The Sancy Blood Diamond: Power, Greed, and the Cursed History of One of the World's Most Coveted Gems [Hardcover]

Susan Ronald (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 1, 2004 | ISBN-10: 0471436518 | ISBN-13: 978-0471436515 | Edition: 1

The fascinating six-hundred-year history of one of the world's most coveted gems and the royal feuds, intrigues, and betrayals it engendered

The Sancy Diamond first came to Europe from India in the fourteenth century, and until 1661 it was the largest white diamond-and the most concentrated and secure form of wealth-in all of Christendom. Alternately believed to impart invincibility to its wearer and to bring ruin to any who owned it, the Sancy cast a seemingly mystical spell over everyone from the king of Portugal to Henry III of France to England's Elizabeth I to Napoleon Bonaparte and Queen Maria Luisa of Spain.

The riveting account of one of the most hotly pursued gems in history, The Sancy Blood Diamond follows its six-century journey from the diamond mines of Golconda to where it now modestly resides at the Louvre, among the remnants of the French crown jewels. In a colorful, fast-paced narrative, historian Susan Ronald describes the often violent passions the Sancy engendered among many of the giants of European history. She also describes the pivotal roles it played on the chessboard of European geopolitics, and how it was used to raise armies, settle national debts, and enhance its owners' power and prestige.

Working from primary sources, Ronald solves, once and for all, the mystery of the Sancy's disappearances in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and she explores the legend of the Sancy curse, which arose after the violent deaths of Burgundy's Charles the Bold, England's Charles I, France's Louis XVI, and other ill-fated owners.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Back when pepper was the king of spices and monarchs governed Europe, jewels ruled. The more precious gems a king or queen had, the greater the chances of mounting an army to seize land, power—and more gems. Until it was cut in 1661, the 106-carat Sancy was "the largest white diamond in Christendom," a guarantee of wealth, though not of security. Ronald, a British historian, has gone on a treasure hunt to dig up every fact imaginable about the diamond's owners from the 14th century to the present—it's now in the Louvre, which purchased it from Lord Astor, who inherited it from his father. While she clearly illustrates the ill fortune that befell many who came into contact with the diamond, it's hard to buy her claim that "it helped change the course of European history," though those who bought, traded, stole or coveted the Sancy—among them Queen Elizabeth I, King Charles I and Louis XIV—were Europe's most powerful. As an introduction to mostly European history, this book is alternately enlightening and overwhelming. At times, the diamond gets lost in a snarl of names and facts, but those with some familiarity with and interest in European history may consider this a gem worth having in their library.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Its story is not as well known, certainly, as the Hope Diamond's, but that of the 55-carat Sancy, the largest white diamond in the world until 1661, is filled with intrigue, politics, wars, and death. Historian Ronald sorts through information and misinformation to track the passage of the gem, often sold to finance civil wars, from its place of origin (India) to ownership by many crowned heads of Europe. She also chronicles the misfortunes that have befallen its owners, including death, until the diamond assumed its final resting place in the Louvre. Although a masterly piece of detective work, Ronald's tale of the Sancy's "travels" gets somewhat bogged down in facts and dates. Still, she weaves a dramatic narrative out of the exploits of which it was the center. Much of it is the stories of Napoleon, say, or Henry IV of France, into which the diamond is sandwiched or mentioned. On the other hand, what would happen if this diamond and its story were to be entirely forgotten? Barbara Jacobs
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 352 pages
• Publisher: Wiley; 1 edition (November 1, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0471436518
• ISBN-13: 978-0471436515
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.5 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,068,747 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The bloodiest of them all, April 12, 2007

By 

Richard W. Wise "Author: Secrets Of The Gem ... (Lenox, Ma. USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Sancy Blood Diamond: Power, Greed, and the Cursed History of One of the World's Most Coveted Gems (Hardcover)

In this historical potboiler, Susan Ronald traces the history of the Sancy Diamond from the mines of Golconda to its current tranquil resting place in The Louvre. As the largest and most famous diamond in Europe from the Fourteenth through the Seventeenth Century, The Sancy had many admirers and several owners; from Charles the Bold through Napoleon, kings, queens, cardinals and dukes, some of them major players on the stage of European history. Ronald does more; she is a knowledgeable political-historian and along the way she weaves the Sancy's chronology into to woof and weft of European political history.

As Ronald shows, The Sancy and by extension other famous gems did more than add luster to the crowns of European Monarchs. Goldsmiths were Europe's first bankers. It should come as no surprise, therefore, that long before the present conflicts in Africa, large and famous gems provided the bloody collateral of choice, pledged by Europe's crowned heads to the financiers who bankrolled Europe's major conflicts.

Ronald's account is authoritative, fast paced and reads like a Machiavellian analysis of history. From the killing fields of Nancy, to Charles I's beheading, to the court of the Sun King, Ronald shows how sex, power and greed as represented by The Sancy, fueled the politics of Europe. The book was published in 1995, don't know how I missed it. The book is particularly relevant given the present interest in conflict diamonds. Highly recommended.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Fun and easy read, February 4, 2006

By 

ACM83 (Texas) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Sancy Blood Diamond: Power, Greed, and the Cursed History of One of the World's Most Coveted Gems (Hardcover)

I found this book to be a very entertaining and fascinating read. It certainly gives the most thorough historical account of this fabulous stone that I have yet come across. The subject is well researched, as the author can place the Sancy for nearly every point in its significant European history. Apart from the few awkward similes involving Saddam Hussein and the tirade against the Louvre at the conclusion, this book is well written and easily comprehended. The reproductions of portraits where the diamond is portrayed were also very helpful in visualizing the various settings of the stone over the centuries. One criticism for the book is that some parts of the `filler history' seem to highlight the author's personal judgments rather than historical events. Nevertheless, readers who find interest in European royal politics as well as those interested in the history of great gems will find this well worth the read.