Happy Coronation Day everyone! I hope you’ve been able able to catch some of Charles III’s coronation ceremony on the TV – mind-blowing. Nobody puts on the pageantry like the British royals.
To celebrate the day – the first coronation in 70 years – I’d like to offer a poem by John Lydgate, a monk at the Benedictine monastery of Bury St Edmunds, and later at the abbey of St. Albans. Spanning the late 14th to mid-15th centuries Lydgate is known for his extensive body of work, which includes poems, ballads, and historical works.
Lydgate's poetry was popular during his lifetime and continued to be influential in the decades after his death, particularly his long narrative poems, such as "The Troy Book," "The Fall of Princes," and "The Siege of Thebes," which drew on classical sources, such as Virgil and Ovid, as well as contemporary literature.
Lydgate was known for his lyricism and his skill at adapting existing works to suit his own purposes, such as his adaptation of Chaucer's "Canterbury Tales" into "The Pilgrimage of the Life of Man." Lydgate was an important figure in the development of English poetry and literature, and though his legacy has ebbed and flowed more than a chronic dieter’s waistline. Considered the heir to Chaucer in his day, he now glories in the reputation of being the most boring poet in English. In your face, Gower!
Anyway, give him fair shakes. Here’s his poem “To the King at His Coronation.” It was written for Henry VI, who became king at the age of nine months in 1422, but was crowned King of England in 1429 and King of France in 1431.
Most noble prince of Christian princes all,
Flowering in youth and virtuous innocence,
Whom God above list of his grace call
This day to estate of knightly excellence,
And to be crowned with due reverence,
To great gladness of all this region,
Laud and honour to thy magnificence,
And good fortune unto thy high renown.
Royal branched, descended from two lines,
Of seynt Edward and of seynt Louis;
Holy seyntes, translated in their shrines,
In their tyme manly, prudent, and wise;
Arthur was knightley, and Charles of great prize,
And of all these thy green tender age,
By the grace of God and by his advice,
Of manly prowess shal taken tarage.
God of his grace gave to thy kindred
The palm of conquest, the laurel of victory;
They loved God, and worshipped him in deed,
Wherefore their names he hath put in memory,
Made them to reign for virtue in his glory;
And since thou art born of their lineage,
Before all things that are transitory
Love God and dread, and so begin thy passage.
Down from the heaven three fleur-de-lys of gold,
The field of azure, were sent to Clovis,
To signify, in story it is told,
Perfect belief, and steadfast unity
Of three persons in the Trinity;
For to declare that the line of France
Should in their truth perfect and stable be,
Grounded on faith, without variance.
And since thou art from that noble line
Descended down, be steadfast of belief;
Thy knightly honour let it show and shine,
Show thy power and thy might to preve
Again although that will the church grieve.
Cherish thy lords, hate extortion;
Of thine alms thy people thou relieve;
Aye on thy commons having compassion.
Noble prince, the high Lord to qweme,
Sustain right, truth to magnify,
Defer vengeance, always as thou deem,
And give no doom til thou hear each party
Til nother part thy favour not apply;
And also consider, in thine estate royal,
The Lord above, which no man may deny,
Indifferently seeth and considereth all.
God sent this day unto thy regalrye
Of all virtues heavenly influence;
First of all thy state to magnify
With Solomon’s sovereign sapience;
To govern thy wit and thy high prudence,
Like king David to be loo! merciful,
Which of pity, when men did him offence,
Mercy preferring, do not be vengeful.
Nobles and force in waxing like Sampson,
Resemble in knyghthode to worthy Joshua;
And thou mayst be God’s champion,
As that he was, Judas the Maccabee;
With Alexander’s magnanimity;
Conquest, victory, with Caesar Julius,
His patience and his tranquillity,
And in sufferance to be all virtuous.
Provident, with Brutus Cassius;
Hardy as Hector, when time doth require;
Vices eschewing as Fabricius;
Constant of heart, and all als entire
As Zenocrates, whose renown shown so clear;
Wrongs forgetting, noble Cypion;
Clement, with Titus; with all these in fear,
In all thy deeds conquest and high renown.
In all thy works haunting righteousness,
As the emperor that called was Trajan;
With Tiberius, freedom and gentleness;
And temperance, with prudent Gracian;
And in thy dooms, like Justinian,
Nothing conclude til thou see the fine;
Peace preferring as Octovian;
The church cherishing, like Constantine.
And that thou mayst be resemblable found,
Heretics and Lollards to oppress,
Like the emperour worthy Sigesmund;
And as thy father, flower of high prowess,
At the beginning of his royal noblesse,
Voided all cokil far out of Syon,
Christ’s spouse sat in stableness,
Outraging foreigners that came from Babylon.
God grant the grace for to resemble in all
Unto these noble worthy conquerors;
Long to continue in thine estate royal,
And to be like to thy progenitors;
To gather the virtue out of fresh flowers,
As did thy father, mirror of manhood;
And to repress of vices all the showers,
With final grace to love God and dread.
Finally, remembering of reason
Crop and root of that royal line
From which thou came, follow discretion
Of thy father, which did so shine
In all virtue; plainly to determine,
Let him by thy mirror and thy guide,
With the goode life of queen Kateryne,
Thy blessed mother, in that other side.
Of good roots, springing by virtue,
Must grow good fruit by necessity;
When influence by the Lord Jhesu
Is sent down from his heavenly site.
And God I pray, of his high bounty,
Of father and mother in thy tender youth
To take example, reigning in thy see,
And be in virtue als famous and als couth.
With him in knighthood to have excellence;
Like thy mother in virtuous goodness;
And like them both, ground thy conscience
To love thy Lord in perfect stableness,
Goode life and long al vices to repress,
Love of thy lieges, peace and obeisance.
Thy right rejoicing of England and of France.
Prince excellent, be faithful, true, and stable;
Dread God, do law, chastise extortion;
Be liberal of courage, unmutable;
Cherish the church with whole affection;
Love thy lieges of either region;
Prefer the peace, eschew war and debate;
And God shall send from the heaven down
Grace and good hure to thy royal estate.
Be merciful, not hasty nor vengeful;
Lightly forgive, where as thou seest reason;
Be rightful judge, be manly, be treatable;
Thy right ay sugar with remission;
Deem not too soon, but make dilation;
Pity the poor and folk disconsolate;
And God shall send from the heaven above.
Grace and good hure to thy royal estate.
In thy behests be not variable;
Hold thy promises, made of intention;
Be bounteous, and kingly honorable;
Void thy realm from dissension;
Eschew flattery and adulation;
Folkes reconcile that stand desolate;
And God shall send from the heaven downe
Grace and goode hure unto thy royal estate.
God Save the King!