Coronation of King Charles IV of Hungary 1916

Today is the centenary of the coronation of  the Bl. Emperor Charles as King Charles IV of Hungary in 1916. The fact that he had received this sacramental was of enormous spiritual significance to the King and his Queen Zita, and why he refused to renounce his rights in 1921.

The ceremony, central to the traditional Hungarian concept of kingship, was both deemed to be a constitutional requirement and also, it seems, as a means of binding the new King, who had succeeded to the throne in late November, to the existing balance of political power within the realm by the Prime Minister, Count Tisza.

The history of the ceremony can be viewed at Coronation of the Hungarian monarch.

There is an account of the preparations for the 1916 coronation in Miklos Banffy's memoir The Phoenix Land and part of that is reproduced online at Coronation-of-Emperor-Karl with additional material. There is also a detailed description of the day, set within the action of a sprawling novel about a Magyar aristocratic family, in Lajos Zilahy's The Dukays.

 

 The Holy Crown, Orb, Sceptre and Sword of the Hungarian Regalia

Image: Wikipedia

 

Queen Zita and the Crown Prince travel to the Coronation in the State Coach  

Image: Pinterest

The King taking the Coronation oath at the foot of the Holy Trinity pillar outside the Coronation Church of St Matthias

Image: Getty Images

The King on horseback upon the hill composed of soil from every county in Hungary.
This part of the ceremonial involved the King riding up the hill and brandishing his sword to the four points of the compass to symbolise his defence of the frontiers of the kingdom - indeed the oath speaks of extending them.

Image: Monarchy Forum

King Charles IV

Image: Pinterest 

King Charles IV, Queen Zita and Crown Prince Otto.
The King died in 1922, Queen Zita in 1989 and Otto in 2011.

Image: viktor.hu

King Charles IV wearing the Holy Crown
and mantle of St Stephen and holding the sceptre.
He was Beatified in 2004

Image:Pinterest

Film of the processions and oath taking can easily be found on YouTube 

 

Coronation in Budapest

Today is the 95th anniversary of the coronation of the Bl. Emperor Charles as King Charles IV of Hungary in 1916. The fact that he had received this sacramental was of enormous spiritual significance to the King and his Queen Zita, and why he refused to renounce his rights in 1921.

The ceremony, central to the traditional Hungarian concept of kingship, was both deemed to be a constitutional requirement and also. it seem, as a means of binding the new King, who had succeeded to the throne in late November, to the existing balance of political pwer within the realm by the Prime Minister, Count Tisza.

There is an account of the preparations for the coronation in Miklos Banffy's memoir The Phoenix Land and there is a detailed description of the day, set within the action of a sprawling novel about a Magyar aristocratic family, in Lajos Zilahy's The Dukays.

The King taking the Coronation oath

The King on horseback upon the hill composed of soil from every county in Hungary.
This part of the ceremonial involved the King riding up the hill and brandishing his sword to the four points of the compass to symbolise his defence of the frontiers of the kingdom - indeed the oath speaks of extending them.

King Charles IV, Queen Zita and Crown Prince Otto.
The King died in 1922, Queen Zita in 1989 and Otto in 2011.

King Charles IV wearing the Holy Crown
and mantle of St Stephen and holding the sceptre.

Images: The Emperor Charles League of Prayer

St Stephen of Hungary

Today is the feast of St Stephen of Hungary, about whom I posted last year in St Stephen of Hungary and in The Holy Crown of Hungary.

The reliquary containing "The Holy Right", the hand of St Stephen

St. Stephen's Basilica in Budapest

Image: Curious Expeditions photostream on Flickr

So talking of Hungary and Christendom leads, in the way these things do, to this rather curious story about the prospects for Anglicanism in the Apostolic Kingdom.

New Hungarian constitution

A friend has told me about the controversy around the new Hungarian constitution, recently voted through in the Budapest parliament. There is an article about it here. Opposition has been voiced from outside the country by those who dislike its traditional stance on life and family issues, or on definitions of nationality, as discussed in this article.

I have looked briefy at the text - there is an English version here.

In addition to the defence of family life I approve of the references to the Holy Crown and to St Stephen, and to the country's historic place in Europe. The arms with the Holy Crown are enshrined in the constitution. Much of it looks fine to my mind in terms of practical governance.

What I do not like are Fundamental Articles B2 and 3 - that the country is a republic and that the people atre the source of power. This really is Constitution-Lite in that it rejects the millenium-long history of Hungarian Kingship and the institution that embodied the nation. To invoke St Stephen and the Holy Crown, and to appeal to history, but not to proceed to the obvious conclusion is to repeat the mistake of the Horthy regency. The shades of Arpad and Angevin, of Jagellonian and Corvinian as well as Habsburg Kings of Hungary must look down with sad and wondering eyes.

The Holy Crown of Hungary

I wrote the other day that today I would post further on the Holy Crown of Hungary.

The Hungarian Regalia

The Holy Crown

There is a Wikipedia article on the Holy Crown, and also a good article on the Crown and Regalia on the Art in Medieval Hungary site. There is also the article I cited in my previous post.

The Coronation rite itself is outined in another Wikipeda article, as is is the Doctrine of the Holy Crown. There is a very interesting article by Prof Laszlo Peter on the history and modern application of the Doctine

Here are two pictures, courtesy of the Emperor Charles League of Prayer, of the coronation of King Charles IV in 1916.

Taking the Oath:



The King on horseback symbolically indicates the defence of the frontiers of his realm:

There is an account of the 1916 Coronation in Miklos Banffy's The Pheonix Land, to which there is a link from Wikipedia article on the Coronation. Banffy was partly responsible for organizing the Coronation. There is also an account, with a few fictional elements introduced, which do not detract from the description, in Lajos Zilahy's novel The Dukays.

St Stephen of Hungary

Today is the feast of St Stephen of Hungary - except in Hungary itself where it is celebrated on August 20th, which is said to be the day of the translation of his remains to Buda. For a variety of reasons I have always found the history of the Apostolic Kingdom of interest, and so I thought I would share some details about St Stephen in life, in death and in tradition. I have based this post, with some additions and editing, on John Dillon's Medieval Religion discussion group post from last year. St Stephen (d. 1038). Vaik was the son of the first Christian ruler of Hungary, grand prince Géza, with whom he was baptized at perhaps the age of ten. At his baptism he received the Christian name by which he is known (in Hungarian, István). Géza, who was an innovator in several important respects, saw to it that Stephen married into the ruling family of Bavaria; he also substituted male primogeniture for the seniorate as a principle of succession, thus making Stephen his heir apparent. After Géza's death in 997 Stephen won a succession struggle and proceeded to consolidate his rule over the Magyar clans, taking the title of king in about the year 1001. Traditionally it has been held that in 1000 he received his crown from Pope Sylvester II Stephen also consolidated Christianity in Hungary, ordering the building of churches across the kingdom and the collection of tithes to support their priests, establishing a diocesan structure under an archbishop, and forbidding intermarriage between Christians and others. He was canonized in 1083. What is said to be St Stephen's right hand is preserved as a relic (the "Holy Right") in a chapel in his mostly nineteenth-century basilica in Budapest. There is a detailed article about the relic and about the Hungarian regalia, which has been associated with St Stephen in national perception for centuries, here. There is a photograph of the reliquary here, and this is the "Holy Right": There is another photograph of the hand here. St Stephen. (at right, together with his queen, Bl. Gisela of Hungary) as depicted in fresco in the thirteenth-century Gisela chapel (Gizellakapolna) at Veszprém here (the image is expandable) and here. Here is St Stephen as depicted in a miniature in the Hungarian Képes Krónika (Chronicon Pictum: before 1360): I think that is a particularly appealing example of fourteenth century manuscript art, and in its use of the arms of the Kingdom. St Stephen. as depicted by by János Rozsnyai in the Crucifixion (1445) on the north wall of the sanctuary of the cathedral of Nagyszeben, can be seen here: To this I would add this picture: Procession of the relics of St Stephen to the Parliament building in August 2000. I will, hopefully, post more about the Holy Crown of St Stephen on August 20th.