Þóra Greylock

Today is a day to be crowned! It’s the anniversary of at least five coronations.

From Wikipedia:

• 1066 – Harold Godwinson (or Harold II) is crowned King of England.
• 1205 – Philip of Swabia becomes King of the Romans.
• 1322 – Stephen Uroš III is crowned King of Serbia.
• 1355 – Charles I of Bohemia is crowned with the Iron Crown of Lombardy as King of Italy in Milan.
• 1449 – Constantine XI is crowned Byzantine Emperor at Mystras.

It says Philip of Swabia becomes King of the Romans (as the King of Germany was called), but according to other wikipedia pages, that happened in 1198. Today in 1205 was his second crowning for the same kingdom. Another king, Otto, was also elected in 1198, a few months after Philip. In 1204, Philip did quite well in the civil war, and some of Otto’s supporters switched sides. So they crowned Philip again. Otto continued to be a competing king, and became sole king in 1208 when Philip was assassinated. It didn’t end well for Otto though. Just a few years later, in 1212, Frederick II was also crowned. He had been elected before both Philip and Otto, but was only a babby. Otto was disposed in 1215, and Frederick became sole ruler.

The image above is none of these rulers. I just liked it. It’s Charles V of France being crowned by the Archbishop of Reims, a detail from folio 59r of the Coronation Book of Charles V, also known as Cotton MS Tiberius B VIII. I cropped the image from http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/Viewer.aspx?ref=cotton_ms_tiberius_b_viii_f059r

Charles V’s own coronation was the 19th of May 1364. He commissioned this book in 1365 to be a record of it. You can find more information in this British Library medieval manuscripts blog post.