The King and Queen have chosen a romantic photo of them for their Christmas card and it hides a special meaning as well as some little known royal history.
King Charles and Queen Camilla are sending a portrait of them in the early spring sunshine in Rome as their festive greeting.
The Queen wears white in the photo while The King is in a dark suit and tie.
However, it’s Queen Camilla’s jewellery that gives the most significant message in this pretty photo.
For her Christmas card this year, Queen Camilla has chosen a brooch shaped like lily of the valley.
The flower is a bridal bloom, often used in wedding bouquets, and a popular choice among royal couples.
(Chris Getty/ Buckingham Palace)
The reason for its popularity lies partly in the meaning given to it in the language of flowers. Lily of the valley signifies a ‘return to happiness’’.
It’s last a symbol of eternal love and very appropriate for a photo that marked twenty years of marriage for The King and Queen.
The brooch in question also has a special link for the couple as it first belonged to Queen Elizabeth, The Queen Mother, the beloved grandmother of King Charles. He spent a lot of time with her as a child and remained devoted to her throughout her life.
It’s been a favourite of Queen Camilla’s for quite some time and she has worn it more in public than The Queen Mother ever did. Her first use of it came in 2006 when her daughter, Laura, got married and the mother of the bride added it to her outfit.
(Royal Family Instagram still/ fair use)
The gem was made by Faberge and it came into the Royal Family in somewhat controversial circumstances. It was actually presented to The Queen Mother by Russian leader, Nikita Krushchev, when he made a visit to London.
The Queen Mother rarely wore it; she received it in 1956 as the Cold War was beginning.
However, it’s since taken on a new lease of life with Queen Camilla who has now made it a central part of her Christmas card.
The photo for the card was taken by Chris Jackson for Getty in the gardens of Villa Wolkonsky, the current official residence of the British Ambassador to Italy.
The villa has its own royal connections. Princess Zinaida Aleksandrovna Volkonskaya, a Russian princess, moved into the villa in the early 1830s. Born a minor Russian princess, she married Prince Nikita Volkonsky in 1810.
When her brother-in-law- Sergey Volkonsky- led a revolt against Tsar Nicholas I in 1825, the family was exiled initially to Siberia and then moved to the Continent.
Zinaida was a well-connected figure in Roman society. She hosted literary salons, was an author herself, and even frequently performed in London and Paris as an opera singer.
The home has had several owners; the British government purchased it to be used for the ambassador in 1951.
(Picture by Stephen Lock / i-Images).
The King and Queen shared their Christmas card with just over two weeks to go until Christmas Day.
They are expected to gather their family around them at Sandringham over the festive season with the Prince and Princess of Wales believed to be joining them for the celebrations at the Norfolk residence. William and Kate, along with Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis, are expected to be among the group walking to church on Christmas Day morning as celebrations get under way.
It was already known that Andrew Mountbatten Windsor, brother of King Charles, wouldn’t be at the Christmas gathering. He dropped out of attending in 2024 after further controversy around his relationship with convicted sex offender, Jeffrey Epstein. Since then, King Charles has stripped his brother of his HRH and Prince as well as his titles of Duke of York, Earl of Inverness and Baron Killyleagh.
It’s not known if Andrew’s two daughters, Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie, will be at Sandringham this year. Both were absent from the Christmas carol service organised by the Princess of Wales at Westminster Abbey last week.
Family is often a theme of the Christmas Day message broadcast by The King. The contents of this year’s address remain secret but there is every chance that more images of the wedding anniversary of King Charles and Queen Camilla, celebrated during a State Visit to Italy, takes centre stage in a year that has seen The King return to a packed schedule while continuing treatment for cancer.
