The royal family has many crowns in its possession and the most famous of these sat atop the Queen’s coffin at her funeral, the Imperial State Crown. There are three main crowns of significance in the royal collection and many more crowns, tiaras, and diadems were favoured by the Queen.
The Imperial State Crown is the familiar purple crown seen for the opening of parliament but it was not the crown used for the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II. That crown, which King Charles III will wear at his coronation too, is the St Edward’s Crown and is only used for one royal ceremony.
Queen Consort Camilla will also reportedly be given a crown to wear at the coronation too. All the royal jewellery and regalia belongs to the monarch and the Crown as an institution so will be passed to King Charles.
Read more: The Queen's funeral live stream and updates as Elizabeth II laid to rest
The Imperial State Crown has 2,901 precious stones, including the Cullinan II diamond, St Edward's Sapphire, the Stuart Sapphire, and the Black Prince's Ruby. Only two people are allowed to touch the Imperial State Crown other than the monarch and those are the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Crown Jeweller.
The two are visually similar, due to the purple colour of the cap, but the St Edward’s Crown is only used for coronation ceremonies. It is 22-carat gold with 444 precious stones and has not been worn since 1953 when the Queen ascended.
The St Edward’s Crown is the crown that features on royal ciphers. The Royal Mail logo is also based on the St Edward's Crown.
Recently, the Crown of Scotland has also been seen atop the Queen’s coffin when it lay in St Giles’ Cathedral. It was made in 1540, featuring 20 gemstones, 22 precious stones and 68 Scottish freshwater pearls, and is kept in Edinburgh Castle as part of the Honours of Scotland.
The Queen Mother was fashioned a crown, which can be worn as a circlet, when King George VI was crowned in 1937. Jewellers took the Koh-i-Noor diamond from Queen Mary’s crown to act as the centrepiece along with 2,800 other diamonds.
This crown is only ever worn by women as the Koh-i-Noor diamond is said to bring bad luck to any men who wear it. It is thought that Camilla will wear the crown as she is crowned with King Charles III.
As Prince of Wales, Charles wore a crown that the Queen would never wear. The Prince of Wales Crown is only worn by the Prince of Wales so will now be passed to Prince William for any royal duties in which he needs full regalia.
The Queen often wore diadems and tiaras at official ceremonies such as the Cartier Halo Tiara, which Kate Middleton wore on her wedding day. Many of the crowns are held in the Tower of London’s Crown Jewels vault when not in use.
READ NEXT
