Reims: the coronation cathedral

This cannot be invented: it is the so-called Menus-Plaisirs administration, a department of the Maison du Roi, which for centuries was responsible for the organization of coronations in Reims, a necessary step to access, under the seal of the divine, with the supreme function. We do not know if the thirty-three coronations celebrated in the Champagne cathedral, from Louis the Pious, the son of Charlemagne, in 816, to Charles X, in 1825, had a Stéphane Bern or a Léon Zitrone, in hose and doublet , to comment on them directly. But there were chroniclers, painters and engravers who recorded its rich history, particularly from the 17th century and Louis XIII. He was, in fact, the first sovereign to make the coronation a crucial element of the “political communication” of the kingdom of France, as shown in the exhibition “Royal coronations, from Louis XIII to Charles X” at the Palais du Tau , in Reims, the former T-shaped episcopal palace (Tau in Greek), close to the cathedral. The fact is that before the Bourbons, a dynasty inaugurated by Henry IV – crowned in Chartres for political reasons – there are few documents on the royal coronations. In 1722, Louis Alas, the work, of which we can see plates in the exhibition, was only used by Louis XVI, in 1775, and by Charles .

Why Reims?

In addition to its astonishing beauty, Notre-Dame is built on the ruins of the Merovingian cathedral where Clovis, the first Christian king of the Frankish kingdom, was baptized. According to legend, a dove descended from the sky holding in its beak a vial of holy chrism, which Bishop Rémi used to anoint the converted king. Original or not, the Holy Ampoule, which was used for the last rites (not to be confused with coronations without holy chrism), is enshrined in a reliquary created in 1820 by the Parisian goldsmith Jean-Charles Cahier and preserved with numerous pieces from the coronation of Charles X in the permanent collection of the Palais du Tau. For the exhibition, this was enriched with a loan of works from the Palace of Versailles, with which the Center des monuments nationaux, manager of the Reims building, has established a partnership. Canvases, drawings, pieces of goldwork or royal carriage cases are presented by theme (arrival in the cathedral, taking of oaths, rite of anointings, coronation, mass, etc.) in the great hall of the palace where the banquet which followed each sacred. “The ceremonial was perfectly rehearsed,” underlines Benoît-Henry Papounaud, administrator of the Palais du Tau. The future king arrived in Reims the day before. He spent the night meditating in the Palatine Chapel of the Palace. The days following the coronation, he performed numerous rituals, including the touching of scrofula (a disease of tuberculous origin) at the Saint-Marcoul hospital, and a cavalcade to the abbey of Saint-Rémi to venerate the relics. from the boss of Reims. Before reaching Paris, where he entered the coronation carriage to the acclamations of his subjects. » Another time…