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Coronation of James I and Anne

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Coronation of James I and Anne
King James and Queen Anne in an engraving by Jan Wierix, 1610s
Date25 July 1603 (1603-07-25)
LocationWestminster Abbey, London, England
Participants

The coronation of James I and his wife Anne as king and queen of England was held on 25 July 1603 at Westminster Abbey.[1][2] James had reigned as King James VI of Scotland since 1567.[3] Anne was anointed and consecrated with prayers alluding to Esther, the Wise Virgins, and other Biblical heroines.[4]

A German engraving of the coronation shows James entering the Abbey after his trumpeters, and Anne approaching in a separate procession with 14 countesses.[5]
A countess dressed in scarlet and ermine and a drum farthingale, National Portrait Gallery, London
Lucy Russell, Countess of Bedford, in an ermine-trimmed gown with long sleeves
Helena Snakenborg, Marchioness of Northampton, in scarlet and ermine

Background and preparations

After the death of Elizabeth I, James VI of Scotland became King of England, an event known as the Union of the Crowns. He had been crowned King of Scotland on 29 July 1567 at Stirling.[6] His wife, Anne of Denmark, had been crowned in Edinburgh on 17 May 1590.[7]

James rode to England and arrived at Theobalds on 3 May 1603.[8] His wife Anne followed, after suffering a miscarriage at Stirling Castle.[9] Plans for the coronation were disrupted by an outbreak of plague. The number of guests and officials allowed within the Abbey was strictly limited.[10] A commission was established to adjudicate any competing claims to hereditary or feudal rights to offices and services at the ceremony.[11] The commissioners declared on 18 July that the traditional procession through the city would be severely curtailed.[12] There was no customary feast.[13] The date of the ceremony was kept because it was auspicious as the feast day of Saint James, the king's name saint.[14]

Sir George Carew bought 156 gilt halberds for the royal guard at the coronation and "tilt staves" and other equipment for jousting at a coronation tournament.[15] A new imperial crown was made.[16] The goldsmiths William Herrick and John Spilman provided a cloth-of-estate for the Abbey embroidered with pearls and imitation counterfeit gemstones. They made a jewelled circlet for Anne of Denmark, and refashioned the armill, ampulla, and sceptre for the ceremony.[17] Some of the gems for the circlet were taken from the jewels of Elizabeth I.[18]

The Commission made its decisions on rights and honours on 24 July. It refrained from deciding on some claims, including that of Sir Oliver Leigh, who as lord of the manor of Addington in Surrey, alleged to be entitled to provide the royals with a mess or dish of "herout or pigernout" made in the royal kitchen.[19] For his security, James requested 100 soldiers from the trained bands of Surrey.[20] 500 soldiers were hired at eight pence per day to guard againt "any tumults and disorder" in Westminster and the Strand.[21]

The coronation

On Sunday 24 July, James created a number of new Knights of the Bath in the gallery of the palace.[22] The next day, James and Anne arrived at Westminster Abbey by boat from Whitehall Steps or Westminster Bridge,[23] walking first to Westminster Hall.[24] It was raining.[25] The purple velvet train of the queen's gown was held by one of her ladies and her chamberlain, an honour disputed by two rival claimants, Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford and Daniel Cage, whose father had acquired Great Hormead, one of the manors attached to the chamberlain's office. The ambition of Daniel Cage (died 1634) to act as the queen's page in the procession was not realised.[26]

The ceremony was described by the Venetian diplomat Scaramelli and others including Giovanni degli Effetti and Benjamin von Buwinckhausen, a diplomat from the Duchy of Württemberg.[27] Scaramelli (who did not attend in person) described a procession of heralds, followed by the mayor, Robert Lee, and city dignitaries,[28] lawyers and judges, the Knights of the Bath, and aristocrats. King James entered walking under a canopy, followed by members of his household and halbardiers of the royal guard. Anne of Denmark walked under similar canopy accompanied by Arbella Stuart, preceded by a dozen countesses in pairs carrying coronets including Lucy Russell, Countess of Bedford, Helena Snakenborg, Marchioness of Northampton, and the Countess of Cumberland, her household following. James and Anne were seated before the high altar on a pair of chairs. James was crowned by the Archbishop of Canterbury, John Whitgift. He changed into the ancient robes which were said to have belonged to Edward the Confessor.[29] He was then seated on the Coronation Chair containing the Stone of Scone on an octagonal dais.[30] After Anne was crowned she was seated beside him on a "somewhat lower" throne. James took communion as indicated in the order of service, Anne did not.[31] Scaramelli was told that the issue of taking the sacrament had been discussed in the morning and the queen had emphatically refused.[32] Thomas Bilson gave the sermon.[33]

Scaramelli says that the earls came forward to do homage by touching the crown, and Philip Herbert, Earl of Montgomery, and royal favourite, gave the king a kiss on his cheek. James dismissed him with a slap, a "little cuff" or schiaffetto in the original Italian.[34]

The Commissioners had allowed the Earl of Oxford his right as High Chamberlain to dress the king.[35] According to Giovanni degli Effetti, James was dressed in a similar manner to the Earls, wearing a crimson velvet cloak over a velvet coat lined with ermine, and a velvet and ermine cap. The earls wore gold coronets in the place of a hat band.[36] Probably, James' outfit was created by his Scottish tailor Alexander Miller, who had come to London in the royal entourage.[37] The National Museum of Scotland has a period wooden model of James possibly represented wearing his coronation robes.[38]

Costume at the coronation

Anne of Denmark's coronation costume was made of crimson and purple velvet lined with powdered ermines, and perfumed with musk, civet, and ambergris.[39] An Order of Service mentions (in Latin) that her costume would be unadorned with embroidery (a detail noted by Giovanni degli Effetti), her hair loose about her shoulders, with the gem-set gold circlet on her head.[40] It was traditional for queens consort and queens regnant including Elizabeth I and Mary I to wear their hair loose at their coronation.[41]

To orchestrate the costumes of the earls and countesses, the Earl of Nottingham and the Special Commissioners for the Coronation had sent directions on 7 July and the royal wardrobe issued the scarlet fabric. Gold coronets for the Earl and Countess of Shrewsbury cost £50.[42] The Earl of Shrewsbury, as holder of the manor of Farnham Royal, had the honour to support the king's right arm during the procession.[43]

Portraits of countesses in their ermine gowns show two styles of skirt. Lucy, Countess of Bedford, in her portrait now at Gripsholm Castle, wears an older conical French-style farthingale, while the pictures of the Countess of Northampton and another lady show the current fashion of drum or French-wheel farthingales.[44] The costume historian Janet Arnold noted that extensive use of ermine, especially as the forepart of the skirt, echoes the Parliament robes of Elizabeth as depicted on her marble effigy by Maximilian Colt in the Abbey and the countesses' clothes may have resembled those then visible in the Abbey on Elizabeth's wooden funerary effigy.[45]

Buwinckhausen wrote that the countesses wore scarlet dresses in "antique fashion" trimmed with ermine, their coronets in the left hand.[46] "Antique fashion", the phrase used in Brenchley Rye's translation, usually meant classical Roman style, but Giovanni degli Effetti said the gowns were in modern style.[47] Buwinckhausen's original German phrase may refer to the countess' wide sleeves having some similarity to Franconian fashion, or to their paired costumes resembling the red and white heraldry of Franconia; "mit Hermelin gefuttert, und weiten Ermelen gar altfrenckisch".[48]

Lady Anne Clifford's parents attended in their robes as Earl of Countess of Cumberland. They had hosted the King and Queen at Grafton Regis in June. At this time the Countess of Cumberland was estranged from the Earl and he was not maintaining her. She had to write to Sir Robert Cecil asking for his intervention so that she could buy suitable clothes to "furnish her self" to attend Anne of Denmark.[49] Anne Clifford's cousin Frances Bourchier (1587-1612) was a spectator at the coronation, but Anne herself was not allowed to attend for fear of the plague in the city. She remained at Norbury, south of London. In September, Frances Bourchier joined Princess Elizabeth at Nonsuch Palace.[50]

Progresses

After the ceremony, the royals went to Westminster Palace, and on the following day, to Hampton Court.[51] After a stay at Richmond Palace, they went Woodstock Palace in Oxfordshire. The court then travelled west to Winchester and Wilton House, to avoid the continuing plague in London. The July St James Fair and the August Bartholomew Fair in London were cancelled.[52]

Royal Entry to London

Some preparations for the coronation were built by the carpenter William Portington.[53] Triumphal arches and pageants were erected in London for the coronation, and a royal entry which was deferred to 15 March 1604 because of the plague. John Chamberlain described them under construction in July 1603, and their flimsy nature, "Our pageants are prettily forward, but most of them are such small-timbered gentlemen that they cannot last long, and I doubt not if the plague cease not the sooner they will rot and sink where they stand".[54]

Several of the triumphal arches were designed by a carpenter Stephen Harrison, and illustrated in a festival book commemorating the Royal entry, engraved by William Kip. Thomas Dekker wrote The Magnificent Entertainment, and collaborated with Ben Jonson to produce on entertainments on the day.[55]

Dekker's poem Troynovant invoked a legend of London as a new Troy or Trinovantum, founded by Brutus, with imagery of James' accession to four kingdoms as a marriage:[56]

Where four great Kingdoms hold a festival.
Troynovant is now a bridal chamber,
Whose roof is gold, floor is of amber,
By virtue of that holy light,
That burns in Hymen's hand, more bright.[57]

References

  1. ^ Roy Strong, Coronation: From the 8th to the 21st Century (London, 2008), p. 256.
  2. ^ Jemma Field, 'Anna of Denmark', Aidan Norrie, Carolyn Harris, J. L. Laynesmith, Danna R. Messer, Elena Woodacre, Tudor and Stuart Consorts: Power, Influence, and Dynasty (Palgrave Macmillan, 2022), p. 214.
  3. ^ John Guy, Mary, Queen of Scots, My Heart is My Own (London, 2004), pp. 364–5.
  4. ^ John Wickham Legg, Coronation Order of James I (London, 1902), pp. 45-50 from Lambeth MS 1075b
  5. ^ Engraving, Yale Center for British Art
  6. ^ Lucinda H. S. Dean, 'Crowning the Child', Sean McGlynn & Elena Woodacre, The Image and Perception of Monarchy in Medieval and Early Modern Europe (Newcastle, 2014), pp. 254-80.
  7. ^ Lucinda Dean, 'Enter the Alien: Foreign Consorts and their Royal Entries into Scottish Cities', in J.R. Mulryne, Maria Ines Aliverti, Anna Maria Testaverde, Ceremonial Entries in Early Modern Europe: The Iconography of Power (Abingdon, 2015), pp. 269-275.
  8. ^ Neil Cuddy, 'Revival of the Entourage, The English Court from the Wars of the Roses to the Civil War (London, 1987), p. 174.
  9. ^ Nadine Akkerman, Elizabeth Stuart, Queen of Hearts (Oxford, 2021), pp. 26-7, 417 fn.54.
  10. ^ Clara Steeholm & Hardy Steeholm, James I of England: The Wisest Fool in Christendom (London, 1938), pp. 237, 241.
  11. ^ Thomas Rymer, Foedera, vol. 16 (London, 1727), p. 524.
  12. ^ Mary Anne Everett Green, Calendar State Papers Domestic, 1603-1610, p. 22
  13. ^ Harold Spencer Scott, Journal of Sir Roger Wilbraham (London, 1902), p. 61.
  14. ^ Sarah Gristwood, Arbella: England's Lost Queen (London, 2003), p. 263: Thomas Rymer, Foedera, vol. 16 (London, 1727), p. 521: Edmund Howes, Annales, or a Generall Chronicle (London, 1631), p. 827
  15. ^ Frederick Devon, Issues of the Exchequer (London, 1836), p. 3: HMC Report on the Laing Munuscripts in the University of Edinburgh, vol. 1 (London, 1914), p. 93
  16. ^ Clara Steeholm & Hardy Steeholm, James I of England: The Wisest Fool in Christendom (London, 1938), p. 240.
  17. ^ John Nichols, Progresses of James the First, vol. 4 (London, 1828), p. 1058: HMC Laing Manuscripts in the University of Edinburgh, vol. 1 (London, 1914), pp. 93-7
  18. ^ Sybil M. Jack, 'A Pattern for a King's Inauguration': The Coronation of James I in England', Parergon, 21:2 (July 2004), p. 83.
  19. ^ Mary Anne Everett Green, Calendar State Papers Domestic, 1603-1610, p. 24
  20. ^ Mary Anne Everett Green, Calendar State Papers Domestic, Addenda 1580-1625 (London, 1872).
  21. ^ Frederick Devon, Issues of the Exchequer (London, 1836), pp. 6-7.
  22. ^ Edmund Howes, Annales, or a Generall Chronicle (London, 1631), p. 827
  23. ^ Mary Anne Everett Green, Calendar State Papers Domestic, 1603-1610, p. 22
  24. ^ Sybil M. Jack, 'A Pattern for a King's Inauguration': The Coronation of James I in England', Parergon, 21:2 (July 2004), pp. 67-91: Some accounts mention 'Westminster Hall Bridge'.
  25. ^ Lesley Lawson, Out of the Shadows (London, 2007), p. 51.
  26. ^ John Wickham Legg, Coronation Order of James I (London, 1902), p. 55: Thomas Christopher Banks, The Dormant and Extinct Baronage of England, vol. 3 (London, 1809), p. 585: William Page, Victoria History of the County of Hertford, vol. 4 (London, 1914), p. 71: Lambeth MS 285.
  27. ^ William Brenchley Rye, 'Coronation of James I', The Antiquary, 22 (London, 1890), p. 19.
  28. ^ William Brenchley Rye, 'Coronation of James I', The Antiquary, 22 (London, 1890), p. 18.
  29. ^ Harold Spencer Scott, Journal of Sir Roger Wilbraham (London, 1902), p. 62
  30. ^ Horatio Brown, Calendar State Papers, Venice: 1603-1607, vol. 10 (London, 1900), pp. 75-6 no. 105.
  31. ^ Calendar State Papers Domestic, 1603-1610, p. 25 Order of the Coronation SP 14/2 f.208.
  32. ^ Clare McManus, Women on the Renaissance stage (Manchester, 2002), pp. 94-6.
  33. ^ Peter E. McCullough, Sermons at Court: Politics and Religion in Elizabethan and Jacobean Preaching, vol. 1 (Cambridge, 1998), p. 104.
  34. ^ Katherine Duncan-Jones, Shakespeare's Sonnets (London, 1997), pp. 66-7: Calendar State Papers Venice: 1603-1607, p. 77.
  35. ^ Mary Anne Everett Green, Calendar State Papers Domestic, 1603-1610, p. 24
  36. ^ John Wickham Legg, Coronation Order of James I (London, 1902), p. lxx.
  37. ^ Maria Hayward, Stuart Style (Yale, 2020), p. 54.
  38. ^ David Howarth, Images of Rule (London, 1997), p. 174.
  39. ^ Jemma Field, 'The Wardrobe Goods of Anna of Denmark', Costume, 51:1 (March 2017), on-line supplement, p. 17 nos. 166-173: Jemma Field, 'Anna of Denmark', Aidan Norrie, Carolyn Harris, J. L. Laynesmith, Danna R. Messer, Elena Woodacre, Tudor and Stuart Consorts: Power, Influence, and Dynasty (Palgrave Macmillan, 2022), pp. 214-5: M. Payne, 'Inventory of Denmark House, 1619', Journal of the History of Collections, 13:1 (2001), p. 33.
  40. ^ John Wickham Legg, Coronation Order of James I (London, 1902), pp. 69, 100, 'sine aliquo artificiali opere desuper intexto laxatos circa humeros decentes habes crinum circulum aureum gemmis ornatum gestans in capite'.
  41. ^ Charlotte Bolland, Tudor & Jacobean Portraits (London: NPG, 2018), p. 47.
  42. ^ Edmund Lodge, Illustrations of British History, vol. 3 (London, 1838), p. 94 abstract of Lambeth Palace Library, Shrewsbury Talbot K 91, MS 3201 f.91 & MS 3203 f.95
  43. ^ Mary Anne Everett Green, Calendar State Papers Domestic, 1603-1610, p. 24 and TNA SP14/191 f.16.
  44. ^ Sarah Bendall, Shaping Feminity: Foundation Garments, the Body, and Women in Early Modern England (London, 2022), pp. 30-1: Charlotte Bolland, Tudor & Jacobean Portraits (London: NPG, 2018), p. 71.
  45. ^ Janet Arnold, Queen Elizabeth's Wardrobe Unlock'd (Maney, 1988) pp. 63-4.
  46. ^ William Brenchley Rye, 'Coronation of James I', The Antiquary, 22 (London, 1890), p. 20.
  47. ^ Roy Strong, 'How James I was Crowned', Country Life, 197 (22 May 2003), p. 109: John Wickham Legg, Coronation Order of James I (London, 1902), p. lxx
  48. ^ Hans Jakob Breunings von Buchenbach, Relation über seine Sendung nach England im Jahr 1595 (Stuttgart, 1865), p. 86
  49. ^ G. Dyffnalt Owen, HMC Hatfield Salisbury, vol. 23 (London, 1973), pp. 110-111.
  50. ^ Jessica L. Malay, Anne Clifford's Autobiographical Writing, 1590-1676 (Manchester, 2018), pp. 20, 22, 25.
  51. ^ John Wickham Legg, Coronation Order of James I (London, 1902), p. lxxiv.
  52. ^ Thomas Rymer, Foedera, vol. 16 (London, 1727), p. 527: Edmund Howes, Annales, or a Generall Chronicle (London, 1631), p. 828 Some older historians confuse the St James Fair with Mayfair.
  53. ^ HMC Laing Manuscripts, vol. 1 (London, 1914). p. 92: Edinburgh University, Laing II 636,1.
  54. ^ Elizabeth McClure Thomson, The Chamberlain Letters (London, 1966), p. 57.
  55. ^ See external links: Anne Lancashire, 'Dekker's Accession Pageant for James I', Early Theatre, 12:1 (2009), pp. 39-50: John Gough Nichols, London Pageants (London, 1831), pp. 59-63.
  56. ^ Robin Headlam Wells, Shakespeare on Masculinity (Cambridge, 2004), p. 128.
  57. ^ Troynovant, Thomas Dekker: Poetry Nook
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