How did the kings' application for a crown worked in medieval Europe?

by warrenseth

Alright, I hope the question is okay grammaticaly. I'm Hungarian, and here we learn that our first king, St. Stephen I applied for a crown around 1000 AD, and the pope sent him one, and then all Hungarian kings used it until Charles IV, the last one.

So what I'm asking is: how did this process worked exactly? Which nations of Europe have a crown donated by the pope? Do we know about who exactly made the crowns? How did the pope decide who got crowns and who didn't?

iambamba

I don't think the crown was actually donated. He merely asked the Pope for permission for his coronation as a king. This also occurred in Poland, which for much of its early history was a collection of duchies, until the Pope assented to the coronation of one of them as king. The Pope was held to be both the ultimate spiritual and temporal power, and so all kings, grand dukes and the like were held to ultimately owe their throne to him. In the same vein, the Pope could depose crowned monarchs, though they seldom abided by this proclamation.