Kate Middleton and Princess Charlotte broke with tradition with touching act at huge royal event
Princess Kate and Princess Charlotte wore matching headpieces for the Coronation (Image: James Veysey/REX/Shutterstock)
Princess Kate and Princess Charlotte were picture perfect as they stepped out for King Charles’s Coronation at Westminster Abbey on 6 May 2023.
Mother and daughter sweetly opted for matching look; both wore bespoke floral headpieces, along with white dresses. But their decision not to wear tiaras for the historic event surprised many. The headwear they instead chose was made from silver bullion, crystal and silver threadwork and was a collaboration between one of Kate’s favourite milliners, Jess Collett, and her go-to designer Sarah Burton for Alexander McQueen.
It was unclear whether Kate, or indeed Charlotte, would wear a tiara to the event, since historically close family members of the monarch would wear a diamond headpiece or coronet to a coronation ceremony. But in keeping with King Charles’ slightly more scaled-back celebrations, Kate opted for something less formal – no doubt to reflect His Majesty’s wishes.
In fact, there were no tiaras to be seen at Westminster Abbey on the day of the Coronation, despite the number of royal guests in attendance. The only royals wearing glittering jewels on their heads at the crowning ceremony were King Charles and Queen Camilla. Camilla wore the Queen Mary Crown , which was the first time in recent history that an existing crown has been re-used for a coronation. Featuring a whopping 2,200 diamonds, the headpiece was originally designed by the royal jeweller House of Garrard for the coronation of King George V and his Queen Consort Mary in June 1911
In a tribute to the late Queen Elizabeth II, Camilla decided to have the crown reset using diamonds from her mother-in-law’s personal jewellery collection, including diamonds known as Cullinan III, IV and V. “The choice of Queen Mary’s Crown by Her Majesty is the first time in recent history that an existing crown will be used for the coronation of a Consort instead of a new commission,” Buckingham Palace said in a statement , which it added was a decision made “in the interests of sustainability and efficiency”.
King Charles, meanwhile, wore the St Edward’s Crown, regarded as the centrepiece of the Crown Jewels. It was made for King Charles II and used at his coronation in 1661. Described as ” the most important and sacred of all the crowns ” the St Edward’s Crown is only used at the moment of crowning itself. It was placed on Charles’s head by the Archbishop of Canterbury during the investiture part of the coronation ceremony, but was then removed and replaced with the Imperial State Crown, which Charles wore to leave the Abbey and appear on the Buckingham Palace balcony.
