Today marks the 95th Anniversary of the Birth of the late Princess Ragnhild of Norway, who was born on this day in 1930! The elder sister of King Harald, who married her former bodyguard and moved to Brazil, Princess Ragnhild possessed a variety of heirloom jewels, like Queen Maud’s Diamond Tiara!
Queen Maud’s Diamond Tiara | Boucheron Pearl Circle Tiara | Vasa Tiara | Crown Princess Märtha’s Pearl Earrings | Pearl Brooch | Art Deco Diamond Bracelet
When Princess Maud of Wales married Prince Charles of Denmark in 1896, she received a plethora of glittering jewels which included a Pearl Tiara from her parents, the Vifte Tiara from the Rothschilds, a Pearl and Diamond Necklace, and this spectacular Diamond Tiara from’ Lady and Gentlemen Friends’.
The Tiara has an intricate design on a base of collets between two rows of diamonds with a diamond floral motif, topped with diamond uprights, that are interchangeable with turquoises.
This diamond tiara with a pattern of shamrocks, topped by 18 or 20 (sources differ) large and very valuable diamonds framed by smaller diamonds, was a wedding present to the future Queen Maud in 1896 from a group of 33 friends, among them the Marchionesses of Salisbury and Londonderry.
The tiara, which can be worn as a circlet, was created by the jeweller Carrington, which also delivered alternative toppers of turquoises as wedding presents from Maud’s siblings and siblings-in-law
Princess Maud wore the Diamond Tiara on numerous occasions and for several portraits in the early years other marriage.
In 1902, Princess Maud wore her Diamond Tiara for the Coronation of her parents, King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra, at Westminster Abbey.
Queen Maud also wore the Diamond Tiara at a Gala Performance during the British State Visit to Norway in 1908.
The Diamond Tiara was also worn by Queen Maud for several of her official portraits in her first decade as Queen of Norway, though was not publicly pictured in the decades afterwards.
While it was long believed that Queen Maud’s jewels remained in England after her death and during the Second World War, only being reclaimed during a visit for the Queen’s Coronation in 1953, but Trond Noren Isaksen writes that they were smuggled out of Norway during the Nazi Occupation and only sent to Britain during the communist scare in 1948.
When I wrote my biography of Princess Astrid, «Kvinne blant konger», she told me that the reason why Crown Princess Märtha barely wore any of her mother-in-law’s jewels was that Queen Maud took all her jewels with her to London in the autumn of 1938 to have them cleaned, and after the Queen died during her stay in England, her jewels remained at Windsor Castle until 1953, when Crown Prince Olav, Crown Princess Märtha and Princess Astrid brought them back to Norway after Elizabeth II’s coronation. However, when I wrote my book on Crown Princess Märtha during WWII, «Kronprinsessens krig», I realised that this could not be quite correct, as the diaries of the Marshal of the Court, Peter F. Broch, show that he smuggled Queen Maud’s jewels out of the Palace after the German attack in 1940 and had them sent to Crown Princess Märtha, who at that time was in Sweden.
The answer to how they ended up in Britain can be found in the correspondence between King Olav and Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother in the British Royal Archives to which His Majesty King Charles III has kindly given me access. The answer lies in the war scare of 1948.
In February 1948, the communists seized power in Czechoslovakia, which caused widespread fear that Norway was next on the USSR’s list – indeed, this led to Norway abandoning its neutrality and becoming a founding member of NATO. In the summer, Crown Prince Olav took a large trunk containing his mother’s jewels with him when he and his family travelled to London for the Olympics. Before returning home, he deposited it at the Norwegian Embassy and wrote to the then Queen Elizabeth that he feared they might not be be able to get the jewels out of Norway if they had to flee a second time and asked if she might store them where she kept her own jewels, to which Queen Elizabeth agreed.
Not long afterwards, Crown Princess Martha passed away, and the jewels remained in the vaults for years until the Norwegian Royal jewellery collection was divided up following the wedding of then Crown Prince Harald in 1968. Queen Maud’s Diamond Tiara remained unworn until it was worn by Princess Ragnhild for the Portuguese State Visit to Norway in 1980 and King Olav V of Norway’s 80th Birthday Banquet in 1983.
Princess Ragnhild wore Queen Maud’s Diamond Tiara for the Dutch State Visit to Norway in 1986, Crown Prince Haakon’s Confirmation in 1988, and also a Gala after King Harald V’s Consecration in 1991.
Queen Maud’s Diamond Tiara was last worn by Princess Ragnhild for King Harald and Queen Sonja’s Silver Wedding Anniversary Banquet at the Royal Palace of Oslo in 1993 but was not seen in the years after that, instead wearing Princess Ingeborg’s Boucheron Pearl Tiara.
After Princess Ragnhild’s death in 2012, Queen Maud’s Diamond Tiara was one of the family heirlooms that passed back into the collection of the main Royal Family, and while we have seen Princess Ingrid Alexandra or Crown Princess Mette-Marit wearing Princess Ingeborg’s Boucheron Pearl Circle Tiara, Crown Princess Märtha’s Pearl Earrings, a Diamond Rivière from Queen Maud, Crown Princess Märtha’s Art Deco Diamond Bracelet and a Pearl Brooch, all in the possession of the late Princess Ragnhild, in recent years, Queen Maud’s Diamond Tiara has yet to reappear!
Queen Maud’s Diamond Tiara | Boucheron Pearl Circle Tiara | Vasa Tiara | Crown Princess Märtha’s Pearl Earrings | Pearl Brooch | Art Deco Diamond Bracelet
