Mediaeval Byways Author:L. F. Salzman Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: III CORONATIONS A' the present time1 the coronation is the Rome towards which all roads lead ; and if a walk down Oxford Street lands us among ' coronation' ... more »cuffs and collars and soaps and souvenirs it is only to be expected that a Mediaeval Byway should bring us into the subject of coronations. For of all the survivals with which we are surrounded in this conservative country the coronation ceremonies, though shorn of much of their grandeur and significance during the last hundred years, are still the most unchanged in spirit and in detail. For one thing, they restore to London for a brief period the predominant feature of mediaeval life —colour. For a few days, in 1911 as in 1236, the city is 'adorned with silkes, banners,crownes, pals, tapers, lampes, and with certaine wonders of wit and strange showes'; and, though the colour-scheme is baulked of fulness by the sad clothes of the spectators, there is a blaze of gaiety which is pleasing in its appeal to primitive instincts and its disregard of business and utilitarianism. 1 June 1911. The proceedings in connection with the coronation of our mediaeval kings began at the Tower. Very significant was it 'that before taking formal possession of his throne the king took practical possession of the fortress. But if his claim to the crown rested partly on force and the strong hand, it rested also upon the elective will of the people, and accordingly, on the day before the coronation the king rode from the Tower to Westminster Palace to show himself to his subjects that they might see what sort of man it was whom they were choosing for king. Naturally the processional ride was made as magnificent and impressive as possible. With the king went a crowd of nobles, all on horseback, conspicuous amongstthem being the recipients of ...« less