Diamonds bring out the romantic in many, and for those fascinated by royal history, few pieces of jewelry are as captivating as the Khedive of Egypt Tiara. Created by Cartier in 1905, this tiara is not just a beautiful ornament but a symbol of love, family history, and royal tradition.
Princess Alexandra of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg wearing the Khedive of Egypt Tiara at her wedding.
The Origins: A Gift of Love
In 1905, Princess Margaret of Connaught, a granddaughter of Queen Victoria, embarked on a royal tour, during which she met Prince Gustaf Adolf of Sweden in Egypt. Their meeting was love at first sight, and they were engaged within weeks. The Khedive of Egypt, Abbas II, presented Margaret with a magnificent wedding gift to honor the beginning of their romance: a diamond ornament with an eye-catching scroll pattern. This jewel could be worn as a corsage ornament or as a tiara.
The piece features sleek diamond scrolls intertwined by twisting branches of laurel. The scrolls are balanced, and the laurel leaf designs are integrated beautifully. The Edwardian era was a more-is-more period, and many jewelers created pieces that could be adapted and worn in multiple ways.
Crown Princess Margaret of Sweden wearing the Khedive of Egypt Tiara.
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Princess Margaret wore the Khedive’s spectacular diamond present as both a tiara and as a corsage ornament. Above, she wears it in its tiara setting in a portrait taken shortly after she and Gustaf became Crown Prince and Crown Princess of Sweden.
A Legacy Passed Down
Daisy and her husband moved to Sweden where they had five children including her only daughter, Ingrid. At the age of 38, while pregnant with her sixth child, Daisy died of sepsis. Ingrid, who was only 10 years old when her mother passed away, inherited the Khedive of Egypt tiara and took it with her to Denmark when she married Crown Prince Frederik in 1935.
When Crown Princess Margareta of Sweden tragically passed away in 1920, she left the Khedive of Egypt Tiara to her only daughter, the future Queen Ingrid of Denmark.
Ingrid didn’t wear the Khedive for her wedding, but it’s become the wedding tiara of choice for all Ingrid’s female descendants including her daughters Queen Margrethe of Denmark, Princess Benedikte of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg and Queen Anne-Marie of Greece.
Queen Anne-Marie of Greece wearing the Khedive of Egypt Tiara on her wedding day.
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The Tiara as a Wedding Tradition
In 1964, Princess Anne-Marie was the first of Queen Ingrid’s daughters to wear the Khedive of Egypt Tiara for her Wedding of King Constantine II of Greece, followed by Crown Princess Margrethe in 1967, and Wedding of Princess Benedikte in 1968, along with their grandmother’s Irish lace veil.
The tradition started by the three Danish royal sisters has continued in the next generation of the family. Queen Ingrid loaned both the tiara and the veil to Benedikte’s elder daughter, Princess Alexandra of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg, for her wedding at Gråsten Palace in June 1998.
When Princess Benedikte’s younger daughter, Princess Nathalie of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg, was married in Germany in June 2011, she wore the Khedive tiara and the Connaught veil, just like her aunts, sister, and cousin before her.
The balanced, romantic scroll design of the tiara looks fabulous with a veil.
Here’s a list of some of the wearers of this beautiful tiara:
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- Crown Princess Margaret of Sweden
- Queen Ingrid of Denmark
- Princess Margaretha of Denmark
- Queen Margrethe II of Denmark
- Princess Benedikte of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg
- Princess Alexandra of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg
- Princess Alexia of Greece & Denmark
- Princess Nathalie of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg
The tradition continues with Princess Theodora of Greece, who wore the tiara at her wedding. For royalty watchers, the tiara a royal bride wears connects a bride to generations past.
Princess Alexia of Greece and husband Carlos Morales Quintana after their wedding.
The Tiara Today
When Ingrid died in 2000, the tiara was inherited by her youngest daughter, Queen Anne-Marie of Greece. At some point after inheriting the tiara, she had the frame of the piece tweaked so that it sits a little bit higher up on her head. It makes sense that she wanted to adjust the tiara to fit with her own style, because she’s gotten a ton of use out of it in the last two decades. She has also loaned the tiara to other family members, too, just as Queen Ingrid did before her.
The Greek royal family has been in exile since a military coup in 1967. The monarchy was abolished in a 1973 referendum, but since they’re closely related to most of Europe’s royal families, the Queen and her family attend formal events where they have opportunities to wear ancestral jewels.
Queen Anne Marie had a higher base added to the tiara sometime between 2000 and 2004.
Our most recent glimpse of the tiara took place just about a year ago, when Queen Anne-Marie wore it in Copenhagen for Crown Prince Christian’s birthday celebrations.
Having survived over a century of turbulent events, the tiara represents triumph and tragedy, family history and political upheaval.
The tiara was made by Cartier in 1905 and it can also be worn as a devant de corsage.
Materials: diamonds set in platinum
Provenance:
- Crown Princess Margaret of Sweden née Princess of Connaught, from the Khedive Abbas II of Egypt on the occasion of her 1905 marriage to King Gustaf VI Adolf of Sweden
- Queen Ingrid of Denmark née Princess of Sweden, inherited from her mother in 1920
- Queen Anne-Marie of Greece née Princess of Denmark, inherited from her mother in 2000 and added a higher base to the tiara
Questions: Who will inherit the tiara after Queen-Anne Marie, one of her children or will it go back to the Danish royal family?
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