Summary

The introduction of coronation and anointing was motivated in all three Nordic kingdoms by the same concerns: to narrow the claim to the throne from the entire stirps regia to a particular dynasty and even further, to secure the succession right of the oldest legitimate son of the ruler and so secure the stability of the kingship. The relationship of the royal family to a dynastic saint was adduced to give greater weight to these moves.

The position of the coronator was essentially unchallenged in all three realms. Since each consisted of one archdiocese, the metropolitan was unquestionably the prelate who held this right. In contrast to Germany, France, and England, the Scandinavian countries established no fixed rightful place for the coronation, even though Uppsala in Sweden came close to such a position. In Denmark neither the metropolitan's see in Lund nor the burial church of Ringsted managed to acquire such a position. In Norway the centers of royal power and the main residence, locations defined by practical rather than spiritual aspects, came to be the sites for coronation. As the Middle Ages progressed, both Denmark and Sweden moved closer to the older Norwegian model by holding the coronation at the developing royal capitals: Copenhagen and Stockholm.

The most conspicuous difference among the Scandinavian kingdoms is the form of the unction. While the Swedish practice resembled Western and Central European practice, the Danish usage—only arm and back—is closest to the prescriptions of a decretale of Innocent III of 1204 which, following the imperial ordo, named these two parts of a king's body as proper places for unction, thus separating the ruler's unction from clerical-episcopal annointing.^[131] However, no German or West European king observed these restrictions contained also in the Pontificale Romanum . It is equally unlikely that Danish kings would have done so. Danish kingship in 1170 was certainly strong enough to forego any such gesture of humility and even more so the "imperial" kingship of Waldemar II "the Victorious," contemporary of the decretale . It is much more likely that the change was introduced as late as 1443 by Christopher III, whose coronation was separated by a hiatus of almost 120 years from the preceeding one. But the exact motive of the king or the archbishop Hans Laxmann of Lund for introducing this change many centuries after the issue of the papal ruling remains a puzzle. A similar develop-

ment may also be assumed for the difference in regalia between Denmark and Sweden. While in 1537 Christian III definitely wore a royal mantle, gloves, and ring, he was not formally invested with these. In contrast, at the coronation of 1561 all these and other insignia typical of any medieval German or English coronation are listed. Maybe in this respect, too, a simplification was introduced under Christian III for reasons that are not yet known to us.

Norway displays some other peculiarities. There was no orb, as in France, but there was a second staff, the baculus , as in both France and England. Western European influence can be assumed for the sequence of the ceremonies in which the placing of the crown was always in the middle of the ceremony, not at the end as in Germany. However, the liturgy, the place, and content of the scrutinium and professio and, as we saw, the unction, point to the German ordines. It was also from German practice, in this case late medieval, that the king's reading of the Gospel with sword upheld found its way into Scandinavia. In all likelihood Christopher III brought it to Denmark and Sweden in 1441 and 1443, respectively, and perhaps also to Norway. Finally, the king's attire, as recorded in the charter of King Birger and the late medieval and early modern records, parallels fully that of Western and Central European rulers.

Thus our inquiry into the coronation practices of the three Nordic realms reveals that the development of these ceremonies reflect neatly the two main cultural and religious influences from abroad, one from Germany, the other from England and France, which affected in many aspects of Scandinavian culture ever since the Christian missions of the tenth and eleventh centuries.