Court of Claims: Coronation Proceedings

The Court of Claims met before the coronation of a new monarch to determine who possessed the right to perform services of honour about the sovereign during the ceremony.

The records of the court include petitions; notes of some judgments made by the court; statements of evidence; minutes, orders and memoranda of the court; and miscellaneous records relating to coronation proceedings.

The court was convened by the clerk of the Crown and its proceedings enrolled on the Coronation rolls.

For records of the Privy Council Office Court of Claims see subseries in PC 10

Topics

Litigation

Royalty

Events and exhibitions

The offices, with attendant duties, which people have claimed at coronations fall into three main categories.

First, there are the offices granted by hereditary right: that of lord high steward, lord great chamberlain, lord high constable, earl marshal, and the bearer of the spurs in the coronation procession.

Second, there are those who claim a duty as an appanage to a title, among them the bearers of the three swords.

Finally, there are those who claim that they must perform a duty owing to their tenure of land by grand serjeanty. Numbered amongst such people are the lords of various manors, and those who claim the offices of grand almoner, chief butler, chief cupbearer, panneter, lardiner, napier and king's champion.

Certain others, however, including the barons of the Cinque Ports, the lord mayor of London, and the mayor of Oxford, have established claims which are not so readily classifiable.