WHEN THE CROWN WAS PAWNED.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLVIII, Issue 14808, 11 October 1911, Page 10

WHEN THE CROWN WAS PAWNED.

It would be interesting to know what amount of money a pawnbroker would advance on the Crown of England, with the Cullinan diamond as its most splendid gem. The necessity to realise money on the crown is hardly likely to arise in these days, but some of our kings have been very glad to raise temporary loans in that way. - Edward 111., for instance, used periodically to pawn the crownshe seems to have had several.

I , In the ninth year of his reign he raised •8000 marks on; one of them. Five years 'later; being U even more ■'■ hard : up/ he pledged, "magna corona regis" with the Archbishop of Treves for 25,000 florins, throwing in -as makeweights the crown ■ of Queen Phillippa and another . smallei crown. In the 18th year of his reign he once more pawned the great crown. Henry •' V. ' also, when in financial difficulties, in the third year of his reign, raised money upon, his crown called "La Crown'Henry."-In the same year he obtained a Joan of 1000 marks* upon a second crown. '. -. No doubt the crowns were generally taken out of pawn sooner or later, but the loss of the ancient crown of Edward the Confessor is believed, to have been due to forgetfulness, or" a continuance of straitened circumstance, on the part of one of our monarchs. Exactly when it disappeared is not known, but it had probably gone long before the time of Edward IV., as the crown made to supply its place about that time-bore no resemblance to the original, so that presumably its design had passed out of memory. Possibly it was one of those pawned by Edward 111. The present, St.;, Edward s crown dates only from "the Restoration. 'It was made after the design' of its predecessor, which was sold byv order of the Parliament in 1642, together with St.' Edward's sceptre.