Margaret’s crown was adorned with pearls, and with enamelled white roses for the House of York set between red, green and white enamelled letters of the Latinization of her name (“Margarita de York”, m ar ga ri ta de yo rk), with gold Cs and Ms, entwined with lovers’ knots.
Though it seems to have been made some years earlier, Margaret wore this crown at her wedding to Charles the Bold in Bruges in 1468. Its original leather case still bears traces of old gilt. The initials CM as well as the coats of arms of York and Burgundy are again found on the lid. The rest of the case is decorated with tendrils and small dragons embossed in the leather.
The crown is much too small to fit around a head, and was probably intended to be worn around a pointed hennin, or on top of piled-up hair. It may always have been intended to be presented at some point after the coronation as a votive crown for a famous statue of the Virgin Mary. Margaret presented the crown to the Church of Our Lady during a visit to Aachen in 1475. Today the statue, placed next to the altar in the cathedral, wears the crown on festive days. In 1475 a matching crown was fashioned for the child.
Margaret’s donation of the crown to Aachen spared it the fate of much royal regalia in the English Civil War which saw the destruction of all the main English Crown Jewels. It thus remains one of only two medieval royal English crowns still surviving, the other being the Crown of Princess Blanche, now in the Munich Residenz in Germany. Margaret’s crown can still be seen in the Aachen Cathedral Treasury.
Charles wore an equally splendid but no doubt larger crown, accompanied by a golden gown encrusted with diamonds, pearls and great jewels. The parades, the streets lined with tapestry hung from houses, the feasting, the masques and allegorical entertainments, the jewels, impressed all observers as “the marriage of the century”. It is re-enacted at Bruges for tourists every five years as the Procession of the Golden Tree.
1 Comment
Margaret’s crown was adorned with pearls, and with enamelled white roses for the House of York set between red, green and white enamelled letters of the Latinization of her name (“Margarita de York”, m ar ga ri ta de yo rk), with gold Cs and Ms, entwined with lovers’ knots.
Though it seems to have been made some years earlier, Margaret wore this crown at her wedding to Charles the Bold in Bruges in 1468. Its original leather case still bears traces of old gilt. The initials CM as well as the coats of arms of York and Burgundy are again found on the lid. The rest of the case is decorated with tendrils and small dragons embossed in the leather.
The crown is much too small to fit around a head, and was probably intended to be worn around a pointed hennin, or on top of piled-up hair. It may always have been intended to be presented at some point after the coronation as a votive crown for a famous statue of the Virgin Mary. Margaret presented the crown to the Church of Our Lady during a visit to Aachen in 1475. Today the statue, placed next to the altar in the cathedral, wears the crown on festive days. In 1475 a matching crown was fashioned for the child.
Margaret’s donation of the crown to Aachen spared it the fate of much royal regalia in the English Civil War which saw the destruction of all the main English Crown Jewels. It thus remains one of only two medieval royal English crowns still surviving, the other being the Crown of Princess Blanche, now in the Munich Residenz in Germany. Margaret’s crown can still be seen in the Aachen Cathedral Treasury.
Charles wore an equally splendid but no doubt larger crown, accompanied by a golden gown encrusted with diamonds, pearls and great jewels. The parades, the streets lined with tapestry hung from houses, the feasting, the masques and allegorical entertainments, the jewels, impressed all observers as “the marriage of the century”. It is re-enacted at Bruges for tourists every five years as the Procession of the Golden Tree.