Richard II. which are surmounted by a very beautiful turret or pinnacle of rich Gothic tracery, with crockets on the edges 25. A nearly similar ornament be seen on the seals of Edward IV. Richard III. and Henry VII. but in these the top is not so pointed as in those before mentioned.

may

ST. EDWARD'S STAFF, which is borne before the king as he walks to coronation, is a large golden rod, 4 feet 7 inches in length, with a pike of steel at the lower end about 44 inches long. It has a mound and cross at the top. Edward the Confessor is represented on his coins with a long sceptre or staff of this kind, and hence the name is probably derived, unless this and the other regalia bearing his name have received it from being offered and preserved at his shrine.

§ 5. Of the Orb or Mound.

THIS is a ball of gold six inches in diameter, encompast by a band or fillet of pearls and precious stones, with a similar band crossing its upper hemisphere. From the middle of the last rises a large amethyst of an oval form, which is the base or pedestal

represent king Edward III. but more probably, as I conjecture, his grandson Richard II. The sceptre which appears in this plate is surmounted by a DOVE. See also a figure of the last-named king at the head of this book.

of a cross pattée richly adorned with gems and with three large pearls hanging at its extremities. The whole height of the orb and cross is eleven inches.

There is another globe preserved among the crown jewels which was made for queen Mary; but it is not used in the coronation of queens consort.

The Orb is said to have been an ensign of the early Roman emperors; whose boasting title of "imperatores orbis terrarum" might have suggested its form. After their conversion to the Christian faith they placed upon it the peculiar badge of their religion, the cross :—it is asserted that the globe was borne with this addition by Constantine, but with more likelihood it is attributed to Theodosius 26. We find it to have remained with the eastern emperors and to have been used by those of the west from the beginning of the eleventh century: from these it was borrowed by most of the sovereigns of Europe. In England almost all the kings from Edward the Confessor 27 have it on their seals and coins: yet (as a learned antiquary remarks) it is not to be inferred that the orb was in early times deemed to be a part of the regalia either of En

26 See Selden, Titles of Honor, part I. c. 8, iii. Du Choul, 257; also some remarks on the Barλıxòv saugòv, in G. Logothetæ Chronicon, (Edit. Douse, 1614) Not. p. 70, 27 "Yet there is very little doubt to be made but that it is of much more antient date; for in the first plate of the Regal and Ecclesiastical Antiquities, which represents king Edgar between two saints adoring Christ, one of the saints bears his sceptre, and the other the globe with a cross upon the top: this deli

gland or other kingdoms, more especially as it is not enumerated as such in any of the antient rituals. Tho. Walsingham is the earliest of our historians who mention the orb as making part of the regalia; and yet he speaks in such terms as seem to indicate that the sceptre with the cross and the orb or mound were originally one and the same ensign of royalty 28. This also will seem more probable from the shape of the orb in the representations of our earlier kings; the stem of the cross being longer, and in some so much so as to present the appearance rather of a sceptre than of a globe: in the orbs of Richard I. John, and Henry HI. this stem is adorned with flowers or leaves, and in those of Henry I. and II. is the remarkable addition of a dove on the top of the cross". The cross is most commonly of the form called pattée, though the cross botoney sometimes occurs.

§ 6. Of the Royal Swords.

THE principal sword which is borne before our kings at their coronation is the Sword of Mercy called CURTANA. The origin of its name, I believe, hath

neation was made in the year 996."-Strutt's Honda Angel-cýnnan, vol. ii. p. 64. 28" Nam sceptrum quod susceperat consurrexit de rotundo globo aureo quem tenebat in manu chirothecata, et habebat in summitate signum crucis."—Walsingh. Hist. Angl. sub R, II. Sir J. Ayloffe's Account of the Body of Edw. I, in Archæol. iii. 393. 29 See the head-piece to this book.

never been explained by those who have written on the present subject; nor would it easily be discovered by the most careful searcher of our national records. It is among the records of fiction that we must look for this unknown title :-for though the antiquary be to seek in its history, the student of Romance will instantly be transported from the confines of our jewel house to the scenes of antient chivalry, and the original Curtana will be present to his mind wielded by its redoubted owner the Dane Uggiero, or by the still more famed Orlando.

Strongly as I am here tempted to an excursion among the flowery paths of romantic lore, I must leave the reader, if he be so disposed, to explore the ground at his own leisure. In the works of the Italian poets he may find the virtues and the adventures of the sword Curtana,

"E del Danese, che anchor vivo sia,

Dicono alcuni, ma non la historia mia 30"

It is remarkable that the name which we have here

30 Il Morgante, c. xxviii. 36. The following notice of the sword of Ogier is from the French Encyclopédie at the word épée. “M. Ducange dit que ces faits, touts incroyables qu'ils paroissent (cutting men in two) ne lui semblerent plus tout-à-fait hors de vraissemblance depuis qu'il eut vû à Saint Faron de Meaux une épée antique que l'on dit avoir été celle d'Ogier le Danois, si fameux du tems de Charlemagne, au moins dans les Romans, tant cette épée est pesante, et tant par conséquent elle supposoit de force dans celui qui la manioit. Le P. Mabillon, qui l'a fait peser, dis qu'elle pese cinq livres et un quarteron.—Hist. de la Milice Françoise."

32

31

examined should have continued for many ages to be given to the first royal sword of England. We find it constantly used in all the later accounts of coronations; Edward VI, had "a swerde called Curtana." It occurs in the time of Henry VII. of Richard III.31 and Henry IV. It is mentioned in the Liber Regalis and the claims of service in the reign of Richard II. We next find it at the coronation of Edward II.33 and we learn from Matthew Paris that a sword Curtana or "Curtein" existed so long ago as the reign of Henry III. at whose coronation (A.D. 1236) it was carried by the earl of Chester 3.

34

The present is not the only instance of a royal sword borrowing the name of one famous in romance. The sword of Tristan is found (ubi lapsus !) among the regalia of king John; and that of Charlemagne, Joyeuse, was preserved to grace the coronations of the later kings of France. The adoption of these titles was indeed perfectly consonant with the taste and feeling of those ages in which the gests of chivalry were the favourite theme of oral and historical celebration; and when the names of Durlindana,

31 In the wardrobe account for the year 1483 are "iij swerdes, whereof oon with a flat poynte called curtana, and ij other swords, all iij swords covered in a yerde di' of crymysyn tisshue cloth of gold." 32 Chron. Rishanger MS. Cott. Faust. b. ix.

33 See Appendix to book III.

34" Comite Cestriæ gladium S. Edwardi qui Curtein dicitur, ante regem bajulante." &c. 35 Pat. de anno 9 Johan.