Riot at William I's Coronation, 1066 (litho)

Riot at William I's Coronation, 1066. On Christmas Day, 1066, the Norman William the Conqueror was crowned beside the grave of Edward the Confessor, in Westminster Abbey, by the Norman Bishop of Coutances and the Saxon Archbishop of York. In accordance with Saxon custom the multitude in the church acclaimed the new king with loud shouts. The Norman soldiery on guard outside the Minster, taking alarm, set fire to the thatched buildings in the neighbourhood. The crowd within the building rushed out in alarm, and the clergy, left alone with the king, who was "trembling from head to foot," hurriedly completed the remainder of the ceremony, omitting the sacrament. Illustration for one a set of cards on Historical London, issued by Hignett's Cigarettes in 1926.