Flowers of the Crown in English Legal Thought: Metaphorical Assessments of Royal Power in Transitional Periods of Monarchy

Abstract

This article connects legal history with cultural and intellectual approaches to the history of late medieval England by focusing on the expression, ‘flowers of the crown.’ Believed to have originated in the early Stuart period, this article locates its origins much earlier. After the Angevin kings showed a liking for floriated crowns, a number of poets, clerics, and common lawyers worked flowers into their appraisals of monarchy throughout the fifteenth century. Up to the Stuarts, this metaphor was sometimes helpful for reminding grantees that prerogative donations and delegations, like flowers, cannot be guaranteed to last forever, and indeed eventually die once plucked from their source. This is a finding that prompts consideration of the circumstances that have compelled jurists and politicians to invoke metaphors in their assessments of royal power more generally. In turn, new insights are generated about the crown in modern English thought.