The Royal Jewels - EP 1 ¦ Symbols of Royal Power.

The year is 2004, and Denmark is the center of attention from all over the world, as Crown Prince Frederick is marrying Australian Mary Donaldson. At the wedding, queens and princesses from all the royal houses of Europe are present, and they are all wearing magnificent royal jewels. This is the story of the jewels of the Swedish and Danish royal families. Magnificent, historical jewels so rare and unique, they are beyond priceless. We don't count the carats, we count the centuries. Behind these precious gems you will find dramatic family histories, full of suspense and tragedy, but also of great love and happiness. The story begins with a magnificent ruby set made for the coronation of Napoleon more than 200 years ago. Today, it is worn by the Danish Crown Princess. I've never seen such a set before, or had no idea of the historical significance of the ruby set. The Danish and Swedish queens have given special permission to film their jewels, and show the families private movies and photographs. For special occasions, when you put on your best, you put on your best jewellery as well. If it's a wedding which is held in the afternoon and finishes with an evening, then tiaras will be worn, even though it's bright daylight. There is more sentiment attached to quite a lot of jewellery than people might think. Certainly, jewellery which has been passed through families, even though they can perfectly well survive in a bank box or in a museum, there is something special about jewellery which is actually worn, because they were made to be worn. A few days before the wedding, the bride attracts special attention when she wears a very special royal set of jewellery. My great-grandmother was a Swedish princess, and she brought to Denmark a set of rubies and diamonds, a tiara, a necklace, very fine earrings, and a great brooch. And the story of that is that it belonged to Queen Desiree of Sweden, the first Bernadotte Queen of Sweden. And she is supposed to have worn them at Napoleon's coronation. And precisely this ruby set is presented to Mary Donaldson a few days before her wedding with Crown Prince Frederick. As the future Crown Princess of Denmark, she is now going to wear the jewels worn exactly 200 years earlier for the crowning of Napoleon in Paris. When the ruby set was presented to me by my husband and my coming mother-in-law, I was very overwhelmed. I'd never actually seen such a set before. And for me, as a newcomer to the royal family, to think that I should wear this is, of course, a very overwhelming thought. Because this set of jewellery has such a history and has been worn by some very significant women and has belonged to various royal families and has been part of the making of history. The unique ruby set is part of an unusual story that starts in France, where Napoleon is crowning himself Emperor in 1804. At the crowning, the ruby set is worn by Napoleon's former fiancée, Desiree. Nine years earlier, Napoleon had fallen in love with the beautiful Desiree Clary, and she was definitely not uninterested. Bonaparte was in love with Desiree Clary, and he asked for her hand. And Monsieur Clary, the father, who was a silk trader in Marseille, said, I don't want this Bonaparte. Not only is he poor, but he has no future at all. So he said no. And finally, they found another man who apparently had a future, but I don't see which one at that time, who was Bernadotte. Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte is one of Napoleon's most skillful generals, and during the coronation, he and Desiree are part of Napoleon's closest followers. And just six years later, Desiree is destined to become a Swedish crown princess, something she would probably not even in her wildest dreams have thought possible. Not since the days of the Sun King at the Palace of Versailles has France been witnessed to greater splendor. The prestige, the brilliance, all the strength of propaganda, by showing that France is always the most powerful. Napoleon lends astronomical sums to his 18 marshals, telling them, buy for your wives vases that will highlight the splendor of the coronation. They were part of the political propaganda. We are the richest, we are the grandest, we put jewels everywhere. Desiree's jewels are inspired by nature, consisting of small, elegant leaves of diamonds, and red berries shaped by tiny rubies, some of the world's most expensive gemstones. In her hair, Desiree is wearing eight jewelry bouquets matching the necklace, the brooch, and the ear pendants. Today, the Danish crown princess is wearing a tiara made from the bouquets for the hair, whereas the rest of the set is unchanged. Napoleon is the time when jewelry began to be made up in set pieces, and not just bits and pieces that you could sew onto clothes, put in your hair. That is when the tiara starts, and the great parure, and it all has to match. The international language of jewelry is French, and parure is the French name for a large set of jewels. They went on being fashionable right the way through the 19th century and into the 20th. That's why they've been preserved to a certain extent, anyway. The Swedish king, Gustav IV Adolf, goes to war against Napoleon, whom he hates with a passion. The king is narrow-minded and ignorant, and completely ignores the fact that Napoleon has allied himself with Russia. The king loses the war, and has to surrender Finland to Russia. That was a catastrophe to Sweden, and they then made him abdicate, or rather they deposed him, and he was sent in exile. Then, a youngish officer called Count Mörner said that he thought he knew who they ought to go and find. Because in Sweden, the whole thing at that time was, we must get back Finland, and how do you get back Finland? Well, you go and find somebody who is a clever general. So they thought, where are the clever generals? Well, they were all at Napoleon's place. So he went down and asked the then Marshal Bernadotte whether he would accept to be adopted crown prince of Sweden. And he said yes. Desiree, Bernadotte's wife, absolutely adores life at the court in Paris. And she is appalled when she realizes that she has to move to Sweden, a place she's barely heard of. Desiree, she wasn't stupid, but she wasn't particularly interested in things going on around her, certainly not in politics. She was a happy-go-lucky, I think, pretty little person. She did come to Sweden, but found it terribly cold, terribly dark, and very forbidding. She said that in Sweden there are two winters. One is white, and the other is green. Desiree cannot stand a life at the old-fashioned court. And after a few months, she decides to leave her husband and her son Oscar, who is only 11 years old. She had a long-standing affair with a French gentleman in Paris. And I think that may be another reason why she wasn't particularly interested in staying in Stockholm. Jean-Baptiste has become King Karl XIV, Johann of Norway and Sweden. And as a king, he has won the trust and sympathy of the Swedes. He was exceptionally intelligent, and he was a hard worker, too. He saw in which chaotic situation Sweden was, with the huge debt, and he paid with his own private fortune, he paid the debt, the official debt of Sweden. He hasn't seen his wife for 12 years, and his son Oscar has become ready for marriage. So the king starts to look for a suitable bride. And finally, he chooses the young Josefina of Leutenberg. She was very young when she married. I think she was 16 years old. And she was the granddaughter of the French empress, Josefina. She was the goddaughter of Napoleon. And, of course, this was very important for Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte, because she, Josefina, belonged to the aristocracy, and she was French. And she made the queen of the city came to Sweden, back again. After 12 years in France, Désirée is back as queen of Sweden. And when she dies in 1860, the ruby set she wore at the coronation of Napoleon goes to her daughter-in-law, Josefina, now the ruling queen of Sweden. Josefina ends up owning a very large collection of jewelry, as she inherits jewels from several very wealthy women in the family. She inherits jewelry from her mother-in-law, Désirée, her grandmother, Empress Josephine, and her sister, the Empress of Brazil, and finally, her mother, the Duchess of Leutenberg. One of the most imposing jewel sets Josefina inherits from her mother is the Leutenberg sapphires, allegedly a gift from Emperor Napoleon, when her mother married the emperor's stepson. It's an excellent, magnificent piece of jewel. This is a very dark blue sapphire. It's beautiful, and you have the diadem, you have the brush, but you have also little pins that you can use in your hair, and of course you have the earrings. It's easy to wear. It's not heavy. You can close it, and you can have it half open, like a diadem, or you can have it as a crown. So you have lots of possibilities, and it's very practical because it's flat. It's very easy to transport it. All other diadem, they are quite complicated to take with you. Among the many treasures in Josefina's large jewel collection is the very large diamond tiara, which originates in Brazil. There has never been any written paper about it, and no, let's say, paintings where you could follow it. But then we found in the testament of Queen Josefina, when she is writing about the Brazilian diadem. So we believe that it came to Sweden by inheritance from her sister, who was the empress of Brazil, Amelie. She had married Dom Pedro I, and this, for me, is of course a little special, because, as you know, my mother was Brazilian, and Empress Amelie was very much loved in Brazil. During the Napoleonic Wars, the Portuguese royal family has escaped to the colony in Brazil. When the king returns to Portugal, his oldest son stays behind and pronounces himself Emperor Pedro I of Brazil. One of my favorite ancestors is the Emperor Peter I of Brazil. His life is like an adventure, more than Alexandre Dumas could invent. He invented the modern Brazil, he invented the independence of Brazil, he was very naughty, he had many mistresses, many illegitimate children, endless stories. Anyway, he married first Archduchess Maria Leopoldina, and she died there, poor darling. And rumor was spread in Europe that she died of sadness because of the many mistresses of her husband. So when he tried to find another princess to marry, all the grand houses of Europe, said no, we don't want another one to have the cruel fate of poor Archduchess Maria Leopoldina. So he found his second wife, what was considered not the first class of royalty, Amelie of Leuchtenberg, and she was very beautiful, charming, immensely popular in Brazil. And, oddly enough, they were very happy together. It was a bright couple. Pedro and Amelie have a daughter, but she dies of tuberculosis at the age of 22, and when Amelie dies in 1873, it is her sister Josefina in Sweden who inherits Amelie's large collection of valuables. The inheritance contains, among other things, an enormous set of silver service, used at the dinner at the wedding of Crown Princess Victoria, some remarkable emeralds, and the very valuable and exceptionally beautiful diamond set. It's a beautiful tiara, complicated to wear, because it's heavy and it moves, so it's not so easy to fix it, but it's a beautiful ensemble. It has also earrings. They're magnificent. The diamonds in each earring are of the highest quality, with an exquisite color, and with a weight of 30 carats each, they are the size of quail eggs. The set has never before been shown complete, but the Swedish Royal House has granted special permission to photograph the complete set. This we only wear in very, very, very special occasions, on the state's visit, or other important occasions, like His Majesty's 60th birthday, for instance. I wore it on Crown Princess Victoria's wedding, and I will never take it outside the country either. Queen Sylvia did make one exception during the Swedish state visit to Denmark in 2007. Wearing it in Denmark, that was a very special occasion. We are so close, not only friends, but also family-wise, so that's why. I was thinking, what should I wear? What would Queen Margarete like to see? All those tiaras, of course, are very well known to her, so I thought the Brazilian Diadem is perhaps unique. So then I thought, you know, queen to queen, I thought it would be nice to wear it. To complement the Brazilian diamond tiara, Queen Sylvia often wears a set of unique Russian topazes. Here the Queen is photographed wearing the magnificent jewels in 1976. I have been wearing it also for my first official picture. You see the Brazilian Diadem, but you see also the eagle topaz necklace. And it's a pink topaz of a very, very high quality. They are of extreme beauty. And we know that it's made in St. Petersburg. It was apparently given from the Tsar to his daughter Marie, and then it went over to Saxon, and then to Prussia, and from Prussia to Baden, and then from Baden to Sweden. It's one of those pieces of art, a piece of jewelry that has been traveling through the whole of Europe, and this makes things extremely interesting, of course. For the gala show and the opera, during the Swedish state visit, Crown Princess Victoria wears a magnificent set of amethysts, also from Josefina's large collection. Crown Princess Victoria, she has worn it, and it's a color which fits her very well. The amethysts are beautiful stones. They're very big. And then you have this very, very heavy necklace. We haven't changed anything, but I wear it very often as a diadem. It is Queen Sylvia's idea to mount the heavy necklace on a frame, thus making a closed tiara. Two bracelets are part of the set as well, and they can be combined to form a necklace. Queen Josephine, she had quite an important collection of parure, and the emeralds, they were very significant, of course, because they had a special story. During the Second World War, the emerald set ends up in the Norwegian royal family under rather dramatic circumstances. The Norwegian Crown Prince Olaf is married to the Swedish princess Märta. When the war breaks out, the royal couple has to flee. Olaf leaves for England with his father, who is to govern Norway from its exile in London. Märta is going to America, where she'll be safe with the children, among whom is Norway's present king. Märta at first leaves for Sweden, but before traveling further, she meets her Swedish mother, Princess Ingeborg, on the central station in Stockholm. Ingeborg has packed the emeralds in a bag, which she gives her daughter at their final parting. None of them knows when they will see each other again. Princess Ingeborg told her daughter, please take these jewels, and if you need money, don't hesitate to sell it, because they went to an exile, and had to leave Norway. Märta stays in America during the Second World War, and during those five years, only sees her husband one single time, when Olaf arrives for a short visit. In 1945, following the liberation of Norway, she returns to Oslo to be reunited with Olaf. Fortunately, the family came back to Norway, and so did the emeralds. But you can admire them with Queen Sonja nowadays, and it fits her very well, because it's her colors, and it's a beautiful tiara. In 2010, it is wedding time in Sweden, as Crown Princess Victoria is marrying Daniel Westling. Family members from all the royal houses of Europe have been invited to the wedding, and the women are wearing all their priceless, historical jewelry sets. Crown Princess Victoria is wearing a tiara with cameos set in gold and pearls, also from Josefina. The cameos are seashells carved in relief, making the subject stand out very clearly in the contrast between the white and pale reddish layers. Even this set has its own special history. It was made for Josefina's grandmother, Empress Josefine in 1809, by Napoleon's court jeweler, Nitto. For a mother, it's a big, big moment of your life when you see your own daughter coming into the church, and of course wearing the diadem you have been wearing. I saw the beauty of the tiara, and her happiness. Ni är nu man och hustru. I wish to describe you. Today, the women of the Swedish royal family are wearing the cameos that tell the symbolic story of the human girl, Psyche, and the god of love, Amor, who has to suffer terribly before being finally united. I had only one wish. I hoped so much that she would find the same happiness as I had, and it was a very harmonic picture of her, her happiness, the tiara, the veil. I know also that for his majesty, it was a very special moment, too, knowing that his mother has worn it. It was beautiful. For two centuries, an empress, queens, and princesses have worn the cameos. Even the Danish Queen Margrethe's mother, who was a Swedish princess, has worn this rare jewelry set. In the early 30s, they made a big evening in Stockholm in aid of some charity, and various Swedish ladies were dressed up as various queens of Sweden. And my mother took the part of Queen Josephine of Sweden and wore that tiara and a dress which was made to look like something in a portrait of Queen Josephine. In 1869, Queen Josephine's granddaughter, Lovisa, is marrying the Danish Crown Prince, Frederick. During the wedding celebrations in Stockholm, she is wearing parts of Desiree's ruby set, and her grandmother, Queen Josephine, decides that the ruby set is to follow Lovisa to Denmark. The ruby set was given to Princess Lovisa as a wedding gift from Queen Josephine. And when giving the gift to her, she stated that the Danish colors must go to Denmark. Lovisa is now the Crown Princess of Denmark. The year after the wedding, her grandmother dies in Holland, and within two years, Lovisa also loses her parents. With this, she inherits an enormous collection of jewels from Sweden and Holland. Lovisa is just 20 years old, but as a young Crown Princess, she is the owner of jewels worthy of a queen. It was said that if you laid all the jewelry out on a large billiard table, that you would be unable to see the table underneath. Part of Lovisa's large inheritance is a magnificent pearl-poired tiara from Holland, which goes perfectly with a necklace and ear pendants given to her as a wedding present from the Viceroy of Egypt. I honestly don't know why the Khedive was in the mood to give such a splendid present to the future Crown Princess of Denmark. But anyway, she did have these splendid jewels, which are also pear-shaped pearls, and which match beautifully with the tiara. She used that a lot, and which is also some jewelry that I've used for special occasions. In 1898, the Danish Prince Christian, the son of Lovisa and Frederick VIII, is looking for a suitable bride. My grandfather, who was a young man, went for a trip around Europe to visit various princesses and really fell for this young, rather charming, very shy Princess Alexandrine. They were married a year later than that should have been because her father died. And so the wedding was not made a very grand occasion. And they were married privately in Cannes. She was very young when she married. She was only just 19, I think. And then she came to Denmark and lived the rest of her life here. At the wedding, Lovisa gives her new daughter-in-law a tiara made specially from the brooches with vine leaves and tiny berries from Desiree's ruby set. The rest of the set, the necklace, the ear pendants, and several more brooches, Lovisa keeps for herself. Queen Alexandrine was my paternal grandmother, and her mother was a Russian Grand Duchess. She was called Anastasia Mikhailovna. Being a Russian princess, she brought a great lot of splendid jewelry into the family in Mecklenburg. And my grandmother, of course, inherited quite a lot of that jewelry, which is how she brought some very beautiful jewelry to Denmark. Among Alexandrine's jewelry is a magnificent tiara originally from Russia. Alexandrine's mother was given the tiara as a wedding present from her uncle, Tsar Alexander II. You can see the tiara on Danish sardine tins. To this day, the boxes still bear a portrait of Alexandrine. She was a very modest, really shy person. She would, for great occasions, she would put on the jewelry that they would expect her to. But I remember that she did not wear a lot of jewelry. I remember her as a child. I was 12 when she died, so I remember her very well. In April 2010, members of the royal families from all over Europe came to Copenhagen to celebrate the 70th birthday of Queen Margrethe. I celebrated my 70th birthday in April of 2010, and for that occasion, we had several possibilities of wearing our best. And so I wore, for one of the evenings, I wore the emeralds from Rosenborg, and I wore the pear-shaped pearls at another evening, and then I wore the three-flower tiara on the third occasion. Throughout the years, all the royal families have bought jewels. The flower tiara the Queen is wearing for her birthday was bought by her father, King Frederick IX. The first time it was used, my mother wore it for my wedding. It can be mounted on a frame to make a tiara. It is also possible to mount it in three different parts. You can fix this sort of jewelry in many ways, which I enjoy. I like wearing it slightly differently from time to time, and I think my hairdresser enjoys doing it like that, too. The Danish crown jewels are permanently on exhibit at Rosenborg Castle. They belong to the Danish state, and they are only worn by the reigning queen. This is the only place in the world where the jewels are worn by the head of state while simultaneously being exhibited. The crown jewels of Denmark are used by the queen, which is now me, but it would be my son's wife one day. I always, and I know my mother did, too, always feel a great responsibility, because they are not personal property the way other jewelry we wear is. And they are exposed and shown at the Rosenborg so that the public will see them. So we don't take them out for very long, and not too often either. But I also know that people find it interesting when they are missing, that the fact is that that's because they're actually being used. They're not just museum pieces, and I think it makes them more alive. The crown jewels are officially instated in 1747, when Christian VI's Queen Sophie Magdalene wills her private collection to the future use of Danish queens. The collection mainly consists of four large sets, two with diamonds, one with rubies and pearls, and an emerald set. The emeralds are considered to be an extremely exquisite collection, as the gems are very pure, with a very deep, clear, and strong color. The most valuable set of jewelry worn by the queen is the brilliant set. These diamonds have been in the possession of the royal house since the 1700s, and are, given their age, extremely rare. The queen usually wears the flower tiara, with the brilliant set. The central square diamond in the chain used to be mounted in a ring that belonged to the unhappy Caroline Matilda. She had to give it back before she was exiled, following her love affair with the royal physician, Struense. The necklace with the 19 large pearls is the oldest piece of jewelry in the collection. It dates back all the way to the 1600s, and the pearls bear silent witness to a major drama in the Danish royal family. There has been some speculation that they might have belonged to a princess called Eleonore Christine, who was imprisoned by her half-brother, who was the king. It's a long and complicated story, but she had a lot of jewelry. She was extremely rich. I think her husband had made off with quite a lot of the state funds. But anyway, she was imprisoned for a very, very long time, and the then queen confiscated her jewelry. She's portrayed with pearls of that kind, but most great ladies of those days would have had that sort of pearl, and if they didn't, they would be painted with them. In 1947, Queen Margrethe's mother, Ingrid, became queen of Denmark, and thus acquires the right to wear the crown jewels. But the necklace with the 19 pearls have lost their former luster. These pearls hadn't been used for a very long time, and they were definitely in bad shape. It's important that pearls should be worn next to the skin. It keeps them bright and shining. My mother borrowed them from Rosenborg, and for the first many weeks, even months, she didn't wear them openly. She simply wore them under her clothes. She wore them actually at night to give them a chance of reacquiring their luster. And they did, and they are very beautiful now. Queen Ingrid's mother, Princess Margrethe, is the granddaughter of the British queen, Victoria, and one of the most coveted princesses. In January 1905, she meets Gustav Adolf, the heir to the Swedish throne, and 4 weeks later, they are engaged in the Land of the Pyramids. For the wedding at Windsor, very many people were invited. But here, the Khedive of Egypt, he played a kind of a role, because they met and they were very thankful toward him, and of course he was delighted to accept being invited. And he came with the most beautiful tiara in diamonds, which was made by Cartier. The Cartier tiara is the main piece of jewelry in Queen Ingrid's inheritance from her mother. She wears it quite often, and it plays a major role when she allows her three daughters to wear it at their weddings. When my youngest sister and me married, I think my mother thought it would be suitable to wear as a bride because it's very pretty, light, it's not a heavy one, and she was very young. It was suitable. And then, of course, because she had worn it, my eldest sister and I also were allowed to wear it. And, of course, it was a wonderful thing to wear one's grandmother's tiara with the history and all. It was lovely, very lovely. In the next generation, my youngest sister's eldest daughter, Alexia, and my eldest daughter, Alexandra, each wore it for their respective weddings. Today, the Cartier tiara is owned by the youngest of the three sisters, the former Queen of Greece, Anne-Marie, who wore it at the wedding of Prince Joachim and Princess Marie in 2008. After the wedding in London in 1905, Margrethe and Gustav Adolf arrives in Sweden, where they are received by a joyous population in a festively decorated Stockholm. The couple have five children, Ingrid being the only girl, and later on, Queen of Denmark. When Margrethe is pregnant with their sixth child, she develops an inflammation of the middle ear that turns into septicemia, and she dies suddenly. She is eight months pregnant, and the baby does not survive either. It was a terrible blow for my mother when she died when my mother was ten. She died from five children. But she was a very, I think, a very remarkable woman. She was never forgotten, and her memory is very much alive in Sweden too, I think, and certainly in my family. In her will, Margrethe has decided that at her death, her bridal veil must cover her in the coffin, but it is not to follow her in the grave. When the coffin is closed, the veil must be removed and given to her daughter, Ingrid. Fifteen years after the death of Margrethe, Ingrid has fallen in love with the Danish Crown Prince, Frederick, who is eleven years her senior. The wedding takes place in the Great Church in Stockholm. Ingrid is wearing a treasured memento of her late mother, the finely laced bridal veil Margrethe wore at her own wedding. Crown Princess Margaret hoped that her daughter, Princess Ingrid, would also wear it later on her wedding day. Queen Ingrid, in fact, wore the lace as well on her wedding day, and since then, all of her descendants have worn this beautiful Irish lace veil, and I was also very honoured to wear it on my wedding day. Queen Margrethe does not have daughters who could wear the bridal veil made for her grandmother in 1905, so she decides quite extraordinarily that the new Crown Princess of Denmark will also wear Margrethe's veil. After the wedding, Ingrid leaves her home country as the new Crown Princess of Denmark, and with her husband, sails for Denmark on the royal ship Danneborg. Upon arrival, the beautiful couple is greeted by the Danish people. Ingrid is wearing a new diamond brooch. When my mother was married, her father gave her a brooch in the shape of a daisy, because my grandmother's name was Daisy. She was called Margrethe, but she was always known as Daisy. And so he had a beautiful daisy made out of diamonds which had belonged to my grandmother, and gave it to my mother, who wore it for her wedding. And then, when I was married, she let me wear it for my wedding too. And then, ten years ago, when I was 60 on my birthday, my mother had just turned 90, she gave me the daisy brooch, which I must say, I was extremely touched to be given it like that. Well, it's a brooch which means a great lot to me. First, because it was my mother's, and then again because I wore it for my wedding, and then I was given it the way I was given it like that when I was 60. That's very special. As a bridal gift, Ingrid's Danish parents-in-law gives her the magnificent ruby scent made for the coronation of Napoleon. At the court of King Christian X, there is a certain barrack-like mood. The king prefers a military way of ruling, and has a very spartan outlook. But with her motherless childhood at the castle in Stockholm, Ingrid is used to grumpy old men, and she does manage to win her father-in-law's heart. During the Second World War, the crown prince couple's first child, Princess Margrethe, is born. She is later to become Queen of Denmark, after her father, Frederick IX. In the following years, her sisters, Princess Benedicte and Princess Annemarie arrives. When the girls get a little older, they are allowed to explore their mother's jewellery box. Perhaps we even said, oh mummy, can we please look at your jewels? And we would look and take them out, of course very carefully, because we knew that they were old and delicate. And during a private theatre performance in Freilandsborg Castle in 1954, Benedicte is even allowed to wear the ruby scent, dressed as Queen Désirée. My mother made a sketch, because she in fact had the dress that Queen Désirée wore for the coronation of Napoleon. And I was sort of in the hype more than anything, that I could fit this dress. And that was of course very special, and I felt very proud, and I was very anxious to do the right thing and not stumble, you know. And my younger sister, she was Oscar I. And very sweet, I must say, there are some very lovely pictures of that sketch. Princess Benedicte has inherited the more than 150-year-old Pearl Star tiara, originally from the Swedish royal family, from her mother. It belonged to the princess's great-great-grandmother, Queen Sophia, who received it as a wedding present in 1857. It's a really lovely tiara. You don't so often see such sort of high pearl powers. So today I have the privilege of wearing it, and I have on special occasions lent it to each of my two daughters, Alexandra and Natalie. The ruby set becomes Ingrid's favourite set of jewellery through more than six decades. My mother used to wear it a lot. Actually, it was her favourite piece of jewellery. I've never worn it, because my mother had it all the time, and she wore it also when she was a widow. And then she left it to Frederick. The idea is that that is to stay with the Crown Prince or King in Denmark. And we waited a few years until Frederick was married, and then we could see the beautiful jewellery again. Crown Princess Mary wears the ruby set for the very first time at the official state dinner four days before her wedding. That first evening where I wore the ruby set, there was so much new. There was so much overwhelming for me. It wasn't just the jewellery. It was the significance of the whole event, of the whole period, the whole time which I was going through. So I don't really think I thought so much about what I had on in terms of jewellery, except that it felt new and somewhat unusual to have such a significant and beautiful piece of jewellery on. Everything that was going on at that time was part of a very new and overwhelming time. I mean, it wasn't just the jewellery. It was also the dress. I mean, I'd never worn a dress like this before. The whole thing was overwhelming. Crown Prince Frederick has inherited the ruby set from his beloved grandmother, and now the new Crown Princess is the one to carry on the legacy. This set was belonging to Queen Ingrid that was very much loved and admired by the Danish people. And here was I, coming from Australia, about to marry their Crown Prince. So at that time, it felt very much like I was loaning this set. And it's, I suppose, a process that one goes through, and over time you start to feel like that you can wear it in your own right. But as the years have progressed, it's felt much more that it's mine, and that I wear it as Crown Princess Mary. I enjoy seeing it on her very much. Queen Ingrid usually wore it as a complete set, but in the last few years, I've worn it in many variations. Of course, in the start, you want to make sure you don't offend anyone by doing the wrong thing or wearing the jewellery in a way that it's not meant to be worn. So I naturally discussed it with my mother-in-law, how it could be used and not used. But she's also very creative with the way she uses jewellery. So she was always very open to my ideas on it. I mean, I've changed the earrings, for example, that they can be worn as just a solitaire, a single earring. So the long pendant can be taken off, and then you can attach a pearl. Or I've worn the brooch as something to gather a part of my dress. The tiara without the large necklace or with or without the brooch, I like to play with it a little bit. The tiara, made for Queen Ingrid's mother-in-law, Alexandrine, was worn as a headband. When the fashion changes, Queen Ingrid has the tiara modified and expanded, so now it is worn on top of the head. Very often things are reset. For example, the tiara, my mother had the two little brooches added to the tiara to fill it out a bit more, because it suited my mother to have a slightly bigger sort of tiara. I know that the Crown Princess has also adjusted the tiara a little bit, so that it suits her face and shape better. Which I think is perfectly normal, and I think it's a very good idea. I've just done it recently because it's that idea that was on loan to me. This tiara that belonged to Queen Ingrid, everyone remembers her in the Ruby set. So of course there was a lot of consideration that went into changing the tiara, and it was very important to keep it as much in the spirit of Queen Ingrid. I just wanted to make it more fitting to me. Very little was changed actually. We removed some of the bouquets from the side, and it was put on a new structure that was fitted to my head, so that today I can wear it as it's meant to be worn, more upright, instead of lying more flat on my head. The jewels of the European royal houses tells a story of strong family ties during many generations. Désirée's ruby set, made for the crowning of Napoleon, has been handed down for more than 200 years. Today, Crown Princess Mary is the one bearing the legacy in the Danish royal house. In 2006, Queen Margrethe decides to give Crown Princess Mary one of the jewels that meant so much to Queen Ingrid. Queen Ingrid inherited the sapphire brooch from her mother, Margrethe. I received the brooch when our first child, Prince Christian, was born, and I also awarded the christening of him. Queen Ingrid usually wore the brooch for family occasions, and I know, for example, that she wore it on the engagement day of my parents-in-law. Later, my mother-in-law, Queen Margrethe, inherited the brooch from her mother, and she has also followed somewhat in that tradition, and has used the brooch, for example, with the christening of Prince Nicola. Some people learn history through wars or famous people, but jewellery is just as good a possibility to learn history. It shows how the families have married through the generations, and it doesn't only talk about lineage, but it also relates to personal events in families. For example, we know that this brooch has always been worn for family-related events, except that now I have it, and I tend to wear it a little bit more generally.