The Queen of the United Kingdom wears a very modest engagement ring, yet this piece of jewelry has a very rich history.
The history of the royal engagement ring
The engagement of Princess Elizabeth and Philip Mountbatten took place on July 9, 1947. As a presentation, Philip gave his beloved a ring with a center round diamond of 3 carats. Surrounding it is a scattering of smaller stones. By royal standards, the ring is modest. But the value of the gift is not in the size of the inserts, but in their history.
Fig. 1. Elizabeth II’s engagement ring
Phillip’s pedigree was magnificent. He was a descendant of Queen Victoria, a member of the Greek and Danish royal families. However, due to a number of tragic events (revolutions, abdication from the throne and flight from Greece, family disintegration, mental illness of his mother, etc.) in financial terms, the groom could not boast a significant fortune. Therefore, Philip’s mother, Alice Battenberg, gave her son her wedding tiara. She had the diamonds extracted from it and made into a wedding ring.
Figure 2. Alice Battenberg wearing the tiara
It is worth saying that Alice received the tiara as a gift from her royal relative from… Russia. Alice was the niece of the last Russian Empress Alexandra Feodorovna and a third cousin of Nicholas II. It was Nicholas II and Tsarina Alexandra, the last of the reigning Romanovs, who presented her with a tiara as a gift.
The Earl of Mountbatten, Philip’s uncle, advised to turn to the master jeweler at the Philip Antrobus Ltd jewelry house to bring the gift to life. It was there that an engagement ring was created for the future Queen Elizabeth II. It is said that Philip himself helped to develop the sketch of the jewelry.
Figure 3. Elizabeth II and Philip Mountbatten – photo on the day of engagement
The remaining diamonds from the mother’s tiara were used to create a bracelet. Philip presented it to Elizabeth as a wedding gift.
Symbolism of the engagement ring of Elizabeth II
The ring that Philip presented to his beloved has deep historical roots. In fact, the diamonds used in it are a symbol of the monarch’s power in its broadest sense. They weave together the history of Greece, Denmark, the Russian Empire and, of course, Great Britain itself.
Fig. 4. The ring on the hand of Elizabeth 2
Given that a few years later – in 1952 – the young Elizabeth would become head of the Commonwealth and reigning queen of seven countries (Great Britain, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Pakistan and Ceylon), the gift had a symbolic and partly prophetic significance.
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