The coronation of William the Bastard

sufi

lala

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“So at last on Christmas Day …, the English assembled at London for the king’s coronation, and a strong guard of Norman men-at-arms and knights was posted round the minster to prevent any treachery or disorder. And, in the presence of the bishops, abbots, and nobles of the whole realm of Albion, Archbishop Ealdred consecrated William duke of Normandy king of the English and placed the royal crown on his head. This was done in the abbey church of St Peter the chief of the apostles, called Westminster, where the body of King Edward [the Confessor] lies honourably buried.
But at the prompting of the devil, who hates everything good, a sudden disaster and portent of future catastrophes occurred. For when Archbishop Ealdred asked the English, and Geoffrey bishop of Coutances asked the Normans , if they would accept William as their king, all of them gladly shouted out with once voice if not in one language that they would. The armed guard outside, hearing the tumult of the joyful crowd in the church and the harsh accents of a foreign tongue, imagined that some treachery was afoot, and rashly set fire to some of the buildings. The fire spread rapidly from house to house; the crowd who had been rejoicing in the church took fright and throngs of men and women of every rank and condition rushed out of the church in frantic haste. Only the bishops and a few clergy and monks remained, terrified, in the sanctuary, and with difficulty completed the consecration of the king who was trembling from head to foot.
Almost all the rest made for the scene of conflagration, some to fight the flames and many others hoping to find loot for themselves in the general confusion. TheEnglish, after hearing of the perpetration of such misdeeds, never again trusted the Normans who seemed to have betrayed them, but nursed their anger and bided their time to take revenge.
 
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sufi

lala

Of all the coronations in England, the saddest and most grim, and yet perhaps that which more than any other carried with it the promise of a great future, was that of William the Conqueror.​


This great and terrible soldier, having burnt the southern outskirts of the City of London on the Surrey bank and forced a crossing of the Thames at Walling ford, had descended on London from the north.

Betrayed by their own leaders, including most of the dignitaries of the Church, who were quick to follow the promptings of reason and self-interest, the Saxons had the unspeakable humiliation of seeing the usurper and conqueror crowned on the anniversary of Christ's birth.

For William, a true Norman, had a strong feeling for form and law, and he was resolved to let no ceremony pass that could strengthen his claim to be regarded as King of England. He therefore elected to be crowned on Christmas Day, with all the splendour and magnificence that a conquered and terrified city could observe.

But human constancy - or, as perhaps most would have put it, obstinacy - produced an obstacle. Ever since the unction of Kings had been introduced into England, it had been an unbroken custom for the Archbishop of Canterbury to officiate and place the crown on the royal head. But Stigand the Archbishop was made of different stuff to his fellows, and flatly refused "to crown one who was covered with the blood of men and the invader of others' rights."

Fortunately the tempo and manner of England prevailed, and this unusual conduct was quickly compromised by the good sense of a more moderate and pliable prelate.

The Archbishop of York knew his duty or at least his interest and readily complied. William was crowned King of England with every sacred and time-hallowed rite his heart could desire.

It was an accident of faith that, at the very moment the crown was placed upon the head of this elected and consecrated King, his Norman guards, mistaking the customary acclamations of the spectators for a popular uprising, fell upon the people outside and put them to the sword while firing the surrounding houses, until their leader's appearance in his Coronation robes at the Abbey door quieted their barbaric fears.

Meanwhile the congregation had fled precipitately from the building. A few priests, however, had wisely remained, and the ceremony was concluded, with few onlookers, but without further interruption.

Nevertheless, even in this turbulent crowning the seeds were sown of future good. William, in his Coronation Oath, swore to "maintain the Church of God and all Christian people in true peace; to prohibit all orders of men from committing injustice and oppression, and to enjoin the observance of equity and mercy in all judgments."

And, though he may not have intended to have done so, he and his successors did actually accomplish something of this kind their strength of purpose, jealousy of all rivalry from their own coevals and immediate subordinates, and their strong Norman sense of law, order, and precedent made England a country in which something more than barbaric feudal anarchy could grow to maturity.

The King's Peace began to establish itself in the most remote and turbulent places; presently it penetrated into the fierce anarchical valleys of Wales and even crossed St. George's Channel.

That bloodstained, flame-lit Christmas Day in the Abbey was the beginning of British history as we know it today. The future of a new kind of world, and of an empire and firm peace wider and stronger even than that of fabulous, fallen Rome, was in it.
 

padraig (u.s.)

a monkey that will go ape
now this is is my kind of thread

my favorite William the C anecdote is his swollen, putrefactive corpse literally bursting when his attendants tried to stuff it into his too-small tomb
 

padraig (u.s.)

a monkey that will go ape
also lol @ the triumphalist historiography of "the King's Peace began to establish itself in the most remote and turbulent places"

the Anglo-Normans didn't conquer Wales until Edward I Longshanks 200 years later

and there was no peace in what adventurers like Strongbow did in Ireland

like most Norman things they were just carrying on a Viking tradition, in this case of carving out petty kingdoms in Ireland
 

padraig (u.s.)

a monkey that will go ape
I'll say this for the English, your tradition of imperialist propaganda really does stretch back nearly 1000 years

I mean China's stretches back to like, the beginning of written history, but by European standards that's pretty formidable
 

sufi

lala
now this is is my kind of thread

my favorite William the C anecdote is his swollen, putrefactive corpse literally bursting when his attendants tried to stuff it into his too-small tomb
1066 is iconic of course, but this coronation is quite another tale, you can well imagine the invaders fighting their way up from the coast after the battle, capturing the capital, soldiers holding the coronation on christmas day, which turns into a massacre, burning and looting, dynasties rise and fall
 

padraig (u.s.)

a monkey that will go ape
1066 is iconic of course, but this coronation is quite another tale, you can well imagine the soldiers fighting their way up from the coast after the battle, capturing the capital, and the invaders holding the coronation on christmas day, which turns into a massacre, burning and looting, dynasties rise and fall
it's proper apocalyptic symbolism no doubt
 

padraig (u.s.)

a monkey that will go ape
easily the best - and most based - Norman kingdom was Norman-Arab-Byzantine culture Sicily, tho

almost unheard of levels of religious and cultural tolerance and diversity for medieval Christendom, scientifically forward, cool art, etc

the Angevin Empire is a distant second, tho it still beats out the crusader states of ppl like Bohemond
 

Mr. Tea

Let's Talk About Ceps
also lol @ the triumphalist historiography of "the King's Peace began to establish itself in the most remote and turbulent places"

the Anglo-Normans didn't conquer Wales until Edward I Longshanks 200 years later

and there was no peace in what adventurers like Strongbow did in Ireland

like most Norman things they were just carrying on a Viking tradition, in this case of carving out petty kingdoms in Ireland
Plus the Harrying of the North was some proper Slobodan Milosevic shit.
 
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