Reims carries a nickname that sums up its history: the coronation city. For close to a thousand years it was here, and almost nowhere else, that the kings of France received the crown. This was no accident. It goes back to a founding event that took place a few steps from the Basilica of Saint-Remi.
The baptism of Clovis, in 496
Around the year 496, Bishop Remigius baptised Clovis, king of the Franks, in the city of Reims. By becoming the first Christian Frankish ruler, Clovis bound the monarchy to the Church, and Reims to royal power. The legend of the Holy Ampulla — a vial of holy oil said to have been brought by a dove for the king’s anointing — later reinforced that link. It was this oil, kept at the Abbey of Saint-Remi, that made Reims the compulsory place of coronation.
Twenty-five kings crowned beneath the Gothic vaults
From the 11th century the rule was settled: a man was fully king only once anointed at Reims. The ceremony lasted several hours and combined the anointing, the handing over of the regalia — crown, sceptre, hand of justice — and a solemn Mass. In all, about twenty-five kings, from Louis VIII to Charles X in 1825, were crowned in the cathedral of Notre-Dame de Reims.
The most famous coronation remains that of Charles VII, on 17 July 1429. In the middle of the Hundred Years’ War, Joan of Arc had persuaded the dauphin to cross territory held by the English and the Burgundians in order to be crowned. Her presence beside the king, banner in hand, turned the coronation into a political act: proof that Charles VII was the only lawful king. The scene has been painted a thousand times and remains part of the national memory.
The Holy Ampulla and the end of a tradition
The coronation rite turned on a single relic: the Holy Ampulla, a small vial whose oil was used to anoint the new king’s forehead, chest and hands. It was kept in a reliquary at the Abbey of Saint-Remi and carried in procession to the cathedral on the day of the ceremony. In 1793, at the height of the Revolution, it was smashed in public on the square in front of the cathedral; a few fragments, quietly gathered up, were used to make a new ampulla.
For the tradition did come to an end. On 29 May 1825, Charles X was crowned at Reims according to the old-regime ceremonial, in a country that no longer believed in it. No king made the journey again: the July Monarchy, then the republics, turned the page. Reims keeps its title of coronation city as a piece of history, not of power.
What survives today
The cathedral, the Palace of Tau — where the king put on his robes and where the banquet was held — and the Basilica of Saint-Remi now form a group listed as World Heritage. To go back to the origins, step into the Basilica of Saint-Remi and see the tomb of Saint Remigius, where the whole story began.
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Photo : Tijmen Stam (User:IIVQ), d’après la fresque de Jules Eugène Lenepveu — CC BY-SA 2.5 · Wikimedia Commons