Very briefly, before the Commonwealth, the robes put on a monarch after the anointing were -
the colobium sindonis, a tunic, stockings or buskins, sandals and spurs, the armills “suspended like a stole” (more on them later), imperial mantle.
When Henry III rebuilt the St Edward’s Chapel the crown and vestments of the corpse were kept in the abbey treasury as relics of the saint.
They acquired a place in the coronation rite. Thereafter a king was invested with the actual ornaments and vestments of the saint.
The objects were abbey property and had to be given back.
Arrangements were made for the king to change into something else to depart.
Charles I was the last to be invested in St Edward’s robes.
Then the plundering occurred.
New robes for the Restoration.
Each sovereign then had new golden robes made for himself.
After coronation they were surrendered to the dean of the abbey and never seen again.
“Many of the brocaded copes worn by canons of Westminster in living memory were once the mantles of Stuart and Hanoverian kings. One pair, indeed, can be identified, by their exact correspondence in material, design and construction, as those made for the unique joint coronation of William and Mary.”
The above is from the same 1973 booklet.
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