William Waldorf Astor

“ ICOLAS HARLAI, Seigneur de Sancy, treasurer of King Henry IV., is said to have advanced it to that monarch under romantic circumstances. The messenger who was conveying it to the King was assassinated, and the gem was afterwards found in his stomach. There is little doubt that Harlai afterwards sold it to the British Crown during his residence in London between 1590 and 1600. Commines in his “Memoirs” describes the diamond as the “largest one then in the world, having an immense pearl attached to it.” ”

“ The present queen of England has the one brought by the late M. de Sancy from his Embassy in the Levant.” It is said that the queen, while in exile, presented the diamond to Somerset, Earl of Worcester, as appears from the following extract from a letter of the Queen Dowager: “We, Henrietta Maria, of Bourbon, Queen of Great Britain, have by command of our much honoured lord and master, the King, caused to be handed to our dear and well-beloved cousin, Edward Somerset, Count and Earl of Worcester, a ruby necklace, containing ten large rubies and 160 pearls set and strung together in gold.” ”

“ HE Sancy diamond has been associated with the fortunes of Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy, who is said to have worn it in his hat either at the battle of Morat, Nancy, or Granson, in 1476. It was found on the field by a Swiss soldier, who sold it to a priest for a florin, who resold it for three francs. Nicolas Harlai bought it of Don Antonio, Prior of Crats. One of the Fugger family made a drawing of the jewel, with a written description, and these were published by Lambeccius in his “Bibliotheca Cæsarea.” ”