Requisite Royal Regalia

aka: Ermine Cape

Her dress, tiara, and ermine cape let us know she's a princess, not a construction worker.^note Though she could work construction on the side.

Despite what some would like to believe, there is no inherent majesty in royalty that radiates off them, save for certain Speculative Fiction stories. This is why they use special accessories to make their station clear to everyone looking at them. Since this is done in Real Life, why should fiction be any different?

As for fiction, The Law of Conservation of Detail means one of these can't show up unless it has something to do with royalty, however tenuous. The wearer could be actual royalty, or it could be a contest where the winner is given a crown and/or cape, hence being given a sort of recognition as royalty. (Or, of course, in a culture where the monarch selects the heir, it can be both.)

Of course in fiction, the Ermine Cape Effect is often applied, so royalty tends to wear one or more of these constantly, unless they are Modest Royalty.

In European royalty, the most common ways to identify royalty are:

• A Crown. How can you have an Awesome Moment of Crowning without a Cool Crown? Okay, you can, but it just wouldn't be the same. Be it circlets, Gem-Encrusted tiaras, or those big, fancy imperial crowns, a crown is probably the most commonly used symbol of royalty in the world.
• A Grand Cape. Any cape, robe, or overdress (which some queens wore as state robes) that is decorated with either ermine, some other expensive fur, or some other extravagant fabric or decoration (gold embroidery is also common). This is the second most commonly used way to identify royalty. In Theatre, it's actually preferable to a crown, because it's larger and would of course be more visible to the audience (take the page picture). Some are larger than others; for example, the cape used for coronations of Russian emperors weighed 60 kg (150 lbs).
  • Common colors for these robes are Gold, Vermilion, Blue, and Purple.
  • In terms of ermine specifically, since the breakdown of sumptuary laws, nobility and even sufficiently rich women have worn ermine garments, including capes. But in fiction, the grand sweeping capes are still almost exclusively for royalty.
  • Adding symbol motifs to them is common, especially if it is part of a nation's crest or flag.
• A Throne. which is the chair the royal personage sits on. In some early cultures this isn't a chair but some other kind of seat, like a stone. In some cases, like a few west African cultures, there's a stone inside the chair.
  • There's also the Stone of Scone under the Coronation Chair at Westminster Abbey. Not to be confused with The Scone of Stone.
• A Sceptre. A staff with a fancy ornament on top. Fiction usually acknowledges that it's just there to look impressive, unless it's justified by having magic powers or using it as a weapon. Can vary in length. In some cases the sceptre itself may invest the bearer with the monarchy's authority, allowing them to deliver rulings without directly consulting the ruler. The sceptre is descended from a ceremonial mace, used to literally browbeat recalcitrant nobles back into line.
• A Royal Ring. Or course Royalty has plenty of rings, but in fiction The Law of Conservation of Detail applies, so if a ring is mentioned, it will have some significance. Often this is a way to identify the long lost heir, or a way to mark royal seals (as they often were used in Real Life), or sometimes they have magical powers. The royal seals are sometimes on a "Signet ring", which is very important. Some royal houses have Keepers of the Seal, whose job it is to guard the seal, although it usually is not on a ring in that case.
• An Orb. Usually carried only for coronations and the paintings thereof. Usually topped with a cross^note which inspired the look of the "Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch" in Monty Python and the Holy Grail. The orb is supposed to symbolize God's rule of the whole world, and the ruler being chosen to enforce that control of their lands.
• Pimped-Out Dress. This is optional in modern times, but if the story takes place before the 20th century (or the equivalent thereof in the world the story is taking place in), a queen or Princess will own at least a handful of these (usually colored pink), unless she has run away or been exiled from royal life. The peeresses will have their own fancy dresses, just never as grand as the royal ladies'.
• Fancy Gloves. This is also an optional trope, but if the story takes place in the 1870-1914 period (e.g., The Prisoner of Zenda), the queen or Princess will be wearing these (usually in white kid leather) on formal occasions.
• Fans. Another optional trope. A queen or princess may carry around a decorated fan, while a King or Emperor may be surrounded by courtiers carrying a large banner fans as a symbol of his authority.
• Bling of War. Same as above, but for kings and princes, if the setting is the 1700s or after. Often they will wear it even in times of peace.
• A Sword. A suitably pimped out sword, which symbolises the ruler's role as protector of the people, as well as supreme commander of the military. And, of course, good for slicing up people who didn't respond to application of sceptre. Swords are ubiquitous in any medieval-type setting, but a sword is still a common piece of regalia.
• A key. Keys are rarely seen outside the context of a coronation, but are still used as a symbol of the king's possession of the land, as well as the king's rights as the utmost arbiter of law.
• A Ruff. Although this well-known collar isn't limited to royals, it's still incredibly fancy (and very archaic) and a good indication that the wearer has a great deal of wealth and/or power, and also, most likely, that they think very highly of themself.

Nobles can also make use of regalia when they are working directly for the king, or when there is no monarch, to indicate the chief of a council of nobles. They wear special stripy mantles of their own, dependent on rank, and even have a coronet (a small crown with no arches) for very special occasions. Other times there is a Dress Code dictating what regalia the royals and the nobles wear.

Also, in some fiction, these tend to have magical properties related to royalty. Even if not, these will rarely be as heavy, delicate, or cumbersome in fiction as they are in real life, unless it's explicitly mentioned as a Take That! to royal life.

A Super-Trope to Ermine Cape Effect (in that the regalia is worn no matter the situation).

Compare Impractically Fancy Outfit, Gold Makes Everything Shiny (which a lot of regalia uses).

This item is available in the Trope Co. catalog.

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Examples:

N.B. If a character simply wears one of these, it's probably best to just list that in Ermine Cape Effect. This works better if reserved for instances that we can state how they actually stand out in some way.

Anime & Manga

• The Sailor Senshi wear diadems (referred to as tiaras), given that they are all princesses, and Sailor Moon used hers as a weapon.
  • Sailor Jupiter's also had a lighting rod built into it. In the original manga it is always present while reprints and The '90s anime have it extend when she uses it.
  • Non Sol Senshi have some form of Tiara or headgear as well. Lead Crow's Feather tied to her forehead, Tin Nayanako's goofy headgear with gold accents, the X shaped straps across Sirien's face, Galaxia's Headdress, Kakyuu's crown (if it can be called that) being the least Tiara like.
  • The title character's weapon from the second season, the Cutie Moon Rod, is essentially a queen's scepter.(The DiC dub name is "Moon Scepter") Her weapon from the last season, the Eternal Tier, is a rod with the top resembling a crown.
  • This is explicitly confirmed in the manga. Neo-Queen Serenity has a scepter that is clearly based on the Cutie Moon Rod. Which she turns back into the Cutie Moon Rod and gives to the newly awakened Sailor Chibimoon for use in the final battle. When Sailor Moon's Cutie Moon Rod is broken in the battle Neo-Queen Serenity magically obtains a new scepter with a different design. She later has Chibi-Usa give Usagi a new weapon, the Heart Moon Rod, which is clearly what the new scepter is based off of. For reference, see here.
• One of the accessories Ahiru gets when she turns into Princess Tutu is a cute little crown shaped like a broken egg. Also, Mytho wears a crown and a cape when he's restored to his former princely self...and he wears a small, black crown in his "prince of the crows" outfit.
• Prétear has tiaras in at least some of her outfits, as well. She is referred to as a "princess" at least once in both the anime and the manga (by different characters) — this makes sense, considering the series is loosely based on Snow-White; besides, it is a pun on her name, Himeno. She also gains an even more crown-like tiara when she achieves the form of the Legendary White Pretear.
• Tenchi Muyo! has Ayeka wearing a tiara. However, you can barely tell what the hell it looks like because 99% of the time, it's covered up by her bangs. Oddly, none of the other royal females - Sasami, Funaho, Misaki, Seto, etc. - are shown wearing one. It does have a function, though, as it's the key to her spaceship, Ryu-Oh, and allows her to perform various offensive and defensive attacks.
• In The Rose of Versailles, Marie-Antoinette, and the two Louis, wear ermine capes to show off their authority. But when forced to speak to Madame DuBarry, Marie is so upset she flings her ermine cape away from her, as if to show that she was unworthy at that moment.
  • Maria Theresa is the Empress of the Holy Roman Empire, but you wouldn't notice for her diadem and purple sash. She is of the opinion the only regalia a proper ruler need are a crown and their own dignity.
• 'Tis Time for "Torture," Princess: Despite otherwise being clad in little more than an oversized shirt and underwear, the Princess is always seen wearing a small crown (unless she has to wear something else on her head).

Comic Books

• In Sonic the Hedgehog (Archie Comics), there was the Crown of Acorns, a major symbol of power created through the Source of All. It was bonded to the equally powerful Sword of Acorns and could be used by both the Acorn royals and those with powerful magical potential. The mainstream crown was destroyed by Sir Connery when he used his Sword of Light to destroy both corrupted Acorn items.
• Indeed, one of the few occasions where a scepter has a central role in a story is the Tintin tale King Ottokar's Scepter, where the King of Syldavia will be forced to abdicate if he can't find the titular object. It's all a front for an attempted Anschluss.
• There is an Assassin's Creed comic that reveals that the staff of Tsarist Russia is a Piece of Eden.
• Wonder Woman: The Golden Girdle of Aphrodite (Gaia in later installations) is the mark of the Amazon queen; in Wonder Woman (1942), Hippolyte never took it off, as while she wore it her people could not be defeated.

Fan Works

• Pointedly averted by the Goblin King in The Parselmouth of Gryffindor: one of the first things Hermione notices when meeting him is that he wears ordinary business robes, aside from his Cool Crown.
• The title character of The Bug Princess has a silver coronet shaped like a spiderweb, adorned with four differently colored gemstones shaped like beetles. Near the end of the story, it gets weaponized as an Amplifier Artifact.

Films — Animation

• In Beauty and the Beast, the stained glass prologue suggests that the young prince not only answered the palace door himself, but did so while wearing his crown and carrying his scepter.
• The tiara belonging to the lost princess of Corona is a plot device in Tangled.
• The three good fairies' final gift to Aurora in Sleeping Beauty is a "a crown to wear in grace and beauty, as is thy right, and royal duty." As she only learned hours before that she's a princess, she doesn't take it as well as they'd hoped.
• Merida's mother Elinor wears a modest crown throughout most of Brave, even after she's turned into a bear. It's therefore very notable when she leaves it behind, and the fact that she doesn't wear one for the remainder of the film is a hint of her Character Development. Merida herself, meanwhile, is very much less than pleased to be forced into royal regalia during the challenges to find her a husband.
• The Mickey-lookalike Prince from the Disney featurette The Prince and the Pauper had a royal ring to prove his identity, even when he was dressed in peasant clothes. When he becomes king he gets the full treatment with an ermine cape, a crown, and a scepter.
• Cars 2: The Queen of England actually uses her own antenna as a scepter.
• In Frozen (2013), Elsa wears gold tiara and a long purple cape to her coronation as Queen of Arendelle. She also is required to remove her gloves (which act as an emotional Power Limiter) by the Bishop before she can take the sceptre and orb during her coronation.
• In The Super Mario Bros. Movie, the Penguin King is the only penguin in the Ice Kingdom to wear any royal clothing - specifically a crown and an ermine cape - which immediately telegraphs that he's the king. He wears them even after Bowser throws him and the penguin soldiers into his prison.

Films — Live-Action

• The Crown Jewels of Britain are stolen as a plot to steal the throne in the film Johnny English.
• In Ella Enchanted, the crown is poisoned so the Evil Chancellor type could keep the rule for himself.
• In Eyes Wide Shut, the rich, aristocratic Doctor Hartford (Tom Cruise) is advised by the girl (Leelee Sobieski) to buy a "cape lined with ermine" before going to the Secret Circle of Secrets function.
• Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead. When we first meet the king and queen, they are in audience in the royal chamber and have all of their Regalia. In a later scene, when they're in private, they take it off; Gwendolyn's popping off her elaborate earrings in the middle of a line.
• King Ralph had a family heirloom ring as proof that Ralph is next in line to the British throne.
• When Danielle is first presented to the French court as their new princess in Ever After, she's wearing a gold crown and other finery; Prince Henry and his parents are also crowned for the occasion. Later, in private, both Henry and Danielle are dressed more simply.

Literature

• The world of The Wheel of Time has quite a few royal lines and their respective regalia, with some notable examples:
  • The Laurel Crown of Illian, which stands out as the only crown The Chosen One Rand wears from a nation he conquers. He renames it the Crown of Swords because of inward-pointing blades hidden among the golden laurel leaves, appreciating that it's the one crown that actually represents The Chains of Commanding.
  • Lan's sword is his ancestral weapon as Prince of Malkier, which fell to the Shadow in his infancy. It was forged with the One Power in the Age of Legends — though, unlike most such artifacts, it's a plain sword for a common soldier. He also carries the signet ring of Malkieri royalty, which he gives to his wife Nynaeve, who uses it to rally the Borderlanders to his banner and force him to reclaim his royal heritage.
  • The Lion Throne of Andor symbolizes one of the most enduring monarchies in the world and is the subject of legend, most notably that disaster befalls any man who would dare sit on it. Two of Queen Morgase's male consorts try to supplant her and get horribly killed in the attempt, so there's a grain of truth to that.
  • King Laman Damodred decided to carve a throne out of the Tree of Life that a nation of Proud Warrior Race Guys gifted his country 500 years previously as a symbol of friendship. That brilliant idea jump-started the devastating Aiel War for the sole purpose of killing him.
  • The most visible symbol of the Dragon Reborn is the crystal sword Callandor, which confirms Rand's identity to the world when he's able to draw it. It's also a terrifyingly powerful Amplifier Artifact of both the One Power and the power of the Dark One itself, which is key to re-sealing the Dark One in the Final Battle.
  • The Crystal Throne of the Seanchan Empire receives near-religious reverence from the citizens, thanks in part to it being enchanted to force anyone around it to feel overwhelming awe.
• In Heralds of Valdemar:
  • Valdemar has Royals Who Actually Do Something, who forego the trappings and simply wear extra-nice versions of normal Heralds' white uniforms. Their only other concessions to rank are circlets: gold for the Monarch, silver for the Heir.
  • Once Tremaine takes the throne of Hardorn, he gets a goldsmith to make him a similar circlet. Unfortunately, he's still stuck with wearing the full crown for formal occasions.
  • The Eastern Empire has an Iron Throne forged from the personal weapons of the monarchs of conquered nations.
• In Simon Spurrier's Warhammer 40,000 Night Lords novel Lord of the Night, Corona Nox — the gift of a primarch to his designated heir. Or so he told the Space Marine he told to take it after his death.
• The title crown of Andre Norton's Ice Crown, and the others of a set. The destruction of one such crown destroyed its nation. They are part of a mind-controlling experiment on the planet. The Ice Crown greatly alters the new Queen's personality to get the experiment back on track. In the end, they destroy the control device; the queen is injured but appears to be recovering her mind in the Dénouement.
• In the I, Richard Plantagenet Series, once Richard III seizes the throne, he and his wife Anne dress the part, and they give each other lavish gifts of clothing. Truth in Television as the descriptions are based on historical records.
• In The Lord of the Rings:
  • The crown of Gondor is essentially a blinged-out war helm. The kings of the northern realm (and later the chieftains of the Rangers) make do with a tiara with a single large gem (the Elendilmir). By the end of the books, King Aragorn Elessar Telcontar ends up touting not just the crown, but the Ring of Barahir, the Sceptre of Annúminas, Andúril and the Palantír of Orthanc.
  • Also the Elessar (the green "elf-stone" that gave Aragorn one of his names) and the great standard that proclaimed him to be King of both Gondor and the North.
  • The rings given by Sauron to nine kings of men. Didn't turn out so well.
  • Also, in the movies, Gríma sees Aragorn's ring (the Ring of Barahir) and tells Saruman about it, allowing Saruman to deduce Aragorn is Isildur's heir. (In the books, Aragorn gave the ring to Arwen about forty years beforehand.)
    • The ring was originally given to Aragorn's distant ancestor Barahir by the Elf king Finrod Felagund, after Barahir saved his life in battle. Barahir's son Beren takes the ring when him when he goes to find King Felagund and ask him to return the favor and help him get the Silmarils.
  • the Sceptre of Annúminas, which is said to be the oldest manmade object in the world at that point. The backstory details that the sceptre, not the crown, is the primary regalia of royalty among Middle-Earth humans.
  • There are a few objects still around that are even older, but they're elf-made, rather than manmade. The Ring of Barahir is perhaps the oldest of these.
  • The throne of Gondor remains unoccupied. The Steward has a smaller chair under it.
  • In The Hobbit, the Arkenstone is a fabulous jewel that the dwarves of Erebor adopted as their symbol of royalty. Unfortunately for them, it's also a symbol of Greed like none other.
• In Robert E. Howard's "The Pool of the Black Ones", Conan the Barbarian notes that the Black One that tortured one of the crew wore "a jeweled head-band."
• In Robert E. Howard's Kull / Bran Mak Morn story "Kings of the Night", Bran's iron crown with its Mineral MacGuffin.
• In addition to being exceedingly beautiful and resplendent, the Prince's Crown in Quest Of The Unaligned is an incredibly powerful magical artifact. It seems to be the focus for the spell that magically binds each King and Queen to Caederan's magic, and is also the only thing powerful enough to allow someone to become an orah or a hoshek
• In Dan Abnett's Gaunt's Ghosts novel Necropolis, the Master Legislator uses his golden specter as a staff. This is also a sign that the vote on Sturm's tactics (which Gaunt and other generals have been shut off from comment on) is binding despite the excellent reasons offered against the plan after the vote.
• In Dan Abnett's Warhammer 40,000 novel Brothers of the Snake, the coronation regalia include a sceptre and orb. They are supposed to react if the heir is improper, and they don't. More importantly, they are the sealants for the Sealed Evil in a Can; the queen had been assassinated precisely so they would be removed from the Royal Mound. Weather Dissonance soon shows up, and an Inquisitor and a squad of Space Marines must move to contain it.
• The Chronicles of Narnia has the Four Thrones of Cair Paravel.
• In Discworld:
  • The throne of Ankh-Morpork is unused by the ruling Patricians after the last King's beheading. The current Patrician finds it perfectly symbolic that the throne is completely rotten wood beneath a layer of gold leaf.
  • Also the Scone of Stone, a parody of the Stone of Scone, which the Low King of the Dwarfs must sit on during the coronation. In deference to its symbolic value, it's politely ignored that the Scone has crumbled and been re-baked any number of times.
  • The Royal Sword is generally recognised as the symbol of the Ankh-Morpork monarchy. No-one's exactly sure what it looks like any more, though, but it's generally assumed it must be shiny and impressive-looking. So obviously it's not the perfectly ordinary looking but really sharp sword wielded by Captain Carrot of the Watch.
    • According to The Companion, during the period of messiness towards the end of the monarchy, there were any number of True Royal Swords showing up in the hands of various nobles. In the case of King Blad, Scourge of Dolly Sisters, this was two peices of wood nailed together.
  • The Crown of Lancre plays a significant part in Wyrd Sisters, even though it looks really tatty next to the fake crowns used by the strolling players.
• The Iron Throne of Westeros, from A Song of Ice and Fire, forged in dragonfire from swords from the kingdoms conquered by Aegon and his sisters. Aegon said that "a king should never sit easy," so the sword points are still there in a number of places, and sharp. Crowns may be dime a dozen in this universe (even the pathetic upstart Theon Greyjoy had one made for himself), but the throne is unique, special, and represents authority over all Westeros.
• In Dune, the Emperor's throne is carved from a single piece of rare quartz. It's actually one of the few pieces of regalia they allow themselves; to show off their command of the Sardaukar (the reason they have the throne in the first place), the Corrino Emperor Shaddam IV wears military uniforms and displays the captured flags of defeated Houses.
• In the old space opera The Legion of Space, the benevolently democratic government of the Solar System in the 30th century overthrew a dictatorial monarchical government that ruled the Solar System with an iron fist in the middle centuries of the Third Millennium. In the 30th century, the old throne, a huge chair cut from a single piece of purple crystal, sat empty and waiting...
• In the Empire of Man, from the Prince Roger series, the Imperial throne is an ancient spacecraft command chair used by the first Empress, who started out as a pirate captain. It still has all the nicks, scratches and burns from her final battle, and is occasionally refurbished to make sure they don't get worn away.
• In John Milton's Paradise Lost, Satan gets himself a Pimped-Out Throne.
  on a Throne of Royal State, which far
  Outshon the wealth of ORMUS and of IND,
  Or where the gorgeous East with richest hand
  Showrs on her Kings BARBARIC Pearl & Gold
• In the Vorkosigan Saga, Barrayar has the Imperial Camp-Stool, rather than a throne.
• In The Belgariad:
  • The premier symbol of the King of Riva is the sword of Riva Iron-grip, mounted above the throne. The entire country is built as a defense for the Cosmic Keystone set in its pommel — which also handily defends itself against false claimants.
  • In Polgara The Sorceress, Prince Daran normally uses a chair set before the royal throne while serving as regent. When he needs to make a point, he dispenses with the chair and sits on the throne, with the Sword and Orb glowing above him.
• In The Basalt City Chronicles, the full regalia of the Guardian Of The Crown is said to weigh close to forty pounds, most of it being gold jewelry. Tors Beers actually goes through a physical training regimen so he can wear it when he's confirmed the heir. Its weight symbolizes the weight of office. On the other end is the regalia of the Emperor: a medallion known as the Obsidian Flame. He wears the original during his coronation, and a copy for the rest of his reign. He is literally not required to wear anything else—but, as a matter of decency, they usually wear at least a loincloth. In fact, emperor Zaykar XXIII and Zaykar XXIV are known for flaunting their bodies to show off their physical prowess.
• In the Dragaera series, the ruler of the Dragaeran Empire is orbited and protected by the Imperial Orb, the single most potent magical item in that world. Every citizen has a psychic link to the Orb, which filters the raw power of Chaos into Dragaeran sorcery.^note Vlad, the viewpoint character, ends up with pieces of 'gold Phoenix stone' and 'black Phoenix stone', to render himself invisible to sorcery and psychic abilities (long story). In Iorich, he ends up within the same City as the Orb, and can still feel the connection, despite wearing both stones When it was temporarily lost due to Adron's Disaster, sorcery failed and there was no Empire for a couple of centuries. As a bonus, it's also a perfectly accurate timepiece.
• In John C. Wright's Count To A Trillion, Menelaus is argued into wearing clothes befitting his social stature because it helps the princess maintaining her kingdom.
• In Fiona Patton's Tales of the Branion Realm series, the royal family of an alternate Britain wears the royal tartan of the local expy of Scotland as a sign of their sovereignty over that country. This is a Berserk Button for the Scots, who formally demand it back in the middle of a rebellion.
• Played for laughs in the Clark Ashton Smith short story "Quest of the Gazolba." The crown of Ustaim is crafted from meteoric gold and unearthly jewels, topped with a magnificent stuffed Gazolba bird, and symbolizes the dynasty's right to rule — which causes the King no end of trouble when an offended necromancer enchants the bird to come alive and fly off with the crown.
• In The Elenium, the knights have to find the long-lost royal crown of Thalesia, which was thrown into a lake when its last bearer died to keep it out of enemy hands. The significance of the crown isn't the headpiece itself, but the elaborate sapphire carved in the shape of a rose. This is Bhelliom, and it's an incredibly powerful magic artifact.
• In The Goblin Emperor, the emperor always wears white, and only the emperor is allowed to wear imperial white. There are also some jewels that belong to the position. And rings. And, of course, the crown. Maia, who had never expected to become emperor, finds it rather overwhelming.
• In Mistborn: The Original Trilogy:
  • Notably averted by the Lord Ruler. As the immortal dictator who founded the Final Empire and ruled as a god for a millennium, the one symbol of Imperial authority is him.
  • Following the Lord Ruler's death, one regional ruler adopts a simple circlet set with a bead of atium — a Fantastic Metal of tremendous value for the limited precognitive powers it grants, previously controlled by the Lord Ruler alone.
• The Raven Tower: The Divine Right of Kings in Iraden is directly enforced by the national Patron God — only the current ruler can sit on the throne without dropping dead.

Live-Action TV

• Subversion in one of the Blackadder series. Blackadder believes he is about to be made a Lord and buys an ermine cape, only to find out it's made out of cats.
• Game of Thrones: As far as Joffrey is concerned, the royal crown might as well be a part of his body. He probably even wears it to bed.
• The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power: As a High King, Gil-galad's costuming is the most fancily embellished of all the Elves and he sports a beautiful, aged-gold ensemble topped off with a leaf-shaped Cool Crown.
• In Merlin the King and Queen of Camelot each have a crown; the King's crown is a simple circlet with engravings, whilst the Queen's crown is much more elaborate, with plenty of jewels.
  • Uther has two crowns, the gold circlet and a more typical crown. Arthur's new one is rather typical but not the same as Uther's.
  • Lady Morgana and Princess Mithian wear ermine capes.
• Pair of Kings: Each King got a Ring of Power. If somebody who's not of Royal Blood wears one, it'll forcefully lead the wearer to the closest royalty member around.
• Even though Lwaxana Troi from Star Trek: The Next Generation wasn't explicitly royalty, she might have been, with all her bragging about heirlooms, including "Heir to the Holy Rings of Betazed".
  • At least in the Expanded Universe, she's made out more explicitly to be nobility... Though going by some of her daughter's comments it seems this doesn't actually mean a whole lot on contemporary Betazed, and those Holy Rings are probably a lot less impressive than they sound; the Sacred Chalice of Somewhere-Or-Other, of which she's also Guardian, is an old pewter pot she keeps in the back of her closet.
• Shows up and averted in The Crown:
  • Appropriately, Invoked in Season 1, Episode 5 of "Smoke and Mirrors", which dramatises the coronation of Elizabeth II in June 1953. Several items of the British Crown Jewels make appearances; St Edward's Crown in particular appears in Elizabeth's ceremony (of course) but also her rehearsals and (poignantly) her flashbacks to her father's rehearsals in 1937. As the Duke of Windsor (the never-crowned former King Edward VIII) comments to his houseguests (watching it with him on TV from Paris), the regalia and their use in an elaborate ceremony are a key part of how the monarchy works:
    The Duke of Windsor: An ordinary young woman of modest ability and little imagination. Wrap her up like this, anoint her with oil, and hey presto, what do you have? A goddess!
  • Most episodes, the Queen doesn't wear any regalia, but for formal occasions she's usually seen wearing her blue sash with the decorations of the various orders she heads as Sovereign. These are usually enough to make her stand out.
  • Invoked in the opening titles, as well, which are a stylised depiction of the transformation of a lump of gold into the Imperial State Crown.
• Moriarty famously caps off his spree as London's "Consulting Criminal" in Sherlock by breaking into the Tower of London and dressing himself up in the Crown Jewels, complete with ermine cape. He's very proud of it, based on how he highlights it to Sherlock later on.

  Moriarty: And honey, you should see me in a crown.

Podcasts

• In an episode of Hello, from the Magic Tavern, princess Trachea Aurelia Belaroth expresses that the best meat comes from king animals. When Arnie asks how you tell which animals are kings, Usidore matter-of-factly says they wear crowns. Chunt, who at that point is king of the badgers, immediately claims that the crown he's wearing is just part of a costume.

Tabletop Games

• Dungeons & Dragons has quite a few of these as magic items.
  • The Circlet of Blasting, which fires a maximised Searing Light once per day.
  • The Helm of Brilliance, a crown-like helmet encrusted with magnificent gems, which provides a suite of powerful fire- and light-based powers. D&D's spiritual successor Pathfinder attributes the first Helms to the Incorruptible Pharaoh of ancient Osirion, who granted them as signs of favour to the greatest members of his court — including a kill switch in case they tried to betray him.
  • In a 2nd edition book about magic items, there is the "Cloak of Lordliness", which for humans, is an ermine cape. It gives modifiers to persuasion rolls.
  • The queens of the Seelie and Unseelie Courts sit on throne guardians, dragon-shaped constructs loaded with magical power. It's not just impressive, it will kick your butt. Its abilities include Mind Reading and time stopping.
  • The Regalia of Good and Evil are matched sets of crown, scepter, and orb, imbued with powerful enchantments and Set Bonuses. The former are crafted from mithral and crystal; the latter are grimy, fiery, chain-draped, spiky iron — in case people needed clarification on which person's the villain, perhaps.
• In Warhammer:
  • King Thorgrim Grudgebearer has an extremely special crown worn by every dwarf High King, which is crafted with runes that collect and impart the knowledge of every High King to come before. He is also carried into battle on a throne that seems to be made of gold, magic, and awesomeness.
  • Ogre Overtyrant Greasus Goldtooth has a unique crown hammered into his skull, boosting his intelligence beyond that of your average ogre; a scepter bigger than a man; and a throne carried by dozens of Gnoblars.
  • The phoenix crown was such a symbol until the dwarfs stole it from the elves.
  • The king of Brettonia has one as well but it's not quite as fancy as the others.
• Warhammer 40,000 goes a little over the top with the Golden Throne, which is an ultra-advanced life support system supposedly keeping The Emperor barely alive for ten thousand years and counting. Supposedly. It's roughly the size of a city.
• The Throne◊ of the Scarlet Empress from Exalted is probably her most notable regalia piece, being a huge piece made from the intertwining bodies of the Five Elemental Dragons. It's noted to have lost quite a bit of its mystique in the years that the tiny and pathetic Regent has been sitting in it. Figuratively. The only time he tried to actually sit in it, the throne nearly bit his head off.
• Empire of the Petal Throne's Tsolyani empire has the legendary titular artifact, a giant rose crafted from perfect stone in impossible detail. To the lethal surprise of the first tyrant to claim it, it also closes up in the moonlight...

Theater

• Often shows up in productions of William Shakespeare's plays, particularly the histories, which focus on English Kings. Richard II generally goes all in on this trope. Other common recipients of the regalia are King Lear, Princess Katharine, and Cleopatra (in the Egyptian equivalent).
• The appeal of this is discussed in song in The Gondoliers:
  Then one of us will be a Queen,
  And sit on a golden throne,
  With a crown instead
  Of a hat on her head,
  And diamonds all her own!
  With a beautiful robe of gold and green,
  I've always understood;
  I wonder whether
  She'd wear a feather?
  I rather think she should!
• The royal duds worn by Charles during his dismissal of Parliament and by William and Kate during their coronation in King Charles III include a Cool Crown, Pimped-Out Cape, and a Scepter.

Video Games

• The logo for Dragon Quest VIII had a crown in the background, given that the subtitle for that game is "Journey of the Cursed King".
  • Also in that game, a King Slime is stuck in a well, and you can free it by removing the crown, allowing it to turn into regular slimes. You also get to keep the crown as armor.
  • Way back in Dragon Quest III, one of the kingdoms has its crown stolen by a thief. Upon retrieving it, the king actually offers to let your hero rule in his stead, leading to a temporary Non-Standard Game Over if you accept. (You can reverse it by just tracking the king down (he's hanging out in the casino) and having him take the kingdom back.)
• 100 Sleeping Princes and the Kingdom of Dreams is a bishonen-collecting mobage that's essentially based on a fetish for this trope. Many of the 4- and 5-star princes' awakened forms take this further. However, there are also cards that go for different styles, such a punk, or sporty, or surfer looks, but even those tend to have way more decoration and fanciness than you'd see in real life.
• In The Neverhood, the crown is the source of Hoborg's power. When it is stolen, he shuts down, and the player character must decide whether to return it or put it on and become the next king.
• Finding the princess's tiara in Shining in the Darkness is how you confirm where she is being held.
• Peach, Daisy, and Rosalina from the Super Mario Bros. series games all come with a crown, and usually other royal regalia, such as broaches.
• The Elder Scrolls:
  • Despite the crown seal, and robes, one of the most important items to the various Empires of Tamriel is the Amulet of Kings, a large red crystal worn on a gold chain. According to legend, it was created as the "Chim-el Adabal" by the Ayleids out of the crystallized blood of the "dead" creator god Lorkhan (also known by many other names), which was collected after falling from his heart as it flew across Tamriel, having been cut out by the Aedra (in vengeance for Lorkhan supposedly tricking them into sacrificing large parts of their divine power to create Mundus, the mortal plane), tied to an arrow, and fired across the continent. Following the Alessian Revolt, in which St. Alessia and her Nedic peoples (precursors to most of the modern races of Men) overthrew the (primarily) Daedra-worshiping Ayleids with the aid of the Nordic Empire, rebel Ayleid lords, and the Aedra themselves, Alessia made covenant with Akatosh, the draconic Top God of the Aedra. Akatosh imbued Alessia with his "dragon's blood" and placed her soul in the central stone of what is now known as the Amulet of Kings, symbolizing his pact with mankind. The Amulet of Kings can only be worn by those of royal blood, recognizing them as Alessia's (and Akatosh's) metaphysical heirs to the Ruby Throne of Cyrodiil and confirming those who can wear it as The Chosen One.
  • In every appearance in the series, Emperor Uriel Septim VII wears ermine-lined robes. In Oblivion, where he is assassinated minutes into the game, you cannot loot the robes from his body as they are marked with an "Unplayable" flag. By using console commands or Game Mods, it is possible to obtain the robes.
  • In Skyrim, you can flat out take the royal robes as a memento of your encounter with Emperor Titus during the Dark Brotherhood questline.
• In the now freeware game Castle of the Winds, thrones are very stationary one-use magical items once you get rid of the current occupant.
• Seen frequently in the Dark Parables. Unusually for the trope, however, the regalia is rarely shown being actually worn by one of the many Royal Blood-ed characters roaming these games. More often, the scepters, tiaras, and so forth are Plot Coupons which must be found and/or assembled by the detective, then used as keys or puzzle solutions to progress the story.
• In Love Nikki - Dress Up Queen, the White Queen suit from the Dream of Black and White event (inspired by the chess piece) has almost a complete set of regalia, including an ermine cape, crown, scepter and Pimped-Out Dress.
• In Queen at Arms, both the King of Orthera and the Queen of Sylgard wear impressive and distinctive crowns. In certain story paths, it's eventually revealed that the crown of Orthera is cursed and turns its wearer into a tyrant.
• Persona 5: As part of his delusions of grandeur, the first boss Kamoshida (who's merely a volleyball coach in reality) imagines himself as a king ruling his own palace, but because he's also a pervert and sexual offender, doesn't wear anything beneath his crown and cape besides a pair of boxers.

Visual Novels

• In Double Homework, the dress and tiara clue in the class that Amy is a princess (except Morgan, who already knows).

Web Animation

• In the Strong Bad Email "Rampage", Strong Bad mentions going on a "Regal Rampage", which was him repeatedly smacking the King of Town with the king's own scepter, shouting "I bequeath thee! I bequeath thee! Ye have quivered me tuppence!" Um, don't actually try doing that to someone.

Webcomics

• Tamuran: They plan to strike the day their younger brother gets a crown.
• Homestuck's White and Black kings carry scepters. These scepters bequeath size, power, and prototypings to their bearers. Also, the White scepter causes the Reckoning, and the Black scepter must be captured to stop said Reckoning.

Western Animation

• Avatar: The Last Airbender: King Bumi puts on robes that make him look almost like a fop. It's just part of his Obfuscating Stupidity. The Firelord's throne is made very intimidating by being on fire. And it has a huge gold dragon behind it.
• The Care Bears: Adventure in Wonderland: The Princess of Wonderland and Alice wore an ermine trimmed cape. What makes this stand out is that there were quite a few Blooper shots with it. Some shots it was on her, and others it wasn't. Some shots the main part of the cape was pink, and others it was white.
• Danny Phantom: King Pariah has a crown made of fire. He also wears a royal ring. Both contribute to his strength... more so, that is; he's already quite powerful without one or the other.
• Inspector Gadget: One episode has MAD steal a sword that was an essential part of the royal regalia of an oil-rich middle eastern nation. Without the sword, the young heir to the throne can't be crowned king, and MAD's representative can make a claim for the throne himself. Gadget is sent to get the sword back.
• My Life as a Teenage Robot: Tucker's robot Little Dipper wins a crown in a competition, and it's like five sizes too big.
• My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic: The princesses wear crown-like tiaras, hoof-shoes, and decorative horse collars.
  • Princess Platinum and King Sombra wear ermine robes. For the season 3 finale, Celestia and Luna wear special dresses and Celestia has a crown bigger than her head.
  • In the Season 4 premiere, Discord, in an attempt to mock Twilight for staying behind because she's a princess, summons an ermine cape and a scepter for her.
• Robotomy: "El Presidente": After becoming student body president, a position that resembles a medieval tyranny more than anything else, Thrasher goes around wearing a huge spike-covered crown and a long cape that keeps tangling up other students.
• TaleSpin: "Waiders of the Wost Tweasure": Played with. A queen had lost a royal heirloom, but everyone in the kingdom had Elmuh Fudd Syndwome, so she called the heirloom "the wuby wings". Baloo and his friend naturally thought she was saying "ruby rings". As it turned out, she was actually looking for wings made of ruby.
• Transformers: Animated: The supervillain Professor Princess (yes, that is her real name as well as her alias) wears a tiara and shoots some kind of weird energy blast out of her sceptre. It's got flowers and stars in it.

Real Life

• Beauty pageants usually give the winner a tiara (and sometimes an ermine cape and scepter) and she is called a beauty queen. Not royalty, but what the hell.
• The Iron Crown of Lombardy is not actually made of iron, but has a band of silvery metal that was supposedly made from the nails taken from the True Cross. Later analysis showed that the silvery band was actually silver, meaning the Iron Crown contains no iron at all. Upon further research, it seems that back when the crown was in use by the Lombard kings in Italy in the early Middle Ages, or maybe a little after, the crown had an iron arch or hoop that went over it, and that item was the one that was supposedly taken from the True Cross. As for the crown, having assumed the symbolic value of crown of the King of Italy, it has been used by many Western European rulers claiming rulership over Italy for their coronation, including, most notably, Napoleon. It is now preserved at the Cathedral of Monza, near Milan.
• The Holy Crown of Hungary was supposed to have been sent by the Pope to St. Stephen, the first Christian king of Hungary (where it really came from is a bit murky), and has been used in coronations of Hungarian kings since at least 12th century or earlier. Supposedly a symbol of the contract between St. Stephen and his successors and the divine force of the Virgin Mary, it was often said that instead of the crown being used to inaugurate the king, a king was found for the crown. It was among the European treasures found in Nazi custody in Austria by US troops in 1945 and was stored at Fort Knox until it was returned to Hungary in 1978. It is now preserved at the Hungarian Parliament building. It is recognizable by the crooked cross at the top (apparently the result of some 17th-century bumbling, probably when someone closed its storage chest without checking that the crown was correctly positioned for storage).
• Will most certainly show up at any coronation, even if the other accessories don't.
• The Real Life ultra-fancy crown that's probably the first image you think of when you hear "crown" is St Edward's Crown, the "official" coronation crown of the British (and Commonwealth) monarchy and one of the oldest (being a 17th-century replica of a medieval crown supposedly belonging to the Saxon King Edward the Confessor^note How old it actually was is a point of contention, but it was definitely being used no later than the 13th century. that Cromwell had either sold or melted down during the Civil War). The monarch almost never wears it, except during the coronation. Why, do you ask? Because the thing is fucking heavy. It's also rather large - when Queen Victoria was crowned, they had to make a special cap to fit inside it so that it would sit properly on her head.
  • There is the lighter but even more ultra-fancy Imperial State Crown worn every year for the Speech from the Throne. The late Queen had been observed eating breakfast and reading newspapers with the thing on her head on the morning of a State Opening of Parliament to get used to the weight (two pounds).
  • The oldest crown in the British Isles is the Crown of Scotland being a 16th century refashioning of an already older crown, it is so old that it can't be worn even for a coronation, and is instead carried before the monarch during official ceremonies in Scotland. It would have been destroyed by Cromwell like the English Crowns had not some royalist Scots not hidden the Crown until the Restoration in 1660.
• Any contest that crowns a 'King' (rarely 'Queen' in sport) will often have this and a cape as props for the winner. American Go-Karting, for example, has 'King of the Streets', a race where the winner gets these (as well as some more useful prizes, like cash and test rides).
• The Pope is an aversion in that he has at least two dozen papal tiaras that he may wear—though no Pope has worn one since Paul VI, even if those tiaras were specifically given to a subsequent pope (yes, there is a Tiara of John Paul II and a Tiara of Benedict XVI made by donors, but they remain unworn).
  • The Tiara of Pope Pius VII (AKA the Napoleon Tiara) is noteworthy because it was made as a mockery—Napoleon had it made too small and too heavy (eighteen pounds!) for the pope to wear, from materials Napoleon had taken from older Papal tiaras his troops had stolen and smashed, and had it inscribed with phrases praising Napoleon. These inscriptions were removed after Napoleon's fall, and the crown was resized so it could be used in coronations. After World War I, most of the gems were removed and replaced with coloured glass on the orders of Pope Benedict XV—the real gems being sold to aid victims of the war.
  • The Pope and Cardinals usually haven't in recent years, but have been known in the past to dress up in a rather royal fashion. (Not to mention the use of the Royal "We" that was abolished in 1978.) Since 1978, it's explicitly become a tradition for the Pope to not to be crowned, though 22 very elaborate Papal "tiaras" (actually silver beehives with ''three'' gold Gem Encrusted crowns stacked one on the other◊) worn by past Popes still exist and the option is left open for any future Pope to have a coronation rather than the less formal inauguration.
  • The Pope's seemingly royal regalia include the sedan chair or sedia gestatoria, the papal throne, the papal cross (a staff with three crossbars rather than the two bars of an archbishop's patriarchal cross), the falda and mantum (which require trainbearers due to their length), the flabelli (giant ostrich-feather fans), and the umbraculum (a large red-and-gold umbrella/canopy).
  • Heck, even many Catholic bishops have the right to use some pretty amazing robes and capes.
  • Does the Popemobile count? It should.
• Traditional Scandinavian brides. The term "bridal crown" was coined during the seventeenth century and onwards, leading to elaborate silver crowns worn by brides in rural areas for hundreds of years. Some of those were handed down as heirlooms, and are, as a rule pretty heavy. Traditional weddings were meant to last for three days, and the bride ditched the crown after the first day, in an elaborate ritual replacing the crown with the garments meant for married women. The understatement was that the bride was "royal" on her wedding day. Predictably, the bridal crown has picked up the same retroactive symbolism as a white dress, with some people arguing about whether a given bride “entitled” to wear the crown.
• Every parliamentary body in Canada has a Ceremonial Mace which represents the power and authority of the reigning monarch. It's only a "sorta" example because they weren't actually requisite for the modern reigning British monarch. Instead, it's required for the actual business of Parliament to proceed. Without the Mace, a Provincial or Federal Parliament isn't even allowed to sit down.
  • The ceremonial mace is common in most English-speaking legislatures; the UK parliament at Westminster started the tradition (the Mace of the House of Commons — Cromwell apparently asked for 'that fool's bauble' to be removed as he angrily dismissed the Rump in 1653, but it didn't take), and the new devolved Scottish Parliament and Welsh Assembly both have very cool-looking, postmodern maces. The Australian House of Representatives and various other Commonwealth legislatures also have maces. Even the United States House of Representatives has a mace: thirteen ebony rods bound with silver (echoing the fasces of the Roman Republic) topped with a silver eagle on a globe; this is a subversion, because the US is, of course, a republic, with no king.
    • If you're wondering why the US House has a mace, recall that the US was once a collection of thirteen British colonies, most if not all of which had maces in their legislatures. It just didn't seem right that a directly-elected legislature would meet without a mace. Why this logic didn't apply to the Senate is unclear, but perhaps the Senate, whose members were elected by the state legislatures at the time, was seen as more of a diplomatic-like body.
  • Every Commonwealth governmental assembly has a Royal Mace as part of the way that the commonwealth works. The (British) Houses of Parliament have three, two in the house of Lords. In 1965 the (then over 160 year old) Royal Mace of the Bahamas was thrown from the building by the opposition leader over the way the party in power was redrawing the constituency borders (he claimed they where trying to dilute his party's voter base). It worked, they could not go on until the mace was retrieved.
• While still a Republic (mostly), in Real Life, Roman Consuls (whom scholars of the Roman constitution agreed had "kingly" authority, i.e. equivalent to the authority of the old Kings of Rome) could have men called lictors walk with them bearing scepters called Fasces as a symbol of their authority. They were essentially a bundle of reeds, representing strength in unity (one reed breaks easily—a bundle does not). The fasces, when outside of the city limits of Rome, had an axe lodged in with them, as a symbol of Rome's ultimate authority. The fasces later became a potent symbol for later republics, and they were extensively used in the national symbols of both the French and American republics. This probably kept the fasces from becoming losing its acceptability as a symbol outside Italy after it lent its name to "fascism", unlike a certain other, much older symbol.
• The pharaohs of Ancient Egypt had multiple ones that are known to Egyptologists. Though their various Cool Crowns are the best known, there were also a few others.
  • First up, the crowns:
    • To start with there was the official crown of the Two Kingdoms (which the Greeks called the Pschent after mishearing the Egyptian word "Sekhmety"), which combined the Deshret, the hollow, crested Red Crown of Lower Egypt, with the Hedjet, the tall, ninepin-shaped White Crown of Upper Egypt. Certain texts describing/depicting the actual coronation of the monarch suggest that the Pschent was never actually a single crown but was literally created by placing the Hedjet inside the Deshret on the new king's head. In the New Kingdom^note And possibly the Middle Kingdom, records are sketchy this was given added significance because the Deshret was carried into the ceremony and placed on the king's head by the chief priest of the cult of Ra (a cult based at the Lower Egyptian city of Iunu/Heliopolis) and the Hedjet by the chief priest of the cult of Amun (a cult based at the Upper Egyptian city of Thebes), thereby symbolizing the political and religious unity of the Two Lands that made up Egypt.
    • If the king wanted a less formal look, he went with the Khepresh or Blue Crown, which was a Pimped Out Helmet: a tall rounded hat sometimes covered with gold sequins and frequently decorated with a golden cobra. The Blue Crown particular favorite of Ramses II, to emphasize his Young Conqueror image.
    • Best of all was the Atef crown. In its simplest incarnation this consisted of a pair of rams' horns surmounted by a shape like the white crown but in reeds flanked by ostrich plumes and topped off by a sun disk. This usually wasn't worn by Egyptian kings, being a specific symbol of Osiris, the Lord of the Dead and god of fertility (and one of several royal deities associated with the concept of kingship). A fancier version, the Hemhem, multiplied the reed thingies and sun disks and hung cobras all over it. The Hemhem was so cool that their neighbors noticed and adopted it for their own; one of the most famous depictions of Cyrus the Great, a relief at Pasargadae (in modern Iran), shows him with a Hemhem even though he never ruled Egypt. (Persia did conquer Egypt, but under his son, Cambyses II, about five years after his death.)
    • What these crowns were made of and how they were kept on is mostly unknown to science; it's likely that they were at least sometimes made at least partly of cloth or dyed leather. Interestingly, some texts suggest the crowns (as in the physical hats) were passed on from generation to generation like the crowns of today's monarchies. It is possible that some of the more elaborate structures were mere artistic convention never worn in Real Life.
  • Outside the crowns, the best-known ancient Egyptian regalia are the iconic crook (heqa) and flail (nekhakha). Egyptian monarchs are depicted holding these over their chests from the earliest days—the heqa appears in literally prehistoric Egyptian art, and the nekhakha is seen no later than the Second Dynasty. The heqa represented kingship,^note And the word for it was sometimes used metonymically to mean "ruler" or "lord". Several Eighteenth Dynasty kings had some variation of Heqa Waset ("Lord of Thebes"—"Waset" being the Egyptian name for Thebes) or Heqa Iunu Shemau (also "Lord of Thebes", "Iunu Shemau" meaning "Heliopolis of the South", being a poetic nickname for Thebes) as part of their royal titulary. while the nekhakha represented fertility. And we know these were physical objects rather than artistic conventions because we’ve actually found a set of them—exactly one set, in the tomb of Tutankhamun.
  • Slightly less common, but still prominent, was the Was-sceptre, which was a long staff tipped with the head of Set, the god of storms and chaos; this symbolized control over Set's domain (chaos) and therefore the pharaoh's right to rule by virtue of establishing truth, order, and justice (in Egyptian, Ma'at) in the Two Lands. Significantly, Waset, the Egyptian name of the southern capital Thebes, literally means "City of the Was-sceptre", and the city was commonly represented by the hieroglyph for the sceptre in art.
  • Another commonly seen item of regalia was the nemes, a striped headcloth reserved for the king. It covered the whole top of the head and extended down to the back of the neck, where it seems to have been tied or bound in some way. It also had lappets—dangling flaps of cloth—which were tucked behind the ears and allowed to rest on the pharaoh's shoulders. This was probably the most common day-to-day headwear for the monarch, as while the Egyptian crowns were much lighter than modern ones (most likely being made of organic materials like wood, wicker, linen, or leather rather than gold or silver), the nemes was almost certainly cooler, an important consideration in Egypt's hot climate. This is reflected in surviving art, especially statuary—a depiction of a monarch is just as likely to be wearing the nemes as any of the crowns (see, e.g., Tutankhamun's famous mask and most of the most famous depictions of Hatshepsut and Thutmose III).
  • The crowns and the nemes were commonly adorned with another royal symbol—a uraeus, or figure of a rearing cobra, typically done in gold. This was an Egyptian symbol of protection associated with Wadjet, the protector goddess of Lower Egypt. The uraeus might also be accompanied by a similar symbol of a vulture's head, representing Nekhbet, the protector goddess of Upper Egypt. (This combined symbol is what adorns the front of the famous golden funerary mask of Tutankhamun.) How these symbols were affixed to the crown or nemes in life is not 100% clear; we know from a few surviving examples that they had loops where they could be attached, suggesting that the crowns and nemes had attachment points for them, but as neither the crowns nor the headcloths survive we can't be sure.
  • Ancient Egyptian thrones are surprisingly well-documented; a few have survived, of which the thrones of Tutankhamun and of Thutmose IV are the most famous. These were generally chairs in fine wood (though possibly with a woven reed seat), carved with elaborate hieroglyphs and decorations, all gilded, inlaid, and/or richly painted. The decorations generally fell into three motifs: the king as a warrior or conqueror, the king as a divine being favored by the gods, or the king at leisure, enjoying the good life. (Thutmose IV's throne is heavy on the martial imagery; Tutankhamun's is famous for showing him at leisure being anointed by his wife.) Another noted throne was not for a king but for a princess—namely the throne of Sitamun, eldest daughter of Amenhotep III and a major priestess during his late reign. This throne (which has its own article on the Other Wiki) is beautiful and was very well preserved (having been stored in the largely-intact tomb of her maternal grandparents Yuya and Tjuyu)—it held the weight of Empress Eugénie of France (wife of Napoleon III) after she sat on it (not knowing that it was a priceless 3,000-year-old artifact). (Hey, at least the only bum to touch the seat after all that time was still royal!)
  • One of the weirdest has to be the false beard. While the ancient Egyptians almost invariably shaved their facial hair (and most of their other hair as well, including at a minimum all body hair and usually including all head hair as well), depictions of the king showed a long, skinny beard as a symbol of royal authority. However, for centuries, it seems that this beard was actually a piece of metal (gold or silver) tied to the head with a chinstrap. Eventually—sometime in the New Kingdom—the practice fell out of use.
• Real Life has the British throne, which has a slot for the aforementioned Stone of Scone (pronounced 'skoon'). The Stone was the Scottish symbol of lordship. Every so often they seem to ask for it back.
  • In response to which, the Stone of Scone was returned to Scotland in 1996. It is kept in Edinburgh Castle, though as of December 2020 plans are in motion to move it to Perth City Hall.^note Not as weird as it sounds: Perth City Hall is the closest accessible government building to the historic Scottish coronation site at Scone Abbey, which was lost for centuries and is now an archaeological site. It will be shipped back to Westminster Abbey in London, temporarily, for the next coronation.
  • The British Monarch actually has no less than thirty-three thrones (possibly more) in active use, with at least one in each Commonwealth Realm for use in opening the national legislature; "at least one", because the federal Commonwealth Realms (Canada and Australia) also have thrones in each of their sovereign constituent units (provinces and states, respectively), and Britain plays host to not only the Coronation Chair—the throne on which the monarch is crowned in Westminster Abbey—but also the throne in the House of Lords from which she/he delivers the annual Speech from the Throne at the State Opening of Parliament. (Obviously, the monarch doesn't necessarily sit most of these very much; the Commonwealth Realms in particular have their Governors-General^note Or in Canadian provinces and Australian states, Lieutenant-Governors and Governors, respectively occupy the seat). In many cases, the throne is not particularly fancy—indeed, the Coronation Chair, while exquisitely crafted, is not particularly ornate,^note It was at one point, elaborately painted, gilded, and covered in jewels, but these have all been lost, removed, or worn away and its gravitas derives primarily from being the chair in which every English/British monarch has been crowned (except Mary II^note She was crowned in a copy of the chair, as her husband William III was being crowned at the same time and there isn't room for two on the original Coronation Chair. Since the army that led to this particular coronation was really William's, not Mary's, Parliament prudently let him sit on the real chair and give Mary the copy and Edward VIII^note Who abdicated before he could be crowned) since Edward II in 1308.
• Charlemagne's (The Holy Roman Emperor) throne sits in Aachen Cathedral in Aachen, Germany.
• The official Swedish throne (that has not been sat on for quite a while, despite Sweden still having a royal family) is known as The Silver Throne (no relation to Lewis' The Silver Chair).
• The Mughal Peacock throne which was stolen by Persians and subsequently acted as the throne of the Persian royal family was a particularly audacious example of this.
• Ivan the Terrible's Ivory Throne is kept in the Moscow Kremlin, along with several others (including the throne of Nicholas II in the St. Andrew's Hall of the Kremlin, which is considered the throne of Russia, kept vacant but intact in the style of Gondor and Ankh-Morpork). Several more Russian thrones are in St. Petersburg and former imperial residences in its vicinity.
• A new sultan of the Ottoman Empire was inaugurated by being "girt with the Sword of Osman," which purportedly belonged to the Ottoman dynasty's founder.
  • The Empire was more likely to go in for a nice hat than a crown. The sultan and grand vizier are almost always depicted wearing large, lavishly decorated turbans that, in what may or may not be artistic exaggeration, are sometimes twice the size of their actual heads. As mentioned above, the important piece of regalia was the Sword of Osman.
  • One sultan, however, made a ridiculous tiara for himself, explicitly to mock the pope. "Your tiara is made of three crowns? Ha, ha. Mine will be made of four!"
• The UK has five of these used in the coronation; of these, the Great Sword of State, is truly gigantic, has a fancy handle, and is also carried before the Sovereign at the State Opening of Parliament.
• The Emperor of Japan used to display Kusanagi no Tsurugi, the Grass Cutter Sword, as one of the three Imperial Regalia of Japan. The sword was supposedly lost in a sea battle, but is apparently hidden by Shinto priests.
• Eighteenth century monarchs often pointedly avoided wearing military uniforms. After all soldiers were the king's servants. For yet other monarchs, though, this constituted their standard clothing, on the grounds of Rank Scales with Asskicking—the Prussian monarchs, particularly Frederick the Great, were of this view (and their military successes kicked off the fashion for European monarchs to wear military uniforms that started in the late 18th century and remained until the 20th—and still continues in some ways to this day).
• As noted above, during the late Victorian era and through the end of The Edwardian Era (roughly 1870 through the beginning of World War I), female monarchs and noblewomen almost always wore High-Class Gloves at any even remotely formal occasion. This continued to be quite common into the 1960s (check out pictures of Queen Elizabeth II and Princess Margaret from the 1950s, for example) but has become comparatively rare in current times. It was, from Medieval times to after the World War II, the done thing for women to wear some sort of gloves as part of their formal wear, mind; in fact, both ladies and gentlemen for a long time wore them whenever they went outdoors (probably originally to keep the skin of their hands in good condition, especially as the gentry rode horses). Whether they were Opera Gloves or something shorter was subject to fashion.)
• An odd case, as the US has no royalty, but the Resolute Desk acts in many ways as eqivalent to a throne, as it sits in the Oval Office and is used by President of the United States. What makes it interesting is that it is made from timbers from HMS Resolute, a British Royal Navy vessel that had gotten stuck in the ice in the Arctic during a voyage of exploration and had to be abandoned. An American whaling ship found the hulk, which the American government returned to Britain for repairs as a gesture of goodwill. When the repaired ship was decomissioned, the wood was made into a desk and sent back to the U.S. as a kind of thank-you.