The Louvre Robbery’s Connection to Amboise
Portrait of Queen Marie-Amélie, Château Royal d'Amboise. Photo: Mark Playle.
The jewels stolen from The Louvre in October 2025, were not The Crown Jewels.
What was stolen was a pearl and sapphire tiara, necklace and one ear ring (of a pair) which once belonged to Queen Marie-Amélie, wife of Louis–Philippe, owner of the Royal Château of Amboise.
Crown Jewels are bought by the State for the State, passed from monarch to monarch.
Those stolen from The Louvre were family heirlooms. They’re not even that old.
As Mark Twain said: ‘Never let the truth get in the way of a good story’
A newspaper headline, Historical Gems Stolen from the Louvre wouldn’t cut the mustard.
Some of the stolen jewels once belonged to Hortense, the so called ‘Queen’ of Holland.
She was the step-daughter of Napoleon Bonaparte.
Her mother, Josephine Beauharnais, came from a family of sugar planters.
Hortense married Bonaparte’s brother who Napoleon appointed King of Holland.
Hence ‘Queen’.
Not a drop of blue blood in any of them.
Or Crown Jewels.
They had to make their own.
A parure* was made for Hortense in 1800. It included a tiara of twenty-four sapphires and over a thousand diamonds, a necklace of eight sapphires surrounded by diamonds and a pair of sapphire earrings all set in gold.
1809. Louis-Philippe, Duke of Orléans, married Princess Marie-Amélie, daughter of King Ferdinand I and Maria Carolina of Austria. Her mother’s sister was the ill fated Queen Marie Antoinette.
Theirs was a very happy marriage despite the fact that her aunt Marie-Antoinette and her uncle Louis XVI were murdered with the approval of Louis–Philippe’s father.
Such is life.
1815. Napoleon Bonaparte was exiled. No more ‘Queen’ Hortense of Holland.
1821. Louis Philippe bought her parure as a present for Marie-Amélie.
It became known as Queen Marie-Amélie’s Sapphire Parure and stayed in his family until 1985.
At last. Royal blood.
1830. Louis-Philippe was asked to accept the crown of France but Marie-Amélie told him that he was far too honest. The Chamber of Deputies summoned him to Paris to formally present him with their offer. Marie-Amélie was devastated. She said it was The Crown of Thorns and wept, begging him not to accept.
And so it was that Marie-Amélie, a very reluctant Queen, found herself in the Palace of Versailles where her tragic aunt Marie-Antoinette wore the Crown Jewels. Marie-Amélie never did wear them.
Why?
One, they were stolen in 1792, two, she didn’t define herself as a Queen and three she lived in very dangerous times.
She didn’t want to follow in her aunt’s footsteps by flaunting wealth.
She wore her own jewels handed down from her family or those in the private possession of her husband’s family.
1848. Louis-Philippe was deprived of his ‘crown of thorns’.
The royal family went into exile in England. Had Queen Marie-Amélie’s Sapphire Parure been Crown Jewels the couple would not have been allowed to take them out of France.
They took only family possessions.
1850. Louis-Philippe died two years later.
1864. Louis-Philippe and Marie-Amélie’s grandson Philippe of Orléans married their granddaughter, Marie Isabelle of Orléans. They were first cousins.
Marie-Amélie gave her Sapphire Parure to the bride as a wedding present.
Talk about keeping it in the family.
Such is life.
1866. Marie-Amélie, the reluctant queen died.
1873. The Royal Château of Amboise was restored to the Orléans family.
1960. President Charles de Gaulle told Henri of Orléans, Count of Paris, Pretender to the Crown: ‘Monseigneur, I believe deeply in the value of the monarchy, and I am certain as well that this regime is the one best suited to our poor country‘.
1985. Henri of Orléans, Count of Paris, sold Queen Marie-Amélie’s Sapphire Parure to the Louvre.
1999. Henri of Orléans, Count of Paris chose The Royal Château of Amboise to celebrate his 90th birthday. The gathering was held outdoors in the Château’s gardens. They witnessed a very rare convergence of three hundred members of European non-reigning royalty and aristocrats. Guests included: Prince Albert of Monaco; Grand Duchess Maria of Russia and her son George; Archduchess Regina and Archduke Otto of Habsburg with Francesca and Karl of Habsburg; Princess Gloria von Thurn und Taxis and her daughter Maria Teresa; Prince Pedro and Princess Thérèse of Orléans-Braganza; Farah Diba, the former Empress of Iran: Henri of Orléans, Count of Clermont and his mother Isabelle of Orléans-Braganza.
Just before he died, he signed over the Château to The Fondation Saint-Louis.
Where, one wonders at the time of writing, is Queen Marie-Amélie’s Sapphire Parure?
* Parure. A matching set of jewellery designed to be worn ensemble. Traditionally it consisted of a necklace, earrings, bracelet, brooch and tiara
