Coronation Sword of the Kings of France, called Joyeuse
Unknown · Pommel 900-1100; guard 1100-1200; grip 1200-1400; blade 1700-1900
Just over a metre long, the sword in front of you is the one the kings of France held at their coronation in Reims. Look first at the hilt, which is all gold. The pommel is decorated on both faces with pairs of birds facing each other, an ornament close to Scandinavian metalwork of the tenth and eleventh centuries. The two quillons of the cross guard are shaped as stylised winged dragons, their eyes set with beads of lapis lazuli or dark glass, and these can be dated to the twelfth century. The grip between them is covered in a gold network of lozenges that seems to belong to the thirteenth or fourteenth century. The steel blade is the newest element, replaced in the eighteenth or nineteenth century.
The sword is therefore not one object but an assembly of pieces from several ages, the result of centuries of repair and remounting. Under the quillons, scratched with a point, a small inscription records a weight of two marks and a half and ten esterlins, almost certainly noted when the sword was pledged as security for a loan. By the late Middle Ages the object was identified with Joyeuse, the legendary sword of Charlemagne sung of in the Song of Roland, and that name gave it a sacred aura at the anointing of each new king. The scabbard shown with it may have been made separately.
The sword is first mentioned in the treasury of the abbey of Saint-Denis in twelve seventy one and appears as number one hundred and eleven in the inventory of sixteen thirty four. It was seized during the Revolution and deposited at the museum on the fifth of December seventeen ninety three. Napoleon had it carried among the so-called Honours of Charlemagne at his coronation in eighteen hundred and four, after which it was shown in the treasury of Notre-Dame until eighteen sixteen. It passed through the royal furniture store and the Ministry of Finance before returning to the Louvre in eighteen fifty two, much altered but still the most vivid survivor of the French coronation regalia.
Did You Know? The pommel of the sword may be some eight hundred years older than the blade beneath it.
Unlock the Full Guide
Read every room and listen to every work in all museums with premium.