JEWELS-WORLD

The collective term Crown Jewels denotes the regalia and vestments worn by the sovereign of the United Kingdom during the coronation ceremony and at various other state functions. The term refers to the following objects: the crowns, sceptres (with either the cross or the dove), orbs, swords, rings, spurs, colobium sindonis, dalmatic, armill, and the royal robe or pall, as well as several other objects connected with the ceremony itself.
Many of these descend directly from the pre-Reformation period and have a religious and sacral connotation. The vestures donned by the sovereign following the unction, for instance, closely resemble the alb and dalmatic worn by bishops, although the contention that they are meant to confer upon the sovereign an ecclesiastical character is in disrepute among Christian scholars.
The oldest set of Crown Jewels dating from the Anglo-Saxon period were lost by John of England near The Wash in 1216. A replacement set was made shortly afterwards which was later joined by the addition of Welsh prince Llywelyn's coronet in 1284. This replacement set was stolen from Westminster Abbey in 1303 although most of the pieces, if not all, were recovered days later from the window of a London jeweller's shop with dire consequences for the owner. Since 1303, they have been stored in the Tower of London.
Oliver Cromwell melted down most of the Crown Jewels of his time after the establishment of the Commonwealth in 1649. Upon the Restoration of Charles II of England most of the regalia were replaced. The only pieces to survive from before the Civil War are three swords and a spoon.
The British Crown Jewels are considered to be the most valuable and one of the largest jewellery collections in existence.



Queen Victoria's death in January 1901 brought to an end a gap of sixty-four years when the United Kingdom had been without a crowned queen consort, since Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha had not been crowned as a consort. Traditionally queens consort had been crowned with the 17th century Crown of Mary of Modena. However in 1831, Adelaide of Saxe-Meiningen, consort of King William IV of the United Kingdom, was crowned with a 4 half-arched new small crown, the Crown of Queen Adelaide, because the Modena crown was judged too poor in quality, too old and too theatrical.
In 1902 it was decided to use neither the Modena nor Adelaide crowns for the first coronation of a queen consort in six decades. Instead it was decided to create a brand new consort crown, to be named after queen Alexandra.