THE CROWN OF GREAT BRITAIN
By Cyril Davenport, F.S.A.
"Crowns appear to have been at an early period worn by kings in battle, in order that they might be easily recognised; and although it is quite possible that this outward sign of sovereignty may have marked the wearer as being entitled to special protection by his own men, it is also likely that it was often a dangerous sign of importance. Upon the authority of their coins, the heads of the early British kings were adorned with variously formed fillets and ornamental wreaths. Helmets are also evidently intended to be shown, and on some of the coins of Athelstan the helmet bears upon it a crown of three raised points, with a single pearl at the top of each (Fig. 619). Other coins bear the crown with the three raised points without the helmet (Fig. 620). This crown of three points, bearing sometimes one and sometimes three pearls at the top of each, continued to be used by all the sole monarchs until Canute, on whose head a crown is shown in which the three points develop into three clearly-marked trefoils (Fig. 621). On the great seal of Edward the Confessor the king is wearing an ornamental cap, which is described by Mr. Wyon in his book about the Great Seals as bearing a crown with three points trefoiled; but the impressions of this Great Seal that I have been able to see are so indistinct in this particular that I do not feel justified in corroborating his opinion. On some of the coins, however, of Edward the Confessor, an arched crown is very clearly shown, and this crown has depending from it, on each side, tassels with ornamental ends (Fig. 622).
 Fig. 619. |
 Fig. 620. |
 Fig. 622. | |
 Fig. 621. |
"In the list of the English regalia which were destroyed under the Commonwealth in 1649 is found an item of great interest, viz. 'a gold wyer work crown with little bells,' which is there stated to have belonged to King Alfred, who appears to have been the first English king for whom the ceremony of coronation was used; and it is remarkable that on several of the crowns on coins and seals, from the time of Edward the Confessor until Henry I., little tassels or tags are shown which may indeed represent little bells suspended by a ribbon.
"On King Alfred's own coins there is unfortunately nothing which can be recognised as a crown.
