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St Edward’s crown will be resized for the coronation of King Charles III

December 5, 2022

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LONDON — Over the weekend, the historic centerpiece of Britain’s crown jewels – the Crown of St Edward – was very quietly, very stealthily removed by its custodians from its display case in the Tower of London.

We weren’t told exactly when it happened, or exactly where the crown went. Which is probably wise, because his theft would be one for the history books. (And hello, Hollywood? Not a bad idea for a cuddly movie.)

But St. Edward’s crown is safe, Buckingham Palace assures us. It is at an undisclosed location where the crown jeweler has its staff work.

King Charles III will wear the crown during his coronation at Westminster Abbey on May 6, if all goes as planned. But first, he needs to be modified to fit a head that’s probably bigger than his mother’s.

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The 361-year-old Crown of St. Edward is one of the most famous jeweled headdresses in the world. ”) that give the British monarchy of the 21st century its air of longevity, power and divine right.

Charles became king when Queen Elizabeth II died in September. But during his accession ceremony, he was bareheaded. The world’s first glimpse of him in all those regalia will be a defining moment.

“Heavy is the head that wears the crown”, is a slightly modified line from Shakespeare’s play “Henry IV”. Truth be told, this wreath is a massive weight, weighing nearly five pounds, the weight of a four-slice toaster or a gallon of ice cream or $100 worth of wedges.

The stats: It’s solid gold, 12 inches tall and 26 inches in circumference, and adorned with 444 precious and semi-precious stones.

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For those counting, that’s 345 rose-cut aquamarines, 37 white topazes, 27 tourmalines, 12 rubies, seven amethysts, six sapphires, two jargons, one garnet, one spinel, and one carbuncle, not to be confused with a carbuncle, a kind of abscess. A jargoon is a kind of smoky zircon.

“It’s an incredible object,” said Anna Keay, former curator at the Tower of London and author of “The Crown Jewels.”

Has she tried it? No, Keay says, with an OMG laugh. But she studied it.

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“It’s absolutely delightful to me. It’s this ancient object, the old gold with this beautiful enamel look, and the colors around each of the stones are really beautiful,” she said. She added, “I think it stands out slightly from all the other things in the collection.”

“Because it’s not about bling, big diamonds,” she said, adding that by today’s standards, gemstones aren’t that precious (the crown predates the discovery of large diamond mines).

St Edward’s historic crown has been removed from the Tower of London to be altered for the coronation of King Charles III, according to Buckingham Palace. (Video: Reuters)

What’s most amazing, she said, is that the crown remains in service, meaning she could spend most of her time sitting on a pillow in a display case at the Tower of London, but when a new monarch ascends, he is taken advantage of. , for a day.

“It’s made for an institution that still exists and it’s still used for the same job, which is incredibly rare,” Keay said, and that job is to crown a British king or queen at Westminster Abbey.

This version, the current version, of St Edward’s Crown was made for King Charles II, who came to the throne in 1661.

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This crown replaced an even older medieval crown associated with Edward the Confessor, the last Anglo-Saxon king of England, from the 11th century. Because Edward was holy, the crown was considered a sacred relic, kept safe by the monks of Westminster Abbey. But it was melted down on the orders of Oliver Cromwell in 1649, during the execution of King Charles I, and its jewels were sold.

Interestingly, only six monarchs have been crowned with St Edward’s Crown since Charles II’s restoration in 1661. There was James II in 1685 and William III in 1689. And then the crown basically went to the royal attic for 200 years.

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Keay, now a director of the Landmark Trust, said St Edward’s Crown might have looked “old-fashioned”, “dated” and “too medieval” for a later series of British monarchs. It was not redeployed until the turn of the 20th century by George V in 1911, followed by George VI in 1937 and his daughter Elizabeth in 1953.

Buckingham Palace said the crown had been removed from the Tower of London “to allow for alteration work”. The crown jeweler did not say exactly what. It is possible that the golden crown did not need much work, that the cap – of velvet and ermine – only needed adjustments to fit Charles’s head well.