The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh on their wedding day
This fringe tiara is now most often called after that diamond queen of the House of Windsor, Mary, who collected gems like most of us collect cups of tea and who has bequeathed a truly stunning collection of stones to her descendants. At the time this tiara was first worn for a royal wedding, Mary was still alive and no doubt had something to say about the jewels being worn on November 20th 1947 when her granddaughter, Elizabeth, married Prince Philip.
The bride chose to wear this sparkling set of diamonds perhaps to provide a link to her grandmother, Queen Mary, and possibly even her great, great grandmother, Queen Victoria. For this tiara was created from a diamond necklace given to Mary by Victoria for her own marriage in 1893.
There were two things Mary did really well in life - diamonds and duty. And true to form, when her own husband, George V, died in 1936 she did her duty and passed these diamonds to the new queen consort, Elizabeth, who on November 20th 1947 was mother of the bride.
It's perhaps not surprising then that with all these family links, Princess Anne chose to wear it for her own wedding in 1973. Her first marriage, to Captain Mark Phillips, was a global affair and she was the most famous royal bride of the decade so the tiara had to pack a punch, both sparkler wise and history wise. What better than this diadem decked with diamonds and filled with sentimental value?
It's a rather pretty tiara, modern without being avant garde and easy to match to just about any wedding dress design going. But it's the family history behind it that really turns this one into something special. Linked to two of the most famous royal women of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, it now has an even bigger part in regal history with its associations with Anne, Princess Royal and Elizabeth II.
