KING WHO CRIED

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 94, 7 May 1937, Page 26 (Supplement)

KING WHO CRIED

Crowned with His Mother's Bracelet Edward n. introduced a new custom when he summoned his nobles "to attend with their consofts at our Coronation ceremony," the first timo wives of peers were ailowed to attend a coronation. So beautiful was "Isabel the Fair," his Queen, that nnprecedented crowds assembled to ^ee

her, and many people were trampled to death. This lovely Queen was later to gain for herself the unenviable title of the "she-wolf of France." Similar crowds assembled - for the July Coronation . of Richard JCL, the little son of the idolisod Black Prince, who had recently died in France. Long tables, laden with food, were laid. in the streets of London, ' and it is said that the very conduits of the city zan red with wine. Richard ' was only ten at the time, a feeble, delicate boy, and after riding from the Tower.to. West-

minster, it is scarcely surprising to read, he fainted during the Coronation service and had to be taken home in a litter. / Another little King, Henry VI., cried bitterly during . his Coronation service: and had - to be crowned' with his mother's bracelet because the • diademof England was too heavy for . his little head. This was in November, 1429. When Charles 1 was crowned in Feoruary, 1626, the royal regalia was getting . old and worn after. centuries 31 use, and in. the middle.of the ceremony

... . .-s... • " - -v, . a^wirig'^.brQlc© off the; dove^.pn th'©. i\ seeptre h of pphce..5 EuperstitipnB : pqoplr ,saw- in tMs,:a .disastrous-oinei^Ihat* the. peace of .the country,-. wouid 'be' broken in His xeign,' : , and their ' fehrs were juBtified when the-Divil'War biipke out. His [Ooronataon . was/an tmhappy V one^ ••for .he jinsiste,d';on. wearing white ^m--stead ' of the- traditional Royal . purple, j and 'this was 'cpnsidered' unlucky.-Thfer#; was a 'Shock. Pf earthquake- during theservice, and the -text ' chosen ^by Ihe i Archbishop .was the, strangely^propbbi> ! one#,"Be thou faithful^unto-.doath. ■' ' .. | -.A • ' / I ". '