Princess Charlene’s Elegant Diplomatic Pearls

On Tuesday, September 5, Prince Albert II of Monaco received the new Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the French Republic to Monaco, Jean d’Haussonville.

Ambassador d’Haussonville, who is a member of a French noble family, presented his credentials to Prince Albert during a ceremony at the Palais Princier. The diplomatic relationship with France is Monaco’s most important one. Nestled on the French Riviera, Monaco depends on France for its military defenses, and at various points in history, Monaco’s territory was annexed to France. In 2005, a new agreement between the two nations was ratified that upgraded France’s representative headquarters in the principality from a consulate to an embassy and allowed other nations to send accredited ambassadors to Monaco as well.

The appointment of Ambassador d’Haussonville was celebrated with a luncheon hosted by Pierre Dartout, Monaco’s Minister of State. The lunch was also attended by Prince Albert II and Princess Charlene, as well as Isabelle Berro-Amadeï, Monaco’s Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation.

The ambassador’s wife, Maria Magdalena de Tornos y Steinhart, was present, too. (She’s the woman wearing a hat in the photograph above.) Royal writer Seth B. Leonard reminds us that Maria Magdalena is a sister of the present Countess of Paris, making the ambassador a brother-in-law of the Orléanist pretender to the French throne.

Princess Charlene joined her husband in officially welcoming the new ambassador to Monaco. UFO No More tells us that she wore navy blue separates from Ralph Lauren for the occasion.

With the ensemble, Charlene wore a pair of diamond stud earrings and a single strand of pearls. The pearls themselves are a bit more conservative than Charlene’s usual jewelry taste, but the fact that they’re baroque pearls makes them significantly more modern, much more in line with Charlene’s personal style.