SOME CORONATIONS OF QUEENS-CONSORT.

Press, Volume LIX, Issue 11347, 9 August 1902, Page 13

SOME CORONATIONS OF QUEENS-CONSORT.

The first Coronation of an English Queen Consort of which anything diefinite ia known ■is that of Edith, wife of Edward the Confessor. It was for her that the speck! crown was made, which served for the Coronation of subsequent Consorts, until the Commonwealth, and which was the mods! of the diadem still used, and known as Queen Edith. crown. There was but little tempoiral pageantry at the Coronation of tliis Saxon princess, and the precedents for the pomp and grandeur of the modern osremonial are found, says a recent writer, in that of her Norman _iecessor, Matilda, wife of William the Conqueror. This event is also memorable, as the first occasion on which the champion was introduced. "A bold cavalier called Marmion," says an ancient chronicle, "came into the hall (ait Winchester), and repeated the challenge: 'If any psrson denies that our Most Gracious Sovereign, Lord William, and hss spouse, Matilda, are not King and Queen cf England, lie is a flat-hearted traitor and a liar, and here I, as champion, do challenge him to single combat.'" The coronation of Eleanor of Aquitaine and Henry 11., which took place in Westminster Abk'y in 1154, set an example to future ceremonials in display and magnificence, the luxurious Queen "revolutionising the dress of the- Coyrt by the gorgeous mantles of silk and brocade which she brought with her from France. Her Coronation robes, which were bordered with ermine, wer. described as marvels of richness. and beauty, and she even prevailed upon the bishops to appear, for the first time in the history of English Coronations, in sumptuous robes of silk and velvet, embroidered with gold, in imitaiion of the vestments of the Greek Church. Ber&ngaria, Queen of Richard 1., was crowned in Cyprus, and never set foot in England. Eleanor of Provence, the Queen of Henry HI., tried hard at her Coronation to eclipse the splendour of.her namesake of Aquitaine. Her jewellery alone is said to .have cost A)3o,ooo—an enormous sum at that time and her crown, most glorious with gems, was valued at £15,000. Still another Eleanor, ilus lime of Castile, the Consort of Edward 1., set her mark upon English Coronations, and even domestic furnishing, by having th. chambers prepared for her reception at Westminster Abbey hung with costly tapf-try, and carpeted after the Spa_ish fashion. Until then this mode cf decoration had in England only been used in churches. At the Coronation of Isabella of France wife of Edward H., the Royal command to the nobles ,to attend was for the first time extended to their wives/ and the precedent was thus created for peeresses accompanying their lords. It could hardly be Mud an this case that the" ceremonial went off welL The nobles were jealous because the King insisted on giving to lus hated favourite. Piers Gaveston, the honour of bearing the crown, and the Queen was so angry because her splendid Coronation pressnts were given to the same minion, and so out of humour over the cold and badly-cooked Coronation feast, that site wrote to her father, the King of France complaining of the slights which sn. had suffered. . Katherine of Valois, the consort of Henry V., received a ring -which is supposed to be the same as that worn by the Queen Consort still. , T h e queen of Henry VTI., Elizabeth of York, had a great water pageant at her Coronation. She came from Greenwich Palace to the Tower by river, all the barges of the civic companies" coming to meet her, and on the following day she was carried in state through the city to Westminster Palace, and on the third day was crowned. Passing by several other Queens-consort, we come to Katherine of Braganza, wife of Charles 11. Her case is peculiar in that being a Roman Catholic, she was not crowned at all. For the coronation of Mary of Modena, who was the first Queen-Consort to undergo the ceremony after the Restoration, the old regalia, destroyed during the Commonwealth, was replaced, and the crown made for her after the pattern of the one belonging to Queen Edith was the same which has recently been re-modelled for Queen Alexandra. Her Royal robes of purple velvet were furred with ermine, and looped with ropes and tassels of pearls; her kirtle was of white and silver brocade, ornamented with pearls and precious stones, and her stomacher blazed with jewels. She wore a cap of purple velvet, turned up with ermine, and decorated with a circlet of gold set with diamonds and pearls. Her dress alone cost £100,000, and, speaking of her coronation afterwards, in the days of her hu_band*s banishment, when she was "shut round with narrowing nunnery walla" at Chaillot, she would often tell the wondering nuns how that her dress a_d Royal mantle were covered with precious stones, and it took all the jewels that all the goldsmiths of London could procure to decorate her crown. At the coronation of this Queen-consort, also, the ancient custom of strewing flowers before the procession was revived, and the hereditary herb-woman— whose picturesque office is not to be represented at the crowning of Queen Alexandra —assisted by six young ladies wearing hoods, and open robes, strewed flowers and fragrant herbs before her feetThe ceremonial which marked the coronation of this Stpart queen formed the precedent for the Hanoverian consorts. The coronation of Caroline of A_spaeh, queen of George 11., was a very splendid one. Less ostentatious was that of George HI. and Queen Charlotte, but the minimum of display characterised that of William IV. and Adelaide, in 1331. The object of the King and Queen was to economise, bah their thrift was net appreciated by the public, and the ceremony, wa^^fi^^^ip^wjtb^