PLATE XXX.—Crowned shield with supporters and badges of the Lady Margaret Beaufort, 1485.
It may be as well to point out that the royal crown has been composed, from the fifteenth century, of crosses alternating with fleurs-de-lis, and since the coronation of King Henry IV it has been distinguished by being arched over cross-wise. The splendid open crown shown on the effigy of the king at Canterbury (fig. [173]) is not that wherewith he was crowned, but another worn with the parliament robes in which he is represented. Beautiful examples of crowns of simpler type are afforded by the effigies of King Henry III (fig. [174]) and King Edward II (fig. [175]). When the lady Elizabeth Wydville became the queen of Edward IV, she ensigned her arms with a beautiful crown or coronet of alternate large crosses and fleurs-de-lis with smaller fleurs-de-lis between, rising from a richly jewelled band (pl. [XXV]), and a rich example of the crown of King Henry VIII so treated is to be seen on the great carved panel with his arms, etc. at New Hall in Essex (fig. [189]). Crosses and fleurs-de-lis are now used only in the coronets of those of royal blood.
Fig. 173. King Henry IV, from his alabaster effigy in Canterbury cathedral church.