Crown of Sancho IV
The crown of Sancho IV, imperial crown or crown of the cameos is a
Description
The crown, measuring some 57×8cm, is made up of eight 7×4.5cm gilded silver plates joined by hinges. At the top, in the centre of each plate, is a heraldic castle with three towers.
In the centre of each plaque is a precious stone or a
History
The crown was mentioned for the first time in the will of
[...] e las coronas con las piedras e los camafeos que lo haya todo aquel que con derecho por nos heredase nuestro señoría mayor de Castilla y León. [...and the crowns with the stones and the cameos, may them be had by whoever rightfully inherits from us our lordship of Castilla and Leon.]
The three preserved copies of the will speak of crowns in plural.
[...] I also command to the said Infanta Doña Constanza, my daughter, the crown that belonged to my father's king [...] in which are the cameos.
The treatment of the royal crowns and jewels was similar to the distribution of the family jewels of a father to his children. Sancho IV ordered his burial in the Cathedral of Toledo in 1285:[1]
[...] we choose our burial in the Holy Church of Santa María aforesaid [of Toledo]. And when it might be God's will that we shall perish, we order that we be entombed in that place we arranged with archbishop don Gonçalvo and the dean Miguel Ximénez[...]
On the death of King Sancho IV on 25 April 1295, he was buried in a chapel of the Cathedral which the king himself had ordered be built, and to which he had transferred the remains of all other monarchs buried in Toledo. The tomb, probably a simple stone box, was soon replaced by a better one, ordered by his
Discovery
The crown was found in 1948 during the search for the tomb of
The corpse of a man, of tall stature, appeared open, for in the process of sepulchral corruption the soles of his feet, which ordinarily form an angle with his legs, were shown to have fallen forward; he also wore a crown of eight links, supported by a hempen cord which, like a chinstrap, passed under his chin. The corpse, mummified and in an excellent state of preservation, was naked from the waist up and wore a kind of panty or pants and a San Francisco cord around his waist. Wearing fine leather shoes, he carried a broad-bladed sword with an illegible inscription and on the upper part of the pommel some enamels, which are now missing, and a circular ornament, which may have originally contained some enamel or relic, as the arabesques on one of its sides suggest.
— J. F. Rivera Recio (1985)[4]
The crown is currently held in the
References
- ^ ISBN 9788460048619.
- ^ ISSN 1579-0576. Retrieved 15 November 2021.
- ^ "MAVIT 000079 - Corona del Rey Sancho IV de Castilla". Museo Catedralicio de la Catedral de Toledo.
- ^ J. F. Rivera Recio (1985), Los restos de Sancho IV en la catedral de Toledo. Crónica retrospectiva (in Spanish), Real Academia de Bellas Artes y Ciencias Históricas de Toledo, pp. 127–137