Windsor Jewels Pt 7

I doubt it, since there's a difference between a crown and a tiara.  Aside from her coronation or sitting for portraits, The Queen only wears a crown once a year for the State Opening of Parliament.  At all other functions she instead wears a tiara from her personal collection - or a hat or nothing.

Yes. Although the other crowns are too heavy for her...

It is interesting to speculate as to what HM will wear to State Opening of Parliament as she grows older.  The Imperial State crown is very heavy.  Will she eventually opt to use the circlet throughout or continue to bear the weight of the crown as her grandfather did although it left him with severe headaches...?

I think that this small crown probably looked very good accompanied by a veil a la Victoria, Alexandra and Mary.  however, given that this is no longer widely worn it may look rather odd perched atop an otherwise unadormed head...

However, the two subsequent Queens (Alexandra & Mary) you mention, wore it in conjunction with either a tiara or circlet.

R.I.

Yes...But Victoria wore it only as a sovereign queen. I hope she would consider that she she is growing old to wear the state crown.

Wow, thank you Emperor of the Dominions for both of those wonderful clips.  I don't know that I've ever seen a better picture of Queen Victoria's small crown. 

Hi,

I also would like to see The Queen wear this lovely little crown to open Parliament now-a-days...
Surely nobody can expect an 86 year old lady to endure a heavy head load anymore.  She's done her duty wearing that largew heavy crown over the years and now, I think, that smaller one is appropo;  and what better time to bring it out but Diamond Jubilee Year....

It is a fitting symbolic link to the royal past;  but hasn't been seen for so many years, that it is something new too!!

Larry

Larry I agree with you 100%. The load is too heavy for HM. The little crown looks nice and maybe it would be used in the Jubilee. I hope.

This is all speculation, of course.  But neither The Queen nor the Duke of Edinburgh for that matter have ever struck me as persons who make personal concessions until they have become absolutely necessary.  In this way HM reminds me of my own late grandmother, who until just a week before her death at age 95 insisted upon living alone in her own home, driving her own car, volunteering at the local hospital, etc., and who responded to any suggestion that she should slow down with a quiet, icy stare.

The Queen is still remarkably vigorous and active, still rides out often in Windsor Park, still regularly stands for 90 minute investiture ceremonies, etc. etc.  Given that, I think she might view the suggestion of abandoning the Imperial State Crown as a concession to age, just to avoid an hour or two of discomfort each year, is something she will do only when absolutely compelled.

They day may arrive when the Queen requires walking sticks (like her late mother), or can no longer manage stairs (like QV in her latter years).  That's when I suspect she will begin to make such concessions.

I agree. Although making the concession at the jubilee which matched her great great grandmother would be something she probably could do. As she is very mindful of history and precedent.

I guess I just don't agree that QV's small diamond crown is somehow linked to her Diamond Jubilee in any meaningful, precedent-setting way.  That crown was made in 1871,26 years before Victoria's Diamond Jubilee.  To me, it is linked to Victoria the individual, not Victoria the monarch who reigned for 60 years.

And it was not just the weight of the Imperial State Crown or her age that led to QV's adoption of her small diamond crown (although both are certainly true).   It was also because she insisted on wearing only mourning attire after her husband's death, and it was more practical to wear the small crown over her mourning veil.

Nothing has prevented Elizabeth II from wearing that small crown at any time over the past 60 years.  Since she has never done so, it seems to me she doesn't like the piece, or doesn't believe it suits her.  Frankly, I agree with an earlier poster here - that small crown would look quite strange and unnatural on HM's head.  (But then again, I always thought it looked strange on Victoria too!).   

Well I think as the Queen ages, there is more of a practical reason for the change, which I think will surely happen. Will it happen during the Jubliee or not ? Maybe...Maybe not. I think perhaps the change will come after Prince Philip eventually pass away. I don't think the Queen Mother wore her Queen Consort Crown after the death of her husband.

BBC News: Jewellery from world's largest diamond to go on display:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-18072914

R.I.

Impressive !

I was amazed at how genuinely tiny Queen Victoria's small diamond crown is - how she kept it on her head I don't know, she must have had an incredibly upright posture.  Queen Alexandra had a fairly high hairdo, so could have secured it more easily and unobtrusively with pins, but that would have been difficult for Victoria whose hair was flat to her head, at least in her later years when the crown was made for her.