St. Edward's Crown to be resized for coronation of King Charles III - The Washington Post

But the St. Edward’s Crown is safe, Buckingham Palace assures us. It is astatine an undisclosed determination wherever the crown jeweler has his radical moving connected it.

King Charles III volition deterioration the crown during his coronation astatine Westminster Abbey connected May 6, if each goes according to schedule. But first, it needs to beryllium altered to acceptable a caput astir apt bigger than his mother’s.

The 361-year-old St. Edward’s Crown is 1 of the astir celebrated bejeweled headpieces successful the satellite — and is simply a cardinal portion of the royal regalia, alongside the orb, scepter, heralds, robes and spiritual intonements (“God Save the King”) that springiness the British monarchy successful the 21st period its aerial of longevity, powerfulness and divine right.

Charles became king erstwhile Queen Elizabeth II died successful September. But astatine his accession ceremony, his caput was bare. The world’s archetypal glimpse of him successful each that regalia volition beryllium a defining moment.

“Heavy is the caput that wears the crown,” is simply a somewhat modified enactment from Shakespeare’s “Henry IV” play. Truth beryllium told, this crown is simply a whopper, weighing adjacent to 5 pounds, the value of a four-slice toaster oregon a gallon of crystal pick oregon $100 worthy of quarters.

The stats: It’s coagulated gold, 12 inches gangly and 26 inches successful circumference, and bedecked with 444 precious and semiprecious stones.

For those keeping count, that’s 345 rose-cut aquamarines, 37 achromatic topaz, 27 tourmalines, 12 rubies, 7 amethysts, six sapphires, 2 jargoons, 1 garnet, 1 spinel and 1 carbuncle, which is not to beryllium confused with a carbuncle, a benignant of abscess. A jargoon is simply a benignant of smoky zircon.

“It’s an astonishing object,” said Anna Keay, a erstwhile curator astatine the Tower of London and writer of “The Crown Jewels.”

Has she tried it on? No, Keay said, with an OMG laugh. But she has studied it.

“It’s perfectly ravishing to me. It’s this past object, the aged golden with this beauteous enameled look, and the colors astir each of the stones are truly beautiful,” she said. She added, “I deliberation it stands somewhat isolated from each the different things successful the collection.”

Why?

“Because it’s not astir the bling, astir large diamonds,” she said, adding that by today’s standards, the precious stones are not truthful precious (the crown predates the find of ample diamond mines).

What is astir amazing, she said, is that the crown remains successful service, meaning it mightiness walk astir of its clip sitting connected a pillow successful a show lawsuit astatine the Tower of London, but erstwhile a caller monarch ascends, it is enactment to use, for 1 day.

“It’s made for an instauration that inactive exists and it’s inactive utilized for the aforesaid job, which is incredibly rare,” Keay said, and that occupation is to coronate a British king oregon queen successful Westminster Abbey.

This version, today’s version, of the St. Edward’s Crown was made for King Charles II, who roseate to the throne successful 1661.

That crown was a replacement for an adjacent older medieval crown associated with Edward the Confessor, the past Anglo-Saxon king of England, from the 11th century. Because Edward was sainted, the crown was considered a beatified relic, kept harmless by the monks astatine Westminster Abbey. But it was melted down nether orders from Oliver Cromwell successful 1649, upon the execution of King Charles I, and its jewels were sold off.

Interestingly, lone six monarchs person been crowned with St. Edward’s Crown since the restoration of Charles II successful 1661. There was James II successful 1685 and William III successful 1689. And past the crown fundamentally went into the royal attic for 200 years.

Keay, present manager of the Landmark Trust, said the St. Edward Crown mightiness person looked “old-fashioned” and “dated” and “too medieval” for a consequent drawstring of British monarchs. It was lone redeployed successful the early-20th period by George V successful 1911, followed by George VI successful 1937 and his girl Elizabeth successful 1953.

Buckingham Palace said the crown has been removed from the Tower of London “to let for modification work.” The crown jeweler has not said precisely what. It is imaginable that the golden crown volition not request overmuch work, that the headdress — of velvet and ermine — lone needs adjusting truthful it tin accommodate Charles’s caput nicely.