laurensuite

See link to article:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6946421

Intrepid1

Please do not tell anyone else about this..to think that we might yet be beholden to those nasty French people for something else..well, it is getting ever harder to demonize them.

ira

How interesting.

"Now that I know it, I shall do my best to forget it." Sherlock Holmes

clairobscur

Most of the jewels of the french crown were stolen during what might have been the french "burglary of the millenium", under the revolution.

A number of educated guesses had been made since about where the most famous stones (recut) could have ended up. I seem to remember that a couple of these are currently set in some of the british crown jewels.


There are close to nothing left from the french crown jewels. The ones remaining are kept in the Louvre. The most famous being "Joyeuse", the coronation sword and supposedly Charlemagne's sword (actually the hilt, the blade, the scabbard all date from later and different eras), which is displayed in the medieval galleries of the museum, if I'm not mistaken (the other jewels have their own gallery)

clairobscur

When I think about it, in the movie "Titanic", the stone the divers are looking for is said to come from this same burglary during which the "Hope" was stolen.

111op

I think that you're right about Charlemagne's sword. The French crown jewels (or what's left) can be found in the Apollo gallery in the Louvre. This was recently reopened in November, I think. The guided tour I took in January took us there.

There were two important diamonds, but I forget the names for them. Also a coronation crown for Louis XIV/XV (?). But many of the jewels on that crown are fake, I think (and the big ones, which are real, are separately displayed).

The room itself is supposedly a precursor of the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles. I'm still puzzled as to why this is the case -- as I don't recall seeing mirrors in the Apollo Gallery.

pat

There is a facinating book on the history of the Hope Diamond. It`s called "hope" Adventures of a diamond by Marian Fowler. There is a lot of history on the French Court and the changes to the hope diamond over the years, including time in Asia, England and America. Very worth reading

bob_brown

Don't nasty too much about the French.
Remember, we would not exist as an independent nation like we do today had it not been for Rochambeau and de Grasse with his boats.

And if you have to ask who Rochambeau and de Grasse were, I suggest you read more on the history of the American revolution.

And, without Rochambeau, his select troops, and his French siege guns, do you think the British would have been defeated at Yorktown? Probably not, nor could Washington have kept the British regulars bottled up until de Grasse an his boats got there.

Of course, I never have read anything that fully and satisfactorily explained to me why and how Cornwallis got himself in that trap to begin with.

And the defeat of Burgoyne has got to be one of the major debacles of Brisith military history. Serves him right for trying to chop his way through the woods with highstepping Red Coats and a wagon load or two of women for the officers.

ira

> I never have read anything that fully and satisfactorily explained to me why and how Cornwallis got himself in that trap to begin with.<

As best I know, the plan was for Cornwallis to retreat to Yorktown, where the British fleet would evacuate his army.

Bad luck allowed the French fleet to arrive ahead of the British fleet and contrary weather gave the French the advantage.

It was not a foolish plan.