crown, from the earliest times, a distinctive head ornament that has served as a reward of prowess and a sign of honour and dominion. Athletes, poets, and successful warriors were awarded wreaths of different forms in Classical times, and the chief of a barbarian tribe customarily wore a distinctive helmet. In the earliest English coronation ritual, dating back more than 1,000 years, the king was invested with a helmet instead of a crown, and a helmet with an ornamental frame surmounts the unwarlike head of Edward the Confessor on his great seal.
Another crown form in England and abroad followed the principle of the wreath and might consist of a string of jewels tied at the back with a ribbon or set in a rigid band of gold. When this type of chaplet was adopted by the nobility in general, the royal crown was distinguished by a number of ornaments upstanding from its rim; by the 15th century the helmet form was incorporated by the addition of one or more arches. These rose from the rim and, crossing in the centre, supported a finial—usually a ball and cross but in France, from the time of Louis XIV, a fleur-de-lis.
Many of the early European crowns were made in sections hinged together by long pins, which enabled them to be taken apart for transport or storage and, when worn, to adapt themselves to the shape and size of the wearer’s head. A circlet was made for Queen Victoria on the same principle, with its sections hinged but not detachable.
The practice of grounding the arches not on the rim of the circlet but on the tops of the surrounding ornaments began in the 17th century. This led to a change in shape and a flattening or depression in the centre that later was explained away as having a royal or imperial significance. Many crowns are to be found in continental cathedrals, museums, and royal treasuries. Some are associated with early figures of history or romance; others—e.g., the steel crown of Romania—are comparatively modern. The only European states in which the crown is still imposed in the course of a religious ceremony of consecration are Great Britain and the Vatican.