The Greenville journal. [volume] (Greenville, Ohio) 1850-1918, 1914-01-22

Westminster, lowering over the tombs
of soldiers and statesmen of the past.
They are part of the heritage of that
Saxon England bequeathed to the gen.
erations that followed her, part Of
the memories of Harold, the son Of
Goodwin, whose eye was pierced by
a Norman arrow just before the
shield wall broke and Saxon England
passed
Slaughtered People Who cheered.
On Christmas day of that same
year, or less than IL months later,
another coronation was held in West
minister abbey, when Aldred of York,
he who had placed the crown on Har-
old's fallen head, did like office for
the conqueror. A saturnine memory,
that coronation. Outside, in the
streets of the little village that clus-
tered about the gray walls Of the min
lister, the people we're gathered ac-
cording to the old English custom to
shout their acclaim of their new mas
ter. But the Norman soldier on guard
about the fame took the shouts to
mean threat that an attack
was imminent, and that swept down
upon the village and massacred all
the inhabitants. So that Duke Will
liam began his new reign with slaugh-
ter and oppression that formed a ter
rible climax to the tragedy at Senlac.
So one comes down to the compare
lively civilized crowning of Henry
VIII. and his consort, Catherine Of Ar
agon, by William Warham, archbish-
op of Canterbury, on st. John the
Baptist's day, being also Sunday and
midsummer day of 1909. And after
that came the only crowned queen
regnant of England, the beautiful and
ill fated Lady Jane Grey, who signed
her accession proclamation on July
9, 1853, and before the month was out
was prisoner, held fast in Bloody
Mary's" grip, Ten days was the
length of her reign, one of the sad
dest interludes in English history.
Mary, first of that name, was for
mally crowned in Westminster abbey
on Sunday, October 1. by the cardinal
bishop of Winchester. That corona
ton was big with coming events,
professionalism hung in the balance, the
! future of the nation, the happiness
of the people. Elizabeth followed
Mary, being crowned on January Is,
1863, and if possible the occasion
was yet more Iortentious than any
that had preceded it. 1t determined
the fate of England. 1t marked the
beginning of the English renaissance,
of the budding of new thought and
feeling, of the growth of the nation
oversee traffic, and of the inception OF
that series of bitter shrewd blows at
the sea power of Spain that ultimate
ly gave England the right to claim
the supremacy of the ocean.
When John. Whitgift, archbishop OF
Canterbury, placed the crown on the
head of James l. and his consort
Anne of Denmark, on July 25, 1908
in the same historic abbey, it marked
another stage in the development OF
Great Britain. For England had
ceased to be England now. She was
Great Britain and Ireland, just as
later she was to become Great Brit
ain and Ireland and the empire OF
India, and the dependencies over seas
James l. wore a crown heavier than
any of his predecessors had worn.
1t is interesting to note that Hen
rietta Maria, consort of Charles l.
refused to be crowned with him, be
cause, being Catholic, she did moi
wish to be consecrated in ceremony
of the Protestant church. One won
ders if Charles, as he sat on the
stone of scone,' "the stone of des
tiny" on Candlemas day, 1926, wa'
able to visualize the scene in West
minister hall, June 26, 1857, when AL
iver Cromwell sat on that same sea
Z and heard himself proclaimed lore
protector with ceremonies almos
equal in splendor to those of corona
tion.