264 THE GREAT DIAMONDS OF THE WORLD.
which is almond-shaped, cut in facets on both sides, perfectly white and pure, and weighing 100 carats." *
The
" present Queen of England " might have been either the queen-consort
of Charles II., Catharine of Braganza, or the dowager-queen Henrietta
Maria. But in either case, this passage shows that the " Sancy "
remained in the possession of the English royal family till the year
1669. It also shows that the stone was brought by M. Sancy, as above
stated, direct from " The Levant," consequently, that it could never
have belonged to Charles the Bold. Its owner, here spoken of as "the
late M de Sancy," died in 1627, and as he had already parted with it in
London, about or after the year 1590, it is evident that all the other
De Sancys, descendants of the original purchaser, mentioned in popular
accounts of the stone, are purely mythical beings, introduced to make
its history stretch back to the time of the Burgundian prince.
We
now identify Henrietta Maria, and not Catherine, of Braganza, as the
Queen referred to by Berquem. This appears from the subjoined extract
from a letter of the Queen Dowager, written while in exile to Somerset,
Earl of Worcester, and presenting to him, amongst other valuable gifts,
the very diamond in question, in return for the sacrifices made by that
nobleman in the cause of the House of Stewart : " We, Henrietta Maria
of Bourbon, Queen of Great Britain,
