Coronation mishaps
Thanks to the painstaking preparation that went into it, Elizabeth II’S coronation was one of the most spectacular in royal history. But these great events did not always go to plan…
One of the earliest, that of William the Conqueror on Christmas Day 1066, descended into chaos when the guards stationed outside Westminster Abbey mistook the shouts of approval among the guests for an uprising. In panic, they went on the rampage and burned nearby houses to the ground. Meanwhile, the congregation took flight and the ceremony had to be hastily concluded by the handful of ‘terrified’ clergymen who had stayed behind. England’s newly crowned king was left ‘trembling from head to foot’.
Henry VIII’S second wife, Anne Boleyn, tried to dazzle her new subjects into submission at her coronation in June 1533 but ended up a laughing stock. Everywhere along the processional route Henry and Anne’s intertwined initials were proudly displayed. Seeing them, the scornful crowds cried out ‘HA HA’ as the new Queen passed by.
The crowning of the so-called ‘mad king’, George III, was shambolic, thanks to a dismal lack of organisation. One eyewitness described it as a ‘foolish puppet show’ and claimed that the dean of Westminster ‘would have dropped the crown, if it had not been pinned to the cushion.’
The coronation of his son, George IV, in 1821 was the most extravagant ceremony in history and cost an eye-watering £243,000 (around £27m today). Guests watched, open-mouthed, as the King entered the Abbey ‘buried in satin, feathers and diamonds… like some gorgeous bird of the East.’ But the occasion was marred when George’s estranged wife, Caroline of Brunswick, arrived uninvited and suffered the humiliation of being turned away.
By contrast, 19-year-old Queen Victoria’s coronation in 1838 was so thrifty that it was nicknamed the ‘Penny Crowning’. There were various mishaps, including one of the dignitaries falling down the stairs while paying homage to the new Queen. But these were forgotten in the joyous celebrations that followed. ‘I really cannot say how proud I feel to be the Queen of such a nation,’ Victoria recorded in her journal that evening.
n