some feature
has disappeared, the proper preface having been abandoned at the
coronation of Edward VII.

In connexion with the English coronation a number of claims to do
certain services have sprung up, and before each coronation a court of
claims is constituted, which investigates and adjudicates on the claims
that are made. The most striking of all these services is that of the
challenge made by the king's champion, an office which has been
hereditary in the Dymoke family for many centuries. Immediately
following the service in the church a banquet was held in Westminster
Hall, during the first course of which the champion entered the hall on
horseback, armed _cap-a-pie_, with red, white and blue feathers in his
helmet. He was supported by the high constable on his right, and the
earl marshal on his left, both of whom were also mounted. On his
appearance in the hall a herald in front of him read the challenge, the
words of which have not materially varied at any period, as follows: "If
any person, of what degree soever, high or low, shall deny or gainsay
our sovereign lord ..., king of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and
Ireland, defender of the faith (son and), next heir unto our sovereign
lord the last king deceased, to be the right heir to the imperial crown
of this realm of Great Britain and Ireland, or that he ought not to
enjoy the same; here is his champion, who saith that he lieth, and is a
false traitor, being ready in person to combat with him; and in this
quarrel will adventure his life against him, on what day soever he shall
be appointed." The champion then threw down the gauntlet. The challenge
was again made in the centre of the hall, and a third time before the
high table, at which the king was seated. The king then drank to the
champion out of a silver-gilt cup, with a cover, which he handed to him
as his fee. The banquet was last held, and the challenge made, at the
coronation of George IV. in 1821. The champion's claim was admitted in
1902, but as there was no banquet the duty of bearing the standard of
England was assigned to him. There is no record of the challenge having
been ever accepted.

The revival of the western empire under Charlemagne was marked by his
coronation by the pope at Rome in the year 800. His successors, for
several centuries, went to Rome, where they received the imperial crown
in St Peter's from the pope, the crown of Lombardy being conferred in
the church of St Ambro