Book contents
- Medieval Self-Coronations
- Medieval Self-Coronations
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- 1 Self-Coronation As Ritual
- Part I Heritage
- Part II Infamy
- Part III Convention
- 9 Alfonso XI of Castile
- 10 Peter IV of Aragon’s Self-Coronation
- 11 Charles III of Navarra
- 12 Early Modern Dramatisation
- Conclusion
- Index
10 - Peter IV of Aragon’s Self-Coronation
A Conventionalisation Programme
from Part III - Convention
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 20 May 2020
- Medieval Self-Coronations
- Medieval Self-Coronations
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- 1 Self-Coronation As Ritual
- Part I Heritage
- Part II Infamy
- Part III Convention
- 9 Alfonso XI of Castile
- 10 Peter IV of Aragon’s Self-Coronation
- 11 Charles III of Navarra
- 12 Early Modern Dramatisation
- Conclusion
- Index
Summary
The tenth chapter explores the practice of self-coronation in the kingdom of Aragon. It centres on Peter the Ceremonious’ self-coronation in Zaragoza (1336), where the king implemented a conscious triple strategy to ensure that his ceremony, performed previously by his father, King Alfonso IV the Benign (1328), would not remain an isolated gesture but would become tradition. First, he constructed an autobiographical historical account that would serve as the primary version of the event. Second, he fixed the rites of self-coronation by writing a new ceremonial. Third, he propagated an iconographic tradition through images of himself in miniatures, seals and coins – and, above all, of his gesture of self-coronation. Historiography, liturgy and iconography are brought into play by the king so as to perpetuate the memory of his self-coronation and thus ensure, through repetition, its transformation from an isolated event into a consolidated practice and part of inherited tradition. The chapter finishes with an analysis of the successive self-coronations performed by Peter’s successors.
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- Medieval Self-CoronationsThe History and Symbolism of a Ritual, pp. 242 - 273Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2020