"Quarum quidem petitionum consideratione maturâ habitâ, eo quod idem Comes de Lyndsey modo existit in possessione et executione officii prædicti, et quod Robertus non ita pridem Carolum Primum fælicissimæ memoriæ, tunc Regem Angliæ, de advisamento Dominorum in Parliamento; quod quidem officium Montague nuper Comes Lyndsey pater ejus, cujus hæres ipse est executus est in coronatione Caroli Secundi nuper Regis Angliæ. Ideo consideratum est per commissionarios prædictos quod clameum prædicti Comitis de Lyndsey ad officium prædictum eidem Comiti de Lyndsey allocetur, exercendum prædicto die Coronationis; et quod clameum prædicti Comitis Derbiæ non allocetur; sed quoad feoda et vadia per dictum Comitem de Lyndsey clamata, clameum ejus quoad poculum de Assay non allocatur, eo quod non constabat prædictis commissionariis Magnum Angliæ Camerarium dictum poculum aliquâ precedenti coronatione habuisse. Sed quod alia clamea prædicta eidem Comiti de Lyndsey allocantur.
"Et postea et ante coronationem prædietam dicta quadraginta Virgatæ Velveti eidem Comiti deliberatæ fuere: et pro reliquis feodis prædictis compositio facta est cum prædicto Comiti, pro ducentis libris sterlingorum, et prædictus Comes de Lyndsey officium Magni Camerarii Angliæ in die Coronationis adimplevit."
And thus the reader has a summary of the contents of this important work.
James II. boasts, in his Memoirs, of having saved the country 60,000l. by the omission (for the first time) of the royal procession through the city, at his coronation.
The coronation of William and Mary presented the singular feature of a joint sovereignty over these realms, conferred by public consent. The only alteration this made in the ceremonial was, that another symbol of sovereign power, the orb, was required, and presented in due form to the queen as well as to the king. The new-modelling of the coronation oath, at this period, we have before noticed[109].
It is certainly remarkable that neither of our married queens regnant, Mary or Anne, should have obtained the coronation of their husbands: in neither case was conjugal influence wanted; but the superior force of the people's jealousy of foreign sway was, perhaps, wisely deferred to: in neither reign were other subjects of strife wanted between the crown and the people.
The princes of the illustrious House now seated on the throne have affected no novelties in their coronation ceremonies—except, perhaps, that they have endeavoured to simplify and abridge them. George I. ascended the throne at the age of fifty-five, and was crowned at Westminster, on the 20th of October, 1714. His consort, the Princess Sophia Dorothy of Zell, having fallen under his displeasure for alleged infidelity to her marriage vows, and having been, it is said, divorced from him by the Hanoverian law, was never brought into this country; and never, therefore, acknowledged Queen of England. George II. was crowned with his consort, at Westminster, on the 11th day of October, 1727.
Our late beloved monarch had the happiness of exhibiting to his people the splendid spectacles of his marriage and coronation within the same month of September, 1761. On the 8th of July, in that year, the king first announced to the privy council his intention of demanding in marriage the Princess Charlotte of Mecklenberg, sister of the reigning Duke Adolphus IV., and on the same day signed a proclamation for the assembling of the Court of Claims, and for his own coronation. The queen, being detained by contrary winds, did not arrive in this country until the 6th of September; on the 8th the nuptial ceremony was performed; on the 11th a second proclamation directed that her majesty should be united with her royal consort in the pending coronation ceremonies. These so far varied from that august ceremonial which has recently occupied the public attention, as the presence of a queen consort in the procession to the Abbey, and at the royal feast; her personal attendants; and the body of the peeresses, may be thought to give additional interest and splendour to the scene. The queen entered Westminster Hall the same hour as his majesty, and occupied a chair of state at his left hand, while the regalia were presented by the Dean of Westminster and his attendants. In the procession to the Abbey her majesty's vice-chamberlain took his place immediately following the gentlemen who personated the Dukes of Aquitaine and Normandy, and was succeeded by the other part of the queen's state in the following order:—
The Queen's Vice-Chamberlain, (Lord Viscount Cantalupe,)
Two Gentlemen Ushers.