performed by Cranmer. At Queen Mary's Coronation the land was already in the skirts of that fiery cloud which was to leave such a brand upon her name. Both the Archbishops were in prison, so was the Bishop of London, therefore the ceremony was performed by the Bishop of Winchester. Mary went gingerly, fearing the pollution which might have come upon holy things through contact with her heretic brother, Edward VI. He had sat in the Plantagenet's chair, containing the Stone of Destiny, wherefore she would have none of it, preferring one specially sent by the Pope for the occasion. The .papal interdict which hoi lain so ,k>ng upon the Reformed Church of England, must have deprived the oil of anointing pi its supernatural virtue, so a fresh supply was obtained from France, consecrated by the Bishop of Areas.

Six years later, and those who had been foremost in stirring the fires of Smithfield were trembling for themselves as the Protestant Elizabeth passed from the Tower to Westminster on a wintry day in January, 1559. Again, and for the last time, the service in the Abbey was the Mass of the Church of Rome, but the Litany was read in English. The See of Canterbury was vacant, the Archbishop of York, who was entitled to perform the ceremony, could not stomach an English litany ; the Bishop of London was in prison ; the gap was filled by the Bishop of Carlisle, who happened also to be the Dean of the Chapel Royal. JAMES AND THE STONE OF DESTINY.. Forty-four eventful years had passed, and England had risen to a first-class power, before "gentle King Jamie" came over the border and took his seat on the Stone of Destiny for Coronation ag{ James I. of England, thus literally fulfilling the ancient prophecy that the Scots should rule wherever that stone should rest. The Queen, Anne of Denmark, (having already exchanged the Lutheran for the Presbyterian form of ritual and faith, declined to alter her religion again, and refused the sacrament from the hand of a prelate. Charles I. made no procession from the Tower, but, coming in his barge to Westminster, was run aground at Parliament stairs, which was .reckoned an ill omen. Other incidents, of which we may be pretty sure we should never have heard had the reign turned out better than it did, were noted as inauspicious. The King chose to wear a white satin robe, instead of the customary purple velvet; wiseacres recalled misfortune predicted cf old for "the White King." One of the wings of the dove on the Confessor's sceptre was broken accidentally, and a new dove had to be fashioned in haste. Bishop Senhouse of Carlisle chose for the text of his sermon, "I will give thee a crown of life," which men said was better fitted for a funeral than a Coronation. One incident marked the last appearance in public of one of the most ancient of the ensigns of the English coonarchy. After the anointing, the King's hair was set in order .with Edward the Confessor's ivory comb. When Charles took his seat in the Royal chair, be commanded that the comb should be brought to hkn "that he might see it." When, in 1657, King Edward's Chair and the Stone of Destiny were brought from the Abbey and set in Westminster Hall for the installation of Otiver Cromwell, ths Regalia, were no more. The Jews!, bad _*•& sold, ths aold malted, for

the service of the Cb_3_aohw;e_l_b; the simple ivory comb bad been cast on the rubbish neap. England had declared through her rulers that she had no further use for fib* trappings of royalty. AT THE But official decrees much belied the warm heart of the cation. Ancient ties and historic usage are not to be severed by Acts of Parfiament, and in less than four years the citizens of London were in all the ecstasy of the Restoration, feverishly arraying their streets for a renewal of the Coronation splendour. "Up early," writes the irrepressible Pepys, on 22nd April, 1661, "and made myself as fine I could, and put on my velvet coat* the first day that I put it on, though made half a year ago. It is impossjbl- to relate the glory of this day expressed in the clothes of them that rid (rode) and their horses and horse-cloths. » The Bishops were next after the Barons, •which is the higher place; which makes mc think that the next Parliament they will be called to the House of Lords. The streets all gravelled and the houses hung with carpets upon them, made brave show, and the ladies out of the windows. . . And a great pleasure it was to see the Abbey raised ia the middle all covered with red, and a throne—that is a chair and footstool, on the top of it, and ail the officers of __. kinds, so much as the very fiddlers in red vests." Then after the affair was ovsr— '•Strange it is to think that these two days (the procession from the Tower and the service Tn the Abbey) have held up fair till all is done, and then it fell raining and thundering and lightning, as I have not seen it so for some years; which people did take great notice of." In _685, when James 11. was preparing for Coronation, he showed an exemplary desire for economy, but unluclSiy he effected this by forbidding the procession, which should have gratified tens of thousands, while he spent £100,000 in covering h_t Queen with pearls and diamonds. The awkward anomaly presented itself that the Supreme Head of ths Church of England was not * "member thereof, and, as a Roman Catholic, declined to receive the Communion. It fell to the lot of the Bishop of Ely to-preatTi, and, like an honest Protestant, he did not ttink the difficulty, bat gave his hearers the precedent cf the Emperor Constantine, who, though not a Christian himself, always encouraged Christians to hold fast to their religion. The precedent was as good as might be had; yet it would have been easy to cap it br the contrary conduct of other emperors. 11l omens, as usual, were noted; the most startling whereof was that the Champion, advancing to kiss hands, fell flat on his face, all his armour clattering. One permanent feature was added to the Coronation ceremony on this occasion, namely, the presence in the Abbey of the Westoiinster schoolboys. The Revolution of 1688, so far from impairing the dignity of Coronations, confirmed it, for in that year did the ceremony first receive formal ratification by Parliament The nation, fresh from the foretaste of religious interference with which James H, had favoured them, resolved to put »n end for ever to the * alternation of statutory creeds; the Coronation Oath was altered so as to pledge the monarch to maintain "the Protestant religion as established by law," a form which has been preserved ever since, although now we hear complaints that it is too plain-spoken to be agreeable to all his Majesty's subjects. THE FIRST CROWNING OP JOINT SOVEREIGNS. King William and Queen Mary were crowned together, as many a British king and his consort had been before; but there was provided the novelty of a second chair of State, signifying that these two were crowned, not as King and Consort, but aa joint Sovereigns. Significant, too, was the provision for the first time of special seats reserved for the House of Common-, as was also the resumption of a, ceremony first observed at the Coronat_on of Edward VI-, namely, the gift to the monarch of a Bible, "as the most valuable thing in the world." A similar presentation (had been made to Cromwell on his installation, and has been repeated on every Coronation subseqaant to that of WfUiaoa and Mary. The non-jur-ing Archbishop of Canterbury was absent, but there were many ke&fl Jacobite eyes in the assembly watching for omens favourable to their cause, for news had just arrived that James DZ. had landed in Ireland, liter. was an occasion for some intrepid Jacobite to take up the Champion's challenge; but it was nearly dark when that was delivered in Westminster Hall, and rumour has it that the gauntlet flung on the floor was carried off by an old woman on crutches.

Queen Anne, the last of the Stuart line, was crowned on 23rd April—St. George's Day—l7o2, only ten days after the interment of William. The Queen was suffering from gout, so she was carried from St. James's Palace to the Abbey, and after tha ceremony received the homage of her husband, George of Denmark, along with that of her principal subjects. Sarah, Duchess of Mat-borough, filled the office of Lord Great Chamberlain.

When George L ascended the throne in 1714, the ceremony in the Abbey took s> bflingual form as at the Coronation of William the Conqueror. Not in French and Anglo-Saxon as on that occasion, but in German and Latin, for King George had no English, and the clergy and officials so German. The King was infinitely bored by the whole proceedings, and took no pains to conceal it; not so his son, George H., who took infinite delight in his own sumptuous inauguration in 1727, while Queea Caroline, as Lord Hervey reports, "be_k_es her own jewels (which were a great number and very valuable) had on b?r bead and on her shoulders all the pearls she could* borrow of ladies of quality at one end of the town, and on her petticoat all the diamonds she could hire of the Jews and jeweEers at the other."

Horace Walpole has furnished a very? satirical and amusing account of George IH.'s Coronation in 1761.

"My Lady Harrington, covered with all the diamonds she could borrow, hire, or seizs, and with the air of Roxana, was the finest figure at a distance. She complained to George Selwyn that she was to walk with Lady Portsmouth, who would have a wig and a stick. 'Pho!' said he, *you will only look as if you were taken up by the constable.' She told this everywhere thinking the reflection was on Lady Portsmouth. . . , The Champion acted his part admirably, and dashed down his gauntlet with proud defiance. His associates, Lord Effingham, Lord Talbot, and the Duke of Bedford, were woefuL Lord Talbot piqued himself on backing his horse down the Hall and not turning his rump to the King, but he had taken such pains to dress it to that duty that it entered backwards." A ROMANTIC EPISODE. - But Horace ia silent upon the most exciting tradition of that scene. It is reported that when the Champion flung down his gauntlet, a white kid fluttered down beside it from the gallery overhead, "Wbo is my fair opponent?" cried, this Champion, ..___ . _.—a**!- ___—*a__&«

as h« acoepted the symbol of defiance. No answer c*me,%nd for a very good reason, if it ba true that he who flung it was twee other than' Prince Charles Edward, the \__tt o\ VbA ft__m_*r\t_i \WA Home sajrs that tho Lord Jkfkxrxhsl assured. Jiiin thai a ftiend of bis had «e*n ftu4 | spoken to th* disguised Prince. TSot v«sy convincing evidence, bat the best that can be had now of a romantic episode. , The lavish expenditure voted for George j IV."a Coronation was calculated to create a brilliant impression at the outset of the reign, bot the effect was marred by the on-, savoury scandals about the Queen. For I many years her Digamous husband —"__• Fin* Gentieman ia Europe," forsooth !.— had been raking every gntttr for evidence : that: would serve him for a divorce. He | collected a quantity of nasty stories, but not enough to prove his Consort's guilt, and the last act of this squalid tragedy was reserved for Cornation Day. The procession j had entered the Abbey, the organ pealed j triumphantly as King George—Supreme head of the Church—approached the altar to make his oblation, to receive the anoint- J ing. and partake of the Bacrament. There was a stir at the west door, for outside the Queen of England, claiming admission. 'It is my doty," replied Sir Robert Ivglis, "to announce to you that there is no place I provided for your Majesty in the Abbey." ' Then the unfortunate, unlovely lady drove away, and in a few weeks dispelled the perplexity, of the Cabinet by quietly breathing her last. William IV. came to the throne when the tempest of Reform was at its height. His predecessor's Coronation had cost £240,000 ; in the interest of the taxpayers, whom it was so desirable to keep in moderately good humour, William proposed to waive the ceremony altogether. It was decided that this could not be done constitutionally, so William and Adelaide were economically crowned for some £30,000 j tie only thing to be noted about it being that tha Sailor Bang was the first ever crowned in trousers. Loyalty was at a low ebb in 1838; public men of the longest experience, Whig and Tory alike, were those who entertained least confidence in the permanence of monarchy as a British institution. Not one of them bad the heart to discern a good omen in Victoria's gracious act, when she stepped quickly down from the throne to rai?e to his feet aged Lord Ro'.le, who had fallen in attempting to perform his homage. Nobody detected in that slender maiden that wisdom, which was destined to redeem the languishing honour of the Crown, and influence to alter the whole tone and habits of society. «