The Crown of Scotland (, ) is the centrepiece of the Honours of Scotland. It is the crown that was used at the coronation of the monarchs of Scotland, and it is the oldest surviving crown in the British Isles and the fifth oldest in Europe.
A crown must have been made during the reign of Robert the Bruce or his son, David II, as David was anointed and crowned, as were all the subsequent Stewart kings. It was probably this new crown that was remodelled into the current crown. Remade in its current form for James V in 1540, the crown was last used in a coronation to crown Charles II in 1651. Until 1707 the crown was present at the opening of each term of the Parliament of Scotland as a symbol of royal authority. The crown has been present at each Opening Ceremony of the Scottish Parliament since 1999.
Made of solid gold and silver, the crown weighs and is decorated with 69 Scottish freshwater pearls and 43 gemstones.Chris Tabraham, The Honours of Scotland: The Story of the Scottish Crown Jewels and the Stone of Destiny (Edinburgh: Historic Environment Scotland, 2019), pp. 50–54. Stylised versions of the crown appear upon the version of the royal coat of arms of the United Kingdom used in Scotland and the Scottish Royal Cypher of Charles III.
The Crown of Scotland is kept on public display in the Crown Room at Edinburgh Castle.
Description The base of the Crown of Scotland is a circlet of solid gold set with 22 large pearls and the twenty gemstones from the old crown. These pearls and gemstones are set within frames with leaf-shaped sides and silver and enamel upper and lower sections. On the top edge of the circlet are forty gold half circles, with each half circle topped by an alternating sequence of twenty pearls, ten gold fleurs-de-lis, and ten gold crosses fleury. Each cross fleury features four pearls surrounding a central gemstone.Chris Tabraham, The Honours of Scotland (Edinburgh, 2019), pp. 50–54.
The circlet supports the four solid gold arches from the old crown, each of which is decorated with gold and red-enamelled oak leaves. The arches are topped by a gold monde, which is enamelled blue and covered with small gold stars, and topped by a gold cross pattée, set off with black enamel, eight pearls and a large amethyst. James V's royal cypher 'JR5' appears on the lower arm of the cross on top of the crown, enamelled in black.Alexander Brook, 'Technical Description of the Regalia of Scotland', Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries, 24 (1890), p. 61. The crown has a red velvet bonnet, with four enamelled gold ornaments adorned with a pearl attached to it between the four arches.Chris Tabraham, The Honours of Scotland (Edinburgh, 2019), pp. 50–54.
History Origins
The earliest known depiction of a Scottish monarch wearing a crown is from the reign of Edgar (1097–1107), who was depicted on his Great Seal wearing a crown and holding a sceptre and sword.Chris Tabraham, The Honours of Scotland (Edinburgh, 2019), p. 17. The first written reference to the Crown of Scotland dates from the abdication of John Balliol in 1296, when the Scottish regalia was described as consisting of a sceptre, sword, crown and ring. The crown and other regalia were seized by the army of Edward I of England in 1296 and taken to England.Chris Tabraham, The Honours of Scotland (Edinburgh, 2019), pp. 19–22.
Following his seizure of the throne in 1306, Robert the Bruce was crowned at Scone Abbey with a newly made circlet of gold.Chris Tabraham, The Honours of Scotland (Edinburgh, 2019), p. 22. The circlet was captured by the English after the Battle of Methven and taken to England and, although it has been claimed that the present Crown of Scotland incorporates the original circlet, there is no record of the circlet ever having been returned to Scotland and no clear evidence for this claim.Chris Tabraham, The Honours of Scotland: The Story of the Scottish Crown Jewels and the Stone of Destiny (Edinburgh, 2019), p. 25. A new crown must have been made during the reign of Robert the Bruce or his son, David II, as David was anointed and crowned, as were all the subsequent Stewart kings, and it was probably this new crown that was remodelled into the current crown.Colm Macnamee, Robert Bruce: Our Most Valiant Prince, King and Lord (Edinburgh, Birlinn, 2018), p. 271.Dunbar, Sir Archibald H., Scottish Kings — A Revised Chronology of Scottish History 1005–1625, Edinburgh, 1899, pp. 146–7Chris Tabraham, The Honours of Scotland (Edinburgh, 2019), pp. 25–26.
From the reign of Edgar until the reign of James III (1460–1488) the Crown of Scotland was depicted as a circlet or "open" crown surmounted by fleurs de lis around its rim.Chris Tabraham, The Honours of Scotland: The Story of the Scottish Crown Jewels and the Stone of Destiny (2019), p. 44. The first evidence of a change in the form of the crown appears late in the reign of James III, with the king depicted on a silver coin of 1484 wearing an imperial or "closed" crown with four arches surmounted by a monde and cross. The earliest illustration of the Crown of Scotland as an imperial crown dates from 1503 when James IV was depicted wearing an imperial crown in the Book of Hours commissioned for his marriage to Margaret Tudor. The accuracy of this depiction of the crown has been questioned, as the artist lived in County of Flanders and would never have seen the crown.Chris Tabraham, The Honours of Scotland: The Story of the Scottish Crown Jewels and the Stone of Destiny (2019), p. 44. A new crown was made for Margaret Tudor by John Currour. The king's crown was repaired by Matthew Auchinleck in 1503 and ermine was added to its bonnet in March 1504, suggesting it may have been made in imperial form.Lucinda H. S. Dean, Death and the Royal Succession in Scotland: Ritual, Ceremony and Power (Boydell & Brewer, 2024), pp. 198, 267: James Balfour Paul, Accounts of the Treasurer of Scotland, 1500-1504, vol. 2 (Edinburgh, 1900), pp. 205–207, 225.
The Crown of Scotland assumed the form of an imperial crown when it was remodelled in August 1532.Chris Tabraham, 'The Honours of Scotland: The Story of the Scottish Crown Jewels and the Stone of Destiny', (2019), p. 49. The existing crown was delicate and had been repaired in May 1532, and would be again the following year by Adam Leys.Chris Tabraham, The Honours of Scotland (Edinburgh, 2019), p. 49: Andrea Thomas, Princelie Majestie, the court of James V (Edinburgh: John Donald, 2005), p. 262. In October 1533, James Hamilton of Finnart was paid for three ounces of gold used to repair the crown.Andrea Thomas, "Coronation Ritual and Regalia", Julian Goodare & Alasdair A. MacDonald, Sixteenth-Century Scotland (Brill, 2008), p. 60: James Balfour Paul, Accounts of the Treasurer of Scotland, vol. 6 (Edinburgh, 1905), p. 179.
Remodelled In January 1540, James V commissioned the royal goldsmith, John Mosman, to remodel the crown.Charles Burnett, 'Outward Signs of Majesty', Janet Hadley Williams, Stewart Style, 1513–1542 (Tuckwell, 1996), p. 293. Mosman dismantled the old crown, removing the four arches and all the gemstones and pearls. The circlet of the old crown was melted down, and Mosman added 41 ounces of Scottish gold mined at Leadhills in Lanarkshire.Chris Tabraham, The Honours of Scotland (Edinburgh, 2019), p. 50: James Balfour Paul, Accounts of the Treasurer, vol. 7 (Edinburgh, 1907), p. 278. Mosman created a new circlet and decorated it with the gemstones and pearls from the old crown, added the four arches, the monde and cross. James V ordered a purple and ermine bonnet from tailor Thomas Arthur of Edinburgh to fit inside the crown.James Balfour Paul, Accounts of the Treasurer, vol. 7 (Edinburgh, 1907), p. 285. James VII ordered the colour of the bonnet be changed to red in 1685. The bonnet has been replaced several times, and the present bonnet was made in 1993.Chris Tabraham, The Honours of Scotland (Edinburgh, 2019), p. 54: Alexander Brook, 'Technical Description of the Regalia of Scotland', Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries, 24 (1890), p. 63.
16th and 17th centuries The re-modelled crown was first worn by James V in February 1540 to the coronation at Holyrood Abbey of his second wife, Mary of Guise, as queen consort. It was subsequently used in the coronations of the infant monarchs Mary, Queen of Scots, in 1543 and James VI in 1567. In the absence of a resident Scottish monarch following the Union of the Crowns in 1603, the Honours of Scotland were carried to sittings of the Parliament of Scotland in Edinburgh to symbolise the monarch's presence and the royal assent to legislation.
The crown was examined at the royal mint in July 1621 after the death of Gideon Murray, who was the keeper of the Honours as Treasurer-Depute. It was found to be good order and the precious stones were listed. By this time, three empty triangular settings for stones were filled with blue enamel as a substitute.David Masson, Register of the Privy Council of Scotland, 12 (Edinburgh, 1895), pp. 523–525.
The crown was used at the coronation of Charles I at the Holyrood Abbey in 1633, and of Charles II at Scone parish church in 1651. The subsequent monarchs of Scotland only took the Scottish coronation oath, and were never crowned in Scotland. During the Wars of the Three Kingdoms, having already destroyed the English Crown Jewels, Oliver Cromwell sought to destroy the Scottish Regalia. However, the Honours of Scotland were secretly buried at Dunnottar Castle, Aberdeenshire, until Charles II was restored in 1660.
18th and 19th centuries
Following the Act of Union of 1707, which united the Kingdom of Scotland and the Kingdom of England to form the Kingdom of Great Britain, and having no ceremonial role to play in the proceedings of the new Parliament of Great Britain in London, the Honours of Scotland were locked away in Edinburgh Castle. There they remained all but forgotten in a chest until 1818, when a group of people including Sir Walter Scott set out to find them.
Since 1819, they have been on display in the Crown Room of Edinburgh Castle, from where they are removed only for state occasions. The first such occasion was in 1822 when presented to George IV at the Palace of Holyroodhouse during his visit to Edinburgh – the first visit to Scotland by a reigning monarch since Charles II in 1651.
20th and 21st centuries
On 24 June 1953, following her coronation at Westminster Abbey, the Crown of Scotland was carried before Elizabeth II in a procession from the Palace of Holyroodhouse to St Giles' Cathedral, Edinburgh, where the Honours of Scotland were presented to the monarch during a National Service of Thanksgiving.
The Crown of Scotland has been present at the royal opening ceremonies of the modern Scottish Parliament, including the first in 1999, and the official opening of the new Scottish Parliament Building at Holyrood in 2004. On such occasions the crown, carried by the Duke of Hamilton, the hereditary bearer of the Crown of Scotland, immediately precedes the monarch in the custom of the opening ceremonial procession of the ancient Parliament of Scotland known as the Riding of Parliament.
The Crown of Scotland surmounted the Scottish version of the Royal Standard of the United Kingdom which covered the coffin of Elizabeth II as she lay-at-rest in St Giles' Cathedral from 12 to 13 September 2022. On 5 July 2023, the Crown, the Sceptre and the Elizabeth Sword, the newest addition to the Honours of Scotland, were presented to Charles III at a national service of thanksgiving at St Giles' Cathedral.
Use as a symbol
As well as appearing in the Royal coat of arms of the UK used in Scotland, the crown appears in the version of the UK royal arms used by the Scotland Office, and it also appeared in the arms used by the former Scottish Executive.