Queen Letizia’s Diamonds Have a Fascinating Royal History

Rachel KingTue, May 5, 2026 at 3:09 PM UTC

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Queen Letizia wore one of Spain’s most historically significant sets of jewels to a ceremony in Barcelona on Monday. Appearing at a 50th anniversary celebration for the Spanish newspaper El País at Barcelona’s Maritime Museum, the Queen complemented her little black dress from Spanish brand Mango with a diamond chaton necklace and earrings that once belonged to Queen Victoria Eugenia, a granddaughter of Queen Victoria who reigned as Spain’s queen consort during one of the country’s most turbulent political periods.

A closeup of Queen Letizia’s jewelry.Carlos Alvarez - Getty Images

The pieces are part of the “joyas de pasar,” a collection of jewels passed down by queens regnant and queens consort in the Spanish royal family. The pendant at the center of the necklace was originally a gift from King Alfonso XIII to Victoria Eugenia ahead of their 1906 wedding. According to Vanity Fair España, the General Archive of the Royal Palace holds the invoice from Madrid jeweler Ansorena certifying the purchase, with the necklace listed as “a rivière necklace with 30 diamonds in settings and silver.”

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Queen Victoria Eugenia, wearing the jewels, with King Alfonso XIII in an undated royal portrait.Universal History Archive - Getty Images

Mounted in the Russian chaton style and set in platinum, Alfonso XIII continued to add diamonds to the piece over the years, presenting Victoria Eugenia with two additional stones for each anniversary, birth, or birthday—reportedly after extramarital indiscretions. (Thus, how the necklace slowly grew from a choker seen in Victoria Eugenia’s portrait to the slightly longer version Letizia wears now.) A matching pair of chaton-style earrings was later created to complement the necklace.

Queen Letizia, with King Felipe while wearing just the earrings with her Carolina Herrera dress, in 2024.Europa Press News - Getty Images

Letizia has brought out these heirlooms before; among the more recent occasions was the 2024 Planeta Novel Prize Gala, a literary prize ceremony in Barcelona, for which she wore the earrings alone. The pieces appeared most recently in the official portraits of King Felipe and Queen Letizia photographed by Annie Leibovitz, in which Letizia paired the jewels with a 1948 Balenciaga black pleated silk tulle gown and a pink silk evening cape originally worn to the 1962 wedding of King Juan Carlos I and Princess Sophia of Greece.

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Source: “AOL Entertainment”