Military and religious life in the Middle Ages and at the period of the Renaissance

by P. L. Jacob

The royal effigy was laid in state for eight or ten days, during which time the ordinary service of the palace went on just the same as during the king’s lifetime. At the dinner and supper hours the table was laid by the officers, and the courses arranged by the gentlemen-in-waiting, preceded by the usher, and followed by the officers of “the king’s buttery,” who approached the table with the customary obeisances. The bread was then cut and placed ready for being handed round, the dishes were brought to the table by an usher, the maître d’hôtel, the pantler, the pages, the squire of the kitchen, and the keeper of the plate; the napkin was presented by the maître d’hôtel to the highest personage present; grace was said by a prelate or an almoner, who recited the prayers for the dead. All those who were in the habit of eating at the king’s table during his lifetime were expected to be present at each of the repasts, together with the other persons of his household, the princes, princesses, and prelates. The dishes were afterwards distributed amongst the poor.

When the effigy had been removed the embalmed body was brought into the middle of the same room, and the coffin—covered with a pall of black velvet which touched the ground, with a large cross of white satin in the centre, and on each side a scutcheon representing the arms of France—was placed upon trestles; over the whole was thrown another large pall of cloth of gold with fringes, which had also in the centre a white satin cross, and at each extremity the arms of France, but smaller than those on the under pall. The pall was trimmed with violet velvet of a fine azure, spotted with fleurs-de-lis, and bordered with ermine. At the head of the coffin was a cushion of cloth of gold, upon which lay the royal crown, with the sceptre to the right and the hand of justice to the left; at the foot there was a cross of silver-gilt, and over it a splendid dais of black velvet; upon a form stood the vessel for holy water, with a stool on each side for the two heralds arrayed in their coats of arms, chaperons en tête. Beside the heralds there was a bench covered with black cloth for the princes and cardinals, who were seated on it during the celebration of mass. The coffin was surrounded by a black wooden railing. At the lower end were two altars standing in close proximity to each other; that of the chief chapel for the high masses for the dead which was chanted, and that of the oratory for low masses said by the chaplain in ordinary to the late king. The nobles, several gentlemen, the officers and the body-guard, all in mourning, were present at these services. A few days previous to the interment the new sovereign repaired to the mortuary chamber, attired in a purple mantle—purple was the mourning colour for kings, as tanné (brown) was that for queens—the train being borne by five princes, each wearing a hood of the same colour. The chief gentleman of the chamber presented him the cushion, on which the king knelt in prayer after making the customary reverences. Then taking the aspersorium from the hands of a prelate, he sprinkled the coffin with holy water; this done he withdrew, after making the reverences usual upon such occasions.

When a king or a queen died in Paris, a procession was formed to their residence to conduct the body to the place of interment; if he died outside the city, the cortége started from Notre-Dame des Champs or St. Antoine des Champs to meet it at its arrival. This cortege was composed of the presidents and other officers of the parliament in black robes, the officers of exchequer, of taxes, and of the treasury, of the delegates, the provost of the merchants, the aldermen, and the councillors of the city, all in mourning.

Fig. 398.—Obsequies of St. Cesarius, physician to the Emperors Constantius and Julian; died in 369.—Fac-simile of a Miniature from a Greek Manuscript of the Ninth Century, in the National Library, Paris.

Early the next morning, the twenty-four criers of the city announced the event “en la Chambre du plaidoyé, Table de marbre, et par les rues,” enumerating the titles and qualities of the deceased monarch in the form laid down by the Grand Council, and not by Parliament, which had refused to draw up this cry for King Henry II. (27th of July, 1559), in compliance with the request of his widow.

In the afternoon, the body was taken to the Church of Notre-Dame, in Paris, and the effigy of the king was laid upon the coffin, in order to impress yet more deeply the people who were admitted to do him homage.

By special privilege the hanouars, or bearers of salt, carried the coffin; but at the interment of Charles VIII. twenty gentlemen of his household volunteered to act as bearers of the body from Notre-Dame des Champs to St. Denis. At the death of Louis XII., the hanouars demanded and obtained the restoration of their privilege.

Fig. 399.—Funeral of St. Edward the Confessor, the Anglo-Saxon king, who died on the 5th of January, 1066.—The body, covered with an embroidered pall surmounted with two small crosses, being carried by eight men to Westminster Abbey, of which he was the founder. Behind come priests chanting the Psalms for the Dead, while two clerks are ringing bells.—From the Bayeux Tapestry (Twelfth Century).