What happens when coronations go awry

Despite weeks of preparation and rehearsal, coronations don’t always go according to plan. Indeed, a botched coronation or one plagued by misfortune can be taken by the superstitious as a poor augury for coming reigns – sometimes justifiably.

Case in point: the celebrations of Tsar Nicholas II and Alexandra Feodorovna in Moscow’s Dormition Cathedral on 14 May 1896. While the hours-long ceremony for the last Tsar and Tsarina went off without a hitch, the following national holiday and public feast in Khodynka Field led to a stampede where at least 1,300 died and 1,300 more were left with serious injuries.

The cause? A day later, the Russian government gazette issued the following anodyne communique: ‘The brilliant course of coronation celebrations was darkened by a regrettable event. Today, 18 May, long before the start of the national holiday, a crowd of a few hundred thousand moved so swiftly to the place of distribution of treats on the Khodynka Field, that the elemental force crushed a multitude of people…’ 

French journalist Camille Cerf made the only film recording of the coronation ceremony (in fact the first film shot in Russia); needless to say, the Khodynka Field disaster was not captured on celluloid, as it was an event intended for the masses, not the nobility.

Closer to home, William the Conqueror (aka William the Bastard, at least prior to his invasion of England) had a most regrettable coronation at Westminster Abbey on Christmas Day 1066.