Westminster Abbey

Matilda of Flanders was crowned and anointed Queen of England on 11 May 1068 in the Abbey Church of Westminster, now Westminster Abbey in London.

Matilda of Flanders is the progenitor of the Norman and later Plantagenet dynasty in England, and thus the ancestor of almost all later English kings and queens.

The coronation took place in Westminster Abbey Church, which had become the permanent coronation church for English kings since the coronation of Edward the Confessor in 1043. It was the kingdom's most important religious and administrative center, and therefore the logical place for a formal royal coronation.

Matilda was crowned there during the Feast of Pentecost in 1068, almost two years after the conquest of England by her husband William the Conqueror.

The ceremony was led by Archbishop Ealdred of York (the chief cleric in England after the Norman Conquest).

Mathilde was not only crowned with a crown, but also anointed and given the royal attributes: a scepter and a coronation ring

For the first time in English history, a special hymn, the Laudes regiae, was introduced at such a coronation, praising the queen as placed by God, sharing in royal power, and blessing her people.

Dromos