Brian Barker
has captured a moment in time for us in his splendid book. When the Queen Was Crowned:
“As Baron
Mowbray came slowly backward from the Homage, silence fell briefly on the
Abbey. The ceremony of the Coronation
was over. The Queen had been crowned as
Alfred was crowned, anointed as Edgar had been anointed, had been sworn as the
Lion Hearted had once been sworn, and had received the Homage in the words and
form in which the Lords of the Council had knelt to do their Homage to the
first Queen Elizabeth. I think that all
of us there who looked towards the young Queen Elizabeth, crowned and golden,
felt that something very important, very old and sacred, had been consummated
in that place.”
In vain would
we in Cor Unum spend these many days investigating an ancient ceremony, an
Anglo-Saxon monarchical rite, if it were to make us wish we could grow up to be
princesses . . . or kings and queens on the earth.
Yet there was
a day, a time, when something more ancient, something eternally sacred,
something of consummation far more holy and secure, happened to us.
A few more
days, beloved . . . for a few more days, let us gaze upon that day and time
when we were crowned with the Crown of Righteousness which Jesus Christ
fashioned on the cross of our shame.
Elizabeth in Garter Robes
Pietro Annigoni
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