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Empire: World History

11. Queens and the Koh-i-Noor

Empire: World History

Goalhanger

History

4.55.4K Ratings

🗓️ 6 October 2022

⏱️ 40 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Join William and Anita for the final episode in their series on the Koh-i-Noor diamond. This remarkable story includes Prince Albert’s inadvertent creation of Britain’s first sauna, an elderly Duke of Wellington cutting the diamond, and the contemporary significance of the Koh-i-Noor. LRB Empire offer: lrb.me/empire Twitter: @empirepoduk Goalhangerpodcasts.com Producer: Callum Hill Exec Producer: Jack Davenport Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

If you want access to bonus episodes reading lists for every series of empire, a chat community,

0:06.7

discounts for all the books mentioned in the week's podcast, add free listening and a weekly

0:11.5

newsletter, sign up to Empire Club at

0:14.4

W.

0:15.1

W. Empire pod UK.com. Welcome back to Empire. I am William Dalrymple. And I am still Anita Ireland.

0:36.0

Nothing changed at last time.

0:38.0

So we have just got the Co-in-O-I-Doh onto the steam sloop media and this cursed diamond is crossing the waves at speed

0:51.1

towards Great Britain and Queen Victoria but you won't be surprised to hear that it is not an easy voyage.

0:58.0

No, it really isn't an easy voyage because just days into this voyage and we're talking now just to remind you of dates here this is

1:05.6

April 1850 so it is crossing the water only a few days in the first person falls down dead.

1:15.0

With...

1:17.0

Then another, then another,

1:19.0

cholera has broken out on a ship.

1:21.0

Now that is a death now for a ship at sea because people are at

1:24.7

close quarters they cannot quarantine or separate so it can take out an entire

1:28.8

crew. So there's panic on the ship as well on the Madea.

1:33.3

And Lockyer says, look, don't panic, don't panic boys,

1:36.2

it's okay, don't panic, nobody panic.

1:38.3

We are very, very close to Mauritius.

1:40.7

So we will go and we will disembark from Mauritius. Really not. I mean honestly this is just nonsensical

1:46.9

So we'll be fine. We'll get to Mauritius and we'll be okay

1:51.5

They get to the territorial waters around Mauritius and Mauritius trains

...

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