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Florentine Diamond

One group of treasures acquired by the family through right of rule came from the Holy Roman Empire. Starting with the crowning of Charlemagne in A.D. 800, this empire managed to exist for centuries through a succession of difficulties and wars. In 1438 the succession passed to Albrecht II of the Haps-burgs and all the surviving imperial regalia of six hundred years of history came with it. By 1804 one of the Hapsburg line of Holy Roman Emperors, Franz II, had also assumed the title of Franz I, Emperor of Austria, just as Napoleon was assuming his title as Emperor of France. This brought together the kingdoms of Bohemia and Hungary, which he ruled, as well as all his own crown lands. Bohemia and Hungary had previously come to the family by marriage in 1515 and the death of the male hereditary heir to these two thrones in 1526. More was to come. Charles the Bold, last of his line, had died in the Battle of Nancy in 1477. His daughter Maria married Archduke Maximilian of the Hapsburgs diamond jewelry. Thus, by mar-

riage again, the very important late medieval treasure belonging to the Burgundian dukes had come to the family. In 1736 some of the finest jewelry ornaments, liberally set with diamonds and other gems, were added to the collection when Franz Stephan of Lorraine married Maria Theresa of the Hapsburgs. The best of the diamonds among Franz Stephan’s treasures was the Florentine. This 137.27-carat bridal jewelry, light greenish-yellow diamond had once belonged to the Medici family. The great gem was eventually placed in the Hapsburg Crown and later formed part of a hat ornament displayed with the crown jewels. And so it went, one addition after another, with increasingly better accommodations becoming available to house them. By the 1730’s all the treasures had been brought together in the Alte Burg, or Old Castle, in Vienna. What is left of them is there yet.

The First World War not only killed the empire and deposed the Hapsburgs, but also ruined Austria, leaving it powerless. In 1918 the royal family went into exile, along with all its personal share of the treasures, including the Florentine Diamond. Within two years Italy was insisting on the return of the regalia used by Napoleon as king of Italy. In 1932 Hungary demanded a return of regalia of the Order of St. Stephan and other Hungarian national treasures. Hitler took away the symbols of the Holy Roman Empire of the German nation to be returned to Niirnberg. Fortunately, Hitler’s loot of loose diamonds, but little else, was later returned. What remained after a series of such losses constitutes today’s impressive display. Miraculously, the largest part of Vienna’s remaining treasures survived the Second World War when the city was bombed extensively and several of its great public buildings were severely damaged.