A Lady Of Beauty, Opulence, & Desire
"Woman is well within her rights, and indeed she is accomplishing a kind of duty in striving to appear magical and supernatural."
- Charles Baudelaire, In Praise of Makeup
The 13th century was a time when public display of extravagance was shameful, and austerity virtuous. To ensure that the rarest jewels could only be worn by the King and select nobility (most often men), King Louis IX of France (c.1214-1270) established one of many sumptuary laws forbidding anyone outside the court from wearing diamonds, thereby cementing their association with power.
But two centuries later a 22 year old woman would change that when she captured the attention of King Charles VII of France. Then a handmaiden to his wife, the Queen Marie of Anjou, the King recognized Agnes Sorel's sense of self and unapologetic nature as a light in the dark.
Trapped in the role he was expected to play, surrounded by outward displays of virtue, Sorel held a rare shine, and she promised the freedom he needed. He was so captivated by her, that he broke away with custom and law, gifting her one of the earliest recorded diamonds rings; a 5 carat pink diamond ring, and granted her the first official title of Mistress of the Court. In a time when women did not openly hold public office, Mistress to the King was the most powerful a woman could hold.
In 1444 alone, he gifted her hundreds of pieces of jewelry.
Who in her place, today, would have kept these stowed away in a box?
Sorel, dared to display them publicly, even altering her dress to display her jewels against her fair skin. And, widely criticized (yet imitated by ladies of her time), she became an object of envy, lust, and gossip.
Sorel is credited with popularizing the wearing of diamond jewelry by women, and fast forward to 1974, when designer Elsa Peretti created the first Diamonds by the Yard necklace for Tiffany and Co. diamonds became wearable in daily life, including work or casual occasions, forever moving away from their traditional associations with formal (and royal) wear.
Sumptuary laws once mandated that citizens dress according to their rank, as a way of "promoting modesty". Sorel learned to accept, or ignore, the envy of other women, and in doing so created a life for herself, that for others could only ever be a fantasy. Today, Agnes Sorel remains one of the earliest women associated with the public display of diamond jewelry in European courts.
If you would like a piece of Sorel's history and influence, explore the 55 inch diamond by the yard necklace in our collection.
14K Yellow & White Gold, 1.9 ctw.
Shop the Diamond by the Yard Necklace
Image Credits:
Top image: Portrait of Marianne Ostier from Jewels and the Woman by Marianne Ostier (Horizon Press, 1958)
Diamond necklace: Designed as a flexible wreath of 197 pear-shaped, marquise or emerald-cut diamonds (49.2 carats), c. 1955, stamped MO for Marianne Ostier image and description courtesy of The Jewelry Loupe