User:Mortee/Drafts/Ceremonial swords of the United Kingdom

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Royal swords

 * alt=Three highly ornate swords, side by side. Two have gold handles and decoration on red velvet scabbards. The one on the left is paler and covered in jewels.
 * Three of the Crown Jewels: The Sword of Offering, the Sword of State, and the Sword of Mercy

Among the Crown Jewels are six swords with ceremonial and symbolic purposes. The two-handed Sword of State was made in 1678, the second of two such swords made for Charles II and the one surviving. Curtana – the Sword of Mercy – and the Swords of Spiritual Justice and Temporal Justice were all made for the coronation of King Charles I and have red velvet scabbards embroidered in gold. They are carried unsheathed in the procession at coronations. The Jewelled Sword of Offering, made in 1820 for George VI has a blade decorated blue and gold with a heavily jewelled hilt and scabbard. The Irish Sword of State, made in 1660–61, represented the monarch's authority in Ireland, until the 1922 creation of the Irish Free State.

City of London
The City of London has a collection of five ceremonial swords related to the role of the Lord Mayor of London. The Mourning Sword is used at funerals, including the funeral of Margaret Thatcher and the state funeral of Sir Winston Churchill in 1965. The Pearl Sword is used in a ceremony to welcome the monarch to the city of London, and to lead the monarch in certain processions. The State Sword, together with the Mace of the City of London, represents the Lord Mayor's authority and is used in the Lord Mayor's Show when a new Lord Mayor is invested. The Old Bailey Sword sits behind the senior judge sitting at the Old Bailey and the Mansion House Justice Room Sword sits behind the Lord Mayor when they sit in their role as chief magistrate of the City.