power--was accompanied by an expansion and elaboration of secular rule. The image of kingship changed. Later medieval kings were unlike other men: they dressed differently, carried and wore special insignia, and were supposed to possess certain traditional kingly attributes, amongst them law-giving, judging, and maintaining peace and order. The ceremony and ritual associated with kingship, however, became much more complex and elaborate during this period. This was clearly evident at coronations, royal entries into principal towns, royal funerals, and plenary sessions of judicial and representative assemblies (French parlements and Estates, English parliaments, imperial, Polish, and Hungarian diets). Like the saints, kings were identified by the display of certain emblems--above all, the crown, orb, and sceptre.
The significance of the crown in later medieval Europe cannot be underestimated. Although some great nobles claimed the right to wear a crown (such as the dukes of Brittany or the counts of Armagnac in France), that symbol of power became increasingly confined to monarchs. The Holy Roman emperor claimed exclusive use of the closed crown, resembling the papal tiara, but the rulers of Bohemia, Austria, Poland, and Hungary had also assumed the right to wear the closed crown of sovereignty. The English monarchy only adopted an 'imperial' crown in the reign of Henry VIII, and in France that symbol of absolute sovereignty did not emerge until c. 1550. The orb signified terrestrial power, and its use had been confined to the emperor until it was adopted by the crown of Aragon in 1204 and the English monarchy in the fourteenth century. The French, however, did not use the orb, preferring two sceptres: the long rod of state, and the shorter main-de-justice, which symbolized the role of the king as a giver of justice from the reign of Philip the Fair ( 1285-1314) onwards. Both the Capetian and Valois kings of France also laid great stress upon their ceremonial sword. This was not so much a symbol of martial prowess and military strength but of royal justice and this sword, called Joyeuse, attributed to Charlemagne, was carried before them on state occasions by the constable of France. The combination of the sword of justice and the lilies
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