The Iron Crown

The oldest of the crowns of Europe is the iron crown of Lombardy, now restored to its resting-place of centuries in the cathedral of Monza, the sunny little town which, from the Alpine slopes, looks down upon imperial Milán, whither many a time ita treasures were borne to be placed on the brows of a Germán Kaiser at his second coronation. His firat was at Aachen, by the tomb of Oharlemagne, where he received the silver crowd of Germany ; his second at Milan ; his third at Borne, where the the Pope oonferred on him the golden crown of the Empire. But the iron crown was the most venerable of them all. For thirteen hundred years the iron crown has held the foremost place among the diadema of Europo, for it was formed by the skilful hand of Koman goldsmiths in the sixth century, and sent by Pope Gregory the Great to the Gothic Queen Theodolinda, when she had freed Lombardy from the Arian heresy. It's form is simple, as one might expect from its ancient date. It is a broad, flat ring or diadem of gold, adorned with enamelled flowers and preoious stones ; stones not cut into facets, as in modern jewelry, but emeralds, sapphires and rubíes in their rough, uncut form as they carne from tlie mine. But inside Ihis circle of gold and jewola is a thin band of iron, from which the crown takes its name ; and this iron, tradition asserts, is one of the nails of the trne cross hammered out into a ring. Long and angry have been the battles fought by antiquaries on this point. Those who deny its authentioity, headed by Muratori, certainly bring weighty arguments to the support of their view ; but the tradition has survived all their learned folios ; gallant champions have fought, pen in hand, in its defence, and still in the language of the people the crown of Monza is called il sacro chiodo, "the holy naü. ' It graced the imperial front of Charlemagne, and a long succession of German emperors, ending with Charles V. But the last sovereign who wore it was Napoleon I. In May, 1805, he assembied at Milan the dignitaries of the empire, the representativos of his royal and imperial allies, and a splendid circle of marshals and generáis, and in their presence he placed it on his head, repeating the proud motto of his iron crown, "God has given it to me ; woe to him who touches it." In 1859 the Austrians, retreating from Lombardy, took the iron crown with them to Mantau, and subsequently, to Vienna. There it remained until, by the trenty which ceded Venetia to Italy in 1 866, it was restored to its old home in the sacristy of the cathedral at Monza. and there it rests to-day, amid the other treasures óf Theodolinda - her jewelled comb, her golden hen and seven chickens (the symbols of Lombardy and its seven provinces), and the crown of her husband Agilulph.