The Great 'H' of Scotland was a jewel belonging to Mary, Queen of Scots comprising a large diamond, a ruby, and a gold chain. Also known as the Great Harry, it was broken up in 1604 and made into the Mirror of Great Britain for James VI and I.Jade Scott, "Mary Queen of Jewels", History Today, 70:10 (October 2024), pp. 54–61: Margaret Warrender, Illustrations of Scottish History. Sixteenth Century (Edinburgh: James Stillie, 1889), pp. 8–9.
Inventories of Mary Queen of Scots
The "Great H" appears listed in inventories of jewels belonging to Mary, Queen of Scots. Two of its stones are usually mentioned, a large facetted lozenge diamond, and, hanging or set below, a large cabochon ruby.Thomas Thomson, Collection of Inventories (Edinburgh, 1815), pp. 196-7, 200, 265, 291, 307, 318. Mary's inventories refer to "Le Henri", and it was described in French as:Une grosse bague a pendre facon de .h. en laquelle y a ung gros diamant a lorenge taille a face et dessoubz ung gros rubiz chabochon garniz d'une petitte chesneA large pendant jewel made as an "h" in which there is a large diamond lozenge facet cut and beneath a large cabochon ruby, fitted with a small chain.Joseph Stevenson, Inventaires de la Royne Descosse (Edinburgh, 1863), pp. 75, 90: Margaret Warrender, Illustrations of Sixteenth Century Scottish History (Edinburgh: James Stillie, 1889), p. 8. Wedding at Notre-Dame
The Great H may have been the pendant of "incalculable value" which Mary wore at her wedding in 1558 at Notre-Dame de Paris,Retha M. Warnicke, Mary Queen of Scots (Routledge, 2006), p. 203: Agnes Strickland, Lives of the Queens of Scotland, 3 (Edinburgh, 1852), p. 81John Guy, Mary Queen of Scots: My Heart is My Own (Fourth Estate, 2009), pp. 86–7. "a son col pendoit une bague d'une valeur inestimable".William Bentham, Ceremony at the marriage of Mary, Queen of Scots (London: Roxburghe Club, 1818), p. 6. Catherine de' Medici bought a diamond for Mary's necklace for her espousal and wedding day from Pierre Vast and Michel Fauré, two merchants from Lyon, for 380 livres, while Jehan Joly supplied a cabochon ruby for the necklace, costing 292 livres. Claude Héry sold Catherine nine large pearls for Mary's necklace, costing 671 livres. Mary's goldsmith, Mathurin Lussault, may have assembled this jewel for the bride.Hector de la Ferrière, Lettres de Catherine de Médicis: 1533–1563, 1 (Paris, 1880), p. xliiGermain Bapst, Histoire des joyaux de la couronne de France (Paris, 1889), p. 55 fn. 2 Accounts of the day also highlight a ruby called the "Egg of Naples" serving as a pendant at the front of her crown, an "escharboucle" thought to be worth 500,000 Écu or more.Herbert Van Scoy, Bernerd C. Weber, Julio Alvarotto, 'The Marriage of Mary Queen of Scots and the Dauphin', The Scottish Historical Review, 31:111, Part 1 (April 1952), pp. 43, 46: Jane T. Stoddart, The girlhood of Mary Queen of Scots (London, 1908), pp. 145–6
In Scotland Scottish inventories mention the great diamond and ruby of Mary's "H", with an associated small gold chain. Mary was allowed to keep this jewel after the death of her husband Francis II of France in 1561 and brought it to Scotland.Jemma Field, "A 'Cipher of A and C set on the one syde with diamonds': Anna of Denmark's Jewellery", Erin Griffey, Sartorial Politics in Early Modern Europe: Fashioning Women (Amsterdam, 2019), p. 151 fn.61 citing National Records of Scotland, E35/4.Anna Groundwater, 'Tracing royal Stewart jewels in the archives', Decoding the Jewels: Renaissance Jewellery in Scotland (Sidestone Press: NMS, 2024), p. 165: National Records of Scotland, 'Memoire des bacgues de la Couronne', E35/4, "+ Une autre bague a pandre faict d'une h, garnye d'ung grand dyamant l'ung de lozange l'autre toute taille a face, ou pand ung groz rubiz cabochon". She had to return the Egg of Naples and other pieces regarded as French crown jewels.Thomas Thomson, Collection of Inventories (Edinburgh, 1815), pp. 196-7, 200, 265, 291, 307, 318: Joseph Robertson, Inventaires de la Royne Descosse (Edinburgh, 1863), pp. xv, 197 no. 10.John Guy, Mary Queen of Scots: My Heart is My Own (Fourth Estate, 2009), p. 120 citing BnF MS FF 5898: Germain Bapst, Histoire des joyaux de la couronne de France (Paris, 1889), pp. 53, 72–77: Jane Stoddart, The girlhood of Mary Queen of Scots from her landing in France to her departure (London, 1908), pp. 308, 315-7
In 1562, the "Great H" was included in an inventory with Mary's pendant jewels, her bacques a pandre.Joseph Robertson, Inventaires de la Royne Descosse (Edinburgh: Bannatyne Club, 1863), p. 75. In 1578, the Great 'H' was described in Scots as:The jowell callit the greit Hary with the letter H contening a grit diament and a grit ruby.Thomas Thomson, Collection of Inventories (Edinburgh, 1815), p. 265 no. 36.
The jewel, as its name suggests, may have been a present from Henri II of France and Catherine de' Medici, and a similar jewel was listed in an inventory of French crown jewels made in 1551, a red-enamelled and diamond-set letter "H" with a cabochon ruby below.Germain Bapst, Histoire des joyaux de la couronne de France (Paris, 1889), pp. 68-9 It has sometimes been suggested the Great H was a gift from Henry VII to Margaret Tudor, mother of James V of Scotland.Agnes Strickland, Life of Mary, Queen of Scots, vol. 1 (London, 1873), p. 30. James V, Mary's father, owned a different 'H' jewel, a hat badge with a ruby and two figures with the letter 'H', possibly a gift from Henry VIII of England, or a jewel formerly belonging to Margaret Tudor.Thomas Thomson, Collection of Inventories (Edinburgh, 1815), p. 65.
Mary hoped to add the "Great H" to the crown jewels of Scotland in memory of her reign (and her French marriage), in a list of potential bequests she made in childbed at Edinburgh Castle in 1566.Joseph Robertson, Inventaires de la Royne Descosse (Edinburgh, 1863), pp. xxxii.Une grosse bacque a pandre facon de / h / en laquelle y a ung groz diamant taille a faces et au dessus ung groz rubiz cabochin garny dune petitte chesne.Je veulx quelle soys ioint a la Couronne de ce pays pat un acte pour memoyre de moys et du lieu dou je layeueA large pendant jewel made as an "h" in which there is a diamond cut in facets and below a large cabochon ruby garnished with a little chainI wish this joined to the Crown of this country as an act in memory of me and the place where I got it.Joseph Robertson, Inventaires de la Royne Descosse (Edinburgh, 1863), p. 93.
Mary left a second lesser gold "H" which included a cabochon ruby and a pendant pearl to Lord Darnley.Joseph Robertson, Inventaires de la Royne Descosse (Edinburgh, 1863), p. 122.
Regent Moray and Regent Morton
After Mary's abdication, her half-brother Regent Moray and his secretary John Wood brought the "H" with other jewels to England hoping to sell it.HMC 6th Report: Moray (London, 1877), p. 653 Lennox to Annas Keith, 13 September 1570.Alison Rosie, "A Queen's Jewel Box: The 1566 Inventory of Mary Queen of Scots' Jewels", Royal Studies Journal, 12:1 (2025), p. 59 fn. 49 citing National Records of Scotland E35/9/3. Moray's agent Nicolas Elphinstone sold Mary's pearls to Queen Elizabeth. After Regent Moray was assassinated by James Hamilton of Bothwellhaugh, his widow Agnes or Annas Keith retained the "H" for several years.George R. Hewitt, Scotland Under Morton, 1572–80 (Edinburgh: John Donald, 1982), pp. 40–42. In March 1570, William Kirkcaldy of Grange, who held Edinburgh Castle where most of Mary's jewels remained in a coffer, noted which jewels he thought she kept:the Principall jowall callit the H quhilk me Lady Murray hes with xij of the fornamed Rubeis & dyamands with syndrie uthir jowalls as the belt of curell and syndrie uthir stuff that was in Servays keiping(modernised) the principal jewel called the H which my Lady Moray has with 12 of the forenamed rubies and diamonds with sundry other jewels as the belt of coral and sundry other stuff that was in the keeping of Servais de Condé.HMC 6th Report: Moray (London, 1877), pp. 638, 653: Michael Pearce, "The jewels Mary Queen of Scots left behind", 2016, pp. 41–43, 78, 83. National Records of Scotland E35/9/3. There is no evidence that Moray had given the jewel to his wife as a gift before his death, as the historians Agnes Strickland and Joseph Robertson supposed.John Duncan Mackie, "Queen Mary's Jewels", Scottish Historical Review, 18:70 (January 1921), p. 88Agnes Strickland, Life of Mary Queen of Scots, 2 (London: George Bell, 1903), p. 255 Mary Queen of Scots, and her agent or lieutenant, the Earl of Huntly, requested the Countess return the jewel to her. Mary wrote threateningly "so be sure, if you hold any thing pertains to me from me, you and your bairns (children) and maintainers shall feel my displeasure heavily, nor is wrongous gear profitable".Agnes Strickland, Lives of the Queens of Scotland, 7 (Edinburgh: Blackwood, 1858), p. 63, modernised here.Jane Dawson, "A Fife 'Murder Mystery'", Janay Nugent, Cathryn Spence, and Mairi Cowan, Gender in Scotland, 1200–1800, Place, Faith and Politics (Edinburgh University Press, 2024), p. 27. Mary's political opponent in Scotland, Regent Lennox asked for the jewels that Moray had taken to England,HMC 6th Report: Moray (London, 1877), p. 653. and his successor, Regent Morton, asked for the jewels and the "H" on behalf of James VI.Steven J. Reid, The Early Life of James VI, A Long Apprenticeship (Edinburgh: John Donald, 2023), p. 90: John Duncan Mackie, "Queen Mary's Jewels", Scottish Historical Review, 18:70 (January 1921), pp. 87–88, 92
Both the Queen's Party and the King's Party of the Marian Civil War wanted the "H" and other jewels in the countess' hands, including a belt of coral and twelve rubies and diamonds.HMC 6th Report & Appendix: Lord Moray (London, 1877), pp. 653, 658: NRS E35/9/3: Joseph Stevenson, Inventaires de la Royne Descosse (Edinburgh, 1863), pp. cxxxvii–cxxxviii footnoteJade Scott, 'Editing the Letters of Mary, Queen of Scots: The Challenges of Authorship', Woman's Writing, 30:4 (2023), p. 361. Agnes Keith looked to England for help in this predicament. She wrote from Dunnotar on 2 November 1570 to William Cecil asking him to intercede with Queen Elizabeth so that Mary would cease from urging Huntly to trouble her and her children for the jewels. She claimed she had not known at first that the jewels were Mary's. She also wanted Elizabeth to write to Regent Lennox, asking him not to requisition the jewels.William Boyd, Calendar State Papers Scotland, vol. 3 (Edinburgh, 1903), p. 417 no. 550. The English ambassador Thomas Randolph wrote to Cecil on her behalf, saying her friends advised her to yield to neither side.Jade Scott, "Mary Queen of Jewels", History Today, 70:10 (October 2024), p. 59: William Boyd, Calendar State Papers Scotland, vol. 3 (Edinburgh, 1903), p. 427 no. 559. She later claimed that the value of the jewels was just recompense for the expenses her husband had made as Regent of Scotland.Amy Blakeway, Regency in Sixteenth-Century Scotland (Boydell, 2015), p. 90: George R. Hewitt, Scotland Under Morton, 1572–80 (Edinburgh: John Donald, 1982), p. 41.
Morton horns the Argylls