In this video, I look at a beautiful object, the fifteenth-century crown or coronet of a member of the English royal family – Margaret of York, the sister of Edward IV and Richard III. In 1468, she married Charles the Bold Duke of Burgundy, and the crown was made then and probably worn by her at her wedding. It was made in London or Low Countries and is of exquisite quality. Made of silver gilt and enamel & decorated with pearls, it is encrusted with rubies and sapphires, set in enamel Yorkist white roses. It also bears decoration that refers to Margaret and her husband’s marriage, an enamel inscription bearing her own name, their joint coat of arms and their initials joined by a lover’s knot. In 1474 Margaret, a devoted Catholic, gave the coronet to adorn a statue of the Virgin and Child at Aachen in Germany, where it remains to this day in the cathedral treasury.

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