EXCLUSIVE: The Royal Family has been linked to several superstitions over the years, including some affecting their choice of jewellery.
Kate, the Princess of Wales’s 12-carat blue sapphire engagement ring is “not just for decoration” but could have helped the royal secure a successful match with Prince William, a jewellery expert suggested. The ring was personally picked by Princess Diana after then-Prince Charles proposed and was initially inherited by Prince Harry, who gave it to his older brother to propose to Catherine in 2011. Steven Baker said the sapphire has long been included in a lengthy list of stones believed to have “mystical powers” capable of influencing their wearer’s life.
Speaking to Express.co.uk, the vvs Jewelry founder said: “Princess Diana’s (now Kate Middleton’s) engagement ring has a stunning sapphire, but it’s not just for decoration.
“Royal jewellery has shone with gemstones that possess ‘Mystical Powers’ since the Middle Ages. Mainly sapphires are renowned for strengthening fidelity and commitment as well as bringing stability and prosperity to the financial situation.
“On her wedding day, the superstitious Queen Victoria also wore a sapphire.”
Victoria came to the throne in an era steeped with superstitious beliefs, some of which continue to be held by members of the Royal Family.
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Kate’s sapphire ring was linked to a long history of royal superstitions (Image: GETTY)
Sapphires are believed to strengthen fidelity (Image: GETTY)
Raissa Bailey told Express.co.uk royals have long tended to be superstitious and jewellery pieces they wear – or do not wear – to this day show their commitment to the legends.
The Creative Director of the Bradford Exchange said: “The superstitious nature of many royals and the gems they adorn dates back to medieval times when the stones were believed to hold certain properties or characteristics.
“Rubies are long associated with protection, sapphires with devotion, and emeralds with prosperity.”
Indeed, modern royals have tended to avoid donning the Koh-i-Noor diamond both because of the controversy surrounding its arrival into the British Royal Family and due to the misfortune said to affect its owners.
Queen Victoria donned a sapphire ring at her wedding with Prince Albert in 1840 (Image: GETTY)
The Koh-i-Noor diamond is believed to bring misfortune to its owner (Image: GETTY)
Queen Victoria, Queen Alexandra and Queen Mary all outlived either their husbands or one of their children. Queen Elizabeth II refused to wear it citing the diamond amid an ongoing dispute with India.
Victoria’s husband, Prince Albert, is linked to yet another piece of royal jewellery believed to haunt its owners, the Hesse Strawberry Leaf Tiara.
Albert helped design the headdress as a wedding gift to his second-eldest daughter, Princess Alice, to Grand Duke Louis of Hesse and by Rhine but died shortly before the ceremony,
Alice brought the tiara with her when she moved to Darmstadt, where she died of diphtheria 17 years to the day after her father’s death.
The British princess contracted the disease while tending to her children, including her daughter Princess Marie who died with her.
Princess Alice’s Strawberry Leaf Tiara has been linked to a series of misfortunes over the years (Image: GETTY)
Princess Cecilie died alongside her husband, three sons and mother in law in a plane crash (Image: GETTY)
Two more daughters, Empress Alexandra of Russia and Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna, died during the Russian Revolution in 1918.
The Strawberry Tiara was later inherited by Alice and Louis’s eldest son, Ernest Louis, who lost his eldest daughter Elizabeth,8, in 1909 of typhoid fever.
His second wife, Princess Eleonor of Solms-Hohensolms-Lich, died in a plane crash in November 1937 while travelling to a wedding in London.
The couple’s eldest son and heir, Georg Donatus, and his wife Princess Cecilie of Greece and Denmark, one of Prince Philip’s older sisters, also died in the crash alongside their sons Ludwig and Alexander. Cecilie, who was pregnant at the time, is believed to have given birth before the crash as the stillborn baby was found in the wreckage.
The tiara is believed to have been inherited by Georg Donatus and Princess Cecilie’s only remaining child, Princess Johanna.
Johanna was adopted by her uncle Prince Louis and his wife Margaret Campbell Geddes, whose wedding her parents were flying to.
But the young princess only survived her family for a few years as she succumbed to meningitis in 1939.
The Strawberry Leaf Tiara was then passed to Margaret Campbell Geddes but she never wore it. The piece has been exhibited on several occasions and is believed to be in possession of the Hesse Family Foundation.
