WHAT CORONATIONS COST

New Zealand Mail, 27 August 1902, Page 56 (Supplement)

WHAT CORONATIONS COST

The most expensive coronation on record was that of the present Czar of Russia, which took place at Moscow, tho ancient capital, on May 26th, 1896. Practically the whole of the vast--em-pire was en fete for the better part of a fortnight, the Government spending upwards of £3.0C0.000 on the actual ceremony and the festivities that accompanied and followed it. Anotner million sterling was expended by the public authorities of the various principal cities and towns. Altogether it is estimated that £5.030,000 barely covered the amount disbursed directly and indirectly in honour of the event. The fees to eminent vocalists who sang in the choir at the Coronation of Nicholas 11. amounted to more than lialf as much as the entire Coronation of William IV. of England, and the special harness worn by the horses drawing the various Imperial carriages in the precession cost approximately half as much again as Queen Victoria’* Coronation.

Coming to the opposite extreme, it is somewhat startling to find that tho cost of crowning King William of Prussia, first Emperor of United Germany, on January 18th. 1871. worked out at a trifle under a fifty-pound note. The coronation, it will be remembered, took place in Louis XlV.'s palace at Versailles. well within cannon-shot of Notre Dnme. Around the Kaiser-King lay his army. 250.000 men: and hard by were another quarter of a million thirsting for his blood. CROWNING OF THE FIRST GERMAN EMPEROR. Never before or since was there ceremony so simple, yet so startlingly dramatic. The princely leaders of his forces stood on either side of their age:! father and uncle, and all round were officers in glittering uniforms. A fc-w----private soldiers were there, too. admitted purposely to round off and complete the military machine. Only one civilian was present, the Lutheran minister who placed the crown on the aged monarch’s brow. The whole ceremony lasted barely thirty minutes, and next morning the world learnt with amazement that there was a German Emperor—for the event had been ken? a profound secret up till the very last moment.

Nearly twenty years previously. in this self-same palace. Napoleon 111. had spent ever fifty million francs upon a series of coronation Totes in honour of himself and his newly-acquired Empress. This was not bad for one who went cut of his way to state, in the middle of the actual ceremony, that lie was not an hereditary, but only an elected Emperor, and as such, renounced nothing of the republican simplicity h had practised when President.

NAPOLEON’S GORGEOUS CROWNS. Even French politeness was nor proof against this and as he took the two gorgeous crowns presented to him by the Archbishop aiul placed the one on his own head and the other on that of his consort, a ripple of barely disguised laughter ran through the assembled multi tildes. And. after all. the people whom he had designed to dazzle by an exhibition of ostentatious, magnificence. openly made invidious comparisons between the show they were being treated to, and the stories—perhaps exaggerated—that had come down to them of the glories of the coronation of LouiXIV.. when the Paris streets ran with wine, and "geld pieces were flung abroad as though they had been pebbles. When the Czar Nicholas I, was crown, ed in the Kremlin, the great dome was replated with gold at a cost of £60.000, and a sum of £120.000 was spent in decorating the high altar. The fetes lasted a week, and the sums lavished on public entertainments were unprecedented up till that time. The Grand Duke Constantine gave a million roubles to -the poor, and other great nobles followed suit. The Duke of Devonshire, who was our Ambassador in Moscow at this time, spent £30.000 of his own money in connection witii the ceremony.

GEORGE IV. COST £2,500.000. The coronation of George IV.. which cost about £2.500,000, was the most expensive in British annals. No less than £25,000 was expended on the coronation robe, aud £45,000 on the crown. Nearly £IOO.OOO worth of new gold plate was specially made for the banquet, and the other preparations were 011 the same lavish scale. In the evening. London was brilliantly illuminated. and there was a very fine display of firewords in Hyde Park; whipa man-of-war, which had been brought up the river, and anchored between Blackfriars and Waterloo Bridges, thundered salutes every few minutes.

The cost of the coronation of George 111. did not amount to half that of George IV., and yet an exceedingly brave show was made of it. One great feature was a sort- of immense platform or dais, four feet high, and 20.000 feet in length, along which the procession passed into Westminster Abbey. It was draped in doth of gold and crimson

velvet, and “glittered so in the s un the eye could scarcely bear to lookup

The decorations inside the Abbev I £27.000, and at the conclusion of ceremony thousands of geld and "i. medals commemorative of the , Ver , were thrown haphazard anionrr spectators, both within and withnm o building. One single incident in itself caused no little uiieasinei When the champion Dvmoke tin down his gauntlet, and' clialleneeri !'£ disputers of the King’s title, a iLK white glove came fluttering down h-J one of the galleries; and instantly tl.« rumour spread abroad that it' w thrown by the Young Pretender w ]io so it was averred, bad gained adinis’ sion to the building by donning feniale

"’hole cost of the coronation of William IV. amounted to only £->BIPO- - that of Queen Victoria' to" ahent £70.000. This" is very much less than what used to be expended in mediaeval times, when money was far scarcer, and its purchasing powers consequently*considerably greater. Then the procession from the Tower, through the City of London to Westminster, used to be on a of tho principal features of the ceremonial. and for this alone from £6O 090 to £BO.OOO was usually disbursed. It was to save this sum that Charles I. went thither by water, but his parsimony caused so much- dissatisfaction that the .procession was revived by Charles 11. That, however, was tlia last, occasion on which it. was practised. MARY RODE THROUGH DR VPFD STREETS.

Very large sums wore lavished 011 Queen Mary’s coronation. For nearly five centuries previously the sceptre of England had been swayed by a mala hand, and the occasion was felt to ba one for extra rejoicing, and for as ostentatious a display asp ossibie. For three days, accordingly, London was en fete.

The actual coronation took place on a Saturday, but on the previous Thursday her Majesty proceeded in state by water from Whitehall to the Tower, attended by “the Lord Mayor and Aidermen, and all the City companies in their barges, with streamers and trumpets. and waits, shawmes and regals, together with great, volley shots of guns, until her Grace came into the Tower, and some time after.”

The next day, Friday, was given up to jousts and all kinds cf merrymaking; and on Saturday the Queen set out, about three o’clock in the afternoon, to return by land to Westminster, e>oortotl by about 500 princt'S, ambassadors, nobles and gentlemen. Tho procession rode through streets draped with crimson and cloth of gold and silver ti.-*ue, and carpeted with fresh green rushes thiekiy strewn with white and red roses.

THREE PROCESSION SEATS FOE, A FARTHING.

In conclusion, it -may be of interest to note briefly the prices paid for scats to view some of the more famous of British coronations. The earliest of which there is any authentic record is Edward I’s, when the demand for a single seat was half-a-farthing, but three seats together might he had for a farthing. At Edward ll.’s the people had doubled either choir wealth or their passion for royal shows; for the price had risen to an entire farthing. At Edward lll.’s it was a half-penny. At Richard lll.’s it was a penny: and tho chronicler bluntly declares that t-ha show was not worth the money.

Twopence then prevailed through a long series of reigns, until Henry Vlil.’s popularity caused a loyal people to pay as much as fourpence. The nation exulted in Elizabeth’s appearance. and a new record of sixpence a seat, or three together for fifteeupence, was established. James I.’s show could be seen at a shilling a head, a- oou’d Charles I.’s. but Charles ll.’s cost half-a-crown, aud George ll.’s hair a guinea. From that time onward prices rose rapidly; at George lll.’s coronation tho seats in galleries in Westminster Abbey were let at ten guineas and upwards each, and seats in the streets ranged from one guinea to ten. At Queen Victoria's there were several instances of £2OO and £3OO being paid for windows, and £3O to £4O for seats.