University of South Carolina Libraries
it tx u tx ? [Copyright, 19C2, by W. L. ValL] SINCE the last coronation of a sovereign of England, sixty four years ago, manners and ! tastes have undergone a won- ] derf ul change. While none o? j the essential features of the actual cor- j ^nation ceremony can be omitted or j changed, the investiture of King Ed- j ward VII. with a crown and his en thronement are unlike any similar evenl in the annals of England. The king dom has advanced in wealth, in art and culture, and the coronation is what may be expected under the highest civ ilization of the twentieth century. An event at once formal and magnificent has been the aim of the king. In the royal proclamation announcing the cel ebration of the coronation King Ed ward enjoined upon all who are to do any service ia that ceremony to appear "in all respects furnished and appoint ed as to so great a solemnity appertain eth and answerable to the dignities and places which every one of them respec tively holdeth and enjoyeth, and of this they or any of them are not to fail, as they will answer the contrary at their perils." King Edward having abandoned that part of the ceremonial which for cen turies has taken place in Westminster hall, the center of interest for the day of coronation is the service in West minster Abbey. At the moment the royal pair eater the door the choir greets them with an anthem beginning "I was glad when they said unto me, ."vre vriil go into the house of the Lord." Proceeding tlrough the body of the church, the king and queen kneel in front of the state or coronation chairs, say their pr?vete prayers and then take seats in the chairs. The first important ceremony is the so called 'Yeco pii tien" of EdwarjLJPife* as the lawful monarcJa_-ofs12nglan(L a seemingly useless performance in view of-tfcefsret that he has ruled as king more than a year. But the coronation is a ceremonial formal, political and religious. When all have taken their places in the Abbey, the archbishop of Canter bury makes "the recognition'* of the SS ft SS SS SS SS SS < > 04 OO <*> o? . 0 <> The lymn, "Corne, Holy Ghost, Our Souls Inspire," follows; also the" an them, "Zadck the Priest." Then comes the ceremony of anointing. The sword of kingship is th?n delivered by the archbishop into the king's right hand, with the words, "With this sword do justice." The king returns it to the archbishop, and it is laid upon the al tar, and his majesty is then invested by the dean of Westminster with the imperial mantle or dalmatic robe of cloth of gold. The orb, a ball of gold surmounted by a cross and set with jewels, the emblem of supreme power, is also placed in the king's right hand and on the fourth finger of that hand a ruby ring. The scepter with the cross is then put into his left hand. Now comes the central act of the ceremo nies?namely, the crowning of the king. The crown, which has been resting on the altar, is consecrated and blessed by the archbishop and placed on his maj esty's head. "God save the king;" will then be shouted by the assembly, trumpets will sound and drums be beaten. The arch bishop pronounces the exhortation, "Be strong and of good courage," and 4<The King Shall Rejoice In Thy Strength, O Lord!" is rendered by the choirs. The crowning of the queen follows. King Edward receives the old St. Edward's crown, enlarged at the rim to fit his head. When the king has been crowned, the princes of the blood royal and peers put on their coronets, the bishops their caps and the kings of arms their crowns. After the king has | been crowned the Bible is placed in his hand. The "Te Deum" is sung, and the king is formally enthroned. King Edwnrd^trrrcne rests upon a plat?form,-e?vered with the richest cloth ^o^-gold and raised above the pavement the height of five steps and is directly beneath the- central tower of the Ab bey. At the close of the 14Te Deum" he ascends the platform and is lifted up into his throne by the archbishop and bishops and other peers of the realm. The archbishop then exclaims. "Stand firm and hold fast from henceforth the seat and state of royal and imperial dignity which is delivered unto you in ?C-?=^ --~-.- -- -?i-i-: king fonr times, presenting in as many directions Kin;? Edward as the "un doubted king of the realm." each de mand being greeted with loud acclaims of "God save King Edward VII.."' and at the last recognition trumpets sound and drums are beaten. After the litany has been said the king and queen, each kneeling before the a!tar. make sep arately their "first offering"?namely, an altar cloth of gold, and the king also an ingot of gold, one pound6 in weight, which the archbishop of Canterbury places in the oblation basin, the pall of gold being laid , on the altar. His grace meantime says the prayer. "0 God. who dwellestf in the high and Jioly place!*' i The king and queen then return to their state chairs. The communion * ?ervice is commenced, and the sermon hy the bishop of London follows. The coronation oath is then administered to the king by the archbishop of Can terbury, which he receives kneeling be fore the. altar and with his hand upon ' Hi? holy gospels. He appends to the Jorrn of oath his roysl sien manual. the name and by the authority of Al mighty God!" Homage is then paid to his majesty by the archbishops and bishops, who kiss his left cheek, by the princes of the blood royal and by dukes, mar quises, earls, viscounts and barons. Amid shouts of the people?"God save King Edward!" "Long live King Ed- j ward!" "May the king live forever!"? j and the sound of trumpets and drums j the king leaves his throne and descends ; to the altar. ! The holy sacrament is then adminis ! tered to the king and queen, and the i archbishop reads the rest of the com ; munion service and pronounces the ! blessing. The final act of the coronation cere mony is the changing of the imperial i mantle for the royal robe of purple vel ! vet in St. Edward's chapel. Finally the king, wearing his crown and bearing ? the scepter and orb, passes through the I choir of the Abbey to the door where I he entered attended by the peers, the i archbishops and bishops in fui! re galia. RODKEY LINHOLM. ' . ::drcxat:cm oho im wes"k;hsteh abbey, _!-1 <y> oo ^ * W W ^ [Copyright. 1SC2. by . ilusk.] ACOMPLETE t?nsform?ion of the interior of Westminster Abbey was found necessary for the ceremony of crown ing King Edward VII. and Queen Alexandra. In fact, the vener able and historic sanctuary will be barely recognizable. The south side of the sacristy is flanked by the royal box. and from the stage whereon the ceremony is enacted tiers of galleries mount toward the rcof for the seating of noble guests. During the sermon King Edward and Queen Alexandra win sit in two chairs in front of the royal box. with officers of state on either side. The ceremony of anointing and crowning King Edward, however, takes place while he is seated in St Edward's chair, directly in front of the altar. From the time of St. Edward, or Ed ward the Confessor, to Queen Victoria the monarccs of England have been crowned in Westminster Abbey, and many of them are buried there. Ed ward the Confessor is honored by a chapel containing a shrine to his mem ory. Queen'Elizabeth and Mary Stu art have monuments. In the south transept of the Abbey there are monuments to most of the famous poets of England, and else where in the aisles are memorials to Englishmen illustrious in various fields. Officially the Abbey is known ! as the Collegiate Church of Westmin ster and is governed by a dean. The ancient chair used for the crown ing of King Edward VII. has stood in the chapel of Edward the Confesser, called also the Chapel of the Kings, for over six centuries. Originally used in Scotland for the coronation of Scot tish kings, it was brought as an offer ing at the shrine of Edward the Con fessor in 1297. Since that time it has been designated as St. Edward's chair. In height the coronation chair of England is G feet 7 inches. At the seat it is 3 feet 8 inches broad and in depth 2 feet At the corners four Hons support the structure, leaving a space of about nine inches between the seat and the bottom board. With in the space between the bottom board I and seat is inclosed the famous Stone of Scone, so called. No end of iegends have grown up around the coronation chair and the stone. The stone was brought from Scotland with the chair. One tradition has it that the stone originally came' from Ireland, where it was known as the Liasfail. or Stone of Destiny. It was used at the Irish national corona tion seat from the seventh century B. C. It was supposed by the people of Ireland to be the very stone upon which Jacob rested his head during his vigil at Bethel. One legend is to the effect tbat when the rightful monarch takes his sent upon the stehe it emits a loud musical note. Among other names the stone has been called .la ebb's Stone and the Fatai Marble Stone. The use of the stone in coronation ceremonies is traced to tbc primitivi' practice of raising Gothic and Celtic kings to an elevated seat of natural stone at th? time of ;::?.? crowning. An glo-Saxon tnonarebs were crowned at Kiu?Stou-on-Th;;ui? s on the Kings ^ H ^ ? And Westmii? Abbey $ @ A /3 ^7 <> <! g Where Ate Coronation ? of King Edward VII. ^ g Occurs S?P |tf 5* & o < Stone, and even at Westminster hall from a very early date the king was lifted to a marble seat at the upper end of the hall, then known as the King's Bench. In a work on "Memorials of West minster Abbey" the venerable Deaa j Stanley states that the stone of the ! coronation chair is very probably the ! stony pillow on which Columba rested I and on which his dying bend was laid ? in the abbey of Iona. "If so, it belongs," says the dean, "to the minister of the first authentic coronation of Christen dom, the coronation of Aidan by Colum ba, A. D. 571." Edward I. was crowned upon the stone at Scone when he became kins of the Scots. He brought it to Eng land, and Dean Stanley declares had j the chair made to inclose it, thus "the ? fragment of the world old Celtic race j was imbedded in the new Plantagenel oak." Only once since the coronation chair and stone were deposited in the chapel of Edward the Confessor have they been removed. That was at the cere money of installing Cromwell as lord protector in Westminster hall. At the joint coronation of William of Orange and Queen Mary II. a second corona tion chair was made, like the first, witli the exception of the supporting lions and the stone. This has since beer; used for the crowning of the consort of the new sovereign. Queen Alexan dra, however, will not receive the crown ih the chair, nut kneeling upon the steps of the altar. Westminster Abbey was founded in the eleventh century by Edward L, and the English people count it most fortunate that after a lapse of eight centuries a monarch of the same name and lineage should receive the homage of the nation and be crowned king in that historic pile. No similar succes sion of events as the crowning of a line of kings of over 800 years at the same altar is recorded of any other building in the world. The Abbey is officially designated in the proclama tions of coronation as "Our Palace of Westminster." The houses of parlia ment are also called the "Palace of Westminster," and the Abbey is, with relation to its connection with the pal ace, the Church of St. Peter. The terms of the royal proclamation there fore designate the Abbey as the cen tral point of the palace, or the "holy of holies." At the coronation service the roya! procession enters the Abbey by the west doors. Along the center aisle the king's and queen's processions move upon a raised platform to the so called "theater," or stage, where the principal I parts of the ceremony are enacted, j The platform way is carpeted. Along \ the sides, on the pavement of the aisle, ! stand the military. The coronation ! chairs stand in a large free space in ? the center of the stage. On one hand ! is the royal box for the members of ? the reigning family. Opposite the roy- ? al box is that of the bishops and above j that the gallery, or box, for foreign embassadors ; .J special envoys. When fill are in their places, the interior of :he Abbey presents a brilliant array of ; colors?scarlet, purple and gold in vel-1 ret, silk and ermine. HUBERT NORTHEN, i H # e?< <*> ' <y> <? [Copyright, 1002, by C. Lurie.] [ Alexandra emerges from Westminster Abbey after the coronation cere monies, she will make her first appearance before the public as queen consort of Edward VIL. wearing the crown cf England. The most gorgeous jewel in that crown, the Kohinoor diamond, will then for the first time grace the dia dem of a newly crowned queen. Queen Alexandra's crown is that known as the St. Editha, named in honor cf Edith, the wife of Edward the Con fessor. It was made for Queen Mary of ilodena, the consort of James IL, and is much the same in shape as that of Edward VIL, a cap of purple vel vet, surmounted by two arches and faced with ermine. It is set with dia monds of great value intermixed with pearls and other rare jewels. This crown is alwajs used when the sov ereignty exists in the male branch. As is the case with King Edward's crown, Alexandra's has undergone many alterations for the occasion, which enhance its beauty and value. The Kohinoor came into the posses sion of England since the accession of Queen Victoria; hence it has never be fore figured in a coronation. The won derful stone was among the spoils of a mogul invasion in the sixteenth cen tury, and after many adventures, be ing sometimes fought for in battle and again the jewel of an oriental princess, it was confiscated by the East India company for war expenses in 1S39. So great was the importance of this gem in the minds of the orien tals that its acquisition by the English crown was the subject of a treaty. Queen Alexandra, attended by her ladies, passes in front of the king after entering Westminster Abbey. The first act is the changing of the robes of state for the mantles which form part of the regalia used in coronations. After the robing the queen consort goes to her place on the coronation platform and stands by her chair of state until the king arrives at his i chair, which is beside her own. After the king has been anointed, crowned t$ ? ALEXANDRA ! H S??o ^; ^ ^ <^ ^ hand the queen consort's scepter and cross and in her left the ivory rod Then the queen consort ascends the diiis, or highest part of the platform, to her sent in the throne chair beside the king. Throughout the remainder of the cer emony, which consists chiefly of the administration of the holy communion. King Edward and Queen Alexandre are together. The monarchs descend . from the throne to the steps of the altar and, removing their own crowns, kneel down. Together they receive the bread and wine of the sacrament and then, putting on their crowns, return to their chairs. The final act is the change of coronation robes for robes of state, after which the monarchs, still wearing their crowns and bearing their scepters of royalty, attended by all the^ peers and peeresses wearing their coro nets, pass out of the Abbey into the public place. In their new state coach the monarchs then ride through the streets, wearing their crowns in the presence of the assembled populace, tc Buckingham palace. Needless to say that the coronation: robes of Queen Alexandra, who has a genius for dress and the purse of a monarch, excite far greater curiosity the world over than the dress of King Edward VIL, And yet the queen con sort has not ransacked the earth for beautiful and costly apparel, but de creed at the outset that her own robes as well as those of the peeresses in at ! tendance should be made throughout of materials,manufactured by Britislr subjects. This does not mean that there is a monotony of color or a same ness of fabric in the feminine display. ! for the sun never sets upon the Britisn ! dominions. Whatever the British isles themselves cannot produce is supple mented by the skillful needleworkers" of faroff India. In the matter of her own robes Queen Alexandra had but to please her own sweet self - unless she chose to cater t<r the wishes of her royal spouse, whielr is not very probable at an age ap ! preaching threescore, but the peeresses I were compelled to follow the dicta of ! stage manager of the imperial show. '.Tarn susetxr watohkah, Kitabiiaaed April, 1850? "Be Just and Fear not?Let all the Ends thou Aims't at, be thy Country's, thy God's and Truth's." the tr?b sout2KOX. Eetabi.ahed June ? 66 ; ?<-;-.-?- - - - ?-; Soscli ate? Aug. S, 1881. SUMTER. S. C WEDNESDAY. JUNE 25. 1908. New Series?Yol. XXI. So. 47 ~~~~ and enthroned the queen consort re pairs to the altar, attended by her la dies. There Alexaxidra kneels for the archbishop's prayer, then returns to her chair of state. During all this time Alexandra wears the queen's *Iia dem. a circlet of gold set with rich diamonds. The diadem having been removed for the ceremony of anoint- j ing. four of the attendant duchesses hold over the queen's head a pall of cloth of gold while the archbishop pours the consecrated oil from a gold- j en spoon upon the uncovered head. After the anointing the archbishop j places the queen's ring upon the fourth ? finger of her majesty's right hand. | Then comes the climax of placing St j EditVa's crown, which has previously j lain upon the altar, upon Alexandra's j head. This ceremony is also perform- ! ed by the archbishop, and at the same j time the princesses and peeresses put I on their coronets as a symbol of ree- | ognition of the crowning of their mis- j tress. After having crowned her maj- j esty the archbishop places in her right the earl marshal. And so, after for tunes had been expended in materials and labor, it transpired, that designs - selected for the peeresses in December would not be the thing for June, and amid the usual tears and protestations all had to be cast aside and the agony endured over again. But what of it all since the titled ones will be so fortu nate as to be in evidence at the most magnificent coronation in the history of crowned mon?rchs! And fcr the resuit Queen Alexandra ? must receive the .dory, since modifica tions were necessary to bring tLre cos tumes within the pale of modernity;, and the taste of the royal consort was the last arbiter. In the matter of style the court rulings were supreme, but the choice of materials was left largely to individual preference, and so the peeresses may appear at the coronation in skirts of gold or silver " tissue or lace or satin or cloth of gold . or silver, embroidered according to the - . fancy of the wearer. SEATON LORD.