George Tupou V of Tonga for the purposes of assuring that political independence and neutrality were retained. On 24 February 2012, he visited pope Benedict XVI in Vatican City. During his reign, George Tupou V oversaw reforms within the Tongan honours system which both expanded the number of Orders in the Kingdom and created rules to make the award of these Orders more egalitarian. In September 2011, Tupou V had surgery to remove a kidney following the discovery of a tumour. On 15 September 2011 he received the Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Hungary from Pál Schmitt,
Coronation of the Serbian monarch Coronation of the Serbian monarch The accession of the Serbian monarch was legitimized by coronation ceremony. The coronation was carried out by church officials. The ritual of crowning a new ruler (royal enthronement) is attested in the 12th century. The coronation of Serbian monarchs took place in the most prominent of churches in the country. The coronation of the Grand Princes of Serbia was likely held at the church in Ras. The successors of Stefan Nemanja adopted Byzantine ideas on self-rule and acts on the ruler's anointment and coronation. The church official (archbishop, patriarch) anointed and crowned the ruler in