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Welcome to this episode of Gone Medieval, I'm Matt Lewis.

As the UK's first coronation in 70 years draws closer, we're getting more and more details

of what's likely to happen. We've explored an overview of medieval coronations,

and how much of today's ceremonial can be traced back through the centuries.

In this episode, I thought we'd take a closer look at some of the aspects of the coronation,

and there's nobody better to get into this with than my guest, Dr George Gross.

George is a visiting research fellow at King's College London,

and is an expert on all things coronation. So I've asked him here to pick his brains today.

Thank you very much for joining us, George. Thanks Matt, great to be here.

It's a pleasure to have you. I guess to kick off then, what did coronations

represent to an audience in the medieval period? If you were maybe in the Abbey watching,

or if you were crowding in the streets outside, why was it an important moment?

I think we should split it into perhaps three or four elements. One,

something that we can all be familiar with, it's a big celebration. So at first, it's just one

big event, and we ought to remember that the medieval calendar was split up into quite a rigorous

system of feast days, but also days of fast, and the do's and the don'ts were very strictly

adhered to and followed. So this is a day where you can party, you can celebrate, you let your

head down, and from the records we have, there's a lot of drinking and partying that goes on.

...