Coronation of the British monarch on Christmas Day, possibly in imitation of the Byzantine emperors, and John's was on Ascension Day. Elizabeth I consulted her astrologer, John Dee, before deciding on an auspicious date. The coronations of Charles II in 1661 and Anne in 1702 were on St George's Day, the feast of the patron saint of England. Under the Hanoverian monarchs in the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, it was deemed appropriate to extend the waiting period to several months, following a period of mourning for the previous monarch and to allow time for preparation of the ceremony. In the case of every monarch
This Was a Man business and slowness of tempo'. The production failed to receive the critical praise of his previous works. By 8 December Coward wrote ' This was a man is drifting along… some of the critics ( the principle ones) have said very good things about it but I fear too late to save it.' Following a period of intense success the comparative failure of "This Was a Man" had taken its toll on Coward health. By 14 December Coward wrote 'that I have been living on nervous energy for years and now it has given out and that I must go