What are the origins of this fun-filled festive custom?
Coronations have existed since antiquity. According to the Hebrew Bible, David, who gained fame by slaying Goliath, was the third king of the United Kingdom of Israel. His coronation took place in 885 BCE.
Pictured is a detail of a wall carving on the Edfu Temple in Egypt depicting Ptolemy II Philadelphus, crowned Pharaoh of the Ptolemaic Kingdom in 284 BCE.
In ancient Persia, the monarch was required to go to the ancient capital of Pasargadae for his coronation ceremony. Pictured is a depiction of the coronation of Ardashir II, Sasanian King of Kings (shahanshah) from 379 to 383.
In a pious ceremony similar in observance to a coronation, Pepin the Short, King of the Franks, was twice crowned and anointed, at the beginning of his reign in 752, and for the first time by a pope in 754.
The coronation in 800 of Charlemagne is significant in that he was crowned by the pope, a move that gave the papacy and the Church implicit authority over the Holy Roman Empire.
Succeeding Edward the Confessor, who died without an heir, Harold Godwinson was the last crowned Anglo-Saxon English king. His coronation took place on January 6, 1066 at Winchester Abbey.
The coronation of King William I, known as William the Conqueror, was the first to take place in Westminster Abbey. The first Norman king of England was crowned there on Christmas Day in 1066.
Henry IV was crowned on October 13, 1399. He had two coronation processions, one from Westminster to the Tower of London on the eve of the coronation, and then from the Tower back to Westminster on the afternoon of the next day. Henry was the first English ruler since the Norman Conquest, over 300 years prior, whose mother tongue was English rather than French. His second wife, Joan of Navarre, was crowned Queen in 1403.
The coronation of King Charles VII on July 17, 1429 at Reims Cathedral is notable for the presence of Joan of Arc.
The last coronation during the Russian Empire took place on May 26, 1896 when Nicholas II was crowned Czar and his wife, Alexandra Feodorovna, Czarina. The ceremony was held in the Assumption Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin.
In 1807, King Dom João VI of Portugal fled with his family to Brazil after the French invasion, among them was the young Prince Dom Pedro. On December 1, 1822, the Prince was crowned Emperor Dom Pedro I, founder and first ruler of the Empire of Brazil. His son, Dom Pedro II, was crowned Emperor of Brazil on July 18, 1841. These two ceremonies remain the only two coronation acts that have taken place on the South American continent.
King George V and Queen Mary were crowned king and queen in Westminster Abbey on June 22, 1911. Early in his reign, the new king supported proposals for the burial of the Unknown Soldier in the abbey. This eventually took place on November 11, 1920.
The coronation of Henry VIII and his wife Catherine of Aragon as king and queen of England was a lavish affair, with a multitude of adoring well-wishers gathering outside Westminster Abbey, where the ceremony took place on June 24, 1509.
The first coronation to be filmed ( although television cameras were not allowed inside the abbey), the crowning of George VI and Elizabeth on 12 May, 1937 at Westminster was a pivotal moment in outside broadcasting history.
Arguably France's most celebrated monarch, the indomitable Louis XIV styled himself as the "Sun King" and his coronation at Reims Cathedral on June 7, 1654 was an appropriately bright and glittering affair. He is pictured in his sumptuous coronation robes.
Richard I, famously known as "Richard the Lionheart," was crowned King of England on September 3, 1189 at Westminster Abbey. His coronation is the first for which a detailed account exists, describing the ritual and giving the names of those who attended (the account is at the Bodleian Library in Oxford, England).
On June 28, 1838, Queen Victoria became the first British monarch to leave from Buckingham Palace for her coronation at Westminster Abbey. By doing so, she established the palace as a central image of the monarchy and set in motion a tradition that continues today.
An ineffectual ruler, King Ethelred came to the throne in 978. His coronation took place at Kingston upon Thames, about 16 km (10 mi) from the center of London. His epithet, which originated from a play on the word "unraed," meaning no council, was apt. Ethelred was just 10 years old when he became king. Seen as weak and powerless, as an adult he failed to see off the Vikings and in 1013 lost his throne to the King of Denmark.
The coronation of Elizabeth I took place at Westminster Abbey on January 15, 1559. Elizabeth, daughter of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn, was the last Tudor and her crowning the last English coronation under the auspices of the Catholic Church. Indeed, the ritual itself was a clever compromise between the Catholic practices that existed and the Protestant ones that the Queen intended to introduce. She's pictured in her coronation robes.
Napoleon was crowned Emperor of the French on December 2, 1804 at Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris in a grand and elaborate ceremony that also saw the crowning of Empress Josephine. The ritual was presided over by Pope Pius VII.
The crowning of King Haakon and Queen Maud in Trondheim's Nidaros Cathedral on June 22, 1906 after the separation of Sweden and Norway the previous year was the last coronation to take place in Norway.
Carlos I of Portugal became king on October 19, 1889. On February 1, 1908, King Dom Carlos was assassinated in Lisbon along with his son and heir, Luís Filipe. The queen alone escaped injury. The king's younger son, Manuel II, ascended the throne, but his reign was short lived, ending with the fall of the Portuguese monarchy during the revolution of October 5, 1910.
The coronation of Wilhelm I as King of Prussia took place at Königsberg Castle on October 18 1861. The event was the first Prussian crowning ceremony since 1701 and the only crowning of a German king in the 19th century.
The assassination of Emperor Alexander II in March 1881 led to the coronation in Moscow two years later of his son, Alexander III, and Empress Maria Fyodorovna. The new king in his supreme decree had the ceremony slowed down in order to heighten the moral expression of the ritual. The celebrations lasted nearly two weeks.
The last pope to date to be crowned with the papal tiara was Pope Paul VI during his coronation in the Vatican on June 30, 1963. None of his successors have used the ceremonial headpiece since.
Henry VI succeeded to the English throne at the tender age of nine months. His coronation took place on November 6, 1429 when he was just seven years old.
On February 25, 1308, Edward II and Isabella were crowned king and queen of England at Westminster Abbey. Edward was 23 years old, Isabella just 12. During the ceremony, Edward took his oath in French rather than Latin, a highly unusual decision at the time.
Roman emperors were crowned with the diadem, an ornamental headband seen as a symbol of royalty. Here, Constantine the Great is seen wearing a diadem, after his coronation in 306 CE. Constantine was the first Roman emperor to profess Christianity.
On November 22, 1975, two days after the death of dictator General Francisco Franco, Prince Juan Carlos was sworn in as King of Spain. No monarch of Spain has been crowned since the mid-16th century. Instead, the king and his wife Sofia attended an "Enthronement Mass" at the Church of San Jerónimo el Real in Madrid. His ascension to the throne led to the reestablishment in Spain of a constitutional monarchy.
The coronation of John Balliol, King of Scots, on November 30, 1292 is significant in that it took place at Scone Abbey over the Stone of Scone, an oblong block of red sandstone that had been used for centuries in the coronation of the monarchs of Scotland. John Balliol was the last Scottish king crowned on it before it was seized by Edward I's forces from Scone during the English invasion of Scotland in 1296. It was subsequently used in the coronation of the monarchs of England as well as the monarchs of Great Britain and the United Kingdom, the last time in 1953 for the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II. The sacred artifact today has a permanent home in Edinburgh Castle.
The spectacular coronation that was Queen Elizabeth II's was broadcast around the world on June 2, 1953 at Her Majesty's request—the first such ceremony to be televised. An estimated 27 million people in Britain alone watched the ceremony on television, and 11 million listened on the radio.
King Charles and Queen Camilla were "profoundly grateful" for the "glorious occasion" of their coronation on May 6, 2023, Buckingham Palace said. The ceremony at Westminster Abbey in London was the first of its kind in seven decades and saw more than 2,000 guests including world leaders, fellow kings and queens, celebrities and community champions in the pews of Westminster Abbey.
Of the priceless crown jewels, Charles started out wearing the Imperial State Crown, which was then replaced with the notoriously heavy and traditional St. Edward's Crown during the coronation. St. Edward's Crown is the centerpiece of the royal collection and has been used in coronations for centuries. It weighs a whopping 2.23 kg (4.9 lb). Camilla reused Queen Mary’s Crown.
Sources: (The New York Times) (Britannica) (Medievalists.net) (The Royal Family) (Royal Collection Trust) (BBC)
This ritual—the act of placement or bestowal of a crown upon a monarch's head—has its origins in antiquity and has seen emperors and popes as well as kings and queens ascend to the highest seat in the land. But among the numerous coronations that have taken place throughout history are some truly significant ceremonies, events that had profound religious and cultural consequences.
Click through and witness history's most significant coronation ceremonies.
History's most significant coronations
In 2023, King Charles and Queen Camilla were the most recent royals to be coronated
LIFESTYLE Royalty
This ritual—the act of placement or bestowal of a crown upon a monarch's head—has its origins in antiquity and has seen emperors and popes as well as kings and queens ascend to the highest seat in the land. But among the numerous coronations that have taken place throughout history are some truly significant ceremonies, events that had profound religious and cultural consequences.
Click through and witness history's most significant coronation ceremonies.