The Holy Crown of Hungary ( hu, Szent Korona; sh, Kruna svetoga Stjepana; la, Sacra Corona; sk, Svätoštefanská koruna , la, Sacra Corona), also known as the Crown of Saint Stephen, named in honour of
Saint Stephen I of Hungary, was the
coronation crown
A coronation crown is a crown used by a monarch when being crowned. In some monarchies, monarchs have or had a number of crowns for different occasions, such as a coronation crown for the moment of coronation and a ''state crown'' for general u ...
used by the
Kingdom of Hungary for most of its existence; kings have been crowned with it since the twelfth century. The Crown symbolized the King's authority over the
Lands of the Hungarian Crown (the
Carpathian Basin), and it was a key mark of
legitimacy
Legitimacy, from the Latin ''legitimare'' meaning "to make lawful", may refer to:
* Legitimacy (criminal law)
* Legitimacy (family law)
* Legitimacy (political)
See also
* Bastard (law of England and Wales)
* Illegitimacy in fiction
* Legit (d ...
. Through the
history of Hungary, more than fifty kings were crowned with it, until 1916 and the last king
Charles IV. The only kings not so crowned were
Wladyslaw I,
John Sigismund Zápolya and
Joseph II.
The enamels on the crown are mainly or entirely
Byzantine work, presumed to have been made in
Constantinople (present-day
Istanbul,
Turkey) in the 1070s. The crown was presented by the
Byzantine Emperor Michael VII Doukas to the King
Géza I of Hungary
Géza I (; hu, I. Géza; 104025 April 1077) was King of Hungary from 1074 until his death. He was the eldest son of King Béla I. His baptismal name was Magnus. With German assistance, Géza's cousin Solomon acquired the crown when his father ...
; both are depicted and named in the
Greek language on enamel plaques in the lower crown. However, in popular tradition the Holy Crown was thought to be older, dating to the time of the first King
Stephen I of Hungary crowned 1000/1001. It is one of two known Byzantine crowns to survive, the other being the slightly earlier
Monomachus Crown in the
Hungarian National Museum, which may have had another function. The Holy Crown has probably been remodelled using elements of different origins. The date assigned to the present configuration of the Holy Crown is most commonly put around the late 12th century. The
Hungarian coronation regalia consists of the Holy Crown, the sceptre, the orb, and the mantle. The orb has the coat-of-arms of
Charles I of Hungary (1310–1342).
The name "Holy Crown" was first used in 1256. By the 14th century it became the unique symbol of royal power. As written by Crown Guard
Péter Révay, when Hungary needed a new monarch it did not seek a crown to inaugurate a king, but a king worthy of the Crown. He also said "the Holy Crown is for the Hungarians what the
Lost Ark is for the Jewish people".
Since 2000, the Holy Crown has been on display in the central Domed Hall of the
Hungarian Parliament Building
The Hungarian Parliament Building ( hu, Országház , which translates to "House of the Country" or "House of the Nation"), also known as the Parliament of Budapest after its location, is the seat of the National Assembly of Hungary, a notable l ...
.
Specifications of the Crown
* The shape is elliptic (width 203.9 mm, length 215.9 mm) and is larger than a normal human head. During coronations, the king had to wear a leather 'kapa' liner inside the crown.
* The weight is 2056 g. (4 lb 8.52 oz)
* The gold-silver alloys in the upper and the lower parts differ in alloy ratio.
* The lower part is asymmetric.
Holiness doctrine
As with all European Christian crowns, the Holy Crown symbolizes a halo signifying the wearer's
Divine Right to rule. According to popular tradition,
St Stephen I held up the crown before his death (in the year 1038) to consecrate it and his kingdom to the
Virgin Mary. After this, Mary was depicted not only as ''patrona'' (patron saint) of the
Kingdom of Hungary, but also as ''regina'' (queen). This consecration was supposed to empower the crown with divine force to help the future kings of Hungary under the "Doctrine of the Holy Crown" ( hu, Szentkorona-tan).
Péter Révay, a Crown Guard, expounded this doctrine in his works ''Commentarius De Sacra Regni Hungariae Corona'' (''Explanation of the Holy Crown of the Kingdom of Hungary'',
Augsburg 1613) and ''De monarchia et Sacra Corona Regni Hungariae'' (''On the Monarchy and Holy Crown of Hungary'',
Frankfurt 1659).
Under this doctrine, the crown itself is a legal person identical to the state of Hungary. It is superior to the ruling monarch, who rules "in the name of the crown".
Origin
According to the most accepted theory, in the publications of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences and the
Hungarian Catholic Episcopal Conference Hungarian may refer to:
* Hungary, a country in Central Europe
* Kingdom of Hungary, state of Hungary, existing between 1000 and 1946
* Hungarians, ethnic groups in Hungary
* Hungarian algorithm, a polynomial time algorithm for solving the assignm ...
,
[Zombori, I, Cséfalvay, P., Maria Antonietta De Angelis: A Thousand Years of Christianity in Hungary – Hungariae Christianae Millennium – Published by the Hungarian Catholic Episcopal Conference, Budapest, 2001, for the exhibition in the Musea of Vatican, Vatican City, 10 October 2001 – 12 January 2002 – under the auspices of Prime Minister Viktor Orbán] the Holy Crown consists of three parts: the lower ''abroncs'' (rim, hoop), the ''corona graeca''; the upper ''keresztpántok'' (cross straps), the ''corona latina''; and the uppermost cross, tilted at an angle. It was created under
Byzantine influence during the reign of the Hungarian King
Béla III
Béla may refer to:
* Béla (crater), an elongated lunar crater
* Béla (given name), a common Hungarian male given name
See also
* Bela (disambiguation)
* Belá (disambiguation)
* Bělá (disambiguation) Bělá, derived from ''bílá'' (''whit ...
, who was brought up in the Byzantine court and was briefly heir to the Byzantine throne.
This was several decades after the
crowning of Stephen I marked the beginning of Hungarian statehood, variously given as Christmas 1000 or 1 January 1001.
Another version of the origin of the crown was written by bishop
Hartvik
Hartvik (''Arduin'') was a prelate (most probably the bishop of Győr) in the Kingdom of Hungary under King Coloman the Book-lover. He wrote a new ''Life'' of St Stephen I of Hungary
Stephen I, also known as King Saint Stephen ( hu, Szent Is ...
around 1100–1110 at the request of King
Könyves Kálmán
Coloman the Learned, also the Book-Lover or the Bookish ( hu, Könyves Kálmán; hr, Koloman; sk, Koloman Učený; 10703February 1116) was King of Hungary from 1095 and King of Croatia from 1097 until his death. Because Coloman and his youn ...
, in which the "Pope" sent King Stephen I "his blessings and a crown". According to "Hartvik’s legend", St. Stephen sent Archbishop
Astrik
Saint Astrik of Pannonhalma (also known as Anastasius, Astericus, Ascrick, Astrissicus) (died c. 1030/1040) is a saint of the 11th century.
Life
Radla was a Czech or Croat from Bohemia, who was a monk in Hungary. He probably received the habit at ...
of
Esztergom to
Rome to acquire a crown from the "
Pope", who is not named. Despite Astrik's haste, the envoy of the future Polish king
Mieszko I
Mieszko I (; – 25 May 992) was the first ruler of Poland and the founder of the first independent Polish state, the Duchy of Poland. His reign stretched from 960 to his death and he was a member of the Piast dynasty, a son of Siemomysł and ...
arrived at Rome first. In a dream, the Pope saw an angel who told him: "There will be another envoy from an unknown folk, who will ask for a crown also. Give them the crown, as they deserve it." The next day Astrik arrived, and the Pope gave the crown to him.
Hartvik’s legend appeared in
liturgical books and breviaries in Hungary around 1200, naming the then-existing
Pope Sylvester II. Subsequently, the story of the crown sent by Sylvester II spread throughout the Christian world, and was published in 1613 by the crown guard Péter Révay.
However, the legend is not supported by historical evidence. Mieszko I did not live at the same time as St. Stephen I or Pope Sylvester II. Also, the "Greater Legend" of St Stephen, written around 1083, makes no mention of the Crown's Roman provenance: "in the fifth year after the death of his father...they brought a Papal letter of blessing...and the Lord’s favoured one, Stephen, was chosen to be king, and was anointed with oil and auspiciously crowned with the diadem of royal honour". Moreover,
Vatican archives have found no record of the granting of the crown, despite the prestige that would accrue from such a discovery. Another document giving doubtful evidence is by Thietmar von Merseburg (died 1018): he wrote that Holy Roman Emperor
Otto III
Otto III (June/July 980 – 23 January 1002) was Holy Roman Emperor from 996 until his death in 1002. A member of the Ottonian dynasty, Otto III was the only son of the Emperor Otto II and his wife Theophanu.
Otto III was crowned as King of ...
consented to Stephen's coronation, and that the Pope sent his blessings, but there is no mention a crown.
There are also more romantic theories putting the origin of the crown into the far past in Asia.
The question to what extent the upper part of the Holy Crown belonged to the crown of King Stephen I remained open until 1978, when the coronation insignia was returned to Hungary and a thorough examination was carried out.
The differing styles and techniques used in making the enamel pictures and the fact that the inscriptions on the diadem are in Greek and on the bands in Latin suggest that the two parts were probably made in two different periods. However, there are no known representations in which the crown is separated: the Holy Crown is always shown as one.
Type
The Crown is a
coronation crown
A coronation crown is a crown used by a monarch when being crowned. In some monarchies, monarchs have or had a number of crowns for different occasions, such as a coronation crown for the moment of coronation and a ''state crown'' for general u ...
, which should be worn only on the occasion of a coronation, and for the rest of the time two crown guards (koronaőr) guard it. Apart from this, there are only two other people who can touch it, the ''
nádorispán'' (the highest secular title), who puts it onto a pillow during the coronation, and the
Archbishop of Esztergom
In Christian denominations, an archbishop is a bishop of higher rank or office. In most cases, such as the Catholic Church, there are many archbishops who either have jurisdiction over an ecclesiastical province in addition to their own archdioc ...
(
primate of Hungary, the highest ecclesiastical title), who places it on the head of the king.
Structure of the crown and its icons
The Holy Crown was made of gold and decorated with nineteen enamel "pantokrator" pictures (Greek meaning "master of all") as well as semi-precious stones, genuine pearls, and
almandine
Almandine (), also known as almandite, is a species of mineral belonging to the garnet group. The name is a corruption of alabandicus, which is the name applied by Pliny the Elder to a stone found or worked at Alabanda, a town in Caria in Asia M ...
. It has three parts: "abroncs" (rim, hoop) (''corona graeca''), "keresztpántok" (cross straps) (''corona latina''), and the cross on the top tilted at an angle.
There are four hanging pendants (
pendilia) dangling from chains on each side of the diadem and one in the back. There is no
monde
A ''monde'', meaning 'world' in French, is an orb located near the top of a crown. It represents, as the name suggests, the world that the monarch rules. It is the point at which a crown's half arches meet. It is usually topped off either w ...
.
Corona graeca
The (rim, hoop) ("Greek Crown") is 5.2 cm wide with a diameter of 20.5 cm.
The two aquamarine stones with cut surfaces on the back of the diadem were added as replacements by
King Matthias II (1608–1619). The enamel picture on the front depicts
Christ Pantokrator. On the rim to the right and left of Jesus are pictures of the archangels
Michael
Michael may refer to:
People
* Michael (given name), a given name
* Michael (surname), including a list of people with the surname Michael
Given name "Michael"
* Michael (archangel), ''first'' of God's archangels in the Jewish, Christian an ...
and
Gabriel, followed by half-length images of the Saints
George and
Demetrius, and
Cosmas and Damian
Cosmas and Damian ( ar, قُزما ودميان, translit=Qozma wa Demyaan; grc-gre, Κοσμᾶς καὶ Δαμιανός, translit=Kosmás kai Damianós; la, Cosmas et Damianus; AD) were two Arab physicians in the town Cyrrhus, and were r ...
.
In the arched frame on the back of the diadem
Emperor Michael VII Doukas (1071–1078) is depicted. Below it to the left is the half-length picture of "Kon. Porphyrogennetos", this probably being either Emperor Michael's brother and co-emperor
Konstantios Doukas
Konstantios Doukas ( el, Κωνστάντιος Δούκας, 1060s – 18 October 1081), Latinized as Constantius Ducas, was a junior Byzantine emperor from 1060 to 1078. Konstantios was the son of Emperor Constantine X Doukas and Empress Eud ...
or of his son and heir
Constantine Doukas
Constantine X Doukas or Ducas ( el, Κωνσταντῖνος Δούκας, ''Kōnstantinos X Doukas'', 1006 – 23 May 1067), was Byzantine emperor from 1059 to 1067. He was the founder and first ruling member of the Doukid dynasty. Duri ...
, both having been
born in the purple. To the right there is a picture of the Hungarian King
Géza I Géza is a Hungarian given name and may refer to any of the following:
* Benjamin Géza Affleck
* Géza, Grand Prince of the Hungarians
* Géza I of Hungary, King of Hungary
* Géza II of Hungary, King of Hungary
* Géza, son of Géza II of Hungar ...
(1074–1077), with the
Greek inscription: (, meaning "
Géza I Géza is a Hungarian given name and may refer to any of the following:
* Benjamin Géza Affleck
* Géza, Grand Prince of the Hungarians
* Géza I of Hungary, King of Hungary
* Géza II of Hungary, King of Hungary
* Géza, son of Géza II of Hungar ...
, faithful
kralj
Kralj is a South Slavic surname and title. It literally means "king" and, according to Petar Skok, is derived from Charles the Great ( Karolus) in the same sense as Tsar is to Caesar.
In Slovenia, it is the 14th most common surname: it is present ...
of the
land of the Turks").
[ According to Constantine Porphyrogenitus, writing in his (ca. 950 AD) "Patzinakia, the Pecheneg realm, stretches west as far as the Siret River (or even the ]Eastern Carpathian Mountains
Divisions of the Carpathians are a categorization of the Carpathian mountains system.
Below is a detailed overview of the major subdivisions and ranges of the Carpathian Mountains. The Carpathians are a "subsystem" of a bigger Alps-Himalaya ...
), and is four days distant from Tourkia .e. Hungary"
The contemporary Byzantine name for the Hungarians was "Turks",
while the Hungarian branch of the
Eastern Orthodox Church, under
Constantinople's jurisdiction, was named the "
Metropolitanate of Tourkia
The Metropolitanate of Tourkia was an Eastern Orthodox diocese (eparchy) in the Medieval Hungary, during the 11th and 12th centuries. Its name was derived from the term ''Tourkia (Turkey)'' ( gr, Τουρκία), used by the Byzantine Empire as a ...
" (Hungary), and the head of this church was the "
Metropolitan
Metropolitan may refer to:
* Metropolitan area, a region consisting of a densely populated urban core and its less-populated surrounding territories
* Metropolitan borough, a form of local government district in England
* Metropolitan county, a typ ...
of Tourkia" (Hungary).
As was customary in the hierarchy of the Byzantine state, clear differentiation is made between style of the emperors and that of the Hungarian king by using a hellenized form of the common South Slavic word for "king" (
Kralj
Kralj is a South Slavic surname and title. It literally means "king" and, according to Petar Skok, is derived from Charles the Great ( Karolus) in the same sense as Tsar is to Caesar.
In Slovenia, it is the 14th most common surname: it is present ...
) for Géza. The saints and the Greek rulers have
halos while Géza does not. The inscriptions of the emperors’ names are in red, while the Hungarian king's is in dark blue or black.
The enamel plaques on the circular band, the panel depicting Christ Pantokrator, and the picture of Emperor Michael were all affixed to the crown using different techniques. The picture of the emperor could not be attached to the rim in the same way as the Pantokrator picture on the front. The frame was folded upwards and the picture of the emperor was nailed to the edge. We can thus conclude that the picture of Michael VII was not originally designed for this crown, but was probably used first somewhere else.
The with its pointed and arched plaques is identical to the form of the crowns of the Byzantine empresses – in other words it was a woman's crown. It was given by Emperor Michael Dukas VII to King Géza's wife, known only as
Synadene, around 1075. The gift was not a new crown, but rather an old crown designed for a woman that had to be selected from the Emperor's treasury and remodelled. The enamel pictures that become outdated were removed, since either represented earlier historical figures or were not appropriate for the Hungarian queen according to court protocol. It was in this form that the crown was sent to
Hungary.
There is another view that the Géza depicted on the is not King Géza I but
St Stephen's father. This view is confirmed by the fact that Grand Prince Géza is depicted on the without a crown, although carrying a royal sceptre.
[
Anthony Endrey]
The Holy Crown of Hungary
Hungarian Institute, 1978, pp. 13-115
Corona Latina
The (cross straps) ("Latin Crown") is made of four 5.2-cm-wide gold strips welded to the edge of a square central panel (7.2 × 7.2 cm); the strips are usually assumed to have been originally made for some other object, and adapted for the crown. It is not an independent object, as it has no function alone. It was designed to be attached to the top rim of the and provides a dome-shaped top.
The inscription on the pictures of the saints and the style of their lettering suggest the date when they were made. Amidst the antique-style capital letters, the T in Thomas and the second U in Paulus are formed in the style characteristic of the Latin letters used on Byzantine coins, a practice abandoned in the middle of the eleventh century. They may have decorated a reliquary box or a portable altar given to István I by the pope, or possibly the
treasure binding of a book. It is also possible, although it cannot be verified, that István I received a crown as a gift from one of the popes, reciprocating hishistorically documentedgifts. The picture of the apostles, however, based on their style, cannot be dated to around 1000.
The intersecting bands are edged with beaded gold wire that close off the lower end of the bands and finish off the system of decoration. There are twelve pearls on the central panel and a total of seventy-two altogether on the , symbolising the number of Christ's disciples (Acts 10.1).
The central panel is decorated with a square cloisonné enamel picture depicting Christ Pantokrator. Each band has two (altogether eight) pictures of standing apostles identical to the first eight listed in Acts 1.13.
Éva Kovács and Zsuzsa Lovag
[''Magyar koronazasi jelvenyek'', Eva Kovacs and Zsuzsa Lovag Budapest: Corvina Kiado, 1980; ''The Hungarian crown and other regalia'' translated by Peter Balban; translated and revised by Mary and Andras Boros-Kazai, pp. 79-80] suggest that the was originally a large Byzantine
liturgical asterisk from a Greek monastery in Hungary. In order to get it to fit into its new role the apostles at the bottom of each of the four arms of this asterisk were cut off before it was very crudely attached to the inside of the to transform this Byzantine open crown into a closed crown (i.e., the type of crown proper to the autocrat, the senior emperor or monarch in Byzantine imperial protocol) and to provide a base for the reliquary cross at its summit (see ).
Cross
The cross is attached to the crown in a rough manner, rising from the midriff of Christ in the central enamel plaque at the top of the crown. This addition might have been made during the 16th century. The cross was knocked crooked during the 17th century when the crown was damaged, possibly by the top of the iron chest housing the insignia being hastily closed without the crown having been placed in it properly. The cross has since been left in this slanted position, and is now typically depicted as such.
Éva Kovács suggests that the present plain cross on the top of the crown is a replacement of an original double-barred reliquary cross containing three pieces of the
True Cross and that it was the presence of the True Cross in the Holy Crown which made it holy. She states that “Szabolcs Vajay called to my attention a strange incident in the crown’s history which had completely escaped everybody’s attention. Before
Queen Isabella handed over the regalia to
Ferdinand in 1551, she broke the cross off the crown’s peak for her son, John Sigismund. According to a contemporary Polish chronicler, John Sigismund wore this cross on his chest till the end of his life, "... because he who possesses this cross will again come into possession of the missing parts which, subjected to the power of the cross, had belonged to it".
Later, the cross became the property of Sigismund Bathory who, persuaded by his confessor, bestowed it on Emperor Rudolf II. This was reported by an Italian envoy in Prague who also told the Isabella-John Sigismund story.” She also notes that “Several small fragments of the True Cross were in possession of the Arpad dynasty. As a point of interest, it is precisely the smallest ones, those set into the cross on the chest, that are attributed to St. Stephen. About a tiny fragment of the True Cross, a Russian chronicler recording King Geza II’s campaigns wrote that it had been the holy king’s property and, despite its small size, it was a relic of great force. We are, perhaps, not off the track when surmising that the Hungarian crown was holy because it had once been reinforced with a fragment of the victory-bringing relic. . . . we know quite few reliquary crowns. To mention but the most obvious example, let us cite Charles IV’s crown provided with a cross containing a thorn relic.”
[
Later, it was the Crown itself, rather than the St. Stephen's cross reliquary that came to be regarded as holy through its traditional association with St. Stephen. Éva Kovács further notes in this regard the early use of the patriarchal or double-barred cross and crown in the ancient Hungarian royal coat of arms. Since reliquary crosses frequently take such a double-barred form, the use of a patriarchal cross in the royal arms would be a direct reference to and representation of this royal relic. This association between the crown and this royal relic would also help to substantiate the theory that the Holy Crown was always intended to serve its historical role of legitimatizing the position of its wearer as the true divinely appointed king of Hungary.
]
The crown as a whole
The form of the Holy Crown is identical to that of the kamelaukion-type crowns with closed tops, as introduced in the Byzantine Empire. The presence of multiple pictures is also typical of Byzantine crowns. When the intersecting bands were added to the ''corona graeca'' during the rule of Béla III, who had been brought up in Constantinople, the bands were decorated just as the ''corona graeca'' was, perhaps with the intention of imitating the Byzantine pattern.
Links to the first Hungarian king, Saint Stephen
Beside the using of the intersecting bands of the ''corona latina'', which probably came from the treasury of St. István, at the time of the creation of the crown there existed further expectation that the coronation insignia would eventually include additional gold works that could be linked to the first, beatified Hungarian king, István.
The inscription embroidered onto the coronation mantle indicates with all certainty that István I and Queen Gizella had it made in 1031.
The coronation sceptre with the orb at the end can also be dated to the time of St István. On the seals of Henry II, Holy Roman Emperor, and Rudolph III of Burgundy, the rulers are holding identically shaped sceptres. Such short-staffed sceptres ending in orbs were not in use as insignia earlier or later.
The regalia in modern times
After the fall of Communism, the crown was reincorporated into the national coat of arms in 1990, the National Assembly choosing the pre-war coat of arms in preference to the crown-less Kossuth arms of 1849.
The Holy Crown has had a varied history; having been stolen, hidden, lost, recovered, and taken abroad several times. During the Árpád dynasty (1000–1301), the coronation insignia was kept in the coronation city of Székesfehérvár
Székesfehérvár (; german: Stuhlweißenburg ), known colloquially as Fehérvár ("white castle"), is a city in central Hungary, and the country's ninth-largest city. It is the regional capital of Central Transdanubia, and the centre of Fejér ...
. Later, the crown was housed in one of three locations: Visegrád (in Pest county); Pozsony (present-day Bratislava, Slovakia); or Buda
Buda (; german: Ofen, sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Budim, Будим, Czech and sk, Budín, tr, Budin) was the historic capital of the Kingdom of Hungary and since 1873 has been the western part of the Hungarian capital Budapest, on the ...
. In 1805–1806 the Crown was kept for about three months in the Palanok Castle at Munkács (now Mukachevo, Ukraine). Lajos Kossuth
Lajos Kossuth de Udvard et Kossuthfalva (, hu, udvardi és kossuthfalvi Kossuth Lajos, sk, Ľudovít Košút, anglicised as Louis Kossuth; 19 September 1802 – 20 March 1894) was a Hungarian nobleman, lawyer, journalist, poli ...
took the crown and the coronation jewels with him after the collapse of the Hungarian Revolution of 1848 and buried them in a wooden box in a willow forest, near Orsova in Transylvania (today Orşova, Romania). They were subsequently dug up and returned to the royal castle in Buda in 1853.
At the end of the Second World War the crown jewels were recovered in Mattsee
Mattsee is a market town at the eponymous lake in the district of Salzburg-Umgebung in the Austrian state of Salzburg.
History
About 765 Duke Tassilo III of Bavaria established the Mattsee Benedictine Abbey, which became a part of the Diocese of ...
, Austria, on 4 May 1945 by the U.S. 86th Infantry Division
The 86th Infantry Division, also known as the Blackhawk Division, was a unit of the United States Army in World War I and World War II.
Currently called the 86th Training Division, based at Fort McCoy, Wisconsin, members of the division now wor ...
. The crown jewels were transported to Western Europe and eventually given to the United States Army by the Hungarian Crown Guard for safekeeping from the Soviet Union. For much of the Cold War
The Cold War is a term commonly used to refer to a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The term '' cold war'' is used because the ...
the crown was held at the United States Bullion Depository
The United States Bullion Depository, often known as Fort Knox, is a fortified vault building located next to the United States Army post of Fort Knox, Kentucky. It is operated by the United States Department of the Treasury. The vault is used ...
(Fort Knox
Fort Knox is a United States Army installation in Kentucky, south of Louisville and north of Elizabethtown. It is adjacent to the United States Bullion Depository, which is used to house a large portion of the United States' official gold res ...
, Kentucky) alongside the bulk of the United States' gold reserves and other priceless historical items. After undergoing extensive historical research to verify the crown as genuine, it was returned to Hungary by order of U.S. President Jimmy Carter on 6 January 1978.
Most current academic knowledge about Hungarian royal garments originates from this modern research. Following substantial U.S. political debate, the agreement to return the jewels contained many conditions to ensure the people of Hungary, rather than its Communist government, took possession of the jewels. The majority of the Hungarian-American population opposed the decision to return the crown. On January 6, 1978, US Secretary of State Cyrus Vance
Cyrus Roberts Vance Sr. (March 27, 1917January 12, 2002) was an American lawyer and United States Secretary of State under President Jimmy Carter from 1977 to 1980. Prior to serving in that position, he was the United States Deputy Secretary of ...
returned the Crown to Hungary in Budapest.
Other coronation regalia
File:Portrayal of Stephen I, King of Hungary on the coronation pall.jpg, The portrayal of Stephen I on the Hungarian coronation pall from 1031
File:Crown, Sword and Globus Cruciger of Hungary2.jpg, The Crown, Sword, Sceptre and Globus Cruciger
The ''globus cruciger'' ( for, , Latin, cross-bearing orb), also known as "the orb and cross", is an orb surmounted by a cross. It has been a Christian symbol of authority since the Middle Ages, used on coins, in iconography, and with a sceptre ...
of Hungary, in the Hungarian Parliament Building
The Hungarian Parliament Building ( hu, Országház , which translates to "House of the Country" or "House of the Nation"), also known as the Parliament of Budapest after its location, is the seat of the National Assembly of Hungary, a notable l ...
File:HUF 2000 2000 obverse.jpg, The Holy Crown on the commemorative 2000 HUF banknote, issued in 2000, the millennium anniversary of the coronation of King Saint Stephen
Stephen I, also known as King Saint Stephen ( hu, Szent István király ; la, Sanctus Stephanus; sk, Štefan I. or Štefan Veľký; 975 – 15 August 1038), was the last Grand Prince of the Hungarians between 997 and 1000 or 1001, and the ...
Uniquely in Europe, most of the medieval ensemble of coronation regalia has survived. On 1 January 2000, the Holy Crown of Hungary was moved to the Hungarian Parliament Building
The Hungarian Parliament Building ( hu, Országház , which translates to "House of the Country" or "House of the Nation"), also known as the Parliament of Budapest after its location, is the seat of the National Assembly of Hungary, a notable l ...
from the Hungarian National Museum. The sceptre, orb
Orb or Orbs may refer to:
* Sphere
* Globus Cruciger Ceremonial Orb
Places and rivers
* Orb (river), in southern France
* Orb (Kinzig), a tributary of the Kinzig river in Germany
* Bad Orb, a town in Hesse, Germany
Literature, radio, film, ...
and the coronation sword were also moved to the Parliament.
The very large coronation mantle
A mantle is a piece of clothing, a type of cloak. Several other meanings are derived from that.
Mantle may refer to:
*Mantle (clothing), a cloak-like garment worn mainly by women as fashionable outerwear
**Mantle (vesture), an Eastern Orthodox ve ...
remains in a glass inert gas vault at the National Museum due to its delicate, faint condition. Unlike the crown and accompanying insignia, the originally red coloured mantle is considered to date back to Stephen I, and was made circa 1030. Old records describe the robe as handiwork of the queen and her sisters and the mantle's middle back bears the king's only known portrait (which shows his crown was not the currently existing one). A circular inscription sewn in Latin identifies the coat as a bishop's chasuble.
The sceptre is considered the artistically most valuable piece of the Hungarian royal inventory. It contains a solid rock crystal ball decorated with engraved lions, a rare product of the 10th-century Fatimid caliphate. Its handle contains a wooden rod surrounded by very fine wrought silver ornaments.
The orb is unusual in having a patriarchal cross instead of a simple cross, as on the crown.
The ceremonial straight sword kept in the Holy Crown collection is a 14th-century Italian product. However, what is said to be an original coronation sword of Stephen I has been in Prague's St. Vitus Cathedral since 1368.[The sword has a walrus-tooth hilt decorated in the Mammen style, dated to the 10th century.
A. Merhautová, s. v. "Schwert des heiligen Stephan", in: A. Wieczorek / H.-M. Hinz (eds.), ''Europas Mitte um 1000'' (exhibition catalogue, Stuttgart 2000), p. 535 Nr. 27.01.09.
Mechthild Schulze-Dörrlamm, "Schwerter des 10. Jahrhunderts als Herrschaftszeichen der Ottonen", Jahrbuch des Römisch-Germanischen Zentralmuseums 59 (2012) 609–651 (p. 630).]
A lance claimed to have belonged to King Stephen I, and seen in the Mantle portrait, was reportedly obtained by the Holy Roman Emperor
The Holy Roman Emperor, originally and officially the Emperor of the Romans ( la, Imperator Romanorum, german: Kaiser der Römer) during the Middle Ages, and also known as the Roman-German Emperor since the early modern period ( la, Imperat ...
circa 1100.
See also
* Hungarian Crown
* Crown jewels
* Holy Crown Society
The Holy Crown Society ( hu, Szent Korona Társaság; SZKT), was a legitimist and ultra-conservative civil organization and a former political party in Hungary.
History
Founded in February 1990, the Holy Crown Society considers itself as the lega ...
Notes
References
Citations
Sources
*
*
* Bàràny-Oberschall, Magda de (1949), "Localization of the Enamels of the Upper Hemisphere of the Holy Crown of Hungary", '' The Art Bulletin'', Vol. 31, No. 2 (Jun., 1949), pp. 121–126
JSTOR
* Bárány-Oberscall M. von (1974), ''Die Sankt Stephans-Krone und die Insinien des Königreichs Ungarn'', Vienna-Munich 1974
* Beckwith, John, ''Early Christian and Byzantine Art'', Penguin History of Art (now Yale), 2nd edn. 1979,
* Benda K.-Fügedi E. ''Tausend Jahre Stephanskrone'', Budapest 1988.
* Deér J., "Die Heilige Krone Ungarnsin", in ''Denkschriften der Österreichsischen akademie d. Wiss. Phil.hist.'' Kl, 91, Vienna 1966.
* Fügedi E., "Medieval Coronations in Hungary in Studies" in ''Mediaeval and Renaissance History'' 3, 1981.
* Kovács É.-Lovag Zs., ''Die Ungarischen Krönungsingien'', Budapest 1980.
* László Péter, "The Holy Crown of Hungary, Visible and Invisible", ''The Slavonic and East European Review'', Vol. 81, No. 3 (Jul., 2003), pp. 421–510,
JSTOR
* Tóth E., Szelényi K., ''Die heilige Krone von Ungarn'', Budapest 2000.
* Tóth E., ''A koronázási palást és jogar'' (''The Coronational Cloak and Sceptre''), Szeged 2000.
* Tóth E. "Das ungarische Krönungspectrum", in ''Folia Archaeologia'' 47, 2000.
* Vajay Sz. "De Corona Regia. Corona. Regni, Sacra Corona: Königskronen und Kronensymbolik in mittelalterlichen Ungarn", in ''Ungarn Jahrbuch'' 7, 1976m pp. 37–64.
Further reading
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External links
The Holy Crown of Hungary (images)
Sceptre (images)
The crown jewels (images)
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Holy Crown Of Hungary
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