380 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 290. 



■with three short rays, the fillet set with pearls, and 

 a cap, or the crown of the head like a cap, appear- 

 inrr through it, which was not in any of the former. 

 But upon his effigies on his tomb in the cathedral 

 of Worcester, which Sandford thinks as old as 

 Henry III., the coronet is composed of leaves 

 close together, and all of an equal height : this is 

 the more probable, because King Henry III. used 

 a crown with leaves, and the monument of this 

 king being erected in the reign of King Henry HI., 

 had the crowns made according to the fashion then 

 used. Upon his coins King John has the crown 

 £euri. 



Henry III. upon his first great seal has the 

 open crown and plain diadem. Selden describes 

 it as a crown fleuri pointed or rayed, and the 

 points or rays are raised, but not high, between 

 the flowers ; but it appears by the draught to be 

 composed of leaves exactly resembling the leaves 

 upon our dukes' coronets, three in number, with 

 very short rays or points between : and his second 

 great seal is like the first, only it wants the points 

 or rays between the leaves. But the crown on 

 the head of his effigies of copper gilt, on his tomb 

 at Westminster, by Sandford's draught seems to 

 be fleuri with fleurs-de-lis, and so it is by 

 Vertue's draught*; but by his print of this king 

 from the same statue, Matt. Paris says this king 

 was the first crowned with a circulus aureus. His 

 crown upon his money is only a plain circulus 

 aureus, or fillet, with a pearl at each end and a 

 fleur-de-lis in the middle. 



Edward I. has the open crown upon his great 

 seal, having a plain fillet, and adorned with what 

 I take to be leaves, like his predecessor ; but in 

 Speed's draught the fillet is set with pearl, and a 

 cap on the head appears through it : his coins 

 have the open crown with fleurs-de-lis ; some have 

 rays between, and some pearls on the points. The 

 groat of this king has the crown with leaves five 

 in number, viz. three entire leaves and two half- 

 leaves at each end. The seal of Queen Eleanora, 

 his first wife, has three leaves or flowers upon the 

 plain fillet, and so has the crown upon her effigies 

 on her tomb in Westminster Abbeyf 



Edward II.'s great seal has the open crown with 

 three leaves and plain fillet (Speed's adorned), 

 and very small points just rising between the 

 leaves, and the crown upon his head ; on his 

 monument at Gloucester, entire and well pre- 



jnandy at Rouen, and Matt. Paris saj'swith a golden circle 

 Or coronet adorned all round with golden roses curiously 

 ■wrought. 



* Vertue's draughts from his monumental statue or 

 brass, erected at great cost and care to liis memory (who 

 built a great part of Westminster Abbey), has the open 

 crovrn with five leaves and low rays between. 



t The draught of the remains of his statue over the 

 gate of Caernarvon Castle, as taken by Vertue, has the 

 open crown with three leaves, low points, between the 

 £llets adorned with jewels. 



served according to Vertue's draught, appears the 

 same fashioned crown; and his coins seem. to have 

 the crown with fleurs-de-lis and pearls upon 

 points between.* 



Edward III. upon his first great seal has the 

 coronet and cap with the three leaves or flowers, 

 and lesser fleurs-de-lis between, all somewhat 

 raised upon points ; but his second great seal has 

 the open crown with three fleurs-de-lis, and small 

 points just rising between the flowers, and his 

 third great seal, which bears the title of France as 

 well as England, has the open crown with five 

 leaves or flowers raised upon points, whereas on 

 the former crowns they lay almost close upon the 

 fillet. j" And the seal of Queen Philippa has very 

 distinctly five ducal leaves, somewhat raised upon 

 points like the king's ; but her effigies upon her 

 monument in Westminster Abbey has a crown of 

 fleurs-de-lis and crosses, as seems by the draught 

 in Sandford. Some have attributed the first use 

 of the imperial or arched crown to King Ed- 

 ward III., for no other reason, as I conceive, but 

 because he was made Vicar-General of the Em- 

 pire by the Emperor Lewis of Bavaria, but there 

 is not the least proof of it. We have shown what 

 crowns are upon his great seals ; and upon his 

 money he used a crown with three fleurs-de-lis, 

 like liis second great seal, with rays between, and 

 sometimes pearls upon the points. J 



Richard II. upon his great seal has the open 

 crown with three flowers or leaves, but most re- 

 sembling the latter. Upon his money he appears 

 with a crown like that of his grandfather King 

 Edward III. upon his money. In that most 

 ancient original picture of this king in the Choir 

 of Westminster Abbey, he has an open crown, 

 with five high rays and small flowers upon the 



• At the coronation of King Edward II., Gaveston 

 carried the crown of St. Edward, with which the king was 

 to be crowned, an honour that by ancient custom belonged 

 to the princes of the blood. The king gave to Gaveston 

 the crown jewels with the crown of his father, which he 

 sent beyond sea for his own use. — ( Walter de Hemingford, 

 Tyrrd, Walsingham,') 



This is the first mention of King Edward's crown at the 

 coronation, and it does not appear that King John used 

 it ; it is probable King Henry III. first used it, who named 

 his son Edward after Edward I., in memory of him, and 

 ever honoured him as his tutelar saint. 



■f Vertue's draught from an ancient painting in 

 Windsor Castle gives him a crown open with fleurs-de-lis 

 and leaves alternately, and pearls upon small points be- 

 tween ; but tliis was probably the painter's own com» 

 position. 



% It appears by several instruments in Rymer, that 

 this king (Edward III.) frequently pawned his crown to 

 raise monev ; as in his ninth year, " duas coronas aureas," 

 which had been pawned for 8000 marks; and in his 

 fourteenth year his crown, called " Magna corona regis," 

 to the Archbishop of Treves for 25,000 florins: and the 

 crown of Philippa his queen, and a smaller crown pawned 

 at Cologne; and the same crown, called " Magna Corona 

 Angliae," was pawned in his eighteenth year. 



