[Music] a single gem in the Tower of London now this is dazzling has seen the rise and fall of more Empires cause more bad luck this is said to be cursed and been more prized than any other precious stone on Earth cohenor is the most infamous diamond in the world but it's only one of tens of thousands of gemstones it looks like sugar icing and numerous crowns you must have a lot of Polish a lot makeup Britain's most valuable treasure the crown jewels collected over the centuries by our kings and queens these objects are now used on ceremonial State occasions and as part of the coronation they announced the arrival of every new monarch we've got a picture of a chap here he likes a bit of bling it's about the Queen's historic Platinum Jubilee her 70 years on the throne we explore the objects that symbolize her reign my way my wood is actually pretty heavy I'll even try my hand at making a crown oh dear I've busted your tools I want to explore the real value of these National Treasures what they tell us about ourselves and our past these Jewels reveal the story for good or ill of our Islands over the last thousand years it's like in The Lord of the Rings the person who has this diamond has power and Dominion complicated history but it's one illuminated by some of the most beautiful objects on the planet [Music] using the latest technology and unprecedented access we reveal their magnificence their flaws and the history buried deep within them we think that's where it was broken when it was hidden 70 years after some of them were last used are they just relics of a bygone era or are they valuable symbols of our country foreign I've never seen the crown jewels as a child of Empire there was no positive connection for me but then one day I was on the tube and I saw this poster and looking at a crown was a young boy and it made me think what is the value of these undoubtedly Majestic Treasures to someone like me so I want to find out what they're really about what relevance do they have for us today and what can they tell us about the past [Music] of London it was built after the Norman conquest of 1066. by William the Conqueror it has been home to the crown jewels for more than 600 years so it's the place to start my journey to discover what we can learn from them thank you my guide is an expert on the collection nivek amichand so I'm very excited I've never seen these before Oh dazzling [Music] absolutely amazing wow how big is the collection so there's over 23 000 Diamond Sapphires and rubies in the collection they spent from all over the world [Music] so many jewels so much gold [Music] The Collection contains 13 crowns you can view them from practically every angle other than from above I'm told that's because only God can look down on a crown [Music] now this is dazzling [Music] absolutely beautiful this is probably the most famous Crown it's used once a year by her majesty for State opening of parliament the Imperial State Crown how many stones are in this it's nearly 3 000. there are sapphires emeralds and rubies [Music] but it's the diamonds that really impress me I mean it looks it looks almost unreal the clarity of the diamonds is absolutely unbelievable look at the bottom you've got a 317.4 carat diamond the column in two Colin and two isn't even the largest diamond in the collection within the Sovereign scepter there is also a cullinan one so that's the world's largest top quality white diamond it's the cullinan one or the great star of Africa foreign to get an even closer perspective on the crown jewels we've been given unprecedented access to film them using the latest in motion control and macro photography moving the camera around the cullinan one in close-up really brings it to life the colors are incredible aren't they how they just come out at you you can see it all glinting and then that hint of fire in its belly there look at that it's because the light travels inside and it bounces around just popping at you like like fireworks [Music] and it's why diamonds were designed to be worn objects you've got to see them on the Move that's what gives them their amazing power [Music] now I understand just how fascinating these big stones are I really want to get a sense of their value I've come to discover more about diamonds from a few folk who are in the know the Collins family have been royal Jewelers to the queen for over 20 years thank you Josh Collins is head of the family business I mean how do you value a diamond the way you value a stone is something called the four C's so that's the cat where the stone the color the clarity and the cut what's a carrot apart from those orange things you eat with gold the quality purity of gold whereas with diamonds it's actually a unit of measurement in weight ancient Diamond Traders used a seed called the carob seed okay and then put a seed and a diamond on the scale if it weighed the same as a seed eight it will be a carrot weight I think you've got some examples exactly yeah we have here the perfect white diamond this is a just over 10 karat and it's as pure as it can be absolute the highest you can go in color it's Flawless and it's actually the same quality as you see in the Cullen and diamonds in itself yeah which is this this one's about 1.5 million it's an extremely rare Style so similar Purity to The Colony exactly 10 carats yes the cullinan yeah how many characters so over 500 carrots to think over 500 characters the same quality yeah yeah it's quite phenomenal well this is pretty much as good as it gets for mere mortals and it's all about the Purity it's all about the cut and this is 10 carats now your average engagement ring is probably about a single carrot on the cullinan is 500 carats if Josh's 10 carat diamond is valued at a million and a half pounds then that must make the 530 carat cullinan one the great star of Africa worth much more than that but the crown jewels are so famous and in many ways Beyond mere monetary value as crown jewels expert Aleister Bruce explains people always try and value things because they value their own jewels if you look at the full collection there are so many historic Stones I think overall calling it Priceless is sensible but you can just add as many zeros as there are diamonds in the collection two of the most famous stones in this Priceless collection cullinan one and two were cut from the same rough diamond I'm fascinated to discover the story behind it so I've come to the Natural History Museum home to one of the country's largest collection of gems Alan Hart is a world expert on gemstones so I've seen the colony pretty huge it is and obviously it was big and it was cut down so how big was it originally well the cullinan was the largest diamond ever found in the Premier of mine in 1905 in South Africa it was actually 3106 carats unbelievable and how big exactly well the great thing is they made models at the time yeah and we have one of those models in the collections here in a museum so you ready I'm ready so this is the actual model of the original cullinan Diamond when it was found my word [Music] [Applause] most time is found a tiny I put this into a hat it's a one carat diamond for a real diamond for a comparison and this one's 3106. [Music] so how many diamonds were made out of that then I see nine major Stones were made of this at a 96 small ones so 105 diamonds were made so this is the major stone that was cut in the star that's coming right that was in the septo look around you oh yes and then the the Canon too and that's the two the Cullen and diamonds look amazing but their history is part of the complex Legacy of Empire when the original rough diamond was discovered South Africa was a newly formed part of the British Empire and the powers that be decided there could only be one destination fit for the ultimate Jewel in 1905 the South African government gifted it to King Edward VII as a symbol of loyalty [Music] the heart-stopping task of splitting the massive colony was entrusted to the master Diamond Cutter Joseph Asher of Amsterdam who better to give me more insight into the cutting of the cullinan than her majesty the queen herself she spoke to us in 2017. it had a flaw in it it had a brown floor in it I mean a huge lump of this yeah yeah and and they've sort of worked it out and they managed to how he did it I don't know he hit it and and all the bits fell out and the brown bit disappeared that's why there's little bits you know exist I always wish I'd been there when they smashed it into pieces these are the chips that were left placing some of the largest diamonds in the world into the most important objects within the crown jewels gives those pieces an even greater symbolic value none more so than the crowns and to gain a better understanding of them I'm exploring one of the most famous of all now this is obviously the crown that everyone recognizes this is Saint Edward's crown it's the oldest Crown in the collection made in 1660. amazing absolutely amazing the intricacy of the work as well so beautiful stunning I mean it looks incredibly heavy five pounds or 2.3 kilograms and it's solid gold Saint Edward's Crown is only ever worn by each new Sovereign once to announce the start of their reign it's so heavy that many chose to have it carried on a cushion next to them the most recent was the Queen's great grandfather Edward VII he just had an operation to remove his appendix and wore the much lighter Imperial State Crown instead [Music] [Laughter] [Music] you've got to Marvel at the beauty of those crowns the intricacy the jewelry the metal work is absolutely incredible and I just wonder how you put together something like that well I've come to Hampton Court Palace to find out a few years ago head of interpretation at historic Royal palaces Aileen Pierce and her team decided to recreate a crown in this case the Lost crown of Henry VIII who built Hampton Court for his second wife Anne Berlin Henry VII famous for his Six Wives was crowned in 1509 while at Hampton Court he would frequently Don his crown wearing it for The Many religious festivals celebrated in Tudor times [Music] wow so here we have it here we go there we go using documents and illustrations preserved from the time this lost Crown was reconstructed with real gemstones and silver gilded with gold the jewels are startlingly large they're spinels which is quite similar to Ruby yes um yes but they're yeah very big and then we can see these sapphires around here as well but if you look at them they're not they're not clear you know nothing's faceted they're a little bit a little bit cloudy that blue one yeah so they look perhaps Sparkle like a modern piece of jewelry but that's not the point of them the point of them is the size and the color and the beauty designed to impress yeah but it's you to bling nothing wrong with that I I absolutely is yeah yeah so how do you make something like this you first make the circlet around the bottom um and then these arches here are separately attached and then the orb and the cross are held on by tiny little handmade screw and nut and all of the um individual gems were attached with these split pins a bit like a paper fastener so it comes as a kit of Parts really my word is actually pretty heavy yeah it weighs three kilos it is so impressive isn't it yeah it's amazing I love this figures on the outside yeah they're gorgeous aren't they so we've got um the Virgin and Childs um and then we have um St George and they were on it from the beginning but what happens is that the three figures of Christ which were on here are swapped for Three Kings [Music] in 1534 when Henry wanted a divorce to remarry and secure a male Heir he broke with the Catholic church and made himself head of the Church of England these Kings we think were Royal Saints and he was aligning himself with the Royal Saints of the past and making a real statement about being Supreme ahead of the Church of England rather than Rome it is incredible for a chewed across to have put that together how long would it take well I think you need to go and see the crown Jewelers team who made it for us because they'll be able to talk you through exactly all the steps they took to make it um they might let you have a goal yourself in their workshop as well me trying to put together split pins well you'd ever know all right we'll see we'll see foreign [Music] you get to hold a crown it is absolutely beautiful and the pearls and the jewelry around so this is living history right here heavy living history right here in my hands the crown was made in the workshops of the Collins family supervised by former Crown Jeweler Harry Collins everything we've done was handmade handworked handcrafted it had to be right we had to do this 100 correct it's very hard to do things that are imperfect we wanted the dense scratches the the chips knowing what the tools they had they had to make tools that were bad so in here some of the crown was actually made I'm hoping to gain an insight into that craftsmanship with Master Jeweler Dave Stevens so would you like to have a go I knew you'd say that um okay well yeah why not let's give it a go let's give it a go first Dave's taking me onto the nursery slope he wants me to cut out a cross from solid silver with a hacksaw what could go wrong okay let's see all right okay there you go a little bit further up and a little bit straight on okay I can see wobbling already my life check it out what do you think yeah that's okay it actually has wobbled yes but my lines so you did this for a crown yes that um oh dear I've I've busted your tool yeah that's gonna come out your wages I know I know so it's a little bit of wire isn't it yeah put your new one in okay does that help nothing uh no no no so what was the most intricate part of the crown to make them what was the most difficult I guess the bits where the figures fit we're going to make the recess for those figures to fit in and then the Twisted wire because there was so much of it twisted wire so it looks like sort of braid yes yes what do you think yeah it's pretty good if you give that a Twist now probably come out twist it out there you go is pretty good so I've cut out the cross as you can see and the idea now is that I've got to solder this to the edges the trick is to heat up the solder the cross and the metal wire to the same temperature so that the solder sticks evenly to both over there yeah things gone yeah well done the sense of satisfaction to start from you know the basic materials put it all together cut them out Mark them to end up with that yeah incredible really nice to be involved with yeah Dave what do you reckon it's not falling off not too bad not too bad yeah yeah we spent in the making the planning over a year you ended up living breathing thinking like Henry VII you know if you walk through the door now I could put that crown on his head and it would just be perfect sadly the replica is the only Crown we have that shows us how magnificent Henry VII's crown jewels were the original was lost in one of the most humultuous conflicts in British history when the crown jewels as powerful symbols of monarchy faced their bleakest moment in 1642 a civil war exploded between royalist supporters and parliamentary opponents of King Charles the first the parliamentarians led by Oliver Cromwell won and in 1649 King Charles was executed to discover what happened to the crown jewels and to see some extraordinary documents I'm meeting crown jewels historian Dr Anna key there was a very systematic approach to expunging symbols of royalty and obviously the the crowns and scepters themselves were the sort of epitome of that so in 1649 the stones were popped out of the settings it's an extraordinary thing to imagine and then the crowns were broken up and they were quite literally melted down foreign document here which I really think is one of the most extraordinary documents anywhere in this country is the is the valuation that was done in 1649 so here we are the king's crown the Imperial Crown of Massey gold weighing seven pounds six ounces enriched with 19 sapphires 37 rubies 21 small rubies emeralds diamonds and so on and it's got the valuation here 990 pounds to try and put that in context the biggest and most extraordinary of Charles the first paintings by Van Dyke was valued at 40 pounds and this Crown is 990 pounds it is quite shocking isn't it but then again these are the very things that you would want to destroy if you want to obliterate the sense of monarchy and the idea of monarchy not just it impractical terms but exactly so you get a real sense of that on one of these Pages because it says here the four mentioned crowns since the inventory was taken are according to order of parliament totally broken and defaced did anything survive I mean did the the Republicans get their hands on everything there were some other things which were part of the coronation regalia but which were felt to be less sort of potent which were sold and one of those things was something called the coronation spoon the chap who bought this spoon when Charles II came back he turned up at Whitehall Palace and said I've got your spoon sir you know I bought it at the sale of the coronation Regala in order to preserve it for you and I'm presenting it back and as a consequence here this one item is still in the collection so it's you know it's very modest enough an entry one silver spoon guilt the workmanship on the coronation spoon suggests it's more than 900 years old the coronation spoon dating to the 12th century gives us a little view of what that medieval collection was like it is now used in the process of anointing but it seems originally it had been used in preparation of the wine for the Holy Communion a silly shot footage shows its wonderful 900 year old craftsmanship in close-up detail it also reveals something difficult to see with the naked eye all crack highlighting how delicate some of these objects are [Music] there's also evidence some other objects may have just made their way back to the collection this is an interesting entry here because it describes this individual Stone as one Ruby ballast pierced so it's got a hole in it right and it's valued very highly four pounds on its own and of course the black prince is Ruby which is that famous stone right at the front of the Imperial State Crown the way it's mounted is is through a kind of piercing which is the device that holds it into position on the crown so it's quite possible that this could be original yeah was part of the collection that was sold in 1649 and then given back or brought back in 1660. but we don't know for sure you don't know for sure because you can't tell there's you know it doesn't have a photograph of it there's not sure it doesn't have measurements so but it's a nice Legend to have isn't it because it shows a direct line back to the original crown jewels the black princess Ruby is one of the Queen's favorites can I ask if the crown could be brought a little bit closer to the queen yes certainly I like the black princess Ruby [Music] the Ruby is said to have been worn by Henry V in 1415 at the Battle of Agincourt he's supposed to have placed a feather in the hole drilled into the Ruby it's fun the Ruby is in fact a spinel a slightly softer Stone it may well have held Henry V's feather but gem experts believe its appearance attest to an even earlier function and origin you can see there that thread going through which is where a channel was dug in order to wear it as a pendant so it could be hung as a piece of jewelry the hole and the gems smooth appearance suggests it originally came from Asia and the type of spinner indicates it was mined before the end of the 14th century and you're not normally allowed to see it from this angle from on top you're not allowed to look down on the crown jewels but we've got a bird's eye view of it absolutely magnificent there is one other gem in the collection that's thought to be a survivor of cromwell's Destruction it gives an insight into how the spiritual value of the crown jewels has grown Through the Ages and takes us all the way back to their origin to Edward the Confessor King of England whose death in 1066 led to the Norman conquest and the crowning of William the Conqueror the sapphire in the top of the Imperial State Crown is called Saint Edward Sapphire because it's said to have been part of his coronation regalia and buried with the King on his finger the objects with which he had been crowned it was claimed were removed from his coffin 100 years after his death and became the items with which all subsequent English monarchs were invested when they were when they were crowned which of course is wonderful thing because not only were you in the tradition of the Confessor this great heroic saintly King but also through his objects a sort of miraculous power was passed on to sovereigns of England the idea that that Sapphire was worn by Edward the Confessor who was dead even before William the Conqueror arrived and yet when the queen reads each year the instructions for her Parliament written by her prime minister it Sparkles watching down on the history of the United Kingdom today to explore the spiritual importance of Saint Edward and his Sapphire to the crown jewels I'm visiting his tomb and shrine foreign that coronations have taken place here for nearly a thousand years since William the Conqueror in 1066 Westminster Abbey the last Sovereign to be crowned here was our present Queen in 1953 each of the objects she is presented with is designed to remind The Sovereign of their duties from acting wisely to dispensing mercy and justice the dean of Westminster Dr David Hoyle who is also a medieval historian wants to show me the spiritual home of the crown jewels stepping through into the shrine there we are and here is the Shrine of the Confessor people came here on pilgrimage to pray they wanted the prayers of Edward the Confessor they were looking for miracles it's all about Holiness and being close to holiness the Confessor was so important that for nearly a thousand years all monarchs have been crowned in the crown that bears his name even in death they keep close to him alongside him Henry III and then next to him is his son there's Edward the first Ed of the third is over there there is Richard II and his wife Anna Bohemia and there is Henry V at the far end but an extraordinary concentration of the dynasty gathered around holiness as I've learned the original English crown jewels that grew out of the cult of Saint Edward were lost forever when Cromwell removed them from the Abbey and melted them down [Music] but there is one other set of British regalia that escaped Oliver cromwell's obsession with destroying all symbols of royalty at Edinburgh Castle its Governor Alistair Bruce is introducing me to the Scottish crown jewels the oldest in Britain dating back to 1540. I'm looking forward to this well this is The Treasure of Scotland that's a reassuringly heavy gate and I I imagine keep everybody out but you see what we've got is the honors three and they are the very heart and soul of this nation you've got a crown a sword the scepter they are the oldest crown jewels in the United Kingdom the centerpiece that Crown is unbelievable [Music] in 1540 it was made for King James V and then it was used at the coronation of Mary Queen of Scots now the craftsmanship in it I think is fantastic breathtaking the crime contains symbols that remind us of what was important to the idea of kingship there's a great deal of Scottish gold in there and all the little seed pearls come from Scottish rivers that in a way bring together the land of Scots into the crown of Scotland so they are emblematic then the jewels and the gold and the symbols they sum up an idealized version of the land of Scotland the idea of a crime was always to to give a glow to an unanited head and what do you do that with but with the best things you've got and gold is the best thing that was available and the sword the sword again a symbol of kingly power and made in 1507. but it is quite fragile isn't it I mean you can see a bit of damage on the end of the hilt there and there's damage in the middle too now there's our stories of that we think that's where it was broken when it was hidden because when Cromwell was trying to track him down it was taken further north to Donata incredible well I want to find out more no question you need to go to Donata the Scottish crown jewels like their English counterparts had come to represent more than just objects and when they were threatened by Oliver Cromwell much of Scotland United in trying to save them we're heading north on the trail of the Scottish crown jewels the honors as they call them here we know Cromwell had melted down those that were in England so what happened to the crown jewels up here [Music] I've come to Donata Castle on Scotland's East Coast 110 miles north of Edinburgh a place key to the story of the Scottish crown jewels well we've picked the right day for it look at that unbelievable isn't it so romantic [Music] Republic Scotland crowned Charles II King with the Scottish crown jewels Cromwell then forced Charles into Exile and sent his English army in Hot Pursuit of the last surviving symbols of monarchy Alastair Cunningham is an expert on the history of donotter Donata Castle was the last place in Britain to hold out against Cromwell Cromwell was besieging this Castle because the honors were brought here for safekeeping so the castle is under siege the enemies at the gates what happened to the jewels the crown jewels of Scotland were stored here for eight months cromwell's Army initially they didn't have big cannons when the big cannons arrived this keep started to be damaged and that was when they decided that they had to get rid of the honors so what did they do they get out eventually and I'll show you how ah so the honors went out a window such as this one Clive this is the most romantic version of how the honors got out of the castle they were low down probably wrapped in Hessian to a serving woman who was collecting seaweed on the on the Pebbles down below she put everything in a wicker basket and walked off down the coast and the chances are that the the big sword was cut in two so that it would fit so that's why it ended up in two pieces exactly exactly so this is she could carry it along with the seaweed where do they end up they were spirited down the coast to a little village called Kenneth the woman that orchestrated this was Christine Granger Christine Granger with her husband the priest of Kenneth hid the jewels in the church under this Pulpit for nine years until the restoration of the monarchy had they been caught they would have been executed [Music] you could imagine just how angry frustrated Cromwell must have been besieging this place for eight months it finally Falls but the jewels he needed to get his hands on they'd already gone he understood the potency the power of crown jewels what they meant in symbolizing monarchy the Scottish crown jewels had been saved by a servant woman with a basket and the courageous Christine Granger it's quite incredible to realize how ordinary people have managed to keep that flame of Scottish nationhood alive [Music] by spiriting the crown jewels away the Scottish crown jewels survived Oliver Cromwell but what do you do when the symbolic heart of the country has been completely destroyed to understand the problem that Charles II faced when he was restored to the throne in 1660. I'm drawing on the expertise of Dr Anarchy these amazingly are the the minutes of the meetings that happened on the 26th of September 1660 and it's got all the people attending the king himself is chairing the meeting and then we have the notes of the discussion they were having about what was going to be needed for the king's coronation looking at what have been the regalia it's all about what was it like so we can replicate it and then it gets to the list of what's needed so and here we go first I have two crowns the one named Saint Edward's crown and the other an Imperial Crown and then it goes through the list of ball and cross of gold the orb except and so on so I mean you know it's it's like a shopping list it's a regalia shopping list um and it's based entirely on what was lost before so it's back to the way it was this wasn't the beginning of a new era this was a continuation of the old and that meant recreating pretty much down to the last little Jewel those elements of the crown jewels that were destroyed including the crown Saint Edwards Crown exactly and the fact that it create the past we've got a picture of a chap here he likes a bit of bling as we can see so this is a painting of Charles II so he's wearing the brand new crayon that has just been made the state clown and he's holding here one of the scepters that had just been made and he's got in his hand here the orb if you were to hold this picture up next to the cases in the Tower of London you know you'd be able to you know absolutely be able to identify the objects that we see there [Music] to see those documents to feel them to touch them really quite incredible because the idea of the crown jewels they represent the idea of monarchy and that is what the Republic wanted to destroy and what Charles II wanted to re-establish and Charles II in recreating those objects that were sold off or melted down he was saying yes my reign might be new but it's completely rooted in the past foreign [Music] just as Charles II created a new set of crown jewels objects continue to be added to the collection [Music] in 1953 at the Queen's coronation these are Mills were a gift from the Commonwealth [Music] and the collection continues to evolve more crowds more I mean this Crown in the center was uh the latest addition to the crown jewels collection [Music] it was designed in 1960s used at the investiture for the Prince of Wales at carnarvon Castle [Music] are all these it's made with the process of Electro forming which puts incredible stress on the metal because it looks like it's been stretched but it is very much of its period in the 60s I suppose because of that modern design you're seeing this sort of evolution of the collection Through Time nothing epitomizes more the changing fashions that have shaped the crown jewels collection More Than This Magnificent crown it was made for the coronation of George IV in 1821 and it was a time when diamonds were considered the thing to have far more than gold and Georgie he liked his diamonds but in the early 19th century there were actually quite a rare thing for people to own even the royal family so to satisfy his craving for a crown encrusted in bling he had to hire in 12 314 diamonds I mean imagine this with another 12 000 diamonds all over it astonishing and of course at the end of the service when he had to give them all back the availability of the higher flow from one unusual Source the French Revolution at the end of the 18th century when the French monarchy was abolished [Music] the diamonds that have belonged to the French Aristocrats who'd lost their heads in the guillotine found themselves Landing in the crown of this new king who was celebrating a new Great Britain at the end of the Napoleonic Wars and in a sense this new Great Britain and its new king were setting the template for a new and changing Nation it was going to gain influence around the world it was going to gain great wealth but it certainly had a very Splendid crime on the king of its day [Music] the diamond craze peaked in the mid 19th century in the reign of Queen Victoria now the largest Empire on the planet Britain sought the world's most valuable gems to express its Newfound power and domination this led to the capture of one notorious Diamond that had passed through the hands of numerous other foreign rulers for a thousand years this is where the famous or inFAMOUS Kohinoor Diamond sits stunning absolutely stunning brought over for hundreds and hundreds of years by Persian kings and princes wow went through Afghanistan and it ended up in the Punjab where the prince dilip Singh handed over in the Treaty of Lahore to Queen Victoria and that's how it's coming to to our collection it is so pure so beautiful so dazzling the cohenor now sits in Queen Elizabeth the queen mother's crown foreign and only women are allowed to wear it so said to be cursed what is the curse every man who comes into contact with a stone Swift and bloody death ah yes every woman who comes into contact with the stone has lived a long and prosperous life now we're not superstitious but when the team comes to clean these no man goes near the stop no man goes to understand interestingly who's going to test the Superstition superstition the cohenor came to Brin in 1851 as a spoil of war after Britain defeated the Sikh Empire of the boy Maharaja dulip Singh in Northern India to delve deeper into the complex history of the Kohinoor Alan Hart is taking me into the vaults of the Natural History Museum when the the cohenor first came to England it was actually what is called a mogul cut diamond an ancient cut this is a cubic zirconia replica of the original gotcha as it was when it came to Britain in 1851. so that's the Mogul cut the Mogul cut yeah and you can see there's a myriad of facets all the way around the top flat base and a flat top what's really interesting for me Clive is that how you would wear a diamond like this because this would have been worn in an armlet so if you if I take this done I'm going to try this out put it on your arm here as an armlet as a mogul would have worn it would have won it like this huge an Indian Prince and you do it from the side you can see how it glows with great presence I mean even through your fingers I can see the light reflect yeah and even if I do it like this you can see that's when it comes alive in India the Kohinoor was known as the mountain of light but when it was introduced to the British public as the star of the great exhibition in 1851 things didn't go to plan [Music] crowds throng to the display they put this diamond to 186 carats in a huge display case and the light of the great exhibition did it no favors whatsoever originally they put it on display upside down then they tried to get light into the stone so they put it the right way up and they raised it to get lights in so let me give an example when I shine live through the top it sort of dies somewhat yeah yeah much to it yes it's a bit flat isn't it this didn't go down very well in the in the Raw circles the cohenor was known as the mountain of light and that the popular satirical press at the time but items call it the mountain of darkness and so they decided that they would recut the diamond to Western taste to make it more sparkly and the end result was this rather shallow cut that is now what you see Jewels yes big face up Stone lots of light coming in being projected out towards you but of course this is a 40 loss a lot of carrots lost the loss of the original Kohinoor and its re-cutting into a diamond more fitting to Western tastes is a powerful symbol of its complex history and the legacy of Empire something that has been explored by the journalist and author Anita Anand it used to belong to a man called Ranjit Singh the one-eyed King he was a Sikh Maharaja who managed to unite the whole of Northern India into a really powerful Empire and he wore the Kohinoor diamond on his arm it was a Talisman of power and he was actually the first Monarch in a very long time who died peacefully in his sleep his children spent the next five years after his death stabbing gouging poisoning and bludgeoning each other to death until in 1839 The Last Man Standing is not a man at all it's a little boy called Maharaja duleep Singh the big diamond sort of drooping off his chubby little arm yeah and the British suddenly think oh this is new they undermine the boy King they managed to take the kingdom then they say sign over your kingdom you sign over the Kohinoor Diamond it is over for you and that hat is how it passes from Indian ownership to British ownership okay well I've got something for you oh oh this is a copy of Oh look The Original coming or that with the Mogul assets do I have to give it back um yes you do I've never held this before that's amazing it's beautiful and this is the Recon well now this is the one that anyone who goes to the Tower of London will be more familiar with exactly because you have to hold it it is so much lighter every time any relative of mine came from India they all beat apart to the Tower of London they want to see the coronal because the colonel means so much so symbolic so symbolic it's it's a symbol of colonial humiliation for many people yeah I learned all my best swear words at the Tower of London can I say because every time we took a relative they would they would stand in front of the stone and swear and get angry and get angry yeah and is that in your eyes a symbol of Britain's possession of India it absolutely is I mean it was it was nakedly so it's like in The Lord of the Rings one ring to rule them all it's very much got that kind of status that the person who has this diamond has power and dominion and it represents the humiliation of of colonialism for many people which is why it is a really tricky Stone the pakistanis want it back the Indians want it back the Afghans want it back the Iranians have asked for it back because it was a massive part of the the Persian Empire so you know it is through the facet of this diamond you can see so much of history and all of its bloody and yet for the British it is a symbol of this country's identity now as part of the crown jewels given the contested Legacy the contested history so many states believe they have a claim on it does it feel that perhaps being part of the crown jewels is perhaps where it should be if it stays here that's that's fine this is a wonderful vehicle a prism to look through the history of why you know I'm here you know sort of the relationship between Britain and India I was I was struck by um how emotional I felt holding those two the important thing for Anita is that we learn the astonishing history of these objects it's an extraordinary Story one that has continued into the 20th century with the crowning of four monarchs culminating in 1953 with the coronation of the queen [Music] I mean I've seen one one coronation and been the recipient and the other which is pretty remarkable [Music] oh my God [Music] oh my gosh [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] foreign specially shot footage has allowed us to get closer to the crown jewels than ever before to explore their magnificence their flaws and the Deep history within them it has been a powerful journey of Discovery and what I've realized is that the crown jewels are still very valuable to us as a nation today that value however is not in terms of pounds and Pence it's because these objects contain within them the story of these islands for good or ill it's a complicated history one we need to keep exploring and learning from but one thing is for certain it's a story that is not finished yet foreign [Music] a concert fit for a queen musical royalty perform at the Platinum party tomorrow at 7 30 on BBC One featuring never