A JEWEL IN THE CROWN
The Alfred Jewel is so made as to require a small stem or ‘stert’ for
its fixture when in use. It tapers off to a socket, which is adapted
to receive a small stem, and it is only when erected on such a stem
that the Figure in enamel will appear in a natural position. How can
we accommodate it with such a function as will correspond to these
indications of design? Evidently not on the top of a standard-bearer’s
pole, nor on the top of a stilus, nor at the butt-end of a
music-master’s wand. It is moreover evident that the stem was a
permanent fixture in the socket, for although the socket is now empty,
this is due to the perishing of the stem, as appears from the fact
that the cross-pin is riveted. The stem was therefore not metallic,
but of some hard organic substance, perhaps walrus ivory. Our problem
then is to discover a place in which this Jewel, permanently furnished
with such a stem, could be so erected as to discharge some appropriate
function. That function can hardly be other than personal decoration,
and the place in which it might be erected is the helmet of the
warrior.
I imagine then that a hollow bead ran round the king’s helmet, along
the rim next the forehead, and that over the very centre of the brow
there was a round orifice in the upper slope of the bead, fitted to
receive the ivory stem of the Jewel, and that when fixed in this
position it would have minor jewels similarly fixed on either side,
but that this one would be the central piece and the richest jewel in
the crown or coronet. For this magnificent Jewel would have the effect
of converting the helmet into a crown, transforming the most vital
piece of defensive armour into the chief of royal insignia for public
occasions of state.
That the rudiment of the crown was derived from the helmet, at least
among our people, seems to be indicated by the Anglo-Saxon word that
preceded ‘crown,’ namely, CYNE-HELM, which means Regal Helmet. This
word is the only English representative of the idea before the Romanic
word was domesticated among us. The term ‘crown’ made its entrance
after the Norman Conquest, at first in its original Latin form CORONA,
as may be seen in the contemporary _Chronicle of Peterborough_. Thus
we read under the date 1085: Her se cyng bær his CORONA and heold his
hired on Winceastre to þam Eastran, ‘This year the king wore his Crown
and held his Court at Winchester for the Eastertide.’ But the native
word was not quickly superseded. In the next annal, 1086, we are
informed that the king wore his Crown three times every year:—‘þriwa
he bær his CYNE-HELM ælce geare.’
[Illustration: THE MINSTER LOVEL JEWEL]
The explanation now offered of the use and function of the Alfred
Jewel is confirmed by comparison with a minor jewel in the same glass
case, which for its illustrative value has been placed by the Keeper
of the Ashmolean Museum near the Alfred Jewel. In workmanship it is
so similar that it might well be (as Bp. Clifford said) from the
hand of the same maker. In design it is as much alike as it is
possible for a simple and rudimentary pattern to resemble one that
is highly elaborate and developed. No one can doubt that these two
objects are fully analogous to each other, and that the service for
which they were intended was of the same nature. This minor jewel
has, like the Alfred Jewel, an obverse and a reverse; the obverse
presents a Cross in opaque enamel _cloisonnée_; the reverse has a
gold plate, not engraved—as in the greater work—but equally with it
suggestive of the back of a framed picture which is to lean against
a vertical surface of some kind. As in the other, the area of the
obverse is more contracted than the reverse, and the sloping sides
are covered with a delicate filigree of gold. Lastly, this also has
its projecting socket, with a cross-pin in its place riveted. It is
in all respects adapted to be either the front and central jewel of a
minor coronet, or else a lateral and subordinate jewel in the circlet
whose front place was filled by a superior piece such as the Alfred
Jewel.
This minor jewel was found at Minster Lovel in Oxfordshire about the
middle of the present century. The finder brought it to a jeweller
in Oxford, who, apprehending that the object was one of more than
ordinary curiosity, carried it to Dr. Wilson, then President of
Trinity College, an eminent archæologist, and the man who of all men
in Oxford at that time was the most capable of estimating a find of
this nature[12]. The interest which he took in it was shared with Dr.
Griffiths, who was afterwards Warden of Wadham College, and (whether
by one or both) it was presented to the Ashmolean Museum. The date of
this event does not appear to be recorded, but I suppose it must have
happened in the fifties.
That gold ornaments were proper for the helmet, we gather from a
passage in the _Beowulf_, a poem which is now, I think, among critics
of proved competency, allowed to belong to the eighth century. When
Beowulf, after slaying the Dragon, lies fatally wounded, he puts off
the chief pieces of his armour with the insignia of royalty, and
bestows them upon Wiglaf, his faithful Thane and the natural heir to
his throne. In the poetic description we perceive that the insignia
are largely blended with the body-armour, and that the helmet is
characterized by its golden decoration:
2810 2810
Dyde him of healse Ungearing his neck
hring gyldenne of the golden ring
þióden þrîst-hŷdig the courageous Captain
þegne gesealde, on his Thane conferred it,
geongum gâr-wigan; on the gallant youth;
gold-fâhne helm, the gold-prankt helm also,
beáh ond byrnan; the collar and the byrnie;
hêt hine brûcan well. saying: ‘Brook them well!’
It would be easy to collect examples from later romances, but I will
add only one, taken from Laȝamon’s description (A.D. 1200) of
king Arthur putting his armour on:
Helm he set on hafde Helm he set on head,
hæh of stele: high of steel:
þær on wes moni ȝimston, thereon was many a gem-stone
al mid golde bigon. all encircled with gold[13].
The position which I have imagined for the Alfred Jewel would
represent the cumulative effect of the two chief and central gems in
the Crown of Queen VICTORIA, namely, the great Sapphire of
Charles II and the great Ruby of Edward the Black Prince[14].
[12] Speaking of the archæologists in Oxford fifty years ago, I am
not forgetting, indeed I could not forget, John Henry Parker, C.B.,
the guide and teacher of his time in much antiquarian knowledge of
great value to the historian; more especially in whatever concerned
ecclesiastical or domestic architecture. He was for many years
Keeper of the Ashmolean Museum.
[13] Laȝamon’s _Brut_, ed. Madden, vol. ii, p. 464.
[14] _The English Regalia_, by Cyril Davenport, p. 51.