A Romanov Diamond Fringe Tiara for a Habsburg Bride in Germany

On this date in 1956, a German royal countess married a Habsburg archduke in a glittering ceremony, complete with an heirloom bridal tiara that originally belonged to her Romanov grandmother.

In April 1956, large swaths of royal Europe converged on Munich, where wedding celebrations were held for Countess Helene of Törring-Jettenbach and Archduke Ferdinand of Austria. Eighteen-year-old Countess Helene, the only daughter of Count Carl Theodor of Törring-Jettenbach and Princess Elizabeth of Greece and Denmark, had announced her engagement to 37-year-old Archduke Ferdinand that January. Ferdinand was the elder son of Archduke Maximilian of Austria, the younger brother of Emperor Karl I.

Ferdinand and Helene were married in a civil ceremony in Munich on April 6, 1956. A few days later, their royal relatives arrived to attend a glittering gala in a local hotel ahead of their religious wedding. Among the numerous guests were the bride’s aunts, Princess Olga of Yugoslavia and Princess Marina, Duchess of Kent. Marina’s younger children, Princess Alexandra and Prince Michael, were also there; above, Michael shares a joke with the bride-to-be during the reception. The reception was hugely attended, in part because the church where the wedding would be held the following day was too small to accommodate all of the guests. Olga and Marina were among those invited to be present in the church, but Alexandra and Michael were not.

There were some truly incredible tiaras represented at the pre-wedding gala, and you’ll recognize a pair of British tiaras in these gala photos. Princess Marina wore her mother’s diamond and pearl bandeau and grand diamond bow brooch, plus her diamond circle earrings, while Alexandra wore a lacy diamond bandeau that belonged to Queen Mary. The bride, Countess Helene, wore a diamond rivière on slim frame for the celebration.

Olga and Marina were part of a famous trio of royal sisters. Along with their middle sister, Elizabeth, they were the daughters of Prince Nicholas of Greece and Denmark, the third son of King George I of the Hellenes and Grand Duchess Olga Constantinovna of Russia, and Grand Duchess Elena Vladimirovna of Russia, the only daughter of Grand Duke and Grand Duchess Vladimir. The sisters’ Romanov heritage meant that they had access to a particularly spectacular cache of jewelry, something they used to their glamorous advantage in the 1930s.

The sisters’ mother, Grand Duchess Elena, was often referred to simply as “Princess Nicholas” after her royal marriage in 1902. Elena’s mother, Grand Duchess Vladimir, was one of history’s great jewelry collectors. Among her jewels was a kokoshnik-shaped diamond fringe tiara, a traditional gift to Romanov brides. Elena later inherited the fringe tiara, taking it with her to Greece and wearing it throughout her marriage. She wears her mother’s diamond fringe in the portrait above.

When it came time for Nicholas and Elena’s daughters to marry, two of the three opted to wear their mother’s grand diamond fringe tiara as a bridal diadem. The odd woman out was the eldest of the three, Princess Olga. When she married Prince Paul of Yugoslavia (after a failed engagement to the future King Frederik IX of Denmark) in Belgrade in 1923, Olga wore a different kokoshnik-style tiara with a diamond lattice design.

A decade later, the family celebrated both of the weddings of the two younger sisters in the same year. Princess Elizabeth’s marriage was first. She wed Count Carl Theodor of Törring-Jettenbach, a nephew of Queen Elisabeth of Belgium, in January 1934. The religious ceremony was held in the chapel of Schloss Seefeld, part of her husband’s family estates in Bavaria. For the wedding, Elizabeth wore a simple white dress with her grandmother’s Romanov diamond fringe tiara.

Eleven months later, Elizabeth’s younger sister, Princess Marina, also wore the Vladimir diamond fringe tiara for her wedding to Prince George, Duke of Kent, at Westminster Abbey in London. The November 1934 wedding made Marina a daughter-in-law of King George V and Queen Mary, a status that trained a huge spotlight on her glamorous clothes and jewels. Fittingly, Marina also received her own diamond fringe tiara as a wedding present from representatives of the City of London, and that diamond fringe has been worn by Kent family brides over the years.

Princess Elizabeth is the sister who received the Vladimir Fringe Tiara from Princess Nicholas. Fittingly, it’s also the tiara that Countess Helene wore for her religious wedding ceremony. Like her parents’ wedding two decades earlier, Helene and Ferdinand were married in the chapel at Schloss Seefeld in Bavaria. This family photo, taken outside the castle on the wedding day, shows the couple with his mother, Archduchess Franziska; her father, Count Carl Theodor; and one of her cousins, two-year-old Count Hans-Kaspar. Sadly, Helene’s mother was not present to see her daughter’s wedding. Princess Elizabeth passed away in January 1955 of cancer at the age of 50.

Contemporary press reports described Countess Helene’s dress as “a white organdie bridal gown in princess style with a narrow décolleté, embroidered with flowers. It had a very full skirt ending in a short train.” The gown was designed and made in the Munich fashion salon owned by Archduke Ferdinand’s mother, Archduchess Franziska, who used the name Countess Wernberg in the business venture. Helene worked in the dress shop until her wedding to Franziska’s son.

With the dress, Helene wore a traditional wreath of myrtle and the diamond fringe tiara that had belonged to her great-grandmother, Grand Duchess Vladimir. Wearing the family tiara, which her mother and aunt had also worn for their weddings, was a lovely way to remember Princess Elizabeth during the ceremony. Helene, it is believed, still owns the tiara today.

After their honeymoon, Ferdinand and Helene settled in Essen, where worked for a steel exporting firm. There, they raised a family of three: Archduchess Elizabeth, Archduchess Sophie, and Archduke Maximilian. They also stayed close to royal cousins, including Queen Elizabeth II, who was one of Helene’s close friends. The family relationships have continued into the next generation. Helene and Ferdinand’s younger daughter, Archduchess Sophie, is a noted handbag designer. Her “Habsbags,” as they’re sometimes cheekily called, are carried by royal friends, including the Queen of the Netherlands and the Duchess of Edinburgh.

Sophie also carried on another family tradition. When she married Prince Mariano Hugo of Windisch-Graetz in Salzburg in 1990, she wore the Vladimir Fringe Tiara with her Valentino wedding gown, echoing her mother, her grandmother, and her Romanov ancestors. The tradition most recently continued two decades ago, when Sophie’s younger brother, Archduke Maximilian, married Maya al-Askari. She too was loaned the fringe tiara to wear with her gown during their wedding ceremony in Rome in 2005.