Westminster Hall
The preparations within the Hall have on former occasions been fully described, and a tolerably correct notion may be formed by many of the main outlines of the arrangements there, to give effect to the ceremonies preceding, and the banquet following, his Majesty’s coronation. The coup d’œil was of the most pleasing and imposing character; the galleries along each side of the Hall, the tower and turrets over the grand entrance, and the royal platform and table, were finished in the highest order. The new windows in the roof, and the recently-completed lantern upwards of forty feet high on the centre of the ridge of the roof, with glazed windows all round, greatly improved the effect.
From each side of the angles formed by the ends of the hammer-beams in the roof was suspended by a gilt chain a large splendid cut-glass lustre, with broad ornamented gilt irons and frames, containing three circles of wax candles, being between forty and fifty in each lustre.
The first and second galleries had the mattings and scarlet coverings completed only on Wednesday. The royal box on the right, and the foreigners’ box on the left side of the royal table were entirely lined with scarlet cloth, festooned in front, and ornamented with gold fringe.
The throne, seat, and the royal table, attracted general admiration. With the exception of the large fluted columns, the royal seat and canopy were in the style of the throne in the House of Lords. The back of crimson velvet, with the royal arms embroidered on it, and the limits decorated with gold and ornaments. The canopy was square, with a raised and variegated gold cornice round. The centre displayed a splendid crown, underneath which were G. R. IV. Underneath the cornice was a crimson velvet vallance, separated into divisions, the lower portion of each division being rounded with gold, while its centre was decorated with gold, embroidered, and raised ornaments illustrative of the military orders, and of the emblems of the United Kingdom, the Rose, the Thistle, the Harp, &c. The chair was equally splendid; the arms and legs consisting of rich carved work gilt, with crimson velvet back, also ornamented. The only objection in point of taste that can be made to this is, that the glitter did not harmonize with the sober grandeur of the Hall.
About nine o’clock on Wednesday night the King left Carlton Palace for the house of the speaker of the House of Commons in Palace Yard, where his Majesty slept on Wednesday night. His Majesty’s coach was escorted by a strong detachment of the Oxford Blues, accoutred as cuirassiers. They made a most beautiful appearance. The carriage drove at a rapid rate across the Parade in St. James’s Park, through Storey’s Gate and Great George Street. His Majesty was recognised by the crowd on his passage, and saluted with every expression of loyalty and attachment. Prior to the departure of his Majesty from Carlton Palace the crowd between Storey’s Gate and Westminster Hall had been cleared by the Scots Greys, so as to make a convenient passage for the carriage, and his Majesty did not set out until after an officer had arrived at the Palace gate to announce that all was ready. His Majesty was guarded through the night by the lord great chamberlain and the usher of the black rod. There were no preparations of importance. His Majesty’s sofa bed was brought from Carlton House. On Thursday morning the lord great chamberlain, at seven o’clock, carried to his Majesty his shirt and apparel, and with the lord chamberlain of the household dressed his Majesty. His Majesty then breakfasted, and afterwards proceeded to his chamber, near the south entrance into Westminster Hall.
We entered the Hall at twenty minutes past five o’clock, and a crowd of ladies admitted by peers’ orders, and peeresses, were then struggling for admittance.
The first thing we observed on having entered the Hall, was the canopy which was to be borne over the King by the barons of the Cinque Ports. The canopy was yellow;—of silk and gold embroidery, with short curtains of muslin spangled with gold. Eight bearers having fixed the poles by which the canopy was supported, which were of steel (apparently), with silver knobs, bore it up and down the Hall, to practise the mode of carrying it in procession. It was then deposited at the upper end of the side table of the Hall, to the left of the throne. The canopy was not very elegant in form, and did not seem very well calculated to add to the effect of the procession. But even at this early hour the appearance of the Hall, studded with groups of gentlemen pensioners, and various other attendants, in their fantastic and antique costumes, with the officers of the guards, and others, in military uniform, and, above all, the elegantly dressed women who began to fill the galleries, was altogether superb. At this time there were several hundreds of spectators in the Hall.
The sides of the upper end of the Hall, including the boxes for the foreign ministers and royal family, were hung with scarlet cloth, edged with gold.
The throne was splendid with gold and crimson; the canopy over the throne was of crimson and gold, with the royal arms in embroidery. The large square table before the throne, intended for the display of the regalia, was of purple, having a rim of gold, and an interior square moulding of the same description, about two feet from the edge. The platform on which the throne was placed, and the three steps immediately descending from it, were covered with brown carpeting; the two other descending flights of steps, and the double chairs, placed by the side of the tables for the peers (with the names of their future occupiers), and the coverings of the railings in front of the seats, were of morone cloth. From the bottom of the steps, descending from the throne to the north gate, the middle of the floor of the Hall was covered with blue cloth, in the same manner as the platform without. The rest of the floor and the seats were matted. The side tables were covered with green cloth; and as on each side, the galleries reached nearly to the top of the windows in the wall, only the upper arches of those windows, and the noble roof of the old fabric appeared, except at each end, the upper one especially, where the grave visages of the Saxon kings, newly decorated, made their appearance. The light, which was only admitted from the roof windows, and from those in each end, though sober, was, on the whole, good. At the lower end the attendants of the earl marshal attracted some notice by their dark dresses, with white sashes, stockings, shoes with large rosettes, and Queen Elizabeth ruffs, with gilt staves tipped with black. At a quarter after seven o’clock an attendant, habited in the dress of Henri Quatre laid on the table, near the canopy, eight maces, to be borne in the course of the procession.
Her Royal Highness the Duchess of Gloucester was the first of the royal family who arrived in the Hall; taking her seat in the royal box at a quarter before six. Her Royal Highness was splendidly attired in a rich dress of silver lama over French lilac; head-dress, a white satin hat, with an elegant plume of white feathers, turned up with a diamond button and loop in front; and appeared to be in excellent health and spirits.
Soon afterwards the Duchess of Clarence entered the Hall, and took her seat next to her royal sister-in-law, the Duchess of Gloucester. About half past seven their Royal Highnesses the Duchess of Kent, the Princess Sophia of Gloucester, and the Princess Feodore (daughter of the Duchess of Kent) took their seats in the royal box. Their Royal Highnesses were attired in splendid dresses of white satin, richly embroidered in silver, with rich bandeau head-dresses, and large plumes of white feathers.
The herb-women entered the Hall from the south end before eight o’clock. Miss Fellowes, the principal herb-woman, was led in by Mr. Fellowes; and the six young ladies, her assistants, followed two and two. They were afterwards seated at the north entrance of the Hall. They were elegantly dressed in white, tastefully decorated with flowers. Miss Fellowes wore, in addition to the same dress, a scarlet mantle. At eight o’clock three large baskets were brought into the Hall, filled with flowers, for them to bear. Of a very different description from these were some persons who were observed in various parts of the Hall. These were well-known prize-fighters, who were stationed from an idea of the necessity of keeping peace among the honourable and noble throng. We observed Cribb, Randall, Richmond, and we understood many others were present.
The canopy was removed at eight o’clock from the side table where it had been placed, and was brought into the middle of the Hall. The barons of the Cinque Ports were then marshalled, two to each pole; they then bore the canopy down the Hall by way of practice, according to a word of command.—Some laughter was at first excited by the irregular manner in which the bearers moved. Their dresses were, however, extremely splendid—large cloaks of garter-blue satin, with slashed arms of scarlet, and stockings of dead red.
Many peers had been occasionally in the Hall at a very early hour in the morning, and before eight o’clock they had all arrived at the buildings near the House of Lords, and took their coronets and robes. The archbishops and bishops assembled about the same time, and vested themselves in their rochets, in the House of Lords and chambers adjacent. The judges, and others of the long robe, together with the gentlemen of the privy chamber, esquires of the body, serjeants at law, masters in chancery, aldermen of London, chaplains having dignities, and six clerks in chancery, being all in their proper habits, assembled at the places, of which notice has been given, where the officers of arms arranged them according to their respective classes, four in a rank, placing the youngest on the left, and then conducted them into the Hall.
The King’s serjeants were in red gowns. The masters in chancery (nine of whom attended) were in the dress in which they attend the house of lords.
The barons of the Cinque Ports took a second turn in the Hall, which, as it began with more formality, was attended with more laughter than the first. About this time also the four swords were brought in, and deposited on the end of the left hand table, with the spurs, and a cushion for the crown. The knights of the Bath now began to assemble, and with the others who were to take part in the procession, were ranged at the end of the Hall. The dresses of the knights of the Bath were extremely splendid, but somewhat gaudy. The knights had all close dresses of white satin, puckered in a variety of ways. The grand crosses wore flowing robes of pinkish red satin, lined with white; the commanders small mantles. The judges and privy counsellors, not being peers, next entered; the latter in splendid dresses of blue velvet and gold.
Among them were the Earl of Yarmouth, Lord Binning, Mr. Canning, Mr. Bathurst, Mr. Huskisson, Sir G. Hill, Mr. Robinson, Mr. Beckett, Lord G. Beresford, and Mr. Wallace.
The barons then entered, Lords Stowell and Maryborough (late Sir W. Scott and W. W. Pole), being among the first. There were but forty-nine (if we rightly counted them) present. Next came the bishops—fifteen attended; the viscounts, nineteen in number. The earls were more numerous—we should think seventy or eighty; but the Hall now became so crowded that there was a difficulty in counting them accurately. The marquesses and dukes, and lastly the great officers of state, archbishops, and members of the royal family, entered. Prince Leopold of Saxe-Cobourg was in the full robes of the order of the Garter. The princes of the blood and some of the dukes placed themselves on the right of the platform about the throne. The marquesses and some of the earls on the left side, formed a line with those who had descended to the floor of the Hall. The show of ermine and velvet on the descent of the platform was of the most magnificent description.
A herald then went through the line of peers, marshalling each according to the order of their creation—the junior first. They were a second time called over, and ranged in a double file on each side of the middle space of the Hall by Mr. Mash.
Before the King entered, the peers were all ranged on each side of the Hall, none being left on the platform but the great officers of state and the royal family.
Precisely at ten o’clock the King entered the Hall from the door behind the throne, habited in robes of enormous size and richness, wearing a black hat with a monstrous plume of ostrich feathers, out of the midst of which rose a black heron’s plume. His Majesty seemed very much oppressed with the weight of his robes. The train was of enormous length and breadth. It was of crimson velvet adorned with large golden stars, and a broad golden border. His Majesty frequently wiped his face while he remained seated. He went through the ceremonies, which we have described, with much spirit and apparent good humour. In descending the steps of the platform his Majesty seemed very feeble, and requested the aid and support of an officer who was near him. Instead of standing under the canopy, his Majesty, perhaps afraid of the awkwardness of the barons, preceded it. The canopy was therefore always borne after him. When his Majesty had got a little way down the Hall, he turned to his train-bearers, and requested them to bear his train farther from him, apparently with a view to relieve himself from the weight. As he went down the Hall he conversed with much apparent cheerfulness with the bishop of Lincoln, who was on his right hand.
It will behove the historian to record the unsuccessful attempts of her Majesty to obtain the usual honour of Queen-Consort on the preceding occasion, i.e. that of a joint coronation with her husband; and too much public attention was excited to the subject at the period of the coronation to render our sketch of that august ceremony complete without adverting to it.
Her Majesty first presented a memorial, desiring to know in what way she was to attend the coronation; to which it was replied, that it rested with the King to nominate who should be present, and his Majesty was advised that he could not allow her to be present.
The Queen rejoined, that she should be present if not absolutely prohibited; and it was farther replied, that his Majesty’s ministers advised that she could not be received.
She now prayed the King in council (July 1) to be heard by her legal advisers against this decision—a request which was granted “as matter of favour,” according to the language of the minister, “but not of right;” and, on Thursday, July 5, at ten o’clock in the morning, the Privy Council met at Whitehall to hear her Majesty’s claim argued. For many years so large a Privy Council had not met, there being forty-nine members present, besides a considerable number of members of parliament not of the council.
Mr. Brougham, after stating the refusal of the dean and chapter of Westminster to grant him the use of the “Liber Regalis” (a formula of the coronation ceremony in their custody), and having induced the president to send for that volume, commenced by observing:
That “the King had the right of being crowned,” was a proposition which he thought he should have no difficulty of supporting; and that the Queen enjoyed the same right, he thought he could establish upon exactly the same legal ground. The ground upon which he mainly relied was a uniform, uninterrupted practice, in the sense in which he thought he should be permitted to use and avail himself of these terms in a court of justice, and in which he should be justified in establishing out of them the legal existence of any private right. That some interruptions had arisen in this uniform practice he was prepared to admit and explain, for they were such as did not affect the uninterrupted right; but, in the mode in which he had to account for them, rather sanctioned and confirmed it. There would be two propositions which he entreated their lordships to bear in mind while he went through his narrative of historical facts. The first was the uniform exercise of the right; namely, that no king had ever been crowned, being married at the time of his coronation, without the queen-consort herself partaking with the king in the solemnity of the coronation; and, secondly, that there never was a queen-consort in England who had not partaken of the ceremony of the coronation: but in making these two propositions, he begged of course to be understood, as using them subject to the usual qualifications of general propositions; which were—being bound to show that where any interruptions had existed, they did not compromise the general right. With interruptions, as to the first proposition, he had but one to contend, which was capable of easy solution. As to the second, he could easily and satisfactorily explain whatever exceptions had arisen, for they were few, and tended to confirm the right of the Queen-Consort. The learned gentleman then proceeded to call the attention of the lords of the council to various records which he quoted from English history, in order to establish his proposition,—the right of British queens to be crowned, from the year 784, through the Saxon and Norman lines, down to the house of Tudor. In Henry the Second’s reign a remarkable circumstance occurred: the solemnity of crowning his eldest son took place in his father’s life-time; the prince was married to a daughter of Louis of France, and she was not crowned although her husband was. The novelty of that omission of what was considered a uniform ceremony, led to a complaint and remonstrance to the king of England, and the result was, that he had recourse for redress to the usual process of kings—to arms, and a declaration of war; and in front of his reasons for taking that step, the French king placed the omission to crown his daughter with her husband. Henry was at length obliged to submit, for he went over to France and entered into some compromise with Louis to avert hostilities, and the daughter of the French king was solemnly crowned at Winchester by bishops and other venerable and distinguished authorities, who were sent over from France to perform the ceremony of her coronation with suitable splendour.
On arriving at the era of Henry the Sixth, the learned counsel said he should refer to the law of Scotland about the period of history at which he was passing. The Scottish documents contained enough to establish the fact, that no king of Scotland who was married at the time of his coronation was ever crowned without his consort; nor, where the marriage took place afterwards, was there an instance in which a Scottish queen was not crowned as soon as possible after she became queen. The learned counsel then referred to the act 1428 in the Scottish statutes, cap. 109, passed in the eighth parliament of James the First, and read the “aith to be made to the queen, be the clergie and the baronnes.”
The case of Henry the Seventh’s queen was next quoted. She had been crowned two years after the king’s coronation. This coronation was announced by proclamation similar to that which had announced his own two years and a month before; and the order of it, as would be seen in the Close Roll, and in Rymer, was similar to that observed at all other coronations of queens-consort. The varying conduct of Henry the Eighth with regard to his queens was then accounted for. Charles the First was crowned without his queen, because of the antipathy of the people against the papists, of whom she was one; yet only nine days before he was himself crowned, a proclamation was issued for the crowning of his queen, but observing the popular feeling to be against such a measure, that ceremony was postponed. The queen was said to have objected to take any part in the coronation unless she could be assisted in it by a popish priest, which the constitution of the country rendered absolutely impossible. The same reasons operated against the crowning of Charles the Second’s queen, who was also a papist. James the Second and his queen were crowned together, although they were both Roman Catholics. If he and his consort could reconcile it to themselves to go into a Protestant cathedral, and to partake in the ceremonies of a Protestant ritual, there was an end of the difficulty which he had described as originating from the words of one of the oaths having one sense to one of the parties who took them, and another to the other. Since the revolution every thing regarding this subject was well known, and every king and queen had been regularly crowned. With regard to the queen of George the First, he must beg leave to observe, that as she had never been in this country, he had nothing to do with her. Besides, she was said to have been divorced from her husband by the sentence of a foreign ecclesiastical court before he ascended the throne of this country; so that it was legally impossible that she could be crowned if she had been divorced from her husband, and physically impossible if she had never set foot in the country. Her case, therefore, formed no exception to her present Majesty’s right. Whilst he was upon this subject he might be permitted to remark, as not extraneous to it, that he had not expected and did not expect to hear in that court, as a bar to her Majesty’s claim, that some proceedings had been instituted against her. He made that assertion not on his own authority, but on the authority of a noble and learned judge, who, in giving sentence on the King and Wolfe, in the court of the highest resort in the country, had said, in consequence of some observations having been made as to the defendant having been guilty of some great offence, “If a man be guilty of ever so great an offence, and the proceedings against him fail in substantiating that offence, he is to be considered in law as innocent as if no such offence had ever been charged against him.”
Friday, July 6.—Mr. Brougham rose at a few minutes after ten to resume his speech. He had yesterday gone through a long and unbroken series of precedents, showing that no king of England had ever been crowned, he being married at the time of his coronation, without his consort participating in that ceremony. Having gone so far, he contended that he had a right to assume his larger proposition, that queens-consort had, at all times throughout the ages of English history, themselves enjoyed the ceremony of the coronation. If in one or two instances this was not done at the time when the king’s own coronation took place, and supposing that there was an instance or two where the queen-consort became such after the coronation of the king, still he would affirm, that according to all the rules of argument, of law, and of common sense, those few instances, (admitting there were some, though in point of strict fact he believed there were none,) did not in any manner or degree affect his general argument, which he held upon the authorities he had cited to be altogether incontrovertible. He was not before their lordships to show where the right which he asserted in behalf of the queen-consort had been claimed and refused. In every instance, in which it was actually possible for a coronation of a queen to take place, he had shown that it had been solemnized. There was not a single case which, quoad that case, cast a doubt upon the uniform force of his proposition, except that of Henrietta Maria, wife of Charles the First; and he reminded their lordships, it was merely a doubt so far as that particular case went. He had a right then to assume the larger proposition, that all queens-consort of England had, in point of fact, been crowned. Nothing was clearer in the rules of equity and law, than that non-uses did not forfeit, unless where they clearly, from the length of the lapse, involved a waiver of the claim. Where a right had been disputed, and the opposition assented to by the party tacitly, or confirmed by a competent authority, then, of course, there was an end to the legal exercise of such a right. But here the very reverse was the fact. Suppose he were called upon to prove a right of way or a right of common, (the two instances in which the courts of law were most commonly called upon to consider the length of usage,) the principle of law would go with the uniformity, and the absence of exercising the right in one or two particular instances would prove nothing. There were three modes of calling into question the fact of usage; first, as to its uniform enjoyment; next, where the right claimed by the party had been contested, but nevertheless enjoyed by the person exercising it; and the third case was, where the right asserted had been confiscated, and an adjudication passed upon it: that was of course held to be conclusive against the party, where the right claimed was refused, opposed, and not acquiesced in; then he admitted that no long admission of the right could be pleaded without the fatal interruption of the bar. He entreated their lordships to try the usage of the coronation of the queen-consort by these three principles of investigating such rights founded upon immemorial custom. Of the first, namely, uniform enjoyment, they had abundant proof. As to the second, namely, the occurrence of interruption in the exercise of the right, non-acquiescence in that interruption, a successful and most complete resistance to the attempt to withhold the exercise of the right, they had that, fully sustaining his proposition, in the case of the wife of Prince Henry; where Henry thought proper in his lifetime to crown his eldest son without also crowning that eldest son’s consort. He had therefore with him the uniform enjoyment of the right her Majesty claimed; then the successful resistance of an attempt, as in Henry’s case, to delay the exercise of the right; and lastly, the total absence of any adjudication or confiscation, or any thing like either in any single instance against him. There was, in fact, no other possible way of showing the existence of the right, but in the manner in which he was assuming, proving, and, as he thought, establishing it. How else, before the Court of Claims, were rights of service at the ceremony of the coronation established? How else did the barons of the Cinque Ports show their right to carry the canopy over the king, and to have a part of that canopy for their service? Suppose any instance in which the barons should, for want of specific proof, in the lapse of ages, fail to show that they had exercised that privilege—would that countervail the validity of their claim, founded on repeated usage? Certainly not. He would venture to say that there were at least half a dozen instances in which the barons could not show they had exercised their asserted right: and would any of these instances, where that proof failed, shake the firm hold of their long and undeniable usage? Upon a reference to the services which were to be performed at the ceremony of the coronation, it was clear, from the separate rights held upon the performance of particular kinds of attendance upon the queen, that her part of the ceremony was substantive, independent, and principal; that her right was clearly within herself, and not dependent upon the mere will of the King. So essential, indeed, was it that she should be crowned with all the forms of pomp which belonged to such a solemnity, that the same writs of summons were issued, and nearly the same demands of service made upon officers of state as when the king himself was crowned. The usage clearly governed the right, and more especially in this solemnity of coronation, which was altogether the creature of precedent, and existed only by its authority. The queen’s coronation was in itself manifestly a substantive, important, and independent ceremony, illustrative of the right of the one party, and not dependent or contingent upon the mere will of the monarch. The origin of the king’s ceremonial was lost in remote antiquity; but the numerous tenures and dependencies determinable by the non-performance of services at the solemnity, showed how important it was intended to be in the eyes of the people. The only grounds of right for the king’s coronation, the queen equally had for hers; and there were, as he had already stated, separate forms prescribed for those who were officially to attend her ceremony.
The learned counsel then quoted some passages from the Liber Regalis, being merely directions for particular parts of the ceremonial to be observed on the queen’s coronation. Every solemnity of which the origin was lost in distant antiquity, which was in itself of a most high and public nature, and which occupied a great and important space in the history of the country, he would fearlessly assert, must be deemed and taken as the right of the realm, and not as a mere appanage of the king. He held the coronation of the king himself to be a right of this nature; and that, not merely in the present times on account of the coronation oath, (which had been devised by the legislature on the coronation of William and Mary,) but also in times long before them: indeed, it had always been considered as a high and august ceremony with which the monarch himself could not dispense; it being the right of the sovereign, not in his individual but in his political capacity, for the benefit of the whole nation, in which capacity alone the nation knew him at his coronation. So much with regard to the coronation of the king. The coronation of the queen ought to be considered in a similar light, from its having been celebrated almost without interruption with the same publicity, and from being in its nature such as he had repeatedly described it. The king and the queen being both of them the mere creations of the law, the solemnities of their coronations were mere creations of the law also, and were known to it in no other light than as the rights of the whole realm of England. He, therefore, who was ready to take one step, and to get rid of the queen’s coronation, as a mere optional ceremony, ought to be ready to take also another step, and to get rid of the king’s coronation, on the ground of its being a vain, idle, empty, and expensive pageant. Her claim to a coronation rested upon immemorial usage, and the numerous rights of individuals which were interwoven and connected with it. Indeed, it rested on the same foundation as the king’s: it was supported by the same arguments, and the interruptions which it had experienced admitted of the same explanations that he had given to those which had occurred in the case of the king. He had mentioned, in the course of his argument, the rights which belonged to other individuals in consequence of the queen’s right to a coronation. If a coronation was not granted to her Majesty, their rights were unavailing to them; and that, in his opinion, formed a very sufficient reason why it should be celebrated. That the coronation was the acknowledgment of the king by the people, he conceived to be a point which it was unnecessary to prove to their lordships: but he might be permitted to remark to them, that the coronation of the queen was even considered as an acknowledgment of her right to enjoy that dignity in an entry in a charter roll of the fifth year of King John, now preserved in the Tower. The entry to which he alluded was the grant of certain lands in dower to his Queen Isabella, and it referred by way of recital to her coronation as queen. This excerpt was of no small importance in the consideration of this question; for it proved to their lordships, that in times when the coronation of the king was positively either his election, or the recognition of his election as monarch, the coronation of the queen was conducted, for the very same reasons, with the same solemnities. This was evident from the description of what was done, and from the manner and the avowed object of doing it. John was crowned to show that he was king—“coronatus in regem.” Isabella was crowned to show that she was queen—“in reginam coronata communi consensu archiepiscoporum,” &c. &c. The very same persons who elected, or recognised, or only crowned him as their monarch, are, in this passage, recorded to have elected, or recognised, or only crowned her as their queen. Was it intended to be maintained that no right existed, whenever something moving from the crown was necessary to the exercise of it? He would frankly confess that he knew of no right which a subject could enjoy without the interposition of the crown in some manner or other. All writs issued from the crown, and no right could be maintained without them; yet, would any one dispute the right of the subject to obtain them? Supposing a peer were to die, and the crown were to refuse a writ of summons to his eldest son: it was said to be by petition of right alone that he could sue to the crown to be admitted to his father’s honours; and yet that petition of right would be considered as a strict undeniable legal right. He could refer also to cases in which the subject could demand, not merely the king’s writ, but also the king’s proclamation, to which he was entitled, not by a common law right, but by a right given him by an express statute; for instance, in all cases relative to prize-money. Again, supposing that the House of Commons were to die a natural death after sitting for seven years, and the king were to refuse to issue his proclamation to convoke another within three years of that period, as ordered by the first of William and Mary, sec. 2, cap. 2, would it be asserted that the subject would have no right to call for the proclamation of the king to convoke another parliament, because such proclamation could not issue without an act of the crown? He thought that none of their lordships would advocate such an absurdity. But the subject and the country were in full possession of all these rights; and if the Queen’s right to a coronation were put upon the same footing, it would be equally clear that she possessed it, and that the necessity of granting it was as obvious as it was imperative. He had heard it said that her Majesty could not claim the honours of a coronation by prescription, because she was not a corporation. This, however, he denied. Her Majesty certainly could prescribe, for what business had they to call her Majesty less a corporation than the King? But still, supposing her not to be a corporation, she had a right to prescribe as a functionary, holding a high dignity and situation. This was evident from Baron Comyn’s Digest, who, under the title of Prescription, lays it down that such a functionary can claim by prescription. In conclusion, Mr. Brougham said, their lordships would sit in dignified judgment on the opinion given by the great lawyers of the nineteenth century; and, as he firmly believed, finding they had no difficulties to explain, perceiving that they had no obscurities to clear up, they would not be under the necessity of referring to those remote periods of our history, to which he had been obliged to allude, but would look back to the first decision that ever had been given on this question, with that decided confidence which the names of those privy counsellors before whom the case was argued would in after-times command—a judgment, which he ventured confidently to pronounce, would not derogate from the high character they had so long maintained.
Mr. Denman followed on the same side, and after a long speech, called on their lordships, as a court sitting for legal inquiry, to say whether there ever was a case presented to an inquest, which depended on custom and usage, where a more complete and perfect body of custom and usage had been adduced, than was brought forward on the present occasion? If her Majesty’s claim were refused, no dignity was safe, no property was secure, not a single institution could be said to rest on a firm foundation. If the coronation of the Queen could not be supported by custom, the rest of that ceremonial could not be supported. Why was this country governed by a king? Why did we submit to a kingly government? Because the earliest ages, because all times, had recognised that form of government, and because we could trace that custom beyond all time of memory. Nothing could be more dangerous than to separate royalty from the circumstances which belonged to it and added to its dignity. The lives and properties of men depended for their security upon the same principle. Why was there a house of peers, in which noble lords formed a part of the legislature? Why were there commoners, who sat as representatives of the people? Precisely because custom had ordered it so. Custom was the author of the law and the law-makers. Custom authorized the king, lords, and commons, to enact laws for the government of this realm. All property, all dignity, all offices existed, because they were sanctioned by prescriptive custom, or because custom gave a prescriptive right to create them.
Saturday.—The Privy Council resumed this morning, soon after ten o’clock. Below the bar was again crowded to excess.
Counsel were then called in.
Mr. Brougham said, he now held in his hand, and was prepared to lay before the council, the documentary evidence to which he and his learned friend had adverted in the course of their addresses in support of her Majesty’s memorial.
Lord Harrowby.—Mr. Attorney-General, have you any observations to offer on what counsel have stated to their lordships?
The Attorney-General then rose.—He said, he perhaps should best discharge his duty by stating, at the commencement, that, in his own opinion, the argument and claim were wholly unfounded. That the claim was not founded on any recognised law, appeared from the statements and course of proceeding adopted by her Majesty’s counsel. He would add, that the claim now made, so far from ever being supposed to have any foundation, was not even mentioned by any writer on the laws and constitution. It had never been agitated or alluded to in any way, not even by those writers who had touched on the privileges peculiar to a queen-consort. The one single ground urged in support of the claim was usage—that usage was supposed to have prevailed through a long series of years at the coronation of kings who were married. It had been stated with confidence that such usage was evidence in support of the right; but when they were talking of rights founded on usage, it was not sufficient to state that particular facts had taken place. In all such cases, where the facts were relied on, it was essential to state the circumstances that had attended such facts, the peculiarities that had accompanied the alleged privilege, whether it was right of way or otherwise. As to the right of way, for instance; if permission were given to use certain paths or roads, the fact of such permission having preceded the use, at once destroyed the claim of right. If the license and permission were proved, there was an end of the right. By that proof, all the inferences drawn from the use were at an end—they were at once destroyed. The coronation was for the purpose of the monarch’s recognition by the people, and on the part of the king to enter into the solemn compact to preserve the laws. The coronation of a queen was a mere ceremony; but that of the king was something more than ceremony. His coronation was accompanied by important political acts—the recognition by the people, and, on the other hand, the solemn compact entered into by the sovereign to preserve and maintain the laws of the realm. Still, however, as far as the king was concerned, it was a ceremony; it was not necessary to the sovereign’s possession of the crown—it was what proceeded from his will, and might be dispensed with. But the queen-consort, who filled no political character in the state, had only enjoyed the privilege because she was the king’s consort. With respect to a queen-consort, when she was crowned, there was no recognition of her by the people, no compact towards the people. There was no engagement between her and the subjects of the realm. This fact established that, with respect to a queen-consort, a coronation was an honorary ceremony, unaccompanied by any acts. That the coronation neither was, nor had been considered to be essential to the possession of the crown, was proved by the fact of considerable delays having often taken place between the accession of the monarch and his coronation. Henry the Sixth, for instance, was not crowned till eight years after the crown had descended to him. Again, in the “Pleas of the Crown,” it was held, that the king was fully invested with the crown the moment it descended to him; that he was absolutely king although there should have been no coronation. If the coronation of a king, important as he held it to be, proceeded from the sovereign will, à fortiori it must be so with that of a queen-consort. The rights of the queen-consort did not proceed from any coronation; they flowed from her relationship to the sovereign. Her rights were complete and absolute without any coronation. Nor was it essential to the people, for the queen-consort occupied no political station. This view of the right was strengthened by the important preamble of William and Mary, which settled the coronation oath. The language of the act applied to queens regnant, not to queens-consort, for to the latter no oath was administered. As the oath was prescribed, it became necessary that every reigning monarch should be crowned, that there might be the oath and recognition; but the law made no mention of any thing that rendered such a ceremony requisite in the instance of a queen-consort. How then could the crowning of a queen-consort be considered a necessary adjunct of the coronation of the reigning monarch? No part of the ceremony rendered her presence requisite. Selden’s work had been quoted in support of the memorial; amongst other things, Selden expressly said that the “anointing, &c. of the queen-consort, were dignities communicated by the king.” Selden further stated, that the anointing of the queen, as well as her consecration—it was, in fact, a consecration rather than a coronation—proceeded from the “request” and “demand” of the king, after he had been crowned, made to the metropolitan, who had performed such ceremony. Bracton had entered largely into the particulars de coronatione regis, but not one word of the queen’s coronation. There was not a single law-writer that had touched upon the existence of such a right, as appertaining to a queen. Blackstone had it not, nor Lord Coke, nor Selden. He next adverted at some length to the precedents quoted by his learned friends opposite, beginning with that of William the Conqueror. The very precedents quoted by his learned friends raised the inference, if there were no other arguments, that the act, so far as related to the queen, was entirely dependent on the will of the king. The Attorney-General then referred largely to Reymer, from whose book he quoted apposite passages, in support of his main argument, that the ceremony of a queen’s coronation was entirely dependent upon the order of the king. In all, from the time of Henry the Seventh, six queens had been crowned, and seven had not; so that the majority was against the present claim, which it had been attempted to support on the plea of ancient, uninterrupted usage.
The Attorney-General concluded at a quarter before one o’clock; and the Solicitor-General, after a short pause, rose to follow his learned friend, and of course was compelled to go over the same ground, strengthening and confirming the preceding statements by such arguments as occurred to his observance, and contending that the usage pleaded by her Majesty’s law-officers arose entirely from the sovereign’s will and pleasure.
About two o’clock Mr. Brougham rose in reply, but we can touch but very briefly on his arguments. It had been intimated that the queen’s right to be crowned rested on the proclamation of the king; but it might as well be pleaded that the right of the eldest sons of peers to seats in the House of Lords rested on the king’s writ, because usually preceded by it. It had been argued from the word postulamus, that the queen’s coronation depended on the king’s will; but it might as well be argued, from another term employed (dignemini), that it was optional in the archbishop. If this right was unnecessary for the queen, how was it necessary to the king? He contended not for the necessity, but the right. The learned gentleman then went over the various cases and authorities of the learned counsel for the crown, and concluded by stating his opinion, that even if the right were not established, the expediency was such, that the council would be all but criminal, in advising that her Majesty should be excluded from her part in this important ceremony; for it would be setting an example of the most injurious nature.
Mr. Brougham concluded his reply at half-past three o’clock. Strangers were then ordered to withdraw; the counsel and agents on both sides, however, remaining. The Tower record-keepers were called in, to verify certain documents produced by Mr. Brougham. After which, at a quarter to four o’clock, the Privy Council adjourned.
The decision was ultimately against the Queen’s claim.
On the 11th of July, in the House of Commons, Mr. Hume made an ineffectual attempt to induce the House to address his Majesty on this much-agitated subject.
He had just commenced the reading of a resolution “That an humble address be presented to his Majesty, praying that he will be graciously pleased to issue his royal proclamation for the coronation of her Majesty,” when the deputy-usher of the black rod was heard knocking at the door; and as he was concluding it, he was called to order by the Speaker, who reminded him of the presence of that officer; and proceeded forthwith to the House of Peers, where parliament was prorogued.
The following spirited protest of her Majesty appeared on the 17th.
HER MAJESTY’S PROTEST AGAINST THE DECISION OF THE PRIVY COUNCIL.
Caroline R.
To the King’s Most Excellent Majesty.
The Protest and Remonstrance of Caroline, Queen of Great Britain and Ireland.
Your Majesty having been pleased to refer to your privy council the Queen’s memorial, claiming as of right to celebrate the ceremony of her coronation on the 19th day of July, being the day appointed for the celebration of your Majesty’s royal coronation; and Lord Viscount Sidmouth, one of your Majesty’s principal secretaries of state, having communicated to the Queen the judgment pronounced against her Majesty’s claim; in order to preserve her just rights, and those of her successors, and to prevent the said minute being in after-times referred to as deriving validity from her Majesty’s supposed acquiescence in the determination therein expressed, the Queen feels it to be her bounden duty to enter her most deliberate and solemn protest against the said determination; and to affirm and maintain, that by the laws, usages, and customs of this realm, from time immemorial, the queen-consort ought of right to be crowned at the same time with the king’s majesty.
In support of this claim of right, her Majesty’s law officers have proved before the said council, from the most ancient and authentic records, that queens-consort of this realm have, from time immemorial, participated in the ceremony of the coronation with their royal husbands. The few exceptions that occur demonstrate, from the peculiar circumstances in which they originated, that the right itself was never questioned, though the exercise of it was from necessity suspended, or from motives of policy declined.
Her Majesty has been taught to believe that the most valuable laws of this country depend upon, and derive their authority from, custom; that your Majesty’s royal prerogatives stand upon the same basis: the authority of ancient usage cannot therefore be rejected without shaking that foundation upon which the most important rights and institutions of the country depend. Your Majesty’s council, however, without controverting any of the facts or reasons upon which the claim made on the part of her Majesty has been supported, have expressed a judgment in opposition to the existence of such right. But the Queen can place no confidence in that judgment, when she recollects that the principal individuals by whom it has been pronounced were formerly her successful defenders; that their opinions have waved with their interest, and that they have since become the most active and powerful of her persecutors: still less can she confide in it, when her Majesty calls to mind that the leading members of that council, when in the service of your Majesty’s royal father, reported in the most solemn form, that documents reflecting upon her Majesty were satisfactorily disproved as to the most important parts, and that the remainder was undeserving of credit. Under this declared conviction, they strongly recommended to your Majesty’s royal father to bestow his favour upon the Queen, then Princess of Wales, though in opposition to your Majesty’s declared wishes. But when your Majesty had assumed the kingly power, these same advisers, in another minute of council, recanted their former judgment, and referred to, and adopted these very same documents as a justification of one of your Majesty’s harshest measures towards the Queen—the separation of her Majesty from her affectionate and only child.
The Queen, like your Majesty, descended from a long race of kings, was the daughter of a sovereign house connected by the ties of blood with the most illustrious families in Europe; and her not unequal alliance with your Majesty was formed in full confidence that the faith of the king and the people was equally pledged to secure to her all those honours and rights which had been enjoyed by her royal predecessors.
In that alliance her Majesty believed that she exchanged the protection of her family for that of a royal husband, and that of a free and noble-minded nation. From your Majesty, the Queen has experienced only the bitter disappointment of every hope she had indulged. In the attachment of the people she has found that powerful and decided protection which has ever been her steady support and her unfailing consolation. Submission, from a subject, to injuries of a private nature, may be matter of expedience—from a wife it may be matter of necessity—but it never can be the duty of a queen to acquiesce in the infringement of those rights which belong to her constitutional character.
The Queen does therefore repeat her must solemn and deliberate protest against the decision of the said council, considering it only as the sequel of that course of persecution under which her Majesty has so long and so severely suffered; and which decision, if it is to furnish a precedent for future times, can have no other effect than to fortify oppression with the forms of law, and to give to injustice the sanction of authority. The protection of the subject from the highest to the lowest, is not only the true but the only legitimate object of all power; and no act of power can be legitimate which is not founded on those principles of eternal justice, without which law is but the mask of tyranny, and power the instrument of despotism.
Queen’s House, July 17.
On the day of the coronation a considerable crowd assembled about her Majesty’s house in South Audley Street soon after four o’clock. As soon as it was ascertained that her Majesty’s coach was making ready in the yard, the crowd, both in South Audley Street and in Hill Street, became very great. The wall opposite to her Majesty’s house in Hill Street was soon covered with spectators, who announced to the crowd below each successive step of preparation. “The horses are to;” “every thing is quite ready;” “the Queen has entered the coach,”—were the gradual communications, and they were received with the loudest cheers. Lady Anne Hamilton arrived a few minutes before five, and was most cordially and respectfully greeted. Soon after five the gate was thrown open, and a shout was raised—“The Queen! The Queen!” The Queen immediately appeared in her coach of state, drawn by six bays. Lady Hood and Lady Anne Hamilton sat opposite to her Majesty. Lord Hood followed in his own carriage. Her Majesty looked extraordinarily well; and acknowledged, with great dignity and composure, the gratulations of the people on each side of her coach. The course taken was, through Great Stanhope Street, Park Lane, Hyde-Park Corner, the Green Park, St. James’s Park, Birdcage Walk, and by Storey’s Gate, along Prince’s Street, to Dean’s Yard—a way, it must be observed, the least likely to attract notice or to gather crowds. The crowd accumulated immensely along this line; the soldiers every where presented arms with the utmost promptitude and respect; and a thousand voices kept up a constant cry of “The Queen!” “The Queen for ever!” The coup d’œil from the road along the Green Park, was the most striking which can be imagined; the whole space presented one mass of well dressed males and females hurrying with every possible rapidity to accompany the Queen, and shouting their attachment and admiration. The two torrents that poured along the south side of the park and the eastern end occasioned the greatest conflux at Storey’s Gate. As soon as the Queen’s arrival was known in the scene of the King’s coronation, shouts of “The Queen!” at once arose from all the booths, and hats and handkerchiefs were every where waved in token of respect. As soon as her Majesty came in sight of the coronation platform and Westminster Abbey, she stopped for a few moments, apparently uncertain what course to take, as she had hitherto met with no obstruction, and yet had received nothing like an invitation to approach. At this moment the feelings of the spectators were wound up to a pitch of the most intense curiosity and most painful anxiety. The persons who immediately surrounded her carriage knew no bounds in expressing their enthusiastic attachment, while many of those in the galleries, apprehensive of the consequences of the experiment which she was making, could not restrain their fears and alarms. In the meantime great confusion seemed to prevail among the officers and soldiers on and near the platform; the former giving orders and retracting them, and the latter running to their arms, uncertain whether they should salute her by presenting them or not. Astonishment, hurry, and doubt, seemed to agitate the whole multitude assembled either to witness or compose the ensuing pageant. She alighted from her carriage and proceeded on foot, leaning on the arm of Lord Hood, and accompanied by the faithful companions of her affliction, Lady Hood and Lady Anne Hamilton, to demand admission. The approach of the Queen towards the hall-door produced a considerable sensation within: there was an immediate rush to the door, which was closed amidst much confusion. The officer on guard (we believe Colonel M’Kinnon) was immediately summoned to the spot, and asked her Majesty for her ticket. She replied that she had none, and as Queen of England needed none. He professed his sorrow, but said he must obey orders, and that his orders were to see that no person whatever should be admitted without a ticket. Her Majesty then retired. The party went to the door of the duchy of Lancaster behind the champion’s stable, and had the door shut in their faces. They then turned round, and leaving the royal carriage behind, proceeded to demand admission at another entrance. The same intense sensation of interest and the same applause, mixed with partial disapprobation, continued to follow her.
When she arrived nearly at the other extremity of the platform—that which was opposite to the central pavilion—her further progress was arrested by a file of about a dozen soldiers, who were suddenly ordered to form across the platform. Her Majesty then quitted it, and went straight on to the House of Lords on foot, there to repeat the same request, and with the same success.
In about twenty minutes she returned, and having ordered the top of her carriage to be taken down, rode off, amid the astonishment and acclamations of the people.
We subjoin the following account from the Courier of her Majesty’s reception at the door of Westminster Abbey:—
“Lord Hood having desired admission for her Majesty, the door-keepers drew across the entrance, and requested to see the tickets.
“Lord Hood.—I present you your Queen; surely it is not necessary for her to have a ticket.
“Door-keeper.—Our orders are to admit no person without a peer’s ticket.
“Lord Hood.—This is your Queen: she is entitled to admission without such a form.
“The Queen, smiling, but still in some agitation—Yes, I am your Queen, will you admit me?
“Door-keeper.—My orders are specific, and I feel myself bound to obey them.
“The Queen laughed.
“Lord Hood.—I have a ticket.
“Door-keeper.—Then, my Lord, we will let you pass upon producing it.
“Lord Hood now drew from his pocket a peer’s ticket for one person; the original name in whose favour it was drawn was erased, and the name of ‘Wellington’ substituted.
“Door-keeper.—This will let one person pass, but no more.
“Lord Hood.—Will your Majesty go in alone?
“Her Majesty at first assented, but did not persevere,
“Lord Hood.—Am I to understand that you refuse her Majesty admission?
“Door-keeper.—We only act in conformity with our orders.
“Her Majesty again laughed.
“Lord Hood.—Then you refuse the Queen admission?
“A door-keeper of a superior order then came forward, and was asked by Lord Hood whether any preparations had been made for her Majesty? He was answered respectfully in the negative.
“Lord Hood.—Will your Majesty enter the Abbey without your ladies?
“Her Majesty declined.
“Lord Hood then said, that her Majesty had better retire to her carriage. It was clear no provision had been made for her accommodation.
“Her Majesty assented.
“Some persons within the porch of the Abbey laughed, and uttered some expressions of disrespect.
“Lord Hood.—We expected to have met at least with the conduct of gentlemen. Such conduct is neither manly nor mannerly.
“Her Majesty then retired, leaning on Lord Hood’s arm, and followed by Lady Hood and Lady Hamilton.
“She was preceded by constables back to the platform, over which she returned, entered her carriage, and was driven off amidst reiterated shouts of mingled applause and disapprobation.”
Her Majesty returned through Pall Mall, St. James’s Street, and Piccadilly, followed all along by a great concourse of people. In St. James’s Street the water had previously created abundance of mud, and this material the crowd bestowed upon some public offices which were prepared for an illumination. During the whole course of her Majesty’s progress no accident occurred.
Footnotes
1 See Toland; Sir J. Ware’s Antiq. of Ireland, vol. ii. pp. 10, 124, &c.
2 Called also by the Irish Cloch na cineaṁna, or, the Stone of Fortune.
3 History of the Druids, p. 104.
4 Chron. of Scotland, lib. i. cap. 2.
5 P. 54.
6 Judges ix. 6.
7 2 Kings, xi. 12, 14.
8 Taylor’s Glory of Regality, p. 31.
9 Richard III.
10 In the Archæologia, vol. xv. art. 24, is “A true and perfect Inventory of all the Plate and Jewells now being in the Upper Jewell House of the Tower, in the charge of Sir Henry Mildmay, together with an appraisement of them, made and taken the 13th, 14th, and 15th daies of August, 1649;” containing the following account of “crowns,” &c. demolished:—
| £. | s. | d. | |
| “The imperiall crowne of massy gold, weighing 7 lb. 6 oz. valued at | 1110 | 0 | 0 |
| The queene’s crowne of massy gold, weighing 3 lb. 10 oz. | 338 | 3 | 4 |
| A small crowne found in an iron chest formerly in the Lord Cottingham’s charge, &c.: | |||
| The gold | 73 | 16 | 8 |
| The diamonds, rubies, sapphires, &c. | 355 | 0 | 0 |
| The globe, weighing 1 lb. 5¼ oz. | 57 | 10 | 0 |
| Two coronation bracelets, weighing 7 oz. (with three rubies and twelve pearls) | 36 | 0 | 0 |
| Two sceptres, weighing 11 oz. | 60 | 0 | 0 |
| A long rod of silver gilt, 1 lb. 5 oz. | 4 | 10 | 8 |
“The foremencion’d crownes, since the inventorie was taken, are, according to ordr of Parliamt, totallie broken and defaced.”
A second inventory, containing “that part of the regalia” found at Westminster, mentions “King Alfred’s crowne of gould wyer worke, sett with slight stones, and 2 little bells, p. oz. 79½, at £3. per oz., £248. 10s. 0d.”
11 See Sir Edward Walker’s Account of “The Preparations for His Majesty’s Coronation,” &c. 8vo. Lond. First printed 1820.
12 Taylor, p, 65. The Saxon Chronicle says of the Conqueror: “He was very worshipful. Thrice he bore his king-helmet every year, when he was in England: at Easter, he bore it at Winchester; at Pentecost, at Westminster; in midwinter, at Gloucester. And there were with him all the rich men over all England,” &c.—Sax. Chron. 189, &c.
13 The following is Hume’s account of this memorable project:—
“A little after [his attempt to carry off the Duke of Ormond], Blood formed a design of carrying off the crown and regalia from the Tower; a design to which he was prompted, as well by the surprising boldness of the enterprise, as by the views of profit. He was near succeeding; he had bound and wounded Edwards, the keeper of the Jewel Office, and had gotten out of the Tower with his prey; but was overtaken and seized, with some of his associates. One of them was known to have been concerned in the attempt upon Ormond; and Blood was immediately concluded to be the ring-leader. When questioned, he frankly avowed the enterprise, but refused to tell his accomplices. ‘The fear of death,’ he said, ‘should never engage him either to deny a guilt, or betray a friend.’ All these extraordinary circumstances made him the general subject of conversation; and the king was moved by an idle curiosity to see and speak with a person so noted for his courage and his crimes.... Blood might now esteem himself secure of pardon, and he wanted not address to improve the opportunity.”—Charles eventually pardoned him, granted him an estate of £500. per annum, and encouraged his attendance about his person. “And while old Edwards, who had bravely ventured his life, and had been wounded in defending the crown and regalia, was forgotten and neglected, this man, who deserved only to be stared at and detested as a monster, became a kind of favourite.”—Hume’s England, Charles II.
14 Gen. xlix. 10.
15 Sandford does not omit to notice, that the dean of Westminster, assisted by the prebendaries, duly performed this office for the coronation of James II., “early in the morning.”
16 Vide Judges, chap. ix.
17 Titles of Honour, p. i, chap. 8.
18 1 Sam. x. 10; xvi. 1; 1 Kings, xiv. 15; &c.
19 1 Sam. xxvi. 9, 10.
20 Selden’s Titles.
21 Marmion, 8vo. Note, p. 456.
22 “Comite Cestriæ gladium S. Edwardi, qui Curtein dicetur, ante regem bagulante,” &c.
23 Glory of Regality, p. 73, 4.
24 Esther, iii. 10, and viii. 2.
25 Golden Legende (Julyan Notary, 1503).
26 Battley’s Antiq. St. Edm. Burgi, p. 119.
27 Memoirs of James II., ed. by Clarke. 2 vols, 4to.
28 Rot. Parl. iii. 417.
29 Lingard’s Hist. England, iii. p. 51.
30 Strutt’s Horda Angel-cẏnnan, v. ii.
31 Glory of Regality, p. 81.
32 These were (prudently enough, after the error hinted at,) the whole of the words used at the late ceremonial.
33 Being first given by Sandford to his description of this part of the ceremony of James II.’s coronation.
34 Doleman’s Conferences concerning Succession, &c.
35 MS. Cott. Nero, c. ix. p. 172.
36 See his curious Speech in M. Paris, Hist. Major, 1640, p. 197.
37 Hoveden, Walsingham, &c. are quoted to this effect by Taylor.
38 History of the Anglo-Saxons, b. iv. chap. 1.
39 Titles of Honour, p. ii. c. v. 26.
40 Wharton’s Troubles of Archbishop Laud, p. 324.
41 Inserted on the union with Scotland, in 1707.
42 In the oath recently taken by His Majesty the latter members of this clause, read ‘within England and Ireland, and the territories thereunto belonging.’
43 Stow’s Annals.
44 In France we read of the exaltation of king Pharamond on a shield, so early as the year 420; of the chairing of Gunbald, king of Burgundy, A.D. 500, in which that prince fell from the supporting arms of his subjects, nearly to the ground; and of king Pepin being elevated on a target in 751. (Greg. Turon. Hist. lib. vii. cap. 10. Mezeray Hist. de Pepin, &c.) In Navarre, the king and queen, after being anointed, were thrice elevated before the altar on a shield emblazoned with the arms of the kingdom, and upheld by six staves.
45 Thus in the ordo of Henry VII.’s coronation; “the cardinal,” it is said, “sitting, shall anoynte the king, kneeling.”—Ive’s Papers.
46 Vide Taylor’s Additional Notes, p. 347, &c.
47 It will complete the sketch of the history of an institution closely connected with our subject, to observe, that George I. on restoring it in 1725, constituted it a regular military order of thirty-six companions and one grand-master, having as officers a dean, genealogist, king at arms, register, secretary, usher and messenger; and a seal, on one side of which is the figure of the king on horseback in complete armour, the shield azure and three imperial crowns with the circumscription, Sigillum Honoratissimi Militaris Ordinis De Balneo; and on the reverse the same, impaling the royal arms.
The badge of the order exhibits a happy specimen of the art of moulding old institutions to modern purposes. It consists of a rose, thistle and shamrock, issuing from a sceptre surrounded by three imperial crowns, enclosed within the ancient motto Tria juncta in uno. Of pure gold chased and pierced, it is worn by the knight elect pendant from a red riband across the right shoulder. The collar is also of gold, weighing thirty ounces troy, and is composed of nine imperial crowns, and eight roses, thistles, and shamrocks, issuing from a sceptre, enamelled in proper colours, tied or linked together with seventeen gold knots, enamelled white, and having the badge of the order pendant from it. The star consists of three imperial crowns of gold, surrounded by the motto upon a circle of red, with rays issuing from the silver centre forming a star, and is embroidered on the left side of the upper garment.
The installation dress is a surcoat of white satin, a mantle of crimson satin lined with white, tied at the neck with a cordon of crimson silk and gold, with gold tassels, and the star of the order embroidered on the left shoulder; a white silk hat adorned with a standing plume of white ostrich feathers, white leather boots, edged and heeled, spurs of crimson and gold, a sword in a white leather scabbard with cross hilts of gold. Each knight is allowed three squires, who must be gentlemen of blood, bearing coat armour, and who are entitled during life to all the privileges and exemptions enjoyed by the esquires of the sovereign’s body, or the gentlemen of the privy chamber.
We need hardly add, that both in the number of knights and the brilliancy of its appearance, this order maintained its full splendor at the coronation of the fourth sovereign of the House of Brunswick.
48 Johnes’ Froissart, v. 12. p. 160, 1.
49 King Richard II.
50 Rot. Parl, vi. 278.
51 Lingard’s History of England, v. iii. p. 662, 3.
52 Ives’ Coronacion of Queene Elizabeth, p. 120.
53 Ives’ Coronacion of Queene Elizabeth, p. 120.
54 Hall’s Chronicle.
55 Hall’s Chronicle, Henry VIII.
56 There have been instances in which the see having been vacant, and the archbishop suspended or abroad, other prelates have officiated: but the right of the metropolitan see seems to have been still preserved.
57 Lingard’s History of England, vol. ii. p. 88, 89.
58 Henry V. p. i.
59 Johnes’ Froissart, v. 12. p. 162.
60 Chron. Sax. 57, 63; Malmsbury, &c.
61 Wilk. Leg. 217, 228.
62 Ivanhoe, v. iii. p. 328-345.
63 Gen. xli. 9.
64 Neh. i. 11.
65 Clarke’s Bible, Part ii. Exod.
66 Hist. Anglo-Saxons, v. ii, p. 79.
67 Malmsb. lib. iii. p. 80.
68 The beautiful anecdote which Mr. Lingard furnishes from Bede of the debate on the conversion of the Northumbrian king, Edwin, we cannot forbear transcribing. The high priest of the heathen rites having spoken—a thane “sought for information respecting the origin and destiny of man. ‘Often,’ said he, ‘O king, in the depth of winter, while you are feasting with your thanes, and the fire is blazing on the hearth in the midst of the hall, you have seen a bird, pelted by the storm, enter at one door, and escape at the other. During its passage it was visible: but whence it came, or whither it went, you knew not. Such to me appears the life of man. He walks the earth for a few years: but what precedes his birth, or what is to follow after death, we cannot tell. Undoubtedly, if the new religion can unfold these important secrets, it must be worthy our attention.’”—Lingard’s History, vol. i. p. 92.
69 The see of Canterbury was restored to the primacy again by Cenulf, the successor of Egfurth.
70 Ep. Car. Mag. ap. Bouquet, tom. v. p. 260.
71 Titles of Honour, p. i. chap. 1.
72 See Mr. Turner’s Anglo-Saxons, Spelman’s Life of Alfred, &c.
73 Taylor’s Glory of Regality, Addit. Notes, p. 310.
74 Lingard’s History, vol. i. p. 350.
75 See Hume’s England, 8vo. vol. i. &c.
76 Turner’s Anglo-Saxons, 4to. vol. i. p. 389.
77 “Princes beyond the baths of the sea-fowl, worshipped him far and wide,” says a poem on his death: “they bowed to the king as one of their own kin. There was no fleet so proud, there was no host so strong, as to seek food in England, while this noble king ruled the kingdom. He reared up God’s honour, he loved God’s law, he preserved the people’s peace; the best of all the kings that were before in the memory of man. And God was his helper: and kings and earls bowed to him: and they obeyed his will: and without battle he ended all as he willed.”—Chron. Sax. p. 122.
78 Osbern, 113. Eadmer, 220.
79 Mr. Lingard has the following note on the accession of Edwy, confirming our previous observations on the meaning of the recognition. “It is observable, that the ancient writers almost always speak of our kings as elected. Edwy’s grandmother in her charter, (Lye, App. iv.) says, “He was chosen, gecoren.” The contemporary biographer of Dunstan, (apud Boll. tom. iv. Maii, 344.) says, “Ab universis Anglorum principibus communi electione.””
80 Hickes’ Inst. Gram. Præf.
81 Lingard’s Hist. p. 292.
82 Thus the Saxon Chronicler says of William I. “Thrice he bore his king-helmet every year, when he was in England; at Easter he bore it at Winchester, at Pentecost at Westminster, and in Mid-winter at Gloucester.” p. 450.
83 We have noticed the present existence of a contemporary account of the coronation of Ethelred II. It demonstrates, that some of the most eloquent passages of the prayers now used on the occasion, were the production of what we often denominate the darker ages of the world, and well accords with the preceding sketch of the character and duties of the Saxon kings.
“Two bishops, with the witanA,” it is said, “shall lead the king to church; and the clergy with the bishops shall sing the anthem, Firmetur manus tua, and the Gloria Patri. When the king arrives at the church, he shall prostrate himself before the altar, and the Te Deum shall be chanted. When this is finished, the king shall be raised from the ground, and having been chosen by the bishops and people, shall with a clear voice, before God and all the people, promise that he will observe these three rules.” [Then follows the coronation oath, quoted above.]
AMS. Claude, A. 3. Cotton Library.
The prayers that follow, the bishops shall separately repeat. “We invoke thee, O Lord, Holy Father Almighty and Eternal God, that this thy servant, whom by the wisdom of thy divine dispensations from the beginning of his existence to this day, thou hast permitted to increase, rejoicing in the flower of youth, enriched with the gift of thy piety, and full of the grace of thy truth, thou mayest cause to be always advancing, day by day, to better things before God and men;—that rejoicing in the bounty of supernal grace, he may receive the throne of supreme power; and, defended on all sides from his enemies by the wall of thy mercy, he may deserve to govern happily the people committed to him, with the peace of propitiation and the strength of victory.”
The following combination of admirable Scripture allusions is extracted from the third prayer, or that offered by the bishop after the consecration, “holding the crown over the king.”
“Almighty Creator, everlasting Lord, Governor of heaven and earth, the Maker and Disposer of angels and men, King of kings and Lord of lords! who made thy faithful servant Abraham to triumph over his enemies, and gavest manifold victories to Moses and Joshua, the prelates of thy people; and didst raise David, thy lowly child, to the summit of the kingdom, and didst free him from the mouth of the lion and the paws of the bear, and from Goliath, and from the malignant sword of Saul; who didst endow Solomon with the ineffable gift of wisdom and peace;—look down propitiously on our humble prayers, and multiply the gifts of thy blessing on this thy servant, whom with humble devotion we have chosen to be king of the Angles and Saxons. Surround him everywhere with the right hand of thy power, that, strengthened with the faith of Abraham, the meekness of Moses, the courage of Joshua, the humility of David, and the wisdom of Solomon, he may be well pleasing to thee in all things, and may always advance in the way of justice with inoffensive progress.”
When crowned, the invocation is, “May God crown thee with the honour of justice, and the labour of fortitude; that by the virtue of our benediction, and by a right faith, and the various fruit of good works, thou mayest attain to the crown of the everlasting kingdom, through his bounty whose kingdom endureth for ever!”
We cannot omit the concluding benedictions, rich with Scripture phraseology as any church could make them.
“May the Almighty Lord give thee, from the dew of heaven, and the fatness of the earth, abundance of corn, wine, and oil! May the people serve thee, and the tribes adore thee! Be the lord of thy brothers, and let the sons of thy mother bow before thee! He who blesses thee shall be filled with blessings; for God will be thy helper. May the Almighty bless thee with the blessings of the heaven above, and in the mountains and the valleys; with the blessings of the deep below; with the blessings of the suckling and the womb; with the blessings of grapes and apples; and may the blessing of the ancient fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, be heaped upon thee!—May the blessing of Him, who appeared in the bush, come upon his head, and may the full blessing of the Lord be upon his sons, and may he steep his feet in oil! With his horn, as the horn of the rhinoceros, may he push the nations to the extremities of the earth; and may He who has ascended the skies be his auxiliary for ever!”
84 Chron. Sax. 257.
85 Lingard, vol. i. 485.
86 A tax of two shillings per hide on land, gathered annually.
87 History of England, 8vo. edit. vol. i. p. 413.
88 Holinshed.
89 This is the common statement: Mr. Taylor (Glory of Regality, p. 249,) objects to this being considered as a second coronation, and thinks it only a renewal of the royal festivities at Easter, with unusual splendor. But he seems to overlook the formal resolve of the council at Nottingham, on the point.
90 See the whole speech, in Matt. Paris.
91 Leg. Sex. 154.
92 Brompton, 1283, 4.
93 See M. Paris, Rymer, &c.
94 Holinshed.
95 The queen is said to have sucked the poison out of a wound which her husband received in the Holy Land, from the poisoned dagger of the emir of Jaffa.—See Lingard, v. ii. p. 369.
96 Johnes’ Froissart, i. xxv.
97 Rymer, vii.
98 Rot. Parl. iii.
99 See the curious original document in Hume.
100 King Henry IV. p. ii.
101 See a curious MS. account of this ‘solempnyte’ in the Cotton Library, as quoted by Mr. Taylor, Glory of Regality, p. 263.
102 See the preceding Note.
103 Grafton, vol i. p. 592.
104 Historic Doubts, Lord Orford’s Works, 5 vols. 4to. vol. ii. p. 146.
105 Grafton, vol. ii. p. 156.
106 Burnet on the Reformation, and Appendix.
107 Walker’s Circumstantial Account, 8vo. 1. p. 78.
108 Taylor’s Preface, p. x.
109 Page 37.
110 No. 335.—The Spectator’s encomium on Booth is, however, sufficiently slight. The good bishop, it is evident, was better acquainted with the realities he was here describing than these theatrical types.
111 Here the archbishop took the paten into his hands.
112 And here broke the bread.
113 Here the archbishop laid his hand upon all the bread.
114 Here he took the cup into his hand.
115 And here laid his hand upon every vessel (be it chalice or flagon) in which there was any wine to be consecrated.
The End