GLORIES OF THE CORONATION.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1012, 30 December 1910, Page 9

GLORIES OF THE CORONATION.

Tho order ; concerning the, dress to .bo worn by .-peers and peeresses at the. Cor-.' onation, issued-by ..the' Earl Marshall,;'is based largely :on immemorial tradition (says, a. writer in' v an English paper). Froissart'.is. a witness to the antiquity of tho custom of wearing crimson mantles edged .with,-miniver, for, speaking of >.the Coronation of Henry IV, ho says tho lords were attired in "robes of scarlet furred with miniver barred on .thoir shoulders according' to their-degree,'" almost wbril for word">ith'.: tho.,'nfodorn orders' of tho Duke fof Norfolk: • But; strange' to say, thero sesms to be no reference to coronets until ..the .reign. of Charles 1.-, . •. Coronets; are naturally common to tho nobility,of .every country. In Germany and Austria even an ordinary "Edelmann —that is, one who'has the right; to write "von" before his name—can place a' five-balled • coronet on his carriage panels. But* though we read of the peers assuming their coronets at the coronation of Charles I, it wijs not till tho reign of Charles II that rules were-laid down as to the style of be worn by njembors of the Royal House, ;The records of coronations teem with ludicrous incidents, sucji as fights between the noblo peers for precedence and stately entries made farcical, as when the Qliampion's . horse persisted in entering backwards. But the annals of Englandcontain no record "of. such a' harlequin's dress as was worn by King Frederick August of Saxony_ when he was crowned King of Poland in. 1697. On-his powdered head was' a Polish hat with a heron's plume.. A gold breastpjate covered a Eoman tunic. He had snort blue breeches, and over all an ermine capo dyed - bine. It is recorded that ho grew faint with shame at his ludicrous appearance.