Charles, in the days of his prosperity, was an eager purchaser of gems and jewelry; and a record is preserved which shows that he bought in a year and a half, a quarter of a million dollars’ worth of jewelry, and chiefly to use as gifts. It is also related that he bought the great diamond which Sir Paul Pindar brought home from Constantinople, and which he valued at $150,000. The subsequent history of this rare gem is to be placed among the mysterious things of the past.
The queen of James II. was ornamented for the coronation in a manner that would have startled even Lollia Paulina; and a half million dollars were expended in dressing her up. The diadem also was a wondrous piece of extravagance for the times, and cost more than five hundred and fifty thousand dollars. The historian of the times states that “the jewels she had on were reckoned at a million’s worth, which made her shine like an angel.” The exiled Queen, in the after years of her widowhood, said to the nuns of Chaillot, “My dress and royal mantle were covered with precious stones; and it took all the jewels that the goldsmiths of London could procure to decorate my crown.”
When Queen Caroline was crowned as consort of George II., she made use of all the material she could find in London. And Lord Hervey exclaims that “the appearance and the truth of her finery was a mixture of magnificence and meanness not unlike the eclat of royalty in many other particulars, when it comes to be nicely considered, and its source traced to what money hires and flattery lends.” For it is stated that she used upon her head all the pearls and necklaces she could borrow from the ladies of quality; and that she placed upon her petticoat all the diamonds she could hire of the Jews and jewellers in town.
When Philip of Spain went to England to receive his bride, Queen Mary, the ceremonies on the occasion were conducted with great splendor. The King was accompanied by sixty of the most distinguished grandees of Spain, clad in royal array. He was dressed in a robe of rich brocade bordered with large pearls and diamonds. His trunk hose were of white satin worked with silver. He wore a collar of beaten gold full of inestimable diamonds, and from which hung the jewel of the Golden Fleece. Around his knee was the Garter, studded with beautiful gems of various colors.
The daughter of Henry VIII. inherited her father’s love for ornamental display; and at the time of her marriage with Philip of Spain, she appeared magnificently arrayed. She is described as wearing a robe whose ample train was bordered with pearls and diamonds of immense size and value. The large sleeves were ornamented with clusters of gold set with pearls and diamonds. Her coif was bordered with two rows of large diamonds; and she wore on her breast a splendid diamond of inestimable value, which Philip had sent her as a gift. Mary, on her death-bed, sent the most of her jewels to her sister Elizabeth of England; and King Philip added to them a casket of very beautiful gems.
Elizabeth, when she became Queen of England, gradually acquired a passion for jewelry, which finally became absurd and grotesque. She possessed at one time two thousand dresses and an immense quantity of gems. The portrait of Queen Elizabeth at Henham Hall represents her in a blaze of jewels. She appears with an enormous ruff, which rose as a bird-like structure behind the fabric of jewels which adorned her head, until it overtopped the cross of her regal diadem. A rich collar of gold, woven in delicate filigree work, set with pearls, rubies, and amethysts, adorned her neck. The bodice of her dress was also ornamented with gold filigree set with many gems; and the sleeves were profusely ornamented to match the bodice. Horace Walpole, in describing her portraits, says, “There is not one that can be called beautiful. The profusion of ornaments with which they are loaded are marks of her continual fondness for dress; while they entirely exclude all grace, and leave no more room for a painter’s genius, than if he had been employed to copy an Indian idol, totally composed of hands and necklaces. A pale Roman nose; a head of hair loaded with crowns, and powdered with diamonds; a vast ruff, a vaster fardingale, and a bushel of pearls,—are features by which everybody knows at once the picture of Elizabeth.”
Sir Walter Raleigh dressed himself in a gorgeous manner, and was profusely decorated with gems. On court days, even his shoes wore gems of the value of more than $30,000 (£6,600). His armor was of solid silver, with sword and belt blazing with diamonds, rubies, and pearls.
The Duke of Buckingham, the favorite of King James, wore his diamonds loosely attached, so that he might shake off a few at pleasure. His cloaks were trimmed with great diamond buttons; his hat-bands were of diamonds; also his cockades. Among his many rich suits was one of white uncut velvet, set all over with diamonds, to the value of £80,000; besides a great feather bespangled with diamonds, as well as his sword, girdle, hat, and spurs.
In olden times the shrine of Thomas à Becket was famous throughout England and attracted countless devotees from all parts of the realm. One hundred thousand persons of all ranks are said to have visited it in one year, offering a vast variety of gifts. In the twelfth century Louis VII. of France, disguised as a common pilgrim in the meanest garb, visited the shrine and presented it with a famous precious stone, called the Regale of France, and as large as a bird’s egg. Not a fragment of this glittering and splendid shrine—a mass of gold and jewels—remains at the present day to interest the antiquary; and its treasures have been scattered to the winds, leaving no trace behind.
The churches of England, as well as France and Spain, were at one time enormously rich in precious stones and ecclesiastical ornaments of the jewellers’ art; but wars and insurrections are fatal to collections of the rare and the beautiful; and the fury and cupidity of the Leaguers, the iconoclasts, and the revolutionists have destroyed these treasures of art and nature, or dispersed them so that their identity is lost.