[66] See Stubbs’ Introd. to William of Malmesbury, Gesta Regum (Rolls Series), II. p. xlii, n. 4. ‘Filium vestrum Erfred quem hoc in tempore ad sanctorum apostolorum limina destinare curastis, benigne suscepimus et quasi spiritalem filium consulatus cingulo, honore, vestimentisque, ut mos est Romanis consulibus, decoravimus, eo quod in nostris se tradidit manibus.’
[67] Henderson, Pontificale of Egbert (Surtees Soc., Vol. XXVII.), pp. 100 ff. Another text of the same Order is printed from the Pontificale Lanalatense by L. G. Wickham Legg, English Coronation Records, Westminster, 1901, pp. 3 ff., who also gives the unimportant variations of the text of the Order as it appears in the Leoffric Missal.
[68] Reference is made in this rite to seven prayers used, and In diebus is therefore evidently regarded as an alternative. Sometimes it is very uncertain whether Alia means ‘or,’ or ‘also.’
[69] This detail follows the text of the Leoffric Missal. In the other two texts it is apparently stated that the people kiss the king, but the rubric is in all three texts confused and probably corrupt.
[70] ‘For the nation of the West-Saxons does not allow a queen to sit beside the king, nor to be called a queen, but only the king’s wife.’ Asser, De rebus gestis Aelfredi, s.a. 856 (Petrie, Mon. Hist. Brit. p. 471). The Annales Bertiniani, which s.a. 856 recount the coronation of Judith in France, definitely state that the coronation of a queen was not practised among the Saxons. See Pertz, M.G.H. Script. I. 450. For the position accorded to the consorts of Anglo-Saxon kings, see Liebermann, Gesetze der Angelsachsen, II. s.v. ‘Königin.’
[71] Haec tria populo Christiano et mihi subdito in Christi promitto nomine. In primis ut ecclesia Dei et omnia populus Christianus veram pacem nostro arbitrio in omni tempore servet. Aliud ut rapacitates et omnes iniquitates omnibus gradibus interdicam. Tertium ut omnibus iudiciis aequitatem et misericordiam praecipiam, ut mihi et vobis indulgeat suam misericordiam clemens et misericors deus. Qui vivit.
[72] In the text of this recension given in Dr Wickham Legg’s Three Coronation Orders (H. B. S. 1900), p. 59, the form with which the verge is delivered is followed by a prayer, Ineffabilem misericordiam tuam; and then the pallium is given with the form, Accipe nunc vestem summi honoris, and a prayer, Omn. Deus cuncti honoris iustus dispositor. None of these forms appear elsewhere.
[73] In this prayer occur the words, quae per manus nostrae impositionem hodie regina instituitur. These words have been regarded by some as evidence, lingering on only in the forms for the crowning of a queen, that originally there was a laying on of hands at the consecration of a king. The ‘ordinatio’ of King Aidan by St Columba is adduced as further evidence, and the expression of Photius χειροθεσία βασιλείας might also be adduced. Both, if they have any other than a general meaning, doubtless refer to the laying on of hands always anciently observed in blessing. But in this particular passage the words evidently refer simply to the setting of the crown on the queen’s head.
[74] See L. G. Wickham Legg, English Coronation Records, pp. 30 ff.
[75] L. G. Wickham Legg, English Coronation Records, pp. 81 ff. For other forms of this fourth recension cp. J. Wickham Legg, Missale Westmonasteriense (H. B. S.), II. coll. 673 ff., and Maskell, Monumenta Ritualia, III. pp. 1-81.