A sceptre or scepter is an ornamental staff held by a ruling monarch, a prominent item of kingly regalia.

A rod or staff has long represented authority. Among the early Greeks the sceptre was a long staff used by aged men (Iliad, xviii. 416; Herodotus 1. 196), and came to be used by judges, military leaders, priests and others. It is represented on painted vases as a long staff tipped with a metal ornament, and is borne by some of the gods.

Among the Etruscans sceptres of great magnificence were used by kings and upper orders of the priesthood, and many representations of such sceptres occur on the walls of the painted tombs of Etruria. The British Museum, the Vatican and the Louvre possess Etruscan sceptres of gold, most elaborately and minutely ornamented.

The Roman sceptre probably derived from the Etruscan. Under the Republic an ivory sceptre (sceptrum eburneum) was a mark of consular rank. It was also used by victorious generals who received the title of imperator, and it may be said to survive in the marshal’s baton. Under the empire the sceptrum Augusti was specially used by the emperors, and was often of ivory tipped with a golden eagle. It is frequently shown on medallions of the later empire, which have on the obverse a half-length figure of the emperor, holding in one hand the sceptrum Augusti, and in the other the orb surmounted by a small figure of Victory.

With the advent of Christianity the sceptre was often tipped with a cross instead of with an eagle, but during the middle ages the finials on the top of the sceptre varied considerably. In England from a very early period two sceptres have been concurrently used, and from the time of Richard I they have been distinguished as being tipped with a cross and a dove respectively. In France the royal sceptre was tipped with a fleur de lys, and the other, known as the main de justice, had an open hand of benediction on the top.

Sceptres with small shrines on the top are sometimes represented on royal seals, as on the great seal of Edward III, where the king, enthroned, bears such a sceptre, but it was an unusual form; and it is of interest to note that one of the sceptres of Scotland, preserved at Edinburgh, has such a shrine at the top, with little images of Our Lady, Saint Andrew and Saint James in it. This sceptre was, it is believed, made in France about 1536, for James V. Great seals usually represent the sovereign enthroned, holding a sceptre (often the second in dignity) in the right hand, and the orb and cross in the left. Harold appears thus in the Bayeux tapestry.

The earliest English coronation form of the 9th century mentions a sceptre (sceptrum), and a staff (baculum). In the so-called coronation form of Ethelred II a sceptre (sceptrum), and a rod (virga) appear, as they do also in the case of a coronation order of the 12th century. In a contemporary account of Richard I’s coronation the royal sceptre of gold with a gold cross, and the gold rod (virga) with a gold dove on the top, enter the historical record for the first time. About 1450 Sporley, a monk of Westminster, compiled a list of the relics there. These included the articles used at the coronation of Saint Edward the Confessor, and left by him for the coronations of his successors. A golden sceptre, a wooden rod gilt and an iron rod are named. These survived till the Commonwealth, and are minutely described in an inventory of the whole of the regalia drawn up in 1649, when everything was destroyed.

For the coronation of Charles II of England new sceptres were made, and though slightly altered, they continue in use. They are a sceptre with a cross called "St Edward’s sceptre", a sceptre with a dove, and a long sceptre or staff with a cross of gold on the top called "St Edward’s staff". To these, two sceptres for the queen-consort, one with a cross, and the other with a dove, have been subsequently added.

Compare staff of office.

See Cyril Davenoort, The English Regalia; Leopold WickhamLegg, "English Coronation Records"; The Ancestor, Nos. 1 and 2 (1902); Menin, The Form, &c., of Coronations (English translation, 1727).

Reference

• Original text adapted from 1911 Encyclopaedia Britannica