CHAPTER TWO

CROWN IMPERIAL: CORONATION RITUAL AND REGALIA IN THE REIGN OF JAMES V

Andrea Thomas

Mast worthy kingis ar thai quhilkis ar crownit witht prelatis of halykyrk & sacrit & anontyt.1

Like many Stewart monarchs, James V was crowned as a small child and had to endure a long and unstable minority before he was able to rule in his own right and have an opportunity to make an impression upon the Scottish ritual and regalia. He was only seventeen months old when his father was killed at the battle of Flodden and his coronation, con- ducted hurriedly in Stirling Castle on 21 September 1513, was tradition- ally remembered as ‘the mourning coronation’.2 A coronation is usually regarded as the most solemn and sacred moment for any monarch and this was still the case in 1513, despite the inauspicious circumstances. It marked James’s transformation from a private individual into a pub- lic fi gure with divinely bestowed powers of majesty. It is most unlikely that the king himself had any recollection of the event, but the queen mother, Margaret Tudor, and members of the royal household and gov- ernment such as Sir David Lindsay of the Mount and Sir John Campbell of Lundy would certainly have been able to describe to the adult king the circumstances of his accession. James seems to have learned the lessons well. As an adult, he sought to assert his authority in all aspects of Scottish government and to pro- mote his royal dignity on an international stage. He created an exuber- ant and cosmopolitan court culture, which sought to galvanise Scottish

1 NLS, Peter Th omson’s Heraldic Manuscript, Adv. MS 31.7.22, fo. 44r. omsonTh was Bute Pursuivant and Islay Herald to James V. 2 Acts of the Lords of Council in Public Aff airs, 1501–54: Selections from the Acta Dominorum Concilii, ed. R. K. Hannay (Edinburgh, 1932; hereaft er ADCP), 1; M. G. J. Kinloch, ‘Scottish coronations, AD 574–1651’, Dublin Review, 130 (1902), 263–77; 131 (1902), 34–52, at p. 52.

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Plate 2.1 The regalia of Scotland. © Crown Copyright. Reproduced courtesy of Historic Scotland.

national identity and enhance the status of the House of Stewart. Th ere were many aspects to his political and cultural programme but his inter- est in the ritual and regalia of the coronation was certainly a signifi cant factor. In the 1530s the royal regalia was repeatedly refashioned to match the images that had been used on coins, seals and offi cial documents for two generations and to refl ect the current ideology of imperial kingship. James then began to plan a coronation for his fi rst wife, Madeleine of France, whom he married in 1537. Her early death prevented the cer- emony from going ahead but her successor, Mary of Guise, was crowned in Holyrood Abbey in February 1540. In many ways this coronation can be seen as the culmination of James V’s campaign to reassert royal power and status.3 * * *

3 For the wider cultural programme of the adult reign see A. Th omas, Princelie Majes- tie: the Court of James V of Scotland, 1528–1542 (Edinburgh, 2005).

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