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Looking for information
about diamond
engagement rings or ideas on how to propose?
Or you have to buy gifts
for the groomsmen? Browse this consumers guide to
groomsmen gift.
Engagement rings in history.
Since at least 5000 BC, men and women have worn rings – on their
thumbs, fingers and even toes.
Some rings have been purely decorative, seal rings and archers'
rings have had useful purposes, while a few have been thoroughly
nasty specimens, harboring poison that turned a handshake into a
deadly clasp.
The earliest written reference to rings as love tokens is in the
second century BC, in works by the Roman playwright Plautus.
The practice of exchanging wedding rings, apparently common in
Rome, was "Christianized" by the 4th century AD.
An early example of an engagement ring featuring Eros, the
ancient symbol of love.
By the 14th century, wealthy Europeans had their wedding rings
set with precious jewels, somewhat like modern engagement rings,
but it was not until 1477 that the diamond engagement ring as we
know it came into being.
That year, the Hapsburg Emperor Maximilian I gave a diamond
engagement ring to his fiancée, Mary of Burgundy. This first
instance of a royal engagement ring fueled the European passion
for diamonds, already aflame by the taste for fine jewels
promoted by Mary's father, Charles the Bold (1433–77).
As the dukes of Burgundy controlled Europe's major
diamond–cutting centers in Antwerp and Bruges, Charles'
encouragement of wealthy Europeans to buy diamonds appears to
have a commercial side.
By the 16th century, it seemed no royal marriage was complete
without a diamond ring. Mary, Queen of Scots, chose one when she
married Lord Darnley in 1565 and in 1673, James II of England
sent a diamond ring to Mary of Modena for their proxy wedding in
1673.
In 1839, Prince Albert gave Queen Victoria a diamond ring as a
memento of their first meeting, perhaps inadvertently setting
the royal seal of approval on diamond engagement rings.
It was during the second half of the 19th century that the
practice of giving two rings for the bride became firmly
established.
Prince Philip carried on the royal diamond tradition when he
gave his fiancée, now Queen Elizabeth II, an engagement ring
made with diamonds from the tiara of his mother, Princess Alice.
Norwegian Crown Prince Haakon gave his fiancée a diamond
engagement ring that he said was the same one his father gave
his mother, and his grandfather King Olav gave to Queen Martha.
Not every royal lady has had diamonds in her engagement ring.
The Queen Mother's ring was sapphire and diamonds, as was
Princess Anne's. Lady Diana Spencer was given a £42,000 sapphire
and diamond engagement ring by Prince Charles, while Sarah
Ferguson received a ruby and diamond engagement ring from Prince
Andrew.
However, Sophie Rhys–Jones took the more traditional line with a
three-diamond ring when she became engaged to Prince Edward.
But for size, nothing comes close to the engagement ring Prince
Rainier of Monaco gave Grace Kelly. She wore the 12ct diamond
ring in her last movie, "High Society", in 1956. In the film,
Bing Crosby looks at the ring and quips, "Some stone, did you
mine it yourself?"
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