This weeks marks the 45th Anniversary of the Birth of Princess Victoria Louise, Duchess of Brunswick, who passed away in 1980! The Kaiser’s only daughter who married the Head of the House of Hanover and spent a long life at the centre of German Royal and Noble circles, to mark the anniversary, we are again featuring her iconic Prussian Diamond Tiara!
Composed of a neoclassical-inspired design, with columns, laurel leaves and meanders, this Diamond Tiara was made by the Berlin Court Jeweller, Koch, for Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany, as his only daughter, Princess Viktoria Luise, was set to marry Prince Ernst August of Hanover in May 1913. The wedding celebrations were one of the last big gatherings of Royalty before the First World War, which brought together the Kaiser with the King of England and the Tsar of Russia, who shortly be at war.
Princess Victoria Luise was only pictured wearing her Prussian Diamond Tiara on a few occasions in the years soon after her marriage, and later usually preferred the larger Brunswick Diamond Tiara.
In 1938, when Princess Victoria Luise’s only daughter, Princess Frederica, married Prince Paul of Greece and Denmark, then heir to the Greek throne, she received the Prussian Diamond Tiara as a wedding gift, and it was notably worn for for her engagement portraits.
However, after her marriage, Crown Princess and later Queen Frederica usually preferred wearing her larger tiaras, like her mother-in-law’s Diamond Tiara and the Greek Emerald Parure, so the Prussian Tiara remained in the vaults.
However, when King Paul and Queen Frederica’s eldest daughter, Princess Sofia made her debut, she wore the Prussian Diamond Tiara on State Visits to France and Germany in 1956.
Princess Sofia frequently wore the Prussian Diamond Tiara through the late 1950s into the 1960s, with appearances including King Paul’s 60th Birthday Banquet at the Royal Palace of Athens in 1961.
In the same way as she received the Diamond Tiara from her own mother, Queen Federica gave the Prussian Tiara to her daughter, Princess Sofia, on the occasion of her marriage to Prince Juan Carlos of Spain in 1962. The Princess wore the Tiara for her Catholic and Orthodox marriage celebrations in Athens, but due to a rift between her mother and grandmother, Princess Victoria Luise was not present.
After Germany and Greece, the Prussian Diamond Tiara found a new home: Spain, and was worn by Princess Sofia on numerous occasions through the 1960s and 70s, among them the Wedding Ball of the Margrave of Baden and Archduchess Valerie of Austria in 1966, when she can be seen with her grandmother, a Gala at the Teatro Real in Madrid in 1966, the Wedding Ball of Prince Karl of Hesse and Countess Yvonne Szapary von Muraszombath Széchysziget und Szapár in 1966, Infanta Pilar’s Wedding Ball in 1967, the American State Banquet at the Royal Palace of Madrid in 1970, in Ethiopia in 1972, the Wedding Ball of Princess Anne in 1973, and in the Philippines in 1974.
Queen Sofia continued to wear the Prussian Diamond Tiara in the early years of King Juan Carlos’ Reign, like on the Spanish State Visit to Sweden in 1979, and the Spanish State Visit to Norway in 1982.
However, by the 1980s, the Prussian Diamond Tiara was more frequently worn by Queen Sofia’s two daughters, the Infantas Elena and Cristina, worn for the Danish State Visit to Spain in 1983, the Swedish State Visit to Spain in 1983, the Nepalese State Banquet at the Royal Palace of Madrid in 1983, the Norwegian State Visit to Spain in 1984, the Dutch State Visit to Spain in 1985, Jordanian State Visit to Spain in 1985, the Spanish State Visit to Britain in 1986, the British State Visit to Spain in 1988, the Belgian State Visit to Spain in 1994, and the Belgian State Visit to Spain in 1994 among others.
In May 2004, Queen Sofia loaned the Prussian Diamond Tiara to her new daughter-in-law, Letizia Ortiz Rocasolano, who followed in the footsteps of her mother-in-law and wore it on the day of her wedding with the Prince of Asturias, when it was said:
“Due to its family connection and the special occasions on which it has been used, it is a piece especially dear to Her Majesty the Queen”.
Two years later, Queen Sofia made a rare appearance in the Prussian Diamond Tiara, with it being worn for King Bhumibol Adulyadej’s Diamond Jubilee Reception in 2006.
Since her wedding, Princess Letizia had been the primary wearer of the Prussian Diamond Tiara, with it being worn for numerous State Banquets until 2011, since when it has not yet reappeared in public and had been gradually replaced by the Floral Tiara.
Queen Letizia has continued to wear the Floral Tiara as Queen while primarily preferring the larger and more important Tiaras, so we can hope that the Prussian Diamond Tiara may soon reappear on the Princess of Asturias, who we had hoped to see at the Portuguese Banquet this week but that has now been delayed.
