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DIAMONDS COME TO AMERICA
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and in the stories of many pretended diamond experts. This commonly accepted but now disproved story was that the Sancy was owned by the Great Moguls, that it was brought to Europe at some date not known and came into the hands of Philip, Duke of Burgundy.
So
we must begin with the reign of Henry III, a reign which Montaigne once
wrote was "an universal juncture of particular members, rotten to
emulation of one another and the most of them with inveterate ulcers,
that neither required nor admitted of any cure."
In
the year 1570 Nicholas Harlai, Seigneur de Sancy, heard of the
existence of a beautiful and rare diamond weighing 53-3/4 carats (or
its equivalent). This stone was in the possession of a dealer in
Constantinople. De Sancy was passionately fond of jewels, for jewels
had reached their height of fashion in the sixteenth century.
Particularly so in the court ot Henry III, in which M. de Sancy was a
prominent figure. He presented this diamond to the king, the vicious,
weak son of Catherine de Medici. Now the king, as already has been
mentioned, was bald and conscious of it. So he had a small cap made up
and decorated with the Sancy diamond. This diamond-cap he wore always
in public.
At
times, however, he was forced to loan it in order to support his troops
financially. Eventually he returned it to de Sancy who paid him a large
sum of money, Finally Henry III was assassinated in the war of the
Three Henrys and Henry IV sought to borrow the gem, in return for which
he made de Sancy superintendent of finance. M. de Sancy agreed. He gave
the j'ewel to a messenger. On the way to the palace robbers, who had
watched de Sancy's every move, waylaid the messenger, tried to get the
diamond and, failing, killed him.
(139)
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