Again the Queen stood, now to receive the Stole Royal and the Robe Royal. Already resplendent, she was about to be gowned in the magnificent golden “Mantle,” a cloth-of-gold garment, four-square, lined with crimson satin and embroidered with silver-threaded eagles and crowns.
First, the Stole Royal was presented and put in place, just like the long and often beautifully embroidered stoles worn by priests. There are several ideas as to the significance of this piece, ranging from the illustration of the towel with which Jesus girded Himself and washed His disciples’ feet, to the binding cloths that wrapped Him in death. We wish we knew what this piece meant to Her Majesty, but we know it was as close to a liturgical garment as she would receive. It was draped over her neck and very gently around her arms.
Now the Close Pall, the Pallium, the Robe Royal.
“Receive this Imperial Robe, and the Lord your God endue you with knowledge and wisdom, with majesty and with power from on high; the Lord clothe you with the robe of righteousness, and with the garments of salvation.”
Oh, in the Name of the Lord our King, do we not see, do we not know, that these are words which belong to our tongues, to speak what Elizabeth must have felt that day, to rejoice in them continually? Isaiah 61:10 . . .
“I will greatly rejoice in the LORD, my soul shall be joyful in my God; for He hath clothed me with the garments of salvation, he hath covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decketh himself with ornaments, and as a bride adorneth herself with her jewels.
As one of the peeresses gasped audibly when the Robe was held up for Her Majesty to put on, our garments are enough to make her faint! They are enough to make us “faint not,” but to be strong in the Lord and in His mighty power!
This was a cope, like those worn by Cardinals in the Catholic Church, woven of pure cloth of gold, embroidered with roses, the Tudor symbol, and the thistles, leeks, and shamrocks of Scotland, Wales, and Ireland, respectively. At this moment, as much as at any other time in the ceremony, it was as if the Church hierarchy welcomed her among them.
When the Representative of God’s people in a certain place has authority and bestows it thus, the wise will take hold with faith and humility and never let go.
We may, if we will, go today to words that have been spoken to us by God’s Only Begotten Son, Who is in the Exact Image of God; we may seize and hold, with true faith and in the power of right humility, the truth we hear . . . AND NEVER LET GO!
“The glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, just as We are one; I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that You sent Me, and loved them, even as You have loved Me.” (John 17:22, 23)
Charles Robert Leslie
Queen Victoria in Her Coronation Robes, public domain
Cor Unum Abbey 