Sweden’s future queen chose a tiara packed with history and personal meanings for a sparkling event at Stockholm’s Royal Palace.
Crown Princess Victoria wore the Laurel Wreath tiara, a pretty gem left to her by her beloved great aunt, Princess Lilian, whose own story is one of the most famous royal romances of the 20th century.
The glittering tribute came as the Swedish Royal Family hosted their annual Representatives Dinner at the Royal Palace in Stockholm. Crown Princess Victoria and her mother, Queen Silvia, each wore one of their favourite tiaras for the event.
(Kungahuset Instagram still/ fair use)
Queen Silvia chose one of the largest tiaras in the Swedish collection, the Napoleonic Amethyst Parure Tiara. This tiara was originally a necklace that has been reset into a tiara. It has fifteen large oval-shaped amethysts set in gold, surrounded by a circle of diamonds set in silver. There are additional diamond and silver interlocking elements between each amethyst.
The amethyst necklace reportedly belonged to Empress Josephine, the first wife of Napoleon. The necklace and matching pieces in the parure entered the Swedish Royal Family when Josephine of Leuchtenberg married into the family in 1823.
(Kungahuset Instagram still/ fair use)
Queen Silvia herself had the necklace reset into a tiara, and it has become one of her favourites.
Crown Princess Victoria went with one of her favourite personal tiaras for the evening, the Diamond Laurel Wreath Tiara. This piece was also first a necklace, created by French jeweller Boucheron for Princess Margaret of Connaught who married Prince Gustaf Adolf of Sweden in 1905.
Margaret’s son, Prince Bertil, ended up inheriting the tiara, and it was his wife, Princess Lilian who would wear the double laurel wreath tiara.
(Kungahuset Instagram still/ fair use)
Lilian Davies was born in Swansea in Wales and fell in love with Bertil after the end of her first marriage. As a divorcee and a non royal, Lilian couldn’t marry Bertil without him giving up his rights to the throne and at the time, the Swedish royal family was in a succession crisis.
It was only after the accession of Bertil’s nephew as King Carl XVI Gustaf in 1973 that rules were relaxed and Lilian became a princess in 1976, decades into her relationship with her prince. She was much loved by her husband’s family and upon her death in 2013, she left the Boucheron tiara to Crown Princess Victoria.
Crown Princess Victoria wears the tiara frequently, and even wore it to her the 2013 wedding of her younger sister, Princess Madeleine.
