Why didn’t Queen Mathilde wear a tiara to the state banquet at the Élysée?

Like the First Lady and in homage to the country which receives her, the wife of the sovereign of Belgium chose to wear, for this state banquet, a long dress from the house of Dior. She chose it in midnight blue, crew-neck, not pairing it with any necklace. She is only adorned with earrings.

Those who thought they would see Queen Mathilde wearing one of her tiaras must have been disappointed. But it was predictable that her tiaras remained in Belgium. Indeed, queens generally never wear them in Republics. Whatever…

The rest after this ad

In Germany, Maxima, Camilla, Mathilde wore tiaras

If Queen Mathilde was bareheaded on May 2, 2022 during a state banquet in Athens, her counterpart Queen Maxima of the Netherlands wore on October 31, 2020, in the same place and for an identical occasion, the jewels of the Mellerio ruby ​​and diamond set from the Oranje-Nassau cassette, tiara included.

Furthermore, when these state dinners take place in the Federal Republic of Germany, all the wives of sovereigns take out their tiaras. This was for example the case for queens Maxima on July 5, 2021, Camilla on March 29, 2023 or even Mathilde on December 5, 2023.

Long dress and tiara at the Élysée for Elizabeth II, unlike Letizia and Maxima

It therefore seems that the “no tiaras in the Republic” rule is not strict. And under the five-year term of François Hollande, if the dress code imposed short outfits on Queens Letizia of Spain and Maxima of the Netherlands during the state banquets of June 2, 2015 and March 10, 2016 – which did not allow them prevented from shining in their dresses, garnet covered with tulle lined with glass pearls for the first, white dotted with gold-colored flowers for the second – Queen Elizabeth II was allowed an evening dress and a tiara . Perhaps because she reigned and above all because she was “The Queen”.