The Sancy Blood Diamond , livre ebook

The Sancy Blood Diamond

Power, Greed, and the Cursed History of One of the World s Most Coveted Gems
S USAN R ONALD
In memory of my Father, Appah, who taught diamonds to sparkle
This book is printed on acid-free paper.
Copyright 2005 by Susan Ronald. All rights reserved
Published by John Wiley Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey
Published simultaneously in Canada
The author gratefully acknowledges the following institutions for permission to use their images (numerals refer to page numbers): Diamond Trading Company, London (312). Erich Lessing/Art Resource, NY (210). Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam (178, 179). National Portrait Gallery, London (80, 90, 144, 145, 166, 173, 264, 275); copyright Tom Hustler (305). Pinacoteca Nazionale di Siena/Lensini (91). Reunion des Musees Nationaux/Art Resource, NY (283); photo Gerard Blot (233); photo Arnaudet (263).
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data:
Ronald, Susan.
The Sancy blood diamond : power, greed, and the cursed history
of one of the world s most coveted gems / Susan Ronald.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-62045-719-1
1. Sancy diamond-History. I. Title.
NK7663.R66 2004
736 .23-dc22 2004001726
Printed in the United States of America
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Contents


Preface
Acknowledgments

1 Golconda
2 Valentine and the Dukes
3 Valentine s Revenge
4 The Last Great Burgundian Dukes
5 Playing into the Hands of Thieves
6 The Diamond Vanishes
7 The Kings and the Counting Houses
8 The Coveted Touchstone of Power
9 At the Heart of the Struggle for Power
10 The Pawn on the Chessboard of Giants
11 Three Determined Men of Dubious Character
12 The Man Who Sweated Lies from Every Pore
13 The Curse of Blind Ambition
14 Inalienable in Untrustworthy Hands
15 The Wooing of the Spanish Infanta
16 In the Crown of Henrietta Maria, the French Queen of England
17 Redeemed and Cursed as the Ultimate Symbol of Power
18 The Exiled Queen and the Cardinal Thief
19 Mazarin: Corrupted by Absolute Power
20 A Mere Bauble in the Sun King s Crown
21 Just Another Symbol at the Heart of Power
22 The Hated Diamond
23 Slipping through the Deft Hands of Thieves
24 The Bonaparte Legacy
25 Spain and His Most Catholic Majesty Joseph
26 In the Hands of the Demidoffs
27 A Jewel of Historic Curiosity
28 The Last Private Owners: The New Royals
29 Epilogue or Epitaph?

Selected Bibliography
Index
Preface

The Sancy diamond, while little known outside specialist circles, has one of the most fascinating histories imaginable. The fascination does not come from its size-a mere 55.232 carats by modern standards-but rather from who owned it, who lusted after it, and how it helped change the course of European history. From the end of the fourteenth century until 1661, it was the largest white diamond in Christendom, always providing its owner with the most secure and concentrated form of wealth.
It was not always called the Sancy, and although I give its other names when appropriate, I call it the Sancy throughout this book. The name Sancy is thought to come from its original owner, Nicolas Harlay de Sancy (spelled Sauncy at the time), though even this simple fact is the subject of some mystery. Some experts say that the diamond was called sans-si -short for sans similitude (without equal). Still others claim that the diamond was called cent six -meaning one hundred and six and pronounced sancy -after its original weight in carats. The only certainty regarding its name is that the origins have been shrouded in the fog of time.
As a near-perfect stone and the largest of its kind, the Sancy was indeed a special prize. Originally belonging to Valentine Visconti, daughter of the duke of Milan and duchess of Orleans, the Sancy passed to her mortal enemy John the Fearless, who mounted it in a jeweled coronet called La Belle Fleur de Lys , or The Beautiful Fleur-de-Lys. The huge pointed faceted diamond described in various documents as larger than a nugget of charcoal was mounted surrounded by four large pearls. In the middle of the central petal above the diamond was a long balas ruby (a ruby spinel of pale rose, red, or orange color) called La Balais de Flandres , reputedly the largest in France. The outer petals of the coronet were decorated with eight other large balas rubies, eight sapphires, five emeralds, and thirty-eight large pearls. The ensemble weighed 2 marcs, 7 ounces, and 2 grains-or a stunning 23.2 ounces or 646 grams.
Yet despite the fact that the Sancy appears in at least six official inventories from 1389 beginning with the dowry of Valentine Visconti, historians have failed to look at the diamond s provenance from all sides. I attempt here to record the Sancy s first real history as scrupulously as possible. In my research, I have always taken at least two, and often four, different sources to support the conclusions that I have drawn concerning the Sancy s past. I have based my research wherever possible on eyewitness descriptions of the diamond in official documents that also include the weight of the Sancy, or alternatively, the jewel into which it was set.
When the Sancy disappeared from history-first for a period of nearly 120 years after the last great duke of Burgundy lost it in battle, then a second time for 20 years during the Napoleonic era-I asked myself who the most likely purloiner of the stone might be in light of who ended up with the diamond next, and then made the most logical supposition. I have also approached the history of the Sancy from the present backward, using its provenance as documented by the Louvre, where it is currently housed.
For the first period of the Sancy s longest disappearance, there is documentation available that proves my premise, whereas for the second period, where I believe Joseph Bonaparte took the diamond, I have good historical anecdotal evidence but no single document that states, Here it is. The Louvre makes no attempt to explain these two disappearances, nor has it undertaken research about these periods itself.
My research technique sheds light for the first time on the more enigmatic periods in the Sancy s checkered life. I hope I have cleared up much of its history, one that has been plagued with illicit sales and bargains, out-and-out lies, unsubstantiated rumor, and incomplete research.
I have converted important financial transactions into today s values with expert assistance from the Bank of England Information Centre, paired with my own research regarding merchants trading internationally at the time of the sales. As we all know, exchange rates constantly fluctuate; consequently, these have been based on the Retail Price Index (RPI). The dollar-to-sterling rate has been fixed at its previous twelve months average (at the time of writing) of $1.60 to 1, and the resulting conversions have been rounded.
The carat, the means by which gemstones are weighed, has an interesting history of its own. As the successor to such exotic weights for gemstones as ratis, mangelin, tandulas, sarsapas, masas, and surkhs, the carat underwent an evolution from the old carat to the metric carat in the early twentieth century. Weights in the old carat could range from 188.5 milligrams in Italy to 206.1 milligrams in Austria, and it was only in 1907 that the French decided to rationalize gem weights by introducing the metric carat, which is exactly one fifth of a gram (0.2 gram). In 1914 the metric carat was adopted on a worldwide basis, and for this reason, many authors have confused the weights of gemstones.
The Sancy was typically sold when its princely owner needed to raise cash quickly, and these sales-whether illicit or legitimate-can be understood only in their proper historical context. This context is not about the history of impersonal governments, dates, and statutes, but rather the electricity generated in the relationships between the players and power brokers themselves. It is what the king of Portugal did to Jacob Fugger-and Jacob s reaction-that is interesting, not the fact that Jacob had won an exclusive pepper contract from the Portuguese crown in 1504. In history as in life, context is ev