Queen Letizia Gleams in Queen Ena’s Prized Pearls in Madrid

While we were all drooling over tiaras in Windsor last week, the Queen of Spain stepped out in an heirloom pearl necklace that belonged to the King’s British royal great-grandmother, Queen Ena.

King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia of Spain arrived at the Madrid headquarters of ABC, one of Spain’s three main newspapers, on Tuesday, July 8, to attend the paper’s 105th annual journalism awards ceremony.

The King and Queen personally presented the three major awards of the evening: the Mariano de Cavia Award, which was given to the Argentine political analyst Jorge Fernández Díaz; the Luca de Tena Award, which was given to one of Spain’s most prominent radio broadcasters, Carlos Alsina; and the Mingote Award, which was given to the celebrated photographer Txema Rodríguez.

For the awards ceremony, Queen Letizia—a former journalist and broadcaster herself—arrived wearing a sleek strapless black column gown with black accessories. Her jewelry was simple but statement-making: bezel-set diamond stud earrings and a classic row of pearls.

The pearl necklace is one of the treasures of the Spanish royal jewelry vaults. The necklace features 37 large, round white pearls and a diamond clasp. The perfectly-matched pearls date to before the era when cultured pearls were readily available, and such beautiful natural pearls would have been extraordinarily expensive when they were purchased.

Such grand, valuable pearls were fit for a king—and indeed it was a king who originally purchased them. King Alfonso XIII bought the pearls for his bride, Princess Victoria Eugenie of Battenberg, as a wedding present in 1906. Queen Ena, as she was known, was painted wearing the necklace by the noted portraitist Philip de László four years after their royal wedding.

In her will, Queen Ena designated the pearls as part of the joyas de pasar, a collection of jewels designed to pass from monarch to monarch for the use of the Queen of Spain. Above, Queen Sofia, the wife of Queen Ena’s grandson, King Juan Carlos, wears the pearls for the inauguration of Pope Benedict XVI at the Vatican in 2005.

Queen Letizia made her public debut in the pearls in 2018, four years after her husband’s accession to the throne. The occasion was a diplomatic luncheon for the visiting President of Germany at the Royal Palace in Madrid.

She’s worn the pearls on a few occasions in the years since then. One notable appearance came earlier this year, when she wore the necklace with a burgundy-colored sweater for the Pascua Militar celebrations in Madrid.

Here’s one more look at Queen Letizia wearing the pearls for the ABC awards on July 8. As usual, she also wore her Coreterno ring, thought to be a gift from King Felipe, on the index finger of her left hand.