French City Demands British Crown Jewels

  July 15, 2012 at 2:13 pm by

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A French city of Angers, once the capital of the House of Plantagenet which produced fourteen English Monarchs, is demanding a compensation for the murder of its last pretender to the Throne. Edward Plantagenet, 17th Earl of Warwick, was murdered in the Tower of London on orders of Henry VII Tudor; upon his death in 1499, the House of Plantagenet became extinct in the legitimate male line.

A petition posted on the city’s official website calls the death of the young Prince “unfair” and “horrible”, and maintains the city is owned an apology and 513 years’ worth of compensation. If monetary compensation is not an option, Angers gracefully agrees to accept Crown Jewels: “As redress for the execution of Edward, Angers today demands that the Crown Jewels of England be transferred to Angers”.

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The petition, which has already been signed by hundreds of supporters of the cause, is addressed directly to Queen Elizabeth who is expected to be sent the official petition at the beginning of autumn. Of course, they might have chosen the wrong recipient as the Queen does not, in fact, own the Crown Jewels; unlike her personal jewellery collection, the Crown Jewels belong to the state and people – not the Monarch personally. Moreover, the current crown jewels have little to do with the original ones that had belonged to Plantagenet and Tudor Monarchs; after the English Revolution, the original coronation jewels were melted down on Oliver Cromwell’s orders.

Even the Angers Council realises the petition has “little chance of success”. Nevertheless, it is likely to have achieved its main aim – attract attention to the city. Indeed, the spokesmen for the Council encouraged the British to visit Angers, which still has some impressive medieval structures dating back to the Plantagenet era.

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