Friday 12 October 2012

Royal jewels: Queen Maud’s grand diamond tiara

One of the tiaras most frequently worn by Queen Maud, particularly in her younger years, was a grand diamond tiara in three “levels” – a bandeau supporting floral motifs surmounted by thirteen diamond prongs, which were originally interchangeable with turquoise prongs.
The tiara was a wedding present to the then Princess Maud of Britain when she married Prince Carl of Denmark in 1896. She wore it to the coronation of her parents, King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra of Britain, on 9 August 1902 and was also portrayed with it on several occasions during her first years as Queen of Norway after 1905. There is also a miniature in which she wears the tiara with the turquoise prongs, which were later removed and apparently used for other pieces of jewellery.
For the first decades of her husband’s reign, this tiara and a pearl and diamond tiara which had also been a wedding present, were Queen Maud’s only substantial tiaras. Following the death of her mother in 1925 she also inherited the Maltese cross circlet and a turquoise and diamond circlet shaped as an open crown, giving her a wider range of choice. It seems she wore her grand diamond tiara for the wedding of her son, Crown Prince Olav, to Princess Märtha of Sweden on 21 March 1929.
When Queen Maud went to England in the autumn of 1938, she took most of her jewellery with her to have it cleaned. When the Queen died during in London during that stay, her jewels remained in her native country and were kept at Windsor Castle until 1953, when Crown Prince Olav and Crown Princess Märtha brought it home following the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II of Britain.
However, as Crown Princess Märtha died the following year, she never got the chance to use her mother-in-law’s jewellery, which was stored away until 1968, when Crown Prince Harald married Sonja Haraldsen. The jewels were then divided among King Olav’s three children and the grand diamond tiara went to Princess Ragnhild, who had until then had only one tiara.
Princess Ragnhild wore her grandmother’s diamond tiara to several of the royal events she attended in the following years. But from the 1990s the ageing Princess was rarely seen with this grand piece, which is probably rather heavy, opting instead to wear her other tiara, consisting of platinum circles set with large pearls, which she had inherited from her maternal grandmother, Princess Ingeborg of Sweden, in 1958.
I understand that, under a family agreement, the diamond tiara will, following the death of Princess Ragnhild, pass to the King to be worn by other members of the royal family. The platinum tiara will on the other hand remain in the Lorentzen family, as this was inherited by Princess Ragnhild directly from her Swedish grandmother.

7 comments:

  1. Do you know what other pieces of jewelry that will return to the Norwegian royal family now the princess Ragnhild is dead?
    Monica

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    1. I'm afraid I don't - I only asked about the tiaras.

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  2. I wonder if the tiara might be worn soon or reserved for Ingrid Alexandra. I would love to see it on The Queen or The Crown Princess, but I wonder if the ignorant tabloid press might make cruel accusations that the family was distasteful or disrespectful of the late princess. In my opinion, wearing the tiara is the ultimate tribute to Maud, the first modern queen of a modern independent Norway.

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    1. The first queen of independent Norway was Hedvig Elisabeth Charlotta, not Maud. Norway became independent in 1814, not in 1905.

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  3. I stand corrected, thank you I will read up on that queen.

    As for the lovely diamond tiara, I do hope it is worn again soon.

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  4. Was Princess Ragnhild's other tiara, consisting of platinum circles set with large pearls, inherited from her maternal grandmother in 1958?
    I'm asking because from a picture of Queen Margarethe of Denmark's wedding in 1967 it seems to me that this tiara was then worn by Princess Ragnhild's aunt Margaretha!
    I'm discovering now your blog and I'm finding it very interesting!
    Lorenz

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    1. The answer to your question is already in the blog article. Princess Ingeborg, her daughters, granddaughters and granddaughters-in-law (and some other relatives, including Queen Ingrid and Princess Margrethe of Bourbon-Parma), frequently borrowed jewels from each other.

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