Acrown is a traditional form of head adornment, or hat, worn bymonarchs 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 (and, by extension, the state of which said monarch is head) as distinct from the individual who inhabits it (that is,The Crown). A specific type of crown (orcoronet for lower ranks ofpeerage) is employed inheraldry under strict rules. Indeed, some monarchies never had a physical crown, just a heraldic representation, as in the constitutional kingdom of Belgium.
Costume headgear imitating a monarch's crown is also called a crown hat. Such costume crowns may be worn by actors portraying a monarch, people at costume parties, or ritual "monarchs" such as the king of aCarnivalkrewe, or the person who found the trinket in aking cake.
Thenuptial crown, sometimes called acoronal, worn by a bride, and sometimes the bridegroom, at her wedding is found in many European cultures since ancient times. In the present day, it is most common inEastern Orthodox cultures. The Eastern Orthodox marriage service has a section called the crowning, wherein the bride and groom are crowned as "king" and "queen" of their future household. In Greek weddings, the crowns arediadems usually made of white flowers, synthetic or real, often adorned withsilver ormother of pearl. They are placed on the heads of the newlyweds and are held together by a ribbon of whitesilk. They are then kept by the couple as a reminder of their special day. In Slavic weddings, the crowns are usually made of ornate metal, designed to resemble an imperial crown, and are held above the newlyweds' heads by their best men. A parish usually owns one set to use for all the couples that are married there since these are much more expensive than Greek-style crowns. This was common in Catholic countries in the past.
Crowns are also often used as symbols of religious status or veneration, by divinities (or their representation such as a statue) or by their representatives (e.g., theBlack Crown of the Karmapa Lama) sometimes used a model for wider use by devotees.
The heraldic symbol ofThree Crowns, referring to the three evangelicalMagi (wise men), traditionally called kings, is believed thus to have become the symbol of the Swedish kingdom, but it also fits the historical (personal, dynastic)Kalmar Union (1397–1520) between the three kingdoms of Denmark, Sweden, and Norway.
InIndia, crowns are known asmakuta (Sanskrit for "crest"), and have been used in India since ancient times and are described adorning Hindu gods or kings. The makuta style was then copied by theIndianized kingdoms that was influenced by Hindu-Buddhist concept of kingship in Southeast Asia, such as in Java and Bali in Indonesia, Cambodia, Burma and Thailand.
In East Asia, there were crowns such as the Chinesemianguan and Japanesebenkan worn by emperors.
Dancers of certain traditionalThai dances often wear crowns (mongkut) on their head. These are inspired in the crowns worn by deities andby kings.
Crowns or similar headgear, as worn bynobility and other high-ranking people below the ruler, are in English often calledcoronets; however, in many languages, this distinction is not made and the same word is used for both types of headgear (e.g., Frenchcouronne, GermanKrone, Dutchkroon). In some of these languages the term "rank crown" (rangkroon, etc.) refers to the way these crowns may be ranked according to hierarchical status.Inclassical antiquity, the crown (corona) that was sometimes awarded to people other than rulers, such as triumphalmilitarygenerals orathletes, was actually awreath or chaplet, or ribbon-likediadem.
Crowns have been discovered in pre-historic times fromHaryana, India.[4] The precursor to the crown was the browband called thediadem, which had been worn by theAchaemenid Persian emperors. It was adopted byConstantine I and was worn by all subsequent rulers of the later Roman Empire.Almost allSasanian kings wore crowns. One of the most famous kings who left numerous statues, reliefs, and coins of crowns is kingShapur I.
Numerouscrowns of various forms were used in antiquity, such as theHedjet,Deshret,Pschent (double crown) andKhepresh ofPharaonic 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. Thewreaths and crowns of classical antiquity were sometimes made from natural materials such as laurel, myrtle, olive, or wild celery.[6]
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, earlyHoly Roman Emperors travelled to Rome at some point in their careers to be crowned by the pope.Napoleon, according to legend, surprisedPius VII when he reached out and crowned himself, although in reality this order of ceremony had been pre-arranged.
TheCrown of KingGeorge 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. Aglobe 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 preciousjewels are common in western and oriental crowns. In theNative American civilizations of thePre-ColumbianNew World, rarefeathers, such as that of thequetzal, 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 royaltikka in the Hindu tradition of India.
^Al-Azmeh, Aziz (2001).Muslim Kingship: Power and the Sacred in Muslim, Christian and Pagan Politics. London: I.B. Tauris Publications. p. 12.ISBN1-86064-609-3.
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