Crown of St. Stephen - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

The Holy Crown of Hungary (Hungarian

Hungarian language

Hungarian is a Uralic language, part of the Ugric group. With some 14 million speakers, it is one of the most widely spoken non-Indo-European languages in Europe....

: Magyar Szent Korona, German

German language

German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....

: Stephanskrone, Croatian

Croatian language

Croatian is the collective name for the standard language and dialects spoken by Croats, principally in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Serbian province of Vojvodina and other neighbouring countries...

: Kruna svetoga Stjepana, Latin: Sacra Corona), also known as the Crown of Saint Stephen, was the coronation crown

Coronation crown

A coronation crown is a crown used by a monarch when being crowned. In some monarchies, monarchs did not wear the one crown but had a number of crowns for different occasions; a coronation crown for the moment of coronation, and a state crown for general usage in state ceremonial...

used by the Kingdom of Hungary

Kingdom of Hungary

The Kingdom of Hungary comprised present-day Hungary, Slovakia and Croatia , Transylvania , Carpatho Ruthenia , Vojvodina , Burgenland , and other smaller territories surrounding present-day Hungary's borders...

for most of its existence.
The Crown was bound to the Lands of the Crown of Saint Stephen

Lands of the Crown of Saint Stephen

The historical term Lands of the Crown of Saint Stephen was used to denote a group of territories connected to the Kingdom of Hungary within Austria-Hungary...

, (sometimes the Sacra Corona meant the Land, the Carpathian Basin, but it also meant the coronation body, too). No king of Hungary was regarded as having been truly legitimate without being crowned with it. In the history of Hungary

History of Hungary

Hungary is a country in central Europe. Its history under this name dates to the early Middle Ages, when the Pannonian Basin was colonized by the Magyars, a semi-nomadic people from what is now central-northern Russia...

, more than fifty kings were crowned with it (the two kings who were not so crowned were John II Sigismund and Joseph II

Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor

Joseph II was Holy Roman Emperor from 1765 to 1790 and ruler of the Habsburg lands from 1780 to 1790. He was the eldest son of Empress Maria Theresa and her husband, Francis I...

).

The Hungarian coronation

Coronation of the Hungarian monarch

The Coronation of the Hungarian Monarch was a ceremony in which the King or Queen of the Kingdom of Hungary was formally crowned and invested with regalia...

insignia consists of the Holy Crown, the sceptre, the orb, and the mantle. Since the twelfth century kings have been crowned with the still extant crown. The orb has the coat-of-arms of Charles I of Hungary

Charles I of Hungary

Charles I , also known as Charles Robert , was the first King of Hungary and Croatia of the House of Anjou. He was also descended from the old Hungarian Árpád dynasty. His claim to the throne of Hungary was contested by several pretenders...

(1310–1342); the other insignia can be linked to Saint Stephen.

It was first called the Holy Crown in 1256. During the 14th century royal power came to be represented not simply by a crown, but by just one specific object: the Holy Crown. This also meant that the Kingdom of Hungary

Kingdom of Hungary

was a special state: they were not looking for a crown to inaugurate a king, but rather, they were looking for a king for the crown; as written by Crown Guard Péter Révay

Péter Révay

Baron Péter Révay de Szklabina et Blathnicza was a Hungarian nobleman, Royal Crown Guard for the Holy Crown of Hungary, poet, state official, soldier and historian.He is the grandson of Ferenc Révay.-Life:Péter Révay was a member of an old Révay family from...

. He also depicts that "the Holy Crown is the same for the Hungarians as the Lost Ark

Ark of the Covenant

The Ark of the Covenant , also known as the Ark of the Testimony, is a chest described in Book of Exodus as solely containing the Tablets of Stone on which the Ten Commandments were inscribed...

is for the Jewish".

Since 2000, the Holy Crown has been on display in the central Domed Hall of the Hungarian Parliament Building

Hungarian Parliament Building

The Hungarian Parliament Building is the seat of the National Assembly of Hungary, one of Europe's oldest legislative buildings, a notable landmark of Hungary and a popular tourist destination of Budapest. It lies in Lajos Kossuth Square, on the bank of the Danube, in Budapest...

Specifications of the crown

The Crown’s shape is elliptic (the width is 203.9 mm, the length is 215.9 mm) and is larger than a (healthy) human’s head. During coronation, the would-be king had to wear a so-called 'kapa' made of leather, which was sewn for the size of the king, to hold the crown.
The weight of the Crown is 2056 g.
The gold-silver alloys used are different in case of the upper and the lower parts of the Crown.
The lower part of the Crown is asymmetric .
A reliable consistent measurement system can be found which is true for almost all the parts of the Crown.

Holiness doctrine

As is the case with all European Christian crowns, it symbolizes a halo and thus signifies that the wearer rules by Divine Right

Divine Right of Kings

The divine right of kings or divine-right theory of kingship is a political and religious doctrine of royal and political legitimacy. It asserts that a monarch is subject to no earthly authority, deriving his right to rule directly from the will of God...

. According to popular tradition, St Stephen I held up the crown during the coronation

Coronation

A coronation is a ceremony marking the formal investiture of a monarch and/or their consort with regal power, usually involving the placement of a crown upon their head and the presentation of other items of regalia...

(in the year 1000) to offer it to the "Nagyboldogasszony" (the Virgin Mary) to seal a divine contract between her and the divine crown. After this, the "Nagyboldogasszony" was depicted not only as patrona (patron saint) for the Kingdom of Hungary

Kingdom of Hungary

but also as regina (i.e. "queen"). This contract was supposed to empower the crown with divine force to help the future kings of Hungary and did help reinforce the political system based on the so-called "Doctrine of the Holy Crown" (Hungarian

Hungarian language

Hungarian is a Uralic language, part of the Ugric group. With some 14 million speakers, it is one of the most widely spoken non-Indo-European languages in Europe....

: Szentkorona-tan). Péter Révay

Péter Révay

, a Crown Guard, expounded this doctrine in his works Commentarius De Sacra Regni Hungariae Corona (Explanation of the Holy Crown of the Kingdom of Hungary, published in Augsburg

Augsburg

Augsburg is a city in the south-west of Bavaria, Germany. It is a university town and home of the Regierungsbezirk Schwaben and the Bezirk Schwaben. Augsburg is an urban district and home to the institutions of the Landkreis Augsburg. It is, as of 2008, the third-largest city in Bavaria with a...

, 1613) and De monarchia et Sacra Corona Regni Hungariae (About the Monarchy and the Holy Crown of Hungary, Frankfurt

Frankfurt

Frankfurt am Main , commonly known simply as Frankfurt, is the largest city in the German state of Hesse and the fifth-largest city in Germany, with a 2010 population of 688,249. The urban area had an estimated population of 2,300,000 in 2010...

, 1659).
At the core of this doctrine was the notion that the crown itself had personhood and as a legal entity is identical to the state of Hungary. It is superior to the ruling monarch, who rules "in the name of the crown".

Origin of the crown

According to the most accepted theory, which is represented in the publications of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences and also of the Hungarian Catholic Episcopal Conference, the Holy Crown of Hungary consists of two main parts: the corona graeca and the corona latina. It was created during the reign of Béla III under Byzantine

Byzantine Empire

The Byzantine Empire was the Eastern Roman Empire during the periods of Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, centred on the capital of Constantinople. Known simply as the Roman Empire or Romania to its inhabitants and neighbours, the Empire was the direct continuation of the Ancient Roman State...

influence. (The Hungarian king Béla III was brought up in the Byzantine court and was for a period the official heir to the throne there.)
The crowning

Coronation

of Stephen I, the first king of Hungary

Hungary

Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...

, who was later canonized

Canonization

Canonization is the act by which a Christian church declares a deceased person to be a saint, upon which declaration the person is included in the canon, or list, of recognized saints. Originally, individuals were recognized as saints without any formal process...

Saint Stephen, marks the beginning of Hungarian statehood. The date is variously given as Christmas 1000 or 1 January 1001.

One version of the origin of the crown is written by bishop Hartvik (between 1095–1116), in which the "Pope" has sent King Stephen I "his blessings and a crown". The basis for this belief is a biography by bishop Hartvik written around 1100-1110 at the request of King Könyves Kálmán. According to "Hartvik’s legend", St Stephen sent Archbishop Astrik

Astrik

Saint Astrik of Pannonhalma is a saint of the 11th century. He accompanied Saint Adalbert in the latter's missionary work to the Bohemians and became the first abbot of Břevnov Monastery...

of Esztergom

Esztergom

Esztergom , is a city in northern Hungary, 46 km north-west of the capital Budapest. It lies in Komárom-Esztergom county, on the right bank of the river Danube, which forms the border with Slovakia there....

to Rome

Rome

Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...

to ask for or require (both are possible from original Latin

Latin

Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...

script) a crown from the "Pope

Pope

The Pope is the Bishop of Rome, a position that makes him the leader of the worldwide Catholic Church . In the Catholic Church, the Pope is regarded as the successor of Saint Peter, the Apostle...

", but it does not tell the name of the Pope. No matter how much Astrik hurried, the Polish

Poland

Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...

prince, Mieszko I

Mieszko I of Poland

Mieszko I , was a Duke of the Polans from about 960 until his death. A member of the Piast dynasty, he was son of Siemomysł; grandchild of Lestek; father of Bolesław I the Brave, the first crowned King of Poland; likely father of Świętosława , a Nordic Queen; and grandfather of her son, Cnut the...

's envoy was quicker, and the crown was prepared for the future Polish king. The Pope had seen a dream during the night, seeing the angel of the Lord telling him there will be another envoy from another nation, asking for a crown for their own king. The angel told the Pope: "There will be another envoy from an unknown folk, who will ask for [or require] a crown, too, please give the crown to them, as they deserve it". The next day Astrik approached the Pope so he gave the crown to him. "Hartvik’s legend" appeared in the liturgical book

Liturgical book

A liturgical book is a book published by the authority of a church, that contains the text and directions for the liturgy of its official religious services.-Roman Catholic:...

s and breviaries in Hungary around 1200, recalling the then-existing Pope, Pope Sylvester II. Consequently the story of how the crown had been sent by Pope Sylvester II spread throughout the Christian world, so in 1613, crown guard Péter Révai states that the entire crown was given to St Stephen by Pope Sylvester II. However, this legend can be considered biased, as Mieszko I was not living at the same time as either St. Stephen I or Pope Sylvester II. Also, in the "Greater Legend" of St Stephen, written around the time he was canonised (1083), we learn only that "in the fifth year after the death of his father (...) they brought a Papal letter of blessings (...) and the Lord’s favoured one, Stephen, was chosen to be king, and was anointed with oil and fortunately crowned with the diadem of royal honour". This legend clearly lacks the information that the crown was from Rome. Moreover, there are no documents found in Vatican City

Vatican City

Vatican City , or Vatican City State, in Italian officially Stato della Città del Vaticano , which translates literally as State of the City of the Vatican, is a landlocked sovereign city-state whose territory consists of a walled enclave within the city of Rome, Italy. It has an area of...

on the granting of the crown, even though the Vatican has a clear interest in handing over the crown from Rome, as it is representing dominance over the Kingdom of Hungary

Kingdom of Hungary

.

There is another version on the origin of Holy Crown, which is a popular fallacy: Thietmar von Merseburg (died in 1018) reports that Otto III of the Holy Roman Empire

Holy Roman Empire

The Holy Roman Empire was a realm that existed from 962 to 1806 in Central Europe.It was ruled by the Holy Roman Emperor. Its character changed during the Middle Ages and the Early Modern period, when the power of the emperor gradually weakened in favour of the princes...

has consented to the coronation of St. Stephen, and the Pope is sending his blessings; so many historians argued he has also sent a crown, however, does not report on any crown, so it cannot follow any fact.

Beside the two main theories – donation by the pope and creation in the time of Béla III – there exist a number of different theories of the more romantic kind, putting the origin of the crown into the far past and into Asia.

The question to what extent the upper part of the Holy Crown indeed belonged to the crown of King Stephen I remained open until 1978, when the coronation insignia was returned to Hungary and a thorough examination could be carried out.

The differing styles and techniques used in making the enamel pictures and the fact that the inscriptions on the diadem are in Greek and on the bands in Latin suggest that the two parts were probably made in two different periods. However, we have to note that there are no known representations of any kind in which the crown is separated: the Holy Crown is always shown as one.

Type of the crown

The Crown is a coronation crown

Coronation crown

, which should be worn only on the occasion of a coronation, and for the rest of the time two crown guards (koronaőr) guard it. Apart from this, there are only two other people who can touch it, the nádorispán (the highest secular title), who puts it onto a pillow during coronation, and the Archbishop of Esztergom

Archdiocese of Esztergom

The archbishopric of Esztergom was a historical diocese created in 1000 under Stephen I of Hungary largely on the territory of Upper Hungary. After the Treaty of Trianon, its territory was reduced to its present-day extent and it became the Archdiocese of Esztergom-Budapest on 31 May 1993...

(primate

Primate (religion)

Primate is a title or rank bestowed on some bishops in certain Christian churches. Depending on the particular tradition, it can denote either jurisdictional authority or ceremonial precedence ....

of Hungary, the highest ecclesiastical title), who places it on the head of the king.

Structure of the crown and its icons

The Holy Crown was made of gold and decorated with nineteen enamel pictures as well as semi-precious stones, genuine pearls, and almandine

Almandine

Almandine , also known incorrectly as almandite, is a species of mineral belonging to the garnet Group. The name is a corruption of alabandicus, which is the name applied by Pliny the Elder to a stone found or worked at Alabanda, a town in Caria in Asia Minor. Almandine is an iron alumina garnet,...

. It has three parts: the lower diadem (corona greca), the upper intersecting bands (corona latina), and the cross on the top, which is today crooked.

There are four hanging pendants (pendilia

Pendilia

Pendilia are pendant or dangling ornaments for a piece of metalwork such as a crown, votive crown, crux gemmata, or kamelaukion, and are a feature of Early Medieval goldsmith work...

) dangling from chains on each side of the diadem and one in the back.

Corona Græca

The corona graeca ("Greek Crown") is 5.2 cm wide with a diameter of 20.5 cm.

The two aquamarine stones with cut surfaces on the back of the diadem were added as replacements by King Matthias II

Matthias, Holy Roman Emperor

Matthias of Austria was Holy Roman Emperor from 1612, King of Hungary and Croatia from 1608 and King of Bohemia from 1611...

(1608–1619). The enamel picture on the front depicts Christ Pantokrator. On the rim to the right and left of Jesus are pictures of the archangels Michael

Michael (archangel)

Michael , Micha'el or Mîkhā'ēl; , Mikhaḗl; or Míchaël; , Mīkhā'īl) is an archangel in Jewish, Christian, and Islamic teachings. Roman Catholics, Anglicans, and Lutherans refer to him as Saint Michael the Archangel and also simply as Saint Michael...

and Gabriel, followed by half-length images of the Saints George

Saint George

Saint George was, according to tradition, a Roman soldier from Syria Palaestina and a priest in the Guard of Diocletian, who is venerated as a Christian martyr. In hagiography Saint George is one of the most venerated saints in the Catholic , Anglican, Eastern Orthodox, and the Oriental Orthodox...

and Demetrius

Saint Demetrius of Thessaloniki

Saint Demetrius of Thessaloniki was a Christian martyr, who lived in the early 4th century.During the Middle Ages, he came to be revered as one of the most important Orthodox military saints, often paired with Saint George...

, and Cosmas and Damian

Saints Cosmas and Damian

Saints Cosmas and Damian were twin brothers, physicians, and early Christian martyrs born in Cilicia, part of today's Turkey. They practiced their profession in the seaport of Ayas, Adana, then in the Roman province of Syria...

.

In the arched frame on the back of the diadem Emperor Michael VII Doukas (1071–1078) is depicted. Below it to the left is the half-length picture of "Kon. Porphyrogennetos", this probably being either Emperor Michael’s brother and co-emperor Konstantios Doukas or of his son and heir Constantine Doukas

Constantine Doukas

Constantine Doukas or Ducas , was Byzantine co-emperor from c. 1074 to 1078 and from 1081 to 1087. He was the son of Emperor Michael VII Doukas and his Georgian wife Maria of Alania....

, both having been born in the purple

Porphyrogenitos

Porphyrogénnētos, Latinized as Porphyrogenitus was an honorific title given to a son, or daughter , of a reigning emperor in the Byzantine Empire. However, not every imperial prince or princess was accorded this distinction...

. To the right there is a picture of the Hungarian King Géza I (1074–1077), with the Greek

Greek language

Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...

inscription: "ΓΕΩΒΙΤZΑC ΠΙΣΤΟC ΚΡΑΛΗC ΤΟΥΡΚΙΑC" (Geōvitzas pistós králēs Tourkías, meaning "Géza I, faithful kralj

Kralj

Kralj is a South Slavic surname and title. It literally means "king" and is derived from Charles the Great in the same sense as Tsar is to Caesar...

of the land of the Turks

Hungary

"). The contemporary Byzantine name for the Hungarians was "Turks", while the Hungarian branch of the Greek Orthodox Church

Greek Orthodox Church

The Greek Orthodox Church is the body of several churches within the larger communion of Eastern Orthodox Christianity sharing a common cultural tradition whose liturgy is also traditionally conducted in Koine Greek, the original language of the New Testament...

, under Constantinople

Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople

The Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople , part of the wider Orthodox Church, is one of the fourteen autocephalous churches within the communion of Orthodox Christianity...

's jurisdiction, was named the "Metropolitanate

Metropolis (religious jurisdiction)

A metropolis is a see or city whose bishop is the metropolitan of a province. Metropolises, historically, have been important cities in their provinces....

of Tourkia" (Hungary), and the head of this church was the "Metropolitan

Metropolitan bishop

In Christian churches with episcopal polity, the rank of metropolitan bishop, or simply metropolitan, pertains to the diocesan bishop or archbishop of a metropolis; that is, the chief city of a historical Roman province, ecclesiastical province, or regional capital.Before the establishment of...

of Tourkia" (Hungary). As was customary in the hierarchy of the Byzantine state, clear differentiation is made between style of the emperors and that of the Hungarian king by using a hellenized form of the common South Slavic word for "king" (Kralj

Kralj

Kralj is a South Slavic surname and title. It literally means "king" and is derived from Charles the Great in the same sense as Tsar is to Caesar...

) for Géza. The saints and the Greek rulers have halos

Halo (religious iconography)

A halo is a ring of light that surrounds a person in art. They have been used in the iconography of many religions to indicate holy or sacred figures, and have at various periods also been used in images of rulers or heroes...

while Géza does not. The inscriptions of the emperors’ names are in red, while the Hungarian king’s is in dark blue or black.

The enamel plaques on the circular band, the panel depicting Christ Pantokrator, and the picture of Emperor Michael were all affixed to the crown using different techniques. The picture of the emperor could not be attached to the rim in the same way as the Pantokrator picture on the front. The frame was folded upwards and the picture of the emperor was nailed to the edge. We can thus conclude that the picture of Michael VII was not originally designed for this crown, but was probably used first somewhere else.

The corona græca with its pointed and arched plaques is identical to the form of the crowns of the Byzantine empresses – in other words it was a woman’s crown. It was given by Emperor Michael Dukas VII to King Géza’s wife, who was of the Greek Synadenos family, around 1075. The gift was not a new crown, but rather an old crown designed for a woman that had to be selected from the Emperor’s treasury and remodelled. The enamel pictures that become outdated were removed, since either represented earlier historical figures or were not appropriate for the Hungarian queen according to court protocol. It was in this form that the crown was sent to Hungary.

There is another view that the Géza depicted on the corona graeca is not King Géza I but St Stephen's father. This view is confirmed by the fact that Grand Prince Géza is depicted on the corona gracea without a crown, although carring a royal sceptre.

Corona Latina

The corona latina ("Latin Crown") is not an independent object, as it has no function alone. It was designed to be attached to the top rim of the Corona Græca and provide a cupola-shaped top. It was made of four 5.2-cm-wide gold sheets welded to the edge of a square central panel (7.2*7.2 cm).
The inscription on the pictures of the saints and the style of their lettering suggest the date when they were made. Amidst the antique-style capital letter, the T in Thomas and the second U in Paulus are formed in the style characteristic of the Latin letters used on Byzantine coins, a practice abandoned in the middle of the eleventh century. They may have decorated a reliquary box or a portable altar given to István I by the pope. It is also possible, although cannot be verified, that István I received a crown as a gift from one of the popes, reciprocating his – historically documented - gifts. The picture of the apostles, however, based on their style, cannot be dated to around 1000.

The intersecting bands are edged with beaded gold wire that closes off the lower end of the bands and finishes off the system of decoration. There are twelve pearls on the central panel and a total of seventy-two altogether on the Corona Latina, symbolising the number of Christ’s disciples,. (Acts 10.1).

The central panel is decorated with a square cloisonné enamel picture depicting Christ Pantokrator. Each band has two (altogether eight) pictures of standing apostles identical to the first eight listed in Acts 1.13.

Éva Kovács and Zsuzsa Lovag suggest that the corona latina was originally a large Byzantine liturgical asterisk from a Greek monastery in Hungary. In order to get it to fit into it new role the apostles at the bottom of each of the four arms of this asterisk were cut off before it was very crudely attached to the inside of the corona graeca to transform this Byzantine open crown into a closed crown (i.e., the type of crown proper to the Autocrat, the senior emperor or monarch in Byzantine imperial protocol) and to provide a base for the reliquary cross at its summit (see Cross).

Cross

The cross is attached to the crown in a rough manner, breaking through the image of Christ on the top. This addition might have taken place during the 16th century. The cross was knocked crooked in the 17th century when the crown was damaged, possibly by the top of the iron chest housing the insignia being hastily closed without the crown having been placed in it properly. The cross has since been left in this slanted position, and is always depicted as such.

Éva Kovács suggests that the present plain cross on the top of the crown is a replacement of an original double barred reliquary cross containing three pieces of the True Cross

True Cross

The True Cross is the name for physical remnants which, by a Christian tradition, are believed to be from the cross upon which Jesus was crucified.According to post-Nicene historians, Socrates Scholasticus and others, the Empress Helena The True Cross is the name for physical remnants which, by a...

and that it was this presence of the True Cross in the Holy Crown which made it holy. She states that “Szabolcs Vajay, called to my attention a strange incident in the crown’s history which had completely escaped everybody’s attention. Before Queen Isabella handed over the regalia to Ferdinard in 1551, she broke the cross off the crown’s peak for her son, John Sigismund. According to a contemporary Polish chronicler, John Sigismund wore this cross on his chest till the end of his life, “…because he who possess this cross will again come into possession of the missing parts which, subjected to the power of the cross, had belonged to it”. Later, the cross became the property of Sigismund Bathory who, persuaded by his confessor, bestowed it on Emperor Rudolf II. This was reported by an Italian envoy in Prague who also told the Isabella-John Sigismund story.” She also notes that “Several small fragments of the True Cross were in possession of the Arpad dynasty. As a point of interest, it is precisely the smallest ones, those set into the cross on the chest, that are attributed to St. Stephen. About a tiny fragment of the True Cross, a Russian chronicler recording King Geza II’s campaigns wrote that it had been the holy king’s property and, despite its small size, it was a relic of great force. We are, perhaps, not off the track when surmising that the Hungarian crown was holy because it had once been reinforced with a fragment of the victory-bringing relic. . . . we know quite few reliquary crowns. To mention but the most obvious example, let us cite Charles IV’s crown provided with a cross containing a thorn relic.” Later, it was the Crown itself, rather than St. Stephen's cross reliquary that came to be regarded as holy through its traditional association with St. Stephen. Éva Kovács further notes in this regard the early use of the patriarchal or double barred cross and crown in the ancient Hungarian royal coat of arms. Since reliquary crosses frequently take such a double barred form the use of a patriarchal cross in the royal arms would be a direct reference to and representation of this royal relic. This association between the crown and this royal relic would also help to substantiate the theory that the Holy Crown was always intended to serve its historical role of legitimatizing the position of its wearer as the true divinely appointed king of Hungary.

The crown as a whole

The form of the Holy Crown is identical to that of the kamelaukion-type crowns with closed tops introduced in the Byzantine Empire. The use of many pictures is also typical of Byzantine crowns. When the intersecting bands were added to the corona graeca during the rule of Béla III, who had been brought up in Constantinople, the bands were decorated just as the corona graeca was, perhaps with the intention of imitating the Byzantine crowns.

Links to the first Hungarian king, Saint Stephen

Beside the using of the intersecting bands of the corona latina, which probably came from the treasury of St. István, at the time of the creation of the crown there existed further expectation that the coronation insignia would eventually include additional gold works that could be linked to the first, beatified Hungarian king, István.

The inscription embroidered onto the coronation mantle indicates with all certainty that István I and Queen Gizella had it made in 1031.

The coronation sceptre with the orb at the end can also be dated to the time of St István. On the seals of Henry II, Holy Roman Emperor

Henry II, Holy Roman Emperor

Henry II , also referred to as Saint Henry, Obl.S.B., was the fifth and last Holy Roman Emperor of the Ottonian dynasty, from his coronation in Rome in 1014 until his death a decade later. He was crowned King of the Germans in 1002 and King of Italy in 1004...

, and Rudolph III of Burgundy

Rudolph III of Burgundy

Rudolf III of Burgundy was the last King of an independent Burgundy. He was the son of Conrad, King of Burgundy, and Matilda of France...

, the rulers are holding identically shaped sceptres. Such short-staffed sceptres ending in orbs were not in use as insignia earlier or later.

Legal personality concept of the crown

The crown's raw gold and jewelry value was assessed at a mere 20,000 gold forints

Hungarian forint

The forint is the currency of Hungary. It is divided into 100 fillér, although fillér coins are no longer in circulation. The introduction of the forint on 1 August 1946 was a crucial step of the post-WWII stabilization of the Hungarian economy, and the currency remained relatively stable until...

in the early 19th century, but its artistic value and spiritual power are immense. Charles Robert (Charles I of Hungary

Charles I of Hungary

) had to be crowned three times because it was not until he was crowned with the Holy Crown, in 1310, that the coronation was seen as legally binding. Another, more recent, example of the powers of the Crown is the fact that inter-war Hungary after the last Habsburg king of Hungary, Charles IV, tried and failed to retain the throne in 1921 remained a kingdom without a king until 1946.

In such times the Virgin Mary would be considered a formal monarch of Hungary, but this venue was not pursued due to regent Horthy's Protestant faith. Instead the favored idea was Szent Korona Állameszmény, which assigned legal personhood to the Holy Crown and declared that all state powers of the monarch or the government stem solely from the sacred powers of the headgear. A monarch or a regent was formally seen as a mere arm for the crown. The concept was used to push Hungary toward a rightist regime intent on re-securing the Lands of Saint Stephen

Lands of the Crown of Saint Stephen

The historical term Lands of the Crown of Saint Stephen was used to denote a group of territories connected to the Kingdom of Hungary within Austria-Hungary...

, a course which ultimately tied the country to Hitler's Third Reich and ended in severe World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

destruction.

The regalia in modern times

The Holy Crown has had a lively history, having been stolen, hidden, lost, recovered, and taken abroad many times. During the Árpád dynasty

Árpád dynasty

The Árpáds or Arpads was the ruling dynasty of the federation of the Hungarian tribes and of the Kingdom of Hungary . The dynasty was named after Grand Prince Árpád who was the head of the tribal federation when the Magyars occupied the Carpathian Basin, circa 895...

(1000–1301), the coronation insignia were kept in the coronation city of Székesfehérvár

Székesfehérvár

Székesfehérvár is a city in central Hungary and is the 9th largest in the country. Located around southwest of Budapest. It is inhabited by 101,973 people , with 136,995 in the Székesfehérvár Subregion. The city is the centre of Fejér county and the regional centre of Central Transdanubia...

. Later the crown was housed in one of three locations: Visegrád

Visegrád

Visegrád is a small castle town in Pest County, Hungary.Situated north of Budapest on the right bank of the Danube in the Danube Bend, Visegrád has a population 1,654 as of 2001...

(in Pest county); Pozsony

Bratislava

Bratislava is the capital of Slovakia and, with a population of about 431,000, also the country's largest city. Bratislava is in southwestern Slovakia on both banks of the Danube River. Bordering Austria and Hungary, it is the only national capital that borders two independent countries.Bratislava...

(present-day Bratislava); or Buda

Buda

For detailed information see: History of Buda CastleBuda is the western part of the Hungarian capital Budapest on the west bank of the Danube. The name Buda takes its name from the name of Bleda the Hun ruler, whose name is also Buda in Hungarian.Buda comprises about one-third of Budapest's...

. In 1805–1806 the Crown was kept for about three months in the castle at Munkacs (now Mukachevo, Ukraine). Lajos Kossuth

Lajos Kossuth

Lajos Kossuth de Udvard et Kossuthfalva was a Hungarian lawyer, journalist, politician and Regent-President of Hungary in 1849. He was widely honored during his lifetime, including in the United Kingdom and the United States, as a freedom fighter and bellwether of democracy in Europe.-Family:Lajos...

took the crown and the coronation jewels with him after the collapse of the Hungarian Revolution of 1848

Hungarian Revolution of 1848

The Hungarian Revolution of 1848 was one of many of the European Revolutions of 1848 and closely linked to other revolutions of 1848 in the Habsburg areas...

and buried them in a wooden box in a willow forest, near Orşova

Orsova

Orșova is a port city on the Danube river in southwestern Romania's Mehedinți County. It is one of four localities in the county located in the Banat historical region. It is situated just above the Iron Gates, on the spot where the Cerna River meets the Danube.- History :The first documented...

in Transylvania

Transylvania

Transylvania is a historical region in the central part of Romania. Bounded on the east and south by the Carpathian mountain range, historical Transylvania extended in the west to the Apuseni Mountains; however, the term sometimes encompasses not only Transylvania proper, but also the historical...

. They were subsequently dug up and returned to the royal castle in Buda in 1853.

At the end of the Second World War

World War II

the crown jewels were recovered in Mattsee

Mattsee

Mattsee is a market town at the eponymous lake in the district of Salzburg-Umgebung in the Austrian state of Salzburg.-History:About 765 Duke Tassilo III of Bavaria established the Mattsee Benedictine Abbey, that became a part of the Diocese of Passau in 993 and was transformed into a college of...

, Austria, on 4 May 1945 by the U.S. 86^th Infantry Division. The crown jewels were transported to Western Europe and eventually given to the United States Army

United States Army

The United States Army is the main branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S. military, and is one of seven U.S. uniformed services...

by the Hungarian Crown Guard for safekeeping from the Soviet Union

Soviet Union

The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....

. For much of the Cold War

Cold War

The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...

the crown was held at the United States Bullion Depository

United States Bullion Depository

The United States Bullion Depository, often known as Fort Knox, is a fortified vault building located adjacent to Fort Knox, Kentucky, used to store a large portion of United States official gold reserves and occasionally other precious items belonging or entrusted to the federal government.The...

(Fort Knox

Fort Knox

Fort Knox is a United States Army post in Kentucky south of Louisville and north of Elizabethtown. The base covers parts of Bullitt, Hardin, and Meade counties. It currently holds the Army Human Resources Center of Excellence to include the Army Human Resources Command, United States Army Cadet...

, Kentucky

Kentucky

The Commonwealth of Kentucky is a state located in the East Central United States of America. As classified by the United States Census Bureau, Kentucky is a Southern state, more specifically in the East South Central region. Kentucky is one of four U.S. states constituted as a commonwealth...

) alongside the bulk of America's gold reserves and other priceless historical items. After undergoing extensive historical research to verify the crown as genuine, it was returned to the people of Hungary by order of U.S. President Jimmy Carter

Jimmy Carter

James Earl "Jimmy" Carter, Jr. is an American politician who served as the 39th President of the United States and was the recipient of the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize, the only U.S. President to have received the Prize after leaving office...

on 6 January 1978. Most current academic knowledge about Hungarian royal garments originates from this modern research. Following substantial U.S. political debate, the agreement to return the jewels contained many conditions to ensure the people of Hungary, rather than its Communist government, took possession of the jewels.

After the fall of Communism

Communism

Communism is a social, political and economic ideology that aims at the establishment of a classless, moneyless, revolutionary and stateless socialist society structured upon common ownership of the means of production...

, the crown was incorporated into the national coat of arms

Coat of arms of Hungary

The current coat of arms of Hungary was adopted on July 3, 1990, after the end of communist rule. The arms have been used before, both with and without the Holy Crown of Hungary, sometimes as part of a larger, more complex coat of arms, and its elements date back to the Middle Ages.The shield is...

in 1990, the National Assembly choosing the pre-war coat of arms in preference to the crown-less Kossuth

Lajos Kossuth

arms of 1849.

In a unique case in Europe, almost the entire medieval ensemble of coronation insignia

Crown jewels

Crown jewels are jewels or artifacts of the reigning royal family of their respective country. They belong to monarchs and are passed to the next sovereign to symbolize the right to rule. They may include crowns, sceptres, orbs, swords, rings, and other objects...

survived. On 1 January 2000, the Holy Crown of Hungary was moved to the Hungarian Parliament Building

Hungarian Parliament Building

from the Hungarian National Museum

Hungarian National Museum

- History:The Hungarian National Museum is said to have been founded in 1802 when Count Ferenc Széchényi set up the National Széchényi Library. This would then be followed a year later by the donating of a mineral collection by Széchényi’s wife. This led to the creation of the Hungarian National...

. The sceptre

Sceptre

A sceptre is a symbolic ornamental rod or wand borne in the hand by a ruling monarch as an item of royal or imperial insignia.-Antiquity:...

, orb

Globus cruciger

The globus cruciger is an orb topped with a cross , a Christian symbol of authority used throughout the Middle Ages and even today on coins, iconography and royal regalia...

and the coronation sword were also moved to the Parliament.

The very large coronation

Coronation

mantle remains in a glass inert gas vault at the National Museum due to its delicate, faint condition. Unlike the crown and accompanying insignia, the originally red coloured mantle is considered genuine to Stephen I, as it was made circa 1030. Codices describe the robe as a donation handiwork of the queen and her sisters

Sisters

Sisters are female siblings.Sisters or The Sisters may also refer to:* More than one nun-Film:* The Sisters , starring Lillian Gish* Sisters , starring Molly O'Day...

and the mantle's middle back bears the king's only known portrait (which shows his crown was not the currently existing one). Circular inscription sewing in Latin identifies the coat as a bishop's chasuble

Chasuble

The chasuble is the outermost liturgical vestment worn by clergy for the celebration of the Eucharist in Western-tradition Christian Churches that use full vestments, primarily in the Roman Catholic, Anglican and Lutheran churches, as well as in some parts of the United Methodist Church...

.

The scepter is considered the artistically most valuable piece of the Hungarian royal inventory. It contains a solid rock crystal

Quartz

Quartz is the second-most-abundant mineral in the Earth's continental crust, after feldspar. It is made up of a continuous framework of SiO4 silicon–oxygen tetrahedra, with each oxygen being shared between two tetrahedra, giving an overall formula SiO2. There are many different varieties of quartz,...

ball decorated with engraved lions, a rare product of the 10^th century Fatimid

Fatimid

The Fatimid Islamic Caliphate or al-Fāṭimiyyūn was a Berber Shia Muslim caliphate first centered in Tunisia and later in Egypt that ruled over varying areas of the Maghreb, Sudan, Sicily, the Levant, and Hijaz from 5 January 909 to 1171.The caliphate was ruled by the Fatimids, who established the...

empire. Its handle contains a wooden rod surrounded by very fine wrought silver ornaments.

The ceremonial straight sword kept in the Holy Crown collection is a 14th century Italian product. However, the original daily use sword of Stephen I survives in Prague

Prague

Prague is the capital and largest city of the Czech Republic. Situated in the north-west of the country on the Vltava river, the city is home to about 1.3 million people, while its metropolitan area is estimated to have a population of over 2.3 million...

's St. Vitus Cathedral

St. Vitus Cathedral

Saint Vitus' Cathedral is as a Roman Catholic cathedral in Prague, and the seat of the Archbishop of Prague. The full name of the cathedral is St. Vitus, St. Wenceslas and St. Adalbert Cathedral...

since 1368. The good condition of this short-bladed (60 cm ~ 2 ft) ivory-decorated Norman

Normans

The Normans were the people who gave their name to Normandy, a region in northern France. They were descended from Norse Viking conquerors of the territory and the native population of Frankish and Gallo-Roman stock...

sword pays homage to the art of smiths at Ulfberht, a 10^th century Viking

Viking

The term Viking is customarily used to refer to the Norse explorers, warriors, merchants, and pirates who raided, traded, explored and settled in wide areas of Europe, Asia and the North Atlantic islands from the late 8th to the mid-11th century.These Norsemen used their famed longships to...

steelwork on the Rhine (see Oakeshott typology

Oakeshott typology

Ewart Oakeshott's typology of the medieval sword is based on blade morphology. It categorizes swords into 13 main types labelled X to XXII. Ewart Oakeshott introduced it in his The Archeology of Weapons: Arms and Armour from Prehistory to the Age of Chivalry in 1960.The system is a continuation of...

). Although the sword regularly visits Hungary as a museum loan, it has never been featured in Hungarian royal inaugurations.

The titular lance

Lance

A Lance is a pole weapon or spear designed to be used by a mounted warrior. The lance is longer, stout and heavier than an infantry spear, and unsuited for throwing, or for rapid thrusting. Lances did not have tips designed to intentionally break off or bend, unlike many throwing weapons of the...

of King Stephen I (as seen on the Mantle portrait) was reportedly obtained by the Holy Roman Emperor

Holy Roman Emperor

The Holy Roman Emperor is a term used by historians to denote a medieval ruler who, as German King, had also received the title of "Emperor of the Romans" from the Pope...

circa 1100.

Other representations

The Holy Crown is recognized on Edward Burne-Jones
Edward Burne-Jones
Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones, 1st Baronet was a British artist and designer closely associated with the later phase of the Pre-Raphaelite movement, who worked closely with William Morris on a wide range of decorative arts as a founding partner in Morris, Marshall, Faulkner, and Company...

's painting The Last Sleep of Arthur in Avalon
The Last Sleep of Arthur in Avalon
The Last Sleep of Arthur in Avalon is a painting by Edward Burne-Jones, started in 1881. The massive painting measures 279 cm × 650 cm, and is widely considered to be Burne-Jones's magnum opus....

.

Sources

Bárány-Oberscall M. von, Die Sankt Stephans-Krone und die Insinien des Königreichs Ungarn, Vienna-Munich 1974
Benda K.-Fügedi E. Tausend Jahre Stephanskrone, Budapest 1988.
Deér J., "Die Heilige Krone Ungarnsin", in Denkschriften der Österreichsischen akademie d. Wiss. Phil.hist. Kl, 91, Vienna 1966.
Fügedi E., "Medieval Coronations in Hungary in Studies" in Mediaeval and Renaissance History 3, 1981.
Kovács É.-Lovag Zs., Die Ungarischen Krönungsingien, Budapest 1980.
Tóth E., Szelényi K., Die heilige Krone von Ungarn, Budapest 2000.
Tóth E., A koronázási palást és jogar (The Coronational Cloak and Sceptre), Szeged 2000.
Tóth E. "Das ungarische Krönungspectrum", in Folia Archaeologia 47, 2000.
Vajay Sz. "De Corona Regia. Corona. Regni, Sacra Corona: Königskronen und Kronensymbolik in mittelalterlichen Ungarn", in Ungarn Jahrbuch 7, 1976m pp. 37–64.

External links

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Specifications of the crown

Holiness doctrine

Origin of the crown

Type of the crown

Structure of the crown and its icons

Corona Græca

Corona Latina

Cross

The crown as a whole

Links to the first Hungarian king, Saint Stephen

Legal personality concept of the crown

The regalia in modern times

Other representations

See also

Sources

External links