Happy Monday!
A few days ago, we were in the Elizabethan Era, and now we no longer are. There was some confusion about what we now call this era. Chucky-times? I’ve been informed it is now the Carolean Age, because the name ‘Charles’ originates in the Latin ‘Carolus’.
Doesn’t make any material difference to me, and the lady led a good, full life by all accounts, and seems to have lived a life of duty. Whether it was good or bad is for her subjects to judge.
Given that the passing of Queen Elizabeth has renewed interest in the British Crown Jewels, and how a lot of the gems are from former colonies, often given as “gifts” by rulers under duress, I thought we could do a roundup of all of these.
The basic thing here is diamonds used to primarily come from India for a lot of history, and they were quite rare in Europe. Later, diamonds were found in Africa. After colonial conquests, the diamond collection of the British royals showed the proverbial hockey stick growth curve.
Let’s start with the famous Koh-i-Noor diamond. Mined in Kollur (this is on the Krishna river, not the one in Karnataka home to the Mookambika temple), it adorned the Goddess in the Bhadrakali temple at Warangal, the deity of the Kakatiya rulers. When Alauddin Khilji’s hordes attacked, they destroyed the deity, and took the diamond. Eventually it came to adorn the Peacock Throne of the Mughals. When Nadir Shah from Iran sacked Delhi, he took with him the Peacock throne, and hence the gem. Then his empire fell and his grandson gave it to the Durranis. The Durrani emperor tried to make an alliance with the British to fight off a Russian invasion of Afghanistan (this is in the early 1800s, yes this Afghanistan scramble is that old) but he was overthrown. He fled with the diamond to Lahore, where Ranjit Singh, the emperor, asked for it in return for his protection. When the Sikh empire fell in the Anglo-Sikh wars in 1849, the gem was taken from the 11-year-old king Duleep Singh, by the East India Company, and found its way to Queen Victoria. She then had it set in the Queen Mother’s crown.
Just as well. The legend goes that it is extremely lucky for women, but is quite unlucky for men to wear it. History bears that out, though I don’t know if it’s just confirmation bias.The Cullinan diamond or the Star of Africa comes from South Africa, and is the largest clear-cut diamond in the world. It adorns the Sovereign Scepter, which indicates that the ruler who carries it is Sovereign. Sure, at that point, Transvaal was British territory, and technically it isn’t “stolen”, But when you want to symbolize your independence, shouldn’t you be using things your country is proud of making?
The Nizam’s 300-diamond platinum necklace wedding gift. In July 1947, the Nizam of Hyderabad was an ambitious man. The British were to leave India within a month. He had married his son to the last Ottoman princess, and considered himself an Islamic ruler of a new sort, who was acceptable to the west, quite unlike the tail end of the Ottomans. And he was eager to join the new nation of Pakistan.
However, the majority of his subjects were Hindu, and would not agree to his acceding to Pakistan. Plus there was the pesky matter of the large expanse of Indian territory between his kingdom and Pakistan.
To carry forward with his plan, he needed the British on his side. And being the richest man in the world at that point, it wasn’t hard. He was rich enough that he used the $50 million Jacob Diamond as a paperweight. And he had donated $25m to the British during the World Wars.
So his gift to Princess Elizabeth for her wedding was his instruction to Cartier that she was to have any piece of jewelry she wanted, on his tab. And being the modest young woman she was, she picked a low-key necklace that was platinum with 300 diamonds in it.
Seeing as that wasn’t enough, she also chose a platinum tiara studded with diamonds. The cool thing about this tiara is it comes apart into three parts, which can be worn as rose brooches. Wow.
Sure, it could be argued it was a gift. But when you are a colonizing power looking to play different colonial territories against each other in a scene where you are playing God, gifts are obligations under duress. Especially since the subjects of the Nizam were under crushing poverty, while he levied heavy taxes on them and used them towards his profligate spending on luxuries.The Mystery of The Nga Mauk Ruby. This is my current obsession. I’ve talked about it before on here, but basically this was an 80 carat ruby belonging to the Burmese Royals. They were deposed after the Anglo-Burmese war, and imprisoned in Ratnagiri in India (fun fact: Bal Gangadhar Tilak, who was imprisoned in Mandalay thrice, was from Ratnagiri. Seems like a bleak, colonial house-swap). On their long journey to India, one of the officers who imprisoned them, took the ruby from them. It hasn’t been heard of since. But it’s suspected that it was split into four, and adorns the Imperial Crown of India.
This crown was made because when King George V was holding the Delhi Durbar, he couldn’t wear his usual crowns, as the British Constitution doesn’t allow the crown jewels to leave Great Britain. This crown weighs a kilo, and was worn just that once. They wanted to give it to India, but for some reason now, they haven’t yet.
Imagine stealing a giant ruby, breaking it into pieces, making it into a super heavy crown, wearing it just once, and just locking it away. If it is indeed the Nga Mauk, that’s really rubbing it in the faces of the Burmese Royal family’s descendants.
Artifact of the week: This gold bracelet from a market in “Trichinopoly” that King Edward (then Prince of Wales) gave to Queen Victoria in 1877 for her birthday. I’m throwing it in here because it isn’t the usual aesthetic you expect a British Royal to have.
This bracelet is extremely South Indian. It’s made from gold, intricately molded to show two Makara (a mythical river creature, representative of River/Goddess Ganga) heads, with the eyes studded with rubies, and held together with a ruby-studded screw.
Very interesting about the jewels. It seems every post I see that discusses the Queen's jewels mentions they are a gift. Also like Chucky-times!