Back to Style File Friday for another dip into royal history- we return to our history of royal jewels series with a look to the north. We started this series by looking at the Belgian Royal Family’s jewellery vaults. Today, we are exploring Norway’s jewels. Although the Norwegian Royal Family is fairly slim with few working members and it is a fairly young monarchy in this iteration, their jewels still pack a fairly hefty punch. Onto the history of the Norwegian Crown Jewels!
The Norwegian Crown Jewels
While Norway does have Crown Regalia (unlike Belgium)- aka crown jewels- they are not the original set. This often happens when monarchies change and evolve, and Norway was in a union with Sweden for nearly a century and with Denmark for centuries prior. The original regalia were last recorded in the middle of the sixteenth century; the current pieces were recreated in the early nineteenth century.
Although the Norwegian monarch does not have a coronation anymore and they are not used, the set includes the King’s Crown, Orb, Sceptre, the Queen’s Crown, Orb, and Sceptre, the Crown Prince’s Coronet, the Anointment Horn, and the Sword of State. (They are permanently on display in Trondheim if you find yourself in Norway!)
Queen Josephine’s Diamond Tiara
This floral and laurel-wreath diamond tiara originally belonged to Queen Josephine of Leuchtenberg (you’ve met her before, she was our June 2024 Consort of the Month). Notably, she was Queen of Sweden but the tiara made its way into the Norwegian Royal Family when Princess Märtha of Sweden married Crown Prince Olav of Norway. While we do not know which jeweller made the tiara or who commissioned it, we do luckily get to see it on Queen Sonja.
Queen Maud’s Pearl Tiara (Replica)
Princess Maud of Wales received this tiara as a gift from her parents, the future King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra, when she married Prince Carl of Denmark in 1896. The diamond and pearl scroll-style tiara had a central element that could be detached and worn separately; historians believe that it may have been made by Garrard or Carrington and Co. When Carl was offered the Norwegian crown, it became a part of the Norwegian collection. However, that is not the end of its story.
Maud fell ill and passed away while in the UK in the late 1930s and had many of her jewels with her, including the pearl tiara. Her son, King Olav, did not collect the tiara until 1953 when he was in the UK for the coronation.
Sadly, the tiara was stolen in 1995 after Queen Sonja sent it to Garrard in London for cleaning. The jewellery firm created a replica of the tiara; both Queen Sonja and Crown Princess Mette-Marit have worn the replica piece.
The Norwegian Emerald Parure Tiara
This is one of the tiaras in the Norwegian collection and one of the most impressive emerald tiaras across Europe. This tiara originally belonged to Princess Amelie of Leuchtenberg who would go on to be Empress Amelia of Brazil (though it is still up for debate where the emeralds came from and when they were acquired). In a somewhat simplified path, the Emerald Parure (set) entered the Norwegian Royal Family when Princess Ingeborg of Sweden gave the pieces, including the tiara, to her daughter, Crown Princess Märtha, when she and her children were fleeing to the US during the Second World War. (It was a sort of insurance policy, if Märtha needed to sell the pieces for money.)
The Crown Princess wore the Emerald Parure Tiara to Queen Elizabeth II’s Coronation in 1953 before her early death from cancer in 1954. Queen Sonja has worn the tiara many times, including for several official portraits.
The Norwegian Amethyst Parure Tiara/
The final impressive piece in the Norwegian jewellery vaults is the Amethyst Parure Tiara, a piece that can also be worn as a necklace. This diamond and amethyst piece is a new acquisition; King Harald gave this to Queen Sonja in 1997 in honour of her 60th birthday. (A decent birthday present if you ask me…) The piece is part of a larger parure that has a necklace, earrings, two bracelets, and brooch.
Queen Sonja, as an excellent mother-in-law, then gave the amethyst and diamond parure to Crown Princess Mette-Marit after she gave birth to Princess Ingrid Alexandra in 2004. She first wore the tiara in 2004 when Crown Prince Frederik of Denmark married Mary Donaldson and has worn it several times since.
Were you familiar with the jewels of the Norwegian Royal Family?
Cheers,
The Historian
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