Who owns
Under guard and still in use
You'll find the Crown Jewels under armed guard in the Jewel House at the Tower of London. These gems are a unique working collection of royal regalia and are still regularly used by the monarch for important national ceremonies, such as the State Opening of Parliament.
Following Queen Elizabeth II's death at the age of 96, the monarch's priceless jewels will likely be given to members of the royal family, including Queen Consort Camilla and Kate Middleton.
For one, the most valuable assets aren't even owned by the royals. The British monarchy and its possessions, including the Crown Jewels and the Royal Art Collection, belongs to the ruling sovereign, but it's not their private property and cannot be sold by them for personal gain.
The “lion's share” of Queen's extensive jewelry collection, according to The Daily Express, will be given to Kate, the new Princess of Wales, but, according to the outlet, Camilla will get first dibs. “The late monarch owned an extraordinary collection of jewelry worth billions of pounds,” The Express reports.
So what will Prince William inherit from Queen Elizabeth? After Queen Elizabeth's death, Prince William inherited the Duchy of Cornwall, a private estate worth around $1.2 billion.
In the fall of 2020, Kate debuted a new pendant necklace, which appeared to use precious stones from Princess Diana's famed Saudi suite of sapphires—a gift from the Saudi royal family to the late Princess of Wales on the occasion of her wedding, featuring sapphires and diamonds designed to match her Garrard enagement ...
Discover The Only Jewels Queen Elizabeth Will Be Buried With
According to royal expert Lisa Levinson, the only jewelry Queen Elizabeth II will be buried with will be the Welsh gold wedding ring she received at her wedding to Prince Philip in 1947 and a pair of pearl earrings.
VALUED AT AROUND AU$122 MILLION (£66 million), experts believe the Nizam of Hyderabad necklace is the royal family's most expensive piece of jewellery. And it's the most prestigious in the large collection of Queen Elizabeth II.
The Coronation Spoon
One of the oldest objects in the Crown Jewels is the twelfth-century Coronation Spoon. It is used for anointing the sovereign with holy oil, the most sacred part of the coronation ceremony.
An almost priceless collection, the royal crown jewels are worth anywhere from $1.2 to $5.8 billion.
The Princess wore the Queen's necklace in 2014
The Princess of Wales remains the only royal lady to have worn the Nizam of Hyderabad piece besides Queen Elizabeth. In light of the monarch's death, it seems likely the necklace's new ownership falls to Kate, who may be in line to inherit the precious piece.
Queen Mary's love of jewellery is one of the reasons the British royal family's personal and private collection is so large. Throughout her lifetime, Queen Mary amassed a substantial collection of tiaras, brooches, necklaces, bracelets, earrings and other pieces — most of which were left to Queen Elizabeth II.
At other formal occasions, such as banquets, Elizabeth II wore the jewellery in her collection. She owned more than 300 items of jewellery, including 98 brooches, 46 necklaces, 37 bracelets, 34 pairs of earrings, 20 tiaras, 15 rings, 14 watches and 5 pendants, the most notable of which are detailed in this article.
However, details about how her coffin will be dressed have been revealed. The Royal Standard, a flag that represents the Sovereign and the UK, will be draped on her coffin, accompanied by the Imperial State Crown, complete with more than 3,000 encrusted gemstones.
Princess Margaret is the only senior royal member to have ever been cremated. She died in 2002 and did not have a traditional procession for her coffin to her final resting place, reports MyLondon. Instead, she was cremated in Berkshire - the Slough Crematorium.
Wearing 26 diamonds around your neck, now that's regal! The Coronation Necklace has a chain of 25 diamonds with the last – a 22.48-carat stone known as the Lahore Diamond – hanging from the end. It has been worn at the coronation of every Queen since Queen Alexandra in 1902.
The duchess selected a symbolic piece of jewelry from her late mother-in-law's jewelry collection to wear during her and Harry's televised, no-holds-barred interview with Oprah in 2021. It was a diamond bracelet and, reportedly, the same one from which the couple selected stones to create Meghan's engagement ring.
The Duchess of Cambridge is a lucky lady for many reasons. One being that she is now the owner of Princess Diana's most famous jewel. Originally created by British jeweller Garrard, Prince Charles chose this grand sapphire ring for his proposal to Diana in February 1981.
In Spencer, Diana is horrified (though seemingly unsurprised) to discover her husband gave her the same pearl necklace he gave to his then-mistress, Camilla Parker-Bowles. There's no evidence to suggest this gift-giving snafu ever happened (or that she ate them at the dinner table).
The youngest of both brothers already had an inheritance from the Queen mother (Queen Elizabeth II's mother) of around $10 million.
The Duke of Sussex's highly-anticipated memoir Spare has been officially published after days of leaks. Prince Harry and his wife Meghan no longer receive money from the Royal Family, and earn their income from commercial arrangements.
Originally known as the Civil List, it was replaced by the Sovereign Grant in 2012. This grant amount was set to just over 86 million pounds in 2021 and 2022.
Currently, Prince William owns the Duchy of Cornwall estate with net assets of 1.2 billion US dollars. The estate includes the Oval cricket ground in south London, Dartmoor Prison and a mega-project of 4,000 dwellings. In addition to this, Prince William will also take over his father's estate at Highgrove House.
Traditionally, members of the Royal Family are buried with items close to them, including jewellery and mementos.