THE CORONATION OF ARTHUR AND GUENEVERE IN GEOFFREY OF MONMOUTH’S HISTORIA REGUM BRITANNIAE, WACE’S ROMAN DE BRUT, AND LAWMAN’S BRUT

Abstract

Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia regum Britanniae, Wace's Roman de Brut and Lawman's Brut recount successes and failures of early British monarchs, with reign of King Arthur as centrepiece of each of these narratives. In these three texts crowning of Arthur (Geoffrey's Arturus) and Guenevere (or Ganhumara, as Geoffrey names her) at plenary court held in Caerleon represents apex of Arthur's power and glory. A careful analysis of this scene in Historia reveals Geoffrey's political purpose in telling Arthur's story plus Geoffrey's subtie skill in his portrayal of Guenevere. A study of same scene in Roman de Brut and Brut reveals shifts in purpose and audience in portrayals of both setting and character, and raises question of whether Lawman, at least, regarded this event as a coronation or a crown-wearing.At time when Geoffrey of Monmouth wrote his Historia, kings were sometimes crowned more than once. As David Carpenter observes, Nearly all Norman and Angevin kings, moreover, enjoyed more than one coronation (or what chroniclers called coronations), quite apart, under Normans, from more regular festal crown-wearings.2 The ceremony held at Caerleon described in Geoffrey's Historia may therefore be intended as a second coronation. Certainly, this passage is longer and includes more detailed descriptions than most of major events in Historia, painting a memorable picture of theatrical opulence, and leaving reader in no doubt that Arthur is preeminent monarch of his time. Was this whole scene result of Geoffrey's inventive imagination, or was perhaps, based in part on an actual historical coronation or crown-wearing?To address this question, both history and nature of medieval coronation ritual must be examined. W.J. Passingham, while discussing Anglo-Saxon coronations, traces coronation rituals in all Christian countries back to Old Testament accounts of anointing and crowning of kings, although he notes that a number of pre-Christian customs persisted in British coronation rituals.3 Passingham stresses that anointing with holy oil was considered most important part of ceremony, explaining that -By virtue of unction received sovereign became even as a priest. A king anointed became a person set apart from rest of humanity, a being endowed with authority both spiritual and material.4Robert Murray, also reviewing early coronation ceremonies,5 points out that coronation ritual shares a priestly as well as a military character ... priestly character predominates in it, adding that older name for it was the hallowing or sacring of sovereign.6 He notes several very early medieval coronation rituals in British Isles and on Continent that included either laying on of hands or, more often, anointing with holy oil, or sometimes both. Also, during most medieval coronation rituals, both Continental and British, king would promise to defend Church. Murray adds that coronation ritual is modelled on same lines as consecration of a with heart of each of these rituals being the consecration and anointing, followed by delivery of ornaments.7 In fact, both consecration of a bishop and coronation of a king in later medieval period were held on same day as one of great Church festivals. It is here that a potential confusion arises between rituals of coronation and crown wearing, for latter were also held on great festivals.Percy Schramm explains that occasions for king to appear in public wearing his crown were limited and that only an ecclesiastic was ever allowed to place crown on king's head. He adds that in France and in England there was a ritual that had been derived from inaugural coronation ceremony which was adopted for these crown wearings and which did not give king a new status or any new power but did exhibit him anew, in language of symbolism then understood, as manifest ruler of his people. …