Foreign Royal Jewels at the Funeral of Queen Elizabeth II

Following the death of Queen Elizabeth II, Queen Margrethe II of Denmark is now the world’s longest-serving head of state. (She celebrated her Golden Jubilee this January.) Margrethe and Elizabeth were also friends and cousins, as both were descendants of Queen Victoria and of King Christian IX of Denmark. Crown Prince Frederik joined his mother at the state funeral.

For the occasion, Margrethe wore diamonds and pearls. Her most significant accessory was the Connaught Pearl Bar Brooch. Margrethe is a granddaughter of Princess Margaret of Connaught, granddaughter of Queen Victoria and niece of King Edward VII. In the 1950s, Margrethe’s aunt, Lady Patricia Ramsay (Margaret of Connaught’s sister) gave her the brooch as a birthday present.

King Carl XVI Gustaf and Queen Silvia arrived from Sweden to attend the funeral. Like Queen Elizabeth II, King Carl Gustaf is a descendant of Queen Victoria (via two of her sons, the Duke of Connaught and the Duke of Albany). Queen Silvia wore pearls with the Swedish Diamond Lozenge Brooch for the services.

Some of the closest cousins of the Windsors are the Norwegian royal family, who are descendants of Queen Maud, daughter of King Edward VII of the United Kingdom. Queen Sonja, who accompanied King Harald V to the funeral, wore pearls.

King Abdullah II of Jordan (who is half British via his mother, who was born in Suffolk) attended with Queen Rania, who wore a lovely pair of modern diamond earrings.

King Abdullah’s half-sister, Princess Haya of Jordan, was present for the committal service at Windsor as well, along with their uncle, Prince El Hassan. Both also have long-standing ties to Britain. Haya, who now lives in London full time, developed a close relationship with the late Queen via their mutual interest in the world of racing, while Prince El Hassan was educated at British schools, including Oxford.

Princess Haya wore diamonds and pearls on Monday as well, including a lovely diamond flower brooch. The miniature ribbon and badge of Jordan’s Supreme Order of the Renaissance was also pinned to her jacket.

The Grand Duke and Grand Duchess of Luxembourg were in attendance. Like Elizabeth II, Henri is a descendant of King Christian IX of Denmark, and they’re also linked through their Belgian royal relatives. (Henri, like many other foreign royals who attended the funeral, was also trained at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst.) Grand Duchess Maria Teresa wore classic pearls for the service.

Representing Liechtensten were Hereditary Prince Alois and his wife, Hereditary Princess Sophie. She wore pearls and a lovely diamond bow brooch. Alois is also a Sandhurst alum, and he served for several years with the Coldstream Guards.

The Prince and Princess of Monaco were also in attendance. Charlene wore pearl earrings and the miniature ribbon and badge of the Order of Saint-Charles.

The monarchs of Japan and Bhutan arrived together. Empress Masako, pictured beside Emperor Naruhito, wore a dark necklace and coordinating earrings that nearly disappeared against her dress. Behind them are King Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck of Bhutan and Queen Jetsun Pema, who wore silvery black pearls.

The Netherlands was represented by King Willem-Alexander and Queen Máxima, as well as Princess Beatrix. Queen Máxima wore diamond and pearl cluster earrings, a diamond and pearl cluster brooch with a pearl pendant, and a pearl bracelet.

Here’s a closer look at Máxima’s earrings and brooch.

Princes Beatrix wore black pearls and a lovely floral brooch. She and the late Queen had been part of a shrinking sorority of female monarchs. Now, following Beatrix’s abdication and the Queen’s passing, the only woman currently sitting on a throne is Queen Margrethe II of Denmark. (In the coming generations, however, the thrones of numerous European countries—Belgium, Spain, Sweden, Norway, the Netherlands—will be occupied by women.)

Here’s a glimpse of two more European royal couples: the King and Queen of Spain, followed by the King and Queen of the Belgians. Queen Mathilde wore a pearl choker necklace with Queen Fabiola’s Diamond and Pearl Drop Earrings and a diamond butterfly brooch. She has worn the brooch for several occasions over the years, including the Belgian state visit to Denmark in 2017.

Queen Letizia kept her jewelry very minimal on Monday, wearing just her diamond and white gold “Plume” earrings from Chanel. However, on Sunday at the Spanish embassy in London, she was photographed wearing the gray pearl brooch from the joyas de pasar collection.

For the funeral, Letizia’s mother-in-law wore multiple pieces of heirloom jewelry. Queen Sofia of Spain wore a pearl necklace with the diamond and ruby pendant that belonged to her mother, Queen Friederike of the Hellenes, as well as a pearl brooch that belonged to the Countess of Barcelona.

The Queen of Malaysia wore stunning pearls and a beautiful diamond ribbon brooch.

There were representatives from former royal families as well, including those who formerly reigned in Bulgaria, Greece, Romania, and Yugoslavia (Serbia). Crown Prince Alexander of Serbia is one of the late Queen’s godsons. He attended with his wife, Crown Princess Katherine, who appears to have worn small floral earrings.

Margareta, the Custodian of the Crown of Romania, attended with her husband, Prince Radu. She’s the eldest daughter of the late King Michael I of Romania (who was a first cousin of the Duke of Edinburgh, Margareta’s godfather) and Princess Anne of Bourbon-Parma (a member of both the Danish and Italian royal families). Margareta’s parents met and fell in love in London during the 1947 royal wedding celebrations and married the following year. As a child, Margareta was close to the British royals, often spending summer holidays playing with Prince Charles and Princess Anne. Later, she studied at the University of Edinburgh, where she dated another attendant at today’s funeral: former Prime Minister Gordon Brown.

For the funeral, Margareta wore pearls, plus a diamond and pearl fleur-de-lis brooch that belonged to her Greek royal grandmother, Queen Helen.

And speaking of the Greeks, they were there as well. They’re more than just formerly reigning royals: they’re family, related to both the late Duke of Edinburgh and the late Queen. Queen Anne-Marie, pictured here with Crown Prince Pavlos, is a sister of Queen Margrethe II of Denmark and therefore a cousin of the British royals as well. She wore diamonds and pearls, including her diamond cross pendant. She also wore a small pearl brooch—actually a pair of clips—that belonged to her step-grandmother, Queen Louise of Sweden (who was a sister of both Lord Mountbatten and Princess Andrew of Greece).

Following the referendum that abolished the monarchy in Greece, the former royal family settled in England. Crown Prince Pavlos (another Sandhurst alum, who served with the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards) was raised and educated in London, where he still lives for part of the year. He was joined at the funeral by his wife, Crown Princess Marie-Chantal, who wore diamond earrings and a diamond brooch with a coronet design.

And we’ll wrap up this post with a glimpse of a few more members of non-reigning royal houses. The late Duke of Edinburgh’s four sisters married into the German royal houses of Hohenlohe-Langenburg, Baden, Hesse, and Hanover, and representatives of their families were in attendance at the funeral. Here, a few of them are pictured in Windsor on Monday. On the left are Donatus, head of the House of Hesse, with his wife, Floria. And on the right are Bernhard of Baden and his mother, Valerie. (His wife Stephanie, not pictured here, also attended the service.)