Unofficial Royalty

Fifty-five years ago this past June 2, Queen Elizabeth II went through an ordeal that dates back to the Saxon kings, and hasn’t changed that much since Edward I. (For a background description of that day see Court Jester column of June 2006). Not only were the ceremonies nearly identical, but so were the circumstances of the first Queen Elizabeth to the second.  

The ceremony has seven different forms and is now in two languages-Latin and English. Elizabeth I used both. Although the regalia used to crown both queens were gathered together, lost, found, rebuilt, remodeled and completely changed from King Alfred to now, the place where the coronations took place has remained the same since Edward’s day.

Edward I Confessor was an odd soul. He was an albino who claimed to see visions, one of which was of St. Peter telling him that a magnificent abbey should be built on the Island of Thorns in the Thames where a small Saxon church then stood. This legend came about from a vow Edward made while in exile in Normandy, hiding out from King Canute who was currently in charge. He vowed to make a pilgrimage to Rome to St. Peter’s tomb if he gained the English throne. The next day Danish Canute was gone and Edward was elected king by the Witan. However when he told the Witan he was going they panicked. You can’t leave now: the Romans will rob you blind, and it’s too dangerous!, they wailed.

Edward sent an envoy to Pope Leo IX to let him out of his vow, which was granted provided he erected a great abbey in England dedicated to St. Peter. Edward spent the rest of his life and a big chunk of his Treasury (which, another legend claims, he kept under his bed) building Westminster Abbey. Along with cloisters, chapter, galleries, two soaring towers and five bells an underground treasurer chamber was built, where eventually Edward’s chamberlain managed to transfer the goodies. The servants kept sneaking into Edward’s bedroom at night and swiping baubles while he slept. The treasure itself was accumulated from taxes gathered from the people to pay off the Danes to stay away. Edward had a horrifying vision of a devil dancing on the treasure chest one night, and decided to abolish this Danegeld forever. From this comes the part of the coronation ceremony called Offering of the Glove: a soft leather glove is laid across the palm of the sovereign prior to investing with the Sceptre to remind the sovereign to be gentle laying on the taxes!

Edward himself had been crowned at Winchester in 1048. Before that the Saxon kings from Edward the Elder in 902 to Edward’s father Ethelred the Unready in 979 had been crowned at Kingston (All-Saints Church in Kingston-on-Thanes). After Edward all coronations of English sovereigns have taken place at Westminster Abbey.  

And so it went for Henry VII and Henry VIII. However, as everyone probably knows, Henry decided to part with the Church of Rome and invest himself as the Head of a new Protestant church.  His heir was his son Protestant Edward VI. He never knew that his son would die young and be succeeded by his elder daughter Mary with his first wife Katherine of Aragon- as Catholic as her Spanish mother. Katherine had been married as a teenager to Henry’s elder brother Arthur, now dead, although she swore it had never been consummated. When Henry ascended the throne he married Katherine, hoping it wasn’t too great a sin to marry his brother’s wife under those circumstances. Henry then fell heavily in love with one of her ladies-in-waiting, Anne Boleyn. Anne was adamant that there’d be no nookey without a wedding ring, so Henry set out to divorce Katherine. After years of wrangling with the Pope Henry finally declared he was the Head of the Church of England, Katherine was out and Anne was in. This split his people, and his Catholic clergy, right down the middle. Anne’s only surviving pregnancy was a girl, named Elizabeth. Henry ignored her most of her life. Fortunately her numerous step-mothers did not. Anne was executed when Elizabeth was three. Henry married Jane Seymour, who took a great interest in the little princesses, and ensured Elizabeth was very well educated. Henry died in 1547, succeeded by nine-year-old Edward. His sixth wife, Katherine Parr, who outlived him, made sure all three of the children had the best tutors-all Protestant.

Mary married his Most Catholic Majesty, Philip II of Spain. For Philip it was a marriage of convenience, but it was love for Mary. Philip spent most of his time in Madrid while Mary stayed in England. Eventually her mental state took a hit and her health deteriorated. Elizabeth, living in obscurity in Hatfield Palace in Hertfordshire, was sitting under a tree reading a book on November 17, 1558, when the delegation from the Archbishop of York arrived to pay their respects to their new Queen.  She’d been expecting it, but it was still a shock.

The 25-year-old queen was looking at an England in, as she said, “a sad state”. England was regarded as a minor power. Both France and Spain looked to conquer it. Scotland had its French army up there, as its future queen Mary, her cousin, was married to the French Dauphin, with eyes on the prize. Her sister Mary had had a policy of ‘stamping out heresy” at all costs. And the costs had been very high indeed. Mary had declared the state religion was Catholic. Elizabeth decided to change it back to Protestantism. Down in Spain, Philip, backed by Rome and his vast treasury gathered from the New World, had a better idea. He would marry Elizabeth, she would renounce Protestantism immediately and they’d join forces.   

As to her domestic problems, rich landowners had decided there was more money to be made from running sheep on their lands than people. The workers headed en masse to the towns, becoming beggars and thieves, dying in the dusty streets from starvation. They were a suspicious lot, believing completely in witches and ghosts and evil spirits. Most were dead by age 40. Epidemics and plaques caused by the excessively cold weather (a mini-ice age is now believed to have taken place during Elizabeth’s reign) took them out by the hundreds. Mary’s inquisition had bled the Treasury dry. There was also the matter of her legitimacy-many still considered Henry’s marriage to her mother to be illegal, making her a bastard. That issue followed her all her life.

One thing she was certain of, before anything she had to prove to the English people, and to the world, that not only was England a powerful nation, but she was “the most English woman in England”, even though she didn’t have a drop of English blood in her body.

She spoke six languages, could hunt crossbow and ride with the best of them, loved debating, was a musician, a calligrapher, did embroidery and loved staying outdoors in all weather for hours. She had her mother’s slender build and her father’s red hair. She had learned the hard way to keep her thoughts to herself and a tight grip on the Privy purse-strings. But what she wasn’t going to spare on was her own coronation-that was going to be the show that would dazzle her enemies and declare England to be a rich nation, not to be trifled with. And she was its God-anointed leader.

The question of who would succeed her, and that meant who would she marry, was a major issue she didn’t want to hear about it.  What she wanted was the most auspicious date possible to hold the service. Her chief astrologist, Dr. John Dee, consulted his charts and declared the best date was January 15, 1559. She wanted the ceremony and its attendant banquets and pageants and such to be as lavish and magnificent as possible. With a little less than two months to organize everything thousands of people worked seven days a week, even weekends and holidays, to get things ready. All the palace servants got new livery. Silks, velvets, gold and silver cloth, ermine, velvets and satins were imported from Antwerp. Liveries and hangings were changed. She had four coronation robes refitted to her taller frame, and she would have the pick of the red silk arriving at the Port of London. Westminster Abbey had additional seating installed. Fresh gravel was strewn over the streets her procession would pass over. Arches and tapestries were hung. Seven hundred yards of blue silk made a carpet from the Abbey to the Hall. The whole thing cost £16,741. (In today’s currency, through the roof!)

She spent the three days before the ceremony in the Tower, from where she’d start the progress through the streets of London. From January 12 to 14 innumerable pageants and ceremonies drew her attention. Along the way she would step out of her glittering litter to accept small bouquets of flowers from children, made thankful speeches to the people and acknowledged the cheers with wide smiles.  The common touch was, as she knew, the best way to endear her to those whose support she needed most. It worked. She rested that last night in the Palace of Westminster.

On the morning of Saturday, January 15, 1559, she woke to a frosty, snow-covered day. She was catching a cold. The only Bishop who could be persuaded to crown her was Oglethorpe. Although she had refused to witness the Elevation of the Host (Catholic) at Christmas, which had infuriated the Archbishop of York so much that he refused to do it himself, Oglethorpe had eventually given in. Clad in all her finery she walked along the blue carpet accompanied by fifes, drums, portable organs and all the bells of London. The Barons of the Cinque Ports carried the canopy over her head. The Duchess of Norfolk followed behind holding her train. As soon as the Queen had passed by them the crowd fell upon the carpet, almost knocking Norfolk off her feet, tearing it up as a souvenir.  

Inside the Abbey was lit by hundreds of torches and candles. Henry VIII”s tapestries hung on the walls, designed by Raphael. It was the last coronation ceremony to be performed in Latin-although some parts were given in English. Assisted by the last Abbot of Westminster, Oglethorpe conducted the mass (Elizabeth again left and waited in St. Edward’s Chapel during the Elevation of the Host). William Cecil held the English bible on which she took her oath, although she was proclaimed “Defender of the True, Ancient, Catholic Faith”. The anointing ceremony was conduced out of sight, considered too holy to be seen by unholy eyes. (In 1953 this part of the televised ceremony was not broadcast for the same reason) She had changed into a red velvet gown with a gold mantle.  The ring that symbolically wed her to her people was placed on the fourth finger of her right hand. Then came the crowning, where first St. Edward’s Crown and then the Imperial Crown of England (weighed seven pounds) was placed on her head. The noise made by the clamouring instruments and cheering must have been beyond deafening, but Elizabeth left the Abbey wearing a smaller crown, possibly her mother’s, smiling and waving at the massive crowds outside.

Nearly 400 years later another Princess, now Queen, also age 25 with a husband and two small children, arrived back in England from a trip to Africa. She had not seen her father’s death coming. She was unprepared. But like her namesake she had declared her life would be dedicated to her people. So on her Coronation Day, with faith in her Prime Minister Churchill and her family supporting her, Elizabeth II prepared for her own ceremony, which would be seen by the whole world. She wasn’t afraid either.

Next month I’ll tell you all about the ceremony itself, the regalia ancient and modern, and a bit about its history. It’s pretty fascinating stuff, trust me. For instance, did you know that after King Charles I was executed the Puritans started melting down or selling off all the Regalia. Some secret royalists bought up precious items and kept them until the Restoration, when they returned them to King Charles II. One item mysteriously not found in the1649 inventory was King Alfred’s Crown. In 1657 the Lord Protector was urged to assume “Title and Office of a King in this nation: as that a King first settled Christianity in this island: that it hath been long received and approved by our ancestors, who by long experience found it be consistent with their liberties, most agreeable to their constitution and to the temper of the People”. Cromwell declined the title, but was installed as Lord Protector with all the pomp and ceremony of a coronation, but in Westminster Hall. His death effigy shows him lying in state, this crown by his head.

Happy Birthday to Prince William who turned 26 on June 21, and to his grandfather Prince Philip who turned 87 on June 20. Congratulations!

- The Court Jester
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