And the bride wore hand-me-downs… …and what hand me downs they were!
And the bride wore hand-me-downs…
…and what hand me downs they were!
Her tiara has been seen gracing the heads of many royals. Originally the tiara was owned by Queen Mary who had it fashioned from a necklace. It was then passed to Queen Elizabeth. In turn, she lent it to her daughter Princess Elizabeth (our current Queen), to wear on her wedding day. The tiara was then worn by Princess Anne on her wedding day. And now this generation’s bride wore it on her wedding day, and Princess Beatrice wore it well.
I always think diamonds look great on a red head.
“The Fringe Tiara, originally owned by Queen Mary, which features 47 diamond bars divided by metal spikes.
Though the tiara was made in 1919 by Garrard, the jewels themselves actually date back to a necklace that Queen Victoria gave to Mary for her marriage to the matriarch’s grandson, King George V.
Once Mary was queen, she put her extensive jewelry collection to good use, and continued to expand upon it. It was a common habit of Mary’s to have older pieces reset to make them more versatile, and to have a focus on adaptability in new pieces she had commissioned.”
Vanity Fair
Queen Mary (Generation 1)
Queen Elizabeth, the later Queen Mother (Generation 2)
Princess Elizabeth on her wedding day (Generation 3)
Princess Anne on her wedding day (Generation 4)
Princess Beatrice on her wedding day (Generation 5)
That dress!
But Princess Beatrice went further than other Royal brides. Not only did she wear jewels that had been worn by others, a royal tradition, but in a remarkable step, she also wore a second hand dress.
That’s pretty incredible when you think of how much we all love to look unique in our dresses. I think she pulled it off beautifully. She is wearing one of her grandmother’s gowns. A dress that the Queen first wore in 1961. She wore it again at the world premier of Lawrence of Arabia at the Odeon cinema in Leicester Square in December 1962 and then again for her House of Lords speech in 1966.
The Peau De Soie taffeta dress was designed by British fashion designer Norman Hartnell. It is understood the dress was originally worn by the Queen in 1961, when she was attending a state dinner held in honour of the Italian President at the time, Giovanni Gronchi.
Royal Press Release
“The white satin gown, which is coated in beaded embroidery all the way from the neck to the mid thigh has been modified slightly by Beatrice, who chose to add in sheer puff sleeves, encrusted with diamonds. She also updated the dress by removing the underskirts and bubble hem. The stunning gown sits just below Beatrice’s ankles, while the original frock skimmed the ground. In a press release, The dress was remodelled and fitted by the Queen’s senior dresser, Angela Kelly, together with designer Stewart Parvin.”
Royal Press Release
Clearly Her Majesty adores her grand-daughter.
Poor Beatrice has had a rough few months off it. She had already had her wedding plans altered once due to the actions of her father, the Duke of York. Then a pandemic hit the planet, and all wedding plans the world over, had to be re-arranged.
However, she and her fiance, Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi, could wait no more, and in a private ceremony, that got married in front of a small handful of their family. Congratulations!
Some newspapers delighted in calling it a “secret” wedding but they are just sour because no one told them. It was instead a “private” wedding. Words make all the difference, and journalists know this.
Other private / secret royal weddings
A Royal wedding is normally a massive affair, especially when the bride or groom are so high in the line of succession. but there have been a few other notable exceptions.
- Edward IV in 1464 secretly married Elizabeth Woodville, a widow with two sons. This move enraged his councillors and sparked decades of bloody conflict; resulting in the fall of the Houses of York and Lancaster and the rise of the House of Tudor.
- George IV wed his mistress Maria Fitzherbert in 1785 in a quiet ceremony in her Mayfair drawing room. He was only 23 and didn’t have his father, the King’s, permission, so it was deemed illegal. Later, in need of cash, he married his cousin, Caroline of Brunswick, a young lady of few charms in his eyes, beyond her bank balance. He was so disgusted by her, he got steaming drunk and spent his wedding night collapsed into the fire grate. It was a short and disastrous marriage.
- In 1936 King Edward VIII abdicated his throne in order to marry the woman he loved. In 1937 he and Wallis Simpson married in a private ceremony. Although first they had to wait for her divorce to come through. And then thy went on a tour of Germany and met Hitler. Not terribly auspicious.
Princess Beatrice’s wedding however, had none of these difficult scenarios and I imagine she is going to have a wonderful life with her new husband, away from the glare of the media.
Lots more weddings…
Cornish Dreams at Cockleshell Cottage starts with a wedding and has at least two more in it. Although neither go according to plan…
Escape to the Cornish coast this summer with this completely uplifting romcom – perfect for fans of Holly Martin, Phillipa Ashley and Milly Johnson.
AMZ: https://amzn.to/2O8W2oj
Kobo: http://bit.ly/3eD1j2x
Apple: https://apple.co/3dpq1Dn
Liz Hurley
3 Jetty Street, Mevagissey
United Kingdom
facebook instagram wordpress
You received this email because you signed up on our website or made a purchase from us.
Unsubscribe
4.17%
75.00%
10.42%
8.33%
0.00%
0.00%
2.08%
Liz Hurley as well as being the owner of this blog, runs a bookshop in Cornwall, right by the sea and writes books. You can buy them in her shop (of course), Waterstones and other outlets, as well as Amazon.
When she’s not reading, she’s writing and when she’s not writing, she’s walking. And when she’s not doing any of that she’s binging on box sets and sleeping.
This website is for her fictional works. Her Cornish non-fiction titles and walking guides can be found at https://www.cornishwalks.com
19th September 2022 @ 19:00
I am descended from Mary Boylen – funny, my name is Mary Elizabeth, as was my grandmother and her mother. This came from my maternal grandmother, mother of 14 children the wife of a farmer. Imagine my shock when I had the family researched!!! My little southern granny that had 14 children, was a farmer’s wife and tended her milk cows and chickens, tended a huge garden and even worked sometimes in the fields of cotton, with grandpa and family., was descended from “Real royalty”. Now, she had been educated in a girl’s school in early years, but nothing much to brag on nor did she. She was a Farmer’s wife and quite satisfied with exactly that. Many of her kids excelled with their adulthood, but she never changed. She was my “namesake” Mary Elizabeth, but was called”Lizzie “ by all her friends and extended family. Never in a million years would I have imagined her ancestry – just plain old country farming folks that went to church every Sunday.
Many years after she passed, did I even get into genealogy – and boy when I did was I ever in to the shock of my life. All the way back to the major royalty of Europe – and here was my benefactor the other “Mary Elizabeth”. The farmer’s wife and quiet happily so. A Christian, she read the Bible every morning and night as I knew – most likely her life. Just plain old Southern Baptist. 14 kids and so very many grandkids I lost count years ago. But, my sister, brother and I had the advantage of living with her after our mother’s divorce from our dad. This was off and on for maybe 3 – 4 years, as an aunt would grab one of us here and there as company for our cousins – 14 kids from granny = many cousins and many close to my age. These were short visits in Summer when school was out, but gave Granny a break too.
Little did I even envision of the heritage/family history of my humble, hard working little granny. She was my namesake “Mary Elizabeth” although all her friends called her “Lizzie”. Grandpa’s was great to in another aspect. Here was Granny with all the royal blood of Europe and Grandpa with incredible history of early colonial times and leading up to the Alamo. What a double edged sword here. Both sides – of course I really did not put this together for many years and now with my 79’th birthday figure I best take some time to do this for our family. So that is my most precious
Mission at the moment – to put this all together for future generations. The real American Story from the 1600’s to the present.
So many of us have this same story that needs to be told – just how our precious nation came to be and how so very many contributed to it – something that if know today just might rekindle the old “Patriotism” that we have so seemingly lost” !!
I hope I can rekindle so much that has seemed to be lost. Big project here!!
22nd September 2022 @ 14:24
What an incredible story! I love the way our families branch out and I love that your grandfather had an equally special story.