In 1429, the seven-year-old Henry VI was crowned king of England. He was crowned king of France in Paris in December 1431, a few days after his tenth birthday. Part procession, part spectacle, the civic-organized royal entries accompanying these events began with the greeting of the king by the city's officials outside the gates. The king was then led through the city, stopping to view pageants---often described by contemporaries as "mysteries"---along the procession route.
The only king to be crowned in England and France, Henry VI was also the only ruler to make royal entries as king into both London and Paris. This study examines both entries, considering the events themselves as well as the documents describing them. It asks, what was the function of the event of the fifteenth-century royal entry in Paris and London, as well as of the documents describing these events? It considers royal entries on both sides of the Channel from the perspectives of both history and literature, combining an examination of these entries and their manuscripts for the first time. These descriptions were produced by fifteenth-century writers for a fifteenth-century audience, and were as much a part of the royal entry as was the procession through the city. This study argues that civic officials used both the format of the royal entry itself and the written descriptions of entries to promote their city's interests. Both London and Paris royal entry organizers used the event as a form of negotiation with the visiting king, an opportunity to express the city's expectations to the ruler. Although the themes and routes of successive entries could appear similar, the speeches and signs explaining individual pageants expressed very different sentiments. In London, civic officials used the documents describing entries to elevate their city, creating pro-London descriptions that were circulated in London-centric manuscripts. They deliberately used royal entry descriptions to promote their city.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:uottawa.ca/oai:ruor.uottawa.ca:10393/28761 |
| Date | January 2010 |
| Creators | Bourassa, Kristin |
| Publisher | University of Ottawa (Canada) |
| Source Sets | Université d’Ottawa |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | 133 p. |
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