The Coronet of

P. W. HAMMOND

IN 1468 A MARRIAGE TOOK PLACE between Charles the Rash, , and Margaret of York, sister of Edward IV. The wedding was the result of long and protracted negotiations, and was part of an alliance of f_riendship between England and Burgundy. The young princess (she was twenty-two years old in 1468) gave her assent to the event in October 1467, and a few months later, after a pilgrimage to the shrine of St. Thomas at Canterbury with her brothers Edward IV and the Dukes of Clarence and Gloucester, she embarked for from the small port of Margate on 1 July 1468. She landed at Sluys the next day.where she was received with great honours, and thus began nine days of the most splendid festivities including jousting, receptions and banquets. The marriage itself took place at Damme on 3 July. The Duchess is described as wearing a surcote and mantle of cloth of gold furred with ermine and being ‘rychely coroned’.l This ‘corone’ still exists.2 It is very small, with a diameter across the base of just under five inches, and a maximum height of just over five inches.3 It is made of gilded silver, ornamented with precious stones, pearls and enamel, and follows the usual design of a lower circlet surmounted by eight tall and eight short projections. The circlet has an edging of pearls around the top and bottom of the band, and between these white enamelled roses spaced at intervals around it. Each rose is surmounted by a blue precious stone. The rose at the front, i.e. over the forehead, is slight-1y larger, and is surmounted by a diamond cross. Between each rose appear letters covered with translucent reen, white and red enamel forming the inscription MARGARIT[A] DE Y]O[R]K.‘ Opposite the diamond cross is an enamelled shield bearing the arms_ of Burgundy impaling France and England quarterly, symbolising the marriage. The circlet is surmounted by eight large fleurons; one of them (the front one) is quadrifoliate, seven of them quinquifoliate, the latter ornamented with pearls and sapphires, and the former with a large ruby (or spinel) in a

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363 claw setting and mounted on a white rose. Below this is a small gold rose ornamented with emeralds. Alternating with each large fleuron is a smaller, lower trifoliate one, ornamented with precious stones. Unusually every fleuron curves outwards, so that the diameter is greater at the top than at the base. On the coronet below each small fleuron are the initials C and M joined with a knot, and below each large one a pearl. The front and rear fleurons have below them a larger pearl on a white enamel rose. Thege is also a case for the coronet made of leather, the sides ornamented with a design of dragons and gothic foliage pressed into the leather. On top, in the centre, are the arms of Burgundy impaling England and France quarterly. The arms are surrounded by stylised flints, the emblem ' of the Order of the Golden Fleece. Around the edge are the initials C and M joined by knots, and, repeated five times, Bien en Aviem'e, the motto of Duke Charles. The case shows traces of the original gilding.’ There is no written evidence to prove that this is the coronet used at the wedding, but there is no reason to doubt that it is. The initials C and M, together .with the name Margaret, and the arms of Burgundy impaling England and France quarterly, show that it was used on some such occasion — nuptial crowns were widely used in the . Another such coronet of the fifteenth century and of English origin was worn by Blanche, daughter of Henry IV, at her marriage to the Elector Palatine in 1402, and still exists in Munich.6 The box was undoubtedly prepared for the occasion of the marriage, with not only the linked imtials but also the impaled Anglo- Burgundian arms. This reasonably confident dating of the box raises of course the question of the date of the coronet. Traditionally it was said to have been made in 1468-for the wedding, and at first sight the initials, white roses and coat of arms would seem to support this date. However. Squilbeck has suggested that it was made in 1461 to be worn by Margaret at the coronation of her brother Edward IV, and that the symbols relating to the marriage were added in 1468.7 There is nothing inherently impossible in this. The inscription MARGARIT[A] DE [Y]O[R]K certainly seems to have been added as an afterthought, with the letters being crowded into an inadequate space, and they are of course partially in French, not English. The other symbols could have been added without difficulty. Such an origin would explain the apparent predominance of the over the arms of Burgundy. We do have a record of the sister of a Yorkist king wearing a ‘cronell of golde’ at the coronation of her brother, that is Elizabeth, Duchess of Suffolk, at the coronation of Richard III in 1483.“ It is possible that the pattern of the coronet supports this. The general tendency in the fifteenth century was for the pinnacles of non-royal crowns to be assimilated into the circlet, i.e: to lower the fleurons.” This change seems to have been taking place in the period 1450-1480, so that Margaret of York’s coronet would have been slightly old-fashioned if made in 1468, but not so much so if made in 1461. However this could be due to its having been made at the later date but in a more traditional design. A pattern of rosettes between initials, or rows of letters making up a name, is known from the beginning of the fifteenth century, as are alternating large and small fleur de lys.“I The dimensions of the coronet may support the earlier date of

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manufacture though. As seen above it is in fact very small. Margaret of York was fifteen years of age in 1461, and although hardly a child, may have had a smaller coronet than that of a fully grown adult. ' In 1474“ Margaret made a visit to the Cathedral Church of St. Mary at Aache_n,_and in the course of the visit gave her coronet to adorn the statue of the egm there. At , in the Cathedral Treasury, the coronet still remams.

NOTES AND REFERENCES

1. S. Bentley, Excerpm Historic-a ( 1831), p.232. A very full contemporary description appears on pp.227-239. The festivities are discussed in Richard Vaughan, (London 1973), pp.48—53. 2. E. G. Grimme, Das Aachener Domschatz (Aachener Kunst-blaner, vol. 42, Dusseldorf 1972), pp.111-112 and plate 109; Jean Squilbeck in Marguerite d’York etson temps ( 1967), pp.45-47. Actually 12.5 cms. and 13.2 cms. respectively. This lettering is that now present on the coronet. Franz Bock, Die Kleinodien des Heil Romischen Reiches Deutscher Nation (Vienna 1864), p.212 gives it as MAR[GA]RITA DE Y[OR]K, presumably in error; the engravings in this book also show differences from the coronet as it is now. It may be noted that the coronet was restored in 1865, and it is possible that the lettering, at least, was altered then. See Stephen Beissel, Die Aachenfahn, (Freiburg 1902), p.94. Grimme, p.111 and plate 110; Die Kronenkapsel Margarem’s v. York, in Der Deutsche Herold, vol. 21, no. 6, p.75. E. F. Twining, European Regalia (London 1967), p.67. Squilbeck, p.47. Anne F. Sutton and P. W. Hammond, The Coronation of Richard III (Gloucester 1983), p.277. Joan Evans, A History of Jewellery 1100-1870 (London 1953), p.73. P. E. Schramm, Herrschaflzeichen und Smalsymbolik (Stuttgart 1956), vol. 3, p.1003. This date is usually given as 1475, that given by Bock (p.214) from a Cologne Chronicle of 1632. He has been followed by all subsequent authors. In fact the year in which Margaret visited Aachen was 1474, when she was at the Cathedral on 22 July: Herman Vander Linden, Itineraires de Charles, Duc de Bourgogne, Marguerite D’York et Marie de Bourgogne (1467-1477) (Brussels 1936), p.63.

I would like to thank my wife Carolyn and George Awdry for help with the German translating involved, and Julian Rowe for his skilful drawing of the coronet.

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