English Coronation Research Articles

The Management of Death in Sri Lanka and Potential Solutions for the Future

Death is an inevitable human occurrence, and ancient humans experienced anxiety and apprehension when faced with unnatural deaths. Prehistoric humans valued funeral proceedings and ceremonial rites due to their belief in life after death and reincarnation. Dead bodies can be disposed of legally or illegally. Legal methods include soil burials, entombment, cremation, or donation to medical institutions. Legal disposal requires certification by a medical practitioner and a death certificate. Illegal disposal involves secret burials, such as being thrown into waterways or burnt. Ancient societies used customs like burying corpses in uninhabited jungles or constructing “Towers of Silence” to prevent scavenging by animals. Sea burials are also practiced in some cases. To register a death, authorized individuals confirm its occurrence, transfer the body to undertakers for final disposition, and relatives register it with the registrar of birth, marriage, and death. Various death investigation methods have been implemented in different parts of the world, generally varying based on the investigating authority’s jurisdiction.The death investigation system of Sri Lanka is based partly on the English coroner’s system. The death investigation procedure in Sri Lanka is described in Sections 369 to 373 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CCP) of Sri Lanka 1980. However, the current inquest system has several deficiencies. It is high time to adopt a system. Sri Lanka should contemplate transitioning from the inquest system to the medical examiner system, as the medical examiner system is more efficient, and several countries followed this successfully.

Conjuring Up a King

Conjuring Up a King

“May she endure as worthy and chosen”: Queenship and Gender in the Medieval English Coronation Orders

“May she endure as worthy and chosen”: Queenship and Gender in the Medieval English Coronation Orders

민족 상징물의 기원 : 스코틀랜드의 민족 아이콘, ‘운명의 돌’의 경우

In 1996, the Stone of destiny returned to Scotland from Westminster Abbey in England. The stone, which was originally placed at Scone, Scotland, had been involved in the inaugural tradition in some way since well before 1296, which made the Scots consider the stone a national icon. However, the stone was taken to Westminster Abbey in London by the English King Edward I in 1296, when he invaded the kingdom of Scotland. Then the stone began to be used for English coronation ceremonies beginning with that of Henry IV in 1399. Breaking a long silence on the stone, from the mid-twentieth century the Scots drew their attention to the stone. Most contemporary Scottish historians argue that the stone began to be seen as a national symbol during the war of Scottish Independence against Edward I from 1296 to 1328, as a part of the emerging notion of Scottish sovereignty and the consciousness of national identity. However, this article aims to rethink of the origin of the Stone of Destiny as a national icon and to give its significance new consideration.

The making of the Second English Coronation Ordo

AbstractThis article reassesses the Second English Coronation Ordo in the light of its relationship to Carolingian sources. The dependence of the Ordo on a distinctive West Frankish source, here termed the Leiden Ordo, has many implications, since the Leiden Ordo seems likely to have been composed for the anointing of Charles the Straightforward by Fulk of Rheims in January 893. This finding provides a probable context for the importing of West Frankish ordines in King Alfred's dealings with Rheims. It also strengthens the case for placing the Second Ordo in the mid- or late 890s, rather than early in Athelstan's reign. Anointing practices were directly implicated in the ‘crisis of authority’ affecting the Carolingian world in the late ninth century. The new understanding of the Second Ordo adds a further dimension to King Alfred's efforts to promote the ‘kingdom of the Anglo-Saxons’, and has wider implications for the development of royal ordines in western Europe.

Suicide, statistics and the coroner: A comparative study of death investigations

Australia has a significantly higher suicide rate than England. Rather than accepting that this ‘statistical fact’ is a direct reflection of some positivist truth, this article begins with the premise that how suicide is counted depends upon what counts as suicide. This study involves semi-structured interviews with coroners both in Australia and England, as well as observations at inquests. Important differences between the two coronial systems include: first, quite different logics of operation; second, the burden of proof for reaching a finding of suicide is significantly higher in England; and, third, the presence of family members at English inquests results in far greater pressure being brought to bear upon coroners. These combined factors result in a reduced likelihood of English coroners reaching a finding of suicide. The conclusions are twofold. First, this research supports existing criticisms of comparative suicide statistics. Second, this research adds theoretical weight to criticisms of positivist analyses of social phenomena.

Factors influencing coroners' verdicts: an analysis of verdicts given in 12 coroners' districts to researcher-defined suicides in England in 2005.

To investigate the variation between coroners in the verdicts given to deaths thought by researchers to be probable suicides and analyse factors associated with the coroners' verdict. Data were collected from 12 English coroner districts on all deaths in 2005 given a suicide, open, accidental or narrative verdict where suicide was considered a possibility. The data were reviewed by three experienced suicide researchers. Regression models were used to investigate factors associated with the coroners' verdict. The researchers classified 593 deaths as suicide, of which 385 (65.4%) received a suicide verdict from the coroner. There was marked variation between coroner districts in the verdicts they gave. The suicide method was associated strongly with the coroners' verdict; deaths from poisoning and drowning were the least likely to be given suicide verdicts. The other factors strongly associated with a coroner's verdict of suicide were: whether a note was left, age over 60 years and being married or widowed compared with being single. Coroners vary considerably in the verdicts they give to individuals who probably died by suicide. This may compromise the usefulness of suicide statistics for assessing area differences in rates for public health surveillance.

The Coronation Mantle and the Westminster Sanctuary Pavement

The Great Sanctuary pavement at Westminster Abbey, on which the kings of England were crowned, features a design of rotated squares, around a central roundel of unusual Egyptian alabaster, set within a circle of bright blue glass. The roundel’s visual resemblance to the world and the firmament is underlined by a surrounding inscription, identifying it as the world, the macrocosm. This paper proposes that the design and meaning of the Great Sanctuary pavement reflect the square macrocosmic mantle in which the English king was wrapped during the coronation ceremony. This paper underlines the special nature of the English coronation mantle within the context of other royal and imperial cosmic mantles. Its square form was unique, and it featured in the English coronation liturgies in a way that European mantles did not. The English liturgies stressed its role as a representation of the world or macrocosm.

The King's Champion: Re-Enacting Arthurian Romance at the English Coronation Banquet

Recent scholarship has emphasised the extent to which historical events are reflected in medieval romance. This paper seeks to draw attention to an instance where that relationship appears to have been inverted and a romance motif was carefully recreated at a particularly important event in the historical world. From the fourteenth century onwards, a mounted knight ceremonially rode into the English coronation banquet and issued a challenge to all assembled. The visual detail of the ritual strikingly echoes that of the romance motif of the “intruder at the feast”. This motif crops up in numerous romances, and is particularly associated with Arthurian narratives where it usually serves as a catalyst for adventure, providing the court and the king with an opportunity to justify their authority and reputation. This paper analyses the precise nature of the historical ritual and explores how the romance resonances of the ceremony at the coronation feast could be used to underpin political authority and courtly identity. In doing so, it seeks to underscore the centrality of Arthurian romance to English monarchical self-imagining and the symbolic power which could be ascribed to the genre's themes and conventions.

Suicide by burning barbecue charcoal in England

Suicide by carbon monoxide poisoning from burning barbecue charcoal has become a common method of suicide in several Asian countries over the last 15 years. The characteristics of people using this method in Western countries have received little attention. We reviewed the inquest reports of 12 English Coroners (11% of all Coroners) to identify charcoal-burning suicides. We compared socio-demographic and clinical characteristics of suicide by charcoal burning occurring between 2005 and 2007 with suicides using other methods in 2005. Eleven charcoal-burning suicides were identified; people using this method were younger (mean age 33.4 versus 44.8 years, P = 0.02), and more likely to be unemployed (70.0 versus 30.1%, P = 0.01) and unmarried (100 versus 70%, P = 0.04) than those using other methods. Charcoal-burning suicides had higher levels of contact with psychiatric services (80.0 versus 59.1%) and previous self-harm (63.6 versus 53.0%) compared with suicides using other methods, but these differences did not reach conventional levels of statistical significance. Over one-third of people dying by charcoal burning obtained information on this method from the Internet. Working with media, including Internet Service Providers, and close monitoring of changes in the incidence of suicide using this method might help prevent an epidemic of charcoal-burning suicides such as that seen in some Asian countries.

Time trends in coroners' use of different verdicts for possible suicides and their impact on officially reported incidence of suicide in England: 1990–2005

Official suicide statistics for England are based on deaths given suicide verdicts and most cases given an open verdict following a coroner's inquest. Previous research indicates that some deaths given accidental verdicts are considered to be suicides by clinicians. Changes in coroners' use of different verdicts may bias suicide trend estimates. We investigated whether suicide trends may be over- or underestimated when they are based on deaths given suicide and open verdicts. Method Possible suicides assessed by 12 English coroners in 1990/91, 1998 and 2005 and assigned open, accident/misadventure or narrative verdicts were rated by three experienced suicide researchers according to the likelihood that they were suicides. Details of all suicide verdicts given by these coroners were also recorded. In 1990/91, 72.0% of researcher-defined suicides received a suicide verdict from the coroner, this decreased to 65.4% in 2005 (p trend<0.01); equivalent figures for combined suicide and open verdicts were 95.4% (1990/91) and 86.7% (2005). Researcher-defined suicides with a verdict of accident/misadventure doubled over that period, from 4.6% to 9.1% (p<0.01). Narrative verdict cases rose from zero in 1990/91 to 25 in 2005 (4.2% of researcher-defined suicides that year). In 1998 and 2005, 50.0% of the medicine poisoning deaths given accidental/misadventure verdicts were rated as suicide by the researchers. Between 1990/91 and 2005, the proportion of researcher-defined suicides given a suicide verdict by coroners decreased, largely due to an increased use of accident/misadventure verdicts, particularly for deaths involving poisoning. Consideration should be given to the inclusion of 'accidental' deaths by poisoning with medicines in the statistics available for monitoring suicides rates.

Impact of the growing use of narrative verdicts by coroners on geographic variations in suicide: analysis of coroners' inquest data

Coroners' death certificates form the basis of suicide statistics in England and Wales. Recent increases in coroners' use of narrative verdicts may affect the reliability of local and national suicide rates. We used Ministry of Justice data on inquests held between 2008 and 2009 and Local Authority suicide data (2001–02 and 2008–09) to investigate variations between coroners in their use of narrative verdicts and the impact of these on suicide rates, using ‘other’ verdicts (79% of which are narratives) as a proxy for narrative verdicts. There was wide geographic variation in Coroners' use of ‘other’ (mainly narrative) verdicts—they comprised between 0 and 50% (median = 9%) of verdicts given by individual coroners in 2008–09. Coroners who gave more ‘other’ verdicts gave fewer suicide verdicts (r = − 0.41; P< 0.001). In the 10 English Coroners' jurisdictions where the highest proportion of ‘other’ verdicts were given, the incidence of suicide decreased by 16% between 2001–02 and 2008–09, whereas it did not change in areas served by the 10 coroners who used narratives the least. Variation in Coroners' use of narrative verdicts influences the validity of reported regional suicide rates. Small-area suicide rates, and changes in these rates over time in the last decade, should be interpreted with caution.

Medical Knowledge and the Early Modern English Coroner's Inquest

This article explores the role that medical knowledge played in early modern coroners' inquests. It examines a wider range of sources than traditional historians typically employ and reveals that evidence from autopsies was introduced at inquests at a much earlier date than previously supposed. It also shows that coroners' juries regularly considered medical evidence when rendering their verdicts and that they investigated suicides and accidental deaths as diligently as homicides. The article also explores the nature and sources of medical evidence available to coroners' juries in early modern England. Medical knowledge was not the exclusive domain of physicians or surgeons; close proximity to death and its appearance gave non-professionals a wide acquaintance with the signs of death from a variety of causes. Coroners' juries relied not only on the testimony of expert witnesses but also upon their own knowledge of medicine, which was often extensive and reliable.

"Under Felt Hats and Worsted Stockings": The Uses of Conscience in Early Modern English Coroners' Inquests

"Under Felt Hats and Worsted Stockings": The Uses of Conscience in Early Modern English Coroners' Inquests

An image fit for a king: the Glazier Psalter reconsidered

The starting point for this enquiry into the iconography of royal power in the thirteenth century is the set of prefatory miniatures in an English Psalter (Pierpont Morgan Library, Glazier MS 25). On one of these folios, the artist has combined the pose of authority associated with power with the ritual of the Coronation service in such a way as to suggest that the purpose behind the commission was to celebrate royal authority. This paper traces some of the sources of this pose which appears to have some common currency in works produced for aristocratic circles especially in the London workshops, such as the Morgan Apocalypse and the illustrated Life of Edward in Cambridge University Library. Given that the pose was grafted on to the contemporary image of the English coronation ceremony, the paper examines the context provided by the other miniatures in the Psalter, proposing that the chosen iconography adds up to a clear statement of royal authority. Related to the question of the Psalter's intended owner, is the question of whether the image of sovereignty in the Glazier manuscript might reflect ideas of kingship held by Henry Third, in the light of the documentary evidence and the art historical evidence of royal commissions. Some hypotheses are offered for the existence of models of kingship around the Abbey and the Palace of Westminster by examining the types of imagery with which Henry associated himself. On the basis of the evidence presented, there are grounds for the claim that Henry had a view of the royal authority which may have influenced the iconography of kingship in the thirteenth century to reflect developing ideas of severeignty.

The medico‐legal production of fatal accidents

AbstractThere has been a considerable sociological interest in suicide, but accidents have attracted little theoretical study. This paper is concerned with the ways in which some fatalities are classified as ‘accidental death’ through the processes of the Coroner's Court. Critiques of the positivist tradition in suicide research are taken as a departure to examine the role of the Coroner in the classification of some deaths as accidental. The modern English Coroner has two functions, neutral fact‐finding for the state and moral amelioration, which are in potential conflict during an inquest. There is no official definition of an ‘accidental death’: such events are produced through a moral analysis of the facts surrounding a death and through the resulting process of demarcating them from other, more culpable, deaths.

Antiphons and Acclamations: The Politics of Music in the Coronation Service of Edward II, 1308

iat, fiat, vivat rex! With this acclamation the clergy and laity acknowledge the king presented to them at the opening of the English coronation ceremony in its fourteenth-century 150 version, that of the fourth and for practical purposes the last Latin recension. The three-fold beat of the acclamation, with the weightiest formula at the end, corresponds to the frequent if not normal form of acclamations,l which appear in the liturgy in such items as the Kyrie, whose last musical phrase is conventionally the longest, and the Laudes. The first recension of the coronation ceremony, dating from before the year 1ooo,2 includes recognition of the monarch with a similar formula near the end of the service: Et dicat omnis populus tribus vicibus cum episcopis et presbyteris Vivat rex N. [or ille] in sempiternum.3

Justice in the Forensic Sciences

Abstract Many historical references to the origins of forensic science, even to ancient times, exist in the vast literature of humanity. It was not, however, until Sir Arthur Conan Doyle with intriguing foreshadowing suggested the use of scientific crime detection methods, through his fictional character Sherlock Holmes, that modern forensic science began its development. Holmes applied principles of serology, fingerprinting, firearm identification, and questioned document examination long before these techniques and their utilization were to be recognized and accepted in modern investigation. Marsh in 1832 isolated arsenic to demonstrate the actual presence of a toxic substance, and displayed this before a jury. Bertillon initiated a system of anthropometric measurements for personal identification which was adopted by the Paris police in 1882. The English coroner, originally established to insure that the King received his share, later extended his duties to the investigation of death, and in America, the first medical death investigation system was established in New York in 1918. These and many other developments continued to merge and move forward until R. B. H. Gradwohl in 1948 called a meeting in St. Louis of forensic medicine and sciences which led to the first meeting of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences, 26–29 Jan. 1950. Among the stated purposes of this pioneering group of approximately 150 members was to raise the standards of investigation techniques and the quality of testimony in the courts and engender the confidence and respect of the judiciary, specifically to create and foster confidence by the courts in scientific and legal proof, and to raise the standard of reliability in investigation and testimony of men who do this work. At that time, sections existed in forensic pathology, forensic psychiatry, forensic toxicology, forensic immunology, jurisprudence, police science, and questioned documents. The Academy has subsequently grown and with it the struggle to recognize the expertise provided by the increasing number of forensic science disciplines. Overcoming much turmoil and controversy, the Academy today is supported by 2700 members representing an expansion of sections including Criminalistics, Engineering, General, Jurisprudence, Odontology, Pathology and Biology, Physical Anthropology, Psychiatry, Questioned Documents, and Toxicology. The image of the forensic scientist was recently boosted by the media when the television show “Quincy” removed the dull fog of night and replaced it with a symbol of service and dedication. In recent years, we have come together, replaced divisiveness with unity, and put our best foot forward. Some recent events threaten to compromise these gains. We read of forensic scientists challenging one another even in areas where the issues do not appear substantial or timely. If one of us loses, we all lose. This is a time, I believe, for forensic scientists to rethink the lessons of the past, to remember the purposes of the original 150, for it is in doing so that our future will be preserved and that justice in the forensic sciences will be insured.

The Coronation in Medieval England: The Evolution of the Office and the Oath

An explanatory foreword seems to be demanded by the studies in the English coronation ceremony here presented. I am conscious that on a number of points, views are now put forward incompatible with those I have expressed on other occasions since first I began to write on the subject. Further scrutiny of the evidence and the redating of some of the more important documents have, however, led me inevitably to conclusions at variance not only with those of other scholars, but with some that seemed plausible to me at the time of writing. What is principally in question is the history of the English coronation before 1308; but I have revised and elaborated the story of the evolution of the Fourth Recension of the English coronation office as it was presented by Professor Sayles and myself a good many years ago. It would be presumptuous on my part to pretend that I have given final answers to the many questions the tangled history of the English coronation provokes. I have changed my own mind too often to permit me to imagine that there may not be answers to those questions more satisfying than mine. But what I have written will, I trust, advance the study of obscure and complicated problems which have an important bearing upon the history of kingship in the Middle Ages and therefore upon medieval polity.

Inalienability: A Note on Canonical Practice and the English Coronation Oath in the Thirteenth Century

Inalienability: A Note on Canonical Practice and the English Coronation Oath in the Thirteenth Century