Show CROWN JEWELS FRANCE DECIDES THAT SHE HAS NO FURTHER USE FOR THEM famous Diamonds Which Have Figured In History anti In the Finances of Some Trench Noble ramiUes4 Last Look at the Treasures Special Correspondence 1 PARIS April 30 After much discussion in the daily press and several debates in both houses of the Frenrh parliament the sale of the famous I crown diamonds of Franco is on the eve of its accomplishment Tho sale will take place May 12 During the past weeks these week the precious pre-cious jewels have been exposed to the public gaze and thousands of people have crowded one of the largo rooms of the Pavilion de Floie a wing of tho Tuileries to take a last look at them before they are dispersed to the four quarters of tho earth The Parisian papers are naturally just now full of this subject Perhaps the best account of the adventures ad-ventures attending the growth of this royal collection is that given byM Germain Bapst to whom I am indebted for most of the following fol-lowing interesting facts In the summer of 1530 when Francis I was on his way to the Spanish frontier to meet his future wife and the future queen of Fiance Eleanor of Austria sister of Charles V he created nt Bordeaux the Treasure of the Crown Jewels by presenting to the state a part of his most precious diamonds consisting of a largo necklace and six other jewels worth today nearly 4000000 francs Most of these precious stones once belonged to the able Ann of Brittany tho wife of two kings of France who received them from Margaret of Foix One of them was a magnificent mag-nificent diamond which a known all through the sixteenth century as the Beautiful Beau-tiful Pointe while a still more celebrated ruby weighing 20 carats was called the Coast of Brittany This ruby has Uad I very checkered history During the wars of religion it along with two other large rubies was given to the Duke of Florence as a guarantee of the repayment of 100000 crowns lent the French king This happened in 1509 and two years later the jewels were restored to the Mate collection But Henry III needed money in 15S3nnd they were handed over to a certain Legrniul for 317000 Legrand died without being reim ursed and it was not until the time of Louis XIV nearly a century later that LegiandS heirs were repaid by Colbert and the jeutls restored once moro to the crown The Coast of Brittany which was valued It lGOO was stolen from the state during the stormy days of the French evolution The crown diamonds were employed by he rulers duiinc the ancient regime not only t fill an empty treasury but to ransom towns Thus in 15W Catherine de Medici offered the English a diamond for which Francis I paid 65000 crowns jn ovided they would MM render Calais to France Five yean Inter the Venetian republic lout the queen mother 200000 crowns and received asa as-a guarantee a class containing nine dia nonds and valued ot 50000 crowns and two tabulated diamonds worth 110000 crowns Jnder Henrylll the finances of the country ell into such disorder that every state jewel vos disposed of John Casimir Count Pala tine carried of most of them to Heidelberg and having placed them under glass cases on a wagon exposed them to the view of his subjects Henry IV exerted every effort to restore to the state these scattered treasures and he sauy Srcued by his great minister Suny and by Nicholas Hat lay de Sancy whose name has ben inseparably associated with the crown jewels of France De Sancy a at one time colonel of the Swiss guards at another time a diplomat and again a fuian ier He possessed several diamonds with which he raised considerable money for lenry of Navarre when the latter was making mak-ing that desperate and finally successful struggle for the crown of France Among the precious stones was the one that still bears De Sancys name and which he sold in 1C04 to James I of England when the English revolution broke out Henrietta Maria daughter of Henry IV of France and wife of the unfor unato Charles I son of James I carried oft to her native land this valuable diamond Being in need of money the exiled English ucen obtained from the Duke dEperon 369000 on this and another stone knovn a the Mirror of Portugal As Henrietta was unable to redeem her jewels they were sold in 1W57 to Cardinal Mazarin who at his tenth left them a well as sixteen other dia ionds to Louis XIV These diamonds londs t Luis Thee a known a the Eighteen Mozarins the first boimig the Sancy the second a tabulated diamond and the third the Mirror of Portugal Por-tugal The first and the third were stolen in 11792 The Sancy finally came in posses sion of Chares IV of Spain who during the hard times of the French invasion of the eaiusula sold it to raise money for prosecut ug the war and In 1829 it became the prop rty of the Demidoffs a wealthy noble Russian Rus-sian family Tho celebrated Regent diamond found its way to the collection in 1717 I was at first placed in the center of the 1030 crown and when Louis XV was proclaimed king the Bourbon lily which was added to tho crown md the Sancy diamond a its central stone Mare Antoinette loved to adorn herself with those crown jewels and she was particularly bud of a set of rubies estimated to be worth 45000 francs One day the had her jeweler rearrange them and added so many diamonds that it was impossible to tell whih were her own and which she had taken from the royal crown During the French revolution thieves broke into the room where the precious treasure all of the was kept and carried off nearly jewel Arrests were made several heads wer cut off and some of the diamonds were recovered But a whole year passed before the Regent was found in a dram shop in the aubourg St Germain qua ter of Paris The day Napoleon I was crowned emperor at fotre Dame he carried this famous diamond on time hilt of his sword Napoleon augmented considerably the rown jewels In 1811 he bought not less than GOO francs worth of diamonds During the reign of Louis Philippe his queen did not use the crown jewels mid during the Repub lie of iSIS another theft was committed dia icnds valued at 292000 being carried off These crown jewels seem always to have suf ered during republican regimes May not this be one of the reasons why the third republic re-public wishes to dispose of them and rid itself it-self of the responsibility of guarding them The present government has wisely I link decided to place a few of the more im wrtant and historic jewels in the state museums the to the bidder sums and sell rest highest Such is a brief account of the famous and almost priceless jewels that are to be disposed of nt what will be one of the most memorable sales that has ever teken place in Europe and which quite aside from its artistic and his toiic interest is full of political significance that France considers the republic I means republc to b solidly established that it has come to sty I signifies that the French nation b banished from lueves monarchy to b forever this land where it flourished 5 long and on the whole so gloriously These last vestiges of those royal days a now to be knocked down by the common auctioneer to the highest high-est bidder and the precious stones that once bedecked the proudest queens of Europe will soon be flaunted it may b by plebeian housewives of republican America Sic transit tran-sit gloria mundi THEODOIIE STANToN |