5 - The Sacralisation of Carolingian Accessions

Summary

The fifth chapter explores the sacralisation and liturgification of the royal investiture ceremony in eighth- and ninth-century Western Europe. With the progressive fusion of the rites of unction and coronation in the Carolingian monarchy, the royal investiture ceremony was sacralised and liturgified, and confirmed the increasingly prominent function of the bishop as its ordinary minister. Ceremonial liturgification and iconographic Christification are the two main processes in the consolidation of the ideology and practice of Western monarchies from the eighth century. Carolingian ceremonial practices developed the basic ceremonies of royal accession which would become prevalent in medieval Europe and early modern monarchies, and constitute the main formative period for the ideology and rituals of medieval royalty in the West, between the mid-eighth century and the mid-ninth century. This sacralisation preludes the transgressive nature of the performance of self-coronation among some late Western medieval kings, in which the mediating function of the priest will be damaged. The iconographical Christ substitutes (or, perhaps more accurately, is transferred from) the pagan and theocentric models of pre-Carolingian ceremonies and rites.