An unsettling choice for a sovereign who had an immeasurable treasure: fairytale tiaras and diadems, mind-boggling pearls, rings worthy of castles. And instead Lilibet, in her last will, has displaced everyone
Queen Elizabeth II has always used clothes and jewelry as a communication tool, even a way to do politics. But the last choice, that of the precious ones with which she was buried was the most unsettling. A clear message to the world: here the Queen ends and the person who rejoins God begins. The beloved Lilibet, the infinite queen could choose from 300 phantasmagoric jewels. including 98 brooches, 46 necklaces, 37 bracelets, 34 pairs of earrings, 15 rings, 14 watches and 5 pendants. A beautiful collection also net of the scepter, the 530.2-carat Cullinan diamond and the imperial state crown that represent the jewels that remain the property of the British monarchy.
Surely when he wrote which jewels he would not even want to part with once he crossed the threshold of the afterlife, he wanted to give this choice a meaning that went beyond a coded message like when – to give an example – in 2011 for his historic visit to Northern Ireland, the first of a monarch in over a hundred years of history, he wore an Irish harp brooch studded with simple Swarovski crystals. Or like when, at the time of Trump, she welcomed the US president to Buckingham Palace showing off a broche that had been given to her by President Obama, her bitter political opponent of her, highly esteemed by Elizabeth instead.
The jewels for the last trip: the beloved wedding ring
As we know, the queen was buried next to her parents and husband Philip at St. George’s Chapel in Windsor, a sober and intimate place that already houses the tombs of other British sovereigns such as that of Edward VIII. For her last trip, Elisabetta asked to have only two jewels with her. First of all, the Welsh gold wedding ring which, according to the tradition of royal weddings, was specially extracted from the gold mine of Clogau Saint David. Symbol of her love for her and her union with the late Prince Philip, with whom she remained married for 73 years. And she took the secret of the sentence engraved inside it to her grave. Words chosen by Prince Philip that were never disclosed. “Nobody knows what it says, apart from the engraver, the queen and her husband,” Ingrid Seward explains in the book Prince Philip: A Portrait of the Duke of Edinburgh. The queen therefore chose to take the only ring that really mattered to her to her grave, that Welsh gold wedding band. While Philip’s engagement ring was handed over to her daughter Anna.
The second jewel: the simple pearl earrings
The second jewel chosen Elisabetta communicates all her urgency to finally return to being a simple woman who seems to feel relief in recovering all this essentiality: just a couple of small beads of pearls, the one she was most fond of. The queen has always loved pearls, a family tradition inherited from her ancestor Vittoria, who after the early death of her husband Alberto wore them very often and until her death in 1901. Since then, pearls have been a symbol of mourning and represent tears. It is no coincidence that the sovereign wore them at the funeral of her father George VI, her queen mother and her sister Margaret. Kate herself chose them (in the form of the splendid four-strand necklace of Japanese pearls and diamond clasp that belonged to the Queen herself) for both Philip’s and Elizabeth’s funerals.
Unlimited access to all site content
€ 1 / month for 3 months, then € 3.99 / month for 3 months
Unlock unlimited access to all content on the site
#jewels #Queen #Elizabeth #wanted #buried #revealed