In the account of Ancient Regalia which were destroyed and dissipated in the time of the Commonwealth in England, there is no mention of a ring.
In the year one thousand seven hundred and sixty-six, some workmen discovered a monument while repairing Winchester Cathedral, in England.[120] It contained the body of King Canute, and was remarkably fresh. There was a wreath around the head, several ornaments of gold and also silver bands; upon a finger was a ring, in which was set a large and remarkably fine stone; while in one of the hands was a silver penny. This silver penny was not for “the ferryman that poets write of,” as was the piece of money in the mouths of the Roman knights whose passing-away bodies we have before referred to; but, although it may have been for Peter and not Charon, is it not probable that we find here a custom of Christian times springing out of heathen root? A statue of Jupiter has been turned into a Christ; and that which the Roman used for the boatman of Styx, is here meant for one who had the key of heaven.
While Henry the Second, of England, was rebuilding Westminster Abbey, the sepulchre of Sebert, king of the East Angles, was opened.[121] The body was dressed in royal robes, and there was a thumb-ring, in which was set a ruby of great value.
Horace Walpole, having reference to the opening of this monarch’s tomb, complains, like an antiquary, of the reburying the king’s regalia. “They might, at least, have cut out the portraits and removed the tomb [of King Sebert] to a conspicuous situation; but though this age is grown so antiquarian, it has not gained a grain more of sense in that walk—witness, as you instance, in Mr. Grose’s Legends, and in the dean and chapter reburying the crown, robes and sceptre of Edward I. There would surely have been as much piety in preserving them in their treasury, as in consigning them again to decay. I did not know that the salvation of robes and crowns depended on receiving Christian burial. At the same time, the chapter transgresses that prince’s will, like all their antecessors, for he ordered his tomb to be opened every year or two years, and receive a new cere-cloth or pall; but they boast now of having inclosed him so substantially that his ashes cannot be violated again.”[122]
When the tomb of Henry the Second, of England, was opened, it appeared that he was buried wearing a crown and royal robes, with other paraphernalia, while there was a great ring upon his finger.[123]
Richard the Second, of England, by his will directed that he should be buried in velvet or white satin, etc., and that, according to royal usage, a ring, with a precious stone in it, should be put upon his finger.
The body of Childeric, the first king of the Franks,[124] was discovered at Tours. It was found in royal robes, and, with other regalia, a coronation ring.
In the year one thousand five hundred and sixty-two, the Calvinists broke open the tomb of Matilda, wife to William the Conqueror, in the Abbey of Caen; and discovered her body dressed in robes of state and a gold ring, set with a sapphire, upon one of her fingers. The ring was given to the then abbess, who presented it to her father, the Baron de Conti, constable of France, when he attended Charles IX. to Caen in 1563.
§ 3. In the time of Henry VIII. of England, the king’s ring was used to withdraw from the Council the power to adjudge a matter and to place it entirely in the hands of the monarch. We refer to the complaints against Cranmer, which are made use of by Shakspeare,[125] who has very closely followed Fox, in his Book of Martyrs.[126] The king sends for Cranmer, and follows up his discourse thus: “Do you not consider what an easy thing it is to procure three or four false knaves to witness against you? Think you to have better luck that way than your master Christ had? I see by it you will run headlong to your undoing, if I would suffer you. Your enemies shall not so prevail against you, for I have otherwise devised with myself to keep you out of their hands. Yet, notwithstanding, to-morrow when the council shall sit and send for you, resort unto them, and if, in charging you with this matter, they do commit you to the Tower, require of them, because you are one of them, a counsellor, that you may have your accusers brought before them without any further indurance, and use for yourself as good persuasions that way as you may devise; and if no entreaty or reasonable request will serve, then deliver unto them this my ring, (which, then, the king delivered unto the Archbishop,) and say unto them, ‘If there be no remedy, my lords, but that I must needs go to the Tower, then I revoke my cause from you and appeal to the king’s own person by this token unto you all;’ for, (said the king then unto the Archbishop,) ‘so soon as they shall see this my ring, they know it so well that they shall understand that I have reserved the whole cause into mine own hands and determination, and that I have discharged them thereof.’ Anon the Archbishop was called into the council chamber, to whom was alleged as before is rehearsed. The Archbishop answered in like sort as the king had advised him; and in the end, when he perceived that no manner of persuasion or entreaty could serve, he delivered them the king’s ring, revoking his cause into the king’s hands. The whole council being thereat somewhat amazed, the Earl of Bedford, with a loud voice, confirming his words with a solemn oath, said, ‘When you first began the matter, my lords, I told you what would become of it. Do you think that the king would suffer this man’s finger to ache? Much more (I warrant you) will he defend his life against brabbling varlets. You do but cumber yourselves to hear tales and fables against him.’ And incontinently upon the receipt of the king’s token, they all rose and carried to the king his ring, surrendering that matter, as the order and use was, into his own hands.”
§ 4. The stranger in Venice is yet shown the richly gilt galley, called Bucentaur, in which the Doge, from the year 1311, was accustomed to go out into the sea annually on Ascension Day, to throw a ring into the water, and thus to marry, as it were, the Adriatic, as a sign of the power of Venice over that sea.[127] This ceremony does not go into remote antiquity, yet the origin of it is of considerable date. In the year 1177, when the Emperor Barbarossa went to humble himself before the Pope, who had taken refuge in Venice, the Pope, in testimony of the kindness he had there received, gave to the Doge a ring, and with it a right for the Venetians to call the Adriatic sea their own. He bade the Doge cast it into the sea, to wed it, as a man marries his wife; and he enjoined the citizens, by renewing this ceremony every year, to claim a dominion which they had won by their valor; for they had, with a small squadron, defeated a large fleet of the Emperor’s and taken his son prisoner; and it was to regain his son that the Emperor submitted himself to the Pope.