Henceforward authentic portraits are extant of the queensconsort who were crowned at Westminster, including that other Danish princess, who, by marrying James I., became the ancestress of the House of Hanover.1 It would be a poor compliment to Queen Alexandra to say that her beauty was fairer than that of her crowned predecessors whose features are preserved on the canvases of three centuries of court painters.2

We have said that this long line of queens knelt before the altar at Westminster to receive their crowns. This indicates one of the important points of difference which distinguished the Coronation of the Queen-Consort from that of the King. The Queen was crowned and anointed kneeling; the King during both ceremonies was seated in the ancient coronation chair. He was anointed, as we have seen, on the head, the breast and the hands; the Queen received the holy oil on the head alone. She, moreover, did not take the Orb, nor was she invested with special robes for the ceremony. Another distinctive feature of Queen Alexandra's Coronation was the presence of graceful women in the sanctuary, in attendance upon her Majesty. Aided by an octave of handsome pages, the Mistress of the Robes *

1 This princess was a member of the House of Oldenburg, of the same illustrious line from which Queen Alexandra is sprung. Her father, Frederick II., King of Denmark and Norway (the son of Christian III., the ally of Gustavus Vasa), was the enlightened patron of Tycho Brahe, and was also one of the suitors of Queen Elizabeth, who refused him her hand, but gave him the Garter.

2 The most beautiful of the queens-consort between Catherine of Arragon and Adelaide of Saxe-Meiningen was Henrietta Maria; but she was not one of those who were crowned at Westminster.

3 The ceremonial of the coronation of the queen-consort seems to have become less elaborate in the course of centuries. Queen Anne, the consort of James I., was anointed on her head, hands and breast. But the Form and Order for the Coronation of George II. directs that Queen Caroline shall be anointed only on the head and breast.

4 The Duchess of Buccleuch and Queensberry. The pages in the order in which they stood were Mr J. W. Bigge, Viscount Torrington, Earl of Macclesfield, Marquess of Stafford, Hon. Edward Lascelles, Lord Claud Hamilton, Hon. Robert Palmer, and Hon. Arthur Anson.

bore the Queen's train, emblazoned with emblems of the realm and of the Empire. Four other duchesses, representing the peerages of England, Scotland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom,' summoned by a King of Arms,2 held over the Queen a rich pall of cloth of gold, while the Archbishop of York anointed her. Once more the feminine element became conspicuous in this portion of the service, when at the crowning of the Queen the peeresses, with a rhythmical movement of gleaming arms, placed their crimson-capped coronets on their heads. Then when she had received the Sceptre and the Ivory Rod, the Queen arose, bearing nobly the crown upon her head. Supported by her two Bishops, she advanced, a gracious figure, from the altar, and as she passed the King on his throne the Queen bowed herself reverently to his Majesty, and then without further ceremony took her place on her own throne.

On the remainder of the service we need not dwell long. With solemn dignity was celebrated the Holy Communion, prefaced by the oblations made by the King, first of bread and wine, and then of an altar-cloth and of an ingot of gold, the Queen at the same time offering a pall and a mark-weight of gold. Then when the whole Coronation Office had been thus performed, their Majesties passed out of sight of the congregation, for the Recess, the King proceeding through a door on the south side of the altar and the Queen through one on the north side. There in St. Edward's Chapel, attended by the prelates and the lords who

1 The Duchess of Marlborough, the Duchess of Montrose, the Duchess of Portland and the Duchess of Sutherland.

2 Norroy, Mr W. H. Weldon, acted for Garter, Sir Albert Woods, who was unable to perform his picturesque duties.

3" Gleaming gloves" would perhaps be a more accurate description, as the peculiar shimmering effect observed when the peeresses put on their coronets was caused by the light reflected on their white gloves.

had taken part in the Coronation, the King delivered the regalia to be placed on the altar, which had been erected at the foot of the Confessor's shrine. The contrast was remarkable to go from the gorgeous tumult of the Abbey into the quiet seclusion of the chapel where only the triumphant strains of the Te Deum, wafted over the high altar, called to mind the presence beyond the screen of thousands of an Empire's delegates. The eastern section of the great church, thus cut off from the congregation, was devoid of occasional decorations, save for the

Traverses," or curtained canopies, erected as retiring rooms for the sovereign and his Consort, where the King was to change his Imperial Mantle for his Royal Robe of purple velvet, and where the Queen was to be apparelled in like manner for their farewell progress through the abbey to the west door. For a moment, before retiring, the King arrayed in all the immemorial insignia of majesty, stood almost alone, the centre of a little group of ecclesiastics in antique vestments and of pages who might have attended his ancestress, Eleanor of Provence, with no other surrounding than the noble serenity of the ancient fabric. Then he looked back. to where his mighty forerunners lay amid the grey tracery of Henry VII.'s chapel. As there was no sign of festal ornament, no modern crowd, the Gothic architecture became the setting for a scene, such as little children see in their dreams, of a bygone age when kings went about in crowns and stately robes amid their subjects, likewise in picturesque attire, conferring upon them favours with the hand which had to lay aside the sceptre to bestow them. Such was the final act performed by King Edward at his Coronation. Seated against the crumbling stone of the screen, the old archbishop, wrapped in his medieval cope, rested his feeble

limbs, overtasked with his ceremonial labours. To him came the crowned and mantled King, stretching forth his hands, when he had laid the sceptre down, cheering the tired old man with gracious gesture and kindly word, just as a father of his people might have done, in an ancient realm of the days when all the world was beautiful.

CHAPTER VI

WEA

THE IMPERIAL CROWN

I

EARING the Imperial Crown, the King passed forth from Westminster Abbey, and through the crowded streets resounding with the cheers of his people, whose acclamations were the more fervent because of the feeling of relief which filled all hearts now that the great act of consecration had at last been accomplished. The Coronation of King Edward was a national rite of such unique importance that we will not dwell on the celebrations outside the walls of the Abbey, which attended his assumption of the imperial emblems, though some of them were profoundly suggestive. Such were the two reviews passed by the King, in the garden of Buckingham Palace, of his troops, from the Colonies and from India, which had formed his escort and had lined the streets when he went to be crowned. The aspect of those defenders of the Imperial Crown, peaceful citizens from English-settled lands throughout the globe, and martial warriors from the untamed tribes of Asia, has been described in the pages which told of the gathering of the Empire's forces, warlike and pacific, for the Coronation of the King. When the representatives of the Indian army came to salute their Emperor within the precincts of his palace, the spectacle which, lit up by the sun, would have been of sumptuous splendour, was dulled by a downpour of

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