Tudor Crown
The Tudor Crown was a crown used by renaissance monarchs of England and later Great Britain. The crown was possibly commissioned by Henry VII. It was frequently worn by Henry VIII, and is therefore sometimes know of Henry VIII's crown. The crown was also worn by Henry's children, Edward VI, Mary I and Elizabeth I. After the death of Elizabeth I and the demise of the Tudor dynasty the Stuarts came to power in England. Both James I and Charles I are known to have worn the crown. The After Charles I's execution in 1649 Oliver Cromwell had the crown melted down and the precious stones were sold.
The crown is first documented in writing in a 1521 inventory of his jewels, naming the crown the "kingis crowne of golde". A later inventory conducted in 1547 noted that the crown bore 344 gems, including "nyne perles not all of one sorte and three Saphires". Interestingly the inventories reveal that the crown originally had a figure of Holy Mary at the back, with three figures of kings around the other sides later replaced by three figures of Christ, in an attempt to secure his position as head of the new English church.
A replica of the crown was created in 2012, commissioned by Historic Royal Palaces and created by the retired royal jeweller Harry Collins using real jem stones and produced using authentic Tudor metalworking techniques. It can be viewed as part of an exhibition in Hampton Court Palace.[1] From 1902 to 1953 a type of heraldic tudor crown was used in British heraldry.