Coronation Anecdotes
Public-domain ebook
Coronation Anecdotes
by Giles Gossip
Language: en5,332 downloads on Project Gutenberg
Subjects
In: History - British·History - Royalty
Public-domain ebook sourced from Project Gutenberg #27589.
About this book
Coronation Anecdotes is a scholarly miscellany that gathers together the legends, symbols and historical details surrounding the regalia and ceremonial objects of British monarchs. The work opens with a reflective preface that frames its purpose as a guide for “the anxious and intelligent parent,” promising to link the pageantry of coronations with the broader sweep of civilization, law and liberty. From there it launches into a series of numbered essays, beginning with the “Regal Chair” and moving on to the crowns, each packed with quotations from early chroniclers, foot‑noted citations, and digressions into mythic origins, such as the stone allegedly brought from Egypt by a Greek named Gathelus. The author weaves together factual inventories, biblical allusions and folklore, presenting a dense tapestry of anecdote and analysis that aims to educate as well as to entertain.
The voice is that of a 19th‑century antiquarian, formal and erudite, peppered with classical references and a reverence for primary sources. Its style is dense, with long sentences, extensive footnotes and occasional rhetorical flourishes, reflecting the scholarly conventions of its time. Readers who relish detailed historical trivia, enjoy the intersection of myth and documented ceremony, and have patience for a richly referenced, essay‑like narrative will find this volume rewarding.
Who appears in Coronation Anecdotes
- Lord BaconMiddle‑aged bald man with thin spectacles, wearing dark Elizabethan doublet and ruff
- GathelusClassical Greek traveler, long dark hair, beard, draped in white chiton and cloak
The opening · free to read
"History--the picture of man--has shared the fate of its original. It has had its infancy of Fable; its youth of Poetry; its manhood of Thought, Intelligence, and Reflection."--ANON.
No. 1. The Regal Chair.
The Regalia of England are the symbols of a monarchical authority that has been transmitted by coronation ceremonies for upwards of ten centuries. But the incorporation of England, Scotland, and Ireland, into one united kingdom,--an event peculiar to the coronation of George IV, to have recognised,--has connected the history of the Imperial Regalia with some tales of legendary lore, the truth of which, if this circumstance does not demonstrate, be assured, gentle reader, nothing will. Irish records are said to add at least another thousand years of substantial history to the honours of that solid regal seat, or coronation chair, in which our monarchs are both anointed and crowned[1]: while some of our own "honest chroniclers" assign to it a still more marvellous antiquity.
Holinshed gives us the history of one Gathelus, a Greek, who brought from Egypt into Spain the identical stone on which the patriarch Jacob slept and "poured oil" at Luz. He was "the sonne of Cecrops, who builded the citie of Athens;" but having married Scota, the daughter of Pharaoh, he resided for some time in Egypt, from whence he was induced to remove into the West by the judgments pronounced on that country by Moses. In Spain, "having peace with his neighbors, he builded a citie called Brigantia (Compostella)," where he "sat vpon his marble stone, gave lawes, and ministred justice vnto his people, thereby to maintaine them in wealth and quietnesse," And "Hereof it came to passe, that first in Spaine, after in Ireland, and then in Scotland, the kings which ruled over the Scotishmen received the crowne sittinge vpon that stone, vntill the time of Robert the First, king of Scotland." In another part of his "Historie of Scotland," Holinshed mentions king Simon Brech as having transmitted this stone to Ireland, about 700 years before the birth of Christ, and that "the first Fergus" brought it "out of Ireland into Albion," B.C. 330. One important property of this stone should not be unnoticed. It is said, by the writers from whom the foregoing particulars are derived, to furnish a test of legitimate royal descent; yielding an oracular sound when a prince of the true blood is placed upon it, and remaining silent under a mere pretender to the throne. We heard various joyful acclamations on the recent "royal day;" but (perhaps from that very circumstance) could not distinguish the sound in question.
Apart from these legends, the real history of the [Saxon: hag-fail], or Fatal Stone[2], is curious; and has induced the learned Toland to call it "the antientest respected monument in the world[3]." It is to be traced, on the best authorities, into Ireland; whence it had been brought into Scotland, and had become of great notoriety in Argyleshire, some time before the reign of Kennith, or A.D. 834. This monarch found it at Dunstaffnage, a royal castle, enclosed it in a wooden chair, and removed it to the abbey of Scone, where for 450 years "all kingis of Scotland war crownit" upon it; or "quhil y^e tyme of Robert Bruse. In quhais tyme, besyde mony othir crueltis done be kyng EDWARD Lang Schankis, the said chiar of merbyll wes taikin be Inglismen, and brocht out of Scone to London, and put into Westmonistar, quhaer it remains to our dayis[4]."
An ancient Irish prophecy, quoted by Mr. Taylor in his learned "Glory of Regality[5]," assures us, that the possession of this stone is essential to the preservation of regal power. It runs literally, "The race of Scots of the true blood, if this prophecy be not false, unless they possess the Stone of Fate, shall fail to obtain regal power." King Kennith caused the leonine verses following to be engraved on the chair:--
Ni fallat fatum Scoti quocunque locatum Invenient lapidem Regnare tenentur ibidem.
A prophecy which is said to have reconciled many a true Scot to the Union in Queen Anne's time; and which, since the extinction of the Stuart family, is remarkably fulfilled in the claims of the House of Brunswick,--George IV. being now the legitimate heir of both lines.
At or near a consecrated stone, it was an ancient Eastern custom to appoint kings or chieftains to their office. Thus we read in Scripture of Abimelech being "made king by the plain of the pillar that was in Shechem[6]," (the earliest royal appointment, perhaps, of which we have any traces in history;) and of Joash having the "crown put upon him" while he "stood by a pillar, as the manner was[7]." Subsequently, and among the northern nations, the practice "was to form a circle of large stones, commonly twelve in number, in the middle of which one was set up, much larger than the rest: this was the royal seat; and the nobles occupied those surrounding it, which served also as a barrier to keep off the people who stood without. Here the leading men of the kingdom delivered their suffrages, and placed the elected king on his seat of dignity[8]." From such places, afterwards, justice was frequently dispensed.
"The old mun early rose, walk'd forth, and sate On polished stone, before his palace gate; With unguent smooth the lucid marble shone, Where ancient Neleus sate, a rustic throne."
HOMER'S Odyss. POPE'S Tr. [Greek: G]. 496--10.
Thus arises the name of our Court of King's Bench.
At the coronation of our kings, the royal chair is now disguised in cloth of gold; but the wood-work, which forms its principal parts, is supposed to be the same in which Edward I. recased it, on bringing it to England.
Shakspeare's RICHARD III. inquires--
"Is the Chair empty? Is the Sword unswayed? Is the King dead? The empire unpossessed? What heir of York is there alive but We?"
And the Earl of Richmond describes him, in admirable allusion to the foregoing facts, as
"A base foul stone, made precious by the foil Of England's chair, where he is falsely set[9]."
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