served that the word signifies merely a wife or woman, yet it hath come by eminency to denote the wife only of a king. Thus in old authorities we find this expression—the king's queen;' though the title hath long been used absolutely in its present sense, and as synonymous with the Latin regina, the customary designation of our queens in that language.

The Teutonic tribes from whom we descend entertained a laudable respect for the character of their women, and the wife of the chieftain shared the rank and honours of her husband. But the primitive form of the creation of kings was too much devoid of "gentle usage and soft delicacy" to be participated by their consorts; and it was not till after the ceremonies of unction and coronation were adopted that these could be publicly initiated in the honours of royalty. The coronation of queens, however, though performed with the same solemnity as that of kings, is not to be regarded in the same political view, or to be considered as of the same importance. Its object is to confer a sanctity of character on her, who is the wife and the

کنیز

92 Queen, cpen, quena, is from the Gothic ENS, or UEINS; in the Cimbric it is Fh or Ph, which is thought to be connected with the Greek you, and Armenian xŋy: as it may also be with the Persian or perhaps . The dignity of rank and birth is more exprest by hlardig, lady, which is an antient title of female sovereignty in England; thus, among other instances of its use, Ethelfleda, queen of Mercia, is called Æþelflæd Myrcna hlæfdig; and in later times the empress Matilda, when assuming the government, styled herself Do

mother of kings, and to admit her to the honours of her exalted station.—An attempt hath been made in a late anonymous pamphlet 93, which abounds more in gratuitous reasoning than historical deduction, to represent the coronation of the English queen as an acknowlegement of a right of succession in her issue, and as "a recognition of her constitutional character as essential as that of the monarch himself." Of these doctrines, however, a sufficient refutation may be derived from the following obvious considerations: 1st, that the observance or omission of this coronation never was or could be held to influence the right of inheritance of the legitimate issue of a royal marriage. 2dly, the coronation of the king is essential inasmuch as it is a political act; in that of the queen, however, no such character can be discovered: no consent is askt from the people as to the person to be crowned; no conditions are required from her; no oath is administered; no homage or allegiance is offered. The queen's coronation, though performed at the same place, and usually on the same. day with that of the sovereign, is a subsequent and distinct solemnity; it procedes from the king, .94 and

mina Anglorum. The antient Franks used the title cuninginna, as a feminine derivative from cuning; the Saxons, however, did not adopt it. 93 Some Inquiry into the Constitutional Character of the Queen Consort, 8vo. See also the Edinburgh Review for Sept. 1814.

94 The Roman Pontifical contains the following form for the king's

E

is granted to his consort for the honour of the kingly office.

Among the Romans the wife of their emperor had the title Augusta, which was always conferred with some ceremonies, and latterly by that of coronation 95. -In Germany the empress is both crowned and anointed. The same honour is now common to the wives of Europæan sovereigns. Those of France are not crowned with the kings, but at the abbey of St Denis, near Paris 96.

The consorts of our English princes have been graced with "all the royal makings of a queen from very early times. Before the Conquest they were anointed and crowned, and sate with the kings in seats of state. Of the time when these honours were first allowed to them more will be said in the latter pages of this work".

"Reve

demanding of the archbishop the coronation of his consort; rendissime pater, postulamus ut consortem nostram nobis à Deo conjunctam benedicere et corona reginali decorare dignemini, ad laudem et gloriam Salvatoris nostri Jesu Christi."-Selden, ch. 8, v.

95 See the Titles of Honor, part I. ch. 6, vii.

96 An account hath been preserved of the coronation of Bertha, wife of king Pepin, which is probably the first of a queen in that country. See Hist. des Inaugurations, &c. pp. 50, 68.

97 See the coronation of Judith in book V.

THE

design of the following book is to give some account of those ensigns of power and dominion the delivery of which invests the possessor with sovereign authority. The antiquity of the most common of these royal ornaments hath been briefly developed in the foregoing pages; but as the regalia will be frequently mentioned in subsequent parts of this work, it is thought necessary to give a previous description of them in this place.

In England the regalia, properly so called, are
The Crown, The Sceptre,

The Virge, or rod of power,

The Orb or Mound of sovereignty,

The Sword of mercy, Curtana,

The two Swords of justice,

The Ring of alliance with the kingdom,

The Armilla or Bracelets, The Spurs of chivalry, with sundry sacred and royal vestments.

The Golden Eagle and the Coronation Chair will also claim our attention; and as the latter is the only one of these royal monuments which can boast an undoubted antiquity, I shall give it the first place among the present subjects of inquiry.

§ 1. Of the Coronation Chair and Stone.

THE Chair on which our kings sit to receive the crown is principally remarkable for its marble seat,

Of this Gathelus a long account may be found in Holinshed's Historie of Scotland. He is there said to be a Greek, "the sonne of Cecrops who builded the citie of Athens." Leaving Greece he resided some time in Egypt, and married Scota the daughter of king Pharaoh; but being alarmed at the denunciations of Moses, who was then in the land of Ægypt, he sailed with many followers and landed in Spain, where he "builded a citie which he named Brigantia," now Compostella. After much opposition from the native Spaniards the historian relates that "Gathelus hauing peace with his neighbors sat vpon his marble stone in Brigantia, where he gane lawes, and ministred iustice vnto his people, thereby to mainteine them in wealth and quietnesse,