12 - Early Modern Dramatisation

Summary

This last chapter traces a general vision of the survival of some self-coronations during early modernity, focusing on the self-coronations of Frederick I of Prussia (1701) and Napoleon (1804), and the most recent examples in the twentieth century, as the practice is globalised, dramatised and formalised. The traditional anointment performed by medieval kings progressively turned into a secular gesture in early modern Northern Europe. In three decades, Europe witnessed three solemn self-coronations: Christian V of Denmark (1671), Charles XII of Sweden (1697) and Frederick I of Prussia (1701). After Napoleon’s self-coronation, this ritual became an opportunity for pomp and spectacle, as in the cases of Shah Reza Pahlavi (1926) and his son Mohammad Reza Pahlavi (1967), Jean-Bédel Bokassa (1977) and Tupou VI of Tonga (2015). The crucial question here is to what extent early modern and modern self-coronations have lost the actual content carried by their medieval precursors, even if they maintain the same ritual forms, in a secularised context.