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The Tudors and the Stuarts: Jewel

It appears, from Evelyn, that "a great collar of rubies" had been disposed of in Holland for the King's necessities as early as Sept. 10, 1641. Queen Henrietta Maria raised on the royal jewels two millions sterling in one year. CHARLES I., in the very first year of his reign, went over the contents of the Jewel House to see what would be available to pledge for money, consigning them to the charge of his favourite, Buckingham, about to proceed as ambassador to the Hague, for that purpose. In vain did Sir Henry Mildmay, the master of the Jewel House, suggest the advisability of the king taking the advice of his council on the matter, and with their concurrence, using a warrant under the Great Seal, authorizing the pledging of the royal treasures, on the ground that they were too many, both in the court and the kingdom, who looked upon the duke's proceedings "with more than a curious eye"; in vain did Lord Brooke, who had some of the crown jewels in his possession, throw difficulties in the way, and complained of having to deliver up such valuables without a proper warrant. The king was determined on having his own way, and, before long, Mildmay wrote he had sent all the jewels and gold plate in his care, and if the king wanted anything more, he must be contented with silver plate, as there was nothing else left in the Jewel House. On the arrival of Buckingham at the Hague, he commissioned a Mr. Sackville Crow and one Philip Calandrani to raise three hundred thousand pounds upon two parcels of jewels, and one parcel of gold plate set with stones. The Hollanders, however, required a guarantee from some merchants of standing that the jewels should be redeemed within three years. After four months of negotiation difficulties were renewed, and rumours of quarrels between Charles and the Commons caused the Dutch usurers to express great doubt on the king's power to pawn his jewels without the consent of his parliament, and Crow finally returned to England with the greater part of his precious charge. Crow's fellow-agent seems to have been more successful, having managed to raise fifty-eight thousand pounds upon certain jewels. In 1628, a warrant was issued for the payment of three thousand pounds for interest on the above-named sum; but twelve months later, Calandrani writes to Secretary Dorchester that his brother has written to him from Holland "that those who have the pearls in hand, and also the Widow Thibaut, who has his majesty's jewel of the "Three Brethren," will not wait any longer, but proceed to execution before March, and begs the secretary to prevent the damage and dishonour which will be caused by delay in redeeming the pledges. Upon this Charles took the affair in hand himself, and sent out instructions to sell four thousand tons of iron ordnance to the States General for one hundred and twenty thousand pounds. With this sum the plate and jewels pledged in Holland, and "the collar and rich ballasses" pawned to the King of Denmark, were to be redeemed. But the jewels did not find their way to the Jewel House, and through the roguery of parties concerned, much spoliation occurred. In 1629 Charles took away from the secret Jewel House a fine large agate, engraven with the portraits of Henry VIII. and Edward VI., and at the same time ordered the sale of sundry articles of more or less value. Among these discarded ornaments were twelve pieces of goldsmith's work, like friar's knots, with ninety-one pendant pearls, being part of a collar of gold; two great half-round pearls taken from the "Mirror of Britain"; four gold collars, including that of the Order of St. Michael, composed of twenty-four knots of gold, and twenty-four scallop shells, with the saint hanging to it by a couple of little chains, also a gold lorayne, or double cross, set with diamonds and rubies; an old jewel in the shape of the letter M; a circlet of gold "new made for our dear mother, Queen Anne, having in the midst eight fair diamonds, eight fair rubies, eight emeralds, and eight sapphires, and garnished with thirty-two small diamonds, thirty-six small rubies, and sixty-four pearls, and on each border thirty-two diamonds and rubies; and a girdle of rubies in the form of red and white roses. A year after his sale Charles accepted pound 1108 from James Maxwell, and in consideration for that sum, authorizing him to retain as his own property two large diamonds upon which he had previously advanced pound 11,346.