FROM ELDERS TO CHIEFS TO KINGS

WHEN THE SEARCH FOR PROFIT OVERWHELMS VILLAGES

AND THEIR ELDERS, CHIEFS REPLACE THEM. WHEN THEY TOO ARE OVERWHELMED, KINGS APPEAR

Belief in monarchs' tie with the Next World explains the awe that they inspire. 

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That connection draws its power from looking to rulers of the past, as with human sacrifice in Dahomey and coronations in France:

An illustration in the French press of the 1860's and a stained glass window showing the coronation of Louis IX (Saint Louis).

• In Dahomey, the ritual ends by decapitating prisoners of war, to send them as slaves to the departed kings. 

Captives are bound to posts, but "The confinement was not cruel: Each victim had an attendant standing behind him, to keep off the flies; all were fed four times a day, and were loosed at night [...]. They marked time to the music, and chattered together [...]. It is the King's object to keep them in the best of humors" so that they cheerfully enter their future service.

-- Sir Richard Burton A Mission to Gelele, King of Dahomey, 1864, p. 205.  An account for the nearby kingdom of Ashanti, mentions well-fed captives who seem equally unconcerned.

Victims for Sacrifice, "The History of Dahomey, an Inland Kingdom of Africa" by Archibald Dalzel, 1793 / zoom

• In France, coronations take place in the church built on site of the baptism of the first Frankish chief to recognize the Pope.*

 *In Reims, a two-day march from Paris. 

The Crowning of Charlemagne (no more information) / zoom

Coronation is essential:

The high point of Joan of Arc's epic is neither the victory at Orleans that launched her aura nor the martyrdom that maintained it, but the coronation of the Dauphin (the heir to the throne). He had taken the title of Charles VII, but without the ceremony, he did not have the right to it. "God will protect you" she said, to persuade him to make the dangerous journey though territory the English enemy held. 

     

A painting that tells her story dominates the Panthéon's* grand entry hall. The coronation has the same central position in the triptych as Annunciations, Nativities or Crucifixions in medieval works.

*France's secular mausoleum.

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Both kingdoms renew the tie with the sacred each year.  

• In Dahomey, a smaller number of captives is sent to to serve the deceased kings. 

• In France, the king displays his magical powers by curing people suffering from scrofula with his touch, after taking communion at Easter.

Henri II's book of hours (toward 1540), detail, zoom

The practice ends when the Church refuses communion to adulterous Louis XV. Abandoning the rite erases a supernatural aspect of royalty and contributes to the monarchy's decline.

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Massive public participation strengthens authority: 

• In Dahomey the four-day event includes a procession showing the king's wealth, parades of male and female troops and "various dances, all of them performed in decapitation style by the King [... ]. The vociferous rapture of the subjects knew no bounds as the King danced with his sword between his teeth" [...]. Presently the King began to hand down decanters of rum, a sign that he was weary [...]. He had danced thirty-two dances."

-- Burton, p. 221.

Combat for the heads of the decapitated, Le Tour du Monde, 1863 (in the scholarly French journal Annales) / zoom

Burton does not mention fighting for heads but does describes violent fighting for the king's gifts. He says that wounds and death are considered support for him. 

• In France too, coronations take several days. They include the procession to and from Reims that people come from the entire region to watch, a vigil, a banquet, a cavalcade, and the newly-crowned king's entry into Paris.

     Cavalcade of Louis XV after the Sanctification, October 16, 1722 by Martin le Jeune / zoom

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In Dahomey the sacrifice of slaves,

the most costly and prestigious ware,  

and in France such shows' expense,  

erase potentially investable riches.

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Next,

Behavior whose logic escapes us