English coronations at
Westminster Abbey in 1066, from the
Bayeux Tapestry English coronations were traditionally held at
Westminster Abbey, with the monarch seated on the
Coronation Chair. The main elements of the service, as well as the earliest form of the coronation oath, can be traced to the rite devised by
Saint Dunstan for the coronation of
King Edgar in
973 AD at
Bath Abbey. Dunstan's ceremony drew on the coronation practices of the
Franks and on the liturgy used in the
ordination of
bishops. Two versions of the early coronation service, known as (from the
Latin , meaning 'order') or
recensions, survive from before the
Norman Conquest. It is not known whether the first recension was ever used in England; the second recension was used for Edgar's coronation in 973 and for those of subsequent
Anglo-Saxon and early
Norman kings. at Westminster Abbey in 1399 A third recension was probably compiled during the reign of
Henry I and was used at the coronation of his successor,
Stephen, in 1135. While retaining the principal elements of the Anglo‑Saxon rite, it may have incorporated material from the consecration of the
Holy Roman emperor in the , a German liturgical book compiled in
Mainz in 961, thereby bringing English practice closer to continental usage. This recension remained in use until the coronation of
Edward II in 1308, when the fourth recension was introduced after several decades of development. Although influenced by French coronation rites, the new ordo placed greater emphasis on the relationship between the monarch and the nobility and on the coronation oath, neither of which featured prominently in the more absolutist French tradition. One manuscript of this recension, the at Westminster Abbey, has come to be regarded as the definitive version. Following the beginning of the
English Reformation, the boy-king
Edward VI was crowned in 1547 in the first
Protestant coronation, during which Archbishop
Thomas Cranmer preached against
idolatry and what he described as "the tyranny of the bishops of Rome". Six years later, Edward was succeeded by his half-sister
Mary I, who restored the
Catholic rite. In 1559,
Elizabeth I underwent the
last English coronation conducted under the auspices of the Catholic Church; however, Elizabeth's insistence on incorporating elements reflecting her Protestant beliefs led several bishops to refuse to officiate, and the ceremony was performed by the relatively low‑ranking
Bishop of Carlisle,
Owen Oglethorpe.
Scottish coronations at his coronation aged eight at
Scone Abbey in 1249, being greeted by the royal poet who will recite the king's genealogy Scottish coronations were traditionally held at
Scone Abbey in
Perthshire, with the monarch seated on the
Stone of Destiny. The original rituals were a fusion of ceremonies used by the kings of
Dál Riata, based on the inauguration of
Aidan by
Columba in 574, and by the
Picts from whom the Stone of Destiny came. A crown does not seem to have been used until the inauguration of
Alexander II in 1214. The ceremony included the
laying on of hands by a senior cleric and the recitation of the king's
genealogy. The
bishop of St Andrews (from 1472 an archbishop) usually presided, but other bishops and archbishops also performed at some coronations. After the coronation of
John Balliol, the Stone was taken to Westminster Abbey in 1296 and in 1300–1301 Edward I of England had it incorporated into the English
Coronation Chair.
Pope John XXII in a
bull of 1329 granted the kings of Scotland the right to be anointed and crowned. It is likely that the child would have been
knighted before the start of the ceremony. The coronation itself started with a
sermon, followed by the anointing and crowning, then the coronation oath, in this case taken for the child by an unknown noble or priest, and finally an oath of fealty and acclamation by the congregation.
James VI had been
crowned in the
Church of the Holy Rude at
Stirling in 1567. After the
Union of the Crowns, he was crowned at
Westminster Abbey on 25 July 1603. His son
Charles I travelled north for a Scottish coronation at
Holyrood Abbey in
Edinburgh in 1633, but caused consternation amongst the
Presbyterian Scots by his insistence on elaborate
High Anglican ritual, arousing "gryt feir of inbriginge of poperie".
Charles II underwent a
simple Presbyterian coronation ceremony at
Scone in 1651, but his brother
James VII and II was never crowned in Scotland, although Scottish peers attended
his 1685 coronation in London, setting a precedent for future ceremonies. The coronation of Charles II was the last to take place in Scotland, and no bishop presided as the
episcopacy had been abolished; the
de facto head of government,
Archibald Campbell, 1st Marquess of Argyll, crowned Charles instead.
Modern coronations and
Mary of Modena at Westminster, 23 April 1685 The
Liber Regalis was translated into English for the first time for the coronation of James I in 1603, partly as a result of the
reformation in England requiring services to be understood by the people, but also an attempt by
antiquarians to recover a lost English identity from before the Norman Conquest. In 1685, James II, who was a Catholic, ordered a truncated version of the service omitting the
Eucharist, but this was restored for later monarchs. Only four years later, the service was again revised by
Henry Compton for the coronation of
William III and
Mary II. The Latin text was resurrected for the 1714 coronation of the German-speaking
George I, since it was the only common language between the king and the clergy. Perhaps because the 1761 coronation of
George III had been beset by "numerous mistakes and stupidities", the next time around, spectacle overshadowed the religious aspect of the service. The
coronation of George IV in 1821 was an expensive and lavish affair with a vast amount of money being spent on it. George's brother and successor
William IV had to be persuaded to be crowned at all;
his coronation at a time of economic depression in 1831 cost only one sixth of that spent on the previous event. Traditionalists threatened to boycott what they called a "
Half Crown-nation". The king merely wore his robes over his uniform as
Admiral of the Fleet. For this coronation, a number of economising measures were made which would set a precedent followed by future monarchs. The assembly of peers and ceremonial at Westminster Hall involving the presentation of the regalia to the monarch was eliminated. The procession from Westminster Hall to the Abbey on foot was likewise eliminated and in its place, a state procession by coach from
St James's Palace to the abbey was instituted, an important feature of the modern event. The music in the abbey was widely criticised in the press, only one new piece having been written for it, and the large choir and orchestra were badly coordinated. In the 20th century, liturgical scholars sought to restore the spiritual meaning of the ceremony by rearranging elements with reference to the medieval texts, creating a "complex marriage of innovation and tradition". The greatly increased pageantry of the state processions was intended to emphasise the strength and diversity of the
British Empire.
Bringing coronations to the people carried from her Coronation in a horse-borne litter, 15 January 1559 The idea of the need to gain popular support for a new monarch by making the ceremony a spectacle for ordinary people, started with the coronation in 1377 of
Richard II who was a 10-year-old boy, thought unlikely to command respect simply by his physical appearance. On the day before the coronation, the boy king and his retinue were met outside the
City of London by the
lord mayor,
aldermen and the
livery companies, and he was conducted to the
Tower of London where he spent the night in
vigil. The following morning, the king travelled on horseback in a great procession through the decorated city streets to Westminster. Bands played along the route, the
public conduits flowed with red and white wine, and an imitation castle had been built in
Cheapside, probably to represent the
New Jerusalem, where a girl blew
gold leaf over the king and offered him wine. Similar, or even more elaborate pageants continued until the coronation of
Charles II in 1661. Charles's pageant was watched by
Samuel Pepys who wrote: "So glorious was the show with gold and silver that we were not able to look at it". James II abandoned the tradition of the pageant to pay for jewels for his queen and thereafter there was only a short procession on foot from
Westminster Hall to the abbey. For the
coronation of William IV and Adelaide in 1831, a state procession from
St James's Palace to the abbey was instituted, and this pageantry is an important feature of the modern event. the last of these was published in 1905 depicting the coronation which had taken place three years earlier. Re-enactments of the ceremony were staged at London and provincial theatres; in 1761, a production featuring the Westminster Abbey choir at the
Royal Opera House in
Covent Garden ran for three months after the real event. The
coronation of George VI in 1937 was broadcast on radio by the
British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), and parts of the service were filmed and shown in cinemas. The state procession was shown
live on the new
BBC Television Service, the first major
outside broadcast. At
Elizabeth II's coronation in 1953, most of the proceedings inside the abbey were also televised by the BBC. Originally, events as far as the choir screen were to be televised live, with the remainder to be filmed and released later after any mishaps were edited out. This would prevent television viewers from seeing most of the highlights of the coronation, including the actual crowning, live; it led to controversy in the press and even questions in parliament. The organising committee subsequently decided that the entire ceremony would be televised, except for the anointing and communion. It was revealed 30 years later that the about-face was due to the personal intervention of the Queen. It is estimated that over 20 million people watched the broadcast in the United Kingdom. The coronation contributed to the increase of public interest in television, which rose significantly.
Commonwealth realms The need to include the various elements of the
British Empire in coronations was not considered until 1902, when it was attended by the prime ministers and
governors-general of the
British Dominions, by then almost completely
autonomous, and also by many of the rulers of the
Indian Princely States and the various
British Protectorates. An
Imperial Conference was held afterwards. In 1911, the procession inside Westminster Abbey included the banners of the dominions, India and the
Home Nations. By 1937, the
Statute of Westminster 1931 had made the dominions fully independent, and the wording of the coronation oath was amended to include their names and confine the elements concerning religion to the United Kingdom. (6 May 2023) Thus since 1937, the monarch has been simultaneously crowned as sovereign of several independent nations besides the United Kingdom, known since 1953 as the
Commonwealth realms. In 2023, the oath was amended to avoid reciting the realms other than the United Kingdom during the
coronation of Charles III. ==Preparations==