Soon after Queen Elizabeth II died on September 8, the word “Kohinoor” began to spread on Indian Twitter.
It was a reference to one of the most famous pearls in the world. The Kohinoor diamond is just one of the 2,800 stones set in the crown made for Elizabeth’s mother, known as the Queen Mother, but the 105-carat oval-shaped diamond is the proverbial jewel in the crown.
The diamond, which is reported to be one of the most expensive jewels in the world, is the center stone of the Queen Mother’s Crown and was found in a mine in India. But after passing from hand to hand it ended up in the possession of the young Maharaja Duleep Singh. In 1849, the British forced him to sign a legal document that included a provision requiring the jewel to be handed over to the British.
There are said to be no plans to return the jewel, and some reports speculate that the diamond will go to King Charles III’s wife, Camilla, the new consort of the UK king.