The Medieval Crown Jewels of England
A thousand years of coronations, melted into spending money.
- EXISTED
- Medieval, destroyed 1649
- WHERE
- London, England
- LOST
- 1649, 1650
- CAUSE OF LOSS
- Melted down and sold by order of Parliament after the execution of Charles I
For centuries the kings and queens of England were crowned with a set of sacred regalia whose centrepiece, St Edward’s Crown, was believed to descend from Edward the Confessor himself in the eleventh century. It was a relic as much as an ornament, carrying the continuity of the monarchy in its very metal, each new sovereign anointed beneath the same ancient gold.
After the Civil War and the execution of Charles I, the victorious Parliament resolved to abolish not only the king but the idea of kingship. In 1649 it ordered the crown jewels broken up: the gold was melted down and struck into coins, the precious stones sold off individually, the regalia’s very existence undone as “monuments of superstition.” When the monarchy returned in 1660, an entirely new set had to be made, the medieval originals were gone beyond recovery.
In 1649 Parliament ordered the regalia “totallie broken and defaced.” The crown said to descend from Edward the Confessor, used to crown English kings for centuries, was melted into coin; the gems were prised out and sold off.