May 12. 1855.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



357 



LONDON, SATURDAY, MAY 12. 1865. 



REMARKS ON CROWNS, AND MORE PARTICULARLY 

 ON THE ROYAL OR IMPERIAL CROWN OP GREAT 

 BRITAIN. 



(From the Autograph MS. of Stephen Martin LeakejEscj., 

 Garter.) 



As to crowns in general, the first kind of crowns 

 worn by kings was the diadem, which was no other 

 than a fillet of silk, linen, or the like. Pliny sup- 

 poses it to be as ancient as Bacchus for a general 

 ensign of kings. Nor appears it, says Selden, that 

 any other kind of crown was used for a royal 

 ensign, except only in some kingdoms of Asia, 

 The Romans conceived this kind of fillet to be the 

 proper ensign of a king,, and therefore endured 

 not the use of it whilst they hated the name of 

 king. Hence it was that the emperors at first ab- 

 stained from the diadem. Caligula first put it on, 

 but durst not continue it, nor did any afterwards 

 publicly afiect it for 280 years. The first that 

 wore it, and sometimes perhaps publicly, was Au- 

 relian, but not constantly ; nor had the emperors 

 yet any other ensign of dignity for their heads 

 besides the laurel and the radiated crown, neither 

 of which were proper to them as ensigns of the 

 monarchy ; the first being only triumphal, as im- 

 peratores or generals of the state, and the other a 

 note of flattery, deifying them as gods. But soon 

 after Aurelian, the diadem in Constantine the Great 

 became a continual wearing, and was in common 

 use, Constantine first used a diadem of pearls 

 and rich stones, as appears upon his coins ; after- 

 wards the imperial diadem received additions of 

 other parts that went from ear to ear over the 

 crown of the head, and at length over a gold helm 

 with a cap, which made it somewhat like a close 

 crown of later times, Constantine appears with 

 the diadem and helm in this manner upon some of 

 his coins ; but the frequent joining of the helm and 

 cap to the diadem, according to Selden, was not 

 till about the time of the younger Theodosius ; 

 the use of crowns thus deduced from Constantine 

 the Great was an example which the rest of the 

 kings of Europe followed. 



Geoffrey of Monmouth (lib. i.) and Hector Boe- 

 tlus (lib. ii. & X.) tell us that Dunvallo Mulmutius, 

 King of Britain, and the old kings of Scotland, 

 even from Fergus I., used a gold crown ; but these 

 testimonies, says Selden, are not clear enough in 

 credit; and to omit as a variety that of King 

 Arthur's crown, which Leland says he saw in his 

 seal (Assert. Arth., p. 12.), But it appears by our 

 old British coins that the diadem, or fillet of 

 pearls, was worn by Cunobeline, King of Britain, 

 who flourished under Augustus and Tiberius, 

 brought up it is said in the court of Augustus, 



and died a. d, 22; so that the fillet was in use 

 with us after the common fashion of other na- 

 tions, and it appears to have been in use in the 

 •elder times of the Saxon, Upon a coin of Adulph, 

 King of the East Angles, who began his relga 

 A.D. 664, he appears with the plain fillet or diadem. 

 Offa, King of the Mercians, a.d. 763, has a fillet 

 of pearls, sometimes a double row, and sometimes 

 sinj^le. Kenwolf, a.d, 794, has a double row. 

 Cuthred, King of Kent, who died a,d. 805, has 

 the diadem with a double row of pearl ; Bertulf 

 and Bui-gred, Kings of Mercia, the first a single, 

 the latter a double row of pearl ; but King Egbert, 

 who about a.d. 800 became the sole monarch of 

 the Heptarchy, appears upon his coins with a 

 radiated crown, the rays being much shorter than 

 those of the Roman emperors ; and probably as 

 being sole monarch he assumed this crown by way 

 of eminence and distinction from the other kings 

 of the Heptarchy in subjection to him ; but this 

 sort of crown was peculiar to him. Athelwolf, his 

 son, had the fillet or diadem with a double row of 

 pearl, and a large jewel for an ornament in the 

 front, Elfred*, or Alfred the Great, has the 

 plain fillet, Edward the Elder appears upon his 

 money sometimes in a helmet with a plain fillet, 

 which helmet on some coins appears like an arched 

 crown, Athelstan seems to have the cap and 

 helmet resembling an arched crown, and King Ed- 

 mund, his brother, has the same. Edred, a.d. 946, 

 has the fillet and cap, with three high rays and 

 pearls on the points, somewhat like our earls' 

 coronets ; his successors, Edgar the Peaceable, 

 Edward the Martyr, and Ethelred, have plain 

 diadems. Edmund Ironside has a ci'own with 

 three rays like Edred. Cnut appears upon his 

 money either in a helmet, or with a plain fillet, 

 sometimes with a single row of pearl. Harold has 

 the same upon a helmet, with a jewel, or such like 

 ornament, in the front of it; but sometimes the 

 plain diadem and cap arched with pearl, and also 

 three rays with pearls on the points. Hardicanute 

 has the diadem with one row of pearl. Edward 

 the Confessor upon some coins has a coronet or 

 open crown fleuri, with three fleurs-de-lis, one in 

 the middle, and one, or rather, as they appear, 

 half flowers at each end : on others he has a high 

 pointed helmet, which sometimes appears like an 

 arched crown; but upon his great seal he has 

 another kind of ornament upon his head, a cap 

 and a crown on it, says Selden, in a strange form, 

 unless perhaps the cutter of the stamp meant it 

 for such a one as William the Conqueror's ; and 



* The print of Alfred by Vertue, taken from an ancient 

 picture preserved in University College, Oxon, has his 

 head crowned with an open crown composed of fleurs-def 

 lis, and lesser flowers between, which rather proves the 

 picture naodern than the crown ancient : the draught of 

 an ancient stone bust of him in the same print seems to 

 have only a cap or plain fillet, like his money. 



