An Imperial Crown is a

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 ...

used for the

coronation A coronation is the act of placement or bestowal of a 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 presentation of o ...

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

Design

Crowns in Europe during the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire ...

varied in design: During the Middle Ages the crowns worn by English kings had been described as both closed (or arched) and open designs. This was in contrast with kings of France who always wore an open crown. However, there is academic debate on how often closed crowns were used in England during this period, as the first unequivocal use of the closed crown was by

Henry IV of England Henry IV ( April 1367 – 20 March 1413), also known as Henry Bolingbroke, was King of England from 1399 to 1413. He asserted the claim of his grandfather King Edward III, a maternal grandson of Philip IV of France, to the Kingdom of F ...

at his coronation on 13 October 1399. However his effigy on his tomb in

Canterbury Cathedral Canterbury Cathedral in Canterbury, Kent, is one of the oldest and most famous Christian structures in England. It forms part of a World Heritage Site. It is the cathedral of the Archbishop of Canterbury, currently Justin Welby, leader of the ...

wears an open crown, so the link in England between the style of the crown and its representation as that worn by a king and an emperor was not established. The use of a closed crown may have been adopted by the English as a way of distinguishing the English crown from the French crown, but it also had other meanings to some. For example,

Henry V of England Henry V (16 September 1386 – 31 August 1422), also called Henry of Monmouth, was King of England and Lord of Ireland from 1413 until his death in 1422. Despite his relatively short reign, Henry's outstanding military successes in the ...

wore a helmet-crown of the arched type at the

Battle of Agincourt The Battle of Agincourt ( ; french: Azincourt ) was an English victory in the Hundred Years' War. It took place on 25 October 1415 ( Saint Crispin's Day) near Azincourt, in northern France. The unexpected English victory against the numeric ...

which the French knight St. Remy commented was "like the imperial crown". The association of the closed crown with imperial crowns was already established in Continental Europe by the late 14th century, for example the florins minted for

Charles IV, Holy Roman Emperor Charles IV ( cs, Karel IV.; german: Karl IV.; la, Carolus IV; 14 May 1316 – 29 November 1378''Karl IV''. In: (1960): ''Geschichte in Gestalten'' (''History in figures''), vol. 2: ''F–K''. 38, Frankfurt 1963, p. 294), also known as Charle ...

) sometimes show him with a closed crown (though on the commoner variety, the crown is open). A miniature picture in the ''Chronica Aulae Regiae'' written in the great abbey outside Prague depicts his mother Elizabeth, a queen of Bohemia, wearing an open crown, while his two wives, who had imperial titles, have closed ones. During the machinations that surrounded the introduction of the imperial crown under

Henry VIII Henry VIII (28 June 149128 January 1547) was King of England from 22 April 1509 until his death in 1547. Henry is best known for his six marriages, and for his efforts to have his first marriage (to Catherine of Aragon) annulled. His disa ...

(see the section below Legal usage), the closed crown, became associated as a symbolic representation of the English Crown as an imperial crown, and has remained so until this day.

Types of Imperial crowns

Roman Imperial Crowns

File:Museum of Anatolian Civilizations118.jpg, A mixed type between Diadem and laurel wreath from Anatolia File:ProbusCoin.jpg, Depiction of the ''corona radiata'' or "

radiant crown A radiant or radiate crown, also known as a solar crown, sun crown, Eastern crown, or tyrant's crown, is a crown, wreath, diadem, or other headgear symbolizing the sun or more generally powers associated with the sun. Apart from the Ancient ...

" associated with the cult of

Sol Invictus Sol Invictus (, "Unconquered Sun"), sometimes simply known as Helios, was long considered to be the official sun god of the later Roman Empire. In recent years, however, the scholarly community has become divided on Sol between traditionalists ...

(late 3rd century;

Marcus Aurelius Probus Marcus Aurelius Probus (; 230–235 – September 282) was Roman emperor from 276 to 282. Probus was an active and successful general as well as a conscientious administrator, and in his reign of six years he secured prosperity for the inner pr ...

Byzantine Imperial Crowns

File:Meister von San Vitale in Ravenna 004.jpg, Emperor Justinian with a ''stemma'' File:Monomacho's crown - circa 1042 Budapest.JPG, Crown of Constantine IX.

Imperial Crowns with Mitre

Imperial Crowns with single arch and deployable mitre

File:Weltliche Schatzkammer Wien (190)2.JPG,

Imperial Crown of the Holy Roman Empire The Imperial Crown of the Holy Roman Empire (german: Reichskrone), a hoop crown (german: Bügelkrone) with a characteristic octagonal shape, was the coronation crown of the Holy Roman Emperor, probably from the late 10th century until the dissolut ...

- coronation crown of Holy Roman Emperors-elect, the

German Kings This is a list of monarchs who ruled over East Francia, and the Kingdom of Germany (''Regnum Teutonicum''), from the division of the Frankish Empire in 843 and the collapse of the Holy Roman Empire in 1806 until the collapse of the German E ...

. File:Aachen Domschatz Bueste1.jpg, Imperial crown on the head of the Charlemagne reliquary in Aachen File:Kaiserliche Hauskronen Karls VII. - Augsburger Krone von Rechts.JPG, The larger of the Imperial Crowns of Charles VII, made in Augsburg File:Kaiserliche Hauskronen Karls VII. - Frankfurter Krone von Rechts.JPG, The smaller of the Imperial Crowns of Charles VII, made in Frankfurt

Imperial Crowns with single arch and attached mitre

File:Ströhl - Kaiserkrone Friedrichs III.png, Personal Crown of Holy Roman Emperor Frederick III depicted on his tomb. File:Weltliche Schatzkammer Wien white.jpg, Personal Imperial Crown made for Holy Roman Emperor Rudolf II, later

Imperial Crown of Austria The Imperial Crown of Austria (german: Österreichische Kaiserkrone) is a crown formerly in use by the monarchs of the Habsburg monarchy. The crown was originally made in 1602 in Prague by Jan Vermeyen as the personal crown of Holy Roman Emperor ...

. File:Ströhl-Regentenkronen-Fig. 03.png,

Imperial Crown of Russia The Imperial Crown of Russia (russian: Императорская Корона России), also known as the Great Imperial Crown (russian: Великая Императорская Корона), was used by the monarchs of Russia from 1762 ...

— coronation crown of the

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-ei ...

Tsar Tsar ( or ), also spelled ''czar'', ''tzar'', or ''csar'', is a title used by East and South Slavic monarchs. The term is derived from the Latin word ''caesar'', which was intended to mean "emperor" in the European medieval sense of the ter ...

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

s. File:Anna of Russia's crown (1730, Kremlin museum) by shakko 04blackened.jpg, Crown of Anna of

File:Entwurf einer Mitrenkrone für Christian IV. von Dänemark (1594).png, Never realized design for Christian IV of Denmark, 1594

Imperial Crowns with high arches

File:Albrecht Dürer 082.jpg, Dürer's portrait of Emperor Sigismund

Ottoman Imperial Crowns

File:Suleiman Agostino.JPG, Süleyman the Magnificent's Venetian Helmet (Likely destroyed)

Prussian-German Imperial Crowns

File:Krone des Preußisch-Deutschen Kaisers (Modell-von-1872).png,

German State Crown In 1871 a design and a model for a new state crown (german: Staatskrone) were created to reflect the new German Empire. The model was based upon the Crown of the Holy Roman Empire and was kept in the Hohenzollern museum at Schloss Monbijou ...

, wooden model, 1872. File:Krone der Preußisch-Deutschen Kaiserin (Modell-von-1872).png, Empress Crown

Napoleonic Imperial Crowns

File:Crown of Napoleon I.png, Imperial

Crown of Napoleon The Crown of Napoleon was a coronation crown manufactured for Napoleon and used in his coronation as Emperor of the French on December 2, 1804. Napoleon called this crown the "Crown of Charlemagne", which was the name of the ancient royal coronati ...

Bonaparte, called the "Crown of Charlemagne" File:Napoléon-téte-couronnée-Jacques-Louis-David.jpg, Napoleon Bonaparte with the Laurels crown (destroyed 1819) File:Josephine de Beauharnais, Keizerin der Fransen.jpg, Empress Josephine with empress crowns (destroyed 1819) File:Imperial Crown of Napoleon III. (Reproduction by Abeler, Wuppertal).png,

Crown of Napoleon III The Crown of Napoleon III was a crown that was made for Napoleon III, Emperor of the French. Although he did not have a coronation ceremony, a crown was made for him on the occasion of the 1855 Exposition Universelle (1855), Exposition Universelle ...

(destroyed 1871); reproduction displayed at the Abeler collection of crowns and regalia in

Wuppertal Wuppertal (; "''Wupper Dale''") is, with a population of approximately 355,000, the seventh-largest city in North Rhine-Westphalia as well as the 17th-largest city of Germany. It was founded in 1929 by the merger of the cities and tow ...

File:Crown of Empress Eugenie.png, Crown of Empress Eugénie File:Imperial crown of 2nd mexican empire 2014-08-12 14-24.jpg,

Imperial Crown of Mexico The Imperial Crown of Mexico was the crown created for the Sovereign of Mexico on two separate occasions in the 19th century. The first was created upon the Declaration of Independence of the Mexican Empire from the kingdom of Spain in 1821, for ...

Second Empire Second Empire may refer to: * Second British Empire, used by some historians to describe the British Empire after 1783 * Second Bulgarian Empire (1185–1396) * Second French Empire (1852–1870) ** Second Empire architecture, an architectural styl ...

, partially modeled on French versions of

Napoleon III Napoleon III (Charles Louis Napoléon Bonaparte; 20 April 18089 January 1873) was the first President of France (as Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte) from 1848 to 1852 and the last monarch of France as Emperor of the French from 1852 to 1870. A neph ...

’s crown and the Crown of Empress Eugénie, as sponsors

Imperial crowns based on the design of European royal crowns

File:Emperatriz Ana Maria by Josephus Arias Huerta.jpg, Empress Ana Maria of Mexico with the Crown of the

First Mexican Empire The Mexican Empire ( es, Imperio Mexicano, ) was a constitutional monarchy, the first independent government of Mexico and the only former colony of the Spanish Empire to establish a monarchy after independence. It is one of the few modern-era ...

File:Coroa de Pedro I (Secretaria de Cultura de SP 1972).jpg, Brazilian Imperial Crown of Pedro I File:Brazilian Imperial Crown2.jpg, Brazilian Imperial Crown of Pedro II File:ImperialMexicanCrown1.jpg, Design of the

seen in paintings of

Maximilian I of Mexico Maximilian I (german: Ferdinand Maximilian Josef Maria von Habsburg-Lothringen, link=no, es, Fernando Maximiliano José María de Habsburgo-Lorena, link=no; 6 July 1832 – 19 June 1867) was an Austrian archduke who reigned as the only Emperor ...

during the

Second Mexican Empire The Second Mexican Empire (), officially the Mexican Empire (), was a constitutional monarchy established in Mexico by Mexican monarchists in conjunction with the Second French Empire. The period is sometimes referred to as the Second French i ...

File:ImperialCrownOfIndia2.jpg,

Imperial Crown of India The Imperial Crown of India is the crown that was used by King in his capacity as Emperor of India at the Delhi Durbar of 1911. Origin Tradition prohibits the Crown Jewels from leaving the United Kingdom, a product of the days when kings and q ...

— the Imperial Crown worn by King

George V George V (George Frederick Ernest Albert; 3 June 1865 – 20 January 1936) was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Emperor of India, from 6 May 1910 until his death in 1936. Born during the reign of his grandmother ...

at the

Delhi Durbar The Delhi Durbar ( lit. "Court of Delhi") was an Indian imperial-style mass assembly organized by the British at Coronation Park, Delhi, India, to mark the succession of an Emperor or Empress of India. Also known as the Imperial Durbar, it was ...

in 1911. File:Imperial Crown of the Central African Empire.jpg, Imperial Crown of the

Central African Empire From 4 December 1976 to 21 September 1979, the Central African Republic was officially known as the Central African Empire (french: Empire centrafricain), after military dictator (and president at the time) Marshal Jean-Bédel Bokassa declared ...

— the Imperial Crown worn by Emperor Bokassa I at his cornation in 1977.

Other Imperial Crowns without European origin or influence

File:Výstava valtice7.jpg,

Kiani Crown The Kiani Crown (Persian: تاج کیانی) was the traditional coronation crown in the Iranian Crown Jewels, worn by the Qajar shahs of Iran (1789–1925). The crown was designed under the first Qajar shah Agha Mohammad Khan Qajar () as a way ...

, Imperial Crown in

Persia Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...

File:PahlaviCrown.jpg,

Pahlavi Crown The Pahlavi Crown ( fa, تاج پهلوی) was the coronation crown used during the Pahlavi dynasty (1925–1979). It is held amongst the Iranian crown jewels by the current government of Iran. Background Following the ascension of the Pahlavi d ...

, Imperial Crown in

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...

File:Imperial Empress Crown 2.png, Consort Crown of Persia File:Chinese Imperial Mian, Dingling.jpg,

Ming Dynasty The Ming dynasty (), officially the Great Ming, was an Dynasties in Chinese history, imperial dynasty of China, ruling from 1368 to 1644 following the collapse of the Mongol Empire, Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. The Ming dynasty was the last ort ...

Emperor Imperial Crown for full ceremonial dress File:Golden Crown Replica of King Wanli.jpg, Ming Dynasty Emperor Gold Funeral Crown File:Ming Dynasty phoenix crown .jpg, Ming Dynasty Empress Phoenix Crown File:Young Kangxi.jpg,

Kangxi Emperor The Kangxi Emperor (4 May 1654– 20 December 1722), also known by his temple name Emperor Shengzu of Qing, born Xuanye, was the third emperor of the Qing dynasty, and the second Qing emperor to rule over China proper, reigning from 1661 to ...

Qing Dynasty The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing,, was a Manchu-led imperial dynasty of China and the last orthodox dynasty in Chinese history. It emerged from the Later Jin dynasty founded by the Jianzhou Jurchens, a Tungusic-speak ...

wearing Imperial Crown File:Imperial Crown of the Empire of China.jpg, Imperial Crown of the Empire of China — worn by

Yuan Shikai Yuan Shikai (; 16 September 1859 – 6 June 1916) was a Chinese military and government official who rose to power during the late Qing dynasty and eventually ended the Qing dynasty rule of China in 1912, later becoming the Emperor of China. H ...

when he proclaimed himself emperor in 1915. File:Benkan.jpg, Imperial Crown of the

Japanese Emperor The Emperor of Japan is the monarch and the head of the Imperial Family of Japan. Under the Constitution of Japan, he is defined as the symbol of the Japanese state and the unity of the Japanese people, and his position is derived from "the w ...

, Edo-Period File:Korea-Portrait of Emperor Gojong-01.jpg,

Emperor Gojong Gojong (; 8 September 1852 – 21 January 1919) was the monarch of Korea from 1864 to 1907. He reigned as the last King of Joseon from 1864 to 1897, and as the first Emperor of Korea from 1897 until his forced abdication in 1907. He is known ...

Korean Empire The Korean Empire () was a Korean monarchical state proclaimed in October 1897 by Emperor Gojong of the Joseon dynasty. The empire stood until Japan's annexation of Korea in August 1910. During the Korean Empire, Emperor Gojong oversaw the Gwan ...

wearing Imperial Crown File:Muxungthien1.JPG, Vietnamese

Nguyen dynasty Nguyễn () is the most common Vietnamese surname. Outside of Vietnam, the surname is commonly rendered without diacritics as Nguyen. Nguyên (元）is a different word and surname. By some estimates 39 percent of Vietnamese people bear this s ...

Imperial Crown File:Ethiopian Crown - Treasury Of The Chapel Of The Tablet (2852269410).jpg, Imperial Ethiopian crown

Heraldic Imperial Crowns

A list of prominent examples of depictions of imperial crowns displayed atop heraldic achievements or as

heraldic charge In heraldry, a charge is any emblem or device occupying the field of an '' escutcheon'' (shield). That may be a geometric design (sometimes called an '' ordinary'') or a symbolic representation of a person, animal, plant, object, building, or ...

includes: Heraldic Imperial Crown (Oldest design).svg,

Holy Roman Empire The Holy Roman Empire was a political entity in Western, Central, and Southern Europe that developed during the Early Middle Ages and continued until its dissolution in 1806 during the Napoleonic Wars. From the accession of Otto I in 962 unt ...

Older design
(with high arches) Heraldic Imperial Crown (Gules Mitre).svg,

Modern design
(with an arch and mitre)
Often considered as the generic design of the imperial crowns Corona_imperial_2.svg ,

, variant especially common in the Spanish heraldic tradition Heraldic Imperial Crown of Russia.svg,

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War ...

Imperial Crown of Austria (Heraldry).svg,

Austrian Empire The Austrian Empire (german: link=no, Kaiserthum Oesterreich, modern spelling , ) was a Central- Eastern European multinational great power from 1804 to 1867, created by proclamation out of the realms of the Habsburgs. During its existence, ...

Imperial Crown of Ethiopia.svg,

Ethiopian Empire The Ethiopian Empire (), also formerly known by the exonym Abyssinia, or just simply known as Ethiopia (; Amharic and Tigrinya: ኢትዮጵያ , , Oromo: Itoophiyaa, Somali: Itoobiya, Afar: ''Itiyoophiyaa''), was an empire that historica ...

Kiani Crown of Imperial Iran (heraldry).svg, Iran ( Kiami) Pahlavi Crown of Imperial Iran.svg, Iran ( Palhavi) Heraldic Crown of the First French Empire.svg,

First French Empire The First French Empire, officially the French Republic, then the French Empire (; Latin: ) after 1809, also known as Napoleonic France, was the empire ruled by Napoleon Bonaparte, who established French hegemony over much of continental E ...

Imperial Crown of Napoleon.svg,

Second French Empire The Second French Empire (; officially the French Empire, ), was the 18-year Imperial Bonapartist regime of Napoleon III from 14 January 1852 to 27 October 1870, between the Second and the Third Republic of France. Historians in the 1930s ...

Imperial Crown Brazil.svg,

Brazilian Empire The Empire of Brazil was a 19th-century state that broadly comprised the territories which form modern Brazil and (until 1828) Uruguay. Its government was a representative parliamentary constitutional monarchy under the rule of Emperors Dom ...

Crown of Mexico (I).svg,

Crown of Mexico (II).svg,

State Crown of the German Empire.svg,

German Empire The German Empire (),Herbert Tuttle wrote in September 1881 that the term "Reich" does not literally connote an empire as has been commonly assumed by English-speaking people. The term literally denotes an empire – particularly a hereditary ...

Heraldic representation changed in 1889 Imperial Crown (Heraldry).svg,

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and ...

Commonwealth Realms A Commonwealth realm is a sovereign state in the Commonwealth of Nations whose monarch and head of state is shared among the other realms. Each realm functions as an independent state, equal with the other realms and nations of the Commonweal ...

Imperial Crown of Bokassa I.svg,

Legal usage

: Because Pope

Clement VII Pope Clement VII ( la, Clemens VII; it, Clemente VII; born Giulio de' Medici; 26 May 1478 – 25 September 1534) was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 19 November 1523 to his death on 25 September 1534. Deemed "the ...

would not grant

Henry VIII of England Henry VIII (28 June 149128 January 1547) was King of England from 22 April 1509 until his death in 1547. Henry is best known for his six marriages, and for his efforts to have his first marriage (to Catherine of Aragon) annulled. His disa ...

annulment Annulment is a legal procedure within secular and religious legal systems for declaring a marriage null and void. Unlike divorce, it is usually retroactive, meaning that an annulled marriage is considered to be invalid from the beginning al ...

of his marriage to

Catherine of Aragon Catherine of Aragon (also spelt as Katherine, ; 16 December 1485 – 7 January 1536) was Queen of England as the first wife of King Henry VIII from their marriage on 11 June 1509 until their annulment on 23 May 1533. She was previously ...

, the English Parliament passed the Act in Restraint of Appeals (1533) in which it was explicitly stated that :Where by divers sundry old authentic histories and chronicles it is manifestly declared and expressed that this realm of England is an empire, and so hath been accepted in the world, governed by one supreme head and king, having the dignity and royal estate of the imperial crown of the same. The next year the

Act of Supremacy The Acts of Supremacy are two acts passed by the Parliament of England in the 16th century that established the English monarchs as the head of the Church of England; two similar laws were passed by the Parliament of Ireland establishing the En ...

(1534) explicitly tied the headship of the church to the imperial crown: :The only supreme head in earth of the

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the established Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Brit ...

called Anglicana Ecclesia, and shall have and enjoy annexed and united to the imperial crown of this realm. During the reign of

Mary I Mary I (18 February 1516 – 17 November 1558), also known as Mary Tudor, and as "Bloody Mary" by her Protestant opponents, was Queen of England and Ireland from July 1553 and Queen of Spain from January 1556 until her death in 1558. She ...

the First Act of Supremacy was annulled, but during the reign of

Elizabeth I Elizabeth I (7 September 153324 March 1603) was Queen of England and Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death in 1603. Elizabeth was the last of the five House of Tudor monarchs and is sometimes referred to as the "Virgin Queen". Eli ...

the Second Act of Supremacy, with similar wording to the First Act, was passed in 1559. During the

English Interregnum The Interregnum was the period between the execution of Charles I on 30 January 1649 and the arrival of his son Charles II in London on 29 May 1660 which marked the start of the Restoration. During the Interregnum, England was under various for ...

the laws were annulled, but the acts which caused the laws to be in abeyance were themselves, deemed to be null and void by the Parliaments of the

English Restoration The Restoration of the Stuart monarchy in the kingdoms of England, Scotland and Ireland took place in 1660 when King Charles II returned from exile in continental Europe. The preceding period of the Protectorate and the civil wars came to ...

, so by act of Parliament ''The Crown'' of England and (later the British and UK crowns) are imperial crowns.

Footnotes

References

* {{Types of Crowns Monarchy Crowns (headgear) State ritual and ceremonies Byzantine regalia