SAINT EDWARD'S CROWN

coronation crown of the kings and queens of England that consists of a gold- and jewel-encrusted base surmounted by a cross. The crown's appellation was first used in the 13th century, after Henry III had transferred the body of Edward the Confessor to its present shrine in Westminster Abbey and equipped it with new funeral ornaments (the old ones were preserved in the Abbey as relics of the saint). The actual crown seems to have been used for the coronation of all English sovereigns from Edward I to Charles I except for the boy Edward V, who was never crowned at all. It was broken up in 1649 by order of Parliament, but the present crown, designed for Charles II (reigned 166085), apparently was made from the fragments.