Queen Mary chose to honour the shared history between the Swedish and Danish Royal Families at last night’s glittering state dinner in Stockholm, wearing her Danish Ruby Parure for her first official visit as Queen.
The Danish Ruby Parure has been Queen Mary’s go-to tiara and jewellery suite since her 2004 wedding, but its history dates back to a line of Swedish queens and princesses.
The ruby jewels were first created at the dawn of the 19th century for Queen Désirée, who was married to Charles XIV John of Sweden. She wore a suite of jewels that comprise the parure to the coronation of Napoleon Bonaparte and later had the tiara fashioned from existing pieces.
Her great-granddaughter, Louisa, would bring the ruby parure with her to Denmark upon her marriage to then-Crown Prince Frederick (who would later reign as King Frederick VIII) in 1869.
Through Queen Louise, the Danish Ruby Parure became a staple of the Danish Royal Family’s jewellery and was worn by subsequent queens including Queen Alexandrine and Queen Ingrid (herself a Swedish princess by birth).
Queen Ingrid willed the Danish Ruby Parure to her grandson, then-Crown Prince Frederik, for his future bride, who would become Queen Mary.
Last night, Queen Mary wore the tiara, earrings, necklace, brooch and bracelet from the parure.
Elsewhere, Queen Silvia wore the Duchess of Leuchtenberg’s Sapphire Parure Tiara, Crown Princess Victoria wore the Connaught Diamond Tiara, Princess Sofia wore her diamond wedding tiara with the light blue topaz toppers, and Princess Christina wore the Four Button Tiara.
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