The Secret Stories Behind Queen Letizia's Seven Sparkling Tiaras

This weekend, Queen Letizia of Spain celebrates her birthday. In her honor, we've got a look at the hidden histories behind the seven tiaras she's worn since her royal wedding twenty years ago

Tomorrow, the Queen of Spain celebrates her 52nd birthday. Two decades ago, she married the future King Felipe VI of Spain in a glittering ceremony in Madrid, and since then, she’s become a capable and creative wearer of the family’s tiaras. Today, I’ve got a look at the seven sparkling tiaras that Letizia has worn since becoming a member of Spain’s royal family, as well as the fascinating histories behind each piece.

Letizia attends a gala dinner for the President of Chile, 2011 (Zuma Press/Alamy)

The Prussian Tiara

Letizia Ortiz Rocasolano made her official tiara debut on her wedding day in May 2004. With her wedding gown, she wore a diamond tiara loaned to her by her new mother-in-law, Queen Sofia of Spain. The little diamond kokoshnik had resided in Spain with Sofia for decades, but its origins could be tracked to imperial Germany. In 1911, the Kaiser traveled to Britain to attend the unveiling of the memorial dedicated to his grandmother, Queen Victoria, outside of Buckingham Palace. During the trip, his daughter, Princess Viktoria Luise of Prussia, was photographed wearing this small diamond tiara in a portrait studio in London.

Viktoria Luise married a German cousin, Prince Ernst August of Hanover, two years later. When their daughter, Princess Friederike, married the future King Paul of Greece in the 1930s, Viktoria Luise gave her the small Prussian tiara as a wedding present. When Paul and Friederike’s daughter, Princess Sophia, began wearing tiaras for gala events, she borrowed the petite kokoshnik from her mother. Sophia loved the tiara so much that she decided to wear it when she married Juan Carlos, the future King of Spain, in 1962. (She changed her name afterward to the Spanish spelling, Sofia.)

The Prussian Tiara, as it is generally known, has now resided in Spain for half a century. Queen Sofia often loaned it to her daughters, Infanta Elena and Infanta Cristina, and in 2004, she offered it to her new daughter-in-law, Letizia, to wear on her wedding day. Letizia continued to wear the tiara for gala events for the next decade, but it’s been a bit since we’ve seen the jewel sparkling on the head of a Spanish royal. I have a sneaking suspicion that it’s been set aside for Princess Leonor to wear when she makes her first tiara appearance in the coming years.