Note 104 — HENRY I.

Pro more, as the Monkish writers say: though Henry I. does not appear to have confined himself to keep the Feast of Christmas at one place. According to the Saxon Chronicle, William I. had stated places for each Feast; and on these occasions the Kings wore their Crowns. "Ter gessit [Willielmus] suam Coronam singulis annis quoties esset in Angliâ; ad Pascha eam gessit in Winchester; ad Pentecosten in Westminster; et ad Natales in Gloucester." Chronic. Saxon. p. 190. So before anno 1085 "Rex induta Corona tenuit Curiam in Winchester ad Pascha, atque ita Itinera instituit ut esset ad Pentecosten apud Westminster; ubi armis militaribus honoravit filium suum Henricum;" p. 187.

William Rufus was not so uniform. He sometimes held his Court at one, and sometimes at another; but for the most part the Easter-Court at Winchester, as his Father had done. At Whitsuntide 1099, he kept his Court for the first time in his new Hall at Westminster (Saxon Chronicle); for which purpose, I suppose, he built it. Henry I. was not regular in the places where he kept his Court, but it was held oftener in Westminster Hall than any where else, perhaps on account of its novelty and convenience in point of magnitude, or for greater magnificence. The custom of wearing the Crown during the celebration of the great Festivals was much left off, however, after Henry II. It is said to have grown by degrees into disuse after Henry II. and his Queen, 1136, laid their Crowns on the Altar, after their third Coronation at Worcester, vowing they would never wear them again. What the occasion of this vow was, nobody has told us; and Lord Lyttelton does not even guess at the reason.