Cousin Louie's Coronation Diadem: The Fascinating Tale of the Cartier Indian Tiara

One of the grandest royal tiaras at the coronations of 1937 and 1953 was a sparkling diadem acquired by a princess for her own jewelry box

This summer, we traveled back in time to attend the wedding of Princess Marie Louise, the royal cousin who witnessed an astonishing span of history. Today, we’re returning to her story to chronicle one of her most fabulous jewels: the tiara she bought from Cartier to wear to a pair of coronations.

Princess Marie Louise, photographed by Hay Wrightson Ltd at the time of the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in 1953 (© National Portrait Gallery, London)

When we last left Princess Marie Louise—granddaughter of Queen Victoria, niece of King Edward VII, and cousin of King George V, King Edward VIII, King George VI, and Queen Elizabeth II—she had been pushed out of her unhappy marriage to Prince Aribert of Anhalt, thanks to the annulment powers exercised by his father. Back in Britain, Marie Louise was buoyed by the support of her royal grandmother, Queen Victoria; her parents, Prince Christian of Schleswig-Holstein and Princess Helena of the United Kingdom; and her brother and sister, Prince Albert and Princess Helena Victoria.

Though there was still a strong stigma around divorce and annulment at the turn of the twentieth century, Marie Louise was seen as a wronged woman rather than a fallen one. Personally, she considered religious marriage vows to be indissoluble, and as a result she never remarried. She was never forced into the shadows after the shocking end of her marriage, remaining an active and vital member of the British royal family for half a century afterward.

Interestingly, the entire family of Schleswig-Holstein siblings ended up as independent operators in the world of royalty. Neither Albert nor Helena Victoria ever married, though Albert fathered an illegitimate daughter, Valerie, with an unknown aristocratic woman. (She was officially acknowledged by Albert and by Marie Louise and Helena Victoria, for various reasons, in adulthood.)

Albert, as heir to the title of Duke of Schleswig-Holstein, moved to Germany and joined the Prussian Army. Meanwhile, Marie Louise and Helena Victoria stayed in Britain with their parents, serving as support for their often-ailing mother and taking on a heavy slate of official engagements on behalf of King Edward VII and, later, King George V and King George VI.

Princess Marie Louise, photographed by Lafayette, November 1921 (SuperStock/Alamy)

The outbreak of World War I tore the family apart. Albert, still serving with the army in Berlin, was allowed by his cousin, Kaiser Wilhelm II, to avoid fighting against his British countrymen during the conflict. Though he was safely ensconced in a desk job, he was cut off from communication with his parents and sisters back in Britain. They were able to learn news of his whereabouts thanks to the tireless work of Crown Princess Margareta of Sweden, the British-born princess living in neutral Stockholm.