page_title: Crown Jewels of the United Kingdom
section_title: Prince of Wales coronets
hierarchical_section_title: Crown Jewels of the United Kingdom / Crowns / Prince of Wales coronets
caption_attribution_description: English: Coronet of Frederick, Prince of Wales
context_page_description: The Crown Jewels of the United Kingdom, originally the Crown Jewels of England, are a collection of royal ceremonial objects kept in the Tower of London, which include the regalia and vestments worn at their coronations by British kings and queens.
  Symbols of 800 years of monarchy, the coronation regalia are the only working set in Europe – secular ceremonies have replaced coronations in other European monarchies – and the collection is the most historically complete of any regalia in the world. Objects used to invest and crown the monarch variously denote his or her roles as head of state, Supreme Governor of the Church of England, and head of the British armed forces. They feature heraldic devices and national emblems of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, and recent pieces were designed to reflect the monarch's role as Head of the Commonwealth.
  Use of regalia by monarchs in England can be traced back to when it was converted to Christianity in the Middle Ages. A permanent set of coronation regalia, once belonging to Edward the Confessor, was established after he was made a saint in the 12th century.
context_section_description: A relatively modest coronet was made in 1728 for Frederick, Prince of Wales, the eldest son of George II. It takes the form laid down in a royal warrant issued by Charles II, which states that the heir apparent of the Crown shall use and bear a coronet of crosses and fleurs-de-lis with one arch surmounted by a ball and cross. The single arch denotes inferiority to the monarch and shows that the prince outranks other royal children, whose coronets have no arches. Frederick never wore his gold coronet; instead, it was placed on a cushion in front of him when he first took his seat in the House of Lords. It was used by his son, George III, then his son, George IV, and was last used by Edward VII when he was Prince of Wales. Due to its age, a new silver-gilt coronet was made for his son, the future George V, to wear at Edward's coronation in 1902. In contrast to the earlier coronet, which has a depressed arch, the arch on this one is raised. At George's own coronation in 1911, the coronet was worn by his son, Edward, the next Prince of Wales. After he became king in 1936, Edward VIII abdicated later the same year and, as the Duke of Windsor, went into exile in France, taking the 1902 coronet with him; it remained abroad until his death in 1972. In its absence, another coronet had to be made for the investiture of Prince Charles in 1969, which was exhibited for many years at the National Museum of Wales alongside the other Honours of Wales (a rod, ring, and sword made for the 1911 investiture and also used in 1969); the coronet and rod were both added to the Jewel House in 2020.
caption: Coronet of Prince Frederick
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