Spain’s King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia welcomed French President Emmanuel Macron and First Lady Brigitte Macron to a state dinner at Madrid’s Royal Palace this evening. For the formal occasion, the Spanish queen turned to one of her favorite headpieces: The historic floral tiara.
Initially commissioned by King Alfonso XII in 1879 for his fiancée, Archduchess Maria Cristina of Habsburg (the future Queen Maria Cristina), the family sold the headpiece and it was subsequently acquired by the Aldao jewelry firm.
In 1962, it was returned to the Spanish royal family when the dictator Francisco Franco purchased the tiara for Princess Sofía of Greece on the occasion of her wedding to Spain’s Prince Juan Carlos. Sofía first wore it as a necklace, according to Royal Watcher Blog, and the tiara’s three flowers as brooches. In the late 1970s, she began wearing it as a tiara and it has not been worn as a necklace since. Infanta Cristina, notably, wore it on her wedding day in 1997.
In 2004, after Letizia married then-Prince Felipe, she began wearing the Floral Tiara and it has since become one of her most-worn headpieces. This evening, she paired the tiara with a flowing Carolina Herrera cape ...