The HOLY CROWN of HUNGARY & The AMERICAN PRESIDENT

Forgive my extremely poor grasp of US Geography! What can I say, I’m an Englishman. I do realise now that Fort Knox is in Kentucky. 😂😂😂😂😂😂

As a Hungarian this crown is like the ark of the covenant. No king was considered legitimate until it was crowned by the bishop of Esztergom in Székesfehérvár by this crown on the coronation mound built from dirt gathered from all parts of the country. You can see it in the Parliament during a tour. Itself being a beautiful neogothic building it really is an almost otherwordly experience seeing it for real, especially after seeing it and hearing about it in so many places from the Hungarian coat of arms to the pages of history books.

As a student of Hungarian (and lover of all things Hungarian) this should prove to be very interesting!

The Greek inscription on the enamel panel for Geza, reads «Γεωβίτζας Πιστός Κράλης Τουρκίας» = "Geovídzas (the Hellenised name of Geza) faithful Kral of Turkey"; note that he's described as Kral and not Βασιλεύς-Basileus, the latter is reserved only for the emperor in Constantinople. Turkey is the name by which Hungary was known to the Byzantines

I'm always amazed how well these artifacts stand the test of time. Surviving wars and unrest is no small feat. Fascinating history! 👏

In medieval times if someone wanted to be a legitimate king of Hungary, three criteria had to be fulfilled: 1. He had to be crowned with the Holy Crown. 2. ... by the archbishop of Esztergom. 3. In the royal capital of Székesfehérvár. Any three of these were lacking, and the king's legitimacy could be disputed.

Thank you for a very much needed summary about Hungary’s Holy Crown. You are right about its unique role in Hungary’s public life -even today. As someone who grew up in Hungary I was always aware of the Crown’s mystical, spiritual powers as well its significance in public law. Your comparison of the locations of Saint Edward’s Crown and Saint “István’s” really juxtaposes the Hungarian Crown Jewels with other European ones. There was only one detail that I would like to add: according to mythology The Holy Crown was offered to István by the Blessed Virgin hence the strong Marian sentiments even today in the country. Many still refer to Mary as Queen of Hungary. Thanks again for your wonderful work. ❤

Thank you Dr Barton for this video, I subscribed to your chanel two years ago for niche medieval english content and now you presented the Holy Crown of my homeland, what a pleasant surprise! Unfortunately the osman wars destroyed much of our medieval and renaissance heritage, so the Basilica of Székesfehérvár, where the medieval coronations took place but the coronation regalia remained intact, it is hard to describe how important are these objects for our cultural heritage. Very well done!

If you look closely at the three back images of the Holy Crown, you can see that they are secondary to the Crown. This is particularly evident in the portrait of Mihály Dukász on the rear pediment, which is fixed in front of the socket with rivets. When the image was mounted, the image of St. Thomas behind it was drilled through. The quality of this trio falls far short of the artistry of all other enamelled images of the Holy Crown. In other words, these images are unsuitable for determining the date of the making of the Holy Crown. The fact that the inscriptions of the Holy Crown are bilingual (Latin and Greek) does not prove that they were made in a different time and place. The salvation history program of the images of the Holy Crown also proves that the crown was made as a unified whole.

This was absolutely fascinating. I've not seen or heard of this ever before. I graduated high school in 1977 and you would think the return would have made news here!

A delightful video and history lesson of this very precious object. Thank you, Allan!

Wonderful to see a real crown from the Eastern Roman/Byzantine empire survive!

The Holy Crown as a mystical relic and mandatory requirement for legitimate rule is much closer to what you read in fairy tales / fantasy novels then what was historically practised in most other European Kingdoms.

Thank you so much, i'm from Hungary, it is a nice suprise...

Thankyou for another fascinating video, I knew nothing about the early history of Hungary so yet another gap in my knowledge filled! Or if not filled, then at least a space made for it. I only have to hear the names of those precious stones to make my mouth water!

Thank you for this video! As I happen to be a Hungarian, I have a bit more, I think somewhat interesting information regarding our crown. We have a so-called Holy Crown discipline, which used to be the very basis of Hungarian statehood and of our unwritten historical constitution. According to this, the Holy Crown isn’t only the main object that signifies the power of the king, but it is to be regarded as the actual sovereign. The king or queen is only a member of the body of the crown, along with the ruling class and the entire territory of the Kingdom of Hungary. The crown has its own personality and will, the person who wears it is only a messenger of this will. This was quite important, because this way, the state could be separated from the monarch, also from the monarchy. Nothing makes this special position more visible, than the official name of the country within the old empire: the Lands of the Holy Crown. Another quite interesting thing is, that within our current constitution, there is a provision which orders the constitution to be interpreted according to the old historical constitution, which contains this discipline. This way, one can argue, that the Holy Crown hasn’t lost its position as the embodiment and ruler of Hungary, only there is no monarch nowadays, instead we have a Parliament.

‘Confection’ is an excellent word for this crown!

"For much of the Cold War the crown was held at the United States Bullion Depository (Fort Knox, Kentucky) alongside the bulk of the United States' gold reserves and other priceless historical items." -- Wikipedia

This is a fascinating story. I studied the Monuments Men, what a fantastic program. Of course President Carter helped in its return. Well and that area was somewhat stable for its return

The Austro Hungarian Empire was a great feature of our European History lessons at school! Very complicated it was too. Thanks for this.. It is an interesting crown in itself.