The Court Jeweller

Sparkling Royal Jewels From Around the World

Joyas de Pasar: The Diamond Bracelets

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Our week-long series on the joyas de pasar, the jewels passed down from monarch to monarch in Spain, continues today with a closer look at Queen Letizia’s favorite part of the set: the diamond bracelets.

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Like the rest of the joyas de pasar (which essentially means “jewels that are passed down”), the diamond bracelets originally belonged to Queen Ena of Spain. When Ena made her will in 1963, she included a codicil specifically designating the bracelets as part of a collection of jewels that would be passed from monarch to monarch. In the text, these bracelets are described as “dos pulseras iguales de brillantes” (two matching diamond bracelets). In the image above, you’ll note that the bracelets are indeed matched and feature ribbon-like designs.
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When Queen Ena died in 1969, the bracelets (and the rest of the joyas) were passed to her son, the Count of Barcelona. He never became king — it’s complicated — but his son became King Juan Carlos I in 1975. The Count of Barcelona renounced his right to the throne two years later, and only then did the joyas de pasar appear on Juan Carlos’s wife, Queen Sofia. She generally wore the bracelets together, with one on each wrist. Above, she wears them with Queen Ena’s Pearl and Diamond Tiara (plus the joyas de pasar diamond necklace and earrings) at the Danish royal wedding in May 2004.
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She wore the bracelets again (with one on each wrist) at the Swedish royal wedding in June 2010, pairing them this time with pearls and the Mellerio Shell Tiara.
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Queen Sofia’s final appearance in the bracelets (again, worn one on each wrist) came at the Mexican state banquet in Madrid in June 2014, the final gala celebration of her husband’s reign. She wore numerous pieces from the joyas collection on that occasion, including the Fleur-de-Lis Tiara and the diamond necklace and earrings.
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King Juan Carlos abdicated in favor of his son, King Felipe VI, later the same month. The joyas bracelets subsequently became part of the new monarch’s collection, worn by his wife, Queen Letizia. She took her time with the jewels, not debuting them in public for several years after becoming queen. Her first appearance in the bracelets, I believe, came in February 2017, at a state banquet in Madrid in honor of the President of Argentina. She also wore the Fleur-de-Lis Tiara and the diamond earrings for the first time on this occasion.
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Since then, the bracelets have become some of Queen Letizia’s most frequently worn royal jewels. She’s chosen them for numerous gala occasions. In Tokyo in April 2017, she wore the bracelets stacked together on her left wrist for a banquet at the Imperial Palace, pairing them with the Spanish Floral Tiara and diamond and sapphire earrings.
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In July 2017, Queen Letizia wore the bracelets twice during the couple’s state visit to the United Kingdom. She wore one of the bracelets on her left wrist with the Fleur-de-Lis Tiara and the joyas diamond earrings for a state banquet at Buckingham Palace…
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…and the following evening, she wore them stacked together on her left wrist with the Spanish Floral Tiara and diamond and sapphire statement earrings for a banquet at the Guildhall in London. (The small fleur-de-lis brooch on her sash, which appears in several of these images, comes from her own tiara.)
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She wore the bracelets stacked together on her left wrist once again (with the Spanish Floral Tiara and Queen Sofia’s long pearl drop earrings) in Madrid in November 2017, when the royals hosted a banquet for the President of Israel.
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In November 2018, she used the bracelets twice during the Chinese state visit to Madrid. For the gala banquet, she wore them stacked on her right wrist, pairing them with the joyas diamond earrings and Queen Maria Cristina’s Diamond Loop Tiara.
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For dinner the next day, she wore one of the bracelets on her left wrist with less formal attire (and her Bulgari aquamarine earrings).
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In February 2019, she wore one of the bracelets on her right wrist (plus the Spanish Floral Tiara and her diamond wedding earrings) during a banquet in Madrid in honor of the President of Peru.
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Though Queen Sofia tended to reserve the bracelets only for formal occasions, Queen Letizia has worn them for other evening events as well. In November 2017, she wore them with the joyas diamond earrings for a meeting with the President of Mexico in Mexico City.
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They’ve also made appearances at the annual Princess of Asturias Awards celebrations. In October 2017, she wore them with her blue topaz girandole earrings…
Casa de S.M. el Rey

…and in October 2018, she paired them with the joyas diamond earrings for the same event.
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The bracelets have also added a bit of dramatic bling to Queen Letizia’s evening ensembles on other occasions. In November 2018, she wore them for an event at the Palau de Les Arts in Valencia, pairing them with black diamond earrings.
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She also wore them with the same earrings for a night at the opera in Madrid in September 2019.
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Most recently, we saw the bracelets on Queen Letizia in a series of formal portraits published in February 2020. In these images, she wears the bracelets stacked on her left wrist, plus the Fleur-de-Lis Tiara and the joyas diamond earrings.

Joyas de Pasar: Queen Ena’s Fleur-de-Lis Tiara

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Today, Spain celebrates its National Day. To join in the commemorations, we’re spending the week delving into one of the most important collections of Spanish royal jewels: the joyas de pasar, which pass from monarch to monarch. Let’s start with the grandest piece from that collection, shall we? Here’s a closer look at Queen Ena’s Fleur-de-Lis Tiara, which many simply call “La Buena.”

Grand Ladies Site

La Buena was created in 1906 by Ansorena, court jeweler to the Spanish royal family. The tiara was a wedding gift from King Alfonso XIII to his new bride, Princess Victoria Eugenie of Battenberg (or, as she was generally called, “Ena”), who was a granddaughter of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom. Above, Queen Ena wears the tiara and her wedding gown in a photographic portrait.
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The tiara is enormous, with intricate yet airy diamond-set elements. These are dominated by the large fleur-de-lis designs on the front and sides of the tiara. The fleur-de-lis is, of course, the symbol of the House of Bourbon. Members of this royal dynasty currently sit on the thrones of Spain and Luxembourg, and formerly reigned in France and Italy as well.
Grand Ladies Site

Queen Ena wore the tiara for her wedding to King Alfonso, which was held at the Monastery of San Jerónimo el Real in Madrid in May 1906. The wedding itself went smoothly, but the carriage procession afterward ended in tragedy. An anarchist threw a bomb concealed in a bouquet of flowers at the couple’s carriage. Though both Alfonso and Ena somehow managed to escape without physical injuries, twenty-four others were killed and one hundred soldiers and bystanders were wounded. When they arrived at the palace, Queen Ena’s wedding gown was spattered in blood.
Grand Ladies Site

Though the tiara had been present for a truly horrific experience, Queen Ena must have rejected any notion that it was somehow tainted by the tragedy. She continued to wear the tiara throughout her husband’s reign. The base of the tiara is flexible, which means that it’s able to be worn in a more closed form, like a coronet, or in a more open setting. In the portrait above, which dates to 1910 and features a stunning Worth gown, Ena wears the tiara in its more open form.
Grand Ladies Site

In 1914, Queen Ena wore the tiara as she sat for a portrait by Isidro Fernández Fuentes, a Spanish court painter who used the pseudonym “Gamonal.” A detail of the painting is shown above. Today, the full portrait hangs in the Naval Museum in Madrid.
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By the 1920s, Queen Ena had adopted the tiara-wearing fad of the moment, placing her diadems low across her forehead. This grand photographic portrait from that era also features her emeralds, which came from Empress Eugenie of France. But soon, Ena’s time in Spain would come to an end. She went into exile with the rest of the royal family in 1931, bringing her jewels with her. She continued to wear them throughout the rest of her life in Italy and Switzerland. She also loaned them to her daughter-in-law, the Countess of Barcelona, who wore La Buena at Queen Elizabeth II’s coronation in London in 1953.
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In 1963, Queen Ena made a will. The document included a codicil that designated a group of her jewels to be passed down from monarch to monarch — even though Spain didn’t have one at the time. But Ena seems to have been prescient in her decision. After the death of Franco in November 1975, her grandson became King Juan Carlos I. The next wearer of La Buena, accordingly, was his wife, Queen Sofia. She wore the tiara throughout his reign, tending to reserve it for the grandest of gala occasions. Above, in 1988, she wears the tiara for a state banquet in Madrid in honor of Queen Elizabeth II and the Duke of Edinburgh.
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In 2006, Queen Sofia packed La Buena in her luggage for a trip to Bangkok, wearing it during the Golden Jubilee celebrations for King Bhumibol Adulyadej of Thailand.
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In June 2014, Queen Sofia took La Buena out for one last spin. She wore it for a state banquet honoring the President of Mexico — the last such dinner held during her husband’s reign. When he abdicated in favor of their son, King Felipe VI, later that month, the joyas de pasar collection transfered to the new king and his wife, Queen Letizia.
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Almost three years later, in February 2017, Queen Letizia wore the tiara in public for the first time. The occasion was another state dinner, this time in honor of the President and First Lady of Argentina.
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As I noted above, the base of La Buena is flexible, which means that it can be manipulated to fit each individual wearer’s head. When Queen Letizia wore the tiara for the first time, evidence of that type of adjustment was clear, as the thin row of diamonds at the base of the tiara wasn’t properly joined together at the center point.
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In subsequent appearances, though, the problem with the base has been remedied. Like her mother-in-law, Queen Letizia has generally chosen to wear the tiara for some of the grandest of royal gala occasions. One of these came in July 2017, when she and King Felipe made a state visit to the United Kingdom. Queen Letizia wore the tiara for a state banquet at Buckingham Palace during the visit. The moment was an echo of the past. More than a century earlier, King Alfonso XIII had met Queen Ena for the first time at Buckingham Palace following a dinner during a state visit — an event that ultimately led to the creation of this tiara.
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One of the most recent appearances of the tiara came in October 2019, when Queen Letizia wore it during the celebrations of the imperial enthronement in Tokyo. She later repeated the complete ensemble for a new set of formal portraits released in February 2020. The Spanish monarchy has ridden a rollercoaster of public opinion and conflict for more than a century. We’ll all have to wait to see whether Queen Ena’s tiara will be worn by the next in line to the throne, the Princess of Asturias.

The Royal Jewels of September

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It’s time for another roundup of the royal jewels we’ve seen out and about during the last month! Here’s a look at the royal jewels of September.

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Let’s start off in Belgium, where Queen Mathilde is still the master of matching her mask to her outfit. On September 1, she even matched her earrings to both! She wore earrings featuring orange studs and gold leaf pendants in Tervuren as Princess Eleonore began her first day of school at Sacred Heart College.

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Major white statement earrings accompanied Queen Mathilde on a visit to the Wikifin Lab in Brussels on September 8.

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Queen Mathilde wore another pair of her signature gold earrings, this time in a large leaf design, for a visit to Lievegem, connected with the Queen Mathilde Foundation, on September 15.

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Diamond earrings complemented Queen Mathilde’s sparkling sequin mask for a concert by the Collegium Vocale on September 22 in Ghent.

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On September 23, Queen Mathilde wore classic diamond drop earrings for her visit to the Center for the Evaluation of Vaccines in Antwerp.

Over in Luxembourg, a pair of family celebrations took center stage this month. The first was the wedding of Archduchess Gabriella, the niece of Grand Duke Henri, and Prince Henri of Bourbon-Parma on September 12 in Austria. For her wedding day, Gabriella borrowed the Grand Duchess Adelaide Tiara.

© Cour grand-ducale/Sophie Margue

On September 19, the grand ducal family attended a service of thanksgiving for the baptism of a future grand duke, Prince Charles. He’s the son of Hereditary Grand Duke Guillaume and Hereditary Grand Duchess Stephanie. For the service, Stephanie wore vintage diamond earrings and a pearl sautoir with a lovely tassel detail. (See the full necklace here!)

© Cour grand-ducale/Sophie Margue

For the service, Grand Duchess Maria Teresa was a proud grandmother in a lovely pair of long modern earrings.

© Cour grand-ducale/Sophie Margue

Prince Charles’s aunt, Princess Claire, also attended the service, wearing a necklace with golden charms.

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In the Netherlands, the highlight of September was Prinsjesdag, the annual opening of parliament. Though the celebrations were naturally scaled back, Queen Maxima attended in sparkling diamond and citrine jewels from the royal vaults.

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Princess Laurentien also attended the Prinsjesdag celebrations on September 15, wearing family diamonds and aquamarines.

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On September 9, Queen Maxima wore her statement-making shell earrings for the national Music Table Day meeting on sustainable music education in Katwijk.

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Queen Maxima was classic in pearls on September 16 for a tour of the new Theater Zuidplein building in Rotterdam.

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For a visit to South East Friesland with King Willem-Alexander on September 17, Queen Maxima wore her rainbow ribbon-style hoop earrings and a gold bracelet with elephant designs.

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Queen Maxima has even worn jewelry for virtual engagements at home in the palace of Huis Ten Bosch in The Hague. For this United Nations meeting, she wore a chunky gold chain necklace.

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Denmark’s princesses have also made several recent appearances. On September 5, which is Flag Day in Denmark, Crown Princess Mary wore the Connaught Sapphire Brooch for a ceremony at Kastellet in Copenhagen.

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On September 17, Crown Princess Mary was a natural choice to help inaugurate the new Australian War Memorial in Copenhagen’s Churchill Park. She wore pearl earrings and a modern pearl and gold brooch for the occasion.

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Princess Marie of Denmark, who currently lives in France, wore floral stud earrings and layered necklaces to view an exhibition of nineteenth-century Danish art at the Petit Palais in Paris on September 18.

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In Norway, Queen Sonja wore a shield-shaped brooch with crown and gem embellishments as she was appointed an honorary citizen of Lillehammer on September 25 following the restoration of her childhood home by the Maihaugen Museum.

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Princess Charlene of Monaco wore diamond studs and layered silver necklaces as she participated in the Calvi-Monaco Water Bike Challenge on September 12.

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On September 24, Princess Charlene was glam in diamonds by Repossi for the annual Monte-Carlo Gala For Planetary Health.

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Princess Stephanie of Monaco wore a pair of petite stud earrings on September 22 as she visited a fashion pop-up featuring designs by her daughter, Pauline Ducruet, at the Monaco Yacht Club.

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One more Grimaldi had a fashion moment in September: Princess Alexandra of Hanover, who wore a necklace with a sparkling charm for a Dior fashion show on September 29 in Paris.

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Queen Letizia of Spain continued her fondness for hoop earrings in September. She wore medium-sized gold hoops for a school visit in Navarra on September 14.

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On September 16, Queen Letizia sported a pair of large diamond-studded hoops as she and King Felipe attended the 125th anniversary celebration for a newspaper, El Heraldo De Aragon, in Zaragoza.

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Classic pearls adorned Queen Suthida of Thailand on September 24 during an event at Siriraj Hospital in Bangkok.

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In Stockholm, Queen Silvia of Sweden wore traditional black-and-white attire for the opening of Sweden’s parliament, the Riksdag, on September 8. Along with her pearl earrings and necklace, Queen Silvia wore one of the family’s diamond and pearl brooches. This particular brooch features a pearl surrounded by diamond “petals” to resemble a flower, flanked by two additional diamonds. It can be worn with or without the pearl drop; Princess Sofia wore it without the drop for the Nobels in 2018.

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On September 30, Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden made a visit to a life support machine center at Karolinksa University Hospital. She wore earrings by Marianne Dulong for the occasion.

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Several of the Windsors also made appearances this September. Princess Beatrice wore delicate bracelets and her engagement and wedding rings as she stopped by a new exhibition featuring her wedding gown (but not tiara) at Windsor Castle on September 23.

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For a visit to Coverwood Farm in Cranleigh on September 24, the Countess of Wessex wore circle stud earrings and a long pendant necklace.

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The Duchess of Cornwall wore the cap badge of The Rifles on September 7 at Beachley Barracks in Wales following her new appointment as Colonel-in-Chief. She also wore two necklaces: her Kiki McDonough blue topaz necklace and her golden Kiwi necklace.

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On September 30, Camilla wore the Turquoise Shamrock Brooch with her favorite pearl drop earrings for a visit to the Ulster Museum in Belfast.

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The Duchess of Cambridge also made several September outings. For visits to the East London Mosque and London Muslim Centre on September 15, Kate wore a new pair of Missoma earrings with rhodochrosite drops.

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On September 22, Kate met with parents, children, and peer supporters, in Battersea Park. She wore gold earrings by Daniella Draper and layered necklaces (one from Spells of Love, another gifted by All the Falling Stars during a previous visit to Galway).

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And for a visit to a scout group in Northolt on September 29, Kate also wore simple jewelry suitable for an outdoor event: her gold double necklace from Spells of Love and delicate gold earrings from All the Falling Stars.