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 shed light on many precious gems and jewels that came into the possession of the royal family, including many jewels of King Charles III.
As part of a ‘Cost of the crown’ series, The Guardian newspaper has been chronicling an investigation into Britain’s royal wealth and finances in the lead-up to the Coronation of Charles III on May 6.
In one of the reports this week, it references a “remarkable” 46-page file uncovered from the India Office archives that detail an investigation, apparently commissioned by Queen Mary – the grandmother of the late Queen Elizabeth II, into the imperial origins of her jewels.
Among its references is an emerald-encrusted gold girdle used to decorate the horses in the stables of Maharaja Ranjit Singh of Punjab, which now forms part of King Charles’ royal collection.
“The report, from 1912, explains how priceless pieces, including Charles’s emerald belt, were extracted from India as trophies of conquest 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.
Among the discoveries included a journal recording a tour in 1837 of Punjab by the 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 signed a so-called “treaty of friendship” with the British at the time.
The infamous Koh-i-Noor diamond is said to have come into the possession of Queen Victoria as a result of just such a plunder by East India Company officials.
While modern-day royals averted a diplomatic row by not choosing the traditional Koh-i-Noor encrusted crown for Queen Camilla’s Coronation on May 6, the ‘Cost of the crown’ has cast a spotlight on the wider extent of colonial-era jewels in royal possession today.
Among the jewels identified in the document uncovered by The Guardian is a “short necklace of four very large spinel rubies”, the largest of which is a 325.5-carat spinel that later came to be identified as the Timur ruby.
A Buckingham Palace spokesperson told the newspaper that slavery and colonialism were matters that King Charles III “takes profoundly seriously
PTI

Press Trust of India