Who was Zadok the priest, and what does he have to do with royal British coronations?

To answer that question it’s necessary to delve into the following ideas:

1. A history of British coronations dating back to 973.

2. An explanation of why a German composer, George Frederick Handel, was commissioned to write a set of coronation anthems for a British ceremony in 1727.

3. A look at the source of the actual text for the anthem referencing said Zadok.

Let’s start with #3. Zadok was the high priest of Israel at the time of King Solomon’s coronation around 970 BCE. The story about his role in this event comes from the book of I Kings in the Jewish Bible; the text for the anthem is shortened and simplified to read:

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, Alleluia.
(with lots of repetitions and ornamentations)

King David was still alive when his son was crowned, which is not the usual way of doing things. David, however, was undercutting the rebellious ambitions of his other son Adonijah, who was plotting to take the throne in defiance of David’s wishes. So David authorized Zadok and Nathan to crown Solomon early. The biblical text says in part, “And Zadok the priest took an horn of oil out of the tabernacle, and anointed Solomon. And they blew the trumpet; and all the people said, God save king Solomon. And all the people came up after him, and the people piped with pipes, and rejoiced with great joy, so that the earth rent with the sound of them.” (I Kings 1:39-40 KJV) Such a great image—the earth shaking and cracking because of the loud celebrations.

Some form of these words has been pronounced in every English coronation since that of King Edgar at Bath Abbey in 973. If you think about it, the occasion that led to the original ceremony was a potential rebellion. Was that the case with King Edgar? Apparently not; someone must have just liked the passage and decided to include it in this first official coronation that declared a King of England as being blessed by God.

When King Charles III is crowned (or when he was crowned, depending on when you read or listen to this post) on May 6, 2023, it will be or have been over 1,000 years since that first use. Also, Charles will be crowned in Westminster Abbey, the site of all coronations since 1066. It is utterly gobsmacking, as the British would say, to watch anything to do with their royalty and see the incredible costuming and ceremony involved.

But perhaps we’d better get to the composer of the anthem’s music, the aforementioned George Frederick Handel. Forgive me as I delve into a fascinating bit of English history here. Handel became acquainted during his early adulthood with the Elector Prince George Louis of Hanover who also happened to be the heir to the British throne even though he was only distantly related to the then-current ruler Queen Anne. (He was her second cousin.) But he was the most closely-related Protestant heir, since England had passed a law in 1701 called the Act of Succession which barred Roman Catholics from the throne. So when Anne died in 1714 without any living children (even though the poor woman had endured 17 pregnancies), George moved up from being one of several prince-electors in what is now Germany to the position of King George I of Britain. And Handel came along to court, producing some of his most famous early works such as the “Royal Fireworks Music” and the “Water Music.” Before George died he made Handel a naturalized British citizen, and the composer was then asked to write several anthems for the coronation of the new king, George II, in 1727. Handel looked through the documentation available for past ceremonies and settled on four texts. While all of them are still performed today, “Zadok the Priest” is the most popular. It is an utterly splendid and gorgeous piece of choral music, by no means confined to the crowning of British monarchs.

Another fascinating perspective on the anthem is its usual position in the coronation ceremony itself: it comes right before, or during, the “anointing” of the monarch being crowned. This part of the procedure is a profoundly religious one, and it also has a clear echo in the text, which does not say that Solomon was “crowned” king. He was “anointed.” What on earth does that term mean? Well, it’s complicated. When kings in the Jewish Bible were officially installed, as it were, they were set apart to God and not just put in some secular office. They had some type of consecrated oil applied, usually to their heads, to symbolize the holiness of the position they would occupy from then on. There was no division between church and state, as we’d say today, and indeed that’s the case in Great Britain. The monarch is the head of the Church of England as well as the ruler. Part of the ceremony is the “Coronation Oath,” which says in part:

Will you to the utmost of your power maintain the Laws of God and the true profession of the Gospel? Will you to the utmost of your power maintain in the United Kingdom the Protestant Reformed Religion established by law?

 Can you imagine that sort of language being included in the swearing-in of an American president at his inauguration? Of course, one might say, the British monarch today has very little actual political power, but that lack of authority was very much not the case when this oath was first formulated. It was within the monarch’s power to send his subjects to prison, the gallows, the execution block, or the stake for deviation from official state religion—which went through a series of changes during the reigns of Henry VIII, Mary I (his daughter, nicknamed “Bloody Mary” because of her Protestant persecutions) and then, finally, Elizabeth I, who established the broad outlines of England’s now-official church.

Elizabeth II’s coronation in 1953 was the first coronation to be televised, but the moment of anointing was not filmed. The oil is applied to the “head, hands and breast” of the new monarch, probably to the forehead, hands and the chest area above the dress in Elizabeth’s case. How this is going to be done with Charles will be interesting to see; he may break tradition and allow the anointing to be broadcast. He’s already broken tradition in his specifications for the composition of the oil itself, having it made from all plant sources and using as a base oil pressed from olives grown near his paternal grandmother’s grave in Jerusalem. (If you’re as fascinated with arcane information as I am, take a few minutes to read this article: “The Cruelty-Free Sacred Oil that Will Anoint Charles as King”) Camilla, Charles’ wife and now to be Queen Consort, will be given a modest dab on her forehead.

On to the videos. Here’s a black-and-white clip of Elizabeth II’s coronation with the anthem:

If you’d like to see a less monumental performance, plus two of the other anthems, plus some stellar commentary by the conductor Jane Glover, watch this video below. “Zadok” starts at about 8:25; I really enjoyed watching Glover’s wholehearted enthusiasm and participation:

© Debi Simons