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Queen Elizabeth II’s engagement ring carried a romantic wartime historical past.
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The ring, which encompasses a three-carat spherical brilliant-cut diamond flanked by 10 smaller diamonds in a platinum setting, was designed personally by Philip and made by London jeweler Philip Antrobus Ltd.
The diamonds had been taken from a tiara belonging to Philip’s mom, Princess Alice of Battenberg, later often called Princess Andrew of Greece and Denmark, who died aged 84 in 1969. The jewel grew to become probably the most recognizable items related to the late monarch, with royal specialists saying she by no means eliminated it all through her 73-year marriage.
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Wartime Romance Led To 1947 Royal Proposal
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Prince Philip personally designed the ring for his future spouse.
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The proposal itself got here within the aftermath of World Battle II, when Britain was nonetheless adjusting to peacetime austerity. Philip had reportedly sought the permission of Elizabeth’s father, King George VI, who died aged 56 in 1952, earlier than formally asserting the engagement in July 1947. The younger couple had identified one another for years, however their relationship deepened through the battle as Philip served as a naval officer.
Philip mirrored on his emotions in a letter written in 1946, providing a uncommon glimpse into the emotional backdrop of their engagement. “To have been spared within the battle and seen victory, to have been given the possibility to relaxation and to readjust myself, to have fallen in love utterly and unreservedly makes all one’s private and even the world’s troubles appear small and petty,” he wrote in 1946.
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Diamonds Got here From Princess Alice’s Tiara
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The bracelet later grew to become often called the Edinburgh wedding ceremony bracelet.
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The ring itself carried layers of household historical past. The diamonds got here from a tiara that had belonged to Philip’s mom, a bit initially gifted to Princess Alice by Tsar Nicholas II and Tsarina Alexandra of Russia when she married Prince Andrew of Greece in 1903. Philip dismantled the tiara to create Elizabeth’s engagement ring and an identical bracelet, later often called the Edinburgh wedding ceremony bracelet.
Past the engagement ring, Philip additionally commissioned Elizabeth’s wedding ceremony band utilizing Welsh gold provided by the folks of Wales. Ingrid Seward revealed in her ebook Prince Philip: A Portrait of the Duke of Edinburgh that Philip secretly added a personal inscription contained in the band – one which, she wrote, solely three folks ever knew: Philip, Elizabeth, and the engraver who made it.
Elizabeth and Philip married on November 20, 1947, at Westminster Abbey in London. The marriage occurred throughout a interval of rationing in Britain, and Elizabeth famously used clothes coupons to pay for her robe in a gesture that mirrored the austerity confronted by the general public after the battle. The costume was designed by Norman Hartnell and accomplished in lower than three months by round 350 seamstresses working in his atelier.
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Thriller Over The place The Ring Is Now
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One other idea suggests it might have been handed to Princess Anne.
Greater than seven many years later, the ring stays steeped in each symbolism and hypothesis. Royal historians say the jewel’s present location has by no means been publicly confirmed.
One supply mentioned: “No formal assertion has ever clarified what grew to become of the queen’s engagement ring after her dying. Its whereabouts have by no means been publicly detailed, which has inevitably led to hypothesis.
“Some consider it might now be rigorously preserved inside the royal household’s non-public assortment, whereas others recommend it might have been positioned among the many crown jewels as a part of the historic nationwide regalia.
“At this stage, nevertheless, there was no official affirmation both approach, and people near the royal family have remained intentionally tight-lipped about it.”
The knowledgeable added one other chance is that the ring was privately handed down inside the household, noting that Elizabeth’s daughter, Princess Anne, has typically been prompt as a possible inheritor to the piece.