Flavio Biondo, an Italian humanist, in the early 15th Century, first coined the term “Middle Age” (”medium ævum”) to designate the period between the Classical and the enlightened Renaissance revival of classical ideas, philosophies, aesthetics. In English, Dutch, Russian and Icelandic, the plural form of the term, Middle Ages, is used, however, other European languages use the singular form (Italian medioevo, French le moyen âge, German das Mittelalter.) The popular word we use commonly today, “medieval”, is a contraction of the Latin medium ævum or “middle epoch”. Enlightenment thinkers used it as a pejorative descriptor of the Middle Ages. The Middle Ages would come to be viewed as a Dark Age during which many of the advances and achievements of the Greeks and Romans would be eclipsed by warfare and the gradual disintegration of institutions and culture that the Europeans had inherited from the Classical era.
The beginning of the Medieval period is introduced with the fall of the Roman Empire, when in 476 C.E., the emperor was driven from his throne by barbarian invaders. The dissolution of the once expansive and powerful Roman Empire allowed for the formation of tiny kingdoms throughout Europe vying for territory. There was great instability as a result of such fragmentation and ongoing invasions and infighting bewteen tribes such as the Vikings, Visigoths, and Gauls, as well as the Moors began to change the nature of European life. 
A lack of centralized political power in the greater region gave the Catholic Church tremendous power and civilian life - in terms of cultural growth, education, literacy, political involvement, and commerce - was in many ways truncated by an era of conflict and unenlightened dogma. With lawlessness and warfare widespread, community became focused around small powers, nobles or kings, who established control of land and created feudal systems by which to garner work from the peasant-class in exchange for access to land and protection from marauding tribes.
Positions of authority and power often are enhanced by costume and accessories that distinguish the wearer’s bearing among other people and set him/her apart visually. A crown, diadem, or tiara is one such accessory that has been a display of authority throughout history and one that is particularly notable in the history of Western European monarchies is the Iron Crown of Lombardy.
This crown was said to have been made with an iron nail from the True Cross (the cross upon which Christ was crucified, according to Christian tradition) that was hammered out to form the band of its circumference, hence its name, the Iron Crown. Its outer paneling is of six gold and enameled plates joined with hinges and onto these plates are embedded jewels and stones in the forms of crosses and flowers.
It was first worn by Theodelinda, Queen of the Lombards from 588 to 628, who was influential in promoting a branch of Christianity throughout Italy that would later prevail as the dominant tradition. The Iron Crown of Lombardy thus became a symbol of Christian faith tied to monarchy and rights to rule. Queen Theodelinda donated the Iron Crown to the Italian church in Monza in 628 and it remained there as a religious relic and as one of the oldest crowns of monarchy in preservation.
Significantly, the crown of the Kingdom of Lombards was used in the coronation of Charlemagne as Imperator Augustus in 800 by Pope Leo III, as he came to symbolize the re-embodiment of the Holy Roman Empire and its backing by the Papacy. Subsequent emperors between the 9th and 18th centuries were also crowned with the Iron Cross and in 1805, Napoleon Bonaparte, following this pattern of authentication of rule, took the crown for himself as well. He claimed himself King of Italy at Milan and took the Iron Crown, with the pronouncement, “Dieu me la donne, gare à qui la touche” (”God gives it to me, beware those who touch it”.) The Iron Crown later fell into the hands of the Austrian Emperor and was kept in Vienna until 1866, when it was returned to Italy and the church at Monza.
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*image–Iron Crown of Lombardy from church at Monza, Italy. *image–Theodelinda, Queen of the Lombards. Illustration from the Nuremberg Chronicle, by Hartmann Schedel (1440-1514) The Medieval Store offers a product selection of interest to medieval reenactors or medieval collectors of medieval mementos and replicas. Visit our Medieval Store today. |
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Tags: 1805, 1866, 628, 800, Celtic Cross of Duplin, Charlemagne, Church of Monza, Classic Medieval Sword, crown of Lombardy, crown of the True Cross, Fashion History, history of the crown, history of the diadem, history of the tiara, Holy Roman Empire, Imperator Augustus, Iron Crown, King of Italy, Medieval Store, Monarchy, Napoleon Bonaparte, North Italian Sallet, oldest crown, Pope Leo III, Queen of the Lombards, Religion, religious relic, The Iron Crown, Theodelinda, True Cross
Changes in clothing styles in the middle ages were not very dramatic until the mid-13th century when the tunic styles that had dominated both men’s and women’s wardrobes began to diversify and manifest unique designs. A dramatic shift in artwork during this same medieval period, when fashion essentially began its history, reflects the changes of those times. What Giorgio Vasari, the Renaissance art historian, classified as Gothic Art offers us images caught in time of a movement and energy that encapsulated the end of the middle ages.
Gothic art evokes the great cathedrals of France and Germany to the modern viewer, but Gothic sculpture, and particularly the forms explicit in the Gothic aesthetic, tell a lot about the time period’s aspirations and visions of itself. If Gothic architecture was reflective of people’s Christian ideals, with spires reaching for the heavens and stained glass windows channeling God’s light through the chambers of the church, then Gothic sculpture was charged with the restlessness and flamboyance of the period. Whereas the Romanesque aesthetic in sculpture that preceded it was marked by rigidity and stoic beauty, Gothic sculpture broke free literally and figuratively.
