Home › Secular Investiture by the Ring › Secular Investiture by the Ring: Crichton

Secular Investiture by the Ring: Crichton

In the 'Biographia Britannica' (Article 'Crichton ') we read of the bestowal of a ring on a college disputant. This was in the case of the 'Admirable Crichton,' who, when he was only twenty years of age, entered the academic lists with anyone who would compete with him in Hebrew, Syriac, Arabic, Greek, Latin, Spanish, French, Italian, English, Dutch, Flemish, and Sclavonian, besides every kind of courtly accomplishment. This he maintained in the College of Navarre, and the president, after many compliments on his vast acquirements, gave him a diamond ring and a purse of money.

At the ceremonies observed on the inauguration of a king-at-arms the crown and ring were generally bestowed by the hand of the monarch himself, as in the case of Sir David Lindsay, Lord Lion, King-at-arms :