Coronation of the French monarch

Common card · No. 427373

The accession of the King of France to the royal throne was legitimized by a ceremony performed with the Crown of Charlemagne at the Reims Cathedral. In late medieval and early modern times, the new king did not need to be anointed in order to be recognized as French monarch but ascended upon the previous monarch's death with the proclamation "Le Roi est mort, vive le Roi!" French queens were crowned either together with their husband at Reims or alone at Sainte-Chapelle or the Basilica of Saint-Denis. The most important part of the French ceremony was not the coronation itself, but the Sacre – the anointing or unction of the king by the priest leading the ceremony. The Carolingian king Pepin the Short was anointed in Soissons (752) to legitimize the accession of the new dynasty. A second anointing of Pepin by Pope Stephen II took place at the Basilica of Saint-Denis in 754, the first to be performed by a pope. The unction served as a reminder of the baptism of king Clovis I in Reims by...

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