to the monarch, who received them at once as his guests and dependents-seated on his throne, with a crown on his head, and a sceptre in each of his hands. Public officers were at this time appointed, laws, on some occasions, enacted, while for eight days it was forbidden for any man to slay, maim, or assault his enemy, or to distrain upon his debtor's lands. The return of these festivals has sometimes been mistaken by our historians for a repetition of the coronation, strictly so called*.

The monarch exercised, as at the present time, a supreme command over the national forces. He consulted the witan, but he himself determined on, and proclaimed war or peace. He was also, as now, the supreme judge, and received appeals in person, from all the ordinary courts of judicature: the ealdormen, sheriffs, and other officers of those

*Thus the Saxon Chronicler says of William I. "Thrice he bore his king-helmet every year, when he was in England; at Easter he bore it at Winchester, at Pentecost at Westminster, and in Mid-winter at Gloucester." p. 450.

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courts, holding their appointments at his pleasure. The intelligent reader will thus find the substantial duties of the royal office as remarkably similar at this distant period with its present functions, as the pageant of a coronation can be uniform *.

We have noticed the present existence of a contemporary account of the coronation of Ethelred II. It demonstrates, that some of the most eloquent passages of the prayers now used on the occasion, were the production of what we often denominate the darker ages of the world, and well accords with the preceding sketch of the character and duties of the Saxon kings.

"Two bishops, with the witan," it is said, "shall lead the king to church; and the clergy with the bishops shall sing the anthem, Firmetur manus tua, and the Gloria Patri. When the king arrives at the church, he shall prostrate himself before the altar, and the Te Deum shall be chanted. When this is finished, the king shall be raised from the ground, and having been chosen by the bishops and people, shall with a clear voice, before God and all the people, promise that he will observe these three rules." [Then follows the coronation oath, quoted above.]

The prayers that follow, the bishops shall separately repeat. "We invoke thee, O Lord, Holy Father Almighty and Eternal God, that this thy servant, whom by the wisdom of thy divine dispensations from the beginning of his existence to this day, thou hast per

*MS. Claude, A. 3. Cotton Library.

WILLIAM I. may be said to have been crowned in character as a conqueror. Christmas-day 1066, being appointed for his coronation, at Westminster, he was surrounded by his Norman barons, and a full attendance of the English nobles and prelates-when

mitted to increase, rejoicing in the flower of youth, enriched with the gift of thy piety, and full of the grace of thy truth, thou mayest cause to be always advancing, day by day, to better things before God and men;— that rejoicing in the bounty of supernal grace, he may receive the throne of supreme power; and, defended on all sides from his enemies by the wall of thy mercy, he may deserve to govern happily the people committed to him, with the peace of propitiation and the strength of victory."

The following combination of admirable Scripture allusions is extracted from the third prayer, or that offered by the bishop after the consecration, "holding the crown over the king."

Almighty Creator, everlasting Lord, Governor of heaven and earth, the Maker and Disposer of angels and men, King of kings and Lord of lords! who made thy faithful servant Abraham to triumph over his enemies, and gavest manifold victories to Moses and Joshua, the prelates of thy people; and didst raise David, thy lowly -child, to the summit of the kingdom, and didst free him from the mouth of the lion and the paws of the bear, and from Goliath, and from the malignant sword of Saul; who didst endow Solomon with the ineffable gift of wisdom and peace: - look down propitiously on our

Aldred, archbishop of York, put the questions of the Recognition to his new subjects; and the bishop of Constance, who was in his train, to the Normans. The assent of both nations was given with loud acclaim. So boisterous, indeed, was their loyalty at this

humble prayers, and multiply the gifts of thy blessing on this thy servant, whom with humble devotion we have chosen to be king of the Angles and Saxons. Surround him everywhere with the right hand of thy power, that, strengthened with the faith of Abraham, the meekness of Moses, the courage of Joshua, the humility of David, and the wisdom of Solomon, he may be well pleasing to thee in all things, and may always advance in the way of justice with inoffensive progress."

When crowned, the invocation is, "May God crown thee with the honour of justice, and the labour of fortitude; that by the virtue of our benediction, and by a right faith, and the various fruit of good works, thou mayest attain to the crown of the everlasting kingdom, through his bounty whose kingdom endureth for ever!"

We cannot omit the concluding benedictions, rich with Scripture phraseology as any church could make

them.

"May the Almighty Lord give thee, from the dew of heaven, and the fatness of the earth, abundance of corn, wine, and oil! May the people serve thee, and the tribes adore thee! Be the lord of thy brothers, and let the sons of thy mother bow before thee! He who blesses thee shall be filled with blessings; for God will be thy helper. May the Almighty bless thee with the

part of the ceremony, that the Norman soldiers of William, on the outside of the Abbey, church, affected to consider the shouts as the signal of insurrection, and immediately set fire to the houses of the neighbourhood (a singular remedy for riot), and began the congenial work of plunder, to the great mortification of the king. All now became confusion in the interior of the Abbey: the Norman barons prepared for battle; the native nobles regarded themselves as victims selected for slaughter, and the king is said to have been left alone, with the ecclesiastics, to conclude the ceremony. That the shouts were but the pretext for a preconcerted attack and

blessings of the heaven above, and in the mountains and the valleys; with the blessings of the deep below; with the blessings of the suckling and the womb; with the blessings of grapes and apples; and may the blessing of the ancient fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, be heaped upon thee!--May the blessing of Him, who appeared in the bush, come upon his head, and may the full blessing of the Lord be upon his sons, and may he steep his feet in oil! With his horn, as the horn of the rhinoceros, may he push the nations to the extremities of the earth; and may He who has ascended the skies be his auxiliary for ever!"