Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Note on style and dates
- List of abbreviations
- Introduction: the ‘idol’ ceremony of coronation
- Chapter 1 Why crown a king? Henry VIII and the medieval coronation
- Chapter 2 ‘Come my love thou shalbe crowned’: the drama of Anne Boleyn's coronation
- Chapter 3 ‘But a ceremony’: Edward VI's reformed coronation and John Bale's King Johan
- Chapter 4 ‘He hath sent Marye our soveraigne and Quene’: England's first queen and Respublica
- Chapter 5 ‘A stage wherin was shewed the wonderfull spectacle’: representing Elizabeth I's coronation
- Epilogue: ‘Presume not that I am the thing I was’
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
Epilogue: ‘Presume not that I am the thing I was’
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 22 September 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Note on style and dates
- List of abbreviations
- Introduction: the ‘idol’ ceremony of coronation
- Chapter 1 Why crown a king? Henry VIII and the medieval coronation
- Chapter 2 ‘Come my love thou shalbe crowned’: the drama of Anne Boleyn's coronation
- Chapter 3 ‘But a ceremony’: Edward VI's reformed coronation and John Bale's King Johan
- Chapter 4 ‘He hath sent Marye our soveraigne and Quene’: England's first queen and Respublica
- Chapter 5 ‘A stage wherin was shewed the wonderfull spectacle’: representing Elizabeth I's coronation
- Epilogue: ‘Presume not that I am the thing I was’
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
There is, in the end, no grand, conclusive answer to this book's initial question: ‘What art thou, thou idol ceremony?’ It remains a question that was still being asked at the end of the sixteenth century, both by ceremonies themselves and, increasingly, by their dramatic counterparts. Coronation retained its political and cultural legitimacy at the same time as becoming increasingly troubling and divisive and at the mercy of its specific historical moments. We cannot ever know what Elizabeth I or contemporary witnesses really understood about her coronation, but it is clear that it cannot be dismissed as an empty form, as just ‘idle’ ceremony, or indeed as simply the abominable ‘idol’ of Catholic ceremony. The legitimising power of the ceremony persists, as does the idea of the sacred body of the monarch, despite interpretative confusion and confessional wrangles. Similarly, it is inadequate to label Elizabeth I's procession as a secular show of state, as the regime's calculated exploitation of (Catholic) ceremonial theatrics in order to promote coherent Protestant policy and majesty. Mulcaster's text, for example, is coercive and persuasive, and is directed as much at the queen as at the buying public.
As a composite form that was not restricted to the consecration in the Abbey but included proclamations, processions, pageantry and plays, the coronation ceremony fell subject to many, often competing, pressures and interests and it reflected, absorbed and resisted change across the political, religious and symbolical spheres.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Drama of CoronationMedieval Ceremony in Early Modern England, pp. 173 - 177Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2008