Twenty years ago today, the royal world’s spotlight shone on Denmark, where the wedding celebrations for Crown Prince Frederik and Mary Donaldson continued with a pre-wedding concert at the Royal Theatre in Copenhagen. Today, I’ve got a look at the tiaras worn by the royal guests for the gala, including some impressive royal heirlooms.
For the pre-wedding gala, Mary Donaldson wore the tiara, necklace, earrings, and brooch from the Danish Ruby Parure. This was her second outing in the suite–she’d worn it two days earlier for a government gala dinner at Christiansborg Palace. For the theatre gala, she wore the rubies with a dramatic red gown made by the Danish designer Uffe Frank.
Mary’s new mother-in-law, Queen Margrethe II of Denmark, reached for another spectacular suite of heirloom royal jewels for the gala. She wore the Pearl Poiré Tiara and its matching brooch, as well as the earrings from the coordinating Khedive of Egypt Pearl Suite. Her seventeenth-century pearl necklace and its elaborate diamond and pearl clasp are part of the Danish crown jewel collection. The necklace belonged to Queen Charlotte Amalie of Denmark, wife of King Christian V.
Princess Alexandra of Denmark, then married to Prince Joachim, wore the Alexandrine Diamond Drop Tiara for the gala, plus a diamond necklace with a large pearl drop.
There were also tiaras from another branch of the Danish royal family on display at the gala. Here, sitting behind Mary’s father, Countess Anne Dorte of Rosenborg wears Queen Alexandrine’s Russian Sapphire Tiara.
And here, behind Prince Henrik, Countess Sussie of Rosenborg wears Queen Alexandrine’s Fringe Tiara, which came to Denmark from Russia via Alexandrine’s Romanov mother, Grand Duchess Anastasia Mikhailovna.
Queen Margrethe’s sister, Queen Anne-Marie of Greece, was there with several of her family members as well. She wore the Khedive of Egypt Tiara for the pre-wedding gala. The heirloom tiara, an inheritance from Queen Ingrid, is the traditional tiara worn by female members of the Danish royal family for their weddings.
Anne-Marie’s daughter-in-law, Crown Princess Marie-Chantal, wore the Miller Fringe Tiara for the gala. The diamond fringe was a christening gift from Marie-Chantal’s mother to her daughter, Princess Maria-Olympia. Marie-Chantal wore the tiara regularly until Olympia began attending gala events.
Queen Anne-Marie’s daughter, Princess Alexia, wore her own delicate diamond tiara for the gala, paired with diamond and pearl drop earrings.
The Earl and Countess of Wessex represented his mother, Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom, at the Danish royal wedding. For the pre-wedding concert, Sophie wore a diamond floral button tiara, almost certainly borrowed for the occasion, with her own modern diamond and blue topaz earrings and their coordinating necklace.
Grand Duchess Maria Teresa of Luxembourg opted for heirloom diamonds and pearls for the gala. She wore the pearl setting of the Chaumet Choker Tiara with pearl drop earrings and Grand Duchess Maria Ana’s Pearl Negligee Pendant.
Maria Teresa was seated beside Letizia Ortiz Rocasolano, the former journalist who married the Prince of Asturias (now King Felipe VI of Spain) just a week after this royal wedding. Letizia wore white gold and diamond chandelier earrings from the brand Yanes for the gala.
Letizia’s soon-to-be sister-in-law, Infanta Cristina, borrowed the Spanish Floral Tiara from her mother, Queen Sofia, for the theatre gala. She paired it with modern diamond and ruby earrings (later possibly sold at auction) and an antique brooch.
There were three sparkling tiaras from Denmark’s Norwegian neighbors and cousins on display at the gala as well. Queen Sonja wore Queen Josefina’s Diamond Tiara. Over the generations, the tiara has been worn by royal ladies in Sweden and Denmark as well as Norway.
Crown Prince Haakon and Crown Princess Mette-Marit, newlyweds who had married in August 2001, were also on hand for the gala. (Frederik was the best man at their wedding.) Mette-Marit wore the convertible tiara, earrings, and brooch from the Norwegian Amethyst Parure for the gala.
Haakon’s sister, Princess Martha Louise, wore modern jewelry for the gala, including the diamond and pearl tiara given to her by her grandfather, King Olav V of Norway, as an 18th birthday present.
Another pair of relative royal newlyweds, the Duke and Duchess of Brabant, were on hand as well. (They’re now King Philippe and Queen Mathilde of the Belgians.) Mathilde wore the Brabant Laurel Wreath Tiara and her diamond and pearl wedding earrings for the concert.
Philippe’s sister, Princess Astrid of Belgium, wore the Savoy-Aosta Tiara for the gala. The jewel is an heirloom from her mother-in-law, Archduchess Margherita.
There were also representatives from a few other royal families, including members of those who no longer sit on their thrones. One guest occupied both categories: Princess Caroline of Monaco, whose (now estranged) husband, Prince Ernst-August of Hanover, is a Danish royal descendant. For the first (and only) time in public, Caroline wore the Hanoverian Floral Tiara for the gala, pairing it with her own diamond floral earrings and her Chaumet diamond stomacher.
Marina of Savoy, wife of Italy’s last crown prince, wore the tiara and jewels from the family’s pink tourmaline parure for the occasion.
Another Italian princess, Camilla of Bourbon-Two Sicilies, wore her gorgeous Ruby Dragonfly Tiara for the gala.
And we’ll round out our royal tiara flashback today with this interesting piece from the former Austrian imperial family. Francesca von Habsburg, who was then married to the son of Austria’s last crown prince, wore the Habsburg Pearl Bandeau, which she had also worn for her wedding in 1993.
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