Royal funeral ceremonies in fourteenth-century Central Europe

ZUPKA, Dušan. Royal funeral ceremonies in fourteenth-century Central Europe. Death and dying were a ubiquitous reality of the world of medieval society, with lasting effects on the living from all social groups in equal measure. However, for the rulers of the day, the process of dying and the subsequent burial was an important social, political and cultural event. Over time, special funerary ceremonial complexes developed that included a variety of rituals and symbols which indicated the status and importance of the medieval monarchs. This paper compares the funerary rituals and symbols of power on display during the processions of three Central European kings: King Charles I Robert of Hungary (1342) in Visegrád, Buda and Szkésfehérvár, Polish King Casimir III the Great (1370) in Kraków and Bohemian King and Roman Emperor Charles IV (1378) in Prague. Each of these monumental events included a number of common motifs and ritual sequences, though at the same time, local flavour or innovations always came into play. The common de-nominator of these three ceremonies was that in the spirit of the political theology of the time, all referenced the immortality of the sovereign power and its timeless essence, which sprung from a sacred character sanctioned by God’s grace.

"Because the existing law of death is universal and unchangeable and, therefore, it applies to all of human posterity, the Almighty did not even spare his own Son of God, but delivered him to death for all of us. And so, nobody can complain to the Creator about the unavoidable and unbearable reality of death. It is not wise, therefore, to oppose the Lord, but one has to endure patiently the doomed fate. Because the Lord only takes what he has given and, on the very last day, man will be resurrected by his grace. " 1 T he life cycle of every human being begins with birth and inevitably ends in death, an anthropological constant observed among all civilisations across time and space. People around world This work was supported by the APVV under grant 19-0131 "Ars moriendi. Fenomém smrti v stredovekom Uhorsku" and by the VEGA under grant 2/0028/22 "Stredoveká spoločnosť v Uhorsku (štruktúra, koexistencia a konfrontácia sociálnych skupín do konca 13. storočia). " have invented and designed a host of rites of passage to symbolically mark or explain shared benchmarks of life in society, including birth, circumcision, baptism, initiation rituals, weddings, enthronement and other inaugural rites, and last but not least, ceremonies accompanying death. 2 When considering death and funeral rituals in Medieval Europe, the specificities of each individual civilisation should be taken into account. The Christianisation of the late Antique society and its continuation into the Early and High Middle Ages produced a unique and very specific society on the European continent and in the Mediterranean region. 3 Deep cultural, spiritual and religious changes affected the perception of death and dying. In Christian the belief, death was not the final stop of one's journey but merely a transition from the temporary world to the eternal (i.e. the real one). 4 This paper examines the use, meaning and influence of funeral rituals in the late medieval society of Central Europe in the fourteenth century, building on previous research which demonstrated that Christian monarchic rituals played an important part in the exercise of power with rulers and their entourage using numerous symbols and ceremonies to express ideas, ideals and messages to the outside world. 5 In this way, the funeral rituals of medieval monarchs offer an ideal opportunity to examine the traditional rites of passage vested with monarchic and Christian symbols. Following is a comparative examination of three such cases from fourteenth century Hungary, Poland and Bohemia: the funerals of Charles Robert (1342), Casimir III (1370) and Charles IV (1378).

Charles Robert (1342)
Charles Robert of Anjou (King of Hungary 1301 -1342) was one of the most important rulers of late medieval Central Europe. He rose to a powerful and influential position within his kingdom, but also among the context of regional diplomacy and international politics. Robert maintained good relations with all of his neighbours and usually acted as an intermediary in cases of disputes and conflicts among other rulers of the region. Possibly the most splendid occasion in this respect was the well-known Visegrád meeting of the three kings in November 1335. future king and emperor, Charles IV. The event was marked by ostentatious symbolism, ceremonies of power and symbolism of rule. 6 A strong emphasis on the ritualised representation of monarchic power and the special status of the anointed king in medieval society would be witnessed even more profoundly during the last of the political events connected to Charles Roberthis funeral festivities.
The most detailed description of Charles's final farewell is preserved in The Chronicon Dubnicense, 7 where the anonymous author expresses his sadness and grief over the loss of such an illustrious ruler. Every single detail in the long process of the king's ceremonial funeral is then enumerated. 8 Charles Robert died on 16 July 1342 in his residence at the Visegrád castle. The author opens his account with an expressive description of the of the queen widow Elisabeth, the royal heir Louis and his brother Stephen and other members of the court mourning the king's passing. To be sure, the king's death was lamented by his magnates, knights, prelates and ordinary people as well. 9 The funeral ceremonies were directed under the supervision of Queen Elisabeth. The day after Robert's death (17 July), religious rites were performed by archbishops, bishops, prelates, priests, monks and clerics, accompanied by the country barons. Together they entered the royal residence in a solemn procession. According to Hungarian custom, the golden royal crown was placed on the king's head. His body was vested in a purple tunic and his feet decorated with shoes ornamented with precious stones and golden spurs. The funeral cortege then left the castle and brought the body to the parochial church of Virgin Mary in the town of Visegrád located beneath the fortress where a huge crowd of burghers took part in weeping and grieving. Prelates present in the church then performed a prescribed solemn mass and the first part of the funerary liturgical rites. 10 After the first set of ceremonies was complete, the king was loaded onto a ship and began a journey on the Danube River from Visegrád to Buda accompanied by a cortege led by royal standard bearer Lawrence Slavus of the Csák kindred. After reaching Buda, a ceremonial welcoming by the local citizens followed. Charles's body was received on the river bank by local clerics, priests and townspeople clad in mournful clothes. Throughout the night, funeral orations, clamours and psalms were sung to the Lord, as was the custom. 11 On the third day, prescribed liturgical rites and solemn masses were performed. These were coupled with peculiar local Hungarian funerary customs. On the church's footsteps, Charles's three splendid horses, draped with purple blankets, were waiting with three mounted knights. The first one bore the king's armour, the second held the lance used by Charles Robert during knightly tournaments and the last knight wore full armour and was equipped with weapons as if ready to enter battle immediately. All three riders were adorned with signs picturing an ostrich with a golden crown, something prescribed by the king for all his elite troops. Each piece of armour was lavishly decorated and all equipment was covered by gilded silver manufactured with great care and professionalism. The attention paid to even the slightest detail was obvious as even the stirrups and snaffles were richly decorated and all clothes were made from silk. Precious stones, pearls and the colour purple could be seen in every space, adding more splendour and majesty to the royal funeral. According to the author of the source, these signs and symbols were meant to remind subjects of the great benefits the late king had provided them. This rendered the funerary atmosphere even more emotional. 12 After completing the ecclesiastic liturgical rites and solemn masses, it was time for the next phase of the festivities. As mentioned in the sources, the ceremony was supposed to follow the traditional customs of the late venerable kings of the realm, a statement which is another hint towards a presupposed royal funeral ordo. The lack of other supporting evidence hinders any far-reaching conclusions about its real existence, content or form. The only detail provided by the Chronicon Dubnicense is that different sections from the Bible were used during these rites. Whatever the nature of these ceremonies was, the monarch's body was put on display for a certain amount of time, uncovered, in order to be clearly visible for the mourning visitors who came to say their final farewells. buried in this church, which in the context of political theology, made it one of the most sacral and political centres of the entire kingdom. 14 Together with Buda, Esztergom and Visegrád, it formed the centre of the realm-the medium regni-which was the most politically important part of the monarchy. 15 Székesfehérvár lost some importance in favour of Buda and Visegrád in the later period, but its symbolic significance as the resting place of St. Stephen was still considerable. By burying the first king of the new dynasty, the Angevins made another important political and symbolic step towards stabilizing their rule and strengthening legitimacy as true successors of the Arpádian holy kings. 16 This is also one of the reasons for such an ostentatious funeral ceremony provided for Charles Robert. The rich details of the event which are preserved in the anonymous account deserve to be quoted in its entirety: When they brought him to the town the priests and clerics chanted orations and psalms to God all night long. At the dawn, the liturgical rites and solemn masses were performed. The masses continued throughout the day, while the three aforementioned horses covered by purple blankets and mounted by three robust knights in full armour, as one could expect, remained waiting before the gate of the monastery all the time. After completing all the solemn masses, the archbishops, bishops, prelates and the abbots buried him clad in royal raiment in the abbatial church next to the main altar. It was the same monastery where the most holy bodies of king saint Stephen and his son prince Emeric happily rest in the Lord... 17 The source concluded this phase with a vivid description of the mourning and weeping people, rich and poor, their great sadness and their tears covering the tomb. Csanád Telegdi, the Archbishop of Esztergom, then delivered a funerary oration, which provided some comfort to the grieving people. When the ceremonies ended, religious institutions in the town were given precious gifts, with the monastery even receiving the three richly decorated This starts at dawn on Tuesday, November 19, with processions from all the churches and monasteries in the city of Kraków; then come four carriages each covered with a pall and driven by a coachman in black, and behind them forty mounted knights in full armour, their horses draped with purple cloths. Then come eleven standards representing the eleven duchies of Poland, each having its emblem embroidered on it. These are followed by a twelfth and larger standard bearing a white eagle, the emblem of the dead King. Behind it rides a knight dressed in the most splendid royal robes, pearls and fine purple interwoven with gold, representing the dead king, and riding a magnificent horse itself with a purple cover. Behind these, two by two, come 600 acolytes, each holding a lighted candle of unusual size (two of them weigh the same as a stone of wax) next come mourners bearing palls of interwoven gold, silver and purple cloth, which is later distributed among the churches and their servants. These mourners are surrounded by more than a thousand knights, in funeral dress. There is weeping, wailing and discordant singing that reduce almost every mortal to tears. Ahead of the mourners rides a knight scattering to either side handfuls of broad silver platters, towels and tablecloths; the Master of the Pantry and the Carver give four large silver goblets; the two cup-bearers give cups and bowls, and the Marshal a splendid charger. Finally, after the twelve standards, comes the knight representing the late King, astride a horse. When this horse has been presented by the Second Master of the Horse, the knights break all twelve standards, the signal for one and all, nobles and ordinary people, old and young, to weep and wail. 29 There are several key elements in the depiction that would become a firm part of Polish royal funeral ceremonies and be put in writing for the 1548 funeral of King Sigismund the Old (1506 -1548), an ordo that became official for centuries to come. 30 On the other hand, some similarities with the funeral festivities performed for Charles Robert of Hungary in 1342 are observable too. This is not surprising, because Louis himself was present both at his father's and his uncle's funerals. The influence of Queen Elisabeth, who was Casimir's sister, Charles Robert's wife and Louis's mother should not go unmentioned. Her significant sway over on her son is well known. 31 Alongside the usual liturgical rites performed by the prelates and the clergy, the presence of horses and mounted knights in both funerals should be noted. This was undoubtedly connected to the wave of knightly enthusiasm and knightly culture that marked the reign and ceremonial life of Central European monarchs in the fourteenth century. 32 What is also noteworthy is the emphasis laid on the symbolic representation of the royal and dynastic coat of arms, which depicted the white eagle of the Piasts. The funeral description of Charles Robert, on the other hand, only mentions the ostrich sign adopted by the king and spread among his troops. One last point appears in both funerals; in Visegrád in 1342, just like in Kraków in 1370, a knight mounted on a horse symbolically represented the deceased king himself, appearing as a kind of an allegorical personification.

Charles IV (1378)
The final royal ceremonial funeral for comparison is that of Charles IV, King of Bohemia and Holy Roman Emperor (1346 -1378). Charles IV's funeral was probably the most lavish, most crafted and symbolically most elaborate ceremony of the late medieval period. It has been pointed out previously that he programmatically and systematically prepared himself for his final farewell, unlike many of his contemporaries and predecessors. 33 It is no surprise, as Charles was the one of the medieval monarchs who paid significant attention to the ritualised and symbolic representation of his majesty. 34 The funeral ceremonies performed in 1378 provide another example of this approach. In fact, as King of Bohemia and Roman Emperor, Charles began a program directed at commemoration of his close and distant relatives and ancestors much earlier, starting with the consecration of St. Wenceslas chapel in the Cathedral of St. Vitus at the Prague Castle in 1367, and later by the reorganization of tombs of Czech kings and dukes in a symbolic manner, giving precedence to his (currently ruling) Luxembourg dynasty over the indigenous Přemyslid dynasty. 35 Charles's mausoleum did not survive until today, so we are only left with vague descriptions of eyewitnesses and the words of the epitaph, which were incorporated into the funerary oration of Jan Očko of Vlašim, the Archbishop of Prague, as is described later. Despite the doubtless predilection in the royal ceremonial, there is no proof that Charles left an ordo for his own funeral. It was most likely crafted in the days following his death. 36 Despite of the absence of a written ordo, one might presume that Charles and his advisors could find inspiration in the abovementioned funeral ceremonies of Charles Robert in 1342, which Charles IV attended and could have witnessed at least a part of the festivities. He was definitely present at the funeral of his arch rival for the imperial crown, Günther of Schwarzburg, who was buried in 1349 under Charles's personal supervision. On this occasion, the presence of horses and mounted knights is seen again, with one of the knights personifying the deceased himself. Another source of inspiration could be reports from funerals of the French kings Philippe VI and John II, but the most prominent inspiration presumably came from Kraków. Some of the rites and symbols present at Casimir's funeral in 1370 were again reflected in the performance of the 1378 ceremonial. 37 Charles IV died on 29 November 1378 and his body underwent a quick embalmment process according to contemporary custom. The court, the prelates, townspeople and ordinary people then began preparations for the final farewell for their beloved emperor which took eleven days to get everything ready, attesting to the scale of the preparations for this event. The colour black was meant to be a unifying element for the mourners and grievers. In the meantime, the corpse of the king was displayed in the Prague Castle for a general audience, clad in precious clothes, gold and purple, and resting on a decorated bier. While the imperial crown was placed above his head, the Bohemian a group of mounted knights took part in the procession, carrying a helmet with the golden crown, unsheathed sword, banner of the Holy Roman Empire, sign of a black shiny eagle and a yellow knightly banner. 43 The final part of the procession consisted of the royal bier with the king's body in an open coffin carried by knights under a golden canopy. Behind it, mourners from the royal family followed their deceased king and emperor. Quite astonishingly, the source does not mention the presence of Charles's son and heir, king Wenceslas, but it may be assumed that he was there as this was the traditional custom in every royal funeral all over Europe (and his presence is proven for the later part of the ceremonial). Finally, the queen, relatives and members of the family and the court marched with the funeral procession.
In the following days the king's body was put on display in several important churches and urban locations to enable citizens and ordinary people to pay tribute to their lord. The ultimate farewell took place again in the political and religious centre of the Bohemian realm, St. Vitus Cathedral, on 15 December. 44 Here the primate, Archbishop of Prague Jan Očko of Vlašim, delivered the aforementioned funerary oration and celebrated a pontifical requiem mass. 45 On the next day, the emperor was dressed in the simple cloths of a Minorite monk and moved to a pewter coffin with a wooden crown placed on his head. 46 The coffin was then buried in the central part of St. Vitus Cathedral next to previous Bohemian kings and the deceased relatives of Charles, including his three wives. 47 The short report from the funeral, the Annotationes of the Olomouc University Library, specifies that the religious ceremonies were presided over by the Archbishop of Prague with the pontiffs of Bamberg, Meissen, Regensburg, Olomouc and Litomyšl, joined by other dignitaries and abbots. 48 The final sections of the funeral ceremonies also included offerings and perhaps symbolical acts such as the breaking of the royal seal, the sword or banners of the deceased king, that symbolized the end of his reign and the beginning of the rule of his successor Wenceslas IV, whose presence in this part of the festivities is well proven. 49 Unfortunately, as mentioned above, unfortunately the tomb of Charles IV did not survive to modern times. However, at least a short but important inscription from the tomb has been preserved; the funerary oration by Jan Očko of Vlašim, who used it on the occasion: In the year one thousand three hundred and seventy-eight, on the 29 November. Lo! Me, Charles IV, once terror of the whole world, emperor, who did not know defeat, only death could overcome me. I am buried in this tomb and I pray to God that my soul raises to the stars. Let everyone pray for me, those I left in death and cherished during my lifetime with favour. And so, let his soul rest in heavenly peace. 50

Conclusions
The present study of prestigious royal funeral ceremonies of 1342, 1370 and 1378 enables an examination of the monarchic rituals and royal symbolism of the late medieval rulers of Central Europe. Preserved contemporary sources provide sufficient details to propose a comparative study of the festivities in question. While each was specific and unique in its performance and choice of individual gestures, some common features, rituals and symbolic expressions could be spotted in all of them. All three cases under examination included a first stage, comprised of an emotional bemoaning of the deceased rulers and the public exhibition of the body. This was followed by a second phase; a ceremonial procession accompanied by liturgical rites, solemn masses and an expression of loyalty and respect from the most important echelons of the society as well as by townspeople and ordinary people. The final part of the funeral rituals took place in the main cathedral of the royal seat in the case of Bohemia and Poland (Prague and Kraków), or in the traditional burial and coronation church in case of Hungary (Székesfehérvár). There, the prelates performed final solemn masses and buried the body in a lavishly decorated tomb.
In some cases, funerary orations are confirmed, followed by offerings to the church and church institutions, and then last farewells performed by the relatives and closest members of the court took place. In the case of Charles Robert and Charles IV, a hint of the observation of the ecclesiastical period of 30 days of waiting before the final entombment is seen as well. Some of the most spectacular rites were connected to the royal or imperial office of the Hungarian, Polish and Czech ruler. These were symbolically expressed in the public display of banners, standards, swords, crowns, and other regalia, displaying the power and authority of the deceased monarch over the territories under his rule. 51  of mounted armed knights, who rode horses equipped with proper armour, often the one used by the monarch himself during his lifetime. This symbolized the military function of the king/emperor as the highest commander, but also his Christian duty to protect his subjects and the church form all enemies. A clear connection to the overwhelming popularity of knightly culture present in the realms of late medieval Central Europe is undoubtedly visible. 52 There is no space in this study, but a comparison of the royal funeral ceremonies with rituals of inauguration and coronations ordines of their successors would be highly intriguing. The analysed ceremonies form a united block that symbolically expressed the political ideology of the medieval Latin Christendom, the political theology. 53 The period between death and the funeral of the late monarch and the coronation and inauguration of his successor was a very sensitive and special one. Key players on the political chessboard made sure the transition of power would be effectuated in a fluent and in a minimally disruptive manner so that the idea of kingship, the office of the king and the rule of the dynasty were not threatened or questioned. 54 The natural body of the individual king was dead, but the supranatural body of his office and dignity (body politics) was immortal. Elaborate, festive ceremonies performed during the funerals of Charles Robert, Casimir III and Charles IV attest to the declaration coined by Ernst H. Kantorowicz: the king never dies. 55