The Crown — "by the Grace of God" and the anointing of kings

What the work does

Peter Morgan’s The Crown ran for six seasons on Netflix from November 2016 to December 2023, dramatising the reign of Queen Elizabeth II from her 1947 marriage to Prince Philip to the late 1990s and early 2000s. The second episode of the first season, “Hyde Park Corner,” depicts the events of February 1952 — King George VI’s death and the immediate succession of Elizabeth II — and includes the coronation rite at Westminster Abbey on 2 June 1953. (The full coronation sequence is in episode 5, “Smoke and Mirrors.”)

The series stages the anointing — the moment in the rite when the Archbishop of Canterbury applies consecrated oil to the sovereign — at length. The anointing was historically considered the most sacred moment of the coronation; it was traditionally hidden from cameras and from most of the congregation, performed under a canopy. Even in the televised 1953 coronation, the BBC cameras turned away during the anointing itself.

This entry documents the rite’s biblical lineage.

The biblical anointing of kings

The Hebrew Bible records several anointing-of-king narratives. The principal ones:

Saul, the first king. Samuel anoints Saul in 1 Samuel 10:1:

“Then Samuel took a flask of oil, poured it on Saul’s head, kissed him, and said, ‘Has not the LORD anointed you ruler over His inheritance?’” (1 Samuel 10:1, BSB)

David, replacing Saul. Samuel is directed to Jesse’s youngest son. After the elder brothers are passed over, David is brought in from tending the sheep:

“So Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the presence of his brothers, and the Spirit of the LORD rushed upon David from that day forward. Then Samuel set out and went to Ramah.” (1 Samuel 16:13, BSB)

David is anointed three times in the narrative: privately by Samuel (1 Sam 16); by the men of Judah (2 Sam 2:4); and by the elders of all Israel (2 Sam 5:3).

Solomon, David’s successor. When David is dying, an attempted usurpation by his son Adonijah is countered by David’s order that Solomon be anointed publicly:

“Then Zadok the priest took the horn of oil from the tabernacle and anointed Solomon. They blew the ram’s horn, and all the people proclaimed, ‘Long live King Solomon!’” (1 Kings 1:39, BSB)

The Hebrew verb used in all these passages is mashach (מָשַׁח). HALOT s.v. mashach: “to smear, anoint.” The verb produces the noun mashiach (מָשִׁיחַ) — the anointed one, the anointed — used of the king and (later) of the eschatological figure. The Greek translation christos (χριστός) is the source of the English Christ. The same root that produces messiah produces Christ; the connection is etymological, not theological invention. The Christian claim that Jesus is the Christ is the claim that he is the Anointed One; the messianic vocabulary of the Hebrew Bible is the immediate background.

The continuity from biblical to British practice

The British coronation rite’s anointing has a documented continuous history that runs through:

• Carolingian coronations (the anointing of Pippin III in 751 by Pope Stephen II, the anointing of Charlemagne in 800 by Pope Leo III). The Carolingian rite drew explicitly on the biblical model — Pippin’s anointing was described by contemporary chroniclers as following the precedent of Samuel anointing David and Solomon.
• Anglo-Saxon coronations (the consecration of King Edgar at Bath in 973, presided over by Dunstan, Archbishop of Canterbury). The Edgar coronation is the immediate ancestor of the modern English rite.
• Norman and Plantagenet coronations (William I in 1066; the ongoing development of the Liber Regalis in the 14th century).
• Tudor and Stuart coronations, with Reformation-era revisions to the surrounding rite but continuity in the anointing itself.
• Modern British coronations, with the 1953 rite drawing on the 1937 form (George VI) and back through the long lineage.

The anointing oil itself is consecrated and reserved. The 1953 oil was a recipe of oils of orange, jasmine, sesame, cinnamon, rose, musk, civet, and ambergris, prepared from a 17th-century recipe. (For the 2023 coronation of Charles III, a new batch was consecrated in Jerusalem at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.)

Handel’s “Zadok the Priest”

The musical setting of the anointing in modern British coronations is George Frideric Handel’s 1727 anthem Zadok the Priest, composed for the coronation of George II. The anthem has been performed at every British coronation since 1727 — Elizabeth II’s 1953 included.

Handel’s text sets 1 Kings 1:39-40 directly. The opening lines:

“Zadok the priest, and Nathan the prophet, anointed Solomon king. And all the people rejoiced, and said: God save the king, long live the king, may the king live for ever! Amen, Hallelujah.”

The first line is a paraphrase of 1 Kings 1:39 (“Zadok the priest took the horn of oil from the tabernacle and anointed Solomon”); the and all the people rejoiced paraphrases 1 Kings 1:40 (“And all the people went up after him, playing flutes and rejoicing with such a great joy that the ground shook with the sound”).

The anthem is the direct musical link between the biblical anointing and the modern British rite. Hearing Zadok the Priest at a British coronation is hearing the 1 Kings text set to Handel’s music, performed at the moment in the rite when the biblical practice is being continued.

What the episode does well

The episode’s presentation of the anointing is faithful to:

• The form of the rite as performed in 1953.
• The historical reservation of the moment from cameras.
• The use of Zadok the Priest as the musical setting (the score is the documented one).
• The Archbishop of Canterbury (Geoffrey Fisher in 1953) as the anointing official.

The dramatisation does not invent the rite’s significance; it represents it.

The series’ presentation of the surrounding circumstances — the Coronation Commission’s negotiation over which moments would and would not be televised; the discussion of whether the rite’s sacrality could survive being broadcast; the eventual decision to televise the procession and most of the rite but to obscure the anointing itself — is also accurate to the documented history.

For the wider treatment of the Hebrew vocabulary of anointing and its New Testament translation, see Messiah / Christ — meaning. For the related treatment of biblical election and chosenness, see Election / chosen — meaning.

To read the biblical anointing narratives in other translations:

• 1 Samuel 16 — NIV →
• 1 Kings 1 — NIV →
• Psalm 89 — NIV →