Birthday wishes go out today to Princess Madeleine, the younger daughter of the King and Queen of Sweden. To join in the celebrations, we’ve got a look today at the way she has styled one of the royal family’s most treasured jewels: the Connaught Diamond Tiara.
The tiara is an Edwardian diamond fantasy piece, featuring garlands of forget-me-nots, suspended diamond drops that mimic floral buds, and diamond ribbons that do double duty as the leaves and bases of small blooms. The jewel’s design is particularly complicated because it is essentially designed to be visually reversible.
On a tiara frame, the garland loops form frames around the diamond floral pendants. Taken off its frame, the piece becomes a necklace featuring alternating diamond ribbons and floral circles with the diamond pendants suspended from the other side of the loops. A second necklace setting uses just the five diamond pendants, suspending them from a delicate chain necklace.
The magnificent, innovative jewel belonged to one of the most influential royal women of her generation. Princess Margaret of Connaught, a granddaughter of Queen Victoria and niece of King Edward VII, fell in love with the future King Gustaf VI Adolf of Sweden on a trip to Egypt in 1905. They were engaged within weeks and married that June at St. George’s Chapel, Windsor. Among her treasure trove of glittering wedding presents was the diamond tiara, which was her gift from her parents, the Duke and Duchess of Connaught.
Sadly, Princess Margaret died in 1920 at the age of 38, leaving behind a grieving widower and five children and a staggering jewelry legacy. The Connaught Diamond Tiara was inherited by her eldest son, Prince Gustaf Adolf, who seemed destined to follow his father on to the Swedish throne. The tiara was particularly treasured by his wife, Princess Sibylla, whom he married in 1932. But, in an unsettling echo of history, Gustaf also died young. He was just 40 when he died in a plane crash in 1947, leaving behind a grieving widow and five children.
Princess Sibylla remained a central part of the Swedish royal family even after her husband’s death, raising four daughters and a son, who is now King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden. When she died in 1972, the tiara remained with the family. One of her daughters, Princess Christina, even wore the diamond jewel as a wedding tiara, in a sentimental tribute to her late mother. The late princess had become so associated with the jewel that, to this day, the Swedish royal family simply calls it “Princess Sibylla’s Tiara.”
Since her marriage to the King in 1976, the primary wearer of the tiara has been Queen Silvia. She famously wore it for her very first tiara appearance, with the encouragement of her sisters-in-law, and for one of her early Nobel banquets, pictured above. But the jewel is not solely reserved for her use, and it has often been worn by other family members too, including both of Silvia’s daughters, Crown Princess Victoria and Princess Madeleine.
Princess Madeleine began using elements of from the tiara long before she actually wore the full tiara on its frame. For several events in the early 2000s, including the wedding of Princess Märtha Louise of Norway and a German state visit to Sweden, she wore the five diamond pendant drops from the tiara in their smaller necklace setting on a delicate chain. She paired this setting of the jewel with both Queen Louise’s Aquamarine Bandeau and the Modern Fringe Tiara.
In June 2010, for one of the most important Swedish royal events of her generation, Princess Madeleine made her debut in the full Connaught Diamond Tiara. She wore the tiara with pearl drop earrings and the Swedish Processional Necklace for the wedding of her sister, Crown Princess Victoria, to Daniel Westling in Stockholm. Notably, the tiara’s base was still wrapped in dark brown velvet to match her mother’s hair.
Over the years, Madeleine has worn the tiara on other occasions. She memorably wore the tiara for the Nobel Prize ceremony and banquet in December 2016. By this time, her hair was darker, and the tiara’s velvet base blended more seamlessly with her updo.
The 2016s Nobels were a fascinating moment for the Connaught jewel. The day after the Nobel Prize ceremony and banquet, for the annual King’s Dinner for the Nobel laureates at the Royal Palace, Madeleine wore the piece for a second time—but in its large necklace setting rather than as a tiara. She wore the necklace with the Modern Fringe Tiara and the Vasa Earrings for the event.
More recently, we saw Madeleine wear the tiara once again for the Nobels. On December 10, 2024, she wore the tiara for the annual Nobel Prize ceremony and banquet, paired with the earrings and brooch from the family’s demi-parure of emerald and diamond jewels.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.