ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the choreographed the coronation reached back to a royal past, at how they intentionally remembered the Civil Wars in order to define and contain them as unnatural and at what they seemed wilfully to forget. Edward Hyde, earl of Clarendon, later recalled how 'his Majesty had directed the Records and old Formularies should be examined, and thereupon all Things should be prepared, and all Forms accustomed be used, that might add Lustre and Splendour to the Solemnity'. The wording of the coronation oath had long been the subject of contention between kings, clergy and members of parliament. When he later recalled and described Charles II's coronation, Clarendon attributed Charles' decision to resurrect all the 'forms accustomed' to a need to outshine the republic's novel and effective rituals of power. A frequently cited detail about Charles’ coronation procession is that the mount on which Charles himself rode was Thomas Fairfax’s horse, a gift from his Yorkshire stud.
