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    Jewels from Princess Charlotte of Wales later in King Leopold I's Belgian descendancy Archived Message

    Posted by Arthur on January 8, 2017, 5:51 pm, in reply to "Re: Stunning"

    In his book about the jewels of the Belgian Queens (Bijoux des Reines et Princesses de Belgique, 2004), Christophe Vachaudez includes (pages 180-182 of the French edition) excerpts from Queen Louise's will (Queen Louise was King Leopold I's second wife). The will is dated 28th March, 1842, and was completed or altered by two codicils, respectively dated 8th October, 1842 and 2nd April, 1850 (the Queen died on 11th October, 1850):

    "Article 12 - I bequeathe to my daughter the brooch which belonged to Princess Charlotte and which the King my husband gave me as one of the most precious items I have ever owned and of which I can dispose of".
    Unfortunately, no other more explicit description of this brooch is given.

    Queen Louise's will also mentions several jewels presented to her by her husband King Leopold, but without mentioning that they might have comme from Princess Charlotte of Wales. The majority of Queen Louise's jewels, though, seems to have come from her own family, either as wedding gifts or as later gifts.

    Vachaudez also writes, in the chapter dedicated to Queen Louise: "If Louise-Marie of Orleans brings as dowry many jewels, her spouse King Leopold I has already the disposal of the jewels from Princess Charlotte, his first wife. A diamond and ruby parure which he had presented to her as wedding gift, a few brooches, bracelets and a diamond riviere... quite little actually! The other pieces, considered as Crown's property, had had to be handed back to the treasury as soon as possible" (pages 11-13).
    Actually, the mentioned diamond and ruby parure was a Saxe-Coburg family heirloom, and Queen Louise explicitely mentioned in her will that this parure "belonged to the King my husband and to my children" and that she only had the usufruct of it.

    Page 19: "When the future Leopold II was born, the King presented to the happy mother a brooch which had belonged to Princess Charlotte, his first wife. The Queen writes to her mother [Marie-Amélie of Boubon-Sicilies, Queen of the French]: "I have vividly appreciated all what this token encloses, and I have been more moved than I could express it"". It could possibly be the same brooch as the one mentioned in Queen Louise's will, quoted above.

    In the chapter dedicated to Princess Charlotte of Belgium, the ill-fated Empress of Mexico, Vachaudez mentiones that, at the time of Charlotte's wedding to Archduke Maximilian in 1857, "King Leopold I [father of the bride] has had nut-sized brilliants resetted, which had belonged to his first wife. (...) It resulted in a splendid riviere of 34 collets valued at 200,000 Francs".

    Unfortunately, as you probably know, the whereabouts of Empress Charlotte's jewels has remained very unclear, to say the least.

    In the chapter dedicated to Queen Marie-Henriette, Vachaudez mentions (page 39) that, at the time of Marie-Henriette's wedding to the Duke of Brabant (later King Leopold II) in 1853, King Leopold I "puts at the future Queen of the Belgians' disposal the ruby parure which had been worn by Queen Louise and a few other jewels from Princess Charlotte, his first wife". It seems that the ruby parure was inherited by Leopold II and Marie-Henriette's youngest daughter, Clementine, Princess Napoleon. But its current whereabouts are unknown.

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