Note 1143 — Chapter I · RICHARD AND THE EMPIRE 1192-1194

“Tantaque solemnitas facta est propter praecedentis captionis contumeliam,” ib., 526, “In octavis Paschae Wintoniae regni diademate fulgidus, detersa captivitatis ignominia, quasi rex novus apparuit,” W. Newb., lib. iv. c. 42. “Rex Ricardus ... consilio procerum suorum, licet aliquantulum renitens, coronatus est,” R. Coggeshall, 64. It is hard to conceive what “ignominy” or “contumely” could be thought to attach to the mere fact of Richard’s captivity, or why Richard should have been “reluctant” to revive a time-honoured custom which would surely have appealed with double force to his well-known love of pomp and splendour and of grand Church services, unless its revival was urged upon him for some special reason whose cogency he was unwilling to admit. On the other hand, it is curious that R. Diceto (ii. 114) says nothing about this crown-wearing beyond the bare statement that the king “in octavis Paschae regni diadema suscepit de manibus Huberti Cantuariensis Archiepiscopi.”