Crown

Jack Sparrow holding a jewel-encrusted golden crown on Isla de Muerta.

"After nearly four years away from Kerma, living among strangers in foreign lands, I have returned to accept my father’s crown."

―Shabako

A crown was the traditional symbolic form of headgear worn by a monarch or by a deity, for whom the crown traditionally represented power, legitimacy, victory, triumph, honour, and glory, as well as immortality, righteousness, and resurrection. Crowns worn by rulers often contained gold and jewels.

History

One small crown was part of the treasure of the notorious pirate Stone-Eyed Sam. When the crew of the Barnacle discovered the treasure, the crewman Arabella Smith covered herself in ropes of pearls, gold chains as thick as her thumb, and bracelets studded with diamonds and emeralds, eventually putting the crown on her head, tipped sideways.

The rulers of the mythical island of Kerma and members of the royal family wore various crowns. Princess Amenirdis owned a heavy, formal crown featuring a crescent held by two stylized ram's horns. When Prince Shabako became the new pharaoh he wore a crown bearing the twin uraei, the double cobras.

Following the battle of Isla de Muerta, Jack Sparrow draped himself with treasure collected by Hector Barbossa's cursed crew, including a jewel-encrusted golden crown. Some time later, when Jack's crew captured a Spanish galleon, Jack appeared on deck covered in treasure, with a crown on his head. In another adventure he found the crown of Suarez.

Behind the scenes

Chris Turner's concept art of Jack Sparrow wearing a crown.

• Crowns first appeared in Walt Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean.
• In Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio's first screenplay draft of At World's End, before the Black Pearl arrives to Shipwreck Cove, Captain Barbossa and Tia Dalma summon a mermaid who offers them a crown as payment for Barbossa's services to Tia Dalma.
• In Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio's screenplay draft for On Stranger Tides, Jack Sparrow steals a golden bejeweled crown from a display case in St. James's Palace. When he goes outside the palace, Jack hides behind one of the Royal buntings that spans London's street before the crown falls onto the cobblestone, drawing the attention of Royal Guards on the street below.
• A crown appears in the Young Jack Sparrow story in the cancelled graphic novel Pirates of the Caribbean: Six Sea Shanties. Although not specified, it's possible the crown is the same of one worn by Arabella Smith in Jack Sparrow: The Coming Storm.
• Terry Rossio's 2012 screenplay draft for Dead Men Tell No Tales featured several crowns.

Appearances

• Walt Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean (First appearance)
• Jack Sparrow: The Coming Storm
• Jack Sparrow: Poseidon's Peak (Mentioned only)
• Pirates of the Caribbean: Six Sea Shanties
• The Price of Freedom
• Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl
  • Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2006 junior novelization)
• Going Overboard!
• The Return of Jack Sparrow

Sources

• Pirates of the Caribbean: The Visual Guide
• Pirates of the Caribbean: The Complete Visual Guide