We’re celebrating November royal birthdays all week here in our Sparkling Spotlight posts! Today, we’ve got a closer look at a gala appearance from a woman who often appears at grand royal events: Crown Princess Katherine of Serbia.
On June 19, 2010, Crown Prince Alexander and Crown Prince Katherine of Serbia were on the guest list for one of the grandest recent royal weddings: the nuptials of Crown Princess Victoria and Prince Daniel of Sweden in Stockholm. They arrived at the cathedral with another royal, Hereditary Grand Duke Guillaume of Luxembourg.
I imagine that some of you might be puzzled a bit, asking: Serbia has a monarchy? The answer is no, they don’t now. But when Crown Prince Alexander was born, his father was still reigning as King Peter II of Yugoslavia. The monarchy was abolished in 1945, and Crown Prince Alexander is now really just the head of the family (the House of Karadordevic). But in 2001, Alexander and his family moved back into the Royal Palace in Belgrade, and he often attends public functions in Serbia, taking on a kind of non-political, semi-official role. Several years ago, one of his sons was even married in a royal wedding in Belgrade.
Crown Prince Alexander also has lots of ties to other royal families. He was born at Claridge’s Hotel in London during the war, and Queen Elizabeth II is one of his godparents. His mother, Queen Alexandra, was born a Greek princess, making him a cousin of the British royals through Prince Philip, as well as a cousin of numerous German, Romanian, Spanish, Scandinavian, and Italian royals. He’s a descendant of Queen Victoria via both of his parents. And through his great-grandmother, Queen Olga of the Hellenes, he’s also a descendant of the Romanovs.
For most royal gala occasions, Crown Princess Katherine wears the same set of diamond and pearl jewels. Her tiara is a small sparkler made of diamond scrolls and clustered pearls. It’s a petite jewel, and it often gets a little lost in her hair. This is one of the clearer views of the piece from the Swedish royal wedding, taken outside the palace as the newlyweds greeted the crowds.
She almost always pairs the tiara with this set of chain-link jewels, which includes a necklace and a matching pair of earrings. I believe these are pavé-set with diamonds.
On this occasion, Katherine also wore a diamond bracelet on her right wrist, and a gold watch on her left. Her order sash and star are from the Order of St. Sava, a historical order of chivalry from Serbia/Yugoslavia.
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