A state crown is the working

crown A crown is a traditional form of head adornment, or hat, worn by monarchs 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, partic ...

worn or used by a

monarch A monarch is a head of stateWebster's II New College DictionarMonarch Houghton Mifflin. Boston. 2001. p. 707. Life tenure, for life or until abdication, and therefore the head of state of a monarchy. A monarch may exercise the highest authority ...

on recurring state occasions such as when opening Parliament in Britain, as opposed to 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 ...

with which they would be formally crowned. Some state crowns might however be used during parts of the

coronation A coronation is the act of placement or bestowal of a coronation crown, crown upon a monarch's head. The term also generally refers not only to the physical crowning but to the whole ceremony wherein the act of crowning occurs, along with the ...

ceremony. In isolated cases, individual monarchs sometimes chose to use their state crown instead of the official

for the crowning, but those cases were exceptions rather than the norm. Some states where there was no ceremonial coronation only had state crowns, or neither as in Belgium.

British state crowns

The term ''state crown'' was particularly used in the

Kingdom of England The Kingdom of England (, ) was a sovereign state on the island of Great Britain from 12 July 927, when it emerged from various Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, until 1 May 1707, when it united with Scotland to form the Kingdom of Great Britain. On 1 ...

and its successor

Kingdom of Great Britain The Kingdom of Great Britain (officially Great Britain) was a Sovereign state, sovereign country in Western Europe from 1 May 1707 to the end of 31 December 1800. The state was created by the 1706 Treaty of Union and ratified by the Acts of ...

to describe the crowns of Kings Charles II and

George I George I or 1 may refer to: People * Patriarch George I of Alexandria (fl. 621–631) * George I of Constantinople (d. 686) * George I of Antioch (d. 790) * George I of Abkhazia (ruled 872/3–878/9) * George I of Georgia (d. 1027) * Yuri Dolgor ...

that were worn on occasions such as the

State Opening of Parliament The State Opening of Parliament is a ceremonial event which formally marks the beginning of a session of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It includes a speech from the throne known as the King's (or Queen's) Speech. The event takes place ...

. While the crown of Charles no longer exists, the jewel-less frame of the State Crown of George I is still kept among the

British Crown Jewels The Crown Jewels of the United Kingdom, originally the Crown Jewels of England, are a collection of royal ceremonial objects kept in the Tower of London which include the coronation regalia and vestments worn by British monarchs. Symbols of o ...

. Because they were more frequently in use, in contrast to a coronation crown which was usually only worn once during each reign, state crowns were repeatedly replaced due to wear and tear. Because of its age and fragility, the State Crown of George I was replaced in 1838, the new replacement crown was instead called the

Imperial State Crown The Imperial State Crown is one of the Crown Jewels of the United Kingdom and symbolises the sovereignty of the monarch. It has existed in various forms since the 15th century. The current version was made in 1937 and is worn by the monarc ...

, as was its replacement in 1937. The adjective 'imperial' did not indicate that British sovereigns were emperors, even if ''rex in regno suo est imperator'' (the king is emperor within his own realm), but in medieval European tradition crowns with arches were called 'imperial'.

References

{{Types of Crowns Crowns (headgear) Formal insignia Monarchy State ritual and ceremonies