Buckingham Palace has revealed that the contentious Koh-i-Noor diamond won’t be displayed during the coronation.
Instead, Queen Mary’s Crown, which has been removed from the Tower of London and resized for the May 6 coronation, will be used to crown Camilla, the Queen Consort.
An existing crown will allegedly be “recycled” for a coronation for the first time in “recent history.”
There will also be diamonds added from Queen Elizabeth II’s jewellery.
After testing positive for COVID this week, Camilla, who will be crowned alongside the King at Westminster Abbey, was forced to postpone her public appearances.
Ownership of the Koh-i-Noor, one of the largest cut diamonds in the world, has been disputed, and there were concerns about a diplomatic row with India if it had been used.
India has made several claims to be the rightful owner of the diamond, which was used in the coronation of the Queen Mother.
Instead, Buckingham Palace says Camilla will be crowned with Queen Mary’s crown – and claims its re-use is in the “interests of sustainability and efficiency”.
In a tribute to the late Queen Elizabeth II, the crown will be reset using diamonds from her personal jewellery collection, using diamonds known as Cullinan III, IV and V.
These diamonds were worn by the late Queen in brooches and were taken from the Cullinan diamond, discovered in South Africa.
What we know about the Coronation long weekend so far:
Saturday 6 May: Coronation service in Westminster Abbey; coronation carriage procession; Buckingham Palace balcony appearance
Sunday 7 May: Concert and lightshow at Windsor Castle; Coronation Big Lunch street parties
Monday 8 May: Extra bank holiday; Big Help Out encouraging people to get involved in local volunteering
Although it is far from being the largest or most flawless diamond in the world, the Koh-i-Noor’s storied history has marked it out as perhaps the most controversial.
Competing theories and myths about the origins of the stone stretch over many years but historians agree it was taken from India by Nader Shah, an Iranian ruler, in 1739.
Through plunder and conquest it changed hands several times before being signed over to a British governor-general in 1849 following the annexation of the Punjab.
The circumstances in which it was signed over to the East India Company, which had conquered vast swathes of the Indian subcontinent, by a defeated boy king, are disputed.
It was reputedly a “gift” but Anita Anand, a BBC journalist who has co-authored a book on the Koh-i-Noor, said: “I don’t know of many ‘gifts’ that are handed over at the point of a bayonet”.
Prince Albert had it recut in the 1850s to make it shine brighter, and it was set in a brooch for Queen Victoria. It was eventually incorporated into the Crown Jewels.
Claims to rightful ownership of the diamond have also been made by some in Pakistan and even the Taliban