Meanings
alternative heavy lies the crown · alternative heavy is the head that wears the crown
- A person of high rank or status has more problems than those of lower rank.
Such terrors as these were unguessed by me in the days of my obscurity. Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown, uneasy also, lies the wife of that head, and the best friend of the wife. I dismissed my stenographer, and spent ten or fifteen restless minutes until Sylvia appeared.
1914, Upton Sinclair, Sylvia's Marriage
Origin
From Henry IV, Part 2.
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
uneasy lies the head that wears a crown. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/uneasy%20lies%20the%20head%20that%20wears%20a%20crown
“uneasy lies the head that wears a crown.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/uneasy%20lies%20the%20head%20that%20wears%20a%20crown. Accessed November 5, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “uneasy lies the head that wears a crown,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/uneasy%20lies%20the%20head%20that%20wears%20a%20crown.
Source: uneasy lies the head that wears a crown on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.