Home › The Royal Crowns › The Royal Crowns: Mound

The Royal Crowns: Mound

CROSSES-PATÉE ALTERNATE WITH FLEURS-DE-LYS, WITH ARCHED MOUND AND CROSS FROM GREAT AT THE TOP.

SEAL OF HENRY VII.

WITH FIG. 16.-CROWN THREE FLEURS-DE-LYS, AND TALL POINTS BETWEEN THEM, WITH MOUND AND CROSS AT THE TOP. FROM GROAT OF HENRY VII.

CROWN FIVE ORNAMENTED TREFOILS, ARCHED, WITH MOUND AND FROM CROSS AT THE TOP. FROM SHILLING OF HENRY VII. between it and the French crown, which has the fleur-de-lys only and surmounts the coat of arms of that country. The King himself wears an arched crown, but the impressions are so bad that the details of it cannot be followed. Henry VII. on his Great Seal uses, as ornaments for the crown, crosses-patée alternate with fleurs-de-lys, and also arches with an orb and cross at the top THE ROYAL CROWNS (Fig. 15); and, on some of his coins, he reverts to the three fleurs-de-lys with points between them, arches being still used, with the orb and cross at the top (Fig. 16). An ornamental form of crown bearing five ornamental leaves alternately large and small, with arches, orb and cross at the top (Fig. 17), occurs on the shillings of Henry VII. On the crowns of Henry VIII., as well as upon his Great Seals, the alternate crosses-patée and fleurs-de-lys are found on the rim of the crown, which is arched, and has an orb and cross at the top, and this is the form that has remained ever since (Fig. 18). So we may consider that the growth of the ornament on the rim of the crown has followed a regular sequence from the points with one pearl at the top, of Æthelstan, to the trefoil of Canute; the arches began with Edward the Confessor, and the centre trefoil turned into the cross-patée of Henry VI. The fact that the remaining trefoils became eventually fleurs-de-lys is probably only a natural expansion of form, and does not appear to have had anything to do with the French fleur-de-lys, which was adopted at a The later period as heraldic bearing for an entirely different reason. royal coat of arms of England did bear for a long time in one of its quarterings the actual fleurs-de-lys of France, and this, no doubt, has given some reason to the idea that the fleurs-de-lys on the crown had also something to do with France; but, as a matter of fact, they had existed on the crown of England long anterior to our use of them on the coat of arms, as well as remaining there subsequently to their discontinuance on our royal escutcheon. an The cross-patée itself may possibly have been evolved in a somewhat similar way from the three pearls of William I., as we often find the centre trefoil, into which, as we have seen, these three points eventually turned, has a tendency to become larger than the others; and this difference has been easily made more apparent by squaring the ends of the triple leaf.

With regard to the arches over the crowns, indicating independent sovereignty, although now and then arches of some kind seem to have been used, particularly by Edward the Confessor, Harold, William I., Stephen, Edward IV., and Richard III., it was not until Henry VII. that the arches became regularly added. د C CROSSES-PATÉE AND FLEURS- DE-LYS ALTERNATE, ARCHED, WITH MOUND AND CROSS AT THE TOP. FROM CROWN OF HENRY VIII.

The arches used by Henry VII., Henry VIII., Edward VI., and Mary I., were two complete curves or segments of circles, crossing over the top and rising from opposite crosses-patée. Elizabeth added two additional arches, of similar size and character, rising from opposite fleurs-de-lys, and James I. and Charles I. followed her example.

When, however, Charles II. commissioned Sir Robert Vyner to make him two new crowns, although in the main they were to "retayne the old fashion" of those destroyed by the Commonwealth Government, he reverted to the old number of two arches only, rising from opposite crosses-patée, and this form has been continued until the crown of India was made for George V., having the four arches as first used by Queen Elizabeth.