Coronation

A coronation is a ceremony marking the investment of a monarch with regal power through, amongst other symbolic acts, the placement of a crown upon his or her head. Where the monarch is anointed, the ritual may have religious significance. Coronation has been little practised in recent years, although it remains the norm for the formal installation of the monarch of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

Since the feudal age

A coronation following the Byzantine formula was instigated with the coronation of King Clovis of the Franks at Rheims (497), in which a dove was made to descend with an ampule of oil, with which the king was anointed. All succeeding kings of France were anointed — with the same oil, miraculously resupplied — and crowned at Rheims.

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Coronations were often centuries-old ceremonies with a great many formal and solemn traditions. Usually the climax of the coronation ceremony is the monarch's recital of an oath, followed by a religious leader placing a crown on the monarch's head. Some monarchs have crowned themselves: this was the custom of the Shahs in Iran, the Tsars of Russia and self-proclaimed monarchs like the two Bonaparte Emperors of France.

Related Topics:
Ceremonies - Tradition - Oath - Crown - Shah - Iran - Tsar - Russia - Self-proclaimed monarchs - Bonaparte - Emperor - France

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The crown is not the only item bestowed on a sovereign at his or her coronation. Usually there is an orb and sceptre and — depending on the country — other items from the crown jewels, all highly charged with historic, religious, and territorial symbolism.

Related Topics:
Orb - Sceptre - Crown jewels

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The ceremony usually takes place in the premier Cathedral or most holy basilica of a country, often in the present or former monarchical and/or ecclesiastical capital. In the United Kingdom, the coronation ceremony takes place in Westminster Abbey, with the monarch seated on the ancient St. Edward's Chair or Coronation chair (which then again includes the Scottish Stone of Scone). The French monarchs were crowned at Notre-Dame de Reims. A coronation ceremony is generally religious because from the earliest times it was believed that monarchs were chosen by God, in accordance with the Divine Right of Kings, hence the crown was bestowed by God himself. While this belief is now not generally held, many sovereigns are still proclaimed as Monarch "By Grace of God", even though legally nearly all are subject to the constitution, some even subject to parliamentary sanction. Before 1917 many Russian peasants, unofficially, prayed to God and the Tsar; while in Japan the Emperor was believed to be a descendant of Amaterasu the sun goddess . Hence the concept of monarch, coronation, and God are inexorably linked.

Related Topics:
Cathedral - Basilica - United Kingdom - Coronation ceremony - Westminster Abbey - St. Edward's Chair - Stone of Scone - Notre-Dame de Reims - Divine Right of Kings - 1917 - Russia - Japan - Amaterasu

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A monarch succeeding by right (e.g. hereditary) does not have to undergo the ceremony of coronation to ascend a throne and execute the duties of the office. King Edward VIII of the United Kingdom, for example, did not reign long enough for a coronation ceremony to occur before he abdicated, yet he was unquestionably the King of the United Kingdom and Emperor of India during his brief reign. This is because in Great Britain, the law stipulates that the moment one monarch dies, the new monarch assumes the throne.

Related Topics:
Edward VIII of the United Kingdom - Abdicate - United Kingdom - India - Reign

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The British King is usually proclaimed King in an outdoor ceremony at St. James's Palace within hours of the death of his predecessor. In France, the new monarch ascended the throne when the coffin of the previous monarch descended into the vault at Saint Denis Basilica, and the Duke of Uzes proclaimed 'Le Roi est mort, vive le Roi'.

Related Topics:
St. James's Palace - Saint Denis Basilica - Duke - Uzes

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From 1305 to 1963 the Popes were crowned with the Papal Tiara in a coronation ceremony in St. Peter's Basilica in Rome. Following the decision of the last crowned Pope Paul VI to lay the Papal tiara on the high altar of the basilica as a symbol of humility, the next three popes have declined to wear it, and have thus had a ceremony of inauguration rather than coronation, as the placing of a crown or coronet of some description upon the head is a requisite of a coronation ceremony. While John Paul I, John Paul II (who also completely abaondoned the use of the sedia gestatoria, a portable throne) and Benedict XVI opted for a simpler, more religious installation ceremony instead of an old-fashioned 'earthly' coronation, a future pope can in theory opt for the coronation ceremony.

Related Topics:
1305 - 1963 - Pope - Papal Tiara - St. Peter's Basilica - Rome - Paul VI - Altar - Basilica - Inauguration - John Paul I - John Paul II - Sedia gestatoria - Benedict XVI

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Many European monarchies have dispensed with the ceremony of coronation altogether. Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands had an oath-taking and induction ceremony rather than a coronation, and in Sweden, no king has been crowned since Oscar II in 1873. In Spain, although the crown is present and evident at the ceremony it is never actually placed on the monarch's head. Today's coronations of constitutional monarchs are more akin to political inaugurations. Belgium actually never had a crown (except as a 'virtual' heraldic emblem), the formal installation is a solemn oath on the constitution in parliament, symbolic of the restricted rule of the king under the then cutting-edge constitution of 1831.

Related Topics:
Queen Beatrix - Netherlands - Sweden - Oscar II - 1873 - Constitutional monarch - Inauguration

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Among the last grand coronation ceremonies the World saw were that of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi of Iran in 1967 and that of the Central African Republic's president Bokassa in 1977. Bokassa crowned himself emperor in an imitation of Napoleon I's pomp. Furthermore grand ceremonial is still customary in some South East Asian monarchies, notably for the King of Thailand, the Sultan of Brunei and Malaysia, where every five years one of the continental state monarchs (Sultans and one Radja) is crowned Yang di-Pertuan Agong (Paramount Ruler), i.e. elective head of state of the federation.

Related Topics:
World - Mohammad Reza Pahlavi of Iran - 1967 - Central African Republic - Bokassa - Thailand - Brunei - Malaysia - Yang di-Pertuan Agong

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