A case in point was the fuss Harry and Meghan made over the emerald and diamond kokoshnik Princess Eugenie had chosen for her wedding. Harry will have known the score. The date of his cousin’s marriage had had to be pushed back to allow him to be married first because he took precedence over her. It would be unfair to deprive Eugenie of the tiara she had chosen. This had once belonged to Grand Duchess Xenia of Russia, Tsar Nicholas II’s elder sister. It had been sold to the Royal Family when the grand duchess was given refuge in England following the Russian Revolution and the execution of her brother and many other members of her family at the hands of the Bolsheviks. The Queen had promised Eugenie the use of it. There the matter should have rested, and would have, had Meghan not decided that she wanted to wear Grand Duchess Xenia’s kokoshnik at her wedding, and Harry, so eager to fulfill her every wish, neglected to point out that she couldn’t be lent something that his cousin had already been promised.
There were, of course, other tiaras from which to choose. Most of the really spectacular tiaras in the British Royal Family’s collection actually come from the Russian Imperial Family and were bought by Queen Mary, the present Queen’s grandmother and a great collector of art, jewels, and furniture. These include the famous Grand Duchess Vladimir Tiara with the detachable drop emeralds and pearls, which is only ever worn by a present or future queen. As the future wife of a second son of an Heir Presumptive, Meghan never had a choice of the truly spectacular jewels, to include the Vladimir or Greville tiaras, which are worn by Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall. Jewels are allocated according to precedence, and what a senior royal wears, a junior royal cannot.
Although Meghan did have a choice, no incoming bride can just scoop up whatever jewels she wants and wear them as if by right. She has no right to anything. All she can do is accept a loan, and a loan, moreover, that means that the lower down the order of precedence she is, the more limited her choice. Meghan, however, is a clothes horse, and knows what suits her and works best as she presents the image she wants to purvey. She is not the daughter of an award-winning lighting engineer for nothing. From early childhood she was privy to the secrets of good lighting and photography. She is bright and capable and learnt her lessons well. Her many years in front of the camera have also honed her skill in choosing what works well for her. One of her favourite words before she married into the British Royal Family was ‘classy’. She also understands glamour as few other women do. Being more intelligent than most, this gives her greater insight into scenarios, and allows her to have a more historic dimension than someone of her background would typically have. There is little doubt that Grand Duchess Xenia’s kokoshnik appealed not only because it is more spectacular, but also because its history is more romantic and exotic. Who, with Meghan’s sensibilities, would fail to want the more spectacular and historic tiara over Queen Mary’s bandeau, made in 1932 to accommodate a brooch which is still detachable?
If Meghan’s choice could not be faulted as regards taste, it was on promissory grounds, and the Queen could not very well be expected to ignore her promise to Eugenie, nor would it be appropriate for successive brides to wear the same tiara. The Queen, after all, could not collude with her granddaughter’s thunder being stolen by a granddaughter-in-law. So she was put in the onerous position of having to make it clear by way of her trusted dresser, dress designer and good friend Angela Kelly to Meghan and Harry that they would have to accept what was on offer and not demand what was not.
The matter might have rested there, with no one any the wiser, had Harry and Meghan not made an almighty fuss, not only about the tiara, but also about such things as the scent of St. George’s Chapel and the ingredients of certain dishes being prepared for the wedding. Meghan, in the questing, forthright way which had hitherto worked so well for her, caused great offence to a member of staff when she implied that that individual was a liar because Meghan claimed to be able to taste the existence of an ingredient which she had banned from a dish. The purported culprit, deeply offended, denied its existence, and Meghan was duly informed that royals don’t speak to their staff like that, causing offence all around, for now the bride-to-be had injured feelings as well. There was also the kerfuffle surrounding how St. George’s Chapel smelt. Meghan floated the idea of having it sprayed with a perfume of her choice: a suggestion that went down like a lead balloon. As one courtier told me, ‘We were really astonished to find that this
