Hello and welcome to the National Trust podcast. Last week, we were in Cliveden exploring the fascinating characters there. In this mini episode, we present one of Cliveden's most intriguing tales. The story of the Sancy Diamond. In 1906, William Astor gave some extraordinary gifts. To his son Waldorf, he gifted Cliveden the house and the grounds and to his daughter in law, Nancy, he gifted a huge pale yellow diamond known as the Sancy Diamond.
The diamond now it's the size probably of a large Horse Chestnut and it's cut impeccably. I'm looking at a photograph, by the way, I don't actually have the diamond in my hand. I wish I did. I'd be, I'd be gone, but you can actually almost see the lines dissecting the diamond as I look at it. It's an amazing piece of jewelry. Now, the story of the diamond is quite complicated. It begins in 1570 several sources suggest that it belonged to Charles The Bold, Duke of Burgundy before it was passed to
the King of Portugal and then sold to Senior De Sancy. Then others claim that Sancy came across the gem in Constantinople. Now, Sancy was a savvy guy and he loaned the diamond to the kings for all sorts of purposes. I can imagine that some of that was just to show off because there can't have been that many diamonds around of that size. While King Henry III of France used the stone to decorate his cap, a cap that he had taken to wearing to cover his premature baldness.
It's quite a big extravagant way of decorating a cap I would think. Henry IV wanted to use the diamond as a way of financially securing his army. But the courier tasked with transporting the diamond to the King never arrived. People didn't know whether the courier had stolen the diamond from the King, whether he had just run away with it himself. One legend alleges that he was ambushed by bandits while transporting the gem.
In a final and desperate attempt to save the gem from robbery, the courier swallowed the stone before he was murdered, but it was later retrieved from his stomach in an autopsy. The diamond is not only a thing of extravagant beauty but rumor has it that it possesses mystical powers. Some say it brings invincibility. Others say it carries a vicious curse that brings a violent death to those who carry it like the poor courier. He wasn't very invincible was he?
Once the gem was cleaned up after it came out of the courier, Sancy sold it on to James I in 1605. Then from there, it changed hands again through English royalty and into the hands of the French monarchy. The stone was stolen during the French Revolution and wasn't seen until it turned up in the collection of a Russian nobleman. Over 40 years later, it was sold to an Indian Prince.
From there It made its way back to France before resurfacing again in 1906 when it was bought by William Waldorf Astor. After he gave it to his daughter in law, Nancy, it stayed in the Astor family for 72 years until it was sold to the Louve in 1978 for $1 million. Today, the diamond is kept in the Apollo Gallery, a suitably grand resting place for this incredible stone. So although the Sancy diamond now lives across the channel, its history is still entwined with that of Cliveden.
Thanks for listening to this week's National Trust podcast mini episode. Join us next week to enjoy the sweet sound of bird song. Until then from me, Alan Power. Goodbye.