Season 2 Tiaras and Crowns of "The Crown"
All My Posts on The Crown
S3: 1 & 2: “Olding” & “Margaretology” 3: “Aberfan” 4: “Bubbikins, 5: “Coup” 6: “Tywysog Cymru” 7: “Moondust" 8: “Dangling Man” 9: “Imbroglio” 10: “Cri de Coeur”
S4: 1: “Gold Stick” 2: “The Balmoral Test” 3: “Fairytale” ( + Cinderella References) 4: “Favourites” 5: “Fagan” 6: “Terra Nullius” 7: ”The Hereditary Principle” 8: “48:1” 9: “Avalanche”
The Medals, Sashes, and Tiaras of The Crown; Tiaras/Crowns Overviews: Season 1 ; Season 2
Other Posts about Crowns and Tiaras:
Diadems, Tiaras, and Crowns, Oh My! - an overview of types, definitions, and purposes
Disney Crowns and Tiaras: Historical and Modern Inspirations (Part I) - Snow White, Alice in Wonderland (cartoon and live), Sleeping Beauty/Maleficent, Robin Hood, and the Great Mouse Detective
Disney Crowns and Tiaras: Historical and Modern Inspirations (Part II): Cinderella, Little Mermaid, The Princess and the Frog, and The Sword in the Stone!
In a previous post that focused mostly on the medals and sashes often worn by royal characters on formal occasions in The Crown, I included a small amount of information on tiaras in the show, but never went into much depth. I’ve been wanting to do an quick overview of every tiara and crown worn by an English royal woman on the show for a while, and am just now getting around to it. My brain needs a break from all the research and just needed a quick look at something pretty so - here you go!
The Court Jeweller’s past in-depth blog posts featuring ALL the jewels in The Crown S1-S3 and overviewing the jewels in S4 were absolutely invaluable in gathering information about each tiara and crown in the show. Ella Kay does a brilliant job over there and has blogged about tiaras and jewels for years and years, so if this quick overview piques your interest, please go read everything on her blog; it’s absolutely fascinating and incredibly in depth on all sorts of royal jewellery from many different countries. The Tiarapedia she’s put together is also an incredibly valuable resource for anyone looking for tiara information.
S2E1 Misadventure: The Queen wears Queen Mary’s Lover’s Knot tiara for a diplomatic reception; Philip adorably flirts with her when he fixes her zipper right before they enter the room.
I’ve been wondering why they’ve used /this/ tiara so much on the show, and I think it might be because it’s such a familiar looking tiara to modern audiences. It was one of Princess Diana’s favorites and Duchess Catherine now wears it a fair amount too. I couldn’t rind any recent photos of the Queen herself wearing the tiara however.
(Information from the Court Jeweller’s blog post on this episode)
L to R: Claire Foy as Queen Elizabeth wearing a replica of Queen Lover’s Knot Tiara for The Crown; Elizabeth II wearing the lover’s knot tiara; Diana, Princess of Wales wearing the Lover’s Knot tiara (Credit: Anwar Hussein / Getty); Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge wearing the lover’s knot tiara (Credit: John Stillwell / Getty).
Later in the episode, the Queen attends the ballet wearing the Vladimir tiara in its “widowed” style (without pendant drops). I could not find screenshots of this except through the Court Jeweller, but you can go see them over there. This tiara does seem to be one of Elizabeth’s favorite tiaras, as she’s worn it consistently (widowed, with pearl drops, and with emerald drops) throughout her reign.
Queen Elizabeth II in various tiaras.
Credit Left to Right: Mark Cuthbert / Getty; Tim Graham / Getty; Reginald Davis / Shutterstock
S2E3 Lisbon: After a contentious talk on the royal yacht, Elizabeth agrees to give Philip the title of “prince,” and a mini coronation is held for him. During the ceremony, Elizabeth wears a replica of Queen Alexandra’s Kokoshnik. The Queen Mother wears the replica Greville tiara and Margaret wears the made-up tiara she wore to the coronation in the first season.
As noted by The Court Jeweller in their blog post on the episode, I’m fairly sure that no such ceremony took place when Philip was made a British prince. After Philip’s return from his trip around the Commonwealth, press reports kept coming out that Elizabeth and Philip were having marriage troubles. This annoyed the Queen so much that she not only issued a denial, but granted Philip the title of Prince in February 1957. This was reported in the newspapers but there’s no sign that there was any sort of official ceremony for it.
Philip was made a British prince in 1957. He actually was born “Prince Philip of Greece and Denmark” but gave up his Greek and Danish titles to become a naturalized British citizen shortly before his engagement to Elizabeth was announced in 1947. He apparently had been offered the title in 1955 and turned it down then, but his uncle Lord Mountbatten and his aunt, Queen Louise of Sweden, sort of insisted that he take it the second time. Philip probably didn’t want any fuss to be made about it.
Philip of course gets his own “Prince” coronet, which should be different from a ducal coronet, although I’ve had trouble actually putting a finger on what a standard prince coronet looks like. From what I’ve read online, a ducal coronet is usually a gold circlet with 8 strawberry leaves, with a crimson silk velvet lining with a gold tassel at its center, trimmed with a base of ermine. However, it looks like real Philip’s coronet at the coronation (when he was a duke, not a prince) actually…did not look like a ducal coronet at all. You can see in the photo that he actually has alternating crosses pattée and fleurs-de-lis, in an echo of the design of St. Edward’s Crown and the Imperial State Crown. Perhaps this was a special consort crown made for him? I’ve had trouble finding information on it anywhere, unfortunately.
Real Philip’s Coronation coronet is what is recreated in the Crown for his fake promotion to Prince ceremony. However, during the actual coronation scene on The Crown, he wore a totally different crown, which DOES appear to be just a regular ducal crown, with strawberry leaves. Weirdly enough though, it’s the exact same crown style that Lord Mountbatten is wearing in the coronation scene, even though he’s an earl, not a duke. Perhaps The Crown thought that the earl coronet was too odd looking for any named character to be seen wearing it? The earl coronet also has strawberry leaves, but features silver balls at the top.
Basically there were just some very strange decisions made around coronets for this show lol.
Left: A scene from The Crown; Right: Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip (Credit: Paul Popper / Getty).
S2E4 Beryl: Princess Margaret wears the Cartier halo tiara for her birthday portrait by Cecil Beaton (So I guess they finally got the right to recreate it for the Crown!). In real life, she didn’t wear any tiara for this specific portrait. She also later wears the halo tiara at Elizabeth and Philip’s tenth anniversary dinner (and to dump Billy’s ass). At the tenth anniversary dinner, Elizabeth wears a replica kokoshnik (probably Queen Alexandra’s kokoshnik again, although it looks a little taller. Maybe it’s the angle). I don’t think we have any photos of the actual anniversary dinner so sadly, I can’t confirm, but there are photos of them dancing and Elizabeth wearing a kokoshnik. The queen mother wears the Greville tiara, but couldn’t find a photo of her in this scene; you can check it out on Court Jeweller.
Toward the end of the episode, Elizabeth and Philip miserably get undressed and go to bed after a diplomatic function of some sort; Elizabeth wears the lover’s knot tiara for this. Couldn’t find a photo of this moment, but it is on Court Jeweller.
Top L to R: Claire Foy as Queen Elizabeth and Matt Smith as Prince Philip in The Crown; Elizabeth II and Prince Phillip dancing at a state ball in Malta, 1967 (Credit: Hulton Archive / Getty); Vanessa Kirby as Princess Margaret in The Crown; Portrait of Princess Margaret.
Bottom L to R: Vanessa Kirby as Princess Margaret in The Crown; Princess Margaret (Credit: Daily Mail / Shutterstock); Princess Margaret; Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother.
S2E6 Vergangenheit: David and Wallis wear paper/plastic crowns to a costume party. I couldn’t find a screenshot of Wallis’s crown, but I found a view of David’s (also, how wonderful is that octopus hat?). They really did wear paper crowns to a costume party at one point, but the ones in the show looked nothing like that.
S2E7 Matrimonium: For her wedding to Antony Armstrong-Jones, both in The Crown and in real life, Princess Margaret wore the Poltimore Tiara. This tiara was apparently one of Margaret’s favorite pieces, and belonged to her personally.
Left: Princess Margaret and Husband Anthony Armstrong-Jones leave Westminister following their wedding (Credit: Bettmann / Getty)
Right: Matt Smith and Vanessa Kirby as Prince Phillip and Princess Margaret in The Crown.
S2E8 Dear Mrs. Kennedy: The Queen wears the Vladimir Tiara with the emerald drops for her dinner and dance with Nkrumah.
Left: Queen Elizabeth II (Claire Foy) dances with Kwame Nkrumah (Danny Sapani) in The Crown.
Right: Photo of the actual dance between Queen Elizabeth II and Ghana President Kwame Nkrumah, 1961 (Credit: AP).
And that’s it for Season 2! There weren’t any tiaras or crowns in the last two episodes of the season, alas, as those were focused more on Charles angst and Philip ‘n’ Elizabeth angst rather than on any cool ceremonial occasions.
