St Edward's Crown
St Edward's Crown is the coronation crown of the Crown Jewels of the United Kingdom. Named after Saint Edward the Confessor, versions of it have traditionally been used to crown English and British monarchs at their coronations since the 13th century. It is normally on public display in the Jewel House at the Tower of London, and is widely regarded as one of the most important pieces of regalia in the British monarchy.
The original crown was a holy relic kept at Westminster Abbey, Edward's burial place, until the regalia were either sold or melted down when Parliament abolished the monarchy in 1649, during the English Civil War. The current St Edward's Crown was made for Charles II in 1661. It is 22-carat gold, tall, weighs, and is decorated with 444 precious and fine gemstones. The crown is similar in weight and overall appearance to the original, but its arches are Baroque.
Owing to its weight, after 1689 the crown was not used to crown any monarch for over 200 years, instead it was displayed on the altar at the coronation, while a lighter coronation crown or state crown was used. Use in the coronation was revived by George V in 1911 and has continued ever since. It was most recently used at the 2023 coronation of Charles III.
History
Origin
Some older sources date the crown to the reign of Alfred the Great. In 853 Æthelwulf, King of Wessex, sent Alfred, his youngest son, to Rome when he was five years old. According to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, Alfred was blessed by Pope Leo IV. Later accounts in the 13th-century Flores Historiarum suggest that he returned to England with regalia presented to him during the ceremony. In around 1270 the historian Robert of Gloucester connected the King of England's crown with Alfred's visit to Rome, writing, "The pope Leo him blessed when he thither came and the king's crown of this land, that in this land yet is". A biography of Alfred written by the Welsh monk Asser in and printed in 1574 and 1603 perpetuated the claims that Alfred had been crowned and anointed by the pope. The 17th-century historian John Spelman wrote that an inscription on the box of St Edward's Crown, translated from Latin, read, "This is the chief crown of the two, with which were crowned Kings Alfred, Edward and others".Consequently, it was widely believed that Alfred had been anointed and crowned by the pope in anticipation of his eventual succession to the throne of Wessex and that St Edward's Crown was, in fact, the crown worn by Alfred, which descended to Edward and all succeeding monarchs. However, Alfred was only fourth in line to the throne in 853, and a letter from Pope Leo to Æthelwulf, discovered in the 19th century, revealed that Alfred was actually confirmed by the pope and invested with the insignia of a Roman consul. There is no reference to "King Alfred's Crown" in any coronation order of service or account.
According to the 12th-century historian William of Malmesbury, Edward wore his crown on Easter Day 1065 and again on Christmas Day of that year. It is thought Edward was the first English king to wear a crown with arches, known as an imperial or "closed crown", symbolising subservience to no one but God, in the tradition of Byzantine emperors. Few descriptions survive and there are no certain visual records of it. The 17th-century historian John Spelman described the crown as of "ancient Work with Flowers, adorn'd with Stones of somewhat a plain setting", and an inventory described it as "gold wire-work set with slight stones and two little bells", weighing.
In 1161, Edward the Confessor was made a saint, and possessions from his reign became holy relics. The monks at his burial place, Westminster Abbey, claimed that Edward had asked them to use his regalia for the coronations of all future kings. A note to this effect is contained in an inventory drawn up by a monk at the abbey in 1450. Although the Abbey's claim is likely to have been untrue, and some of the regalia were probably taken from Edward's grave when his remains were reinterred, it became accepted as fact, thereby establishing the first known set of hereditary coronation regalia in Europe. An object referred to as "St Edward's Crown" is first recorded as having been used at a coronation for Henry III in 1216. Wearing a crown owned by a previous monarch who was now also a saint reinforced the king's legitimacy.
On Henry III's expedition to Britany in 1230, the nobles and the abbot of Westminster refused to allow St Edward's Crown to leave the kingdom with Henry, a tradition which has continued. When Henry III created a new treasury at the Tower of London to hold his state regalia, the holy relics of St Edward remained at Westminster Abbey. When Richard II was forced to abdicate in 1399, he had the crown brought to the Tower of London, where he symbolically handed it over to his successor Henry IV, saying "I present and give to you this crown with which I was crowned King of England and all the rights dependent on it". Sometime between 1359 and the mid 1450s a crown for the coronation of a queen was added to the regalia and was named Queen Edith's Crown after Edward's spouse, Edith of Wessex. However, the second wife of Henry VIII, Anne Boleyn, was crowned with St Edward's Crown in 1533, which was unprecedented for a queen consort.
Henry VII or his son and successor Henry VIII commissioned an elaborate crown, now known as the Tudor Crown, which is first described in detail in an inventory of royal jewels in 1521. After the English Reformation, the Church of England denounced the veneration of medieval relics and, starting with the coronation of Edward VI in 1547, the significance of Edward the Confessor's crown was downplayed. Both Edward VI and Mary I were crowned with three crowns in succession: first St Edward's Crown, second the Tudor Crown and finally in 'very rich' crowns made specifically for each of their coronations. Three crowns were also present at the coronation of Elizabeth I, and she was probably crowned in the same fashion as her predecessors. James I reverted to the tradition of being crowned with St Edward's Crown only before donning his own crown to depart Westminster Abbey.
Destruction
During the English Civil War and following Charles I's flight from London in 1642, rumours circulated in London that the king was attempting to sell the crown jewels in Holland in order to fund a war against parliament. Parliament declared that anyone trafficking the crown jewels—which were the property of the Crown and not the king personally—was an enemy of the state. In 1643, suspicions arose in parliament that the coronation regalia had been taken from Westminster Abbey to York by the royalist Dean of Westminster, John Williams. When the sub-dean refused to allow access for the regalia to be checked, a motion was brought before parliament to force the opening of the abbey treasury. The first motion failed, but a second motion passed which ordered the locks to be opened, an inventory made, and the locks changed. The inventory was taken by Henry Marten and George Wither, who were reported by Peter Heylyn to have mocked the regalia, with Marten having dressed Wither in St Edward's Crown and robes, who then, 'marched about the room with stately garb and afterwards with a Thousand Apish and Ridiculous Actions exposed these sacred ornaments to contempt and laughter'.Following the execution of Charles I in 1649, the regalia were removed from the abbey and taken to join the rest of the Crown Jewels and plate at the Tower of London. Parliament ordered that the regalia, then under the supervision of Sir Henry Mildmay, Master of the Jewel Office, 'be totally broken, and that they melt down all the gold and silver and sell all the jewels to the best advantage of the Commonwealth.' Henry Mildmay stayed away, but his nephew and Clerk of the Jewel House, Carew Mildmay, returned the instructions 'not obeyed', for which he was jailed at Fleet Prison. Nonetheless, an inventory and valuation was taken, and the reglia was broken up and sold or turned into coinage. St Edward's Crown was described in the inventory as, 'King Alfred's Crown of gold wire-work set with slight stones and two little bells', weighing, valued at £3 per ounce, total value £248 10s 0d.
Restoration
The monarchy was restored in 1660, and in preparation for the coronation of Charles II, who had been living in exile abroad, a new St Edward's Crown and a new state crown were ordered from the Royal Goldsmith, Sir Robert Vyner. The new St Edward's Crown was fashioned to closely resemble the medieval crown, with a heavy gold base and clusters of semi-precious stones, but the arches are decidedly Baroque. In the late 20th century, it was assumed to incorporate gold from the original St Edward's Crown, as they are almost identical in weight, and an invoice was produced in 1661 for the addition of gold to an existing crown. A crown had also been displayed at the lying in state of Oliver Cromwell, Lord Protector of England from 1653 until 1658. On the weight of this evidence, writer and court historian Martin Holmes, in a 1959 paper for Archaeologia, concluded that in the time of the Interregnum St Edward's Crown was saved from the melting pot and that it was enhanced at the Restoration. His theory became accepted wisdom, and many books, including official guidebooks for the Crown Jewels at the Tower of London, repeated his claim as fact. In 2008, new research found that a coronation crown was made in 1660 in anticipation of an early coronation, which had to be delayed several times. This crown was enhanced with additional gold in 1661 after Parliament increased the budget as a token of their appreciation for the king. The crown at Cromwell's lying in state was probably made of gilded base metal such as tin or copper, as was usual in 17th-century England; for example, a crown displayed at the funeral of James I had cost only £5 and was decorated with fake jewels.A new monde and cross were created for the coronation of James II, but otherwise the crown was little altered for successive coronations beyond re-setting loaned jewels for each occasion. After the coronation of William III in 1689, monarchs chose to be crowned with a lighter, bespoke coronation crown or their state crown, while St Edward's Crown usually rested on the high altar.