The Sun.
London, England, 1867-06-07 00:00:00

CORONATION OF THE KING OF

HUNGARY.

THE CROWN OF ST. STEPHEN.

The telegraph informs us that Count Charles
Karolyi and Baron Nicholas Vay have been selected
to guard the crown of St. Stephen. The history of
that crown is a true romantic Odyssey. In the year
1000 A.D., after the battle of Vesprim, which
achieved the triumph of Christianity in Hungary,
Duke Stephen I. despatched his confident Astricus,
abbot of the Benedictine Convent of Martinsberg,
to Rome, to inform the Pope what he had already
done, and hoped still to do, for the propagation of
Christianity. He solicited the title of King and a
crown, and Sylvester 11. granted both demands,
with the assent of the Emperor Otho 111. Stephen,
surnamed the Saint, was crowned on the 15th of
August, 1008, at Gran, with the crown Astricus
had brought from Rome. On the occasion of the
taking of Belgrade, in 1073, a second insignia—a
gold diadem—was added to the crown. That dia-
dem had been sent by Michael Dukas, Emperor of
Byzantium, to the Duke Geysa, a son of Bela, in
acknowledgment of the clemency Geysa had shown
to the Greek prisoners.
The 23 kingsof the Arpad dynasty who succeeded
St. Stephen were all crowned with this crown, and
some of them caused their anticipated successors to
be crowned, in order to avoid all dispute relative
to the Royal succession. When the male line
of Arpad became extinct at the death of Andrew
111. Hungary was divided in two parties, one of
which proclaimed Charles Robert of Naples, and
the other Wenceslas the younger of Bohemia.
The latter was crowned during the year 1301 at the
Albe Royal ; but he was compelled, in 1304, by
Charles Robert's partisans, to leave llungary. He
took away the crown with him, and gave it at Brunn
to the Duke Otho, of Lower Bavaria, who had
been 'meantime elected by the old party of Wen-
ceslas. To reach Hungary, Otho disguised himself
as a trader when crossing through Austria, because
the Emperor Albert and the Duke Rodolph of
Austria were opposed to him. The crown was con-
cealed in a wooden vessel —an esutora, still in use
in Hungary—and arrived safely in Hungary.
The Emperor, Albert 11., the first Hungarian
King of that name, died in 1439, leaving his queen,
Elizabeth, in pregnancy. Elizabeth had the crowns
of the King and Queen of Hungary deposited in her
own bedroom. Subsequently, in consequence of the
danger from fire, she had them placed in a vault of
the fortified castle of Vissegrad. The following
year the Parliament agreed to give the crown to
Wladislaw, of Poland, on the condition that he
should marry Elizabeth, who was 30 years old, while
Wladislaw was past 50. It was with much reluc-
tance that she gave her consent to that union, and
she secretly resolved to seize upon the crown and to
place it on the head of the son she hoped to give
birth to. The governess of the young Princess
Elizabeth was one of the chief agents in this remark-
able transaction. She was supplied with the Queen's
seal, and the keys opening the three doors to be
passed through before reaching the vault. She had
also the assistance of a bold and clever Magyar,
who provided himself with files, locks, &c. After
surmounting many unforeseen difficulties, the Mag-
yar and his servants reached the vault, and while the
governess was praying for their success and offering
up vows they were hard at work with hammer and
file. At last the door of the vault was got open,
but the coffer in which the crown was deposited had
such strong locks that it was impossible to file them
off. Fire was employed to destroy the box, and at
last the crown was got at. New locks were then
affixed to the doors, which were sealed with the
Queen's seal, and the outside door fastened with the
handkerchief which the Burgrave had sealed with
his arms. Then, the Magyar took a red velvet
cusshion, unsewed it, put the crown in it, and the
cushion was carefully sewed up again. It was
placed in a sledge, the governess sat upon it, and
when they happened to stop at an inn, she deposited
the cushion on a table just before her, in order not
to lose sight of it a single second.
The same night when 'she rejoined the Queen,
her Majesty gave birth to a male child, who was
baptised under the naive of Ladislas (Feb. 21, 1440).
On the 16th May of the same year, young Ladislas
was crowned at Albe Royal with the holy crown.
The Queen's enemies, nevertheless, were powerful
and exasperated, and it soon became urgent to pro-
vide for the safety both of the King and of the
crown. The crown was placed in the King's cradle,
and the governess put in it a small spoon to make
believe that the crown was a vessel for boiling the
baby's food. At the death of Louis 11., who was
killed at the battle of Mohacs, August 29, 1526,
John Zapolya was elected King. and after the coro-
nation he entrusted. the crown with Peter Pereny.
But Pereny proved a traitor, and surrendered it to
Ferdinand, Archduke of Austria and King of Bo-
hemia, who was crowned with that crown at Albe
Royal in 1527. That was the last time a coronation
took place in that town. • King Ferdinand had the
crown removed to Prague, where it remained 56
years. During that interval it was used only once
in llungary proper, at the coronation of Rodolph.
The long absence of the crown very much grieved
the Hungarisns, and the heritage of St. Stephen
had scarcely fallen to the lot of Matthias, in conse-
quence of the renunciation of Rodolph, his brother,
when a law was passed enacting that the holy crown
should henceforth be guarded at Presburg by native
and lay Hungarians, that it should be publicly
handed to the crown keepers and deposited in the
chest in presence of the Palatine, of three prelates,
and of as many barons. From 1646 to 1715 other