The Princess of Wales has worn one of the most valuable tiaras in the royal collection but it’s a mystery to most people and for a very good reason.
The gem in question hasn’t been seen in public for over twenty years and that’s because it had become so heavily associated with a queen who wasn’t meant to have it that no one else really felt happy wearing it
The tiara in question is called the Circlet and it’s a whopper of a diadem, easily the biggest we’ve ever seen Kate wear.
It’s also a really important jewel for this is a tiara for queens only. Kate is the first princess to be seen using it.
It was created in the 1850s for Queen Victoria with huge input from her husband, Prince Albert. His German roots have played a big part in the State Visit of the President of Germany so the choice of the tiara is appropriate for a State Banquet in his honour. However, the fact that it’s Kate wearing it and not Queen Camilla is intriguing.
For this tiara has only ever been worn in public by women with the title of queen. Victoria loved it and was often seen wearing it although it looked slightly different in her day.
The basic structure is based on Indian architecture and features large diamond arches. Prince Albert was deeply interested in multi culturalism and art and combined the two to help create this tiara which first started to come together in 1851, the year of the Great Exhibition that he organised in London.
It was completed several years later and some of the diamonds in it have an even older royal history as they belonged to Queen Charlotte, grandmother of Queen Victoria and another German born consort to a British monarch.
However, Albert designed this gem to feature opals as its other stone. When he died, in 1861, Victoria put away her biggest jewels and famously wore mourning for the rest of her life.
On her own death, in 1901, she passed this tiara to the Crown so it could never leave the Royal Family. It was used by her daughter-in-law, Queen Alexandra, but she thought the opals were unlucky and had them replaced with rubies. That’s the design that still exists today.
In the intervening years, this tiara has been worn by Queen Alexandra, Queen Mary, Queen Elizabeth, The Queen Mother and Queen Elizabeth II. Seeing it on the Princess of Wales is a major royal moment.
It’s also a new tiara to many royal watchers as it’s not really been seen much in public in the 21st century. The Queen Mum loved it and wore it often while her husband, King George VI, was on the throne. On his death, it should really have passed to their daughter, Elizabeth, who was now queen.
But the Queen Mum was so fond of it she decided to put that decision on ice, no doubt with the full backing of her daughter, and she continued to wear it throughout the later years of her life. When she died, it finally came into Elizabeth II’s possession full time but, perhaps understandably, she didn’t really take to wearing it.
By then, it had become so closely associated with her mother that it didn’t really find a home in her stable of tiaras. Elizabeth II wore it in public once only, during a visit to Malta, and after that it disappeared behind palace walls again.
Until now. Kate’s use of the tiara is a significant royal moment, underlining her role as a queen to be. And it’s also pepped everyone up in these dark December days for a little sparkle does go a very long way.
