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| James VI and I |
Monday July 25, 1603—the day
appointed for the coronation of King James VI of Scotland and his wife, Anne of
Denmark as James I of England and Queen Anne—dawned drab and wet. It was not an auspicious omen. Indeed it was a somber day in more ways than
one. Thirty-six years and one day before,
his mother, Mary Queen of Scots, had been forced to abdicate in favor of her
year-old son and the date, possibly chosen to commemorate privately his mother,
had to bring back thoughts of her long imprisonment and her execution. James would, within a few years, remove his
mother’s remains from their original grave in Peterborough Cathedral and
re-inter them among England’s Kings in Westminster Abbey. James could not possibly have been close to
his mother—or even to have had any memories of her—as they had been separated
from his infancy, but she represented to him his royal patrimony and the
legitimacy of his wearing the Crowns of Scotland and England. Just as with the Tudors, the Stuarts too
valued family over Creed or any other thing.
The day before—that fateful
anniversary of his mother’s abdication—the new King of England and his wife
travelled in the traditional procession from the Tower of London to the Palace
of Westminster. They were accompanied by a retinue of guards as well as the
leading members of the court and had been greeted along the way by speeches,
tableaux, and decorations in their honor at such key places as the Guildhall
and Saint Paul’s Cathedral. The
procession, part of all English coronations at the time, would have been an
almost-all-day event. The Palace of
Westminster, today the seat of Parliament, had been a chief royal residence in
London until the reign of Henry VIII and the monarch traditionally spent the night
before the coronation in the palce so as to be near the Abbey where the
coronation service began early the next morning.
Indeed workers in the Abbey
had been busy all through the night putting the final touches on the “theatre”
for the coronation—the area beneath the central tower where the transepts met
the nave. Outside the Abbey workers were
laying a carpet of blue cloth from the throne in the Great Hall of the Palace
down through the Hall and along the street to the great West Door of the Abbey
Church. About dawn the Abbey vergers
began preparing the Church for the service.
This was a tricky matter as never before had the Protestant service found
in the Book of Common Prayer been used for the Coronation. Even the Protestant monarchs, Edward VI and
Elizabeth, had been crowned with full Catholic Ritual and the Sarum Rite. But now, gone was the altar with its jeweled
cross and candles and in its place stood a plain wooden table covered with “a
faire linen clothe” for the Holy
Communion. Gone were the snow-white albs
and rich brocaded chasubles and tunicles of the clergy. In their place the bishops wore their rochets
of fine white lawn beneath their black silk chimeres. In place of the miters of previous days, they
wore the plain square black caps of their university days. The lower clergy wore their black gowns. The Church had been stripped of its glory,
but not the peerage. The peers gathered
in their robes of red velvet trimmed with furs, coronets in their hands to be
donned at the moment the Archbishop placed the crown on the head of King
James.
Around eight in the morning,
James and Anne processed with their court from the Palace of Westminster to the
nearby Abbey where, resplendent in their royal robes, they were greeted by the
Dean and Chapter of Westminster in somber clerical black. The Dean, the canons,
and principal bishops of the realm carrying the Crown, the Chalice and Paten,
and the Bible were accompanied by noblemen carrying the scepters, Sword of
State, and the orb. This procession led
James and Anne through the Abbey into the choir as the royal choristers sang
psalm 112, I Was Glad When They Said Unto
Me. Archbishop Whitgift led the King
to the four corners of the coronation theatre, facing East, South, West, and
North to present him for “recognition” and the customary shouts of “Long Live
the King” by those assembled. He then
administered the Coronation Oath to govern justly and by law. The oath administered, all settled in for the
drab Protestant Service with its multiple collects and turgid readings unbroken
by any chants or whiffs of incense, or other bits of more sensual popery.
It would be another
two-hundred and thirty years before a romantic interest in things medieval
would encourage the Church of England to root around in its dusty armoires and cubbyholes
to find the silk vestments and brocaded hangings of a more vibrant era. And while Tallis and Byrd had written
beautiful music for the Anglican Service (both composers were Catholics and
also wrote music for the Catholic Church), and while such music would most
likely have been used in the coronation service, for the most part in sixteenth
century Anglicanism there was no singing except for psalms, and organs were
being allowed to fall into disrepair for lack of use. In place of ritual and music, there was a
preponderance of turgid verbosity and even Cranmer’s elegant English of the
Prayer Book was just droned out without any passion. But when the Gospel had been jumped like a
hurdle and the Nicene Creed run through in rote repetition, the service came
alive again. It was time for the anointing.
It is most curious that the
anointing survived the Reformation. All
things Catholic had been done away with unless there could be a direct
scriptural command such as “do this in remembrance of me,” or “go baptize all
nations.” For many English Protestants
with a Puritan bent, even the ring at a wedding was too “popish” for their
delicate Christian consciences. But
anointing the king—that was retained.
Granted there was a scriptural precedent for it—Saul had been anointed
in his day and David in his. But all
other anointings had been done away with in the revised rites of 1552 and
1559. There was no long an anointing of
the candidate for baptism or a chrismation after the baptism. There was no anointing in the confirmation
service. There was no anointing of the
hands in the ordination of a priest or the anointing of the head of a bishop at
his consecration. Even the anointing of
the sick—for which the Epistle of Saint James gave a command—had been done away
with. But a king was still
anointed.
And it wasn’t just the
anointing. Before the anointing the king
was divested of his Robe of State and his outer garments, he was vested in the columbium sidonis, a white gown that
opened at the neck (to allow for the anointing) and which corresponds to the
alb. Over this, after the anointing, he
is vested with the supertunica which
corresponds to the Dalmatic. Over this
he is robed with a stole and the cope-like pallium
regale. In other words he is dressed
similar to a bishop in his pontificals to show the link between kingship and
priesthood.
This link between priesthood
and kingship was also displayed in the coronation service of other
nations. The King of France at his
coronation received Holy Communion from the chalice, a practice at the time
reserved to the priest-celebrant of the Mass.
The Russian Czar also received Holy Communion at his coronation in the
manner of a priest—entering the altar through the Royal Doors, the entry into
the sanctuary reserved for bishops and priests, and then taking the particle of
the Lamb (the consecrated bread) in his hands before drinking from the
chalice. (The normal way the laity
receive Holy Communion in the Russian Church is that the priest drops the
particle which has been soaked in the consecrated wine, into the mouth of the communicant
from a spoon.)
It is ironic that while the
Church of England had all but dropped the concept of priesthood for the clergy,
it retained it for the Sovereign. Don’t
misunderstand me, I am not saying that the Monarch becomes “ordained” in the coronation
rite or that he or she in any way is authorized for priestly ministry, but the
symbols of priesthood are retained and conferred on the Sovereign as a symbol
of his (or her) being “The Lord’s Anointed.”
It is a political gesture that draws on religious symbolism.
After James was anointed, he
was then invested with the various swords, scepters, and orb that symbolized
his rights and duties as protector of the people, administrator to them of
Justice and Mercy, and their Ruler.
Queen Anne was then brought forward to the same spot, and anointed like
James (though not vested in the priestly garments) and crowned. They were then led to their thrones and the
colorless Anglican Service continued.
Anne caused quite a stir, however, when she refused Holy Communion as
this confirmed for many the rumors that she was secretly a Roman Catholic.
The service over, the
priestly vesture exchanged again for the Robe of State, the King and Queen were
led from the Abbey back to the Palace of Westminster where the coronation
banquet awaited them. The service lasted
about seven hours and it was mid-afternoon before they got to eat. There was no shortage of food, however, with
which to sate the royal appetite.
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