Precious Stones: Their History and Mystery

Nine chapters on what people have believed about jewels — the charms and the poisons, the chaplet of pearls, the ecclesiastical treasuries, and the great robberies they invited.

HomeThe Tudors and the Stuarts › The Tudors and the Stuarts: Mary

The Tudors and the Stuarts: Mary

The day after the marriage, the king gave her "a ruby two inches and a half long, and as big as a man's finger, hanging by two chains of gold at every end." Every day he gave her rings "with stones of great estimation." These jewels, and Mary's claim to them, were the basis of a long and intricate negotiation. The jewels, with the exception of four rings, were never returned, on the beggarly plea that Francis was displeased at the loss of the diamond called the "Mirror of Naples." This jewel was valued by the Chancellor of France at thirty thousand crowns.

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