The New Murrey and Blue blog

I was quite enjoying this article until I came to: “….‘Kings whose claims were disputed were accordingly anxious to be consecrated as quickly as possible,’ writes Zaller. ‘Both Edward IV and Richard III rushed to be crowned, and the Yorkist kings claimed to have been anointed with chrism conveyed directly to Thomas á Becket by the Virgin.’….”

So says historian Robert Zaller. Hmm, why pick out the two Yorkist kings?

When Richard I turned up his martial toes on 6 April 1199, his younger brother John waited until 27 May of the same year. Then when John went to his Maker (or elsewhere) his son Henry III waited all of nine days! Wow, that’s moving it.

Then there’s Henry IV, the first Lancastrian usurper. Well. he was crowned 13 October 1399 when his predecessor Richard II was still alive in the Tower of London! But poor Richard, the true and rightful king, was soon despatched to Pontefract and then despatched more finally to the hereafter.

According to  the FT:- “….Historically, the religious symbolism of the ceremony played a crucial role, conferring legitimacy on the new monarch, says Hunt. In contrast to King Charles’s decision to undergo the anointment behind a screen, King Henry IV chose to be anointed visibly in 1399 to underscore his status as a divinely approved monarch, after usurping the throne from his cousin. ‘His legitimacy was a bit dodgy because he had deposed Richard II,’ she [Alice Hunt, historian] said. ‘This was him saying: look I have been anointed, I am now your legitimate king, and this is a sign of God’s approval’….”

Henry VII, the second Lancastrian usurper, didn’t hang around long for his coronation either. Richard III was murdered at Bosworth on 22 August 1485, and Henry was crowned and anointed, his scrawny….er, bony backside plonked on that throne at the end of October. Well, unless you count the unseemly grabbing of Richard’s fallen crown to shove on the Lancastrian murd—um, usurper’s head while still on the battlefield! That, ladies and gentlemen, was rushing to get the job done!

So, didn’t all these other monarchs have the chrism oil too? Or was that just the wicked Yorkists? You can read about it here:- “….The ampulla is a small golden eagle that contains chrism oil for the king’s anointing (more on that in a moment). According to the monarchy website, the current Ampulla was supplied for the coronation of King Charles II in 1661 and is based on an earlier, smaller vessel, which in turn was based on a 14th-century legend in which the Virgin Mary appeared to St. Thomas Becket and presented him with a golden eagle and a vial of oil for anointing future kings of England. The oil will be poured into a silver-gilt coronation spoon, which is the oldest object in use at coronations, having been first recorded in 1349….”

According to Ian Mortimer in The Fears of Henry IV, the chrism oil given to Becket had a chequered history. The Virgin Mary gave it to Thomas saying that it was to be used for the fifth king of England after Thomas’s time. This would have been Edward II, but it wasn’t used by him. “….Instead it had then been given to the Black Prince, then sealed in a chest in the Tower and forgotten. It had then been rediscovered by Richard II himself. Richard had asked the then Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Arundel, to anoint him with it. Arundel had refused, but Richard had kept the oil with him nonetheless and had only parted with it after his capture. That Henry now became the first king to be anointed with this holy oil—lying down in front of the high altar, his clothes being opened in four places to receive it—added divine sanction to his regal promotion….” Presumably the Almighty would overlook the usurpation and murder that had led to this moment.

But there was clearly precious oil at coronations before the 14^th century, as witness the top illustration of Richard I’s crowning. However, precious oil and Becket notwithstanding, it was subjected to some right royal sleight of hand:- “….Mary [Tudor] bent on restoring Roman Catholicism in England, secretly requested new oil to be made in Brussels for her coronation, rejecting the one used to crown her Protestant predecessor — her brother Edward VI — due to qualms about its status….” Oh dear.

So, let’s be honest, Robert Zaller, Edward IV and Richard III certainly weren’t out of the ordinary regarding the timing of their coronation, but as usual they (especially Richard) get the suggestively picky singling out.