A millennium and 33 kings separate Louis the Pious, the first king to be crowned in Reims in 816, and Charles X, the last king to be crowned there in 1825. Charlemagne doesn’t fall into this category because he was crowned Emperor in Saint Peter’s Basilica in Rome in 800. From the 9th century, kings of France held their coronation ceremonies in the cathedral in Reims, in homage to the baptism of the first King of the Franks, Clovis, on December 25, 496 or 498.
The coronation of the kings of France was a very long and highly codified ceremony. It could last five hours and the ritual was divided into three phases. In the Middle Ages, during the first phase the king first received shoes, then golden spurs and finally the sword (which made him the armed wing of the church). The second phase was devoted to the sacred anointing with the same oil used for the baptism of Clovis. The archbishop took the holy chrism and, using a golden needle, dabbed the oil on the king's head, chest, between and on the shoulders, on the joints of the arms and on the hands. Then, in the third phase, he received the Regalia or the insignia of royal might: the sceptre in the right hand and the Hand of Justice in the left hand. The ceremony would end with the crowning but, as soon as it was over, the king swapped the coronation crown for a lighter one.
During the Hundred Years’ War, the coronation of Charles VII was pared down to just the sacred anointing. In fact, some of the royal insignia (the crown, the sceptre and the orb) remained in Saint-Denis which was still under English control.
Illustration
The crown jewels
Blaise Alexandre Desgoffe
1887
Private Collection
The painting depicting the crown of Louis XV and Joyeuse, the sword said to belong to Charlemagne.