They attract the eye like a magnet, enchant with their beauty and enslave the soul, and the idea of possession is literally crazy. Some girls find their best friends, and jewelers say their beauty depends solely on the well-fit cut.
At the same time the largest and most beautiful of them brought their own nothing but unhappiness. They easily broke hundreds of lives, and each of them bloody trail stretches. Today we are talking about diamonds and tragic stories that are associated with them.
REGENT (140, 64 carat). Perhaps the most "harmless" because of all the copies. It is believed that he was found in 1701 by an Indian slave-mine in Golconda (central India). Since then, he began his bloody path. Indian has decided not to give the hosts a find. Instead, he cut his thigh and put back the stone, covering the wound dressing from the leaves. At night, a slave escaped in search of a better life, but was killed by sailors, who promised to take him out of the country.
But in the hands of a sailor stone is not delayed. He sold it to the governor of the fortress of St. George Thomas Pitt, the money squandered, and then hanged himself. The governor, in turn, gave a diamond to cut a jeweler Joseph Kouptu, who gave him a form in which it is now.
Fearing that he would find the treasure hunters and tortured by delusions of persecution, Thomas Pitt sold the stone regent of France Philippe II, Duke of Orléans. During the French Revolution, the stone was stolen from a palace along with other treasures treasury. It managed to bring him back to Napoleon, who decorated him the hilt of his sword. After the great Napoleon died, the stone changed owners as gloves, traveled, but still returned to France. He still adorns the Apollo gallery of the Louvre.
BRILLIANT Black Eagles (195 carats). Once this black diamond adorned the eyes of the statue of the god Brahma in Pondicherry (South India). Who and how he stole from there is unknown, but it was said that the stone curse all the owners take their own lives. For the first time this stone "surfaced" in 1923 in America. Its owner Jay Paris jumped in New York City skyscraper.
Then the "Eagles" into the hands of the descendants of Russian princes and Nadezhda Orlova Galitsina-Baritanskoy. According to some reports, the two women had committed suicide in 1947. Although it is not known. Then a stone went from hand to hand. And in 2004 he appeared in a collection of jeweler Denis Petimezasa, stating that it is not feels the curse supposedly imposed on the stone, and that the diamond has brought him only success.
And yet, for unknown reasons after 30 months jeweler put treasure in the sale. In 2006 it was bought by a mysterious buyer, as they say, from another continent, whose name and fate, according to media reports, is not known to the general public.
BRILLIANT BLUE HOPE (115 carats). Despite the fact that the title of sapphire diamond translates to English as "hope" or anything like that its a stone was given to owners. He brought it from India, a French merchant Jean-Baptiste Tavernier as a gift to King Louis XIV. They say the first victim was his favorite of the king, Madame de Montespan. This intelligent and educated beauty for many years was the mistress and the best friend of the Sun King, bore him 8 children, after she received a stone as a gift, disgusted with the king and was forced to leave palace. A stone decorated frill monarch. After 7 months, when the king died, the stone was sent to the palace treasury.
Following his mistress became Queen Marie-Antoinette, ended his days on the guillotine. Then he was acquired by King George IV, who soon lost his mind. Then I bought a stone banker Henry Hope, "namesake" of the diamond. After some time, the banker was poisoned.
In 1910, the "Hope" has acquired over 550 thousand. Franks jeweler Pierre Cartier. But for some reason very quickly resold his family McLean who owned diamond mines and the newspaper "Washington Post". Soon, the family lost heir, and her head took to drink and died.
In 1958, McLean sold the diamond philanthropist Harry Winston, who in turn gave it to Smithsonian University, where the stone is even today for bullet-proof glass, waiting for a new sacrifice.
Yellow diamond Sancy (55.23 carats). This tear-shaped diamond allegedly found in the caves of treasure a merchant. When he was carrying a stone in a gift to the sultan, he was attacked on the road and he was killed. After that, the stone "wandering" around the world, has not yet got into the 15th century, the French king Charles the Bold. The monarch gave the diamond to cut their jeweler. Two years after the king's death, the stone disappeared in an unknown direction. But soon turned up in Constantinople, the French attorney Nicolas de Sancy diamond which brings good luck.
With it, Nicolas achieved arrangement French monarch Henry III, which he borrowed it on time. It is said that a servant who carried the stone to the King, was attacked by robbers. But before he died faithful vassal had to swallow a stone, and he still came to the monarch.
During the French Revolution of 1789, the diamond was in the royal treasury, where he was kidnapped with other fatal stone "Hope" and "Regent". In any hand he has since visited - is unknown. But ultimately, it bought the famous American industrialists of the Astor family, who in the time of selling it in the treasury of the Louvre, where he remains to this day.
White diamond Kohinoor(109 carats)
The history of the diamond, which is also known as the "Mountain of Light", began in the 14th century. Although apparently found it was much earlier in all the same mines of Golconda. Stone has long remained in India for several centuries decorated turbans Raja of Malwa state.
According to legend, he also belonged to the hero of the Indian epic Mahabharata, Karna. There was a belief that when the diamond change the owner, the state will be conquered. And so it happened. In 1304 Malwa enslaved Delhi Sultan Ala-ud-din, which together with the state and received a stone. Since then, the "Kohinoor" was a symbol of power and belonged to many imperial dynasty - the great Mughal, Iranian Afsharid Dynasty, Afghan Durrani.
According to historians, a stone, none of them did not bring happiness. All the owners were either assassinated or killed in battle or lost their wealth and died in loneliness and poverty. In 1849, the "Kohinoor" was handed over to the treasury of the British Queen Victoria. Today, the stone is decorated with a crown of Queen Elizabeth II.
We also suggest that you read the story of the great dynasty of Windsor, the brightest representative of which is now the Queen of Great Britain and Northern Ireland Elizabeth II.
