# State Crown of Charles II

The State Crown of Charles II was a state crown created for the coronation of Charles II of England in 1661. It was created to replace the Tudor Crown destroyed in the English Civil War. It was the subject of an attempted theft by Thomas Blood in 1671, and was broken up under the reign of Queen Anne.

## History

Following the abolition of the monarchy and the execution of Charles I in 1649, both the state crown of England (now known as the Tudor Crown) and St Edward's Crown were broken up and their valuable components sold. With the restoration of the monarchy in 1660, Charles II ordered the creation of two new imperial crowns by Sir Robert Vyner to replace those lost.
On 13 May 1671, Colonel Thomas Blood made an unsuccessful attempt to steal the crown jewels from the Tower of London, flattening the state crown with a mallet in the process. Other accounts state that, in the struggle between Blood and his captor, Martin Beckman, 'the great pearl and a fair diamond fell off, and were lost for awhile with some other smaller stones ; but the pearl was found by Catharine Maddox, a poor sweeping woman to one of the warders, and the diamond by a barber's apprentice ; and both faithfully restored. Other smaller stones were by several persons picked up, and brought in... So that not any considerable thing was wanting, the crown only was bruised, and sent to be repaired.'
A slight alteration to the crown was made for the coronation of James II in 1685, and some further alterations were made for William III. It was later judged too heavy and broken up under the reign of Queen Anne who wore the State Crown of Mary of Modena. Succeeding Hanoverian kings would wear the State Crown of George I, which some accounts claim is merely an altered State Crown of Charles II rather than a new crown.

## Description

Sir Edward Walker, who was Garter King of Arms under Charles II, provided a sketch of the crown in his account of the 1661 coronation, though it was not published until 1820. Cyril Davenport's The English Regalia, published in 1897, criticised Walker's illustration as 'of such an elementary character that little reliance can be placed on it'.
The Lord Chamberlain's books record that the crown was 'refreshed and repaired' by Sir Robert Vyner for the coronation of James II, but otherwise little changed. Francis Sandford wrote The History of the Coronation of James II in 1687 which included a detailed drawing and description of the state crown under James II. The crown was decorated with diamonds and other jewels, including an emerald with a circumference of seven inches, a large pearl, and a ruby set in one of the four crosses, the latter valued at £10,000 at the time. The aquamarine monde, added by James II, survives in the emptied frame of George I's state crown and is on public display in the Jewel House at the Tower of London.
A new cross was made for the coronation of William III, and the shape of the frame was altered from circular to oval.

## Gallery

* Charles II in coronation robes and wearing the state crown, circa 1661–1662
* Charles II wearing the state crown, 1665
* Regalia of Charles II, circa 1670–1679
* Charles II with the state crown
* Charles II with the state crown, circa 1675
* Charles II with the state crown, 1678
* Charles II with the state crown, minus velvet cap, 1685
* James II with the state crown, 1684
* The crown as set for James II in 1685, from Francis Sandford's The History of the Coronation of James II…
* William III in the state crown
* Depiction of William III in the state crown, with Mary in the consort's crown
* William III with the state crown, circa 1690