Crown of Saint Stephen
The Crown of Saint Stephen (Hungarian: Magyar Szent Korona, Croatian: Kruna svetoga Stjepana, Latin:Sacra Corona), also known as the Sacred Crown of Hungary, was used to crown Hungarian kings from the 13th century onward. The Crown was bound to the Lands of the Crown of Saint Stephen, (sometimes the Sacra Corona meant the Land, the Carpathian Basin, but it also meant the coronation body, too). No king of Hungary was regarded as having been truly legitimate without being crowned with it. In the History of Hungary, 55 kings were coronated with it (only two kings were not coronated Sigismund Johann II, and Joseph II of Hapsburgs).
The Kingdom of Hungary was special in the sense that the Sacred Crown was on the top of all hierarchy, not dependant from Pope, and above the king itself, the king had to serve the crown. The coronation body had chosen the king for the crown, and not a crown for a king.
Fate of Saint Stephen's original crown
- see more: Doctrine of the Holy Crown
The crowning of István, the first Christian king of Hungary who was later canonized Saint Stephen, marks the beginning of Hungarian statehood. The date is variously given as Christmas 1000 or 1 January 1001. It is disputed, whether the currently venerated crown is the original one, or not, sent to Saint Stephen I of Hungary ("Szent István") by Pope Sylvester II in the year 1000. In year 1038 King Stephen I died without a direct heir after the tragic early death of his only son, Saint Prince Imre. On his deathbed the elderly king committed his country into the graces of the Virgin Mary, declaring her Patrona Hungariae (Patroness of Hungary).
The Sacred Crown of Hungary
Composition
The crown is the oldest crown on earth which has survived till today.[citation needed] It is the only crown which has nineteen enamel
There are three types of crowns:
- domestic crown, which has no restrictions of usage,
- the governing crown, which should be worn on pre-determined occasions, and
- imparting crown (?) which is the Sacred Crown of Hungary.
Analogies of the imparting crown can only be found in Indo-Asia; in Europe, only the Hungarian is of this type. This crown should be worn only in the occasion of coronation, and for the rest of time two crown guards (koronaőr) were guarding it. Apart from the this two, there are two other persons who can touch it, the nádorispán, who puts it onto a pillow during coronation, and the archbishop, who puts it onto the head of the king.
One version of the origin of the crown is written by bishop Hartvik (between 1095-1116), whereas the Pope has sent St Stephen his blessings and a crown. On the other hand, Thietmar von Merseburg (died in 1018) reports that Otto III of the Holy Roman Empire has consented to the coronation of St. Stephen to Hungarian king, and the Pope is sending his blessings, but does not report on any crown. In 1613, crown guard Péter Révai states that the entire crown was given to St Stephen by Pope Silvester II. After 1790, István Weszprémi, István Katona, József Koller and later Franz Bock designated the crown as assembled by a lower part called "Greek" (Byzantine crown or Corona Graeca), and an upper, "Latin" part (cruciform cap, or Corona Latina), as all the inscriptions on the parts are respectively Greek and Latin.
Neither Arnold Ipolyi, nor József Hampel could not put into solid concept the icons on the back side of the crown showing Byzantine Emperor Michael VII Dukas and "Geobicas" (some historians put as Hungarian King Géza I). The historians are arguing on the origin of the crown, putting it from 4th century to 13th century, originating it from Byzantine, Rome, West Europe; the number of theories are summing up to more than 40. Some believe that the upper and lower part was built separately, and assembled later (Kálmán Benda and Erik Fügedi; Éva Kovács and Zsuzsa Lovag). The theory on separate crown is may be justified, as the two parts are not from the same material, one part is pure gold, the other is alloyed gold, moreover, the thicknesses also differ.
The analysis of Sacred Crown was more detailed after January 6, 1978, when the crown was taken back from Fort Knox, USA. Mihály Beöthy, Csaba Ferencz, Mrs. Ilona Árkos and András Fehér were the team of engineers who have questioned the theory of the two separate crowns assembled to one. Later, goldsmiths Rezső Ludwig and Lajos Csomor examined it, and found out that it was uniformly designed and built structure. They stated it can not be originated from Byzantine Empire nor from South- or North- or West-Europe. The set of treasury is mounted by techniques used by Indo-Asian, Iranian and Mesopotamian-Caucasian goldsmiths. The upper bend originally held 8 apostoles, while icons on the back side of the lower part was replaced, from most probably Virgin Mary and St. Raffael to Byzantine Emperor Michael VII Dukas and St. Geobicas.
According to the metallurgic analysis, the origin of the crown can be put to the Caucasus in Hun traditional work, according to Hun, Parthus and Caucasian methodology of characterisation. The icons are dressed in Hun and Parthus clothing, from the 4th cetury AD, so the crown was assembled in an Eastern Georgian workshop in cca. 310.
Legal personality concept of the crown
The crown's raw gold and jewelry value was assessed at a mere 20,000 gold forints in the early 19th century, but its artistic value and spiritual power are immense. Charles Robert (Charles I of Hungary) had to be crowned three times because it was not until he was crowned with Saint Stephen's Crown, in 1310, that the coronation was seen as legally binding. Another, more recent, example of the powers of the Crown is the fact that inter-war Hungary — after the last Habsburg king of Hungary, Charles IV, tried and failed to retain the throne in 1921 — Hungary remained a kingdom without a king until 1946.
In such times the Virgin Mary would be considered a formal monarch of Hungary, but this venue was not pursued due to regent Horthy's Protestant faith. Instead the favored idea was Szent Korona Állameszmény, which assigned legal personhood to the Sacred Crown and declared that all state powers of the monarch or the government stem solely from the sacred powers of the headgear.[citation needed] A monarch or a regent was formally seen as a mere arm for the crown. The concept was used to push Hungary toward a rightist regime intent on resecuring the Lands of Saint Stephen, a course which ultimately tied the country to Hitler's Third Reich and ended in severe World War II destruction.
The present day use of the Sacred Crown in Hungarian state heraldry and official papers is still controversial with neighbouring countries who continue to suspect that it represents Magyar intentions to reclaim the lost territories of the former Kingdom of Hungary. People of Hungary generally respect the crown as a symbolic reminder of the nation's successful survival through a millennium of turbulent central European history, but are deeply divided over the conservative political movements' efforts to claim specific powers for the crown.
The regalia in modern times
The Sacred Crown has had a lively history, having been stolen, hidden, lost, recovered and taken abroad many times. It was last returned to Hungary from the USA in 1978, where it had been taken after World War II to Fort Knox for safekeeping. After undergoing extensive historical research to verify the crown as genuine, it was returned by order of President Jimmy Carter. Most current academic knowledge about Hungarian royal garments originates from this modern research. After the fall of Communism, the crown made its return to the national coat of arms in 1990, the National Assembly choosing the pre-war coat of arms in preference to the crown-less Kossuth arms of 1848-49.
In a unique case in Europe, almost the entire medieval ensemble of coronation insignia survived. On January 1, 2000, the Sacred Crown of Hungary was moved to the Hungarian Parliament Building from the Hungarian National Museum. The sceptre, orb and the coronation sword were also moved to the Parliament.
The very large coronation mantle remains in a neutral gas glass vault at the National Museum due to its delicate, faint condition. Unlike the crown and accompanying insignia, the originally red coloured mantle is considered genuine to Stephen I, it was made circa 1030. Codices describe the robe as a donation handiwork of the queen and her sorors and the mantle's middle back bears the king's only known portrait (which shows his crown was not the currently existing one). Circular inscription sewing in Latin identifies the coat as a bishop's liturgical robe.
The sceptre is considered the artistically most valuable piece of the Hungarian royal inventory. It contains a solid mountain crystal ball decorated with engraved lions, a rare product of the 10th century Fatimid empire. Its handle contains a wooden rod surrounded by very fine wrought silver ornaments. The only missing items are the king's socks which were badly deteriorated and had to be burned in late 1945, after spending a part of World War II buried.
The ceremonial straight sword kept in the Holy Crown collection is a 14th century Italian product. However, the original daily use sword of Stephen I survives in Prague's St. Vitus Cathedral since 1368. The good condition of this short-bladed (60cm ~ 2ft) ivory-decorated Norman sword pays homage to the art of smiths at Ulfbreht, a 10th century Viking steelwork on the Rhine--see Oakeshott typology. Although the sword regularly visits Hungary as a museum loan, it has never been featured in Hungarian royal inaugurations.
The titular lance of King Stephen I (as seen on the Mantle portrait) was reportedly obtained by the Holy Roman Emperor circa 1100.
See also
External links
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