The Edinburgh Service of Thanksgiving and Presentation of the Honours of Scotland

I spent most of the afternoon watching the broadcast of the National Service of Thanksgiving held at St Giles Cathedral in Edinburgh today, at the heart of which was the presentation of the Honours of Scotland to The King.

The Service has been described as being a coronation in some parts of the media and, as a friend and I were discussing on Monday, that points to the low standard of so much reporting. It was not a coronation - though here he and I took different positions, as I would argue, as I have for many years, for restoring the Scottish coronation either within the existing constitutional dispensation or in some other future form, and he was not in favour as someone who took a more outwardly Unionist position and is perhaps more ‘originalist’ with regard to the 1707 Treaty and Act.

So not a coronation, but closer to one than say the Dutch royal inauguration. That too takes place in a church ( though now no longer used as a church I believe ) but has no religious element because of the diversity of the Netherlands Kingdom. It includes the monarch’s oath to the Constitution. The St Giles service was definitely religious - Scots Presbyterian, ecumenical with Catholics and Episcopalians participating ( what would John Knox and the Covenanters think - never mind a woman preaching ?), and inter-faith. The presentation of the Honours was accompanied by something that sounded quite like an affirmation of office, if not an oath. 

Furthermore the way in which sword, sceptre and crown were presented and formally received by The King when he touched each was strongly reminiscent of the way both he and The Queen touched those items of the regalia in the Westminster Coronation - spurs, armils, rings and the Queen’s sceptres - which they did not wear but with which they were still deemed to have been liturgically invested. So was this after all a Scottish Coronation?

As has been pointed out in the advance coverage the Service closely follows that devised in 1953, which drew in part on the only other similar event, the presentation to King George IV at The Palace of Holyroodhouse of the Honours in 1822. The UK Constitutional Law Association has an interesting article about how the 1953 Service came about which can be seen at David Torrance: “Nothing in the Nature of a Second Coronation”

Some changes had been made. The interior of St Giles has been reordered since 1953 and the Communion Table is now under the tower rather than at the east end of the former choir. In 1953 the Stone of Scone was still in Westminster Abbey, but today it was adjacent to the central space. One issue in 1953 was what The Queen should and did wear. As Torrance shows there was anxiety not to create a ‘Scottish Coronation’ so Her Majesty wore a day dress and hat: there was to be no impulsive crowning by the Dean of the Chapel Royal. Some apparently felt this showed a lack of respect to what was happening. Photographs of the occasion do indeed look a little odd with everyone except The Queen in full robes or uniform. Today The King and The Queen, and the  Duke of Rothesay wore their mantles as members of the Order of the Thistle. That I think was a definite improvement. 

There has been quite a bit about the creation of the new Elizabeth Sword to act as the sword of state as the historic one given to King James IV in 1507 by Pope Julius II is now too fragile. Between 1971 and 1986 it was used at services of the Order of the Thistle until deemed too vulnerable. Whilst that fact is very sad the new sword is a superb piece of design and craftsmanship. There are accounts of its making from the Scottish Government at The Elizabeth Sword, from the BBC News website at King Charles to receive new sword at Scottish ceremony and from the MailOnline at Who is the 'new Penny Mordaunt' presenting massive sword to the King?

One can look forward to seeing it in use on future state occasions.

It was perhaps a pity that cars not carriages, as in 1953, were used to convey both the Royal party and the Honours but a variety of considerations may have influenced that decision.

St Giles’ Cathedral may not have the grandeur or space of Westminster Abbey but it is as embedded in the history of Scotland as is the Abbey in that of England. That sense of the past, of a living past, not a museum display, was strong in today’s Service. Past, present and future were bound together in the person and institution of the Monarch.