Re: Codex Argenteus - the Silver Bible

From: Martin Reboul (martin_at_spamfukreboul1471.freeserve.co.uk)
Date: 07/30/04 

Date: Fri, 30 Jul 2004 21:28:24 GMT

"Jim Webster" <Jim@zerospam.mok.net> wrote in message
news:cee9pk$ta7$1@newsg1.svr.pol.co.uk...
>
> "Martin Reboul" <martin@spamfukreboul1471.freeserve.co.uk> wrote in message
> news:1KyOc.221$N57.147@newsfe2-gui.ntli.net...
> >
> > "Robert Stonehouse" <ew65@bcs.org.invalid> wrote in message
> > news:4109f5e5.4246146@news.cityscape.co.uk...
> > > On Fri, 30 Jul 2004 04:21:36 GMT, "Martin Reboul"
> > > <martin@spamfukreboul1471.freeserve.co.uk> wrote:
> > > ...
> > > >All that matters (to me) is doing the right thing. The Greeks, our
> great
> > friends
> > > >and loyal allies for centuries, are rightly hurt by what appears to be
> > British
> > > >reluctance to return a very important national treasure (what if the
> Crown
> > > >Jewels were pinched, then sold to a Greek - same thing).
> > > ...
> > > Incidentally, does anyone know where the Crown Jewels are now? The
> > > pre-Restoration ones, I mean: those in the Tower mostly date from the
> > > 1660s.
> >
> > Sadly, most were melted down and broken up by Puritan zealots shortly
> after the
> > Civil War. At the time this was fiercely opposed by many, and some may
> have gone
> > 'missing'.
>
> remember there was an army to pay at the time. Armies owed large sums in
> back pay are fractious creatures at best
>
>
> >
> > One piece owned by the Crown since 1471 definitely survived, the ring
> taken from
> > the body of Warwick the Kingmaker after the battle of Barnet (now in
> Liverpool
> > City Musuem), but that was hardly a 'crown jewel'.
> >
> > What survived exactly, I have no idea - someone will know. It was a
> tragedy, and
> > an unconscionable act of vandalism.
>
> hardly that, we didn't need it, but we did have to pay off the army and
> demobilise large chunks of it

That is true, but they were worth little in scrap, something pointed out at the
time. IIRC, there was quite an argument about whether Henry V's crown (I think?)
c/w battle damage from Agincourt, should be melted down. It doesn't exist today
AFAIK.

We didn't need them of course, but more to the point, they were highly symbolic
of the 'eternity' and majesty of the Crown, I think that's why they 'had to go'
more than for any financial reasons. The terrible damage done to stained glass
and ancient funeral monuments by zealous Puritan idiots at the time produced
little or no financial gain, it was just pure vandalism for the sake of it. Damn
them I say!

                Cheers
                       Martin