A Subtle Change in the Royal Jewels Hidden Details at the Windsor Banquet

This was a state banquet at Windsor Castle, held in honor of the President of Nigeria, an evening that seemed to follow all the familiar royal traditions. At first glance, everything felt very expected. Familiar tiaras, well-known silhouettes, choices we've seen before. But the more closely you look, the more quietly unusual it becomes. Small decisions, repeated choices, subtle shifts, and together, they begin to tell a much more interesting story than any single jewel ever could. Before we begin, please support my channel by clicking on the like and subscribe buttons. Thank you. Spring has finally arrived in Windsor, and with it, the first major state visit of the year. These daytime ceremonies are always fascinating to watch, not just for the grand carriage processions, but for the very deliberate choices the royal women make. They are balancing diplomacy and history with their own personal style, and you can see that thought process in every detail. The day began in the town of Windsor, where King Charles III and Queen Camilla officially received President Bola Ahmed Tenubu and First Lady Oluremi Tenubu. It was a beautiful, bright morning, and Queen Camilla looked quite lovely embracing the season in a pale pink coat dress. You might recognize the ensemble. She has turned to it for several high-profile events recently, including her arrival in Paris for the state visit in 2023 and the 80th anniversary of D-Day last year. What really caught my eye against that soft pink fabric were the diamonds pinned to her collar. These are the Greville Ivy Leaf Clips, made by Cartier, and their history is truly remarkable. They were part of that massive, legendary jewelry legacy left to Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother by the Society Hostess Margaret Greville in 1942. The Queen Mother eventually gave these delicate diamond leaves to her daughter, the future Queen Elizabeth II, as a 21st birthday present in 1947. For the next 75 years, the late Queen wore these brooches consistently, right up until the final months of her life. They became part of her visual signature. Queen Camilla has been wearing them for over two years now, having first debuted them in early 2024 at the memorial service for King Constantine of Greece. She clearly favors them, though I noticed she wears them with a bit more of a relaxed touch than her predecessor, placing them slightly apart to suit the line of her lapels. Before that official welcome in Windsor, the Prince and Princess of Wales greeted the presidential couple at their hotel. Catherine opted for a tailored gray coat dress with white trim by Tolu Coker. Choosing a British-Nigerian designer was such a thoughtful, sophisticated, diplomatic gesture. The silhouette of the coat sparked quite a bit of chatter. Some felt the gray tone, and the very structured cut felt a bit austere for a spring morning, even drawing comparisons to an exceptionally chic flight attendant uniform. However, the design is far from simple. It features an intricate corset detail at the back, which adds a modern, slightly edgy element to an otherwise very traditional front. It was also interesting to note that she chose not to wear the Prince of Wales feathers brooch, which has been her standard for these daytime welcomes in the past. Instead, the visual focus was entirely on her earrings, the Collingwood Pearl Drop earrings. These were a wedding gift to Diana, Princess of Wales, from the Collingwood jewelry firm in 1981. There is a bit of a story there, as the firm originally wanted to present Diana with a much more elaborate diamond suite, but palace officials advised them that such a gift would be considered too extravagant for the occasion. The diamond and pearl drops were the compromise, and they became one of Diana's most treasured and frequently worn pieces. Seeing Catherine in these specific pearls during the day felt like a very deliberate hint. Given their history and how often she has paired them with a particular tiara, I felt certain I knew exactly what she would be wearing for the banquet that evening. As we will see, I was right about the tiara, but her choice of evening earrings would turn out to be a complete surprise. Following the ceremonial welcome, the focus moved inside the castle for a private lunch and a visit to the Green Drawing Room. There, the King and Queen shared a specially curated exhibition of items from the royal collection relating to Nigeria, a quiet chance to reflect on their shared history in a more intimate setting. But as the sun began to set over the battlements of Windsor, the atmosphere shifted. For those of us who follow the royal jewelry, a state banquet remains the ultimate stage, the moment we wait for with a very particular kind of restless anticipation. There is always something quite special about St. George's Hall just before a banquet begins. For the Nigerian state visit, the long table was lined with spring flowers and gold accents, setting a rather thoughtful, quiet mood for an evening that was historically unique in more ways than one. It has actually been 37 years since the last Nigerian state visit to Britain. The last time was all the way back in 1989, so there was already a sense of a significant diplomatic milestone in the air. But what made this evening truly unprecedented in modern times was the timing. For the first time in nearly a century, the British monarch was hosting a Muslim head of state during the holy month of Ramadan. The palace made careful, respectful adaptations for President Bola Ahmed Tenubu and First Lady Oluremi Tenubu, setting aside a dedicated prayer room and serving a meat-free iftar menu featuring quail egg tartlets and a chilled blackcurrant souffle. You actually have to look all the way back to 1928, when King George V welcomed the King of Afghanistan to find a comparable iftar banquet at Windsor Castle. Stepping into the historic setting of St. George's Hall, Queen Camilla wore a cream-embroidered gown by Fiona Clare, providing a subtle backdrop for some of the most storied jewels in the royal collection. Anchoring her look was the deep blue sash and diamond star of the Order of the Garter, worn alongside the yellow ribbon of the King Charles III Family Order. You probably recognized her headpiece immediately. The Belgian sapphire tiara has become one of her absolute go-to choices for evening receptions. Its history, of course, is full of sharp turns. It began its life in the 19th century not as a tiara, but as a necklace belonging to Princess Louise of Belgium. Following a life marked by a scandalous affair, time in an asylum, and severe debts, Louise was forced to part with her maternal jewels. The sapphire necklace, with its distinctive large square-cut stones, circulated privately for decades until Queen Elizabeth II purchased it in 1963. The late queen already owned the spectacular sapphire necklace and earrings given to her by her father, King George VI, but she lacked a coordinating tiara to complete the set. By having this antique Belgian necklace set permanently onto a tiara frame, she created what we call a married perure, pieces from different sources brought together to look as though they were always meant to be a set. But if you drop your gaze just slightly from those massive royal sapphires, things get really interesting. Instead of wearing the historic necklace from that George VI suite, Queen Camilla opted for a deeply personal piece, a Van Cleef and Arpels diamond serpent necklace dotted with delicate ruby eyes. This is a family heirloom she inherited from her grandmother, Sonia Keppel Cubitt. The history here is fascinating. Sonia's mother was Alice Keppel, the well-known mistress of King Edward VII, who was, of course, the current king's great-great-grandfather. It's a piece that carries the weight of a very different kind of royal history. In the Victorian and Edwardian eras, the serpent was a traditional jewelry motif representing unbroken, everlasting love. Personally, I find it quite lovely how she weaves her private family history into her official royal uniform in this way. It is certainly a bold styling choice to pair a slightly edgy, highly personal diamond snake with the formal, geometric weight of the crowned sapphires. I can see, of course, how it might feel like a bit of a clash to some, as if the two styles were almost incompatible, but it gives the look such a genuine, human touch. She scattered a few other fascinating historic details across her ensemble, waiting to be noticed by anyone looking closely. On her left wrist, she stacked two of the Cartier diamond bracelets that belonged to the Queen Mother. These were part of a set of five Art Deco bracelets, set with rubies, emeralds, sapphires, and diamonds, that were individually gifted to the Queen Mother by George VI for birthdays and Christmases between 1923 and 1925. In her early years as a royal, the Queen Mother loved stacking them all on one arm to add a touch of modern, carefree elegance to her formal gowns. It's quite a versatile set, as three of those five bracelets can actually be fitted onto a special frame to be worn as a sleek, bandeau-style tiara. The Queen Mother was quite fond of that modern look in her early years. She famously wore the bracelets as a tiara to a ballet at Covent Garden in 1933. But interestingly, since she retired the bandeau in the late 1930s, no one else has chosen to use them that way. There is another hidden gem that requires a view from behind to fully appreciate. If you look closely at the back of the Queen's gown, right where the deep blue sash of the Order of the Garter rests against the fabric, you can spot a slender, sparkling line holding the ribbon firmly in place. This is Queen Victoria's diamond bar brooch. Queen Victoria commissioned the jewelers Rundle Bridge & Co. to create this specific piece in 1838 for the exact purpose of securing her garter ribboned. Queen Camilla, much like the Queen Mother before her, frequently wears it tucked away at the back of the shoulder. It remains almost entirely hidden from front-facing cameras, quietly performing the precise utilitarian task it was built for nearly two centuries ago. Do you ever find yourself scanning the edges of these event photos to catch tiny, practical details like this? I always find it rather endearing when a nearly 200-year-old piece of jewelry is still just quietly doing its original job. The most significant jewelry revelation of the evening, however, was resting right in plain sight. Queen Camilla wore the sapphire and diamond fringe earrings from the King George VI Sapphire Suite. These mid-19th century earrings were a highly sentimental wedding present to Queen Elizabeth II from her father in 1947. The late queen cherished them, famously waiting for her newly pierced ears to heal fully in the summer of 1951 before she could support their heavy, antique weight. But here's the catch. Queen Camilla's ears are not pierced. Previously, when wearing the Belgian sapphire tiara, she would bypass these historic earrings entirely and wear sapphire clips from her private collection instead. Yet, if you zoom in on the high-quality photographs from the Nigerian banquet, the diamond clusters at the top of these earrings look different. They are slightly larger and structurally altered from how they appeared during the previous reign. The historic earrings have clearly been physically converted into clips for her. This is such a pragmatic, fascinating update. Rather than leaving a cherished piece of the crown's heritage sitting unworn in a vault, she is actively adapting the collection to work for her own physical needs. Sapphires, as it turned out, were not limited to the queen that evening. Catherine, Princess of Wales, also made a rather unexpected jewelry decision that shifted the visual dynamic of her entire look. She arrived in the hall wearing a deeply saturated green pleated silk gown by the designer Andrew Gienne. The choice of color felt highly intentional. Nigeria's national flag is green and white, and with Queen Camilla in cream and Catherine in green, the two most senior royal women formed a complete, respectful sartorial nod to their guests. The dress featured a high neckline and long sleeves, a modest silhouette that was likely chosen in deference to the Islamic traditions of the Iftar banquet. To anchor the look, Catherine reached for a familiar favorite, Queen Mary's Lover's Knot Tiara. Commissioned by Queen Mary from Gerrard in 1913, this diadem is a direct copy of an older Cambridge family piece. It is fascinating to realize how much this tiara has become synonymous with Catherine in recent years. She wears it with such confidence that it's easy to forget we aren't looking at a contemporary design, but at a hundred-year-old masterpiece commissioned by Queen Mary herself. It is wonderful to see how these historic pieces don't just sit in a museum. They remain perfectly relevant in a modern royal wardrobe. For this banquet, Catherine chose to wear her hair down in loose waves. It's a styling choice she's leaned into more frequently lately, and it adds a distinctly romantic softness against the intricate, rather heavy victoriana of the diamond arches and pearl drops. I know many royal watchers miss the complex, formal updos she favored in earlier years, as a swept-up style tends to showcase the architecture of the jewelry with much more clarity. However, when paired with such a high neckline, the flowing hair creates a more relaxed, modern silhouette. However, for me, the real surprise in Catherine's outfit was her earrings. During the daytime welcome ceremony, she wore the Collingwood Pearl Drop earrings, which felt like a natural, quiet preview for an evening in the lover's knot. With a green dress and a pearl-heavy headpiece, you would typically expect to see pearl drops, or perhaps even a dive into the royal vault for emeralds to complete the look. Instead, she selected the Queen Mother's Sapphire and Diamond Fringe earrings. These are beautiful art deco pieces, featuring deep blue faceted sapphires, surrounded by diamonds with a delicate fringe suspended below. For me, this was such an unusual and interesting find. While pairing blue sapphires with a green gown and white pearls is a distinct departure from the matchy-matchy tradition, the sapphires actually harmonize beautifully with the dark blue sash of her royal Victorian order. It's a clever way to tie the jewelry into the formal elements of her uniform. Meanwhile, another royal lady quietly stepped into the room, wearing pieces that have been tucked away for decades. The moment that stayed with me most that evening was a quiet one. It wasn't about the newest designer gown or a flashy debut, but about a shimmering piece of ivory silk that has lived in a royal wardrobe for nearly 60 years. Anne, the Princess Royal, arrived wearing an evening coat she first wore to a film premiere in 1969. Seeing the fabric remain so luminous after 57 years is a remarkable testament to the quality of the original tailoring. Over the decades, she has subtly evolved the piece, altering the simple, rounded neckline of the 60s into a more traditional, pointed collar. There is something so authentic and grounding about seeing a senior royal shop her own archives with such confidence. I was very pleased to see her return to Princess Andrew's meander tiara to complete the look. It is one of the most distinctive pieces in the British collection, yet we haven't seen the Princess Royal wear it in quite a few years. In recent appearances, she has tended to favor her aquamarine pineflower or the diamond festoon, so this choice stood out as a deliberate return to something less frequently seen. The history of this diamond bandeau is far more personal and mobile than that of the grand state tiaras. It features a classical Greek key, or meander, design centered on a laurel wreath and framed by two honeysuckle motifs. The piece originally belonged to Prince Philip's mother, Princess Andrew of Greece and Denmark, and is generally dated to the early 20th century, with some sources suggesting a connection to Cartier. Set low and close to the head, the tiara has none of the height of the pieces worn by the Queen or the Princess of Wales. That restraint gives it a very different presence, more understated, but also more closely tied to its original design. It has passed through periods of exile with the Greek royal family, and is known to have spent time in a London bank vault during more difficult years for its owner. It is a piece shaped not only by design, but by the circumstances through which it has traveled. The real jewel of the night, however, was resting just below that altered coat collar. In the Royal Collection, there are actually two very similar pearl and diamond chokers that are notoriously difficult to distinguish from one another. One belonging to the late Princess Marie Louise, and the other to Queen Mary. However, this piece is identified as Queen Mary's City of London choker. It was a wedding gift to Mary in 1893 from the Lord Mayor and the City of London, designed as a pair of latticework bracelets that could be joined together to form a choker. Queen Elizabeth II had very little use for chokers, and was never seen wearing this item as a necklace. Instead, she was occasionally photographed wearing a single bracelet of an identical design. The Princess Royal clearly has a fondness for this specific Victorian style, even if she is extremely selective about when she wears it. This was only her third public appearance in the choker over several decades, with the last outing being all the way back in 2005. To round out the sparkle, the Princess Royal added her diamond ribbon brooch, which features delicate tassel pendants. This was a wedding gift from her brother, King Charles, in 1973, and it coordinated beautifully with the geometric lines of her headpiece. She also wore the diamond festoon earrings that were part of a suite given to her by her parents, Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, for her 18th birthday in 1968. She has often worn these earrings together with her brother's brooch over the years, and they worked perfectly here to tie the entire ivory and diamond ensemble together. But as much as I admired the Princess Royal's masterclass in vintage style, the evening held one more lesson in how to manage a historic collection. The Duchess of Gloucester was about to show us exactly how to handle one of the largest and most varied jewelry boxes in the family with a very clever bit of editing. The deep, light-catching folds of navy blue silk provided a perfect backdrop for what I think was one of the most sophisticated jewelry displays of the night. Birgitta, the Duchess of Gloucester, has long been a favorite of mine for how she manages her substantial jewelry box. She has a particular talent for layering historic pieces in a way that feels entirely intentional rather than simply crowded, and her appearance at the Nigerian banquet was no exception. She arrived wearing the ivy tiara, a beautiful kokoshnik-shaped piece featuring a dense design of diamond scrolls and foliage. This was a wedding gift to Queen Mary in 1893 from the Earl and Countess of Ivy, members of the famous Guinness family. Unlike many of Queen Mary's other wedding gifts, this tiara was never redesigned or dismantled, and it eventually passed to Birgitta through her mother-in-law, Princess Alice. The Duchess of Gloucester has a notably wide selection of tiaras at her disposal, particularly for someone who is not a queen, which allows pieces like the ivy to rest in the vault for long periods. We haven't seen this specific tiara since 2018, so seeing it return to the light after eight years was a lovely surprise. It is a solid, balanced design, and I noticed how perfectly it sat against her hair, providing a clear diamond framework for the other treasures she chose to wear. Pinned to the neckline of her gown were the art deco diamond clips that originally belonged to a convertible bandeau tiara. That bandeau was a wedding gift from Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucester, to his bride, Lady Alice Montague Douglas Scott, in 1935. While the tiara itself can be worn in an all-diamond version or with an emerald centerpiece, Birgitta often utilizes the diamond clips as separate brooches. She has worn them in various ways over the years, and for this banquet, she found a particularly elegant placement for them, right at her neckline. The most interesting choice, however, was her necklace. She was wearing Queen Mary's Fringe Necklace, a piece that has been a bit of a mystery for many years. It remained largely in the shadows until the Duchess returned it to the public eye during a banquet for the French President last year. If you remember that appearance, the necklace was worn as a turquoise and pearl fringe, with prominent turquoise pendants hanging from the ends of the diamond and pearl spikes. For this banquet, the Duchess edited the piece, removing the turquoise drops entirely. This transformed the jewel into a purely diamond and pearl fringe, allowing it to coordinate seamlessly with the white diamonds of the IV tiara. It's this ability to modify a historic piece to suit a specific evening that feels like a masterclass in jewelry styling. She didn't stop there, though. She added even more layers of light by utilizing a diamond sautoir that was a wedding gift to her mother-in-law from the City of London in 1935. This long, versatile piece can be worn as a single necklace, or broken down into four separate bracelets. Birgitta chose to wear it as one short necklace and two separate bracelets, one on each wrist. She even added a third diamond bracelet to her right hand, which originally came as part of that same City of London gift. Her ability to combine large, complex jewels so they don't fight for attention is a talent I find truly enviable. As the royal party took their seats, the guest of honor, First Lady Oluremi Tanubu, provided a strong final note to the evening's fashion. She wore a gown in a rich, deep purple tone that served as an excellent canvas for her jewelry. While the fine details of her pieces were difficult to see from a distance, she wore an elaborate necklace and a large brooch, both featuring stones in a deep red hue that appeared to be garnets or perhaps rubies. She also wore matching earrings and bracelets, which together read as a coordinated set. She looked remarkably dignified, her style offering a bold, warm contrast to the cooler tones of the diamonds and sapphires worn by the British royal family. Earlier in the day, Mrs. Tanubu had worn a set of gold jewelry with green stones, and it was interesting to see her shift into these deeper, regal tones for the state banquet. Her presence was every bit as commanding as the women hosting her. Looking back at the entire Nigerian state visit, it feels as though we've witnessed a family that is actively reimagining its inheritance. From the conversion of historic earrings into clips for Queen Camilla, to the revival of a forgotten Victorian choker by the Princess Royal, and the clever editing of a fringe necklace by the Duchess of Gloucester, these collections are far from static. It was an evening where the jewelry spoke as clearly as the speeches, telling a story of continuity, adaptation, and deep respect for the past. I'm quite curious to see if this trend of modifying and reviving hidden treasures continues in the visits to come. If you enjoyed this look behind the scenes of the Windsor Banquet as much as I did, please give this video a like and subscribe to the channel so you won't miss our next deep dive into the royal vaults. I'm so curious to hear your thoughts on the highlights of the night. Do you think the conversion of the George VI earrings into clips was a good move for the collection? And what did you think of the Princess of Wales' sapphire and pearl combination? Please let me know in the comments. I love reading your observations. Thank you so much for joining me and for spending this time together.