Tea at Trianon: Queen Ena’s Emerald Pendant

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Monday, June 10, 2024

Queen Ena’s Emerald Pendant

From The Court Jeweller:

Victoria Eugenie, who was often called by her fourth name, “Ena,” was the great-grandmother of King Felipe VI of Spain. Born in Britain, she was a granddaughter of Queen Victoria and a niece of King Edward VII. When she was eighteen, Ena married King Alfonso XIII of Spain. They rejoiced at the birth of their first son and heir, but they sadly soon realized that he had hemophilia, inherited from the same British royal genes that had passed to the Russian heir.

Alfonso and Ena ended up having seven children together, six of whom survived to adulthood. In 1931, after the Second Spanish Republic was proclaimed, the family went into exile in France. Eventually, the couple separated. They never divorced, but Ena lived independently in Switzerland for the rest of her life. She died before the Spanish monarchy was restored in 1975 with her grandson, King Juan Carlos, on the throne.
Many of Ena’s grand emeralds came from an illustrious royal source: Empress Eugénie of France, who was born Eugénie de Montijo. Eugénie came from a family of Spanish aristocrats, and she married Emperor Napoleon III in 1853. After he was dethroned, she spent much of her time in exile in England. There, she became close to the British royal family, especially Queen Victoria’s youngest daughter, Princess Beatrice. When Beatrice gave birth to a daughter in 1887, she was named Victoria Eugenie in honor of her grandmother, Queen Victoria, and her godmother, Empress Eugénie

Ena’s grand personal collection of jewelry forms the cornerstone for the Spanish royal jewelry collection today. She earmarked several of her most important jewels to be joyas de pasar, pieces that passed from monarch to monarch to be worn by the Queen of Spain. But Ena also had numerous other important jewels, including pieces that were inherited by her daughters. Among those personal pieces was a large collection of emerald and diamond jewelry.
When Empress Eugenie died in 1920, she left a box containing a fan to Queen Victoria Eugenie. After carefully inspecting the box, Ena realized that there were also nine rectangular emeralds inside. The jewels once adorned Empress Eugenie’s coronet-style tiara. Ena commissioned a Spanish jeweler to set them in a new necklace. (Read more.)