- Shortly after announcing that they are expecting their second child, Princess Madeleine of Sweden and Christopher O’Neill have moved from New York to Stockholm. According to the Swedish constitution, Madeleine’s children must be raised in Sweden to remain in the line of succession. (The Local Sweden)
- The New Year Honours List has been released. We’ll soon be seeing members of the British royal family knighting Sir John Hurt and awarding damehoods to Joan Collins, Kristin Scott Thomas, and Carol Ann Duffy. (Guardian)
- Patricia Treble breaks down the exact date when Elizabeth II will become Britain’s longest-serving sovereign — and when I say exact, I mean down to the hour and minute! (Maclean’s)
- Ahead of her fiftieth birthday this month, the Countess of Wessex has given an interview to Harper’s Bazaar. Here’s an excerpt from the piece. (Harper’s Bazaar)
- A BBC documentary about the PR strategies of the royal family after Diana’s death has been pulled from the January television schedule and postponed to a future date. (Radio Times)
- Dueling television movies about Crown Prince Frederik and Crown Princess Mary of Denmark are currently in production; the movie about Frederik will air in Denmark, while Australian TV will play the film about Mary. (Guardian)
- Another Garter knight spot opened with the death of the 8th Duke of Wellington, who would have turned 100 in 2015. The late duke’s son, Lord Douro, now becomes the 9th Duke. (Telegraph)
- Sandra Torlonia, the daughter of Infanta Beatriz of Spain, also died recently. She was the first cousin of King Juan Carlos of Spain and the aunt of Princess Sibilla of Luxembourg. (Vanitatis)
- The Duke of York has been named in a sexual assault case; Buckingham Palace states that the allegations are “categorically untrue.” (Guardian, BBC News)
Archives for January 2015
Saturday Sparkler: The Miller Fringe Tiara
The Greek royal family may not have a country to rule anymore, but they still have an impressive jewel collection. However, this diamond fringe tiara is a new addition to the Greek vaults, courtesy one of the newer additions to the family, Crown Princess Marie-Chantal.
For years, there have been rumors that this tiara was a gift from Marie-Chantal’s wealthy family, the Millers. Her father, Robert Warren Miller, is one of the co-founders of the Duty Free Shops, those great purveyors of perfume, booze, and giant Toblerones, so there’s certainly enough money in the Miller coffers for a tiara or two.
Marie-Chantal is the only person who has been photographed wearing this tiara, so most have guessed that the tiara was a gift earmarked specifically for her; however, others (including the writer Vincent Meylan) have suggested that the tiara was actually purchased at auction for Pavlos and Marie-Chantal’s only daughter, Princess Maria-Olympia, by her grandmother, Chantal Miller. Meylan has noted that the gift was bestowed on the baby princess as a christening gift.
If that’s the case, Marie-Chantal is really just warming up this lovely fringe tiara for her eighteen-year-old daughter. As it’s tradition in Scandinavian monarchies for princesses to receive tiaras for their eighteenth birthdays — and Maria-Olympia is the granddaughter of a Danish princess and the great-niece of the reigning Danish queen — perhaps we’ll get to see it on Maria-Olympia herself in the near future?
This Week in Royal Jewels: December 19-January 1
9. The Dutch royal family posed for pictures on December 22 during a Christmas visit to Queen Maxima’s native Argentina. She wore a stack of familiar bracelets…
… and, keeping with this year’s big trend, rather large orange earrings.
#Denmark‘s Queen Margrethe greets refugees welcome in New Year’s address http://t.co/EQJpp6bfmc pic.twitter.com/96wXSi82Hm
— The Local Denmark (@TheLocalDenmark) December 31, 2014
8. Queen Margrethe II of Denmark delivered her annual New Year’s speech on December 31. The Queen wore large purple earrings, gray-toned pearls, and a brooch. You can read more about the Queen’s address here.
7. Emperor Akihito of Japan celebrated his birthday on December 23, and the senior members of the royal family gathered with him for a balcony appearance. Empress Michiko departed just slightly from her usual minimalist jewels, wearing a gorgeous multi-stranded pearl necklace.
6. The rest of the ladies of the imperial family — Crown Princess Masako, Princess Kiko, and Princess Mako — all went with standard daytime pearls and brooches for the Emperor’s birthday celebrations.
5. The senior ranks of the imperial family in Japan grew by one on December 29, when Princess Kako, the younger daughter of Prince Fumihito and Princess Kiko, turned twenty. On their twentieth birthdays, imperial princesses officially come of age, and they’re given the Order of the Precious Crown and a set of jewels to wear at the imperial court. Kako wears her new order and her new mirrored set of jewels, which features a fleur-de-lys motif in diamonds, at the Imperial Palace in Tokyo, where she was officially presented to her grandparents.
(source) |
4. On January 1, Emperor Akihito delivered his traditional new year greeting at the palace, and the ladies of the family appeared in full court dress. Masako doesn’t attend this event as a general rule (though sometimes we get pictures of her in the car arriving at the palace), and Michiko no longer wears a tiara at the event. But the other imperial princesses do. From left to right above: Princess Kiko wears her wedding tiara and mirrored necklace, and Princess Mako wears the mirrored jewel set she received on her twentieth birthday in 2011, and Princess Kako wears her new jewels. Princess Nobuko and Princess Akiko are also wearing the usual diamond mirrored jewels with delicate diamond drop earrings.
3. The traditional New Year’s Levée was held in Denmark on January 1. The members of the royal family attend in gala jewels and the regalia of the Order of the Elephant. Princess Marie wore a tiara we discussed here recently: Princess Dagmar’s Floral Tiara.
2. Queen Margrethe looked every inch a monarch at the New Year’s Court, wearing the emerald parure from the country’s crown jewels with her Elephant regalia.
1. She may be the second lady in Denmark, but Crown Princess Mary gets my vote for the jewel-wearer of the week. Her continued inventiveness with the heirloom ruby parure fascinates me — here she wears the tiara, the necklace without its pendant drops, and the stud version of the ruby earrings with an added pearl drop. Just lovely. (Plus: purple velvet cape!)