'A coronation was well worth the seeing'. Shakespeare, Henry VIII.
British Coronations Project
Part I
'I may now shut my eyes against any other objects ... as being sure never to see the like again in this world'.
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Writing on the day of Charles II's 1661 Westminster Abbey coronation, Pepys was right! A coronation offers a spectacle like no other, bringing together in one momentous event Crown, Church and People. All societies, both ancient and modern, have taken the opportunity of a ceremonial inauguration to celebrate a new beginning.
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Unimaginative past approaches concentrated only on the act of crowning itself. Our work, however, shows that there was far more to a coronation than that. We bring to life the processions, anointing, oath-taking, homage and feasting, plus the remarkable celebrations held across the realm and overseas.
Starting with examples from the classical world, particularly those of ancient Egypt and Rome, our work encompasses a systematic study of English and British coronations. For the British Isles, we span the period c.973 to the present day, telling the story of these coronations in all their dimensions: politically, socially, religiously, culturally, financially, legally and constitutionally. A series of inter-related projects examines the international phenomenon of coronations in all their fascinating diversity.
LATEST RESEARCH
The coronation project was represented at the follow-up seminar to the Constitution Unit of UCL seminar of October 2016. The discussion was held in the School of Public Policy, UCL. (04/07/17)
We gave two papers at the Kent British Churches Conference (22-23 June 2017) in collaboration with Canterbury Christ Church University.
George Gross spoke on: ‘1651: The Last Coronation in Scotland – An Anomaly?’
David Crankshaw spoke on: ‘Scottish Involvement in English/British Coronations, 1661–1714’
https://www.kent.ac.uk/history/events/conferences/britishchurches.html
Historical consultants (March 2017) for the forthcoming Mary Berry series 'Secrets From Britain's Great Houses', Scone Palace episode. Full details to follow.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/latestnews/2016/mary-berry-secrets-from-britains-great-houses
We participated in discussions leading up to a seminar organised by the Constitution Unit of University College London, held at the British Academy on 'Royal Oaths'. As part of this research we contributed a paper entitled 'A Pillar of the Constitution: The Coronation Oath in Historical and Political Contexts'. (17/10/2016)