Chapter 1145 Diamond of Doom

Many women believe that diamonds are necessary for courtship.

For a long time after their discovery, diamonds were used as jewelry by royals and nobles to show off their wealth and status.

But in the late 19th century, after the discovery of diamond mines in South Africa, this once-scarce gem became less rare than silver. Coupled with the diamond mines in Russia, these diamonds flowed into the market, and the value of diamonds will increase.

Discount.

Later, a British businessman came up with an idea, which was to combine love with diamonds. After all, diamonds are the hardest substance known to mankind. It seems that this transparent piece is not much different from crystal at first glance.

Stones can bear witness to the most steadfast and eternal love.

This businessman spent a huge amount of money on advertising and began to create the so-called diamond culture. In almost all wedding photos, the bride will have a happy smile on her face, and the diamond ring on her hand will blind the eyes of the audience.

A diamond is forever, a diamond is forever.

60% of women on this beautiful blue planet know this advertising slogan.

This is a big advantage for the rich, after all, the threshold for giving away diamonds is much lower than giving up life.

The world seems to have become what Socrates said, the God of Love prefers the handsome God of Riches.

In the movie Titanic, there is a blue diamond named Heart of the Ocean, which is based on the blue diamond purchased by Louis XIV of France from India.

When this diamond was first unearthed, it was a rough triangular shape and could not be the eyes of a goddess. Louis XIV asked the court jeweler to cut it and set it on a gold base as a necklace for the king to use in ceremonies. It was called

French blue.

Louis XV cut the diamond and set it on his Golden Fleece medal as a pendant. During the French Revolution, the diamond was stolen from the royal treasury. Twenty years later, it appeared in the hands of a London jeweler.

It has just passed the retroactive time limit stipulated by law, and even if France wanted to recover it, it would be impossible.

Then, a series of well-known "bad luck" happened. People with "hope" either died early or went bankrupt, and almost no one died well. So this diamond became the famous diamond of bad luck.

But this is somewhat related to the far-fetched hype of the auction house. The more legendary something is, the easier it is to fetch a high price. Now it is displayed in a museum to earn tickets, and millions of people come to admire its beauty every year.

The Conqueror's Yellow Diamond, the "Diamond of Doom", is not that well-known among ordinary people, but the owner cursed by it is not a wealthy businessman.

Its first owner was "Charlie the Bold", Duke of Burgundy. This war-loving Duke had been wearing this yellow diamond on the battlefield since the first day he obtained it, because he believed that this yellow diamond was the most valuable diamond in the world at that time.

The biggest yellow diamond can bring him good luck.

Later, the Duke personally fought in the Battle of Nancy and unfortunately died in the battle. His body was mixed in the "corpse field".

His gorgeous dress attracted the attention of a farmer. The farmer got the priceless yellow diamond, but he thought it was glass and sold it to a Swiss for 2 gold coins.

The Swiss was a Swiss mercenary who participated in the battle. He was more knowledgeable than the farmer and knew that the "stone" was valuable, so he sold it to a Genoese.

Bold Charlie used the double rose cut method when cutting the Conqueror Yellow diamond. The modern diamond cutting process is mainly to show the dazzling fire of the diamond, which will cause a lot of diamond loss during the cutting process.

Although the classical cutting method cannot highlight the fire and brightness of the faceted stone, it can preserve more of the original stone.

The double rose cutting method was still a relatively new technology in the 15th century. The Genoese were born businessmen. He saw the value of this yellow diamond at a glance, so he dedicated it to the Grand Duke of Milan, Ludovico Sforza.

, he became the second owner of the Conqueror Yellow Diamond.

The Archduke of Milan was very generous when he supported artists such as Leonardo da Vinci, but he was called the "Black Duke" by the aristocratic circle and was a famous sinister figure in the Renaissance.

It is said that in order to obtain the title, he imprisoned his 7-year-old nephew in a water prison.

Bold Charlie once made such a judgment. There was a beautiful woman who was attracted by the city lord. She was unwilling to be the city lord's mistress even to death, so the city lord killed the woman's husband.

The woman complained to Charlie who was passing by, hoping that Charlie would severely punish the city lord. Charlie's method of sentencing was to force the woman to marry the city lord.

The city lord happily enjoyed the night, but the next day, Charlie took the woman to the dungeon, where her first husband was tortured to death. There was a coffin parked there. The beauty opened the coffin and took a look inside.

The person pretending to be her second husband.

It seemed that everyone got a satisfactory result from Charlie's point of view, and he made a wise decision.

Ludovico obtained the yellow diamond. I don’t know whether it was because the smell of blood in the diamond was too strong, or whether it really had the power of a curse. Ludovico Sforza made an irrational judgment and introduced the French into the world.

Italy.

Although he achieved a temporary victory, the Grand Duke of Milan eventually fell into the trap of the French. Finally, like his nephew, he was imprisoned in a water prison until his death, and the yellow diamond also fell into the next trap.

In the hands of an owner.

There were many rich people during the Renaissance. There were so many of them, but few of them could squeeze into the upper class. Among them was a businessman named Jacob Fogel.

In Florence in the 15th century, it took three generations of the Medici family to own an important bank in Italy, and another five generations to spread their influence to other parts of Europe. The Fogel family did it in two generations.

Jacob Fogel was only 10 years old when Hans Fogel died, and his mother took over the family affairs.

As the third child in the family, he was destined not to inherit the family business like the eldest son. He lived in his parents' mansion, listening to the noise of the noisy streets and smelling the stench from the open sewers, and studied hard to become a clergyman.

When he was 14 years old, he was sent to Venice by his mother to study finance. Five years later, he became a partner in a company. Later, through the joint efforts of the three brothers, the Fogel family became one of the largest plutocrats in Europe.

He twice bought the throne of the Holy Roman Empire for the electors he supported. After the Medici family entered the aristocratic circle, in order to wash away their merchant spirit, they transferred many properties, many of which were used by Jacob

Boo took over.

Through this relationship, Jacob got in touch with Pope Julius II, the God of War. He paid for the hiring of Swiss mercenaries for the Pope and gave the Conqueror Yellow Diamond to the Pope.

Julius II almost couldn't wait to have this diamond set in his triple tiara.

When Julius II was a young ambassador, he had seen the Grand Duke of Burgundy wearing this yellow diamond on his chest.

Bold Charlie has countless gems, but this one is his favorite.

Charlie considers himself a romantic knight, and his martial arts skills are indeed quite good.

The "Warrior Pope" is said to have been very good at fighting when he was a cardinal. The Pope of the Borgia family, Caesar Borgia, wanted to pave the way for his son, so he sent assassins to kill all the red cardinals who posed a threat to his son.

bishop.

Julius II was also among them, but the Borgias sent assassins several times but failed. The assassins said that assassinating the cardinal was an impossible task.

In the end, Julius II held on until Pope Borgia died, and finally ascended the throne of St. Peter.

Under his supervision, Michelangelo completed the Sistine Ceiling. In addition, he also led an army across Italy. Italy was almost unified because of him. However, as he grew older, his ambitions could only be seen by him.

I thought about it while sitting in the Sistine Chapel.

When Julius II was alive, Michelangelo did not paint the Last Judgment. At that time, many people thought that the pope who yelled and killed would not be able to go to heaven. At first, Michelangelo was painted by Julius II.

Julius II commissioned a tomb for himself. This tomb is located in the south of the cross wing of St. Paul's Chain Church. The famous sculpture "Prophet Moses" is part of the tomb of Julius II.

Michelangelo went to paint the ceiling painting, and Julius II's tomb could not be continued. Later, it could not be completed due to various reasons. In forty years, only three statues were completed. These three statues except Moses

, two slaves were transported to the Louvre, and the other five unfinished slave sculptures were forever embedded in the stone, as if they had become eternal slaves because of Michelangelo's death.

After the Pope's death, the diamond passed to his nephews, the Lowell family.

This was originally a very prosperous family, but since acquiring the yellow diamond, members of the family have died in accidents one after another, and ultimately this prosperous family has no heirs after three generations.

Victoria, the last woman from the Lowell family, married into the Medici family with this yellow diamond, and bad luck struck again. She was once laughed at by other nobles because of their low bloodline, and the Medici family also gave birth to children like mice.

Never.

After the death of Anna Maria Luisa de' Medici, the last member of the Medici family, the "Conqueror" yellow diamond fell into the hands of the Habsburg family along with the city of Florence.

This famous yellow diamond in the aristocratic circle made the reckless Germans dare not touch it. It was placed in a display case that was said to be enchanted. Even the cleaning maids rarely came close to it for two hundred years.

During this period, no one in the Habsburg family died unexpectedly, but many people became possessed and went crazy, and a "witch hunt" was also launched in Germany.

This situation lasted until Princess Sissi's husband, Austrian Emperor Franz Joseph I, came to the throne.

Franz loved Sissi so much that he gave her this yellow diamond to wear despite the objections of the courtiers.

So the Habsburg family also suffered the same fate as the Lowell family and the Medici family. The only crown prince committed suicide at the age of 30, and Princess Sissi also died in an assassination.

Just when Franz was in mourning for the loss of his son and wife, Archduke Ferdinand, the crown prince of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, was assassinated by a Serbian youth in Sarajevo, which triggered the outbreak of the First World War.

Later, Franz's grandnephew and the last Habsburg emperor Charles came to Switzerland with his wife, children and royal jewels, but soon the bloody yellow diamond disappeared, and no one knew its identity.

whereabouts.

Some people say that it has finished its relationship with the Habsburg family and is looking for its next victim.

Others said it fell into the hands of Adolf Hitler, but since there was no photographic evidence, it was dismissed as rumor.

Others say it was stolen by a servant, a trusted confidant of the royal family.

Among these suspects, one of the suspects lives next door and is currently recovering from his injuries.

"Why didn't dad tell me this?" Draco asked in a trembling voice.

Felix, who was eating pineapple yogurt cookies, opened his mouth so wide that he didn't even know the cookie fell to the ground.

"That's because all those who died were Muggles. We wizards were only involved because of the ban on the yellow diamond. As long as we don't meddle in that business, the bad luck won't be our turn." Severus said calmly.

explain.

"Why would anyone want that diamond?" Pomona said painfully. She had never seen the eyes of the basilisk. Everyone who had seen them died. It was said that they were huge yellow eyes, just like the "Conqueror"

"Yellow Diamond."

"There are many madmen in the world, and each has his or her own kind of madness." Severus took a sip of wine and spat it onto the ground as if gargling it.

"Do you want to keep them, or send them away after they recover?" Pomona asked.

"Of course let them leave." Severus slapped the table decisively. "If you want to mind your own business, you should wait until your own affairs are settled."

"Are you okay, Fiona?" Pomona asked.

The Muggle woman's face turned pale. I don't know whether she was shocked or frightened.

The Conqueror Yellow Diamond does not really have this diamond. Those who are interested can check out those Renaissance sculptures and photos of Princess Sissi. There seems to be replicas. Which hero is brave enough to try it?

(*＾3＾)
Chapter completed!