When we speak of a crown now we mean the head-dress worn by royal personages as a badge of sovereignty, but it was formerly used to include the wreaths or garlands worn by the ancients upon special occasions.

Among the Greeks and Romans, crowns made of grass, flowers, twigs of laurel, oak, olive and so forth, and later of gold, were made use of as honors in athletic contests, as rewards for military valor, and at feasts, funerals and so forth.

It is, however, with the eastern diadem rather than with the classic corona that the crown, as a symbol of royalty, is connected; indeed, it was only introduced as such a symbol by Alexander the Great, who followed the Persian usage. Antony wore a crown in Egypt, and the Roman emperors also wore crowns of various forms, from the plain golden fillet to the radiated or rayed crown.

In modern states they were also of various forms until heralds devised a regular series to mark the grades of rank from the imperial crown to the baron's coronet.

The English crown has been gradually built up from the plain circlet with four trefoil heads worn by William the Conqueror. This form was elaborated and jeweled, and finally arched in with jeweled bands surmounted by the cross and scepter. As at present existing, the crown of England is a gold circle, adorned with pearls and precious stones, having alternately four Maltese crosses and four fleur-de-lis. From the top of the crosses rise imperial arches, closing under a mound and cross. The whole covers a crimson velvet cap with an ermine border.

The crown of Charlemagne, which is preserved in the imperial treasury of Vienna, is composed of eight plates of gold, four large and four small, connected by hinges. The large plates are studded with precious stones, the front one being surmounted with a cross; the smaller ones, placed alternately with these, are ornamented with enamels representing Solomon, David, Hezekiah and Isaiah, and Christ seated between two flaming seraphim.

The Austrian crown is a sort of cleft tiara, having in the middle a semicircle of gold supporting a mound and cross; the tiara rests on a circle with pendants like those of a miter.

The royal crown of France is a circle ornamented with eight fleur-de-lis, from which rise as many quarter-circles closing under a double fleur-de-lis. The triple crown of the popes is more commonly called the tiara.