Pictorial representations in early manuscripts, and the rude
effigies on their coins, are not very helpful in deciding as to the
form of crown worn by the Anglo-Saxon and Danish kings of
England before the Norman Conquest. In some cases it would
appear as if the diadem studded with pearls had been worn, and
in others something more of the character of a crown. We reach
surer ground after the Conquest, for then the great seals, monumental
effigies, and coins become more and more serviceable
in determining the forms the crown took.
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| Fig. 5. |
Fig. 6. |
Fig. 7. |
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| Fig. 8. |
Fig. 9. |
Fig. 10. |
| Royal Crowns. William I. to Henry IV. |
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| Fig. 11. |
Fig. 12. |
Fig. 13. |
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| Fig. 14. |
Fig. 15. |
| Royal Crowns. Henry V. to Charles I. |
The crown of William the Conqueror and his immediate
successors seems to have been a plain circlet with four uprights,
which terminated in trefoils (fig. 5), but Henry I. enriched the
circlet with pearls or gems (fig. 6), and on his great seal the
trefoils have something of the character of fleurs-de-lys. The
effigy of Richard I. at Fontevrault shows a development of the
crown; the trefoil heads are expanded, and are chased and
jewelled. The crown of John is shown on his effigy at Worcester,
though unfortunately it is rather badly mutilated. It shows,
however, that the upper ornament was of fleurons set with
jewels. Fig. 7 shows generally this development of the crown
in a restored form. The crown on the effigy of Henry III.
at Westminster had a beaded row below the circlet, which is
narrow and plain, and from it rises a series of plain trefoils with
slightly raised points between them. The tomb was opened in
1774, and on the king’s head was found an imitation crown of
tin or latten gilt, with trefoils rising from its upper edge. This,
although only made of base metal for the king’s burial, may
nevertheless be taken as exhibiting the form of the royal crown
at the time, and it may be usefully compared with that on the
effigy of the king, which was made in Edward I.’s reign (fig. 8).
Edward I. used a crown of very similar design. In the crown of
Edward II. we have perhaps the most graceful and elegant
of all the forms which the English medieval crown assumed
(fig. 9), and it seems to have continued without any marked
alteration during the reigns of Edward III. and Richard II.
The crown on the head of the effigy of Henry IV. at Canterbury
evidently represents one of great magnificence, both of design
and ornament. What is perhaps lost of the grace of form of
the crown of Edward II. is made up for by a profusion of adornment
and ornamentation unsurpassed at any later period (fig. 10).
The circlet is much wider and is richly chased and jewelled, and
from it rise eight large leaves, the intervening spaces being filled
with fleurs-de-lys of definite outline. It will be noted that this
crown is, like its predecessors, what is known as an open crown,
without any arches rising from the circlet, but in the accounts
of the coronation of Henry IV. by Froissart and Waurin it is
distinctly stated that the crown was arched in the form of a
cross. This is the earliest mention of an arched crown, which
is not represented on the great seal till that of Edward IV. in
1461. The crown, as shown on Henry IV.’s effigy, very probably
represents the celebrated “Harry crown” which was afterwards
broken up and employed as surety for the loan required by
Henry V. when he was about to embark on his expedition to
France. Fig. 11 shows the crown of Henry V. The crown of
Henry VI. seems to have had three arches, and there is the same
number shown on the crown of Henry VII., which ensigns the
hawthorn bush badge of that king. The crown of Edward IV.
(fig. 12) shows two arches, and a crown similarly arched appears
on the great seal of Richard III. Crowns, both open and arched,
are represented in sculpture and paintings until the end of the
reign of Edward IV., and the royal arms are occasionally ensigned
by an open crown as late as the reign of Henry VIII. The
crown of Henry VII. on his effigy in Westminster Abbey shows
a circlet surmounted by four crosses and four fleurs-de-lys
alternately, and has two arches rising from it. A similar crown
appears on the great seal of Henry VIII. The crown of Henry
VII. (fig. 13), which ensigns the royal arms above the south door
of King’s College chapel, Cambridge, has the motto of the order
of the Garter round the circlet. Fig. 14 shows the form of crown
used by Edward VI., but a tendency (not shown in the illustration)
began of flattening the arches of the crown, and on some
of the coins of Elizabeth the arches are not merely flattened,
but are depressed in the centre, much after the character of
the arches of the crown on many of the silver coins of the 19th
century prior to 1887. The crowns of James I. and Charles I.
had four arches, springing from the alternate crosses and fleurs-de-lys
of the circlet (fig. 15). The crown which strangely enough
surmounts the shield with the arms of the Commonwealth on
the coins of Oliver Cromwell (as distinguished from those of
the Commonwealth itself, which have no crown) is a royal crown
with alternate crosses and fleurs-de-lys round the circlet, and
is surmounted by three arches, which, though somewhat flattened,
are not bent. On them rests the orb and cross. The crown
used by Charles II. (fig. 16) shows the arches depressed in the
centre, a feature of the royal crown which seems to have been
continued henceforward till 1887, when the pointed form of the
arches was resumed, in consonance with an idea that such a
form indicated an imperial rather than a regal crown, Queen
Victoria having been proclaimed empress of India in 1877. In
the foregoing account the changes of the form of the crowns of
the kings have been briefly noticed. Those crowns were the
personal crowns, worn by the different kings on various state
occasions, but they were all crowned before the Commonwealth
with the ancient crown of St Edward, and the queens consort
with that of Queen Edith. There were, in fact, two sets of
regalia, the one used for the coronations and kept at Westminster,
and the other that used on other occasions by the kings and kept in the Tower. The crowns of this latter set were the personal crowns made to fit the different wearers, and are those which have been briefly described. The crown of St Edward, with which the sovereigns were crowned, had a narrow circlet from which rose alternately four crosses and four fleurs-de-lys, and from the crosses sprang two arches, which at their crossing supported an orb and cross. These arches must have been a later addition, and possibly were first added for the coronation of Henry IV. (vide supra). Queen Edith’s crown had a plain
