Crown

A crown is a traditional form of head adornment, or hat, worn by monarchs as a symbol of their power and dignity. A crown is often, by extension, a symbol of the monarch's government or items endorsed by it. The word itself is used, particularly in Commonwealth countries, as an abstract name for the monarchy itself, as distinct from the individual who inhabits it (see The Crown). A specific type of crown (or coronet for lower ranks of peerage) is employed in heraldry under strict rules. Indeed, some monarchies never had a physical crown, just a heraldic representation, as in the constitutional kingdom of Belgium, where no coronation ever took place; the royal installation is done by a solemn oath in parliament, wearing a military uniform: the King is not acknowledged as by divine right, but assumes the only hereditary public office in the service of the law; so he in turn will swear in all members of "his" federal government.

Three distinct categories of crowns exist in those monarchies that use crowns or state regalia.

Crowns or similar headgear, as worn by nobility and other high-ranking people below the ruler, is in English often called a coronet; However, in many languages, this distinction is not made and the same word is used for both types of headgear (e.g., French couronne, German Krone, Dutch kroon). In some of these languages the term "rank crown" (rangkroon, etc.) refers to the way these crowns may be ranked according to hierarchical status. In Classical antiquity, the crown (corona) that was sometimes awarded to people other than rulers, such as triumphal military generals or athletes, was actually a wreath or chaplet, or ribbon-like diadem.

Crowns have been discovered in pre-historic times from Haryana, India.[4] The precursor to the crown was the browband called the diadem, which had been worn by the Achaemenid Persian emperors. It was adopted by Constantine I and was worn by all subsequent rulers of the later Roman Empire.

Numerous crowns of various forms were used in antiquity, such as the Hedjet, Deshret, Pschent (double crown) and Khepresh of Pharaonic Egypt. The Pharaohs of Egypt also wore the diadem, which was associated with solar cults, an association which was not completely lost, as it was later revived under the Roman Emperor Augustus.[5] By the time of the Pharaoh Amenophis III (r.1390-1352c) wearing a diadem clearly became a symbol of royalty.

The corona radiata, the "radiant crown" known best on the Statue of Liberty, and perhaps worn by the Helios that was the Colossus of Rhodes, was worn by Roman emperors as part of the cult of Sol Invictus prior to the Roman Empire's conversion to Christianity. It was referred to as "the chaplet studded with sunbeams” by Lucian, about 180 AD.[6]

Perhaps the oldest extant Christian crown in Europe is the Iron Crown of Lombardy, of Roman and Longobard antiquity, used by the Holy Roman Empire and the Kingdom of Italy. Later again used to crown modern Kings of Napoleonic and Austrian Italy, and to represent united Italy after 1860. Today, the crown is kept in the Cathedral of Monza.

In the Christian tradition of European cultures, where ecclesiastical sanction authenticates monarchic power when a new monarch ascends the throne, the crown is placed on the new monarch's head by a religious official in a coronation ceremony. Some, though not all, early Holy Roman Emperors travelled to Rome at some point in their careers to be crowned by the pope. Napoleon, according to legend, surprised Pius VII when he reached out and crowned himself, although in reality this order of ceremony had been pre-arranged (see coronation).

Today, only the British Monarchy and Tongan Monarchy, with their anointed and crowned monarchs, continue this tradition, although many monarchies retain a crown as a national symbol. The French Crown Jewels were sold in 1885 on the orders of the Third French Republic, with only a token number, their precious stones replaced by glass, retained for historic reasons and displayed in the Louvre. The Spanish Crown Jewels were destroyed in a major fire in the 18th century while the so-called "Irish Crown Jewels" (actually merely the British Sovereign's insignia of the Most Illustrious Order of St Patrick) were stolen from Dublin Castle in 1907, just before the investiture of Bernard Edward Barnaby FitzPatrick, 2nd Baron Castletown.

The Crown of King George XII of Georgia made of gold and decorated with 145 diamonds, 58 rubies, 24 emeralds, and 16 amethysts. It took the form of a circlet surmounted by ornaments and eight arches. A globe surmounted by a cross rested on the top of the crown

Special headgear to designate rulers dates back to pre-history, and is found in many separate civilizations around the globe. Commonly, rare and precious materials are incorporated into the crown, but that is only essential for the notion of crown jewels. Gold and precious jewels are common in western and oriental crowns. In the Native American civilizations of the Pre-Columbian New World, rare feathers, such as that of the quetzal, often decorated crowns; so too in Polynesia (e.g. Hawaii).

Coronation ceremonies are often combined with other rituals, such as enthronement (the throne is as much a symbol of monarchy as the crown) and anointing (again, a religious sanction, the only defining act in the Biblical tradition of Israel).

In other cultures, no crown is used in the equivalent of coronation, but the head may still be otherwise symbolically adorned; for example, with a royal tikka in the Hindu tradition of India.

Crown of Darius the Great, circa 500 BC.

Ancient Greek Kritonios Crown, funerary or marriage material, 370–360 BCE. From a grave in Armento, Basilicata.

Tillya Tepe Crown (Afghanistan, 1st century AD)

Crown of the Essen Cathedral Treasury (11th century)

Crown of the Holy Roman Empire (11th century)

Crown of Saint Wenceslas (Bohemia)

Crown of the Netherlands

Crown of Bavaria

Holy Crown of Hungary (12th century)

Grand Ducal Crown of Baden

Crown of Württemberg

Crown of Stephen Bocskai

Crown of Wilhelm II (Prussia)

Crown of Princess Blanche

Kiani Crown (Iran-Qajar dynasty)

Pahlavi Crown (Iran-Pahlavi dynasty)

Empress Crown (Iran-Pahlavi dynasty)

Crown of Bolesław I the Brave from Poland. Replica made between 2001 and 2003 after the original 1000-year-old crown was destroyed in the late 18th century.[clarification needed ]

Medieval Crown of Bulgaria kept in the National history museum of Bulgaria

Russian tsar's crown (14th century)

Royal Crown of Sweden (1561)

Reproduction of Imperial Crown of Napoleon III of France.

The Imperial crown of Chinese emperor (Ming Dynasty) (1368–1644)

Crown of Scotland (1540) at the Parliament of Scotland, (Kept at Edinburgh Castle)

Karađorđević Crown (Serbia)

Makuta Binokasih, the crown of Sunda Kingdom, 14th century West Java, Indonesia

The crown of Banten Sultanate, 16th century Banten, Indonesia

The crown of King Christian IV of Denmark (16th century), currently located in Rosenborg Castle, Copenhagen.

St Edward's Crown (1661)

Crown of Louis XV

Crown of King George XII of Georgia

The crown of Kutai Kartanegara Sultanate, 19th century East Kalimantan, Indonesia

The Great Crown of Victory (Thailand)

Imperial Crowns of Head of the States of Kingdom of Nepal (19th century). Preserved

Kingdom of Iran Pahlavi Golden Crown

Crown of the King of Norway

Heraldic crown of the Russian Empire.

Heraldic version of the crown of Tonga.

The Palatine tiara of Pope Pius IX (19th Century)

The Imperial crown of Japanese emperor Kōmei (1831–1867).

Imperial Crown of Pedro II of Brazil (1841)

Crown of Flowers, by William-Adolphe Bouguereau, 1884.

Ströhl's Heraldischer Atlas, 1899

The Imperial Crown of India, worn by Emperor George V at his Delhi Durbar (1911).

Tiara of Pope Benedict XVI (21st Century)

Because one or more crowns, alone or as part of a more elaborate design, often appear on coins, several monetary denominations came to be known as 'a crown' (see Crown (British coin)) or the equivalent word in the local language, such as krone. This persists in the case of the national currencies of the Scandinavian countries and the Czech Republic. The generic term "crown sized" is frequently used for any coin roughly the size of an American silver dollar.