St Edward's Sapphire

[1] The sapphire is thought to have been set in the coronation ring of King Edward, known later as St Edward the Confessor, who ascended the English throne in 1042, twenty-four years before the Norman conquest.

[2] Edward, one of the last Anglo-Saxon kings of England, was buried with the ring at Westminster Abbey in 1066.

It was reputedly taken from the ring when Edward's body was re-interred at Westminster Abbey in 1163.

[4] According to an inventory of royal regalia drawn up in 1649, St Edward's Crown, the traditional coronation crown of English monarchs, contained, among other precious stones, a sapphire valued at £60, which may well have been St Edward's Sapphire.

[2] In 1838, Queen Victoria added the jewel to her new crown, giving it a leading role in the centre of the cross pattée above the monde surmounting the crown, where it remains today in the 1937 version worn by King Charles III.