Monomakh's Cap (russian: шапка Мономаха, translit=shapka Monomakha), also called the Golden Cap (russian: шапка Золотая, links=no, translit=shapka Zolotaya), is a chief relic of the

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

n Grand Princes and Tsars. It is a symbol-crown of the

autocracy Autocracy is a system of government in which absolute power over a state is concentrated in the hands of one person, whose decisions are subject neither to external legal restraints nor to regularized mechanisms of popular control (except perh ...

, and is the oldest of the crowns currently exhibited at the Imperial treasury section of the

Kremlin Armoury The Kremlin Armoury,Officially called the "Armou/ory Chamber" but also known as the cannon yard, the "Armou/ory Palace", the "Moscow Armou/ory", the "Armou/ory Museum", and the "Moscow Armou/ory Museum" but different from the Kremlin Arsenal. (r ...

. Monomakh's Cap is an early 14th-century

gold Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile met ...

filigree Filigree (also less commonly spelled ''filagree'', and formerly written ''filigrann'' or ''filigrene'') is a form of intricate metalwork used in jewellery and other small forms of metalwork. In jewellery, it is usually of gold and silver, ma ...

skullcap composed of eight sectors, elaborately ornamented with a scrolled gold overlay, inlaid with

precious stone Precious may refer to: Music * Precious (group), a British female pop group Albums * ''Precious'' (Chanté Moore album), 1992 * ''Precious'' (Cubic U album), 1998 * ''Precious'' (Ours album), 2002 * ''Precious'' (Precious album), 2000 * ...

s (

ruby A ruby is a pinkish red to blood-red colored gemstone, a variety of the mineral corundum ( aluminium oxide). Ruby is one of the most popular traditional jewelry gems and is very durable. Other varieties of gem-quality corundum are called sa ...

and

emerald Emerald is a gemstone and a variety of the mineral beryl (Be3Al2(SiO3)6) colored green by trace amounts of chromium or sometimes vanadium.Hurlbut, Cornelius S. Jr. and Kammerling, Robert C. (1991) ''Gemology'', John Wiley & Sons, New York, p ...

) and pearls, and trimmed with

sable The sable (''Martes zibellina'') is a species of marten, a small omnivorous mammal primarily inhabiting the forest environments of Russia, from the Ural Mountains throughout Siberia, and northern Mongolia. Its habitat also borders eastern Kaza ...

. The cap is surmounted by a simple gold cross with pearls at each of the extremities.

Origin

The main hypothesis is of old-Moscow origin. One of the others is it Central Asian origin (from

ethnological Ethnology (from the grc-gre, ἔθνος, meaning 'nation') is an academic field that compares and analyzes the characteristics of different peoples and the relationships between them (compare cultural, social, or sociocultural anthropology). ...

or cultural point of view) has led some modern scholars to view the crown as a gift from

Uzbeg Khan The Uzbeks ( uz, , , , ) are a Turkic ethnic group native to the wider Central Asian region, being among the largest Turkic ethnic group in the area. They comprise the majority population of Uzbekistan, next to Kazakh and Karakalpak min ...

of the

Golden Horde The Golden Horde, self-designated as Ulug Ulus, 'Great State' in Turkic, was originally a Mongols, Mongol and later Turkicized khanate established in the 13th century and originating as the northwestern sector of the Mongol Empire. With the fr ...

to his brother-in-law,

Ivan Kalita Iván I Danilovich Kalitá (Russian: Ива́н I Данилович Калита́; 1 November 1288 – 31 March 1340 or 1341Basil Dmytryshyn, ''Medieval Russia:A source book, 850-1700'', (Academic International Press, 2000), 194.) was Grand Du ...

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...

during the period of the

Tatar yoke The Mongol Empire invaded and conquered Kievan Rus' in the 13th century, destroying numerous southern cities, including the largest cities, Kiev (50,000 inhabitants) and Chernihiv (30,000 inhabitants), with the only major cities escaping destr ...

in Russia.

Boris Uspensky Boris Andreevich Uspenskij (russian: Бори́с Андре́евич Успе́нский) (born 1 March 1937, in Moscow) is a Russian linguist, philologist, semiotician, historian of culture. Biography Uspenskij graduated from Moscow Univ ...

, in particular, argues that the Tatar headgear was originally used in coronation ceremonies to signify the Muscovite ruler's subordination to the khan. Uspensky, Boris. ''Assorted Works'', vol. 1. Moscow, 1996. pp. 89–90, 107–11. According to Sergey Solovyov "after the death of Ivan Kalita all Russian princes traveled to the Horde... and the Khan announced the eldest son of Kalita, Simeon, the Grand Prince of Vladimir". Also Solovyov writes that the first who introduced the

coronation of the Russian monarch Coronations in Russia involved a highly developed religious ceremony in which the Emperor of Russia (generally referred to as the Tsar) was crowned and invested with regalia, then anointed with chrism and formally blessed by the church to commen ...

was

Ivan III Ivan III Vasilyevich (russian: Иван III Васильевич; 22 January 1440 – 27 October 1505), also known as Ivan the Great, was a Grand Prince of Moscow and Grand Prince of all Rus'. Ivan served as the co-ruler and regent for his blin ...

and it took place in 1498. At some point in the 15th or 16th century the crown was surmounted by a cross. After Russia overcame the period of feudal fragmentation and

of Moscow and

Vladimir Vladimir may refer to: Names * Vladimir (name) for the Bulgarian, Croatian, Czech, Macedonian, Romanian, Russian, Serbian, Slovak and Slovenian spellings of a Slavic name * Uladzimir for the Belarusian version of the name * Volodymyr for the Ukr ...

asserted his position as successor to the Roman emperors, there arose a legend that the cap had been presented by the

Byzantine emperor This is a list of the Byzantine emperors from the foundation of Constantinople in 330 AD, which marks the conventional start of the Eastern Roman Empire, to its fall to the Ottoman Empire in 1453 AD. Only the emperors who were recognized as le ...

Constantine IX Monomachus Constantine IX Monomachos ( grc-x-medieval, Κωνσταντῖνος Μονομάχος, translit=Kōnstantinos IX Monomachos; 1004 – 11 January 1055), reigned as Byzantine emperor from June 1042 to January 1055. Empress Zoë Porphyrogenita ...

to his grandson

Vladimir Monomakh Vladimir II Monomakh (Old East Slavic: Володимѣръ Мономахъ, ''Volodiměrŭ Monomakhŭ''; uk, Володимир Мономах, translit=Volodymyr Monomakh; russian: Владимир Мономах; Christian name: ''Vasiliy'' ...

, the founder of the city of Vladimir and patrilineal ancestor of Ivan III. The legend was elaborated in ''

The Tale of the Princes of Vladimir The ''Tale of the Princes of Vladimir'' (russian: Сказание о князьях Владимирских) is an early 16th-century Muscovite treatise which propounds the conception of Moscow as the Third Rome. It has been attributed either to ...

'' and served as one of the grounds for the "

Moscow as the Third Rome Moscow, third Rome (; ) is a theological and political concept asserting Moscow as the successor to ancient Rome, with the Russian world carrying forward the legacy of the Roman Empire. The term "third Rome" refers to a historical topic of debate ...

" political theory. Accordingly, the crown became known as "Monomakh's Cap", the term first recorded in a Russian document from 1518. However the fact that

died 50 years before the coronation of Vladimir Monomakh makes the statement really a legend. The first version of the orient origin of the Cap (Uzbeg Khan) was suggested by

George Vernadsky George Vernadsky (Russian: Гео́ргий Влади́мирович Верна́дский; August 20, 1887 – June 12, 1973) was a Russian Empire-born American historian and an author of numerous books on Russian history. European years ...

. Vernadsky was pointing to an interesting fact that according to

Paul Pelliot Paul Eugène Pelliot (28 May 187826 October 1945) was a French Sinologist and Orientalist best known for his explorations of Central Asia and his discovery of many important Chinese texts such as the Dunhuang manuscripts. Early life and caree ...

Özbäg can be interpreted as a freeman (maître de sa personne). Professor Kramarovsky who was specifically interested in the origin of the cap remarks that according to the technology of the headwear production the origin of the cap is either out of the Volga cities or Crimea where the school of Golden Horde

had developed. According to

Aleksandr Andreevich Spitsyn Alexander is a male given name. The most prominent bearer of the name is Alexander the Great, the king of the Ancient Greek kingdom of Macedonia who created one of the largest empires in ancient history. Variants listed here are Aleksandar, Al ...

possibly the cap was initially topped with the similar cross of the

Jani Beg Jani Beg ( fa, , tt-Latn, Canibäk), also known as Djanibek Khan, was a Khan of the Golden Horde from 1342 to 1357, succeeding his father Öz Beg Khan. Reign With the support of his mother Taydula Khatun, Jani Beg made himself khan after el ...

crown, however the German ambassador of the

Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I Maximilian I (22 March 1459 – 12 January 1519) was King of the Romans from 1486 and Holy Roman Emperor from 1508 until his death. He was never crowned by the pope, as the journey to Rome was blocked by the Venetians. He proclaimed himself E ...

Sigismund von Herberstein Siegmund (Sigismund) Freiherr von Herberstein (or Baron Sigismund von Herberstein; 23 August 1486 – 28 March 1566) was a Carniolan diplomat, writer, historian and member of the Holy Roman Empire Imperial Council. He was most noted for his extensi ...

(notorious for his

Notes on Muscovite Affairs ''Notes on Muscovite Affairs'' (''Rerum Moscoviticarum Commentarii'') (1549) was a Latin book by Baron Sigismund von Herberstein on the geography, history and customs of the Grand Duchy of Moscow, Grand Duchy of Muscovy. The book was the main ear ...

) does not support that fact. After

Ivan the Terrible Ivan IV Vasilyevich (russian: Ива́н Васи́льевич; 25 August 1530 – ), commonly known in English as Ivan the Terrible, was the grand prince of Moscow from 1533 to 1547 and the first Tsar of all Russia from 1547 to 1584. Ivan ...

had himself crowned the first Russian Tsar with this headgear, the Polish king asked him to explain the meaning of his new title. To that Ivan replied that whoever is crowned with Monomakh's Cap is traditionally called a tsar, because it was a gift from a tsar (i.e., Constantine IX) who had sent the Metropolitan of

Ephesus Ephesus (; grc-gre, Ἔφεσος, Éphesos; tr, Efes; may ultimately derive from hit, 𒀀𒉺𒊭, Apaša) was a city in ancient Greece on the coast of Ionia, southwest of present-day Selçuk in İzmir Province, Turkey. It was built in t ...

to Kiev to crown Vladimir Monomakh with this cap.Solovyov, Sergey. ''History of Russia From the Most Ancient Times'', in 15 volumes. Moscow, 1959–66. Vol. 3, p. 516. Ivan was presumably not aware that at the time of

' death,

was only two years old and he was not the Kievan sovereign yet. The Monomakh Cap was last used in the dual coronation of

Ivan V Ivan V Alekseyevich (russian: Иван V Алексеевич; – ) was Tsar of Russia between 1682 and 1696, jointly ruling with his younger half-brother Peter I. Ivan was the youngest son of Alexis I of Russia by his first wife, Maria M ...

and

Peter the Great Peter I ( – ), most commonly known as Peter the Great,) or Pyotr Alekséyevich ( rus, Пётр Алексе́евич, p=ˈpʲɵtr ɐlʲɪˈksʲejɪvʲɪtɕ, , group=pron was a Russian monarch who ruled the Tsardom of Russia from t ...

in 1682, though it was carried in the coronation procession thereafter. When Peter assumed the title of

emperor An emperor (from la, imperator, via fro, empereor) is a monarch, and usually the sovereignty, sovereign ruler of an empire or another type of imperial realm. Empress, the female equivalent, may indicate an emperor's wife (empress consort), ...

, a new western-style crown was fashioned, but was not used in a coronation until that of

Catherine I Catherine I ( rus, Екатери́на I Алексе́евна Миха́йлова, Yekaterína I Alekséyevna Mikháylova; born , ; – ) was the second wife and empress consort of Peter the Great, and Empress Regnant of Russia from 1725 un ...

References

External links

Macro Photography
The Crown of Monomakh

pictures and description
The Crown of Monomakh at kreml.ru

based on the article "Crowns of Ruthenian Tsars – landmarks of Tatar Culture". magazine "Idel" #3/4, 1996. {{crowns Tsardom of Russia Individual crowns Russian clothing Russian monarchy Tourist attractions in Moscow National symbols of Russia Medieval crowns Regalia of Russia Grand Duchy of Moscow

Origin

See also

References

External links