Jewels of Kings and Popes

Sentiment occupies a high place in the values of gems, and it has been, to a considerable extent, created by the historical or traditional association of different gems with royal personages and people otherwise famous; the favour of the great has sometimes had an important effect upon the market value of precious stones, and in some cases good or ill fortune has passed with gems from one possessor to another, until to the inanimate jewel has attached the credit or discredit of causing remarkable human experiences, and the stone has acquired the attribute of lucky or unlucky. The diamond fills the leading role in this historical and legendary drama of the gems, and a full account of all pertaining to it that is worthy of notice, that is extant in print, might suffice for a volume of considerable interest.

Charlemagne fastened his mantle with a clasp set with diamonds; these historic stones illustrate the crude efforts of the lapidaries of their time, the natural planes of the octahedron being only partly polished.

Louis Duke of Anjou possessed a regal array of jewels; in an inventory of his gems exhibited 1360-1368 was a description of eight diamonds which showed some skill on the part of their cutters.

When the Duke of Burgundy, in 1407, gave a magnificent banquet to the King of France and his Court, the noble guests received as souvenirs of the entertainment eleven diamonds, cut with as much skill as the art of that day was capable of, and set in gold.

Pope Sixtus IV. was the recipient of the second diamond sent to be cut, in 1475, by Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy, to Louis de Berquem of Bruges—regarded by his contemporaries as the father of diamond-cutting. The first of the trio of famous stones is said to have been the historic "Beau Sancy"; the third diamond was presented to Louis XI. of France.

"The Twelve Mazarins" were the twelve thickest diamonds of the French crown jewels, ordered by Cardinal Mazarin to be recut by Parisian cutters.

Pope Julius II., in 1500, owned a diamond on which was engraved the figure of a friar by one Ambrosius Caradossa; this is one of the few noted examples of diamond sculpture.

The first French woman to lead fashion as a wearer of diamonds for personal ornaments is said to have been Agnes Sorrel, famous in the time of Charles VII. Subsequently, under Francis I., extravagance in this particular in French society reached its climax, and the Luxus or Sumptuary Laws, in the reign of Charles IX. and Henry IV., were drafted to repress this form of extravagance.