A dazzling diamond tiara presented to a princess to mark her marriage has become a wedding staple for one branch of the Royal Family.
In the winter of 1934, London was alight with excitement over the marriage of a beautiful princess and a handsome prince and to mark the moment, some of the wealthiest people in the capital banded together to give the bride a stunning set of jewels.
The City of London presented Princess Marina of Greece with an all diamond diadem in the rather fashionable fringe style and it went on to become a favourite of hers following that glittering wedding to George V and Queen Mary’s youngest surviving son, Prince George.
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Princess Marina, now Duchess of Kent, wore the City of London fringe tiara to many royal events including one of the most historic of the 20th century, the Coronation of King George VI. When one of her new brothers-in-law, Edward VIII, decided he could no longer remain king without the support of Wallis Simpson as his wife, he abdicated the throne and another of Marina’s relations by marriage became monarch. The shy and quiet Albert, Duke of York was transformed into George VI and when he walked into Westminster Abbey to be crowned, Marina was in the royal seats, wearing the City of London fringe tiara.
The Abdication had been traumatic both personally and publicly for the Royal Family but one moment of joy had come just days after Edward VIII had walked away from his destiny. Princess Marina gave birth to a daughter on Christmas Day 1936 and her little girl became the first royal born in the reign of George VI.
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In April 1963, Alexandra married in a huge ceremony at Westminster Abbey. By then, Elizabeth II was Monarch and the bride, her first cousin, had become an integral part of her new Royal Family. Her marriage, to Angus Ogilvy, drew worldwide attention and the bride chose a very special tiara for the moment – the City of London fringe.
The sparkling spikes of the diadem held a beautiful veil that covered a dress made of Valenciennes lace. It was a sweet link between mother and daughter on this most important of days.
Just five years later, Princess Marina died after a sudden and short illness. Her jewels were divided between her grieving family and the tiara passed to her youngest child, Prince Michael of Kent. A decade on, his own bride worn it on their wedding day. Marie-Christine von Reibnitz was divorced when she accepted Prince Michael’s proposal and the two ended up marrying in a civil ceremony in Vienna.
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However, a glamourous reception followed and it was there that the new Princess Michael of Kent wore a bright white wedding gown and tiara – the City of London fringe.
In 2019, the wedding present tiara became a wedding tiara again when Princess Michael’s only daughter wore it for her marriage, Lady Gabriella Windsor was the granddaughter that Princess Marina never met, born in 1981, long after her grandmother’s death. However, it was Marina’s tiara that Gabriella wore for her marriage to Thomas Kingston at St. George’s Chapel, Windsor.
It was another suitable chapter in the history of a tiara that began as a wedding gift for a princess who took London by storm.