QUEEN HENRIETTA MARIA.
1609—1669.
HE Dowager Queen, Henrietta Maria, possessed it, for Robert de Berquem in his work “Les Merveilles des Indes,” 1669, speaking of diamonds, says: “There are some of extraordinary size and perfection. The present queen of England has the one brought by the late M. de Sancy from his Embassy in the Levant.” It is said that the queen, while in exile, presented the diamond to Somerset, Earl of Worcester, as appears from the following extract from a letter of the Queen Dowager: “We, Henrietta Maria, of Bourbon, Queen of Great Britain, have by command of our much honoured lord and master, the King, caused to be handed to our dear and well-beloved cousin, Edward Somerset, Count and Earl of Worcester, a ruby necklace, containing ten large rubies and 160 pearls set and strung together in gold.”
