I’m wondering just how accurate our image of kings and queens are? Does the Queen of England, for one, wear a crown? (Forgive me, that’s what I get for not being able to stomach Lady Di’s wedding.) If not nowadays, did they in the old times? - Jinx
Only occasionally. She wears a crown at her coronation, obviously. I <i>think</I> she wears a crown at the State Opening of Parliament. There may be other state occasions on which she wears a crown, but I suspect not many.
Yes. Queen Elizabeth II wears the Imperial State Crown at the annual opening of Parliament (pics here).
More on the Crown Jewels
Yes, and Harry borrows it when he goes clubbing.
“Yeah, the crown is cool. But come back to my place and I’ll show you the Royal Scepter!”
“Moreover, feel free to inspect the family jewels. It’s amazing how big and hard those rocks are.”
The new effigies of the Queen on Canadian coins are notable for being the first ones in which she isn’t wearing a crown.
Actually, didn’t the very first QEII coins in the fifties have her wearing a laurel wreath or something? Not a crown or tiera, at any rate?
Whoops, [url=“http://www.mint.ca/en/collectors_corner/circulation/monarchy.htm”]you’re right, and neither did her father, George VI. To be fair, she did wear crowns from 1965 to 2003.
Her neck muscles must have got pretty sore.
Getting back to the OP, I seem to recall reading that when the current King of Sweden came to the throne back in the 70s, he wasn’t actually crowned. The Swedish crown was part of the ceremony, but wasn’t put on his head, because that seemed a bit much for the democratic Swedes. (Struck me at the time as swallowing a camel and straining at a gnat. “Ya, we haff a hereditary king, but he can’t wear the Crown because we are democrats.”)
Anyone else remember this?
I don’t know about Sweden, but that’s non-crowning bit is true for Norway.
(From here.) I suppose that camel/gnat thing is spot on, though we do like our royalty partly because they don’t act like they’re better than others 
The most beloved photo of Olav V is this one.
Actually, the British monarch is the only one in Europe who is still crowned, the Pope having abandoned his ceremony after Vatican II; all the others take oaths.
In this photo, you can see King Juan Carlos just after his oath of office in 1975. There’s a crown resting on a cushion in front of him. (And do you love Queen Sofía’s outfit? Bright fuchsia!)
Seems no point in being a monarch if you don’t get to be crowned.
There’s a passage in the book by the Queen’s former butler (Paul Burrell) (A Royal Duty, I think) where he writes about entering the room where the Queen was and being surprised to find her wearing a crown while at her desk. She told him she was getting into training for an event the following day.
That’s what I thought! Why do away with an excuse for a great big fat pageant?
Check out the CBC’s archival video of Elizabeth’s coronation. It’s extremely impressive.
My mother has a photo of the coronation, with the Queen (plus maids in waiting carrrying her train) passing her husband, Prince Philip. Both are grinning. According to the photographer, hubby had just said: “Where did you get that hat?”
I love it. That’s almost as good as the Queen Mother entering a banquet with Noel Coward; seeing his eye dart over one of the guardsmen, she said, “I wouldn’t if I were you, Noel; they count them before they put them out.”
Saucy. Probably heard this one, or a variant thereof, but in the Encyclopedia of Music the entry for Benjamin Britten reads: “See under Peter Pears”.
The last two popes, JP I and JP II, eschewed a crown at their induction ceremonies (too late at night to remember what it’s called). I guess it is a coronation.