Cathedraal van Chartres (foto: A.B. den Haan aug. 2010)
“Normally, [Henry IV] would have been consecrated in the cathedral at Reims, but that city was in the hands of the duc de Guise [leader of the League]. So, relying on several historical precedents, he decided instead to hold the ceremony at Chartres. … [On the morning of Sunday 27 Febr. 1594], the lay and ecclesiastical lords made their way very early in the morning to the cathedral, where according to the traditional form they chose two of their number to go and fetch the king … and with him formed a procession to return to the cathedral. … As this great procession approached the cathedral, the choir sang the appointed chants, and the traditional ceremony began. Soon the king had to take the oath, promising not only to keep the peace and dispense justice, but also to ‘chase out of all lands under my jurisdiction all heretics denounced by the church’. Then followed the actual anointing, followed by the consecration of sword, ring, sceptre and staff. These ceremonies complete, the Chancellor called upon the lay and ecclesiastical peers present to bear witness to the event … Then the king was crowned, and after receiving the homage of his lords, and hearing Mass, he left the church bearing the sceptre and staff and wearing the ring. The crowd broke into great shouts of ‘Vive le roi’, and the heralds scattered largesse. It had been a marvellously effective piece of propaganda, which was soon known throughout France, and surely accounted for many of the defections from the League during 1594.” (D. Buisseret, Henry IV [Londen 1984], p. 50-51)