by Susan Flantzer
© Unofficial Royalty 2019
The Kings’ Stone on the grounds of the Guild Hall in Kingston-upon-Thames; Credit – By Mark Percy, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=13202093
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Not very much is known about the coronations of the Anglo-Saxon kings. The Kings of Wessex and the early Kings of the English were installed on the Kings’ Stone which can still be seen in Kingston-upon-Thames, Surrey, England. When the time came to install Edgar, King of the English in 973, Dunstan, Archbishop of Canterbury felt there was a need for a major ceremony similar to the coronations of the King of the Franks and the German Emperor. Dunstan wrote the order of service for Edgar’s coronation based upon ceremonies used by the Kings of the Franks and ceremonies used in the ordination of bishops.
Edgar’s coronation took place at Bath Abbey in Bath, England on May 11, 873. Edgar’s wife Ælfthryth was also crowned and anointed, giving her a status higher than any recent queen. The only other record of an Anglo-Saxon queen consort being crown is Edith of Wessex, the wife of Edward the Confessor, King of England
The main elements of the British coronation service and the form of the oath taken by the sovereign can be traced to the order of service devised by Dunstan for Edgar’s coronation. Although there have been revisions in the order of the ceremony, the sequence of taking an oath, anointing, investing of regalia, crowning, and enthronement found in the original Anglo-Saxon text have remained constant.
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Date of Coronation |
Person Crowned | Place of Coronation |
Main Officiant |
|
871? |
Alfred the Great, King of Wessex, King of the Anglo-Saxons | Kingston or Winchester | |
|
June 8, 900 |
Edward the Elder, King of the Anglo-Saxons | Kingston | |
|
September 5, 925 |
Æthelstan, King of England | Kingston | |
|
November 16, 940 |
Edmund I, King of the English | Kingston | |
|
August 16, 946 |
Eadred, King of the English | Kingston |
Oda, Archbishop of Canterbury |
|
January 956 |
Eadwig, King of the English | Kingston |
Oda, Archbishop of Canterbury |
|
May 11, 973 |
Edgar the Peaceful, King of the English and his wife Ælfthryth | Bath Abbey | |
|
July 975 |
Saint Edward the Martyr, King of the English | Kingston |
Dunstan, Archbishop of Canterbury |
|
April 14, 979 |
Æthelred II the Unready, King of the English | Kingston |
Dunstan, Archbishop of Canterbury |
|
no coronation, reigned five weeks |
|||
|
April 1016 |
Edmund Ironside, King of the English | Old St. Paul’s Cathedral in London | |
|
January 6, 1017 |
Cnut the Great, King of England, Denmark, and Norway | Old St. Paul’s Cathedral in London |
Lyfing, Archbishop of Canterbury |
|
1037 |
Harold I Harefoot, King of England | Oxford |
? |
|
June 18, 1040 |
Harthacnut, King of England and Denmark | Canterbury | |
|
April 3, 1043 |
Saint Edward the Confessor, King of England | Old Minster in Winchester |
Eadsige, Archbishop of Canterbury |
|
January 1045 |
Edith of Wessex, Queen of England, wife of Edward the Confessor | Old Minster in Winchester |
Eadsige, Archbishop of Canterbury |
|
January 6, 1066 |
Harold II Godwinson, King of England | Westminster Abbey in London |
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