[Henry VIII] Tudor Crown

When Henry VIII died, England was busy.No matter what kind of mentality the nobles have, in this special situation, they must shrink their paws ready to move, busy with Henry VIII's funeral and William III's coronation ceremony, it is difficult to rest.

Among them, the busiest one is the former Prince of Wales party.

As the newly-baked Queen of England, Princess Juana is naturally responsible for the moving ceremony of St. James's Palace and the future arrangements for the Duke of Richmond.

According to the usual practice, the Duke of Richmond automatically became the Prince of Wales as soon as William III came to the throne, so he had to move to his own territory.

However, the Duke of Richmond was too young, and Queen Juana did not want her eldest son to become a bitter couple with Mary Stuart, so after discussing with William III, they decided to transfer St. James Palace to Richmond The duke is full, and then Anne of Cleves and Mary Stuart are invited to live together.

Speaking of Anne of Cleves, although the former Queen of England lost her original status, Henry VIII gave her a rather generous retirement fee before her death.Even if these things will be taken back by the English royal family after Anne of Cleves dies, Anne of Cleves cannot guarantee that she can still enjoy such generous treatment in her second marriage.

What's more, her status has not been downgraded much, but she is only second to Queen Juana, and is still on par with the newly released Princess Mary and the future daughter of William III, which is not considered to have fallen to the bottom.

In contrast, the ministers of the Imperial Council, especially Matthew Stuart, the Keeper of the Seals, and a few members of the Percy family who joined in the fun, had to think carefully about their future.

After all, Henry VIII was often enlisted by William III in the first two years before his death, so the members of the imperial council were replaced by William III a lot, and in terms of proportion, his confidants definitely accounted for more than half.

This made Matthew Stuart and others feel excluded, and hesitated whether to ask to quit.

"All the fabrics in the bedroom have to be replaced, and the decorations have to be seen one by one." Queen Juana, who was so busy, ordered the servants to renovate the bedroom of the king and his wife on the second day after Henry VIII's death. After cleaning inside and out, the room was fumigated all morning with mugwort leaves mixed with various herbs to prevent germs from remaining.

"Your Majesty, where should this painting be hung?" A tall manservant carefully held Da Vinci's "Virgin of the Rocks" and asked Queen Juana, who was under supervision.

"Show me." Queen Juana put down the bronze pendulum in her hand, looked "Our Lady of the Rocks" up and down, and then said, "Come with me."

Queen Juana took the servant holding the painting through the promenade of the Whitehall Palace, and finally arrived at the Royal Chamber, and asked the servant to hang "Our Lady of the Rocks" on the wall closest to the king.

"Adjust the seats so that the face of the Virgin faces all the seats below." Queen Juana instructed from the bottom: "Also, ask Johanna to find a statue of the Crucifixion, which will be hung on the opposite side of the statue of the Virgin."

"Yes." The servant who finished hanging the painting saluted Queen Juana, but as soon as he went out, he bumped into William III who also came to hang the painting.

"His Majesty."

The servant's announcement made Queen Juana turn her head, only to find that William III was leading someone to hang his portrait among the king's portraits on the walls on both sides.

"Have you discussed the funeral of the previous king and your coronation process with the adults in front of the imperial court?" Queen Juana rarely saw William III showing such a tired look.

In her impression, William III is like a perpetual motion machine, always able to face everything energetically.

"These are all matters with rules and procedures, so we won't be able to discuss them for long." William III walked directly under the portrait of Henry VIII, stared at the majestic face above, and said, still a little unreal: "He is really dead."

Queen Juana looked at William III's expression, and couldn't see the sadness her son should have from it: "Do you hate your father?"

William III glanced at Queen Juana and sighed, "You should have heard about our family."

"Mrs. Bryan told me about Princess Mary... I mean about your aunt, the former Duchess of Suffolk, and about your mother, and about Anne Boleyn and Jane Seymour."

"Before I was born, my mother miscarried six children, so after she became pregnant with me, my father didn't expect me to survive, and even made up the idea of ​​​​divorcing my mother and letting Anne Boleyn take over."

"But you survived." Queen Juana followed William III's back, as if comforting a child.

"Yeah! I survived, so I caused a lot of people's nightmares." William III smiled helplessly, and his eyes jumped from the portrait of Henry VIII to his own portrait: "Before I was six years old, I I was brought up by my aunt. She was so good to me that she neglected her own children. That's why I indulged the Marchioness of Dorset and the Countess of Nottingham. It's a pity that my aunt didn't end up well either. In the end, as for my mother and the other two women who became queens..."

William III recalled the faces of people coming and going in the queen's bedroom, and asked: "Do you think they succeeded? Many people say that my mother is the final winner, but I don't think so."

William III sighed and said, "This kind of life that even my own children can't save is not considered a success."

Queen Juana didn't know how to comfort William, but one thing she was sure of was that, apart from Princess Mary, who was thousands of miles away, it is estimated that William, Elizabeth, and even the Duke of York in St. George's Church would not die for Henry VIII. , and shed a few more tears.

…………… I am the dividing line………………

The funeral of Henry VIII is obviously the most solemn event in England in the past 30 years, so all the nobles who are worthy of the name in the country rushed to St. George's Church not far away, for fear that they would miss Henry VIII The funeral, and fell heavily from the original noble seat.

The king's guard of honor carried Henry VIII's coffin onto the cannon carriage, and was escorted out of Whitehall Palace by 130 eight noble guards, heading for St. George's Church.

At the moment Henry VIII's coffin left Whitehall Palace, 56 cannon shots were fired from the Tower of London, representing Henry VIII's age.

William Tudor and Queen Juana, as well as the Duke of Richmond, who was held by Johanna, naturally walked in the front seats.

St. George's Church has already prepared for the burial, because the king of England will decide his own burial site before his death, so the preparations don't have to take too long.

The Archbishop of Canterbury, who presided over the funeral, sang hymns and prayed for the soul of Henry VIII, and then saluted William III, indicating that he would lead the royal family to look at Henry VIII's final appearance.

Princess Mary, who arrived in a hurry, naturally cried the saddest, but other members of the royal family needed some medicine to show their proper attitude at the funeral.

The funeral of Henry VIII lasted for a month, and the preparations took half a month.

According to the deathbed request of the former king, he was buried in St. George's Cathedral with his first wife, the mother of William III and Princess Mary, Catherine of Aragon.

For this reason, Princess Mary sent a month's food to the common people in London at her own expense, and William III even allocated a huge sum of money so that commoner families across the country could share some meat, wine, grains, and even several candies.

It is no wonder that people in the sixteenth century looked forward to the remarriage or death of the old king every day.

Because once there are weddings and funerals in the royal family, they can live comfortably for several months.

As soon as Henry VIII's funeral was over, the nobles who had come all the way could not go home immediately, but turned to attend the coronation ceremony of William III and Queen Juana at Westminster Abbey.

There have been few precedents in which the king and queen were coronated together, but because Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon were coronated together, William III and Queen Juana also inherited this precedent, adhering to the principle of saving as much as possible, directly Two chairs were placed in Westminster Abbey, symbolizing the sharing of royal power and equality of status.

Because William III's coronation crown is the heavy St. Edward's crown, the nobles in charge of the coronation ceremony have to prepare another coronation crown for Queen Juana, and it must not be too precious. Queen Juana was embarrassed.

For this reason, William III pulled through the existing jewelry, but he couldn't find a style that satisfied him.

It was proposed that Queen Juana be crowned with Anne Boleyn's coronation crown, and then this person was dragged out of Whitehall Palace by Sir Cavendish himself.

Can this person speak?

What does it mean to have Queen Juana use Anne Boleyn's coronation crown.

Do you think it's too comfortable to stay with your head on your neck, so you want to experience the taste of long thorns in the Tower of London?

For this reason, William Tudor bought an extremely precious pink diamond from the Ottoman Empire, and then used several skilled craftsmen to create a unique queen crown for Queen Juana using the existing crown base.

This is the crown of the Queen of England, known as an art treasure hundreds of years later - it was inspired by Josephine's shell-carved crown (but here, I don't know who learned who), but the central theme is replaced by South African pink diamonds of astonishing size are matched with five shell carvings inspired by Greek mythology, plus countless pearls for embellishment.

It can be said that whether it is in terms of artistic value or pure cost, it is enough to overwhelm most crowns.

Not to mention that William III went to Michelangelo to build the relief on it urgently.

Sculptors who are good at overtime work can be said to be proficient in Greek mythology sculptures. After all, during his time in Rome, he relied on forging ancient Roman sculptures to earn the IQ tax of the nobles.

Moreover, the shell carving of Juana's crown is not big, so it only took Michelangelo six months to complete the art treasures inlaid on the coronation crown.

This is also one of Michelangelo's only surviving jewelry works hundreds of years later.

………………

In August 1547, William Tudor, the eldest son of Henry VIII, was crowned King William III by the Archbishop of Canterbury in Westminster Abbey, wearing a luxurious coronation costume.

As a result, the Tudor Dynasty ushered in the upsurge of the Renaissance and the golden age in history.