The times when Kate Middleton has been trusted with the Royal Family’s most iconic heirlooms

Since becoming a member of the Royal Family in 2011, the Princess of Wales has been trusted with some of the Windsors’ most valuable jewellery.

From the wedding set – or parure – of Queen Victoria’s daughter-in-law to treasured pieces given to the Queen by her beloved father, it seems no heirlooms are off limits.

Some of the pieces Kate has chosen were never worn by the Queen, such as the Cartier Halo tiara which the Princess of Wales wore on her wedding day.

Here, The Mail’s new Royals section remembers the occasions when Kate has worn some of the Family’s most historic and recognisable jewels…

Greville chandelier earrings

The Princess of Wales made her first appearance in the glittering Greville chandelier earrings at the wedding of Crown Prince Hussein of Jordan and Princess Rajwa earlier this month.

The accessories were a favourite of the late Queen, who was given the jewels as a wedding present from her parents, King George VI and Queen Elizabeth.

The intricate Cartier creations were originally owned by Dame Margaret Greville, the socialite daughter of a successful brewer.

She would host notable guests at her Surrey retreat, Polesden Lacey, and the future King George VI and his wife chose to spend a week of their honeymoon at the house in 1923.

When Margaret died in 1942, she left a magnificent bequest of jewels to the Queen Mother, who wrote to her mother-in-law, Queen Mary, saying: ‘I must tell you that Mrs Greville has left me her jewels, tho’ I am keeping that quiet as well for the moment!

‘She left them to me “with her loving thoughts”, dear old thing, and I feel very touched. I don’t suppose I shall see what they consist of for a long time, owing to the slowness of lawyers & death duties etc, but I know she had a few good things.

‘Apart from everything else, it is rather exciting to be left something, and I do admire beautiful stones with all my heart. I can’t help thinking that most women do!’

The chandelier earrings began as a simple pair of drop earrings in 1918 but Margaret had them altered twice over the following 11 years.

An extra 12 diamonds were added to the earrings in 1922 and another 10 in 1929, giving the completed design that has been worn since.

The accessory combines a variety of different cuts of diamond, including half-moon, trapeze, square, baguette, baton and emerald.

When the King and Queen gave the earrings to the then Princess Elizabeth in 1947, she was unable to wear them because she did not have pierced ears.

But four years later, aged 25, she pierced her ears and was seen in the extravagant Greville earrings many times over the coming decades.

She paired the accessories with some of her favourite tiaras, including the Girls of Great Britain and Ireland Tiara and Queen Alexandra’s Kokoshnik Tiara. 

The Queen wore the earrings at state banquets abroad on a number of occasions, including in 1983 when she attended a banquet given in her honour by King Carl XVl Gustaf and Queen Silvia of Sweden.

She also matched the earrings with a stunning array of jewels for dinner at the York Hotel in Toronto in 2010.

Queen Alexandra’s wedding necklace

This show-stopping accessory was originally a wedding present from King Edward VII, the eldest son of Queen Victoria, to his bride, Alexandra of Denmark.

The pair were married at St George’s Chapel, Windsor, in 1863, and the then Prince of Wales presented Alexandra with a parure of diamonds of pearls.

As well as the extravagant necklace, the collection consisted of pearl and diamond cluster earrings, a brooch with a detachable pendant and a glittering diamond tiara.

While the suite was made by Garrard, the tiara became known as the Rundell tiara – the only piece Alexandra did not wear on her wedding day.

After the Queen’s death in 1925, the tiara was inherited by her daughter, Princess Victoria, but its later fate became a mystery.

In his book, the Queen’s Diamonds, Hugh Roberts revealed that the tiara had in fact been ‘disposed of’ by the Princess, despite the rest of the parure surviving.

The other accessories were inherited by Queen Mary, Alexandra’s daughter-in-law, who gave the stunning necklace to the Queen Mother.

It became one of her favourite pieces of jewellery and the Queen Mother wore the necklace at the wedding of both of her daughters – Elizabeth and Margaret.

She paired the item with the Greville tiara to attend an audience with the Pope at the Vatican in 1959, alongside Princess Margaret.

The Greville tiara was a regular companion for the necklace with the Queen Mother, and she also attended a concert at the Royal Festival Hall in 1960 wearing the accessories.

While her daughter, the late Queen, was not pictured in necklace, it has remained in the family and was worn by the Princess of Wales in 2018 for a state banquet welcoming King Willem-Alexander and Queen Maxima of the Netherlands.

She paired the glittering accessory with the Cambridge Lover’s Knot tiara and Princess Diana’s Collingwood pearl drop earrings to accompany a sky blue Alexander McQueen gown.

Lover’s Knot tiara

This recognisable diamond and pearl tiara has been beloved by generations of royal women.

Queen Mary commissioned Garrard to create the Lover’s Knot tiara, taking inspiration for the design from a piece owned by her grandmother, Princess Augusta of Hesse.

She provided the jewels for the bespoke creation from her own collection – including her dismantled Some Ladies of England Tiara, pearls from the Girls of Great Britain and Ireland Tiara and pearls from her favourite brooches.

The resulting design originally featured a row of upright pearls, but these were later removed by Queen Mary who returned them to her brooches.

After Queen Mary’s death, the tiara was inherited by Queen Elizabeth and she was spotted wearing the accessory at various locations around the world, taking the piece with her on a tour of the Commonwealth.

In 1959, she was pictured wearing the tiara after watching a performance of Shakespeare’s As You Like It while on tour in Canada.

Upon her marriage to the then Prince Charles in 1981, Diana received the tiara as a gift from the Queen and she wore it for the first time at the state opening of parliament that November.

Despite the tiara reportedly giving Diana headaches due to its weight, she wore the piece on many occasions, including with her ‘Elvis dress’ by Catherine Walker during an official visit to Hong Kong.

The tiara was returned to the Queen after Charles and Diana divorced in 1996 and was not seen until it was worn by Kate for the annual Diplomatic Reception in 2015.

Like her late mother-in-law, the tiara has become one of Kate’s favourite pieces and she has worn it at a number of Diplomatic Receptions since.

She has also appeared in the piece at state banquets, including the first state banquet given by King Charles during his reign in honour of the South African president in 2022.

She paired the tiara with Diana’s diamond and pearl earrings to complement her stunning white Jenny Packham gown.

Lotus Flower tiara

For her first state banquet as a Royal, the Princess of Wales opted for the Lotus Flower tiara.

She wore the piece, which features lotus flowers with diamond and pearl decoration, with an elegant red Jenny Packham gown for a visit from China’s president, Xi Jinping and his wife, Peng Liyuan.

After wearing Cartier’s Halo tiara for her wedding, the Lotus Flower tiara was the second tiara worn by Kate, first wearing the dazzling piece at the Diplomatic Reception in 2013.

The Queen mother commissioned the Lotus Flower tiara, which was made up of jewels taken from a necklace she was given in 1923.

King George VI had given his bride the necklace made by Garrard as a wedding gift – but the diamonds and pearls were re-fashioned just six months later.

The delicate diamond tiara, also known as the Papyrus tiara, was originally designed to sit low on the head, which is how it was worn by the Queen Mother.

After the death of King George VI, the tiara was then seen on Princess Margaret who wore the piece from the Sixties through to the Nineties.

But it was given a new lease of life in 1993, when it was worn by her daughter-in-law, Serena Stanhope, for her wedding to Margaret’s son Viscount Linley.

After the wedding, the tiara disappeared from the public eye for many years, and no one seemed to know whether it went to Margaret’s children or if it was returned to the royal family after her death in 2002.

But the tiara made a glittering return when Kate Middleton opted to wear the piece after marrying Prince William.

Cartier Halo tiara

Despite reports that Kate Middleton had hoped to wear a flower crown for her wedding in 2011, she was seen on the day wearing the intricate Cartier Halo tiara.

The delicate piece is smaller than other tiaras in the Royal collection, and has often been seen on younger members of the family.

Made by Cartier in 1936, the Halo tiara was bought by King George VI as an anniversary gift for his wife, the Queen Mother.

The tiara, which features 739 brilliants and 149 baton diamonds, was later given to her daughter, Princess Elizabeth, on her 18th birthday in 1944.

While the young Elizabeth was never seen wearing the tiara, she frequently loaned the piece to her younger sister, Princess Margaret.

She opted for the headpiece for some of the most historic royal events, including her sister’s Coronation in 1953.

Margaret continued to wear the headpiece throughout the 1950s and 1960s before it was loaned to Princess Anne, who first wore it for the State Opening of Parliament in 1967.

She also wore the accessory on a number of occasions, including during a Royal tour in New Zealand, before the piece returned to the royal vault.

The dazzling tiara made its reappearance when it was worn by the Princess of Wales at her wedding and has since been exhibited around the world.

Nizam of Hyderabad necklace

This extravagant piece was acquired by the late Queen in 1947 as a wedding gift from the Nizam of Hyderabad.

Mir Osman Ali Khan ruled Hyderabad from 1911 until 1948 as an absolute monarch when it was one of the pre-independent princely states in India.

But he was also the richest man in the world for most of his life, reportedly owning enough pearls to pave Piccadilly Circus.

According to Daily Mail royal expert Richard Kay, the Nizam was said to keep brown paper parcels full of emeralds in his bedchamber and he was unmoved when he discovered that rats had nibbled through £3 million in old banknotes in the cellar.

In advance of the Queen’s wedding, the Nazim gave Cartier instructions to let the Royal choose anything she wanted as a her gift.

And so the glittering necklace was selected, alongside a floral tiara based on an English rose.

The necklace, which had been previously owned and repurchased by Cartier, is made from diamonds and platinum and features a single, double-drop pendant with 13 rectangular-cut diamonds.

The Queen wore the piece for a number of engagements, including state banquets and a royal tour of Canada.

She also chose the stunning necklace for a number of official portraits, including a series of photographs by Yousuf Karsh in 1951.

While the monarch continued to wear the necklace throughout her reign, the tiara that was also acquired from Cartier was later dismantled.

In 1973, the Queen commissioned the Burmese Ruby tiara which used diamonds from the Nizam of Hyderabad tiara as well as rubies gifted from the people of Burma.

The Nizam of Hyderabad necklace was first seen on Kate Middleton in 2014 for a Portrait Gala at the National Portrait Gallery in London.

She paired the piece with a simple, midnight blue Jenny Packham gown, to ensure the diamonds were given full attention.

It was the third item Kate had borrowed from the royal vault – the others were a Cartier tiara and brooch – and was seen as being a sign of Her Majesty’s approval.

The Princess of Wales wore the necklace again for the Diplomatic Reception at Buckingham Palace in 2019.

Emerald Tassel parure

While on a tour of the Caribbean with Prince William last year, the Princess of Wales wore two items from the Emerald Tassel parure.

She opted for the suite’s tassel earrings and bracelet to accessorise her stunning shoulderless Jenny Packham gown.

Appearing in the jewels at a dinner hosted by the Governor General at King’s House in Kingston, Jamaica, she also wore her Royal Family Order and the GCVO Star, which the late Queen gifted to her for her eighth wedding anniversary.

The Emerald Tassel parure also consists of a necklace and a ring and Queen Elizabeth was spotted wearing the collection in its entirety for a dinner hosted by President Obama and his wife, Michelle, in 2011.

The origins of the jewels have never been confirmed but they are believed to have been a gift from Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan of the United Arab Emirates.

This is because jewels from the set were first worn by the Queen for a dinner at Claridge’s Hotel during the Sheikh’s state visit in 1989.

She later wore select items from the suite on a number of occasions, including during a state banquet in Accra, Ghana in 1999 and a gala in Cardiff in 2004.

Queen Elizabeth’s Canadian Maple Leaf brooch 

Depicting the national symbol of Canada, the Princess of Wales has joined a host of other royals in wearing the Maple Leaf brooch while visiting the country.

The diamond brooch, made by Asprey, was first given to the Queen Mother by her husband, King George VI, for their state visit to Canada in 1939.

Queen Elizabeth often wore the brooch during the Second World War, pinning it to her hat as she toured bombed areas of Britain and wearing it on her shoulder to visit an ammunition factory.

Her daughter, then Princess Elizabeth, wore the brooch for her first visit to Canada in 1951, when she stood in for her father who was unwell.

The brooch was inherited by the late Queen in 2002 after the death of her mother and she later wore the accessory to events in Canada or those relating to the country.

Queen Camilla and the Princess of Wales have both been pictured wearing the brooch while visiting Canada.

Kate teamed the brooch with a Maple leaf red hat for her first official visit to the country in 2011, shortly after her wedding.

She also stunned in a simple red Preen dress, simply decorated with the brooch, for a reception at Government House in Victoria in 2016.

Ruby and Diamond Floral Bandeau

The Princess of Wales was spotted in the eye-catching diamond and ruby drop necklace for a state banquet in honour of the King and Queen of Spain in 2017.

Paired with a dusty pink custom-made Marchesa gown, the glamorous accessory was accentuated by the dress’s plunging neckline.

The intricate piece is set in silver and gold with diamond floral decoration and sizeable rubies.

It was bought from Boucheron in 1907 by Margaret Greville and was part of the generous bequest of jewels that was left to the Queen Mother upon Margaret’s death in 1942.

The piece was gifted to the late Queen by King George VI and the Queen Mother as a wedding present and the monarch regularly donned the collar.

She removed two small floral pieces from the side of the necklace so that it would sit higher and she would regularly pair it with V-neck dresses.

In 1987, the Queen sat for an official portrait wearing the bandeau with the Diamond Diadem.

The piece was not seen again for thirty years, when it was worn by Kate at the banquet in 2017.

Queen Mother’s sapphire and diamond fringe earrings

The Princess of Wales made her first appearance in the Queen Mother’s sapphire fringe earrings for the 100 Women in Hedge Funds at the Victoria & Albert Museum in 2015.

The design is centred around a large hanging sapphire which is surrounded by diamonds and has diamond fringes beneath.

They were seen on the Queen Mother during her widowhood, and she wore them with the impressive Russian Sapphire Cluster brooch for a Ben Travers farce in 1986.

The piece was inherited by the late Queen after the death of her mother, but she was not seen wearing the earrings. 

Kate however has continued to sport the jewels, also wearing them for her Together at Christmas carol service in 2021.

Bahrain pearl drop earrings

In a moving tribute to the late monarch, the Princess of Wales chose to wear the Queen’s Bahrain pearl drop earrings to her funeral in September last year.

She opted for the same jewellery for the Queen’s funeral as she had worn for Prince Philip’s funeral, also wearing the Japanese pearl choker.

Kate has been seen in the earrings on a number of other occasions, including for Ascot and Trooping the Colour.

The earrings were made from two pearls that came from a collection that were gifted to the Queen by the Sheikh of Bahrain.

She was given seven pearls, presented in a shell, as a wedding present in 1947.

The design features a diamond stud, from which hangs four smaller round diamonds, three baguette diamonds and a pearl.

A number of portraits were taken of the late Queen wearing the earrings and she continued to wear them throughout her reign, choosing to wear the accessories for the Festival of Remembrance in 2015.

Japanese pearl choker

Kate has paired the Bahrain pearl drop earrings with the Japanese pearl choker on a number of occasions.

As well as the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II in 2022 and the funeral of Prince Philip in 2021, the Princess of Wales also matched the accessories for the Festival of Remembrance last year.

The late Queen is believed to have been gifted the pearls for the necklace by the Japanese government and commissioned a choker to be made by Garrard in 1970s.

It features an unusually-shaped diamond clasp at the centre of four strands of pearls.

The Queen was rarely seen wearing chokers, but she loaned the necklace to Princess Diana, who was often seen in the style, for the state visit of Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands in 1982.

The Queen was pictured wearing the piece for a state visit to Bangladesh the following year, pairing the accessory with the Girls of Great Britain and Ireland tiara.

It is believed that the necklace was first loaned to Kate Middleton for the Queen and Prince Philip’s 70th wedding anniversary celebrations in 2017.

Queen Elizabeth’s George VI Festoon Necklace

A beloved gift from her father, the Queen’s diamond festoon necklace was worn by the monarch throughout her reign.

She was first given the glittering creation by her father, who commissioned Garrard to create the piece in 1950.

It was made from 105 loose diamonds that had been kept in reserve in case a monarch wanted to extend a necklace or improve a tiara – a service that is said to have been regularly used by Queen Mary, the King’s mother.

The resulting necklace features three strands of graduated stones, suspended between two diamond triangles.

In 1953, the Queen is believed to have removed ten of the diamonds from the necklace to make it shorter.

She wore the necklace at the most formal royal events, including for numerous State Openings of Parliament and was last seen wearing the piece in 2018 at a banquet for the state visit of the King and Queen of the Netherlands.

In a moving acknowledgement of the late Queen’s reign, the Princess of Wales wore the necklace for the first time in the official portrait for the Coronation of King Charles III and Queen Camilla.