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Crowning Moments

Libi Astaire

By Libi Astaire

Published Sept. 24, 2014

Crowning Moments
While our coronation of the King of Kings, on Rosh Hashana, is a ceremony of spirit, we humans still imagine a crown --- perhaps we envision a most magnificent creation of gold and jewels. Do we think of the Crown Jewels? The royal crown of Louis XV. Throughout history, the crown made the king (unless he had to pawn it to pay debts)


We live in a world of symbols. They can be words, images, or things. But symbols help us navigate the world and understand what we are seeing. One of the best-known symbols is the crown. Whether the crown is placed atop a Torah scroll or even a contemporary monarch, when we see it we know that we are in the presence of either royalty or authority, or both.

It's not surprising, then, that royal crowns are usually made from the most precious materials that a ruler can acquire. But despite their great value, or perhaps because of it, crowns have had a habit of being lost or stolen — and the lore surrounding them can be as intriguing as the plot of a modern-day thriller.

ROYAL BEGINNINGS

Although we don't know when the first crown was made, in 1961 Israeli archeologists found a copper circular object with spiked pieces pointing upward that looks like it could have sat on some ancient Canaanite's head. Archeologists are a cautious lot, but museum publicists tend to be more exuberant. So when this object was shown last March at New York's Institute for the Study of the Ancient World, it was lauded as "the world's oldest crown."

Since the object dates to around the time of Methuselah, even though we don't know if it was used as a crown, we can say that it's very, very old. We're on surer ground when we come to the story found in Medrash Shemos Rabbah about the time that the baby Moses reached for Pharaoh's crown and put it on his own head — an act that alarmed Pharaoh and the royal advisors. Since the Egyptian rulers enjoyed putting their likenesses in tombs and temples and on all sort of artifacts, we have images of what their crowns looked like. But because there were so many different types of crowns — the Red Crown, the White Crown, the Red and White Double Crown, the Blue Crown, etc. — we can't say which one Pharaoh was wearing on that auspicious day when Moses took it away.

The crowns of the pharaohs tended to reflect the personalities of the people who wore them. The famous Red and White Double Crown, for example, was very elongated, as though it is pointing up to heaven in defiance of the Almighty (or the gods the Egyptians wor shipped). The "crown" of Aaron, on the other hand, the first Kohein Gadol (high priest), was more modest. The main part of the head covering was the linen miter, or turban; it is usually depicted as being rounded in shape. The actual "crown" was the Tzitz Nezer Hakodesh, the frontlet of gold that had inscribed upon it the words Kodesh laHashem (Holy to G0D).

This idea of a cloth turban-like cap that is encircled by a diadem, or circlet, made from precious metals and gems became a prototype that can still be seen in royal crowns today.

JUST ADD OIL

Why did a king or queen need a crown? Was it just a way to tell the monarch from the other members of the nobility, or was there a deeper meaning to it? The answer can be found in the Torah.

Before a Kohein Gadol could perform his duties for the first time, he had to do two things: put on the vestments of the Kohein Gadol, including the "crown"; and be anointed with special oil, as described in Exodus 29:6 and elsewhere. The special clothing, which had symbolic meaning, would distinquish him from other priests as well as rank-and-file Jews. Shemen Hamishchah (Anointing Oil) gave the Kohein Gadol sanctity needed for doing his job.

Later, according to Maimonides (I Melachim 1:7), when there were kings of Israel, only the first king of a dynasty had to be anointed with Shemen Hamishchah; since the sanctification was transferred to his offspring, they didn't need to be anointed. However, there were a few instances when a king's son was also anointed with the sacred oil, most notably King Solomn. Maimonides explains that even though King David was anointed with the sacred oil by the prophet Samuel, Solomon also needed to be anointed because he was challenged by another of David's sons, Adoniyahu. The anointing, teavhes Maimonides, removed the conflict. After Solomon was anointed, he was unquestionably the new king.

The final step in the inauguration occurred when the monarch went to the throne room and sat on the throne for the first time. The officials would then come before the king and pay him homage, as is described in Kings I 1:47, when the officials came to pay tribute to King Solomon.

SECONDHAND SOLUTIONS

Recycling and royalty may not seem a likely combination, but royal crowns were often recycled. New monarchs usually had crowns made especially for them — after all, the crown had to fit the person's head, and fashions do change — and the crown would be decorated with jewels and other elements from older crowns. This was especially true in France, where it was traditional for a new king to have a crown made for one-time use at his coronation. The only French royal crown still in existence from pre-French Revolution days is the one that was used to crown King Louis XV in the early 1720s — although the crown that is today on display at the Louvre Museum has imitation jewels and not the real ones. Louis XV did the switch after his coronation, so that the jewels — which included the 140.5-carat white Regent diamond and the 55-carat pale yellow Sancy diamond — could be reused in other crowns.

DIAMONDS IN THE ATTIC

Only one other king wore those jewels, Louis XVI, who was guillotined during the French Revolution. In the early days of the revo- lution, after the royal family was in jail, the new government put France's crown jewels and other state regalia on public display at the Public Treasury. In September 1792, many of the items were stolen. Who stole the jewels remains a mys- tery, although the most likely suspect is a Frenchman named Cadet Guillot, who needed some cash to cover his debts (he ended up in debtors' prison anyway). The Regent was recovered in a Parisian attic, and later Napoleon stuck the famous diamond into his sword hilt. The Sancy diamond resurfaced in the 1820s, when a Russian prince purchased it.

Another famous crown jewel that was stolen, the 67-carat blue-colored French Blue diamond, was spirit- ed away to London and recut into two pieces; the larg- er stone is today known as the Hope Diamond and is on display at Washington's Smithsonian Museum. The Re- gent and Sancy diamonds are on display at the Louvre

THE HEIST

England also has a long his- tory of kings and queens, but the crown jewels on display at the Tower of London date only from 1661 and the Restoration of Charles II. Oliver Cromwell destroyed the older regalia in 1649 as a symbolic gesture when he established his Commonwealth of England. However, even though the gold was melted down and sold, many of the precious jewels survived. Thus, while the Imperial Crown of State used today may be relatively new, it's decorated with many old and important jewels, including a sap- phire that belonged to Edward the Confessor, who died in 1066, and the Black Prince's Ruby, which dates back to the 1300s.

England's crown jewels were almost stolen in 1670, when a discontented former Cromwellian named Thomas Blood, who had lost his fortune when the monarchy was restored, decided to take his revenge. Through an elaborate plot he managed to ingratiate himself with the person who guarded the jewels, 77-year-old Talbot Edwards, even going so far as to suggest a "shidduch" between a fictitious nephew of Blood and Edwards's daughter. During a small "engagement" party for the two families, Blood convinced Edwards to take him and the other guests to see the crown jewels. Once inside the room, Blood, the "bridegroom," and the others took out their swords and rapiers, bound and gagged the elderly Edwards, and got to work.

The gang fled on horseback with the loot, but they didn't get far. However, although Blood was caught with the royal crown on his person, he was pardoned by Charles II, who even gave Blood some valuable land in Ireland. Some say the English king pardoned the thief to prevent an uprising of other former followers of Cromwell, while other histori- ans say the king, who had performed some auda- cious acts of his own while he was escaping from Cromwell's troops, was simply amused by Blood's chutzpah. Down with the Quicksand While one can understand a crown being de- stroyed by enemy forces or stolen, would any king be so careless as to lose his crown? The answer, it turns out, is yes.

England's King John is often called the "Worst King of England." Whether he deserves that title or not is still being debated by historians — and much of his bad press in the popular imagination is due to the fact that he is the villain of the Robin Hood stories — but no one can take away from him the rather dubious honor of being the king who lost the first set of England's crown jewels.

According to the story, in 1216 King John was traveling in an area of England called the Wash, wetlands located on England's west coast. Like most medieval kings, when he traveled he took his crown and other jewels with him, to impress the local people with his wealth and authority. After all, in those pre-photography days, most people didn't know what the king looked like, and so when they finally saw him they expected to see "a king."

Apparently while King John and his entourage were trying to pass through the Wash, a fast-moving incoming tide overtook them. The heavy wagons sank into the quicksand, including the one that was transporting the royal crown, and were never seen again.

John's son, Henry III, therefore had to make do with a simple gold circlet at his coronation. However, during his reign he managed to amass his own set of crown jew- els, which he decided to keep under guard at the Tower of London, a palace-fortress that he was remodeling since he wanted to use it as his primary home. When construction costs got out of hand, he had to pawn the crown jewels to some French merchants to cover his debts. Since Henry III was an unpopular king, no one in England came to his assistance. But after his death, the royal crown and other jewels were redeemed and returned to England in time for the coronation of his son, Edward I.

CROWNING HEADACHE

Could a modern monarch pawn the crown jewels? Probably not, since most of the crowns and other regalia that represent the state is owned by the state. To make sure the monarch isn't tempted to pawn a crown or two to pay his debts, the jewels are usually heavily guarded and there is an elaborate "check-out" system before any of them can be removed.

The Bohemian Crown Jewels, for ex- ample, are housed in Prague Castle. The door leading to the chamber and the door to the iron safe where the jewels are stored both have seven locks. The seven keys are distributed to seven different government officials, who must all meet whenever the crown jewels are removed from their vault.

What happens when a monarch wants to wear one of the crowns?

When Russia's Tsarina Alexandra wanted to wear a magnificent pearl and diamond tiara to the opening ceremony of the Imperial Duma, she had to sign a receipt before "checking it out."

England's Queen Victoria got so tired of the bureaucracy involved in checking out a state-owned royal crown that she decided to create one for her personal use, which she paid for out of her own

pocket. The Diamond Crown, which is much lighter than the Imperial State Crown and measures only four inches high, also allowed Victoria to wear un- der the crown the widow's veil that she donned after the death of her husband, Prince Albert. The current queen of England, Elizabeth II, also has her own per- sonal collection of jewels, and many of the tiaras that she wears at official social functions are from her private collection.

However, when it comes to the State Opening of Parliament, a British monarch has to wear the Imperial State Crown. Since the crown is heavy — it contains four rubies, 11 emeralds, 17 sapphires, 277 pearls and over 3,000 diamonds — the monarch will usually practice wearing it before the ceremony begins, so he or she can get used to the weight. Thus, even today the royal crown is a very tangible reminder of the heavy responsibilities that come with being a head of state.

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Libi Astaire is a frequent contributor to Mishpacha magazine, where this first appeared.

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