The progress through the city on the day preceding the coronation, (15th
of July, 1377) was similarly distinguished. The king dined at the
Tower, from which he came forth dressed in white garments, and placed
himself under the escort of the mayor and citizens, who conducted him to
his palace at Westminster. On the following morning he rose early, and,
having received mass in his private chapel, came down into the great
hall "arraid in the fairest vestments, and with buskins only upon his
feet." The procession from Westminster Hall to the Abbey, was now
marshalled in the usual order. While the litany was chanted the young
prince lay prostrate before the altar, whence he was conducted to his
throne on a platform in the centre of the nave. The entire ceremony of
the coronation so much exhausted him, that he was borne back to the
palace in a litter carried by knights. He soon, however, appeared at the
banquet, where he created four earls and nine knights, and partook of a
splendid though turbulent repast. The next morning a council of regency
was formed, to exercise the royal authority, during the minority of the
king. It is remarkable, that in the first parliament of this monarch's
reign, we find the archbishop of Canterbury recommending the young king
to the affection of his subjects, because he was not an elected
sovereign, but the true heir and representative of their former
kings[98].
On the 22d of January, 1382, this monarch espoused Anne of Bohemia,
daughter of the late emperor Charles IV., and sister of Winceslaus, king
of the Romans. As usual, she was crowned at the same period; and is said
so entirely to have possessed, during the twelve years of her union with
him, the affections of her husband and his people, as to be long
remembered among the latter by the title of the good Queen Anne.
The tragic close of this prince's reign will never be forgotten while
---- ----"The hallowed crown
Shall round the mortal temples of a king,"
or Shakspeare's celebrated "Richard II." be extant. The march of his
successor, Bolingbroke, from Ravenspur to London, and the rapid
increase of his followers from twenty men to sixty thousand, his
peaceful entry into the metropolis, and ultimate possession of the
kingdom, without striking a blow, have only been exceeded, in modern
times, by the celebrated march of Napoleon from Cannes to Paris.
HENRY IV. challenged the crown partly by right of conquest[99]. In his
coronation, which took place on the 13th of Oct. 1399, he caused the
sword which he wore when he landed at Ravenspur to be carried naked, on
his left hand, by the earl of Northumberland. Froissart's description of
"the progress" of this monarch we have before noticed.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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