Dear Motley Officers, Crew and Friends, last week I spoke about the Royal Collection, so this week I would like to speak about the personal jewellery of the royal family.
Queen Victoria inherited a lot of jewels, but she had a small problem with Hanover. The Principality or Electorate of Hanover comprised large parts of the modern German state of Lower Saxony in Northern Germany. In 1714 George, the Prince-Elector of Hanover became King George I of Great Britain1. The kings of Great Britain thereafter continued to rule Hanover, though it remained a separate state with its own government. In 1814 Hanover became a Kingdom in its own right, so King George III was king twice over.
Problems occurred when Victoria became Queen. Hanover only accepted a male sovereign, so Ernest Augustus, now the eldest surviving son of George III, succeeded to the throne as King of Hanover. He did not have a great relationship with his niece, which did not help matters when he demanded the jewels of Hanover be returned.
King Ernest of Hanover demanded “nearly the whole of the jewels usually worn on State occasions by the English Sovereign, on the grounds that part of them, which had been taken over to England by George I, belonged inalienably to the Crown of Hanover; and that the remainder had been purchased by George III out of his privy purse2, and had been left him by his Queen Charlotte to the Royal Family of Hanover”3.
Of course, previously the King of Hanover had also been the King of Great Britain, so the jewels, that were worth a fortune, had stayed in the UK even after Queen Charlotte left them to Hanover.
It was not a straightforward issue. It was hard to tell which of the jewels that Queen Charlotte had bequeathed in her will had belonged to her, and which she only had use of in her lifetime. Also, stones had been reset, jewellery remade, and some jewels were mislaid. A commission was set up to resolve the issue. In the meantime, Queen Victoria wore as many of the jewels as possible, as often as possible, just to annoy her uncle. The case took over twenty years to resolve, by which time King Ernest had died and his son had become king. The committee ruled in favour of Hanover. Queen Victoria was not amused.
In 1858 Queen Victoria handed over some items to her Hanoverian cousins (not all that they had requested). Prince Albert had been inspired by a collection of Indian jewels given to the queen, and he had designed the Oriental Circlet Tiara for Victoria. However, since it used some of the diamonds that had to be sent back to Hanover, it had to be remade.
The royal family have been in receipt of many gifts of jewellery, from individuals, groups, and nations. It is remarkable to me that the public in the 19th Century raised huge sums for all kinds of things - including £120,000 for the Albert Memorial (£11 million in today’s money).
In 1891 Prince Albert Victor, eldest son of Edward, Prince of Wales (and grandson of Queen Victoria), who was second in line to the throne, caught flu and died. He had recently become engaged to Princess Mary of Teck. After Albert died George took his brother’s place, and eventually became George V. He also married Mary.
There was great sympathy for the young couple and their change in circumstances. Subscriptions were set up and Mary was given six tiaras as wedding presents4. They included a diamond tiara from the Ladies of England and a diamond & pearl tiara from the Girls of Great Britain & Ireland. Both tiaras could be taken off their frames and worn as necklaces and brooches, and the Girls of Great Britain & Ireland tiara can also be worn as a coronet. It is such a good idea to be flexible with one’s diamonds.
Royal jewels are often adapted or re-made and Mary did this frequently, especially after she became queen and had access to the jewellery she inherited from her mother-in-law. For example, Mary had a new tiara made called the Cambridge Lover’s Knot tiara. The Ladies of England tiara was broken up to make the Cambridge tiara. Some of the diamonds from the Ladies of England tiara were used to replace the pearls on the Girls of Great Britain & Ireland tiara, and those pearls were added to the Cambridge Lover’s Knot tiara. Still with me?
The royal family also receive gifts, including jewellery5. Margaret McEwan was the daughter of a multi-millionaire, who married Ronald Greville, an MP. Sadly, Ronald died aged 43 and they had no children. Margaret became a society hostess and philanthropist. She was a fan of the royal family and became a friend of Queen Mary. Of course, recollections vary depending on how indebted people felt towards Margaret. Sir Cecil Beaton described her as "a galumphing, greedy, snobbish old toad who watered at her chops at the sight of royalty ... and did nothing for anybody except the rich". But Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother, to whom she left the bulk of her jewellery when she died in 1942, described her as "so shrewd, so kind and so amusingly unkind, so sharp, such fun, so naughty; altogether a real person, a character, utterly Mrs Ronald Greville". The full extent of the large amount of jewellery Margaret gave to the Queen Mother is unknown, but many pieces are regularly worn by the royal family.
Of course, the royal family have also bought jewels as gifts, as well as for themselves. Princess Margaret bought the Poltimore tiara in 1959. It had been made in the 19th Century for Lady Poltimore, wife of the second Baron Poltimore, and sold by her descendants for £5,500 (equivalent of £129,000 today).
Like many tiaras the Poltimore tiara could be taken off the frame and worn as a necklace, and 11 brooches. Before her marriage, as was customary because she was unmarried, Princess Margaret only wore it as a necklace. She wore the tiara on her wedding day in 1960 and many times afterwards. Many of Margaret’s jewels were sold by her children after her death in 2002, to cover inheritance taxes, including the Poltimore tiara, which was sold for £1.7 million in 2006.
Lastly, if you look at any picture of Queen Elizabeth II (when she is not in evening dress) she is always wearing a three-string necklace of pearls.
Queen Victoria started a tradition of giving her daughters and granddaughters a pearl every year on their birthday, so that when they reached the age of 18 they would have enough for a pearl necklace - which is unlikely since my normal length pearl necklace has 72 pearls. Queen Elizabeth’s father was more realistic and gave her two pearls every year, that were then strung on a thin platinum chain.
As an adult Elizabeth accumulated many strands of pearls and had at least three necklaces with three strands of pearls, which she rotated6. In celebration of his Silver Jubilee in 1935, George V gave his two granddaughters a pearl necklace each, a triple strand for Princess Elizabeth and a double strand for her younger sister Princess Margaret.
One of Elizabeth’s pearl necklaces is made of family pearls, probably including pearls from her grandmother Queen Mary. Though Elizabeth never aspired to wear the number of pearls that Queen Mary wore.
Having learnt more about the royal jewels by researching these articles, I am in awe of Queen Mary’s acquisitiveness. The jewels she acquired and modified are the foundation of the wonderful collection of jewels the royal family now enjoy.
If you are interested in further reading, there is a book called ‘The Jewels of Queen Elizabeth II: Her Personal Collection’ by Leslie Field. It is only available to buy second hand.
As always, any links are provided to give the reader more information. I do not make any money from these links. Where possible permissions have been sought for the use of images and text, unless they are in the Public Domain. If there is an issue with copyright, please contact me. I am an amateur historian covering a wide range of subjects. I do careful research using secondary sources (books, articles, videos and a little bit of Wikipedia). If there are any mistakes I apologise, and please let me know.
Elizabeth, daughter of King James I & VI married Frederic, Elector of Palatine (in Germany). Their grandson was George I, who became King of Great Britain after Queen Anne, who had no living children.
The Privy Purse is income from the royal estates.
Excerpt from a report from the Times, 23 Dec 1857.
Mary received many tiaras as gifts over the years. She needed them, as she wore a tiara to dinner every night.
Personal gifts can be given directly to the royal family, such as wedding gifts. There is now a very clear policy about gifts given to the royal family, which says that gifts should not be of political significance (to gain influence) or high monetary value. Someone forgot to tell the Saudi Crown Prince who gave Meghan Markel £500,000 diamond earrings as a wedding gift.
Pearls lose their lustre if not regularly worn. Dressers, who help dress the royal women, are often asked to wear pearl necklaces under their clothes, to maintain their lustre.