held sacred till the privileges of the religious houses were subverted by Henry VIII. after which period the more valuable parts of the regalia were removed, in violation of national and of local right, the royal

treasury in the Tower of London, and kept like the heir-loom of a family by the possessors of the throne. The precise time at which this removal took place cannot exactly be traced; it is likely, indeed, that during the interval between the Reformation and the Civil War the regalia were deposited part in the Tower and part at Westminster abbey as convenience or accident might dictate".

We now pass to that fatal period in the history of our regalia, their seizure and destruction by the republican party after the death of Charles I. Animated as much by hatred of monarchy as by desire for the appropriation of its treasures to the support of their cause, the agents of the commons parliament now possessed themselves of the jewels both of the king

75" Concedimus" &c. "ut amplius imperpetuum regiæ constitutionis et consecrationis locus sit, atque repositorium regalium insignium.”—Dugdale's Monasticon, p. 59. 76 "Regalia quoque gloriosi R. Edwardi que apud vos habentur insignia ita in eodem monasterio intacta et integra decernimus observari, ut nulli fas sit, cujusque ordinis aut dignitatis, ea distrahere vel vendere, aut extra eundem sacrum locum absque communi omnium fratrum assensu in aliquos usus prorogare.”—MS. Cott. Claud. A viii. Dart's Antiq. of Westminster, Appendix.

77 This may be inferred from a paper of Sir W. Segar's, written probably for the coronation of James I. and copied in the Appendix to this volume from the original in the British Museum.

and the kingdom. The iron chests in the abbey were broken open by Harry Martin in 1642, and in 1649 a complete inventory was made out of the regalia in the Tower, which at the same time were "totallie broken and defaced"." In the inventory of "that part of the regalia which are now removed from Westminster to the Tower" the most remarkable thing is a crown which is called king Ælfred's, and described as of "gould wyerworke, sett with slight stones, and 2 little bells." That the authentic crown of this illustrious king should have been preserved through so many ages may seem almost incredible; yet a tradition of its existence may be found in a very early writer. Robert of Gloucester, who wrote in the time of Henry III. says of Alfred (p. 264)

"pe pope Leon hým blessede, po he puder com,

And þe kynges croune of þys lond, þat in þýs lond zut ỷs.” Sir Henry Spelman (though probably unacquainted with the above-cited authority) writes “I know not why we may not conjecture that the king fell upon the composing of an imperial crown-for in the arched room in the cloisters of Westminster abbey where the antient regalia of this kingdom are kept, upon a box which is the cabinet to the antientest crown, there is

As this document will throw some light on the state of the regala at the time of their destruction and on their general history, I shall give it a place in the Appendix to this book, with the antient Catalogue of Sporley, a monk of Westminster.

(as I am informed) an inscription to this purpose, Hæc est principalior corona cum qua coronabantur reges Elfredus, Edwardus, &c. and the crown (which to this purpose were worth the observing) is of a very antient work, with flowers adorned with stones of somewhat a plain setting"." The descriptions here cited will certainly apply to a fabric of great antiquity; but whether the subject of them is to be considered as a genuine relique of the sovereign whose name it bore must be left to the judgement of the reader.

On the restoration of kingly government in the person of Charles II. new insignia were made for his coronation; and these with the necessary alterations to accommodate them to their successive wear, ers, and to repair the injuries of time, have continued to the present day. Nothing therefore need be added to this brief outline of their history but the notice of a circumstance too well known to make a particular account of it necessary: the attempt of Colonel Blood to steal the crown and sceptre on the 9th of May 1673, in the 13th year of Charles II. In this "robustious struggle for the crown," as it is termed by Stow, "a fair diamond fell off, with some other fair stones," but it does not appear that any considerable thing was lost.

79 Life of Alfred the Great, 8vo, p. 200.

Some observations might have found a place in the foregoing pages on the number and value of the crowns, sceptres, and other royal ornaments which enriched the wardrobes of our several kings: but as our subject required only the notice of those which are properly of the regalia, and as I have endeavoured to preserve a distinction, too often neglected, between these and the personal jewels of the sovereign, I have avoided all such matter as would have tended to confuse them.

the scepter and the ball,

The sword, the mace, the crowne imperiall,

The enter-tissued robe of gold and pearle,"

till we see them in the "tyde of pompe” which will hereafter swell before us.

§ 1. Of the Prelate who should crown the King, and of the Place where the ceremony ought to be performed.

SINCE the first employment of the rites of religion in the inauguration of kings, the principal function in the performance of this ceremony hath devolved upon the dignified ministers of the church, it being generally attached, as of right, to the possessors of a particular episcopal see. The emperors of the East,

H