Coronation

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Coronation ceremony
)
For other uses, see Coronation (disambiguation).

Jules Eugène Lenepveu

A coronation is the act of placement or bestowal of a crown upon a monarch's head. The term also generally refers not only to the physical crowning but to the ceremony wherein the act of crowning occurs, along with the presentation of other items of regalia, marking the formal investiture of a monarch with regal power. Aside from the crowning, a coronation ceremony may comprise many other rituals such as the taking of special vows by the monarch, the investing and presentation of regalia to the monarch, and acts of homage by the new ruler's subjects and the performance of other ritual deeds of special significance to the particular nation. In certain Christian denominations, such as Lutheranism and Anglicanism, coronation is a rite.[1][2] As such, Western-style coronations have often included anointing the monarch with holy oil, or chrism as it is often called; the anointing ritual's religious significance follows examples found in the Bible. The monarch's consort may also be crowned, either simultaneously with the monarch or as a separate event.

Once a vital ritual among the world's monarchies, coronations have changed over time for a variety of socio-political and religious factors; most modern monarchies have dispensed with them altogether, preferring simpler ceremonies to mark a monarch's accession to the throne. In the past, concepts of royalty, coronation and deity were often inexorably linked. In some ancient cultures, rulers were considered to be divine or partially divine: the

dynastic China). Coronations were once a direct visual expression of these alleged connections, but recent centuries have seen the lessening of such beliefs. The most recent coronation in the world was that of King Charles III and Queen Camilla
in London in 2023.

Coronations are still observed in the United Kingdom, Tonga, and several Asian and African countries. In Europe, most monarchs are required to take a simple oath in the presence of the country's legislature. Besides a coronation, a monarch's accession may be marked in many ways: some nations may retain a religious dimension to their accession rituals while others have adopted simpler inauguration ceremonies, or even no ceremony at all. Some cultures use bathing or cleansing rites, the drinking of a sacred beverage, or other religious practices to achieve a comparable effect. Such acts symbolise the granting of divine favour to the monarch within the relevant spiritual-religious paradigm of the country.

Coronation in common parlance today may also, in a broader sense, refer to any formal ceremony in relation to the accession of a monarch, whether or not an actual crown is bestowed, such ceremonies may otherwise be referred to as investitures, inaugurations, or enthronements. The date of the act of accession, however, usually precedes the date of the ceremony of coronation. For example, the Coronation of Elizabeth II took place on 2 June 1953, almost sixteen months after her accession to the throne on 6 February 1952 on the death of her father George VI.

Miniature of Charlemagne crowned emperor by Pope Leo III, from Chroniques de France ou de Saint Denis, vol. 1; France, second quarter of 14th century.

History and development

Martorana
, Palermo

The coronation ceremonies in medieval

Visigothic Spain, Carolingian France and the Holy Roman Empire and brought to their apogee during the Medieval
era.

In non-Christian states, coronation rites evolved from a variety of sources, often related to the religious beliefs of that particular nation.

Anglican ones.[citation needed
]

Antiquity

An ancient coronation from the Indian subcontinent
Main article: Coronations in antiquity
Further information: Sacred king, Diadem, and Tiara

Coronations, in one form or another, have existed since ancient times,

2 Chronicles 23:11.[5]

The corona radiata, the "

imperial cult as it developed during the 3rd century. The origin of the crown is thus religious, comparable to the significance of a halo, marking the sacral nature of kingship, expressing that either the king is himself divine, or ruling by divine right.[citation needed
]

The precursor to the

Constantine I
, and was worn by all subsequent rulers of the later Roman Empire.

Following the assumption of the diadem by Constantine, Roman and Byzantine emperors continued to wear it as the supreme symbol of their authority. Although no specific coronation ceremony was observed at first, one gradually evolved over the following century. Emperor

patriarch of Constantinople
to physically place the crown on the emperor's head.

The first imperial coronation was organised by Leo I, who was crowned by Patriarch Anatolius of Constantinople in 457. This Christian coronation ritual was performed by almost all future emperors, and was later imitated by courts all over Europe.[7] This ritual included recitation of prayers by the Byzantine prelate over the crown, a further—and extremely vital—development in the liturgical ordo of crowning. After this event, according to the Catholic Encyclopedia, "the ecclesiastical element in the coronation ceremonial rapidly develop[ed]".[6]

In some European Celtic or Germanic countries[

crown) was bound around his forehead as a token of regal authority.[3]

Middle Ages

angels
, 12th century.
Rajendra I by Shiva and Parvati
, 1014 CE.

According to

Wamba was the first occidental king to be anointed as well, by the archbishop of Toledo. In England, the Anglo-Saxon king Eardwulf of Northumbria was "consecrated and enthroned" in 796, and Æthelstan was crowned and anointed in 925. These practices were nevertheless irregularly used or occurred some considerable time after the rulers had become kings, until their regular adoption by the Carolingian dynasty in France. To legitimate his deposition of the last of the Merovingian kings, Pepin the Short was twice crowned and anointed, at the beginning of his reign in 752, and for the first time by a pope in 754 in Saint-Denis. The anointing served as a reminder of the baptism of Clovis I in Reims in 496, where the ceremony was finally transferred in 816. His son Charlemagne, who was crowned emperor in Rome in 800, passed as well the ceremony to the Holy Roman Empire, and this tradition acquired a newly constitutive function in England too, with the kings Harold Godwinson and William the Conqueror immediately crowned in Westminster Abbey
in 1066.

The European coronation ceremonies of the Middle Ages were essentially a combination of the Christian rite of

Imperial Russia, where the Tsar was considered to be "wedded" to his subjects through the Orthodox coronation service.[10] Coronation stones
marked the site of some medieval ceremonies, though some alleged stones are later inventions.

As reported by the

jurisconsult Tancredus, initially only four monarchs were crowned and anointed, they were the Kings of Jerusalem, France, England and Sicily
:

Crowning ceremonies arose from a worldview in which monarchs were seen as ordained by God

divinely ordained monarchs began to be challenged.[13][14]

Modern history

The coronation of Napoleon, in the Cathedral of Notre Dame on 2 December 1804, by Jacques-Louis David

The

Papacy retains the option of a coronation, but no pope has used it since 1963 after Pope John Paul I opted for a papal inauguration in 1978.[15]

Canonical coronation

A

Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments
.

Coronations and monarchical power

In most kingdoms, a monarch succeeding hereditarily does not have to undergo a coronation to ascend the throne or exercise the prerogatives of their office. King

abdicated, yet he was unquestionably the King of the United Kingdom and Emperor of India during his brief reign. This is because in Britain, the law stipulates that in the moment one monarch dies, the new one assumes automatically and immediately the throne; thus, there is no interregnum.[16]

France likewise followed automatic succession, though by tradition the new king ascended the throne when the coffin of the previous monarch descended into the vault at

Le Roi est mort, vive le Roi!" ("The King is dead, long live the King!").[17] In Hungary, on the other hand, no ruler was regarded as being truly legitimate until he was physically crowned with St. Stephen's Crown performed by the archbishop of Esztergom in Székesfehérvár Cathedral (during the Ottoman Empire's invasion of Hungary in Pozsony, then Budapest),[18][19][b] while monarchs of Albania were not allowed to succeed or exercise any of their prerogatives until swearing a formal constitutional oath before their nation's parliament. The same still applies in Belgium.[21] Following their election, the kings of Poland were permitted to perform a variety of political acts prior to their coronation, but were not allowed to exercise any of their judicial powers prior to being crowned.[22]

In the Holy Roman Empire an individual became King of the Romans, thus gained governance of the Empire unless he was elected during his predecessor's lifetime, upon his acceptance of the election capitulation, not his coronation. However, prior to Maximilian I he could not style himself "Emperor" until his coronation by the Pope, resulting in many individuals being "Kings of the Romans" or "Kings of Germany", but not "Emperor". Maximilian received Papal permission to call himself "Elected Emperor of the Romans" when he was unable to travel for his coronation. His successors likewise adopted the title with the last Emperor crowned by the Pope being Maxmilian's grandson Charles V.

Coronation of heirs apparent

Coronation of Philip, son of King Louis VII of France, as junior king

The custom of crowning heirs apparent also originates from the Roman Empire. Many emperors chose to elevate their children directly to

Patriarch of Constantinople, as in the case of his six-year-old grandson Leo II in 473.[24]

During the Middle Ages, the Capetian Kings of France chose to have their heirs apparent crowned during their own lifetime to avoid succession disputes.[25][26] This practice was later adopted by Angevin Kings of England, Kings of Hungary and other European monarchs. From the moment of their coronation, the heirs were regarded as junior kings (rex iunior), but they exercised little power and historically were not included in the numbering of monarchs if they predeceased their fathers. The nobility disliked this custom, as it reduced their chances to benefit from a possible succession dispute.[27]

The last heir apparent to the French throne to be crowned during his father's lifetime was the future

Eustace IV of Boulogne crowned in his lifetime but faced serious papal opposition as the Church did not want to be seen as intervening in the Anarchy.[28] The practice was eventually abandoned by all kingdoms that had adopted it, as the rules of primogeniture became stronger. The last coronation of an heir apparent, with the exception of that of the Prince of Wales in 1969, was the coronation of the future Emperor Ferdinand I of Austria as junior King of Hungary in 1830.[29]

Image gallery

See also

Bibliography

Coronations: Medieval and Early Modern Monarchic Ritual. ed. Janos M. Bak. University of California Press 1990.

ISBN 978-0520066779
.

(in German)

ISBN 978-3-631-60849-4
.

Zupka, Dušan: Power of rituals and rituals of power: Religious and secular rituals in the political culture of medieval Kingdom of Hungary. IN: Historiography in Motion. Bratislava – Banská Bystrica, 2010, pp. 29–42.

ISBN 978-80-89388-31-8
.

Notes

  1. ^ Christian references include 1 Peter 2:13, 17[11] and Romans 13:1–7.[12] Information on the Islamic viewpoint may be found at Islamic Monarchy, from the Science Encyclopedia website.
  2. ^ An account of this service, written by Count Miklos Banffy, a witness, may be read at The Last Habsburg Coronation: Budapest, 1916.[20] From Theodore's Royalty and Monarchy Website.

References

  1. ^ The Lutheran Standard, Volume 7. Augsburg Publishing House. 1967. p. 1967.
  2. ^ Lockwood, Frank E. (6 May 2023). "Coronation a religious rite for Anglicans". Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. Retrieved 7 May 2023.
  3. ^ a b c d e f Fallow, Thomas Macall (1911). "Coronation" . In Chisholm, Hugh (ed.). Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 7 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 185–187.
  4. ^ 2 Kings 11:12
  5. ^ 2 Chronicles 23:11
  6. ^ a b c d Thurston, Herbert (1913). "Coronation" . In Herbermann, Charles (ed.). Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
  7. ISBN 978-0713999976
    .
  8. ^ Adomnan of Iona. The life of St Columba. Penguin Classics, 1995
  9. ^ a b c Coulombe, Charles A (9 May 2005). "Coronations in Catholic theology". Charles. A Coulombe. Archived from the original on 5 September 2008. Retrieved 8 September 2008.
  10. ISBN 0-686-83125-X
    .
  11. ^ 1 Peter 2:13, 17
  12. ^ Romans 13:1–7
  13. ISBN 0-8052-0177-7
    .
  14. ^ Ponet, John (1994) [1556]. Patrick S. Poole (ed.). A Shorte Treatise of Politike Power. Patrick S. Poole. Archived from the original on 31 May 2008. Retrieved 25 September 2008.
  15. ^ Wister, Fr. Robert J. (4 December 2002). "The Coronation of Pope Paul VI". Retrieved 25 September 2008.
  16. ^ Royal Household. "Accession". Ceremony and Symbol. Retrieved 27 December 2011.
  17. ^ Giesey, Ralph E. (1990). "Inaugural Aspects of French Royal Ceremonials". In Bak, János M (ed.). Coronations: Medieval and Early Modern Monarchic Ritual. Berkeley: University of California Press. Retrieved 25 September 2008.
  18. ^ Yonge, Charlotte (1867). "The Crown of St. Stephen". A Book of Golden Deeds Of all Times and all Lands. London, Glasgow and Bombay: Blackie and Son. Retrieved 21 August 2008.
  19. ^ Nemes, Paul (10 January 2000). "Central Europe Review — Hungary: The Holy Crown". Archived from the original on 11 May 2015. Retrieved 26 September 2008.
  20. ^ "The Last Habsburg Coronation: Budapest, 1916". Archived from the original on 11 January 2009. Retrieved 15 September 2008.
  21. ^ "The Constitution (Belgium), Article 91" (PDF). Parliament of Belgium. Archived from the original (PDF) on 29 March 2013. Retrieved 25 September 2008.
  22. ^ Gieysztor, Aleksander (1990). "Gesture in the Coronation Ceremonies of Medieval Poland". In Bak, János M (ed.). Coronations: Medieval and Early Modern Monarchic Ritual. Berkeley: University of California Press. Retrieved 25 September 2008.
  23. JSTOR 23949289
    .
  24. JSTOR 310612
    .
  25. ISBN 0-19-925101-0
    .
  26. ISBN 0-7190-5455-9
    . Retrieved 23 June 2009.
  27. ISBN 0-295-97290-4
    .
  28. ^ King, Edmund (2010). King Stephen. New Haven and London: Yale University Press. pp. 369–371.
  29. ISBN 0-226-79145-9. Archived from the original
    on 12 September 2009. Retrieved 23 June 2009.

External links

Look up coronation in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.


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