So many of the individual jewels in the Crown Jewels have really fascinating stories. Take for example this Sapphire in the cross on top of the Imperial State Crown of 1937. It was added to the imperial crown in 1837, for Queen Victoria, but has a much longer history.
It is called St Edward’s Sapphire and is believed to have belonged to Edward the Confessor, the penultimate Saxon King.
In this painting of the 1380s called the Wilton Diptych in the National Gallery, Edward is shown holding the Sapphire, then a cabochon, set in a ring.
Edward died in 1066 and the ring was found on Edward’s finger in his coffin in 1163 shortly after he was made saint.
It was kept as a holy relic and put on the finger of every English king and Queen Regnant at their coronation until Charles I. The stone vanished during the Commonwealth, only to remerge again after the Restoration of the Monarchy – when it was then rose cut.
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