royal engagement

Prince Harry and Meghan Are Engaged!

11.27.2017 by The Court Jeweller // Leave a Comment

DANIEL LEAL-OLIVAS/AFP/Getty Images

Break out the champagne, magpies: Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are officially engaged! I’ll be updating this post throughout the day as we get more information on the ring and the proposal, but feel free to use this post for discussion as events happen!

DANIEL LEAL-OLIVAS/AFP/Getty Images

We’ve got details on the ring! According to Emily Andrews of The Sun, the ring was designed by Prince Harry himself. The gold ring is set with three diamonds: the larger central stone comes from Botswana, a place close to Harry’s heart, and it is flanked by a pair of diamonds that come from the collection of Harry’s late mother, Diana, Princess of Wales.

DANIEL LEAL-OLIVAS/AFP/Getty Images

The thin gold band of the ring fits with the style of other rings commonly worn by Meghan. (See some examples from the Invictus Games over here!) The engagement ring was made by the current court jeweler, Cleave and Co.

DANIEL LEAL-OLIVAS/AFP/Getty Images

The wedding is slated for Spring 2018, and, based on comments from the Archbishop of Canterbury this morning, it seems like it will be a church affair. Of course I’m hoping for a tiara — you can read about some of my picks for the bridal diadem over here!

Jewel History: Princess Elizabeth Gets Ancient Order of Garter (1947)

11.02.2017 by The Court Jeweller // Leave a Comment

Princess Elizabeth wears the Order of the Garter, ca. 1950 (Keystone/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

“Princess Elizabeth Gets Ancient Order of Garter”

(originally appeared in the Winnipeg Tribune, 12 Nov 1947)

London, Nov. 12 — Buckingham Palace announced Tuesday night that the King [1] has made Princess Elizabeth [2] a Lady of the Order of the Garter [3].

Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother (with Prince Charles) wears the Order of the Garter in Westminster Abbey at the 1953 coronation (AFP/Getty Images)

Princess Elizabeth joins the Queen [4], Queen Mother Mary [5], and Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands [6] in the order with its insignia of kingfisher blue ribbon, diamond star, and motto, “Honi soit qui mal y pense” — “Evil be to him who evil thinks” [7].

Knights of the order wear a jeweled garter insignia about the left leg, but ladies make a bracelet of it and wear it about the left wrist [8].

Queen Mary wears the Garter insignia, including the actual garter on her upper arm (Wikimedia Commons)

The order was established by King Edward III in 1348. According to legend, it originated with a party at which the King was dancing with Joan, Countess of Salisbury. Joan’s garter fell to the floor during an intricate step. As some of the nobility snickered, the King picked it up and commented, “Honi soit qui mal y pense.”

Princess Elizabeth is expected to wear the Garter ribbon at her wedding to Lieutenant Mountbatten [9] on November 20 [10].

Philip and Elizabeth during their engagement, 1947 (AFP/Getty Images)

NOTES

1. King George VI of the United Kingdom (1895-1952) was the father of the present queen, Elizabeth II. As monarch, he was also Sovereign of the Order of the Garter. He presented his elder daughter, Princess Elizabeth, with the Garter about a week before her wedding.

2. Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom (born 1926) was still the heiress presumptive at the time of her wedding in 1947. Normally, the monarch’s (male) heir is generally made a Garter knight when he is made Prince of Wales — but since Elizabeth is a woman, she wasn’t granted that title. (Because sons automatically outranked daughters in the line of succession in Britain during this time, there was always the possibility that Queen Elizabeth could die, King George VI could remarry, and his prospective new wife could give birth to a son. If all of those things had happened, that new baby boy would have become heir to the throne, even though he would have had two older half-sisters. Elizabeth was always the heiress presumptive, never the heiress apparent, during her father’s reign.) Like all royals, Elizabeth was a “supernumerary” lady — she didn’t count toward the maximum total of 24 Garter knights.

3. The Order of the Garter is England’s senior order of chivalry. It is awarded solely at the discretion of the British monarch, who is also the sovereign of the order.

4. Queen Elizabeth of the United Kingdom (1900-2002), nee Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, was awarded the Garter in 1936, when her husband became King George VI.

5. Queen Mary of the United Kingdom (1867-1953), nee Princess Mary of Teck, was awarded the Garter on June 3, 1910, shortly after the accession of her husband, King George V.

6. Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands (1880-1962) was made a “stranger” lady of the order in September 1944. King George VI presented her with the order’s insignia in a private ceremony in London attended by only three people: himself, Wilhelmina, and her daughter, Princess Juliana. (Juliana, who succeeded her mother as queen, would also eventually be admitted to the order.) Wilhelmina was the first foreign queen to be made a member of the order.

7. “Honi soit qui mal y pense” is more frequently translated as “shame on him who thinks evil of it.”

8. Ladies wear the Garter around their upper arm, not their wrist. See the portrait of Queen Mary above.

9. Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh (born 1921) was plain Lieutenant Philip Mountbatten at this point in history. On the day before his wedding to Princess Elizabeth, Philip was made a royal highness and a Knight of the Order of the Garter. The next morning, he was created Duke of Edinburgh. He was officially made a British prince in 1957.

10. Elizabeth did not wear the Garter for her wedding, but Philip wore the Garter star on his uniform.

Jewels in Motion: Elizabeth and Philip’s Engagement (1947)

10.29.2017 by The Court Jeweller // Leave a Comment

In a few weeks, Queen Elizabeth II and the Duke of Edinburgh will celebrate their 70th wedding anniversary. We’ll be providing an in-depth look at the jewels surrounding their wedding festivities all month, and we’re kicking things off today with a look at their official engagement announcement. The photos from the engagement may feel familiar, but when seen in motion, they take on a whole new significance and warmth. Enjoy!

Prince Philip and Princess Elizabeth’s engagement was officially announced in July 1947, but the two had been seriously discussing marriage for at least a year beforehand. Philip later said that the couple “began to think about [marriage] seriously, and even talk about it” during his visit to Balmoral in the summer of 1946. He proposed on the visit, and Elizabeth accepted

Elizabeth’s parents, King George VI and Queen Elizabeth, asked the couple to wait until after the princess’s 21st birthday to make their engagement official, and they reluctantly agreed. The press caught wind of the couple’s serious attachment, however, at the wedding of Philip’s cousin, Patricia Mountbatten (later Countess Mountbatten of Burma). Patricia’s father, Lord Mountbatten, was also in the process of helping Philip obtain British citizenship. Philip became naturalized in February 1947, renouncing his Greek royal title in the process

Elizabeth turned 21 in April 1947, and in the summer of 1947, the couple confirmed the public’s suspicions and officially announced that they would marry in November

Philip presented Elizabeth with an engagement ring made with diamonds taken from one of his mother’s tiaras. (More on that, including its Romanov connections, over here.) For the official photocall, Elizabeth wore the ring with pearls and her Diamond Clematis Brooch

Philip, who was by then just plain Lieutenant Philip Mountbatten, wore his naval uniform for the photograph session

In a move that echoed a famous moment from Patricia Mountbatten’s wedding, Philip helped Elizabeth put on her coat during the photographs

The couple provided some action for newsreel cameras with a walk in the palace gardens

A family photo session was also part of the engagement announcement, underscoring the fact that “We Four” was now “We Five”

Philip linked arms with his bride-to-be and his sister-in-law, Princess Margaret, during the session. Elizabeth’s engagement ring was also on full display here

Although he liked Philip, King George VI initially had reservations about his daughter’s choice of husband, in part because he felt she was too young, and he simply wasn’t ready for her to marry at all

Elizabeth, who had remained steadfastly in love with Philip since she was a young teenager, did not waver in her choice, even during the four-month tour of South Africa, which the palace had hoped would slow down the relationship a bit

The restoration of the Greek monarchy in September 1946 had also made the couple’s engagement a bit more precarious, as the government worried that Philip and Elizabeth’s marriage would be a tacit political endorsement of his first cousin, King George II. Philip’s renunciation of his Greek titles was designed in part to help smooth this over. King George II died unexpectedly in April 1947, before the British royal engagement could even be publicly announced. His youngest brother (and another of Philip’s first cousins), Paul, succeeded to the Greek throne

The Queen Mother, who wore pearls with Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee Brooch for the photo session, also initially had reservations about the marriage, as did Queen Mary, partly because they saw Philip as a bit of an outsider

Princess Margaret, pictured wearing pearls and a nervous smile, gained a brother-in-law through the marriage. Eventually, because her father died nearly a decade before her own marriage, Philip would walk her down the aisle at her own wedding in Westminster Abbey

The images of Philip with the royal princesses during the engagement photocall are fun-loving and playful. The official engagement announcement from the palace, released on July 10, 1947, is a bit more formal: “It is with the greatest pleasure that the King and Queen announce the betrothal of their dearly beloved daughter The Princess Elizabeth to Lieutenant Philip Mountbatten, RN, son of the late Prince Andrew of Greece and Princess Andrew (Princess Alice of Battenberg), to which union the King has gladly given his consent.”