Tiara of the month: the glittering history of Queen Letizia of Spain’s wedding diadem, which dates back 100 years and was worn by Princess Friederike of Greece and Queen Sofia of Spain.Read more below

The story of The Prussian Tiara starts in 1911 in Eastern Europe

This diamond kokoshnik tiara looks delicate and petite in comparison to many. Sitting high on the
head, central columns are set between meanders and laurel leaves rising up to support a central
pear-shaped swinging pendant and held in place by a ribbon at the back. Currently belonging to the House of Bourbon, the royal family of Spain, the story of The Prussian Tiara starts in 1911 in Eastern Europe, as the name suggests, and has been worn by royal brides, including Queen Letizia of Spain.

Created by the respected German jewellers Koch, purveyors to royal courts and nobility of the time, the Prussian Tiara had been commissioned by Kaiser Wilhelm II and his wife Augusta for their seventh child and only daughter, Victoria Louise. She was spotted wearing it, aged 18, at the unveiling of Queen Victoria’s memorial monument in front of Buckingham Palace in the presence of King George V. Her father Wilhelm was the son of Victoria, Princess Royal, the eldest child of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom and he was the first of her 42 grandchildren.

Wilhelm was just 32 when he had unexpectedly ascended the Prussian and German throne after his father survived just 99 days as King. It has long been alleged that Wilhelm suffered a minor brain injury during his traumatic birth, which left him with a disabled left arm as well as a tendency for erratic behaviour and impaired social ability.

Whilst the wedding of his daughter Princess Victoria Louise to Prince Ernst August of Hanover in May 1913 provided a brief veneer of political stability, it was to be the last great congregation of European royals before falling onto opposing sides of World War I, Wilhelm eventually dying in exile in 1941.

However, the Prussian Tiara detoured the downfall of the German Empire when Victoria Louise gave it to her daughter, Princess Friederike as a wedding gift upon her marriage to Crown Prince Paul of Greece in 1938.

And in 1962 their daughter, Sofia, wore the tiara on her wedding day to Crown Prince Juan Carlos, the future King of Spain. Sofia and Juan Carlos had one son, Felipe, the current monarch. When he married the journalist Letizia Ortiz Rocasolano, now Queen Letizia, in 2004, the Prussian Tiara was once more the focal point of a Bourbon celebration atop the new royal bride.