Coronet - Continental Usages

Continental Usages

The Holy Roman Empire, and consequently its successor states – Austria, Germany and others – had a system very similar to that of the British, although the design varied.

  • The normal Adelskrone for lower nobility ("Laubkrone") is a golden ring with pearls and precious stones that features eight tines of which typically only five are visible. Of these, the central and outer tines are normally leaves, whereas the others are headed by pearls. In the southern states of Bavaria and Württemberg quite often all tines are headed by pearls.
  • The Freiherrnkrone (baron's coronet) shows seven tines with pearls.
  • The Grafenkrone (count's coronet) shows nine tines with pearls. Some of the senior houses used coronets showing five leaves and four pearls (Some mediatized counties and minor principalities had other types of coronets that distinguished them from normal counts).
  • The Fürstenkrone (coronet of a prince) is a golden ring with precious stones and five leaves and a crimson cap, that is surrounded by three visible arches with an imperial globe on top.
  • The Herzogskrone (duke's coronet) has five arches, but only four tines. Crimson cloth is visible between the arches.

Considering the highly religious nature of the Holy Roman Empire, one can say that, except for the short-lived Napoleonic states, no continental secular system of heraldry historically was so neatly regulated as under the British crown. Still, there are often traditions (often connected to the Holy Roman Empire, e.g., those in Sweden, Denmark or Russia) that include the use of crown and coronets. While most languages do not have a specific term for coronets, but simply use the word meaning crown, it is possible to determine which of those crowns are for peerage or lower-level use, and thus can by analogy be called coronets.

Precisely because there are many traditions and more variation within some of these, there is a plethora of continental coronet types. Indeed there are also some coronets for positions that do not exist or entitle one to a coronet in the Commonwealth tradition. Such a case in French ("old", i.e., royal era) heraldry, where coronets of rank did not come into use before the 16th century, is the vidame, whose coronet (illustrated) is a metal circle mounted with three visible crosses (there is no documentary or archeological evidence that such a coronet was ever made).

Often, coronets are substituted by helmets, or only worn on a helmet.

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