if diamonds are a girl's best friend then what would you call a cursed pearl
that destroys marriages her worst enemy well if so then one pearl in particular
managed to make plenty of enemies over centuries of ruining its owners love
lives for about 300 years the infamous la peregrina pearl was the largest to
have ever have been found originally weighing in just shy of 56 carats or
about 11 grams it's also one of the most perfectly pear-shaped pearls known but
perhaps it would have been better had this beautifully symmetric pearl never
been discovered at all before you get to know all the marriages this supposedly
cursed pearl has broken up over the years let's first go way back in time to
the very beginning of a la peregrina is rich history as the story goes it was a
slave in Panama who found the pearl in the early 1500s imagine being such a
poor man and coming across something so valuable but he didn't keep it for
himself and flee he handed it over to the authorities maybe he was hoping
they'd grant him his freedom for this treasure it was a smart move because
that's exactly what they did since Panama was a Spanish colony at the time
la peregrina was then immediately handed over to prince philip ii of spain the
prince would later become the king who had married the first of england she was
his second wife by the way the first one didn't work out hmm
King Philip presented his new bride with the mesmerizing pearl as a wedding
present how thoughtful I imagine they had a long happy marriage right well if
they did then this would be a really short video hey you should know how this
story ends by now Mary and Philip never got divorced but it is known that the
King left her not long after tying the knot he never came back not even when
Mary got extremely ill now to be fair there's more than one
reason why Filip might have decided to leave his new wife well if you don't
count the fact that apparently he didn't find Mary to be as attractive as she was
in the portraits of her that he had been shown while the Queen might have fallen
head over heels in love with the king after seeing a painting of his highness
the feelings weren't mutual she was infatuated with him but he'd only agreed
to the marriage for strategic purposes granted that was a common occurrence
among world monarchies at the time anyway once he got his new title as king
of both Spain and England he pretty much booked it out of there
oh yeah and there's one more minor detail that could have played a role you
see Mary was quite contrary known as Bloody Mary yes the one and only let's
just say this ruthless Queen had a taste for getting rid of people she didn't
like very much that could have been why Phillip left or it could have been the
tidal thing Mary's not so enticing looks or given the victims yet to come it may
have been the cursed pearl at work mary did cherish her gift and liked to wear
it as a pendant there are even paintings of her with a
pear-shaped treasure hanging around her neck but after she passed away in 1558
the pearl was returned to Phillip now this sounds like something straight out
of a soap opera but the Spanish king tried to give la peregrina to mary's
half-sister and successor elizabeth the first as a way to propose marriage but
if you know anything about the good Queen Bess you'll know that she
immediately rejected him and any other man that tried for that matter so
Phillip kept his big shiny pearl and it stayed with the Spanish crown for the
next 250 years he married a third and fourth time which only served to verify
the bad luck and love that this treasure brought with it fast forward to the time
of his grandson Philip the fourth who presented la peregrina to his second
wife Mary Anna after she passed away in 1696
little was heard of the pearl for a hundred years until it reappeared in
history with Joseph Bonaparte you might recognize that famous surname
well after Napoleon Bonaparte had declared himself emperor of France he
made his older brother Joseph the king of Spain which meant that his wife Julie
Clary would be queen she was the next lucky lady to receive the pearl as a
gift from her husband but it wasn't as if those two were just a couple of
lovebirds either Julie preferred to live with her family at their chateau instead
of with her husband earning her the nickname the absent Queen like with Mary
and Philip the curse didn't affect these two to the point of divorce but they
pretty much live totally separate lives in his will
Joseph left la peregrina to his nephew Napoleon the third it was also around
this time that the Pearl got its famous name which translates to the wanderer
and is no wonder given how many hands had passed through by this point
unfortunately but not so surprisingly Napoleon the thirds marriage with his
wife Eugenie de montijo also wasn't a happy one from Napoleon it was sold to
an English Duke by the name of James Hamilton in 1848 he bought the pearl for
his wife Louisa now this couples love was too strong for
any curse and they had a good and happy marriage
but perhaps the Pearl was up to other schemes by that louisa almost lost the
thing twice once in a sofa and another time at a ball but it wasn't
irresponsibility on the duchess his part it's just that the Pearl was so heavy
it could easily fall out of its necklace their oldest son inherited the Jim and
had it drilled so that his wife could wear it without losing it the pearl was
eventually sold by the fourth Duke to a London jewelry dealer in 1969 the
jeweler put it up for auction and it was bought by actor Richard burden for an
astounding 37 thousand dollars he gave it to his wife as a present for
Valentine's Day I'm sure you've heard of his spouse the
one and only Elizabeth Taylor also known for her famous roles on screen
another thing the actress is associated with is her reputation as probably one
of the most unlucky people when it comes to love now Liz had been married four
times before she got hitched with Burton in 1964 so when he presented his lovely
wife with a cursed pearl I imagine he double sealed the fate on their marriage
forever that is he wasn't the first and he wouldn't be the last anyway as if
Taylor hadn't already seen enough bad luck up to this point the night she
received the pearl it went missing maybe the universe was desperately trying to
put an end to this curse it had tried and failed twice with the Duchess Louisa
so perhaps this time would be it in any case Taylor looked everywhere and
couldn't find the precious pearl but just as she was about to lose all hope
she saw one of her Pekinese pups chewing on something white she thought it was a
bone but to her surprise it was her brand-new pearl ah so it was her dog
trying to save her love life not the universe the pooch sped up the $37,000
pearl and Liz's fate was sealed okay there's no proof that Lapera Gina was to
blame for these two actors failed marriage but on the other hand there's
also no proof that it wasn't in fact Burton and Taylor married and divorced
each other twice but hey maybe this union was the luckiest in all of
Taylor's marriages because Burton was the only man out of seven that she'd
tried twice with after their second divorce in 1976 Elizabeth did not get
rid of the pearl she simply had it redesigned into a necklace with other
pearls diamonds and rubies she then married again and again but after her
1996 divorce with husband number seven Taylor decided to tap out of the
marriage game for good in the end la peregrina
The Wanderer really lived up to its name traveling through time
crossing continents from a slave to kings and queens to Hollywood actors and
leaving ruined marriages in its wake are you wondering where the Pearl is
today it was sold at Christie's auction house on December 14th 2011 to a private
buyer for a whopping eleven point eight million dollars as for the person who
bought it it's hard to know how their love life is going let's just hope the
curse is over and all is well with them so do you think la peregrina was the
reason for these multiple failed marriages or was it just coincidence let
me know your theories down in the comments and if you learned something
new today then give this video a like and share it with a friend but hey now
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