The Best Royal Jewels of 2022: #5 (The Braganza-Stuart Tiara Summit)

In October, King Carl XVI Gustaf and Queen Silvia of Sweden welcomed King Willem-Alexander and Queen Máxima of the Netherlands to Stockholm for a state visit. On the first evening of the visit, they hosted a glittering state banquet in honor of the Dutch royal couple at the Royal Palace. The dress discussion clearly involved pink and diamonds!

Both of the queens consort present wore the grandest tiara from their family’s collection for the banquet. Queen Máxima sparkled in the Stuart Tiara, made in 1897 for Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands. The grand tiara, which can be worn in several different settings, features the 40-carat Stuart Diamond as its centerpiece in its complete setting. (Máxima wore a smaller setting on this occasion.) It’s the same historic diamond acquired by King William III and Queen Mary of Great Britain in the seventeenth century, when they were still the Prince and Princess of Orange.

Queen Máxima added even more diamonds to her ensemble: Queen Wilhelmina’s Diamond Earrings, the Dutch Diamond and Pearl Devant de Corsage, and diamond bracelets on both wrists.

Queen Silvia matched Máxima’s diamond intensity, wearing the grand Braganza Tiara for the dinner. The tiara, often said to be the most important piece of jewelry in the Swedish royal collection, was commissioned in the early nineteenth century by Emperor Pedro I of Brazil for his second wife, Princess Amelie of Leuchtenberg. She would later bequeath the tiara to her sister, Queen Josefina of Sweden and Norway, and it’s been in the Swedish collection ever since. Queen Silvia has been a successful and enthusiastic wearer of the imposing tiara since joining the royal family in the 1970s.

Like Máxima, Silvia added even more diamonds to go along with the tiara: the Karl Johan Earrings, a diamond rivière necklace, diamond bracelets, and one of the family’s diamond rose brooches.