Queen Camilla’s Sparkling Diamond Tribute to Royal Navy History

King Charles III and Queen Camilla hosted a special reception in London this week, with Queen Camilla wearing a special diamond brooch with a fascinating link to naval history. 

On Thursday evening, King Charles III and Queen Camilla hosted a reception at St. James’s Palace in London to celebrate the return of HMS Prince of Wales from an eight-month deployment with the Carrier Strike Group. The ship, which is the eighth to bear its name, was officially launched by its Lady Sponsor, Queen Camilla, in 2017.

For the reception, Camilla wore a royal blue jacket with velvet accents and a coordinating skirt, paired with pearl drop earrings and a special brooch with interesting links to British naval history.

The jewel is a diamond chelengk, an ornament used as a military decoration by the Ottoman Empire. The ornament is an aigrette, a jeweled representation of the feathers that the Ottomans attached to their turbans as a symbol of bravery. The ornament is sometimes also called a “Plume of Triumph.”

The chelengk worn by Camilla is a replica of one specific example of the type. In August 1798, Lord Nelson commanded the Royal Navy against the French in the Battle of the Nile. After a decisive victory by the British, the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire, Selim III, presented a specially-made diamond chelengk to Nelson. It was the first time a chelengk had been presented to someone from outside the Ottoman Empire. Nelson wore the chelengk on his hat, a nod to the traditional placement on Turkish turbans.

The thirteen rays of the chelengk presented to Nelson represented the thirteen French ships that the British captured or destroyed in the battle. In 1929, the chelengk was in danger of being sold, and the National Art Collection Fund appealed for help in raising funds to save the naval relic. Lady Barclay, wife of the late British ambassador to Portugal, stepped up and offered to purchase the chelengk as a gift to the nation.

The chelengk was placed in the collection of the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich. It seemed that it was safely home for good—but in 1951, it was stolen from the museum’s Nelson Gallery. The thief was a career criminal, George Henry Chatham. He sold the ornament for just a few thousand pounds. It has never been recovered, and today the museum displays a replica of the original chelengk.

The diamond brooch worn by Camilla for the HMS Prince of Wales reception is another replica of Nelson’s chelengk. She has worn it for various events connected to the Royal Navy for more than a decade, including a memorable visit to Portsmouth in 2014.

Here’s one more brooch on Camilla at this week’s reception. She also wore her usual array of necklaces and bracelets for the event, including a Van Cleef & Arpels Alhambra bracelet on her left wrist.

I’ve got one more bejeweled treat for you today as well: my final Hidden Gems article of the year! This week’s piece was especially fun to write. It’s a deep-dive into the history of a gorgeous jade necklace worn by Barbara Hutton at the Met in December 1933—and displayed earlier this year at the V&A. Enjoy!