Tomorrow, King Charles III and Queen Camilla will celebrate their twentieth wedding anniversary. Ahead of the milestone, I’ve got a look today at the classic heirloom engagement ring that Charles presented to Camilla.
On February 10, 2005, the Evening Standard published a remarkable news exclusive: the Prince of Wales was engaged to be married to Camilla Parker Bowles. The scoop came from royal reporter Robert Jobson. In response to the report, Clarence House issued an official statement: “It is with great pleasure that the marriage of HRH the Prince of Wales and Mrs Camilla Parker Bowles is announced.” At a previously-scheduled engagement at the Goldsmiths’ Company in the City of London that morning, Charles thanked well-wishers, saying simply, “I am very excited.” In a more formal statement, he shared that he and Camilla were “absolutely delighted,” adding that the upcoming wedding would “be a very special day for us and our families.”
Queen Elizabeth II also issued a statement through the Buckingham Palace press office: “The Duke of Edinburgh and I are very happy that the Prince of Wales and Mrs Parker Bowles are to marry. We have given them our warmest good wishes for their future together.” Charles’s sons, William and Harry, also offered an official comment: “We are very happy for our father and Camilla and we wish them all the luck in their future.”
A media leak forced the royals to make their announcement slightly earlier than they had hoped, but plans had been in motion to make the royal engagement public for some time. The Telegraph reported that Charles had discussed his wedding plans with the Queen at Christmas, and a spring wedding date had been decided on at that time. Prime Minister Tony Blair had been informed that the Queen would consult him, as required, about the Royal Marriages Act, and a formal announcement was planned for the third week of February—until the early revelations by the press compelled Clarence House to make the announcement sooner.
An already-scheduled charity gala dinner at Windsor Castle on the night of February 10 also served as the couple’s first public appearance following the announcement. The Telegraph reported that Camilla wore “a deep fuschia pink jersey dress by Jean Muir, pearl necklace and pearl earrings” for the gala, while Charles wore a dinner jacket version of the traditional Windsor uniform, which has a distinctive red collar and cuffs.
And, of course, there was much talk about the engagement ring. Jobson also reported on the special jewel given to Camilla to mark the occasion: “Charles has given her a diamond studded platinum engagement ring, a royal family heirloom, and she is expected to wear it tonight at a formal dinner.” Clarence House confirmed that the ring was “platinum and has a square-cut central diamond with three diamond baguettes on either side.”
Camilla happily displayed the ring at the Windsor Castle dinner on the night of the announcement. When she was asked about the proposal, she confirmed that Charles had gone down on one knee to ask for her hand in marriage and said that she was “just coming down to earth.”
Two days after the engagement announcement, the Telegraph published an article confirming that the engagement ring was an heirloom that had belonged to Charles’s grandmother, Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother: “The ring, estimated to be worth £500,000, was given to the then Queen Elizabeth by her husband, King George VI, as a ‘love token.'” They added, “It is said to have been one of her most treasured pieces of jewellery, which she passed to her eldest daughter, the Queen, on her death in 2002.”
The article also noted that, though she was initially opposed to Charles and Camilla’s relationship, the Queen Mum’s “feelings mellowed” in the last years of her life, and she “gave their relationship her tacit approval by allowing the couple to spend time at Birkhall, her holiday home on the Balmoral estate.”
Though it was a “love token” gift, the diamond ring worn by Camilla was not the Queen Mother’s actual engagement ring. When she (finally) accepted a proposal from the then-Duke of York in 1923, Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon selected a diamond and sapphire ring to commemorate their engagement. Elizabeth wears the ring with her Welsh gold wedding ring on her left hand in the portrait above.
A London-based jeweler, Bert & Co., came to Buckingham Palace on Tuesday, January 16, to show the Duke a selection of sapphire rings. He left the samples behind and returned the next day to find Bertie there with Lady Elizabeth. They had “mutually approved and selected,” according to the Telegraph, “a ring set with three stones—a sapphire in the centre and a diamond on either side.”
Here’s a slightly better look at the Queen Mother’s engagement and wedding rings. The ring that Bertie and Elizabeth had chosen was too large for her finger, and a simple resizing would have ruined the effect of the setting, so the jeweler hastily returned to his shop at 3 Vigo Street in Mayfair to remake the ring for her. It was completed by noon on Friday, January 19, with the jeweler returning personally to the palace to hand it directly to the Duke.
The soon-to-be Duchess memorably wore the ring on Saturday, January 20, as she and Bertie headed with her parents to Sandringham for her first formal post-engagement visit with the larger royal family, including Queen Alexandra, Queen Maud of Norway, and Empress Marie Feodorovna of Russia.
Elizabeth wore her sapphire engagement ring regularly in the early years of her marriage, but later she swapped it out for other rings, including the diamond ring now worn by Queen Camilla. However, she was most often seen wearing a pearl and diamond cluster ring on her left hand with her wedding ring, especially for daytime events. She often wore the emerald-cut diamond ring for evening outings, including trips to the theater.
Another of the Queen Mother’s jewels was also featured prominently on the day of Charles and Camilla’s engagement announcement. An official portrait of the couple was released along with the formal engagement announcement. The picture, taken in January 2005, shows the couple posing together at Birkhall. In the portrait, Camilla wears the Pearl of the Dee Brooch, which was given to the Queen Mother by the Salmon and Trout Association as a 100th birthday gift in 2000.
When members of the press inquired about the brooch, Clarence House responded, “The brooch is a family heirloom which has been lent to [Camilla] rather than given. She likes it very much.” There was some criticism, though, about the way that the brooch was worn for the picture. Camilla inadvertently wore the piece upside-down in the picture—an error that she would correct when wearing it on occasions in the future.
The couple’s engagement announcement was accompanied by a planned wedding date: April 8, 2005. When Pope John Paul II died and his funeral was scheduled for the same day, however, the wedding was moved back to April 9 so that Charles could attend the funeral at the Vatican. This week, interestingly, the royal couple will be in Italy for a state visit on their wedding anniversary. I’ll be covering the jewels from that visit (and other events of the week, hopefully including the Norway-Iceland state visit) next week, because I am also traveling right now—so that I can view both of the big new jewelry exhibitions in London. I look forward to sharing plenty of content about Cartier and the Edwardians both here and at Hidden Gems very soon!
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