Coronation of Edward IV
On 28 June 1461 Edward IV was crowned and anointed at Westminster Abbey, the only part of his transformation from duke of York to king of England that had not taken part in early March. Edward had been acclaimed in London and taken possession of the throne on 4 March. This final ceremony had been deliberately delayed until his claim had been vindicated in battle. That vindication came on Palm Sunday, when the Yorkists defeated the Lancastrian army somewhere near the villages of Saxton and Towton in Yorkshire. Even then, the new regime remained insecure: Henry VI, Margaret of Anjou and their supporters were still at large, while Lancastrian and Scottish forces threatened northern England and the French king, Charles VII, planned an invasion on the southern coast.
The ceremony was probably postponed because of the siege of Carlisle in May. Thomas Playter told John Paston that it had been rescheduled for 28 June ‘be cause of a sege a boute Carelylle’. Rumour and uncertainty surrounded the coronation. Coronations usually took place on a Sunday, but James Gresham believed it would occur on Monday, 29 June, since the previous Feast of Holy Innocents had fallen on a Sunday making that day unlucky for the ensuing year. Nor was everyone impressed: one Londoner declared that he would as readily watch ‘the hunting of a duck’. Two days before the coronation, Edward entered London, escorted by the mayor, aldermen and 400 citizens. His brothers, George and Richard, were among those knighted in preparation for the ceremony, while several men who had served the House of York in the recent troubles were elevated to the peerage. On Sunday, Archbishops Bourchier of Canterbury and Booth of York crowned Edward king. In the two days following, the new king once again wore his crown in public ceremonies, a powerful display of the new Yorkist regime’s regal authority.
Image: ‘Edward IV: The Scene at Westminster Abbey, St Peter’s Day, 1461’ by Edward Caton Woodville junior from The Illustrated London News 29 March 1902. The original caption was in error as Sunday, 28 June 1461 was the eve of the feast of St Peter and St Paul, not the feast day itself.3d
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