The Unofficial British Royal Family Pages

Monday 17 May 2004

Hey Lady, Can You Spare a Crown?

The arrival of the Earl and Countess of Wessex at the Danish Royal wedding last week was, to say the least, far from spectacular. The normally elegant and immaculate Sophie usually compensates for Prince Edward’s complete lack of charm, but, sadly, not on this important occasion.  

In my humble opinion, it all came down to her tiara, which looked as though it had been shoved on her head as she was running out the door, and her severe slicked back hairstyle. For the most immediate infraction of making a valuable diamond tiara look entirely out of place on her head, I hold Sophie and/or her hairstylist directly responsible.  

On the other hand, there are not too many hairstyles that could have greatly improved the appearance of Sophie’s tiara. Compared to the many beautiful tiaras in the British royal family’s collection – not to mention those worn by other royals attending the Danish wedding – Sophie’s tiara looked as though she bought it for �99.99 at the local bridal boutique. Fine for me, perhaps, but not for a woman married to the Queen’s son. 

For this, I blame the Queen herself. 

To begin with, while other European countries sent their reigning monarch or heir to the throne to attend the wedding, the Queen sent the somewhat less grand Wessexes. Understandable in some ways… For one thing, the Queen is not as young as she used to be and may have had prior commitments. For another, the Wessexes were certainly a less controversial choice than Prince Charles, as that would have raised the whole “Is Camilla going with him?” question. And, of course, neither Princess Anne, who’s reportedly estranged from her husband, nor the divorced Prince Andrew had suitable partners to attend with them. So the Wessexes it was. 

The least the Queen could have done was send them off in style. I mean, here’s a woman with one of the largest and most important collections of jewels in the world and she couldn’t even lend one suitably impressive tiara to the Countess of Wessex, her official representative at the wedding of the future king and queen of Denmark. So instead of impressing royals and royal watchers alike with a stunning and historically important tiara, poor Sophie wore the same tiara to the Danish royal wedding that she wore at her own wedding – which, as I understand it, was given to her by a friend as a wedding gift – but without the benefit of a veil to smarten it up a bit.  

The Danish royal wedding aside, something about this whole tiara situation has brought to the surface an issue that has always bothered me, and that is the rather elusive nature of the important jewels in the royal collection. Early in her reign, the Queen seemed to revel in her new collection of jewels and wore a great many of them, but as the years passed, she increasingly wore only her favorites and now it’s almost impossible to catch a glimpse of her wearing anything but these. The rest are simply collecting dust in the royal vaults. 

It’s been said that the historical importance of the royal jewels reinforces the meaning and purpose of the royal family. Personally, I think they personify royalty and I want and expect to see royal ladies wearing magnificent tiaras. As most of these are national treasures, they should be used and shared with the public, not hidden away in vaults. But the Queen, it seems, has other plans, and doesn’t seem to mind that the Countess of Wessex – who is, at the moment, the second lady in the land – looks quite provincial at other royal courts in her visually unimpressive and historically unimportant tiara.  

But Sophie’s not the only royal lady to have been deprived of suitable tiaras. As elegant as she was in the years before her marriage, Princess Margaret had to borrow a tiara from her sister for her personal use, and it wasn’t an especially pretty one either. Just before her marriage, Margaret finally got her own tiara, but instead of acquiring an important family heirloom, her tiara was purchased for her at auction. Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother, eventually handed down at least one or two further tiaras to Margaret, but her collection was miniscule compared to the Queen’s. 

The same tiara Princess Margaret borrowed from the Queen was also lent to Princess Anne before her marriage. Anne was married in another of the Queen’s tiaras, but her own personal collection is also quite small. Other royal ladies like the Duchess of Kent, Princess Alexandra of Kent, Princess Michael of Kent, and the Duchess of Gloucester, all have a few tiaras of their own with an important connection to the British royal family, but all of these were actually passed down via Queen Mary. 

Speaking of Queen Mary, it’s amazing to think that Queen Elizabeth is actually her descendant. After all, it was only 100 years ago that Queen Alexandra and Queen Mary were adorning themselves with as much jewelry as their bodies could possibly support. These two queens also seemed to place a great deal more importance on ensuring that while the most important jewels were kept for the queen’s use, other important jewels were distributed to other members of the extended royal family. Perhaps Alexandra and Mary simply understood better than Elizabeth that while a queen must look like a queen, a princess must also look like a princess. 

If you look at it from that perspective, the royal family doesn’t often look much like a royal family at all. In fact, Sophie’s tiara trouble is only the latest manifestation of a long and slow erosion of the external royal luster. With no Diana, Princess of Wales, and William’s future wife a distant dream, the prospects for any immediate glamour being infused back into the royal family are almost nil. Maybe it goes without saying, but the thought of Camilla ever wearing any of the royal jewels is anathema to me, taking into consideration many factors, but, in particular, how they will look on the woman herself. At least Sophie has the advantage of youth and good looks. 

The bottom line is this – while I realize that the Queen’s objective of late has been to tone down the monarchy, dusting off a few of the more treasured and historic gems in the royal vaults can only serve to bring back some of the shine that the British royal family currently lacks. And Sophie would probably look a whole lot better at the next royal wedding.

Until next week,

- Tori Van Orden