Today marks the 45th Anniversary of the Birth of Princess Margarita of Greece and Hohenlohe-Langenburg, who passed away on this day in 1981! The eldest sister of the Duke of Edinburgh, who became the Princess of Hohenlohe-Langenburg, Princess Margarita possessed a variety of spectacular jewels, which included the Hohenlohe-Langenburg Diamond Necklace!
Bolin Ruby Tiara | Princess Alice’s Turquoise Coronet | Hohenlohe-Langenburg Diamond Necklace | The Hohenlohe-Langenburg Tiaras
The exact origin of this spectacular Diamond Necklace with several Pearl and Diamond Pendants is unknown but it seems to have been among the wedding gifts to Princess Alexandra of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha upon her marriage to the Prince of Hohenlohe-Langenburg in 1896, and may possibly have been an heirloom from her mother, Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna of Russia.
In 1951, Princess Margarita wore the heirloom Hohenlohe-Langenburg Diamond Necklace for the Wedding of Prince Ernest Augustus of Hanover and Princess Ortrud of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg.
A few years later, the heirloom Diamond Necklace was worn by Princess Margarita with an Amethyst Tiara for the Wedding Ball of Countess Helene zu Törring-Jettenbach and Archduke Ferdinand of Austria in Munich in 1956.
Princess Margarita wore Diamond Necklace with Princess Alice’s Turquoise Coronet for the Wedding Ball of Prince Juan Carlos of Spain and Princess Sophia of Greece in 1962.
The heirloom Hohenlohe-Langenburg Diamond Necklace was also worn by Princess Margarita the following day for the Wedding of Prince Juan Carlos of Spain and Princess Sophia of Greece in two ceremonies in Athens.
Several jewels were either lost during a fire at Schloss Langenburg in 1963, or sold soon after, and in the original cases, which remain with the Hohenlohe-Langenburg Family, you can see the indentation for the Diamond Necklace. Her granddaughter, Princess Cécile, talked discovering the cases in an interview:
The box was just so beautiful because for the one thing it had this Yves Klein blue lining on the inside and then there were the three trays. It was empty of course because the jewels had been being sold to support Russian family members after the revolution and then what wasn’t sold had been burned in the castle fire in 1963. So it was up to my imagination to fill the boxes because there was nothing in there other than the imprints which were sort of like echoes of past times.”
However, the heirloom Diamond Necklace remains in the family and was worn by the then Princess of Hohenlohe-Langenburg for the Wedding Gala of Infanta Elena of Spain and Don Jaime de Marichalar y Sáenz de Tejada in 1995.
The Princess of Hohenlohe-Langenburg also wore the Hohenlohe-Langenburg Diamond Necklace for the Wedding Ball of Hereditary Prince Bernhard of Baden at Schloss Salem in 2001. Let’s hope we see the heirloom Necklace worn again soon!
