LONDON — Sometime over the weekend, the historic centrepiece of the British Crown Jewels – St. Edward’s Crown – was very quietly, very stealthily removed by its caretakers from its display case at the Tower of London.
We were not told exactly when this happened, nor exactly where the crown has gone. Which is probably wise, as its theft would be one for the history books. (And hello, Hollywood? Not a bad idea for a caper flick.)
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But the St. Edward’s Crown is safe, Buckingham Palace assures us. It is now at an undisclosed location where the Crown Jeweler has his people working on it.
King Charles III will wear the crown during his coronation at Westminster Abbey on May 6, if all goes according to schedule. But first, it needs to be altered to fit a head probably bigger than his mother’s.
The 362-year-old St. Edward’s Crown is one of the most famous bejeweled headpieces in the world – and is a key part of the royal regalia, alongside the orb, scepter, heralds, robes and religious intonements (“God Save the King”) that give the British monarchy in the 21st century its air of longevity, power and divine right.
Charles became king when Queen Elizabeth II died in September. But at his accession ceremony, his head was bare. The world’s first glimpse of him in all that regalia will be a defining moment.
“Heavy is the head that wears the crown,” is a slightly modified line from Shakespeare’s “Henry IV” play – and, truth be told, this crown is a whooper, weighing close to 5 pounds, the weight of 4-slice toaster or a gallon of ice cream or $100 worth of quarters.
The stats: It’s solid gold, 12 inches tall and 26 inches in circumference, and bedecked with 444 precious and semiprecious stones.
For those keeping count, that’s 345 rose-cut aquamarines, 37 white topaz, 27 tourmalines, 12 rubies, 7 amethysts, 6 sapphires, 2 jargoons, 1 garnet, 1 spinel and 1 carbuncle, which is not to be confused with the “carbuncle” that means a type of abscess. A jargoon is a kind of smoky zircon.
“It’s an amazing object,” said Anna Keay, a former curator at the Tower of London and author of “The Crown Jewels.”
Has she tried it on? No, Keay said, with an OMG laugh. But she has studied it.
“It’s absolutely ravishing to me. It’s this ancient object, the old gold with this lovely enameled look, and the colours around each of the stones are really beautiful,” she said, adding “I think it stands slightly apart from all the other things in the collection.”
Why?
“Because it’s is not about the bling, about big diamonds,” she said, adding that by today’s standards, the precious stones are not so precious (the crown predates the discovery of mines with large diamonds).
What is most amazing, she said, is that the crown remains in service, meaning it might spend most of its time sitting on a pillow in a display case at the Tower of London, but when a new monarch ascends, it is put to use, for one 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 coronate a British king or queen in Westminster Abbey.
This version, today’s version, of the St. Edward’s Crown was made for King Charles II, who rose to throne in 1661.
That crown was replacement for an even older medieval crown associated with Edward the Confessor, the last Anglo-Saxon king of England, from the 11th century. Because Edward was sainted, the crown was considered a Holy Relic, kept safe by the monks at Westminster Abbey. But it was melted down under orders from Oliver Cromwell in 1649, upon the execution of King Charles I, and its jewels were sold off.
Interestingly, only six monarchs have been crowned with St. Edward’s Crown since the restoration of Charles II in 1661. There was James II in 1685 and William III in 1689. And then the crown essentially went into the royal attic for 200 years.
Keay, now director of the Landmark Trust, said the St. Edward Crown might have looked “old fashioned” and “dated” and “too medieval” for a subsequent string of British monarchs. It was only redeployed in the early 20th century, by George V in 1911, followed by George VI in 1937 and his daughter Elizabeth in 1953.
Buckingham Palace said the crown has been removed from the Tower of London “to allow for modification work.” The Royal Jeweler has not said exactly what. It is possible the gold crown will not need much work, that the cap – of velvet and ermine – only needs adjusting so it can accommodate Charles’s head nicely.