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[[File:King Michael Korybut Wisniowiecki.jpg|thumb|upright|left|Michael Korybut Wiśniowiecki, King of Poland (reigned 1669–1673)]]
So, as you may have guessed by now, “Michael Wiscionsky’s” actual name was Michael Korybut Wiśniowiecki (pronounced: {{pronczyt|kaw|Rih|boot}} {{pron|vish|nyaw|vyets|keeKorybut Wiśniowiecki}}). His election to the Polish throne 350 years ago was quite a surprise to pretty much everyone – not least to Prince Michael himself. His father, Prince Jeremi Wiśniowiecki, Palatine of Ruthenia, owned vast swaths of land in Ukraine and became a national hero by ruthlessly quelling a Cossack rebellion, but Michael inherited neither his father’s leadership skills nor his wealth. He wasn’t even considered a candidate right up to the point when he got elected.
Let’s go back 20 years, to the time after King Vladislaus IV’s death. Both his throne and his wife went to his half-brother (and maternal cousin), John Casimir Vasa. John Casimir never had enough patience to keep any job for long (his CV included stints as a commander of cuirassiers, a viceroy of Portugal, a Jesuit brother and a cardinal), but hung on relatively long on the Polish throne and under his former sister-in-law’s thumb. Until finally, grieved by Queen Marie-Louise’s death and disenchanted by the nobility’s opposition to his policies, he quit and moved to France, where he holed up in a Benedictine monastery until his death.
Two years after losing the Polish royal election, the Grand Condé suffered an even greater loss – his court chef, the famous François Vatel, committed suicide. It was on the third day of a great banquet, which Condé was giving to King Louis XIV at the castle of Chantilly. It was a Friday, a lean day, and the transport of fish was running late; for Vatel, who was responsible for managing the whole operation, it was a dishonour which only falling on his sword (three times!) could wash away.
Who knows, maybe if Condé had become king of Poland, then Vatel would have lived longer? Maybe he would have made his career at the Polish royal court and the invention he is traditionally credited for – sweetened whipped cream – would have been known as ''crème Varsovie'' rather than ''crème Chantilly''? Perhaps he would have met Stanisław Czerniecki (pronounced: {{pronczyt|stah|nee|sWahf}} {{pron|cheR|nyets|keeStanisław Czerniecki}}), whom historian Karol Estreicher has dubbed “the Polish Vatel”? Czerniecki, author of the first cookbook printed in Polish, had served Prince Michael Wiśniowiecki for some time, before getting a job as the head chef to the Princes Lubomirski. The political rivalry between the Grand Condé and Prince Michael is one thing, but imagine how much more fascinating a culinary duel between Vatel and Czerniecki would have been!
[[File:Uczta koronacyjna.jpg|thumb|King Michael’s coronation banquet]]
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Now, that’s a pretty good lead! Joachim Lelewel (pronounced: {{pronczyt|leh|leh|velJoachim Lelewel}}), a respectable 19th-century historian, did, in fact, author a book entitled ''Bees and Honey Hunting''. So let’s see what exactly he wrote there about the diamond bee:
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[[File:MBC w diamentowej sukience.jpg|thumb|upright|Our Lady of Częstochowa in her diamond dress, with the bee encircled in yellow]]
While looking for any other references to a diamond bee, I found something slightly different – a bee on the diamond dress of Our Lady of Częstochowa (pronounced: {{pronczyt|chen|staw|Haw|vahCzęstochowa}}). Also known as the Black Madonna, Our Lady of Częstochowa is Poland’s most sacred Catholic icon. For centuries it has been decorated with so-called “dresses”, or specially-cut metal screens covered with bejeweled cloth. The two oldest of such screens that have been preserved to our times are known as the ruby and the diamond dresses. The jewels that are sewn onto them are votive offerings gathered over the centuries at the Pauline monastery of Częstochowa, where the painting is kept. Many of these jewels are actually quite secular personal accessories that had been worn by kings, queens and aristocrats before they donated them to the Black Madonna. They come in many different shapes and sizes, including a few butterflies and one honey bee.
Even though the diamond dress is dominated by, you guessed it, diamonds, the bee itself is made of other gemstones. As far as I’ve been able to tell, the thorax is made of a square-cut emerald, while the abdomen is an elongated pearl with segmental grooves carved into it. It seems to be a kind of a sewn-on brooch made in Poland in the 17th or 18th century.<ref>{{Cyt