Crown Jewels of the United Kingdom in the context of "Three Brothers (jewel)"

The coronation of Charles III and his wife, Camilla, as king and queen of the United Kingdom and the 14 other Commonwealth realms, took place on Saturday, 6 May 2023 at Westminster Abbey. Charles acceded to the throne on 8 September 2022 upon the death of his mother, Elizabeth II.

The ceremony was structured around an Anglican service of Holy Communion. It included the King taking an oath, being anointed with holy oil, and receiving the coronation regalia, emphasising his spiritual role and secular responsibilities. Representatives of the Church of England and the British royal family declared their allegiance to him, and people throughout the Commonwealth realms were invited to do so. The Queen was crowned in a shorter and simpler ceremony. After the service, members of the royal family travelled to Buckingham Palace in a state procession and appeared on the palace's rear and front balconies. The service was altered from past British coronations to represent the multiple faiths, cultures, and communities of the United Kingdom, and was shorter than Elizabeth II's coronation. It had a peak UK television audience of 20.4 million, making it the most watched television broadcast of 2023, and attracted a global audience of 2 billion people across 125 countries.

St Edward's Crown is the coronation crown of the Crown Jewels of the United Kingdom. Named after Saint Edward the Confessor, versions of it have traditionally been used to crown English and British monarchs at their coronations since the 13th century. It is normally on public display in the Jewel House at the Tower of London, and is widely regarded as one of the most important pieces of regalia in the British monarchy.

The original crown was a holy relic kept at Westminster Abbey, Edward's burial place, until the regalia were either sold or melted down when Parliament abolished the monarchy in 1649, during the English Civil War. The current St Edward's Crown was made for Charles II in 1661. It is 22-carat gold, 30 centimetres (12 in) tall, weighs 2.23 kilograms (4.9 lb), and is decorated with 444 precious and fine gemstones. The crown is similar in weight and overall appearance to the original, but its arches are Baroque. It was recognised by Guinness World Records as the most valuable crown in the world.

The coronation of Elizabeth II as queen of the United Kingdom and the other Commonwealth realms took place on 2 June 1953 at Westminster Abbey in London. Elizabeth acceded to the throne at the age of 25 upon the death of her father, George VI, on 6 February 1952, being proclaimed queen by her privy and executive councils shortly afterwards. The coronation was held more than one year later because of the tradition of allowing an appropriate length of time to pass after a monarch dies. It also gave the planning committees adequate time to make preparations for the ceremony. During the service, Elizabeth took an oath, was anointed with holy oil, was invested with robes and regalia, and was crowned Queen of the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Pakistan, and Ceylon (now Sri Lanka).

Celebrations took place across the Commonwealth realms and a commemorative medal was issued. It was the first British coronation to be fully televised; television cameras were not allowed inside the abbey during her parents' coronation in 1937. Elizabeth's was the fourth and final British coronation of the 20th century. It was estimated to have cost £1.57 million (pounds)(c. £53,571,428 in 2023).

51°30′29″N 0°4′34″W / 51.50806°N 0.07611°W / 51.50806; -0.07611

The Jewel House is a vault housing the British Crown Jewels in the Waterloo Block (formerly a barracks) at the Tower of London. It was opened by Queen Elizabeth II in 1994 and refurbished in 2012. Regalia have been kept in various parts of the Tower since the 14th century after a series of successful and attempted thefts at Westminster Abbey.

The Black Prince's Ruby is a large, irregular cabochon red spinel weighing 170 carats (34 g) set in the cross pattée above the Cullinan II diamond at the front of the Imperial State Crown of the United Kingdom.

The spinel is one of the oldest gems in the Crown Jewels of the United Kingdom, with a history dating back to the mid-14th century. According to a legend originating from the 1760s, the stone has been in the possession of the English and later British monarchy since it was given in 1367 by the Spanish king Peter of Castile to the then Prince of Wales, Edward of Woodstock, known as the "Black Prince". Henry V is said to have worn it at the Battle of Agincourt in 1415. The stone is believed to have been mined in Badakhshan in present day Afghanistan, the principal source of large spinel gems in the Middle Ages.

The Cullinan Diamond is the largest gem-quality rough diamond ever found, weighing 3,106 carats (621.20 g), discovered at the Premier No.2 mine in Cullinan, South Africa, on 26 January 1905. It was named after Thomas Cullinan, the owner of the mine. In April 1905, it was put on sale in London, but despite considerable interest, it was still unsold after two years. In 1907, the Transvaal Colony government bought the Cullinan and Prime Minister Louis Botha presented it to Edward VII. It was then cut by Joseph Asscher & Co. in Amsterdam.

Cullinan produced stones of various cuts and sizes, the largest of which is named Cullinan I, and named the Great Star of Africa by Edward VII, and at 530.4 carats (106.08 g) it is the largest cut clear-diamond in the world. The stone is mounted in the head of the Sovereign's Sceptre with Cross. The second largest cut clear-diamond is Cullinan II or the Second Star of Africa, weighing 317.4 carats (63.48 g), mounted in the Imperial State Crown. Both are part of the Crown Jewels of the United Kingdom. Seven other major diamonds, weighing a total of 208.29 carats (41.66 g), were privately owned by Elizabeth II, who inherited them from her grandmother, Queen Mary, in 1953. The Queen also owned minor brilliants and a set of unpolished fragments.

Reception of the American Loyalists by Great Britain in the Year 1783 is a lost painting by American-born artist Benjamin West, depicting the return of the Loyalists to the British Empire following their expulsion from the victorious United States after the American Revolutionary War. Unlike West's established historical styles, Reception features a highly allegorical composition of European, Black, and Native American refugees being welcomed back into the fold by Britannia, who presides over the British Crown Jewels while flanked by angels and government officials surveying the scene.

The original painting and its date of creation have been lost but is survived by a pair of replicas, one by engraver Henry Moses and one by West himself in the background of a later portrait of John Eardley Wilmot, completed in 1811 and 1812 respectively.