Because some people might consider coronations a topical topic, I am publishing occasional pieces on this subject, considered liturgically. Here is Leopold George Wickham Legg (son of ...).
" ... was framed by no less a person than St Dunstan for the great coronation of King Edgar at Bath, when in 973 there was celebrated the final union under one sceptre of the Saxons, the Mercians, and the Northumbrians. ... long after it had been abandoned in its native land, it continued to be used for the coronation of the Kings of France, and it was last used at the coronation of the unhappy Charles X. Like his predecessors on the throne of the lilies, he was consecrated with a prayer that he would not abandon the sceptre of the Saxons, Mercians, and Northumbrians, while it is clear that at one time the order spread to Italy, for a Milanese pontifical contains a Coronation Service of this selfsame recension, with the prayer that the King of Italy likewise may rule over the Saxons, Mercians and Northumbrians ..."
The second printing of this piece is dated 1936 ... how very ben trovato ...
Charles X - he of the purple chasuble worked with images of golden bees ?
ReplyDeleteReminds me of how the Exsultet used to contain a prayer for the emperor.
ReplyDeleteOur parish in Columbus OH had a 1940's lectionary with the Exsultet in it. I not only contained a prayer for the emperor (mirroring the one for the pope) but it distinguished between an elected emperor and a crowned one.
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