These are four large, pendant, pear shaped pearls, which are suspended below the monde of the Imperial State Crown. Three are pierced and one is only partly pierced. They are often wrongly attributed to twin earrings of Elizabeth I, or even of Elizabeth of Bohemia. In 1837, there were only three pearls, the fourth being added by Rundell, Bridge and Rundell, the Crown Jewellers. It is thought that three of the pearls, if not the fourth also, were part of a gift from Pope Clement VII to Catherine de Medici on her marriage. She, in turn, passed them to Mary, Queen of Scots, when she married the Dauphin of France, Catherine's son in 1559.
The French Ambassador, De La Foret, described them as being 'six long strings of pearls, twenty five as large as nutmegs'. In addition, there were seven large separate pearls which may have been used in earrings or dress rnaments. After the execution of Mary, Queen of Scots in 1587, Elizabeth I bought the pearls. They passed in succession to James I, and so to his daughter, Elizabeth of Bohemia, who died in England in 1662, when they may have passed back to the crown, or she may have given them to her daughter, Sophia, Electress of Hannover and from her they went to George I and so, eventually, to Queen Elizabeth II.
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