[Bell Historians] History of Coronation Ringing

[Richard Bimson]

Richard,

Thank you for the helpful notes and the warning re the confusions between accession and coronation.

Richard
________________________________
From: Bell-historians <bell-historians-bounces at lists.ringingworld.co.uk> on behalf of Richard Smith <richard at ex-parrot.com>
Sent: 18 February 2023 13:34
To: Bell-historians <bell-historians at lists.ringingworld.co.uk>
Subject: Re: [Bell Historians] History of Coronation Ringing

Richard Bimson via Bell-historians wrote:

> I am also aware of D. Cressy's book Bonfires and Bells.  Does anyone have a
> copy of the book which they would be prepared to consult and pass any
> relevant references?

Chapter 4 of Bonfire and Bells is entitled 'Crownation Day
and the Royal Honour' and discusses at some length the
custom of ringing on 17 November, the anniversary of the
Elizabeth I's accession.  It gives an example of ringing at
St Stephen, Coleman Street described as 'the day of
remembrance of her highness' coronation', but the
implication is that, despite the description, the ringing
still occurred on 17 November rather than 15 January.

Cressy states that 'the bells of St Martin in the Fields
rang on every royal and commemorative occasion, in 1630
giving equal weight to the king's birthday and coronation
day'.  It doesn't say what date that latter was, and I
wouldn't necessarily assume it really was 2 February unless
the churchwardens accounts explicitly say so.  The St
Martin's account to 1603 have been published and are
available online.  They include entries such as the
following from 1598:

It'm pd vnto the Ringers ye xvijth of No: being her Maites
Coronation Daye  . . .   vj s.

If they were referring to the anniversary of the accession
as the coronation day in 1598, they may well still have been
in 1603.  However the St Martin's accounts do record ringing
for James I's coronation in 1603, and the date specified
confirms it really is the coronation rather than the
accession:

It'm given to the ringers to drincke the Coronation daye
of the Kings Matie being the xxvth of July 1603  . . .  xij d.

RAS
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