The king is of divine gasoline

[tamaranth]

I'm trying to determine the meaning of the French phrase "sacre du vivant de son pere" (first noted as an inscription at the Basilica of Saint-Denis, Paris).

There may be a definition, in French, here. But my French is not up to it (they don't teach medieval theological / monarchic terminology at 'O' level).

The last line is "Philippe Auguste est ainsi, en 1179, le dernier roi sacré du vivant de son père." And yep, that's the fellow in Saint-Denis.

Google translates it very elegantly (see title) but -- how shall I say? -- not entirely comprehensibly:
"Philippe Auguste is thus, in 1179, the last king crowned of living of his father."

Can anyone translate Franglais, please?

Comments

[damienw]

Well, "de son vivant" is "in his lifetime", so it looks like they are saying that Philippe Auguste was the last king to be crowned with a still-living father. Um.

[purpletigron.livejournal.com]

So we have, 'consecrated (King) in the lifetime of his father'?

[drplokta]

And according to Wikipedia, he was indeed crowned while his father was still alive.

[damienw]

"Les premiers Capétiens font sacrer leur fils de leur vivant, puis cette association au trône cesse avec la reconnaissance de la dynastie."

So it seems that the Capetian's had a habit of making a formal acknowledgment of their heirs as a crowned king-in-waiting sort of thing (wikipedia: Louis VII dies in 1180; this ref: Philippe II Auguste already crowned in 1179; wikipedia: Philippe king from 1180).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capetian
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_II_of_France

[damienw]

Of course, the Capetians were succeeded by the Valois branch of the family...

[nwhyte]

It wasn't just them. Henry II of England had his eldest son, also Henry, crowned king of England in his lifetime (and then young Henry died first; the experiment was not repeated with the next surviving son, Richard the Lion-Heart, who did inherit the throne). Henry I had had the barons swear fealty to his daughter Matilda before he died, but she was never actually crowned Queen in her own right (and of course it didn't stop the barons switching allegiance to Stephen of Blois).

[tamaranth.livejournal.com]

Gosh, what a lot of research! Thank you!

And yes, the 'in the lifetime of his father' does make sense -- it just seems odd (a) to crown a king('s heir) while his predecessor (= 'pre-decease-or'?) is still alive, and (b) that if they were in the habit of doing so, they stopped doing it in 1179 ...