.jpg)
The head that will one day wear a queen consort's crown - Kate Middleton is next in line for the title after Prince Charles and Camilla announced that when he is king, she will be Princess Consort. Constitutional experts remain divided over whether that can actually happen.
A handful of women married to English kings never had a coronation ceremony. The first uncrowned queen of England began life as Marguerite of France. She married Edward I in 1299 almost a decade after the death of his beloved first wife, Eleanor of Castile. The young French princess won over her new husband and his subjects pretty quickly and became hugely popular, partly for the softening influence she had on her grumpy, much older king. It's not really clear why she was never crowned. She did wear a crown in public after her marriage and was given all the honours due to a queen consort and queen dowager when her husband died after just eight years of marriage.
Marguerite of France was called a pearl by her husband, Edward I, but never received a coronation
For the next 200 years or so, queens got crowns like clockwork. Many didn't get them at the same time as their husbands - mostly because the marriages took place after the king's own accession - but the special rites were given and the crowns were placed on heads. That all changed in 1536. Henry VIII married Jane Seymour, just days after the execution of second wife Anne Boleyn. Anne's own coronation in 1533 had been a lavish and controversial affair with the new queen complaining to her husband about the booing and jeering she received as he showed her off through the streets of London. Perhaps because of the shock that the arrest and death of Queen Anne had caused, Jane's wedding was quiet and her elevation to the role of queen more than discreet.
Her coronation was every bit as controversial as her courtship - Anne Boleyn was the last of Henry VIII's wives to be crowned
Henry's rule, after Anne, seems to have been to give away a crown when a baby arrived. Preferably a male baby. Jane provided the boy but her death within days of the birth of Edward VI meant there would be no coronation. Henry fathered no more children after Edward and the remaining three wives were uncrowned queens of England. Plans were underway for a coronation ceremony for Catherine Howard as late as summer 1541 leading historians to speculate that the young queen was pregnant but they came to nothing and Henry's second Kate was arrested in November that year before being executed in February 1542.
Early preparations for a coronation for Catherine Howard in 1541 lends support to the theory she may have been pregnant but the ceremony was put on hold and the queen's arrest followed soon afterwards
Since the union of the crowns of England and Scotland, queen consorts have had a far more regular pattern of coronation and most of them have been crowned alongside their husbands. One, however, missed out on being crowned after one of the most spectacular events in royal history. George IV and his wife, Caroline of Brunswick, were estranged within weeks of their marriage but never divorced. So when, twenty five years later, he became king she decided she would be queen. Caroline became a figurehead for opponents of the new king who was widely disliked for his extravagant lifestyle. He now wanted rid of his wife and the House of Lords passed a bill dissolving the marriage and stripping Caroline of her rights as queen. But it never went before the Commons which would have rejected it so never became law. Caroline was instead offered a new settlement which made her very wealthy. She remained the wife of the king but was expected to go quietly.
Caroline of Brunswick decided she quite liked being married to George IV once he became king
That wasn't on Queen Caroline's agenda. The king's coronation was arranged without any role for his consort and she decided to change all that by turning up on the day demanding to be crowned. She was turned away from three entrances to Westminster Abbey in succession, at one facing armed soldiers who for the first and only time in British history threatened the queen consort with bayonets on Coronation day. She eventually gave up and died three weeks later, never crowned.
A jaunty hat but never a crown - an early portrait of a very calm looking Caroline of Brunswick hides the stormy personality that led her to try to storm Westminster Abbey in a bid to be crowned queen
The other two post union queens not to be crowned lost out in far more discreet ways. Both Henrietta Maria of France and Catherine of Braganza were denied coronations because they were Catholics and so barred from taking part in Anglican rites - and the coronation was a Protestant service by then. Henrietta asked for a separate ceremony to be performed by a Catholic bishop but this idea was rejected. Instead she watched her husband being crowned from a distance. Catherine of Braganza married Charles II in 1662, a year after he had been crowned and she was his queen without a crown until his death in 1685.
A portrait of Catherine of Braganza by Sir Peter Lely. She as the third Queen Catherine of England not to be crowned
Which means that both kings called Charles never saw their wives crowned. And in 2005, on the announcement of Charles and Camilla's engagement, it was decided that on the accession of the Prince of Wales his second wife would not become queen. Instead, Camilla will be Princess Consort. Constitutional experts are divided over this. Some say she will automatically become consort because she will be the wife of the king and unless the law is changed she cannot be anything other than his queen. But if Charles and Camilla do follow the route they announced before their marriage then the third king called Charles will also be the third to see his wife remain without a crown. Of course, Charles is reported to want to rule as George and if the experts are right he may well have a queen by his side rather than a Princess Consort. But history provides lots of little quirks and strange twists of fate. And a third King Charles without a Queen Consort at his coronation may just be one of those.
The Duchess of Cornwall at Trooping the Colour in June 2013
(photo Carfax2)
No comments:
Post a Comment