The Earliest Queen-Making Rites
By Julie Ann Smith
Church History, Vol. 66, No. 1. (1997)
Introduction: While the study of early medieval kingship and king-making rites has generated an extensive literature, scholarship on contemporary queenship has concentrated on themes of authority and power in religious and political contexts, and queen-making rites have received only passing mention. Beginning in the late ninth and early tenth centuries it became customary in England and Francia for a queen to be ritually inaugurated to her position. The rite of consecration endowed her with a new persona, entailing the attributes and virtues of queenship. Of course, sources reveal that kings’ wives had been considered queens and significant members of royal households from at least the sixth century.
The nature of queenship changed gradually over the period. Initially marriage to a king made a queen, and this position appears to have been quite satisfactory until the late eighth century, when Bertrada was consecrated queen in 751 or 754. Regular consecrations of queens, which included unction, began in the mid- to late eighth century.
Since the queen was not a ruler, the theology and ideology of rulership could not be applied to her inauguration rites. Her installation had different purposes and ideology, thus requiring other characteristics to underpin her new life and new significance. The ritual actions of queen-making resembled some of those in king-making, but they held different symbolism when applied to the king’s wife. The queen-making protocols of Charles the Bald’s reign mark a crossroads in developing ideas of queenship in the early medieval period. They are the earliest documented queen-making rites for which the protocols have survived and they incorporate elements of anointing and imposition of insignia.
This essay will analyze the language and structure of these rites in order to understand their religious and political nature and purpose and to place them in their historical context. From the mid-ninth century, queen-making rites impinged upon ideas and attributes which began to coalesce about the king’s wife, and reflected issues of royal dynastic virtue and political integrity and security. The liturgical evolution of these rites encompassed a variety of marital and spiritual blessings determined by changing courtly personalities and political realities.
Click here to read/download this article (PDF file)
Related posts:
- Women and Power in the Middle Ages: Political Aspects of Medieval Queenship
- Gender and Rulership in the Medieval German Empire
- Land, freedom and the making of the medieval West
Tags: Anglo-Saxon, Carolingians, Ecclesiastical History, Political Thought, Politics
