Sovereigns and their Rings.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXX, Issue 32, 7 August 1902, Page 5

Sovereigns and their Rings.

In view of the ceremony which will take place in Westminster Abbey on Saturday, the following extracts from an article contributed recently to the New York Tribune by ' Ex- Attache ' will be of interest : — While finger rings are among the most ancient emblems of rank, as has been shown by the fact that in the Khedival Museum at Cairo, and at the British Museum in London, thore are to be seen some found in tombs datiug from the Pharaoh of the Exodus, there are only two monarchial countries that have retained the ring as an integral portion of the regalia, of their rulers. One of these is Russia, while the other is Great Britain, and it is worthy of note that in each of these cases the investiture of the sovereign with the ring' is held to endow him with majesty of a more saored character than that conferred by the placing of the crown upon his head. The King of England, like the Emperor of Russia, claims to be not only the temporal monarch, but likewise the head of the State churoh of bin country. The investiture of King Edward with the ring will, indeed, precede the placing of the crown upon his head. The ring in question consists of a large table ruby, on which the cross of St. Ueorge is engraved, set in plain gold. The s» one ia n set tor each successive sovereign, and while it is known as ' King Edward's ring,' there is no truth whatsoever in the story according to which it dates from the time of Edward the Confe-sor. True, there was formerly a ring used at the coronation of English sovereigns, which, according to popular legend, is said to have reached Edward the Confessor from St. John the Evangelist. Edward, it is said, was one day asked for alms by a ' fayre old man,' and having no money, drew his ring from his finger and bestowed it upon the the mendicant. Some years afterwards two English pilgrims travelling in the Holy Land were met by a ' fayre ancient man wyth whyte heer for age.' who asked them what they were and whence they came. On learning that they were English pilgrimß, he talked to them of the ' welfare and holynepse ' of their King Edward, and when leaving them be told them who he was and said : ' I am St. John the Evangelist, and gay ye unto Edward, your King, that I greet him well by the token that he gave me, this ring, with his own hands, which ring ye shall deliver to him again,' and when he liad delivered to them ' the ring," he departed from them suddenly. The ring of Edward the Confessor, whatever it" origin, was preserved in his shrine at Westminster as a sacred relic. But it disappeared at the time of the Commonwealth, having perhaps been consigned to the melting pot by Oliver Cromwell, and the one now in existence dates only from the time of King Charles 11. There has always been a certain amount of speculation as to what was meant by the fourth' fi <ger, and this uncertainty about* the matter led to an awkward contretemps at the coronation of Queen Victoria. The authorities of the Royal College of Heralds assumed that the fourth finger was the smallest and last of the hand, and had made the coronation ring to fit the Queen's little finger. The Archbishop of Canterbury, however, declared that the thumb counted as the first finger, and const qupntly insisted at the proper moment during the coronation in placing the ring by main force upon the third finger of the Queen's hand. He took the ground that any departure from the ritual in matter might impair the validity of the ceremony of the coronation. The putting of the ring on this third finger of the Queen was only accomplished with considerable difficulty and at the cost of much pain which, as time went on, increased to such au extent that at length the young sovereign could endure it no longer. Most of the principal actors in the coronation ceremony seemed to have lost their heads when she showed signs of fainting. One of them, however — namely, the Rev, Lord John Thynne, canon of Westminster Abbey — was equal to the emergency. With the assistance of a verger he managed to procure a basin of water and some soap, by means of which it was found possible to relieve the Queen of the ring, her finger, however, remained swollen and painful. King Edward, warned by this incident, has taken precaution to avoid anything of the kind at his own coronation, and has insisted upon the pritnate and the College of Heralds coming to an understanding as to which of his fingers is to be invested with the ring. The finger finally determined upon is the one which we are accustomed to call the third finger, this being in accordance with the ancient belief that a vein came direct from the heart to that particular fingei. The coronation ring of King Edward has been sometimes known as the ' wedding ring of England,' on the understanding tnat it was emblematic of the union between the sovereign and his kingdom, The matrimonial idea has always been associated in some way or another with the rings of office, and it may be remembered that in the days of the old Republic of Venice its doges were invested on their inauguration with two riDgs, one of which they retained, while the other they cast with much pomp and ceremony in the pea from the prow of the great t-tate galley, in order to signify the fact that Venice was the bride of the Adriatic.