Coronation

Rome promulgated the practice of emperor worship; in medieval Europe, monarchs claimed to have a divine right to rule (analogous to the Mandate of Heaven in dynastic China).

Some cultures use bathing or cleansing rites, the drinking of a sacred beverage, or other religious practices to achieve a comparable effect.

For example, the Coronation of Charles III took place in May 2023, several months after his accession to the throne on the death of his mother Elizabeth II.

The coronation ceremonies in medieval Christendom, both Western and Eastern, are influenced by the practice of the Roman Emperors as it developed during Late Antiquity and by Biblical accounts of kings being crowned and anointed.

[3] The European coronation ceremonies, perhaps best known in the form they have taken in Great Britain (the most recent of which occurred in 2023), descend from rites initially created in Byzantium, Visigothic Spain, Carolingian France and the Holy Roman Empire and brought to their apogee during the Medieval era.

Buddhism, for instance, influenced the coronation rituals of Thailand, Cambodia and Bhutan, while Hindu elements played a significant role in Nepalese rites.

Emperor Julian the Apostate was hoisted upon a shield and crowned with a gold necklace provided by one of his standard-bearers;[6] he later wore a jewel-studded diadem.

[6] In some European Celtic or Germanic countries[clarification needed] prior to the adoption of Christianity, the ruler upon his election was raised on a shield and, while standing upon it, was borne on the shoulders of several chief men of the nation (or tribe) in a procession around his assembled subjects.

[3] Following this, the king was given a spear, and a diadem wrought of silk or linen (not to be confused with a crown) was bound around his forehead as a token of regal authority.

These practices were nevertheless irregularly used or occurred some considerable time after the rulers had become kings, until their regular adoption by the Carolingian dynasty in France.

To legitimate his deposition of the last of the Merovingian kings, Pepin the Short was twice crowned and anointed, at the beginning of his reign in 752, and for the first time by a pope in 754 in Saint-Denis.

The European coronation ceremonies of the Middle Ages were essentially a combination of the Christian rite of anointing with additional elements.

[3] This notion persisted into the twentieth century in Imperial Russia, where the Tsar was considered to be "wedded" to his subjects through the Orthodox coronation service.

Alii modo non debent coronari, nec inungi sine istis: et si faciunt; ipsi abutuntur indebite. [...]

Crowning ceremonies arose from a worldview in which monarchs were seen as ordained by God[a] to serve not merely as political or military leaders, nor as figureheads, but rather to occupy a vital spiritual place in their dominions as well.

[9] Coronations were created to reflect and enable these alleged connections; however, the belief systems that gave birth to them have been radically altered in recent centuries by secularism, egalitarianism and the rise of constitutionalism and democracy.

[6] Other nations still crowning their rulers include Bhutan, Brunei, Cambodia, Lesotho, Swaziland, Thailand, and Tonga, as well as several subnational entities such as the Toro Kingdom.

In most kingdoms, a monarch succeeding to the throne by right of heredity does so immediately on the death (or abdication) of their predecessor; the coronation ceremony is not until some time later.

[17] In Hungary, on the other hand, no ruler was regarded as being truly legitimate until he was physically crowned with St. Stephen's Crown by the archbishop of Esztergom in Székesfehérvár Cathedral (or during the Ottoman Empire's invasion of Hungary in Pozsony, then in Budapest),[18][19][b] while monarchs of Albania were not allowed to succeed or exercise any of their prerogatives until swearing a formal constitutional oath before their nation's parliament.

[24] During the Middle Ages, the Capetian Kings of France chose to have their heirs apparent crowned during their own lifetime to avoid succession disputes.

From the moment of their coronation, the heirs were regarded as junior kings (rex iunior), but they exercised little power and historically were not included in the numbering of monarchs if they predeceased their fathers.

King Stephen attempted to have his son Eustace IV of Boulogne crowned in his lifetime but faced serious papal opposition as the Church did not want to be seen as intervening in the Anarchy.