King Charles's Coronation Crown Is Worth a Mind-Boggling $4.46 Million
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King Charles will be sporting the rarely worn St. Edwards crown for his coronation.
The crown weighs nearly 5 pounds, and is worth millions of dollars.
It has quite the sordid history when it comes to past kings named Charles.
They say heavy is the head that wears the crown, and that will be especially true for King Charles III's coronation on May 6.
As Yahoo! reports, Charles will be wearing the historic St. Edwards Crown for his coronation, just as his mother, Queen Elizabeth II, did 70 years prior. In fact, it will be the first time this crown will be worn in 70 years, and the only time it will be worn until the next king, presumably Prince William, has his coronation. That's because, as Yahoo! notes, unlike the other crowns involved in the ceremony, the St. Edwards crown (currently being modified after its removal from the Tower of London) is only worn on this one special occasion.
How Expensive Is King Charles's Coronation Crown?
The St. Edwards crown is the heaviest of the crowns being used at the ceremony, weighing in at 2.23 kilograms (or nearly 5 pounds!). And that heavy crown also has a hefty estimated price tag: "I’d estimate the historic piece to be worth a staggering £3.6 million [$4.6 million USD]," Maxwell Stone, creative director of jewellery specialist Steven Stone, tells Yahoo!
What Is the History of King Charles's Coronation Crown?
So how did this crown wind up amongst the crown jewels to begin with? Well, much like Camila's controversial rod, this crown came on the heels of a historic exile, and was first worn by a very different King Charles.
The St. Edwards crown has been around since the coronation of King Charles II in 1661. What happened to the crown used before that? Why, it was melted down in 1649, of course, in tandem with the execution of King Charles I.
In 1642, a civil war broke out in England between the King and Parliament, and raged on for five years, until King Charles I was handed to parliamentary commissioners by the Scots, and the King was executed by beheading. The crown used for his coronation, allegedly dating back to Edward the Confessor, was melted down, and thus began a period of roughly 11 years of king-less rule known now as the Interregnum.
When King Charles II returned from exile in 1660 to reclaim the Crown during what's known as the Restoration, it was swiftly realized that there was not a literal crown with which to crown the new king. So a recreation of the medieval crown was commissioned from Robert Vyner, the Royal Goldsmith and certified f**king creep (sorry, descendants of Robert Vyner, but dude kept a child's corpse that he personally preserved, just hanging around for guests to look at so ... yeah). Of the design of the St. Edwards crown that Vyner made, the Royal Collection Trust notes that:
"Although it is not an exact replica of the medieval design, it follows the original in having four crosses-pattée and four fleurs-de-lis, and two arches. It is made up of a solid gold frame set with rubies, amethysts, sapphires, garnet, topazes and tourmalines. The crown has a velvet cap with an ermine band."
So King Charles III will have his coronation in a crown made as kind of a mea culpa gift to King Charles II to say, "Hey, sorry about that whole killing your dad King Charles I" thing.
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