ABSTRACT
The coronation of Henry IPs eldest son, the younger Henry, in Westminster Abbey on 14 June 1170a 1 was an event of the highest significance. The ceremony was performed by Roger, archbishop of York, assisted by the bishops of London and Salisbury, 2 in the presence of Henry II, but in the absence, and against the will, of the exiled archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Becket, 3 and in defiance of the commands of the pope, Alexander III. 4 The coronation itself has an intrinsic interest: the practice of crowning an heir in his father’s lifetime, though customary in France, 5 and occurring at times in the German and Byzantine empires, was unusual in England. Offa’s son, Ecgfrith, had been crowned in 787, while his father was still alive; 1 but with the exception of this single, pre-Conquest example, the coronation of the young king in 1170 was unique in English history. Henry’s chief motive in associating his son with himself in the kingship seems to have been the securing of the transmission of the royal title to his eldest son, while the rest of the Angevin inheritance was divided among the other brothers, the latter then being required to pay homage to their elder brother for their share of the patrimony. 2 But in the context of the Becket controversy, most observers saw the coronation as a calculated insult to the archbishop of Canterbury, in contempt of whose rights it was performed; 3 and William FitzStephen viewed the transference of the royal title to the heir as an attempt to safeguard England from the threatened interdict. 4 The coronation was very significant as far as the young king himself was concerned: his father ministered to him in person after the ceremony 5 in token of his new position, addressed him as king of England in official documents, 6 and furnished him with a court and train befitting his rank, though it is certain that the father relinquished none of his own rights in the kingdom. The young king was referred to as ‘novus rex’ and ‘rex junior,’ and claimed the full rights of kingship: during the episcopal elections of 1173-4, for example, he wrote to the pope protesting against the election of Richard of Dover to the see of Canterbury, claiming that his rights as king had been ignored. 7 The discrepancy between the dignity and reality of his position provided a major cause for his part in the rebellion of 1173-4, while the jealousies engendered among his brothers as a result of his kingly status were to remain a source of discontent until his death in 1183. 8
