Men have died for it and at the least three countries — and the Taliban — claim it’s their very own. It’s also a controversial symbol of Britain’s colonial history.
It isn’t any wonder that the crowns utilized in King Charles III and Queen Camilla’s May 6 coronation is not going to feature the fabulous but hugely scandalous $400 million Koh-i-Noor diamond.
The diamond is alleged to be cursed, bringing bad fortune and even death to any man who owns it.
But since it is regarded pretty much as good luck for ladies, it has been the showpiece of each queen consort’s crown since 1849 — until now.
“That is one of the crucial controversial diamonds on the earth and the argument over who it belongs to continues to be ongoing, so there isn’t any surprise that the Queen won’t be wearing it,” royal commentator Joshua Rom told The Post. “The king and queen are presenting themselves as a more progressive and modern monarchy — and the Koh-i-Noor diamond is, to many, a representation of a colonial past.
“Camilla is already a controversial figure to some due to Princess Diana, so it is just not surprising that the palace doesn’t want her also related to the diamond.”
Extracted from the Koller Mine in southeast India, the diamond weighed an incredible 793 carats before
it was cut. Its first owners were the ninth-century Kakatiya dynasty and, for hundreds of years, it passed between
warring tribes in India.
The primary written record of the diamond appears in 1628 when the diamond was set into the Mughal ruler Shah Jahan’s magnificent Peacock Throne alongside the Timur Ruby, which can be now a part of the Royal
Collection.
His son Aurangazeb gave it to Venetian aristocrat Hortenso Borgia to chop — but that turned out to be a little bit of a flop because the 793 carats went all the way down to 186.
The Mughals were overrun by the Persian Nadir Shah who is alleged to have exclaimed “Koh-i-Noor”
— “mountain of sunshine” in Persian — when he saw the diamond.
When he was assassinated in 1847, it passed to the Emir of Afghanistan after which, after more death and war, ended up back within the hands of Sikh ruler Ranjit Singh in Punjab.
By the point Singh died, the British East India Company had expanded its control of India and had its eye
on the diamond.
In 1849 the Governor General of India imprisoned Singh’s 10-year-old son and heir, Duleep Singh, together with his mother; for his freedom, he needed to sign a document handing ownership of the diamond to the British.
It was presented to Queen Victoria in 1850 and given pride of place on the Great Exhibition a yr later.
However the diamond was deemed disappointingly “dull.” So it was cut again, to its present weight of 105.6 carats.
Queen Victoria wore it as a brooch but even she was uneasy about the way it reached her, writing to her
daughter Victoria: “Nobody feels more strongly than I do about India or how much I opposed our taking those countries and I believe no more will probably be taken, for it is vitally incorrect and no advantage to us. You understand
also how I dislike wearing the Koh-i-Noor.”
When she died, a practice began of featuring the diamond within the crowns of the Queen Consort; it was
last utilized in the Queen Mother’s crown when it was placed atop her coffin in 2002.
The Indian government has demanded the British return the diamond ever because it gained independence
in 1947, and a gaggle from India even began legal motion in 2015.
But leaders from Pakistan, Iran and Afghanistan have all claimed it too, with the Taliban saying they’d a significantly better claim than the
Indians.
Ahead of the coronation, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi let or not it’s known that wearing the Koh-i-
Noor would bring back “painful memories of the colonial past.”
Britain has responded to all of the claims by saying the ownership is just too confusing so the Royal Collection
will keep the diamond but is planning an exhibition around it after the coronation.
The display will reportedly explain how what is known as a “symbol of conquest” got here into the hands of the British Royal Family.
