Stuart Sapphire

The Stuart Sapphire is a 104 carat blue sapphire from Sri Lanka, an ovoid table-cut stone about 4.9 cm long with one or two blemishes. It is mounted on the back of the band of the Imperial State Crown and displayed with the other Crown Jewels in the Jewel House at the Tower of London.

The gem's early history is obscure. It probably belonged to Charles II, but the first definite record comes in December 1688, when James II carried it among his jewels as he fled to France after the Glorious Revolution. It passed to his son James Francis Edward Stuart, the Old Pretender, and then to his grandson Henry Benedict Stuart, Cardinal York, who wore the sapphire in his mitre. As the last male Stuart heir, the cardinal put it up for sale around 1799 with other Stuart relics.

George IV, then Prince Regent, acquired the stone roughly eleven years later and returned it to Britain from Italy. From 1838 it held the place of honor at the front of Queen Victoria's Imperial State Crown. In 1909 it was moved to the back of the crown to make way for the newly cut 317.4 carat Cullinan II diamond, and it occupies the same position on the present crown, made in 1937 and used by Charles III.