The Diamond in Between Two Kings

What the Diamond Literally Is

The diamond is the sole remaining jewel of Charles II, King of England, Scotland, and Ireland, during his French exile. It is a physical object of significant but finite monetary value—about 280 pistoles, as verified by the jeweler of His Royal Highness in Blois. Charles carries it in a small silk bag hidden in his purse, and when he empties his coin onto the inn table and falls short of the rent, he produces the diamond as his “last resource” (Chapter VI). It is not a political token or a gift from an ally; it is simply the last valuable property of a king without a throne.

Where the Diamond Appears

The diamond appears exclusively in Chapters VI and VII of Between Two Kings. In Chapter VI, the incognito stranger—later revealed as Charles II—struggles to pay for his apartment at the Médicis inn in Blois. When his purse yields only six louis of the required seven, he hands the diamond to the innkeeper, Cropole, with instructions to sell it outright for whatever it will fetch. Chapter VII picks up directly after the appraisal: Cropole announces he obtained 280 pistoles, pays himself the rent from the sum, and lays the remaining money on a sideboard at Charles’s command. Once the transaction closes, the diamond vanishes from the narrative. It is never mentioned again by Charles or any other character after his stay in Blois.

How Its Meaning Changes

When the diamond is first introduced, it is a symbol of royal identity—a jewel worthy of a king, even one in hiding. Its presence in Charles’s purse implies that he has clung to this last piece of his former magnificence as a tangible link to his true station. Yet the moment he exchanges it for lodging, the diamond’s meaning shifts radically. It becomes a marker of raw destitution, a commodity stripped of its symbolic luster to pay a debt measured in louis and pistoles.

The sale transforms the diamond from a static emblem of lost majesty into an active agent of survival. By letting it go, Charles accepts the transactional nature of his precarious existence: without a kingdom, even a king’s jewel is just collateral. This acceptance is captured in his terse instruction to Cropole: “I prefer that you sell it, Monsieur, for it’s worth three hundred pistoles.” There is no plea to preserve the gem, no nostalgic attachment—only the pragmatic arithmetic of a man who must eat and sleep another night.

After the sale, the diamond’s absence speaks as loudly as its presence. Charles no longer carries any visible sign of his royal birth; he has shed the last physical vestige of his old life. This emptiness prefigures the spiritual crossroads he will face, when he must place his hope in God rather than in material wealth.

Character Connections

Charles II is the diamond’s sole owner in the novel, and his handling of the gem illuminates the core of his character. He does not attempt to conceal his poverty or demand charity; instead, he meets Cropole’s businesslike demands with a dignity that silences the innkeeper’s suspicions. The text notes “the majesty of high rank” in his bearing even as he parts with his last valuable. That juxtaposition—royal pride and empty pockets—defines Charles’s entire arc in Between Two Kings.

Cropole functions as a double mirror. Initially, his anxiety about being shortchanged reflects the world’s assumption that an anonymous stranger is worth what his coins show. But once he holds the diamond, Cropole is shamed by Charles’s disinterested disdain for money: “I hope we’re not such thieves in Blois as you seem to believe.” The diamond forces Cropole to see beyond his customer’s shabby exterior, and his subsequent care—the quiet arrangement of supper, the option to buy back the jewel—suggests a belated recognition of true nobility.

Louis XIV is present by omission. As Charles sells his gem, the young King of France rides through Blois in a triumphal procession, “lit by thousands of torches.” The extravagance of Louis’s entry, described in the same chapter, sets the diamond’s paltry value in stark relief. While one king thrives amid wealth he does not fully control, the other pawns his birthright for a room.

D’Artagnan never sees the diamond, but his later role in Charles’s restoration gives the jewel’s sacrifice retrospective weight. The money raised from the diamond buys only a few days; Charles’s real path to the throne requires the political finesse D’Artagnan provides. The diamond, in that sense, is a false hope—a material token that cannot substitute for action.

Theme Connections

Wealth as Political Instrument

The diamond is a microcosm of wealth as political instrument. Its 280 pistoles are a drop in the ocean next to the “million in gold or two hundred gentlemen” Charles begs from Louis XIV in vain. The jewel can secure a bed, not a kingdom. This disparity underscores the novel’s central truth: in the game of thrones, insufficient wealth is no better than none.

Restoration and Exile

The diamond episode marks the final, irreducible stage of Charles’s exile. Once the jewel is gone, he is not merely a king in hiding but a man with nothing. From this absolute nadir, the narrative begins its slow climb toward restoration, propelled by external forces—Monck’s change of heart, Athos’s diplomacy, D’Artagnan’s cunning—rather than Charles’s own resources. The diamond’s sale is the prerequisite for a miracle.

Loyalty versus Disillusionment

Charles’s willingness to part with the diamond demonstrates a personal loyalty to his cause that transcends material concerns. Yet the transaction also deepens his disillusionment with the brother kings who abandon him. When Louis XIV later offers only “empty friendship,” Charles’s recollection of his own sacrifice—symbolized by the diamond—adds bitter weight to his decision to seek nothing less than a miracle from God.

The Transfer of Power

The diamond’s physical exchange from Charles to Cropole and then to the jeweler acts as a miniature version of the transfer of power that the novel chronicles. What was once a king’s treasure becomes a merchant’s commodity; by the time Charles regains his throne, the diamond belongs to someone else entirely. This small transfer of wealth prefigures the much larger shifts in political authority that the novel follows in England and France.

Study Questions and Answers

1. Why does Charles II carry only one diamond, and what does its singularity convey?
   The single diamond is the last remnant of a vanished royal treasury. Its isolation mirrors Charles’s own—a king without court, army, or allies. The text presents it as his “last resource,” which means he has deliberately liquidated everything else to survive. Its singularity conveys both the extremity of his destitution and the lingering hope that even one royal jewel might open doors.

2. How does Cropole’s reaction to the diamond differ from his earlier attitude toward Charles, and what does this change reveal?
   Before the diamond appears, Cropole sees Charles as a foreign gentleman who might be unable to pay increased rent; he is polite but watchful, conscious of profitability. After the diamond is offered, Cropole becomes ashamed of his “ignoble suspicions” and treats Charles with deeper respect. The change reveals that, for commoners of the era, a jewel still carried the aura of rank—a final proof of nobility that mere words could not supply.

3. Why does Charles refuse the chance to repurchase the diamond later, and how does that decision foreshadow his restoration strategy?
   He tells Cropole, “By no means; I told you to sell it.” This refusal shows he does not cling to symbols; he understands that regaining his throne requires bold action, not sentimental retention of trinkets. The decision foreshadows his later willingness to sacrifice pride, comfort, and even the appearance of kingship in pursuit of his goal. The crown, unlike the diamond, cannot be bought back—it must be won.

4. Compare the diamond Charles sells with the diamond studs d’Artagnan mentions to Buckingham in Chapter 35. How do these two diamond symbols differ in function and meaning?
   Charles’s diamond is a passive object—a disposable asset sold for survival. The diamond studs, referenced in d’Artagnan’s conversation with Buckingham’s son, were tools of political intrigue in an earlier era: they moved between lovers and spies, causing scandal and shifting power. In Between Two Kings, Charles’s diamond belongs to the past; it is spent and forgotten. The studs, by contrast, remain alive in memory as agents of action. This contrast underscores how Charles’s exile has reduced him from participant in courtly games to a bystander forced to convert emblems into cash.