“with the royal crown.” It has long been debated if Ahasuerus demanded Vashti to come show off her beauty naked except for her crown. That seems to have been suggested in part because it would seem to more logically justify her refusal to come. But given the way wives were protected from the eyes of people outside the royal household, she may have refused to come simply on the basis of modesty. It does seem to be unlikely that the king would want to parade his wife naked in front of others. We will likely never know for sure. It is also possible that a factor in her decision was that she knew the king was drunk, thought he might regret what he had done, and along with her own modesty thought to protect public opinion toward the king.