The crowning glory

Whether a dazzling spectacle or a more restrained affair, the coronation of the monarch is a grand ceremony steeped in centuries-old tradition

- TONY BOULLEMIER

HOW MANY monarchs have been crowned at Westminster Abbey? Is it 38 or 39? Intriguingly, we don’t know. William the Conqueror was crowned on Christmas Day in 1066 but it’s possible that Har old Godwinson, the Saxon king who got an arrow in his eye at Hastings, got there first. We know Harold was crowned on 6 January 1066 but his monks, the tonsured historians of the day, neglected to leave an official record of where. What we can be sure of is that William’s coronation was extraordinary. It was conducted in English and French and the congregation’s loud roar of acclimation to appease the usurping Duke of Normandy was mistaken for a riot by his troops outside. In a panic, they set fire to a goodly number of surrounding Saxon houses in reprisal and so much smoke filled the building that the congregation fled, leaving the trembling William alone with the clergy to finish the service.

Not all our following rulers have been crowned at Westminster or indeed anywhere else. When Edward V, the elder Prince in the Tower, simply ceased to be seen at the Tower windows, his crown was put on Richard III’s controversial head instead. And King Edward VIII’s coronation was cancelled when he pledged his future to American adventuress Wallis Simpson and abdicated. Poor Lady Jane Grey, queen for just nine days, never had a crown on her fair head before it was later removed from her body. Famously, Lord Protector Oliver Cromwell wisely refused all efforts to make him a king.