CROWN 



599 



As the emblem of sovereignty in modern Europe, 

 the crown was l>orrowed lesw from the crowns of 

 ;iniii|iiii v than from the diadem, a fillet of .-ilk. 

 linen, or woollen. This decoration was originally 

 oririiinl. Alexander the Great adopted it from 

 the kind's of Persia ; and Antony assumed it 

 during his luxurious intercourse witfi Cleopatra. 

 In modern states, crowns have heen of various 

 form>, and undergone various changes. The royal 

 cniuii of Kn-laml in the 12th and 13th centuries 

 was a jewelled circlet of gold, heightened with 

 strawberry-leaves or trefoils, sometimes alternately 

 lar^'e and small. In the very costly and magnifi- 

 cent crown of Henry IV., the strawberry-leaves, 

 eight in number, alternated with as many fleurs- 

 de-lis, the whole alternating with sixteen small 

 groups of pearls. The same crown was worn by 

 Henry V. in the beginning of his reign, but on 

 undertaking his French campaign he ordered it to 

 be broken up, and the fragments distributed as 

 security for the loan required by him to carry on 

 the war. The crown that succeeded it was prob- 

 ably an arched one ; for although no arched crown 

 appears on the Great Seal of any monarch before 

 Edward IV., the arched as well as the unarched 

 form of crown is found occasionally in sculptures 

 and illuminations of the reigns of Henry V. and 

 Henry VI. The crown of Edward IV. ( which was 



Srobably also worn by Henry V. and Henry VI.) 

 itfers from previous crowns in being arched over 

 with jewelled bands of gold, closing under a mound 

 ensigned by a cross patee, while crosses patee are 

 substituted for the strawberry-leaves, and roses or 

 fleurs-de-lis for the clusters of pearls. During 

 succeeding reigns down to that of Charles II., the 

 crown underwent various minor changes of form. 

 There were sometimes three 

 complete arches, sometimes 

 two as at present, and these 

 were at first very acute, after- 

 wards more and more de- 

 pressed ; but the crown of 

 the first Stuarts (weighing 

 7 lb. 6 oz., and worth 1110) 

 was broken up in 1649. From 

 the reign of Charles II. till 

 that of William IV. , the same 

 actual crown was used, its 

 form being what is still 

 usually known in this country as the imperial 

 crown, and represented in fig. 1. It has four 

 crosses patee and four fleurs-de-lis set alternately 

 on the circlet, while two 

 complete pearl-studded 

 arches rising from within 

 the crosses patee carry 

 at their intersection the 

 mound and cross. A new 

 state crown was made for 

 the coronation of Queen 

 Victoria, differing some- 

 what from the imperial 

 crown. Its arches rise 

 almost perpendicularly, 

 are elevated rather than 

 depressed at their inter- 

 section, and assume the 

 form of wreaths of rose, 

 thistle, and shamrock, 

 formed of brilliants ; and 



Fig. L 



Fig. 2. 



the crown itself is covered with diamonds and 

 studded with costly gems (fig. 2). In official repre- 

 sentations of the royal arms, they are ensigneu by 

 the imperial crown, 'but a graceful modification of 

 that crown is sometimes made use of instead of it 

 with Her Majesty's sanction (fig. 3). For the 

 coronets of the members of the royal family and of 

 the nobility generally, see CORONET. 



The crown of Scotland, long lout night of, was 

 in 1818 discovered, along with the other Regalia 

 i|.v.), in a chest in Edinburgh Castle. It- gold 

 circle, richly jewelled and enamelled, i.- heightened 

 with ten fleurs-de-lis, alternating with an many 

 crosses fleury, each adorned in the centre with a great 

 diamond between four large |>earlH put cromways. 

 Four gold arches, added in the reign of James IV., 

 close under a mound, on which rents a large cross 

 patee, with four pearls at the extremities, and as 

 many in the angles. Excepting the arches, the 

 crown is probably of the date of Rol>ert Bruce. 



In the crown of the kings of France the circle 

 was heightened with fleurs-de-lis ; and from the 

 time of Francis I. it was closed with eight arches, 



Fig. 3. 



Fig. 4. 



from whose intersection arose a fleur-de-lis. The 

 crown of the former German emperors, now of the 

 Austrian emperors, is cleft in the centre, so as 

 to present an appearance suggestive of a mitre. 

 The adoption of this crown by Charles V. seems to 

 have resulted from the kings of France having, in 

 emulation of the emperors,, assumed a close crown. 

 The iron crown of the ancient Longobardic kings 

 ( fig. 4 ) restored to the king of Italy by the Emperor 

 of Austria in 1866 is alleged to have been bestowed 

 by Pope Gregory the Great on Queen Theodolinda, 

 and with it Henry of 

 Luxemburg and suc- 

 ceeding emperors were 

 crowned. It is a gold 

 circle with enamelled 

 flowers and jewels, within 

 which is a thin fillet of 

 iron, which has been 

 asserted to have been 

 hammered from a nail 

 of the true cross. The 

 crown of the new German 

 empire is shown in fig. 5. 

 The crown with which 

 the king of Roumania 

 was crowned in 1881 was 

 made of bronze from the cannon captured in the 

 Plevna redoubts. 



The crown of an English King-at-arms is of silver 

 gilt, with sixteen oak-leaves, each alternate leaf 

 higher than the 

 others. Since 

 1727 that of the 

 Scottish Lyon 

 King-at-arms is 

 similar in form. 



Crowns fre- 

 quently occur as 

 heraldic bear- 

 ings ; of these 

 there are three 

 of the classical 



crowns noticed Fig. 6. 



in this article 

 viz. the crovms mural, a (fig. 6), naval, b, and 

 vallary, c, also the eastern or antique crown, d, a 

 circle with high points rising from it, and the 

 celestial crown, differing from the last in having a 

 star on each point. 



Fig. 5. 



