Coronation Rites

by Reginald Maxwell Woolley

It is at the second stage of the rite where the interaction of the two groups of rites is most clear and evident. In the tenth century the second recensions of the English and French rite not only shew considerable developements and a much more fixed and definite form, but they are almost identical, and the French order bears certain marks of English influence. Whence did this elaboration come? In the first place the English and French rites can be taken together from this time forward. Recension by recension they have been subjected to much the same influences and are very close to each other. This was only natural considering the closeness of the communications between England and France. Between the Saxon royal families and the Court of Rome there was considerable intercommunication, and on several occasions we hear of Saxon princes going to Rome. Of Alfred we are told that he was invested by the Pope at Rome with the insignia of a Roman consul, an investiture which the Saxons seem to have mistaken for a coronation rite; and we are also told that the insignia were preserved henceforth among the royal ornaments. Of the Roman rite at this time we have no forms, in fact nothing between the simple forms of the first imperial recension and of the Milanese order and the elaborate order of Hittorp of the tenth or eleventh centuries. Yet whereas in the former of these there were investitures of Sword and Crown only, in the latter the king is invested with Sword, Ring, Verge, and Crown, and the unction is elaborate, being made on head, breast, shoulders, bends of arms, and hands. It is clear that influences have been at work in the intervening period. We know that France had great influence on the Liturgical books of Rome in the ninth and tenth centuries, and it would seem that here is yet another instance of this influence, and that the elaborations in the Roman rite were at some time adopted from France and at Rome reduced into order and fixity. Doubtless at Rome even the rite underwent some developement, but it is noticeable that after the time of the rite of Hittorp’s order the rite at Rome returned to something of its earlier simplicity and drops out many of the elaborations which we find in Hittorp’s order. Thus we may perhaps presuppose an intermediate order at Rome similar to Hittorp’s order.

In the case of Edgar of England, the English writers made much of his coronation in the year 973. It was an occasion which called for special pomp and circumstance, and much stress is laid on the magnificence of the whole ceremony. It is likely that this is the occasion for which the second recension was composed, and the natural source of this developement and revision would seem to be a Roman order similar in character to that of Hittorp. This rite of the second English recension was adopted almost word for word in France in the order of Ratold.

In England and France the third recension of each country is clearly influenced from Rome, to the extent even of replacing with Roman forms some of the forms of the old national rites. In the fourth recension in both lands there is a return to the older national forms by the simple means of conflating the second and third recensions, and this fourth recension marks the final form of the rite, except in so far as in England in its English form it has since been modified as circumstances have required.

The earliest German rite, that of Otto of Saxony in the tenth century, is unfixed in character, and approximates perhaps to the earliest Frankish rites. There are investitures with Sword and Belt, Armills and Chlamys under a unique form, Sceptre and Verge, again with a unique form, and then after the anointing, with the Crown. The use of the word Chlamys is very striking and bears witness to at least a knowledge of Eastern imperial vestments. By the thirteenth century the German rite had been subjected to considerable Roman influence, as would naturally be expected from the close connection existing between Germany and Italy. The unctions are on head, breast, and shoulders, and the investitures are with Sword, Ring, Sceptre and Orb, and Crown. The German rite changed very little after this date.

The Spanish rite, as we have seen, contains much that is very ancient and also has been subjected by the fourteenth century to Roman influence, none the less preserving much of its ancient peculiar characteristics. Unfortunately we have only few forms of this rite, and it was early discontinued altogether.

The Roman imperial rite in its first state is short and simple. There are investitures with Sceptre and Crown only. No mention is made of the unction, and this fact, inconclusive in itself, accords with the absence of any mention of unction in the contemporary Western accounts of Charlemagne’s coronation. The imperial rite served as a model for the order for crowning a king when need arose, as is evident from the fact that the early ninth-century Milanese order for the crowning of a king is almost identical with it. In the process of its developement the order for crowning an Emperor was influenced to some extent by the order for the crowning of a king, which had been subjected early to considerable outside influences. Then in the twelfth century we find in the imperial rite investitures with Sword, Sceptre, and Crown; a little later with Ring, Crown, and Sceptre. The Ring is quite non-Roman and has been introduced from the rite for the crowning of a king, into which it has come from outside sources. The Ring however soon disappears once more from both Roman rites. In the fourteenth century the investitures are with Crown, Sceptre and Orb (without a form), and Sword. In the sixteenth century, after which date the order has varied very little, the investitures are with Sword, Sceptre and Orb (under one form), and Crown.

We have seen that in the ninth century the Milanese rite was very simple and almost identical with the Roman imperial rite. Here at Milan the Roman Emperor was nominally crowned as king of Italy, before his coronation at Rome as Emperor. In the eleventh century this rite has become very elaborate, containing the whole of the matter of ‘Egbert’s’ order, and also much that is Roman. There are investitures, of Crown, Sword, Verge, and Ring, an unusual order, which are made with Roman forms. In the fourteenth century we find the unctions restricted to the shoulders only, and the investitures are of Ring, Sword, Crown, Sceptre, and Verge. In the last Milanese recension, that of the fifteenth century, the unction is made on the head, and the investitures are of Sword, Ring, Crown, and (under one form) Sceptre and Orb. Thus the Milanese rite was subjected to the same early influences as the Roman, but never regained so much of its earlier simplicity as did the Roman rite.

The coronation rite was introduced into other lands only at a time when the Roman rite had gained a position of special prestige, and therefore these rites seem to have been more or less Roman, and yet contained some national characteristics. Of these we have only the Hungarian rite extant. Of the Scandinavian countries, and of Scotland no rite of pre-reformation date survives, but the post-reformation rites, which are based to some extent on the older rites, perhaps contain some of the older features, for example, the retention in Sweden of a key of knowledge among the Regalia.

The general conclusions as to the inter-relation of the rites would seem to be as follows. There are in the West two original groups, both independent compositions: