Mirror of Great Britain

"[1]The National Galleries of Scotland collection includes a 1604 portrait by John de Critz of James wearing the Mirror of Great Britain as a hat jewel.

The jewel was created around 1603 by an unknown master craftsman – possibly the best-known of James's goldsmiths, Scotsman George Heriot, who had followed the king from Edinburgh to London.

[10][11] In his decades-long struggle with the Parliament of England that would ultimately lead to the First English Civil War, Charles continuously asserted the divine right of kings, which meant personal ownership of crown jewels such as a Mirror.

Plagued by financial difficulties, in 1625 Charles took the drastic step to pawn away several important items of jewellery in the Netherlands, most likely in The Hague, one of the centres of the jewel trade.

[13] The theory is bolstered by the fact that it was also Cletcher who again acted as middleman or buyer when Charles's wife Henrietta Maria attempted to sell off even more of the crown jewels in 1644.

[15] The Sancy diamond was the only piece of the Mirror to ever be reclaimed, but it was eventually pawned again by Charles's son James II, after which it became part of the French Crown Jewels.