Oh, I have enjoyed reading this thread!
Just wanted to respond to some posts from way way back though.
It’s an urban myth that Charles wanted to marry Camilla back in the 70’s and ‘ wasn’t allowed to , Queens orders’. This isn’t true.
Camilla had been ‘ going out’ with Andrew Parker-Bowles for a good few years and she was madly in love with him. He was a dreadful philanderer and cheated constantly. His family were very keen for him to marry Camilla though and kept pushing him ( Camilla was a pretty wealthy woman in her own right. She has never had a real job- she just parities until she married) to propose. Anyway, Andrew had an affair - with HRH Princess Anne. Camilla was horrified and humiliated so decided to play Andrew at his own game - and so flirted with Charles and made sure she was seated next to him at dinner parties etc and eventually ended up having a quite passionate affair of her own. Charles was beimg sent away with the Royal Navy and his beloved mentor, Louis Earl Mountbatten of Burma told him to ‘ sew his wild oats’. So he sewed with Camilla.
Camilla plan worked - Andrew was brought back into line quick smart and proposed to her. They married that year and started a family pretty quickly. When Charles heard that Camilla and Andrew had married it is believed he was sad and realised that he had fallen in love with her but viewed her now as unobtainable. He knew that even if he had realised his feelings before Camilla married Andrew it would have made no difference whatsoever as Camilla had ‘ a past’. She was quite a ‘ girl around town’ apparently.
Fast forward half a dozen years and Camilla is unhappy. Andrew hasn’t changed since their marriage and in fact sleeps with pretty much all of her friends as well as other women. Her friends are concerned as she is so miserable so they decide to invite Charles to a dinner as they think he can cheer her up. He cheers her up quite considerably and their affair starts up again. This is probably the time that Camilla developed real feelings for Charles. Is he the love of her life? I think no, but he loves her very deeply and that makes up for a lot as he brings a secure love.
Anyway, the press and palace were pushing Charles towards marriage . He proposed to a few girlfriends, all of whom turned him down. Wether it was him they didn’t want or the role we will never know ( he proposed - allegedly to Lady Jane Wellesley ( daughter of the Duke of Wellington) , Davina Sheffield, Anna Wallace and Amanda Knatchbull. Then along came Diana who adored him from being young ( she wanted to marry him from being a young teenager , simply because she thought he was the one man in the country who couldn’t get divorced and after all she suffered through her parents divorce she was desperate for any children she may have not to be from a broken home) . He proposed to Diana even though he barely knew her . She didn’t even call him Charles before he proposed, he was always ‘ sir’!! Imagine that! ....and we know the rest of the story.
I don’t really think Camilla wanted to marry him ever- she was quite happy beimg his mistress/ girlfriend. She had never worked in her life - why would she want to start working at the age of 58?? Her friends famously refer t9 her as ‘ the laziest woman in England’ but the Queen told Charles he had to marry her or separate. The Prince of Wales couldn’t keep having a girlfriend/ mistress- it needed to be made ‘proper’. I think Camilla realised she had two choices. A) to live a single life, never escaping the press or beimg followed and whispered about without any security and risking exposing herself to god knows what ( remember how much she was hated ) or B) beimg Charles wife, never having to clean again but having to fulfill ‘ royal’ expectations. But she would be safe and so would her children, protected by Charles vast fortune. She kept her own home ( Ray Mill House) which she goes to on a thursday tea time and comes back to Clarence House on Monday or Tuesday if she can stretch it.
Now, the Meghan emerald tiara story.
Personally I think it’s bollocks. The Queen does not lend out tiaras she wears. Diana/Kate both have worn the Cambridge lovers knot. The Queen didn’t wear that ( publically) since the 1950s. The scroll tiara ( Kate’s wedding one) and the Lotus tiara ( worn by Kate) were both in Margaret’s possession although they belonged to the Queen and went back to her on Margaret’s death. I don’t think she has ever worn either of these tiaras publically. The Grenville honeycomb tiara , and the Delhi Durbar tiara are both now on loan to Camilla - they came to the Queen on the death of her mother. The Queen has never worn either of them
So you see the tiaras the Queen wears are not loaned, and her loans are tiaras she does not wear anymore or has never worn.
As far as i am aware the Queen has TWO emerald tiaras 8n her possession. Firstly is the one that she loaned to Eugenie on her wedding day, this tiara was from the estate of Mrs Margaret Greville a fabulously wealthy society lady who left all of the jewels to the then Queen, ( the Queen mother). (There were about 60 pieces of jewelry, we have seen about 8 confirmed pieces !) The Queen inherited it from her mother in 2002 but has never publically worn it and her mother hadn’t been seen in public in it for over 60 years.
The other tiara is the Vladimir Tiara. This is a fantastic tiara with Russian provenance. Queen Mary purchased it in the 1920’s from a Grand Duchess who had escaped the revolution. The tiara is linked diamond circles and came with a set of beautiful graduated natural pearls , each of which hangs in a diam9nd circle. Queen Mary was incredibly clever with her jewels and had some of the Cambridge Emeralds ( her own property, left to her by her aunt Cambridge) adapted to replace the pearls and hang from the diamond circles too. This is a major piece of head gear and we won’t see it in anybody else’s head until HM dies. There is no way this would have been offered to Meghan as a wedding tiara. As you probably know, the tiara that Meghan wore was another Queen Mary made piece which hadnt been seen in public for at least 60 years.
I think that whichever paper printed the story is trying to stir up trouble.
The Royal family’s jewels are a passion of mine so if you want t9 know anything, ask away!