A Huge Pearl Has Been Destroying Marriages Since the 1500s

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

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