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CROWNS OF CHARLEMAGNE AND HUNGARY. 313
("Sapphires?),
and others cut square after the fashion of table-diamonds (Emeralds, or
Beryls ?). Above all rises a Greek cross, also set with large stones :
gems of less importance are equally interspersed upon the other
plaques. From the cross springs an -arch like a flying buttress which
gives stability to the entire fabric. Frederic Barbarossa, in the year
1166, canonized Charlemagne, and took advantage of the occasion (even
if he did not create it expressly), like a true Teuton, to despoil his
sepulchre of the crown, besides the enormous mass of treasure,
infinitely magnified by tradition, there deposited—the golden throne,
the two shields of gold, &c. Since that time the relic was used at
the coronation of the succeeding German emperors, and the Elector
Palatine had the custody of it ex officio. The Austrian
Francis, as the last in the Imperial series, had possession of the
crown, and took good care to retain it ; it now rests in the Imperial
Library of Vienna, a mere monument of antiquity.
CROWN OF HUNGARY.
This memorial
of the first establishment of Hungarian nationality has ever been
regarded with superstitious veneration by every true Magyar, and
authenticated every coronation of the kings of that country until the
shameful overthrow of its liberties and constitution in our own times.*
It is, in truth, a most venerable relic of the regular Byzantine art ;
and is formed by a broad flat band of fine gold, whence springs an
arch, supporting a cross. It was sent in the year 1072 by the Emperor
Michael Ducas to Geisa, the first Duke of Hungary, or, as he is
strangely (though with strict historical accuracy) styled
* When it disappeared, and its hiding-place remains known only to a faithful few.
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