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The Tudors and the Stuarts: Leicester

The Earl of Leicester in his will recites, "the token I do bequeath unto her majesty is the jewell with three fair emeralds, with a fair large table diamond in the midst, without a soil, and set about with many diamonds without soil, and a rope of fair white pearls to the number of six hundred to hang the said jewel, all which pearl and jewel were once purposed for her majesty against her coming to Wansted, but it must now thus be disposed." The last few words have in them something affecting, as showing amidst so much that was deceptive and artificial in the relations of the earl with his royal mistress, a feeling of loyal attachment; yet the selfish queen had his personal effects sold by public auction to liquidate his debts to her. The Countess of Leicester (Letitia Knollys) was afterwards married to Sir Christopher Blount. She had the reputation of being rich in jewels, and how Blount got rid of them is shown in the Harleian MSS. Among these is the following curious account:-- "The first year Sir Christopher Blount was married he sold many great jewels, and has continued the same course almost every year since. Three years past were sold to the Earl of Essex, against a great chain of pearl, a fair table-diamond, and a pointed ruby, for which he received pound 3000. The Countess of Northumberland bought two pendant pearls. At my lady's being last in London were sold two fair collars and other jewels, pearls, and precious stones."

Following the example of their jewel-loving monarch, the ladies of the court loaded their persons with precious stones, which were profusely displayed on the bodices and skirts of brocade gowns, and vanity soon discovered that the farthingale, the stiff whalebone framework under the upper skirt, formed an excellent show-case for family jewels.

Instead of following the borrowing propensities of many previous sovereigns, Queen Elizabeth did some capital business as a lender, and proved, as she was in other matters, a shrewd dealer. She left behind her a cupboard of plate, belonging to the House of Burgundy, which she held as security for advances made to the States of Brabant.

In the Inventories of MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS, published by the Bannatyne Club (1843), we have some curious particulars of the jewels of that sovereign, which, in the momentous events of the royal career, passed into different hands, sometimes under sad and romantic circumstances. Like Queen Elizabeth, Mary was lavish in her display of jewellery. The splendour of her attire at her marriage with the Dauphin of France, in 1558, is mentioned in a Rouen contemporary of the ceremonial, as "so glorious in its fashion and decoration, that it is impossible for any pen to do justice to its details." Her regal mantle, of marvellous length, was covered with precious stones. On this occasion Queen Mary wore a crown royal composed of the finest gold, and of the most exquisite workmanship, set with diamonds, pearls, rubies, and emeralds of immense value, having in the centre a pendant carbuncle, valued at 500,000 crowns. About her neck hung a matchless jewel, suspended by chains of precious stones, which, from its description, must have been that known in Scottish history as the "Great Harry." This was not one of the crown jewels, but her own personal property, having been derived from her royal English great-grandfather, Henry VII., by whom it was presented to her grandmother, Queen Margaret Tudor.

On the death of her husband, Queen Mary left France, and arrived in Scotland (1561), bringing with her a multitude of splendid dresses, etc., and, says Bishop Lesley, "mony costlie jewells and goldin wark, precious stones, orient pearle, maist excellent of any that was in Europe."

In the inventory above-mentioned there is no trace of the diamond heart which was sent by Mary, soon after her arrival in Scotland, to Queen Elizabeth, with some French verses, written, it is said, by the Scottish Queen herself. Almost all the portraits of Mary Queen of Scots represent her adorned with jewellery, nearly as abundant as those which distinguish the portraits of her jealous rival, Queen Elizabeth; the dresses also are very similar, only the ruff of the Scottish Queen is of less imposing height and amplitude. An inventory of Queen Mary's wardrobe, besides a large number of costly dresses, includes a rich variety of hoods, coifs, cauls, bonnets, and cornettes of velvet, silk, damask, crape, and other costly materials, embroidered with gold, silver, silk, and pearls. With these she wore her regal frontlet of jewellers' work and gems. Her veils, mostly of crape, were adorned with pearls. Mary's wardrobe included fifty dresses of great richness and elegance; but she was eclipsed in this particular by Queen Elizabeth, who had two thousand magnificent dresses. "In a testamentary document," observes Miss Strickland, "executed by Mary Queen of Scots before the birth of her son, when under the melancholy impression that she would die in childbed, reference is made to the disposal of her jewels, that were her own personal property. She has written against each of them, with her own hand, the name of the person to whom it was to be given after her death, in case her infant should not survive her. Among the bequests to her husband, the unfortunate Darnley, are a 'Saint Michael, made of forty diamonds; a chain of diamonds and pearls, formed of twenty-four pieces each, decorated with two diamonds and twenty-four cordelieres of pearls; twelve great buttons, decorated with twelve roses of diamonds; twelve other great precious stones, ballas rubies; four hundred and four buttons of Venetian work, enamelled white, every one set with a ruby; seventy-one buttons, great, middle-size, and small, every one set with a ballas ruby; twenty-seven buttons, each set with a sapphire; sixteen little chatons (cats'eyes), every one set with a sapphire; a watch decorated with ten diamonds, two rubies, and a cordon of gold. The first bequest in her will was for the honour of the crown she had inherited. She leaves to it the 'Great Harry;' another jewel of the same fashion; a grand diamond cross; a chain enriched with rubies and diamonds; a necklace of diamonds, rubies, and pearls; and a large diamond, set in an enameled finger-ring. These seem to have been among her most precious jewels; and she desires that an Act might be passed, annexing them to the crown of Scotland, in remembrance of herself and of the Scottish alliance with the House of Lorraine. Seven jewels, containing what appear to have been her largest diamonds, she bequeaths for ornaments to the Queens of Scotland, under injunction not to change the setting, nor to give the pieces away, but to keep them with the crown for evermore." In the same inventory are two costly ruby chains, formed of twelve pieces, every one set with two rubies, two diamonds, and twenty-four pearls; one for the king, her husband, and the other for her godson, Francis Stuart, "a diamond fashioned like a face, and a pointed diamond set in black enamel, for her mother-in-law, the Countess of Lennox. To Bothwell, a table diamond set in black enamel; and another mourning jewel, set with eleven diamonds and one ruby; to Lady Bothwell, a coif, collar, and pair of sleeves, decorated with rubies, pearls, and garnets.

The dispersion of Queen Mary's jewels and treasures would seem to have began, like other graver misfortunes, with her infatuated passion for Bothwell. Before the middle of June, 1567, when they parted on Carberry Hill, never to meet again, she had lavished upon him jewels valued at more than twenty thousand crowns, or six thousand pounds sterling. These, and the distribution of jewels as personal gifts, with others, that served, very opportunely, in the various emergencies in which the unfortunate Queen found herself; will afford some idea of the extraordinary quantity of precious articles in her possession. "They have, moreover" (remarks Madame de Barrera), "acquired great historical celebrity, from the frequency with which they were claimed, in her appeals for mercy and justice during her long captivity, and the rapacity with which her royal jailer, and other enemies, sought or retained the possession of these glittering spoils."

A few days before Mary effected her escape, the Regent Moray had sent a costly parure of pearls Mary's personal property, which she had brought with her from France, with a choice selection of her other jewels, very secretly to London, by her trusty agent, Sir Nicholas Elphinstone, who undertook to negotiate their sale. As the pearls were considered the most magnificent in Europe, Queen Elizabeth was complimented with the first offer of them. "She saw them yesterday" (writes Bochetel la Forrest, the French ambassador at the court of England, to Catherine de Medicis) "in the presence of the Earls of Pembroke and Leicester, and pronounced them to be of unparalleled beauty." He thus describes them:-"There are six cordons of large pearls, strung as paternosters, but there are five-and-twenty separate from the rest, much finer and larger than those which are strung. These are for the most part like black muscades" (a very rare and valuable variety of pearl, having the deep purple colour and bloom of the Muscatel grape). "They had not been here more than three days, when they were appraised by various merchants, this queen wishing to have them at the sum named by the jeweller, who would have made his profit by selling them again. They were first shown to three or four working jewellers and lapidaries, by whom they were estimated at pound 3,000 sterling (about ten thousand crowns), and who offered to give that sum for them. Several Italian merchants came after them, who valued them at twelve thousand crowns, which is the price, as I am told, this queen (Elizabeth) will take them at. There is a Genevese who saw them after the others, and said they were worth sixteen thousand crowns, but I think they will allow her to have them for twelve thousand. In the meantime I have not delayed giving your Majesty timely notice of what is going on, though I doubt she will not allow them to escape her. The rest of the jewels are not so valuable as the pearls." Mary's royal mother-in-law of France (observes Miss Strickland)-no whit more scrupulous than her good cousin of England-was eager to compete with the latter for the purchase of the pearls, knowing that they were worth nearly double the sum at which they had been valued at London. Some of them she had herself presented to Mary, and especially desired to recover, but the ambassador wrote in reply "that he had found it impossible to accomplish her desire of obtaining the Queen of Scots' pearls, for, as he had told her from the first, they were intended for the gratification of the Queen of England, who had been allowed to purchase them at her own price, and was now in possession of them."