r/UKmonarchs • u/TheRedLionPassant Richard the Lionheart / Edward III • May 27 '25
On this day On this day, Ascension Day 1199, John, Duke of Normandy, Count of Anjou, Duke of Aquitaine and Lord of Ireland, is crowned King of England
About this time John, Duke of Normandy came over into England, and landed at Shoreham on the 25th May; on the day after, which was the Eve of our Lord's Ascension, he went to London to be crowned there.
Accordingly, upon the arrival of the before-named Duke, there assembled in London Hubert, Archbishop of Canterbury; John, Archbishop of Dublin; the Archbishop of Ragusa; William, Bishop of London; Gilbert, Bishop of Rochester; John, Bishop of Norwich; Hugh, Bishop of Lincoln; Eustace, Bishop of Ely; Godfrey, Bishop of Winchester; Henry, Bishop of Exeter; Sefrid, Bishop of Chichester; Geoffrey, Bishop of Coventry; Savaric, Bishop of Bath; Herbert, Bishop of Salisbury; Philip, Bishop of Durham; Roger, Bishop of St Andrews in Scotland; and Henry, Bishop of Llandaff; Robert, Earl of Leicester; Richard, Earl of Clare; William, Earl of Tewkesbury; Hamelin, Earl of Warenne; William, Earl of Salisbury; William, Earl of Striguil; Waleran, Earl of Warwick; Earl Roger Bigot; William, Earl of Arundel; Ranulf, Earl of Chester, and many barons. Hubert, Archbishop of Canterbury, crowned and consecrated the beforenamed John, Duke of Normandy, King of England, in the Church of St Peter the Apostle, at Westminster, on the sixth day before the kalends of June, being the fifth day of the week, and the day of the Ascension of our Lord; Philip, Bishop of Durham, protesting against the same, on the ground that the coronation ought not to take place in the absence of Geoffrey, Archbishop of York, Primate of all England.
The Archbishop, standing in the midst, addressed them thus, 'Hear, all of you, and be it known that no one has an antecedent right to succeed another in the kingdom, unless he shall have been unanimously elected, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, on account of the superior merits of his character, after the example of Saul the first anointed king, whom the Lord set over his people, not as the son of a king, nor as born of royal ancestry. In the same manner, after Saul came David, son of Jesse. Saul was chosen because he was a brave man, and suited for the royal dignity; David, because he was holy and humble. Thus those who excelled in vigour are elevated to kingly dignity. But, if any relations of a deceased king excel others in merit, all should the more readily and zealously consent to his election. We have said this to maintain the cause of Earl John, who is here present, brother of our illustrious King Richard, lately deceased without heirs of his body, and as the said Earl John is prudent, active, and indubitably noble, we have, under God's Holy Spirit, unanimously elected him for his merits and his royal blood.' Now the Archbishop was a man of bold character and a support to the kingdom by his steadiness and incomparable wisdom; no one, therefore, dared to dispute what he said, as knowing that he had good cause for what he did. Earl John and all who were present acquiesced, and they unanimously elected the Earl, crying out, 'God save the King!' Archbishop Hubert was afterwards asked why he acted in this manner, to which he replied that he knew John would one day or other bring the kingdom into great confusion, wherefore he determined that he should owe his elevation to election and not to hereditary right.
At this coronation King John bound himself by a triple oath, namely, to love the Holy Church and its ordained priests, and to preserve it harmless from the attacks of evil designers, and to do away with bad laws, substituting good ones in their stead, and to see justice rightly administered throughout England. He was afterwards adjured by the same Archbishop on behalf of God, and strictly forbidden to presume to accept this honour, unless he purposed in his mind, to fulfil in deed, what he had sworn to; in reply to this the King promised that, by God's assistance, he would in all good faith keep the oath which he had made.
On the day of his coronation, King John girded William Marshal with the sword of the Earldom of Striguil, and Geoffrey FitzPeter with the sword of the Earldom of Essex; which parties, although they had been before styled earls, and had had the management of their counties, had not been girded with the swords of their earldoms; and on the same day, being girded with their swords, they served at the King's table.
On the day also of his coronation, the said King conferred on Hubert, Archbishop of Canterbury, his chancellorship. While he was exulting in the power so conferred on him, and boasting greatly of his favour with the king, Hugh Bardolph answered him: 'My lord, by your leave I say it, if you really were well to consider the power of your name, and the dignity of your position, you would not impose on yourself the yoke of slavery; for we have never seen or heard of a chancellor being made out of an archbishop, but we have seen an archbishop made out of a chancellor.'
On the following day, after he had received the homage and fealty of his subjects, he went to St Albans, the protomartyr of England, to pray; and so, making but a very short stay in England, he with the advice of the nobles duly settled everything that required his attention.
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u/Independent_Dig2696 John/Llywelyn ab Iorwerth May 27 '25
Thanks for providing such a detailed account!
3
u/trivia_guy May 27 '25
It’s all just quotes from the primary sources!
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u/TheRedLionPassant Richard the Lionheart / Edward III May 27 '25
It is indeed; to be clear, I wasn't present to witness this coronation personally! (Or if I was, it happened so long ago that I can barely remember it).
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u/AlexanderCrowely Edward III May 27 '25
What a dark day for England, a traitor and lathspel I name him for none were so cruel as he nor so heartless.
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u/jpc_00 May 28 '25
O, the world will sing of an English king
A thousand years from now,
And not because he passed some laws,
Or had that lofty brow!
While bonny good King Richard leads
The great crusade he's on,
We all have to slave away
For that good-for-nothing John.
Incredible as he is inept,
Whenever the history books are kept,
They'll call him the phony King of England.
A pox on that phony King of England!
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u/Belle_TainSummer May 27 '25
This was widely regarded as a bad move.