LONDON: The discovery of a colonial-era file from the archives of the India Office, the then British government department responsible for its rule over the Indian subcontinent, has thrown light on a number of precious gems and jewels that came into royal possession. Family. As part of the ‘Cost of the Crown’ series, The Guardian newspaper is examining Britain’s royal wealth and finances in the lead up to the coronation of King Charles III next month. In a report this week, it refers to a ‘remarkable’ 46-page file uncovered from the India Office archives, detailing an investigation apparently led by Queen Mary ‘grandmother of the late Queen Elizabeth II’ was initiated into his royal origins. jewelry.
References to this include an emerald-burnished gold girdle used to decorate horses in the stables of Maharaja Ranjit Singh of Punjab, now part of King Charles’s royal collection.
“A 1912 report describes how priceless pieces, including Charles’ emerald belt, were taken out of India as trophies of victory and later given to Queen Victoria,” the Guardian investigation reveals.
“The items described are now owned by the monarch as property of the British crown,” it notes.
The discoveries included a journal recording a visit to the Punjab in 1837 by British society diarist Fanny Eden and her brother George, then Britain’s governor-general of India, who visited Ranjit Singh, the powerful king who had offered the so-called ‘Word of Friendship’. Treaty’ was signed. With the British at that time.
Dazzled by the jewels of his kingdom, Eden wrote: “He puts on his horses his best ornaments, and the splendor of their furnishings and lodgings surpasses anything you can imagine.”
Eden wrote, “If ever we were allowed to plunder this kingdom, I would go straight to their stables.”
Later in the 19th century, Duleep Singh, Ranjit Singh’s son and heir, was forced to cede Punjab to the East India Company and according to historical records, the kingdom’s stables may have been one of the targets of many loots.
The infamous Koh-i-Noor diamond is said to have come into the possession of Queen Victoria as a result of one such robbery by officers of the East India Company.
While the modern royal family avoided a diplomatic controversy by not choosing the traditional Koh-i-Noor encrusted tiara for Queen Camilla’s coronation on 6 May, the ‘cost of the crown’ has cast a shadow over the wider range of colonial-era gems. Made headlines. Imperial hegemony today.
Among the jewels identified in the document uncovered by The Guardian is a ‘small necklace of four very large spinel rubies’, the largest of which is a 325.5-carat spinel later identified as the Timur ruby.
However, research by academic Susan Strong in 1996 concluded that it was probably never owned by the Mongol conquerors and belonged to several kings of Persia and the Mughal emperors before Queen Victoria was shipped from India.
Another Indian item with a history is a pearl necklace containing 224 large pearls, which is also believed to have come from Ranjit Singh’s treasury.
Congress MP and Inglorious Empire: What the British Did for India’ Shashi Tharoor told the newspaper.
“As we are increasingly seeing, the return of stolen property is always a good thing. Generations to come will wonder why it took so long for civilized countries to do the right thing,” he said.
According to the investigative series, Queen Mary’s interest in investigating the origins of her jewelery appears to have been driven by curiosity about the origins of some of her pearls rather than any moral concern about their colonial origins.
A spokesman for Buckingham Palace told the newspaper that slavery and colonialism were matters that King Charles III takes ‘very seriously’. It has also been revealed that the palace is supporting research into the British monarchy’s historical relationship with slavery.
“The historic Royal Palace is a participant in an independent research project, which began in October last year, exploring the relationship between the British monarchy and the transatlantic slave trade in the late 17th and 18th centuries, among other issues. ” Where is it?