The Children's Story of Westminster Abbey

by G. E. Troutbeck

The Regalia were then placed on the altar, and the Archbishop began the Communion Service. After the Creed the actual Coronation began. The King first took the solemn Oath to observe the statutes, laws, and customs of the land, and to cause “law and justice, in mercy, to be executed in all his judgments.” He also promised to maintain and preserve the Church of England as by law established. The King then kissed the Book of the Gospels, and signed the Oath. The Archbishop then began the beautiful hymn “Come, Holy Ghost, our souls inspire,” sung as a prayer for the blessing of the Holy Spirit on the King and Queen. After the hymn, the King, sitting in the Coronation Chair, on the Stone of Scone, was solemnly anointed with the Holy Oil. Then the Lord Great Chamberlain girt the King with the Sword of State, and after that the Sub-Dean of Westminster, acting for the Dean, put on him the Imperial Robe, and the Archbishop presented him with the Orb. The King then received the Ring, as a sign of kingly dignity, and then the two Sceptres,—the sceptre with the cross and the sceptre with the dove.

After this came the putting on of the Crown itself, which was brought by the Sub-Dean and placed on the King’s head by the Archbishop. The people again shouted “God save the King”; the peers put on their coronets; the trumpets sounded, and the great guns at the Tower were fired off.

The Archbishop then presented the Holy Bible to the King, saying these beautiful words: “Our Gracious King, we present you with this Book, the most valuable thing that this world affords. Here is wisdom; this is the royal law; these are the lively oracles of God.”

After this came the Benediction. The King was then led to his throne, and received the homage of all the princes and peers, the Prince of Wales being the first to do homage to his father. When that splendid ceremony was over the Queen was crowned by the Archbishop of York. As Queen Alexandra was Queen-Consort, she did not sit in King Edward’s Chair, as of course Queen Victoria did, but she knelt at the altar-step to be crowned. As she was led to her throne she made a deep obeisance to the King, who rose and bowed to her.

The actual Coronation being finished, the Archbishop proceeded with the Communion Service, and the King and Queen received the Holy Communion, which was administered to them by the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Dean of Westminster.

At the end of the service the “Te Deum” was sung, and the whole assembly cheered as the King walked down the Abbey, in his Royal Robe and Crown, and bearing the Sceptre and Orb.

This is an outline of the Coronation Service of King Edward VII, and it is especially interesting because, in spite of some few small changes, it shows us what the Coronations of our Kings have been like ever since the Confessor’s days. It may be well just to explain what is meant by the word “Regalia,” because the history of the Regalia carries us back to times even before Edward the Confessor, as Offa, King of the Mercians, is said to have placed the Regalia and Coronation Robes in the church at Thorney Isle. We should notice that the Regalia, that is, the crowns, sceptres, and orbs, had Anglo-Saxon names. The King’s crown was called the crown of Alfred, or of St. Edward; the Queen’s crown was called the crown of Editha, wife of Edward the Confessor. The sceptre with the dove was a remembrance of the peaceful days of the Confessor’s reign, after the Danes were driven out. The Coronation oath used to be taken on a copy of the Gospels which was said to have belonged to Athelstane. The orb appears in the famous Bayeux tapestry, showing that it must have been used in Saxon days.

Now let us turn for a little to some of the Coronations of particular Kings. As we have seen, the Saxon Kings were usually crowned at Winchester, as Edward the Confessor himself was.

The first Coronation to take place in the great church founded and built by the Confessor was that of Harold the Saxon, son of Earl Godwin, and brother-in-law of the Confessor. There was much anxiety in the country about the succession, and Harold was crowned at Westminster in great haste and confusion the day after the Confessor died, and the very day of his funeral, January 6th, 1066.

The next coronation was indeed different, for many things had happened in England meanwhile. As we all know, William Duke of Normandy, cousin of Edward the Confessor, had claimed the throne of England by right of inheritance. He had sailed over to England, had defeated and slain Harold at the Battle of Hastings (or Senlac), and was now King. When we remember that Charlemagne was crowned Emperor in St. Peter’s at Rome by Pope Leo III on Christmas Day, A.D. 800, it makes it all the more interesting to think that the day chosen for the Conqueror’s Coronation was also Christmas Day. He stood there in the Abbey, close to the grave of the Confessor, having on one side of him the Saxon Aldred, Archbishop of York, and on the other the Norman Bishop of Coutances. Archbishop Stigand, of Canterbury, had fled.