'Never to see the like again in this world' - Pepys and the Coronation

by Deborah Swift

I've spent the last three years writing a trilogy about three different women that feature in Pepys' Diary. Now that rather epic journey has come to an end, and I'm leaving Pepys' Diary behind for research in pastures new.

Someone asked me which was my favourite episode in the diary, and the one that stands out for me is the Coronation of Charles II.

'it is impossible to relate the glory of this day'

So says Pepys, never one to be lost for words, and his fly-on-the-wall response to this massive overturning of national events fascinates me. The re-establishment of Charles II as a constitutional monarch changed the country from what amounted to a republic, back to a monarchy-led state with many immediate and long term effects. In these days of entrenched views on Brexit, we can see that populations can, and do, change their minds.

Pepys, who was initially brought up with Puritan leanings, was so taken up by the return of the exiled prince that he couldn't wait to be part of this sudden turn-around and even went over to the Hague to greet the prince and the fleet.

There were a few awkwardnesses though - in the transition from Cromwell's Parliament to the restitution of the monarchy, the old order had to be repealed and the new reinforced. Thus the ships in the fleet that had been named after Parliament victories, such as The Naseby had to be rapidly re-named The Royall Charles.

Whilst journeying back from the Hague, Pepys is treated to the prince's own version of his escape from Worcester. Many of our pubs retain the names 'The Royal Oak' (commemorating his escape from Worcester), and 'The King's Head',  from this era where the celebration of the monarchy was at its height. Pepys's later relationship with the King must have been cemented by the fact he made this extra effort to meet and greet him on his return.

On the day of the Coronation Parade, Pepys is up at the crack of dawn and putting on his new coat for the occasion -

Up early and made myself as fine as I could, and put on my velvet coat, the first day that I put it on, though made half a year ago.

 It seemed no expense had been spared for the procession through London,

The streets all gravelled, and the houses hung with carpets before them...
So glorious was the show with gold and silver, that we were not able to look at it, our eyes at last being so much overcome with it.

The Coronation Cavalcade passed through four specially constructed arches (see picture at the bottom of the post). The designs can be seen here and include titles for the arches like ' Garden of Plenty', 'Temple of Concord' and ''Return of the Monarchy'. That must have been a rush for the masons responsible!

Pepys got up at 4am the next day for the actual Coronation, and found himself a good view from a scaffold at the north end of Westminster Abbey. He had to wait until 11am to see Charles arrive.

And a great pleasure it was to see the Abbey raised in the middle, all covered with red, and a throne (that is a chair) and footstool on the top of it; and all the officers of all kinds, so much as the very fidlers, in red vests.

Unfortunately the crucial moment was lost to Pepys,

the King passed through all the ceremonies of the Coronacon, which to my great grief I and most in the Abbey could not see. The crown being put upon his head, a great shout begun, and he came forth to the throne

Afterwards silver commemorative medals were thrown to the congregation, but Pepys was unable to catch one. Pepys then has to go out to take a pee, but resumes his description of the outside of the Abbey, in which he says he saw '10,000 people, with the ground covered with blue cloth; and scaffolds all the way.' In a city of 40,000, that is a pretty good turn-out.

At one point in the feast afterwards, the King's Champion is brought out, 'all in armour on horseback, with his spear and targett carried before him' and a proclamation made:

And a Herald proclaims “That if any dare deny Charles Stewart to be lawful King of England, here was a Champion that would fight with him;” and with these words, the Champion flings down his gauntlet, and all this he do three times in his going up towards the King’s table.

Charles must have had quite a jittery moment then as he waited with baited breath to see if there would be any objection to him becoming King. But nobody objected, and no doubt the King's Champion was somewhat relieved also.

Once the day's events were over, ' it fell a-raining and thundering and lightening as I have not seen it do for some years' and Pepys tells us that the people set great store by this as an omen from above, though he himself dismisses the idea as 'a foolery to take too much notice of such things.'

Without Pepys's vibrant description, so much detail would have been lost to us. A picture doesn't give you the reaction of the people, and this is what is so appealing about Pepys's descriptions and opinions.

By the evening bonfires are burning all over the city to bathe it in an orange glow, and Pepys is dead drunk, so much so that he says, 'if ever I was foxed it was now, which I cannot say yet, because I fell asleep and slept till morning. Only when I waked I found myself wet with my spewing. Thus did the day end with joy every where.'

You can find the diary entry here: https://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1661/04/

All pictures from Wikipedia unless linked.

Find my books www.deborahswift.com

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Destruction and Restitution - The Crown Jewels

‘I go from a corruptible to an incorruptible crown…’ 

Charles I before his execution in 1649.

Anyone visiting the Tower Of London to see the magnificent display of the Crown Jewels of England would never believe that they were once broken up and melted down. Yet after the execution of Charles I, they were destroyed because nobody thought there would ever be a monarchy again; that England would from now on be under the control of Cromwell's Protectorate.

Less than a week after the King's execution in 1649, the Rump Parliament voted to abolish the monarchy. The crown jewels were "symbolic of the detestable rule of kings"and "monuments of superstition and idolatry", so the vote was taken to sell them off. It was also a precaution against future rebellions or any future uprising of 'royalty.'

The most valuable object of them all to be lost was Henry VIII's Crown, worth then £1,100. Only two crowns survived - the crown of Margaret of York and the Crown of Princess Blanche, because they were used by the women for their weddings in Europe and had thus been taken out of England before the Civil War. Looking at the picture below, we can only imagine what it must have felt like to lay hands on such treasure.

The Crown of Princess Blanche

The Knave of Diamonds

The task of disposing of it all fell to Sir Henry Mildmay. Clarendon calls him  a "great flatterer of all persons in authority, and a spy in all places for them", which is hardly a recommendation! I have an interest in him because he was knighted at Kendal in Westmorland, which is my nearest town, and I'm always interested in history from my locality. 

By all accounts Mildmay was intent upon the good life and was made Master of the King's Jewels in 1620 before the Civil War. Not only was this prestigious, but ensured him a seat on the Privy Council, and servants, carriages and good accommodation whenever he travelled. This position also proved to be very convenient when he later abandoned his Royalist ideology and sided with Parliament in the English Civil War.

Mildmay was a judge at the King's Trial, although he did not sign the actual death warrant, so was not officially a 'regicide.' On the 9th August 1649 he was ordered to destroy the Coronation Regalia, break up the jewels and melt down the gold. This act was very unpopular with the general public, leading the Earl of Pembroke to call him the 'Knave of Diamonds'. The coronation and state regalia were melted down, the gemstones removed, and the gold was re-used to make hundreds of coins and keep the fledgeling Protectorate economy afloat.

Restitution
After Cromwell's death, and the Restoration of Charles II as King, new jewels were needed for the coronation, and keen to preserve tradition, they were based on old records of the ones that were lost. These were re-fabricated by the Royal Goldsmith, Sir Robert Vyner, at a cost of £12,184 7s 2d – an ernormous sum, as much as the cost of building and furnishing three warships. Vyner outsourced the work, which had to be done in haste, to a number of craftsmen, most of whom remain unidentified. Charles II was short of money though, and Vyner had to petition him frequently to pay up. By 1673 Vyner pleaded that he was close to bankruptcy. Despite this, the new reproductions of the medieval originals made in 1660 and 1661, form the nucleus of the Crown Jewels today.

Picture from the Daily Mail

They include St Edward's Crown, with which the current Queen was crowned (see this article about how she was re-united with it after 65 years of reign) two sceptres, an orb, and other regalia. A few medieval objects such as a silver-gilt anointing spoon were returned to the Crown by loyal subjects.

Public Humiliation
On 1 July 1661 Henry Mildmay was brought to the bar of the House of Commons, and after he had been made to confess his guilt of his presence at Charles I's trial, and the subsequent destruction of the Royal Regalia, he was stripped of his honours and titles and consigned to the Tower for life. In a weird addendum to this, there was the further proviso; that every year, on the anniversary of the king's sentence (27th January), he was to be dragged on a sledge through the streets and under the gallows at Tyburn, with a noose round his neck, as a public humiliation, before being dragged back to the Tower.

In a petition he sent to the House of Lords, he alleged that he was present at the trial only to seek some opportunity of saving the king's life.

If you believe that, you'll believe anything!

In March 1664 a warrant was issued for Mildmay's transportation to Tangier, which is where he died.

Sources:
Regalia, Robbers and Royal Corpses - Geoffrey Abbott
Dictionary of National Biography
https://www.hrp.org.uk/tower-of-london/history-and-stories/the-crown-jewels/
Stuart England - Blair Worden

Find Deborah's books here or chat with her on Twitter @swiftstory

In search of King Arthur’s crown – Katherine Roberts

Crowns come in all shapes and sizes. Kings wear them. Queens wear them. Little girls like to wear them when they dress up... and so do big girls! Since a crown appears as a magical object of power in the third book of my Pendragon Legacy series "Crown of Dreams" I had the perfect excuse to buy this shiny jewelled version to wear at events. ( Note to potential muggers: it’s plastic and came from the local pound shop, so those emeralds and rubies are NOT REAL… authors cannot afford to buy real crowns, ok?)

The packet claims this to be a “Tales of Olde England" crown, which seems perfect for my books… but is it genuine? What kind of crown would the real historical King Arthur have worn?

To find out, let's go back a few thousand years...


No crowns from the pre-Christian era have survived, but we know what some of them looked like from studying other historical records. Perhaps the best known ancient crowns are the White crown and Red Crown of Upper and Lower Egypt, recorded in hieroglyphs. These were combined into the distinctive Double Crown worn by the Pharaohs of Egypt:

The "Double Crown" of the Two Lands (White Crown and Red Crown worn together)

Then there was the radiant crown of the sun god Helios, otherwise known as the Colossus of Rhodes - one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, which was destroyed by an earthquake in 226BC. Today, the same crown is worn by the Statue of Liberty in New York.

Statue of Liberty

In classical times, crowns were usually a simple ribbon called a "diadem". The ancient Greeks wore a white ribbon to indicate kingship, while the Persian Emperors wore a more elaborate blue-and-white diadem.

diadem

Also in the ancient world, it was customary for winning athletes to be crowned with laurel leaves. In the early Christian era (around 300AD) Emperor Constantine adopted this idea, and so we see the laurel diadem worn by rulers of the Roman Empire with its (previously real) leaves beaten out of gold.

Roman laurus crown

Moving on a few hundred years, the oldest surviving European crown is the Iron Crown of Lombardy. This was fashioned in the Early Middle Ages (i.e. around the time of King Arthur, maybe?), and consisted of a circlet of gold fitted around a central iron band, which according to legend was made out of one of the nails used to crucify Christ.

The Iron Crown

This looks a bit different from my plastic version, but is probably a more authentic Arthurian crown. (I’m pleased it has jewels, because they are important to my plot!) The iron band in the middle having a religious connection is fascinating, and something I missed for my book – although other magical objects in the Arthurian legends have a spiritual connection, the most obvious being the Holy Grail, which becomes the Grail of Stars in the final book of my series.


Crowns represent both worldly and spiritual power. According to the Bible, Jesus wore a crown of thorns at his crucifixion, and this has become a common symbol of martyrdom.

Crown of Thorns.

while in Roman Catholic shrines, Virgin Mary statues are ceremonially crowned in spring to commemorate her ascent to Heaven.

Crown of Immortality

So perhaps it isn’t entirely unreasonable of me to crown King Arthur with a "Crown of Dreams" bestowed with magical properties? Being a legendary king, Arthur reigns in the enchanted mists between fantasy and history, with one eye on the Holy Grail and the other on the Dark Age barbarians rampaging across his lands. A crown that combines magic with kingship would seem to fit well on his head, even if he wasn’t strictly a king as we know it!

King Arthur, maybe.

What do YOU think King Arthur’s crown would have looked like, assuming he wore one?

***

Katherine Roberts writes fantasy and historical fantasy for young readers.

The third book in her Pendragon Legacy series about King Arthur’s daughter Crown of Dreams is published this month in hardcover by Templar.

Book 1 Sword of Light (nominated for the Carnegie medal) and Book 2 Lance of Truth are also available in hardback, paperback and ebook.

Thanks to Wikipedia for the pictures used to illustrate this post.