Based on the inductive analysis of the previous chapters of the book, the conclusion provides closing remarks on the historical, political, social, religious and symbolic meanings of the practice of self-coronation among medieval kings, using a long-term approach. From a political point of view, self-coronations are proofs of the activation of individual agency rather than the stability of established structures in the Middle Ages. This ritual demystifies certain anthropological tendencies to constrain the rites to the boundaries of their particular context or to fix them in an essentialist symbolic meaning. From a social perspective, medieval self-coronations pushed for collective innovation and dynamism. These rituals were in a perpetual state of flux, confirming anthropologists’ belief that ritual symbols are not static, absolute objectifications, but social and cultural systems, gathering meaning over time and altering in form. This contextualised approach to the seminal concept of the ‘sacred’ and the ‘secular’ requires us to revise a vision of the past altered by the lens of the modern nation-state and modern rationalism. Some of its qualities may be projected onto the present. The king’s skill in avoiding ecclesiastical mediation may help to explain the frontiers and limits between the temporal and spiritual, between politics and religion, which is essential for the stability of modern societies. In the end, the analysis and interpretation of self-coronations lead us to debunk the myth or grand narrative of the process of secularisation.

The introduction provides the thematic, heuristic, methodological, theoretical and disciplinary clues of the book. It has accordingly four parts. The first locates the research in the context of existing scholarship published on the general subject of coronations and announces the original information on self-coronations and the new perspectives offered by this book. The second details the primary sources available for direct access to the knowledge of self-coronations – i.e. coins, inscriptions, images, liturgical books and narrative accounts. The third describes the theoretical assumptions and methodological options taken in order to accurately interpret these primary sources: the emphasis on political theology, the use of long-term chronology and cultural comparative exercise, the concept of agency and the use of the ritual studies and theories. It also notes the academic disciplines at play in the necessary interdisciplinary approach deployed such as history, theology, liturgy, iconology and symbolic anthropology. The last part of this introduction explains the principles governing the basic structure and chapter organisation of the book, and provides a summary of the content of each of the chapters.