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Gem Trader
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The
most important sapphire in England is in the Imperial Crown which was
made for Queen Victoria in 1838. This crown contains three gems of
great historic virtue, the "Stuart sapphire", the sapphire from the
ring of Edward the Confessor, and also a fine spinel ruby that belonged
to the Black Prince. This is not the crown with which the Kings of
England are crowned, "St. Edward's Crown".
Another
historical sapphire of more than ordinary interest is the stone which
once Charlemagne wore, set in the clasp of his imperial mantle. The
great emperor of the Franks was buried at Aix, and after the conquest
of Germany by Napoleon, the clasp with the sapphire—which was supposed
to confer dominion over the world upon its wearer—was taken from the
mantle covering his remains and presented to the new world-shaking
conqueror.
But
Napoleon gave the gem to his brother Joseph, to whom it brought ill
luck, and it passed into the hands of Napoleon III, who gave it to his
Empress Eugenie. Napoleon III knew utter defeat, Eugenie came to
desolation and loneliness in a foreign land, their son died young in
battle. With the death of Eugenie the stone became the property of the
Spanish Duke of Alva, her nephew, who presented it to the Cathedral of Rheims, where it remains.
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