Crown of Princess Blanche
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The Crown of Princess Blanche, also called the Palatine Crown or Bohemian Crown, is the oldest surviving royal crown known to have been in England, and probably dates to the years after 1370. It is made of gold with enamel, sapphires, rubies, emeralds, diamonds and pearls. Its height and diameter are both 18 cm. It has been in Bavaria since 1402, brought by Henry IV of England's daughter Blanche on her marriage to Louis of the Palatinate.[1]
The crown is today displayed in the treasury of the Munich Residenz, where it has been kept since 1782. It has been described as "one of the finest achievements of the Gothic goldsmith".[2]
Description[edit]
The crown is in a heavily jewelled version of the fleur de lys (lily flower) shape that was popular for medieval crowns. It has twelve lilies rising from the circlet, alternately tall and short. The circlet's design is based on twelve gold rings beneath the lilies, mounted with hexagonal shapes in enamel and gold openwork. The placing of the jewels alternates in some respects round the crown, with for example the lowest elements, underneath the circlet, alternating between rubies and clusters of four pearls. The enamel bands on the hexagons alternate between red and blue, both spotted with white. The lily stems are detachable, and the places on the crown where they fit are numbered I to XII so they are re-attached correctly.[3]
History[edit]
The crown is first recorded in a list of 1399 recording the movement of some royal jewels in London, some two years before the marriage of Henry IV's daughter Blanche, and among a group of jewels that had belonged to the deposed Richard II and others. Therefore, it is not thought that the crown was made for Blanche. It is "most likely, though not certain, that the crown belonged to" Anne of Bohemia, who became Queen of England upon marrying Richard II in 1382. It may have been produced in Bohemia, but elements such as the beading on the stems suggest Paris, though the maker might have been a French or French-trained goldsmith working in Prague.[4] An origin in Venice has also been suggested.[5]
The crown came to the Palatinian line of the house of Wittelsbach when Blanche married Louis, son of the German king Rupert. The marriage sealed an important alliance her father needed in order to maintain and legitimize his rule. The marriage contract was signed on 7 March 1401 in London; the bride's dowry was fixed in the amount of 40,000 Nobeln. The marriage ceremony between Blanche and Louis took place one year later, on 6 July 1402 at Cologne Cathedral in Germany; she was eleven at the time. She died in 1409, leaving a son who himself died at nineteen.
Notes[edit]
References[edit]
- Cherry, John, in: Jonathan Alexander & Paul Binski (eds), Age of Chivalry, Art in Plantagenet England, 1200–1400, Catalogue number 16, Royal Academy/Weidenfeld & Nicholson, London 1987
Further reading[edit]
- Harper, Elizabeth, "Pearl in the Context of Fourteenth-Century Gift Economies", The Chaucer Review, Volume 44, Number 4, 2010, pp. 421-439, Penn State University Press, DOI: 10.1353/cr.0.0044
External links[edit]
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