10 ROYAL Rules on Wearing a TIARA (if only this Viscountess had known!)

hi everybody and welcome back to my youtube channel i am julie montgomery the american buy countess if you are new to my channel do say hi down below i tried to get to every single comment um from all of you who uh follow me and subscribe on my youtube channel uh do subscribe if you like this video and turn notifications on because this video is all about the 10 royal rules why uh tiaras are worn and there actually are rules to wearing a tiara and in fact i know some of those rules because i wore a tiara myself at my wedding so when i married into the aristocracy uh the earl of sandwich family there was actually and there is actually a montague family tiara i was able to wear this but i'm going to tell you the whole story about kind of how the tiara putting it on my head etc etc um all happened at the end of this video so be sure to stay to the end of this video because i think you're really going to enjoy this story listen i'm an all-american girl from illinois and personally i kind of thought that um tiaras were you know only worn by royals if you like but also tiaras are things that we see in these wonderful royal documentaries royal movies royal tv series like the crown and it's wonderful to be able to watch those films of course and in one sense sort of fantasize and i think for many of us we just think well great we just take the tiara we put it on the head we sparkle we dance the night away and that's the end of it but no no no there are actually 10 royal rules when you wear a tiara rule number one is that the first time you can wear a tiara is at your wedding so prior to getting married into nobility or into the royal family you shouldn't have worn a tiara prior to that the first time you have worn or should wear a tiara if you're marrying into again the royal family or nobility is on your wedding day however princess margaret um you know we know that she was this big rule breaker anyway princess margaret a few decades ago wore tiaras to everything to theaters to dinners so she really enjoyed wearing the tiaras but now it's sort of common knowledge that you the first time you wear your tiara is when you're about to be wed whether they're blood princesses like princess eugenie or they're marrying into the royal family like kate middleton or meghan markle the rule is that no matter if you're a blood princess or not the first time you should wear a tiara is on your wedding day rule number two is that tiaras are not to be worn until after 5 pm now there is some leeway to that of course and i'll explain that in a second but overall you don't put your tiara on until after 5 pm well because also the diamonds will sparkle a little bit more in the night that could be one reason for that um but and for usually the evenings are where more formal occasions are so even formal events uh that are held during the day at royal palaces you probably wouldn't see a member of the royal family donning a tiara however however there is an exception to this rule and most royal weddings happen at 11 a.m so they happen at 11 a.m and that is again an exception to the rule that of course you can wear your tiara when you're getting married at 11 a.m kate middleton princess diana meghan markle they all wore those tiaras for their weddings and they were well before 5pm number three tiaras are loaned to one person for their entire lifetime so yes that's right so once the queen or whoever is the monarch loans that tiara to that member of the royal family that tiara is theirs for their entire lifetime meaning you're never going to see anybody else in wearing that tiara um until that member of the royal family uh passes on to greener pastures so it's theirs it's that terra is lent to them for life so a really good example is the duchess of cambridge kate middleton the queen has loaned her three tiaras and those have been loaned to her for her entire lifetime and you will recognize those three tiaras the three tiaras on loan from the queen to the duchess of cambridge are the cartier scroll the cambridge lovers knot and the lotus flower the latter two are clearly the duchess of cambridge's favorite because we've seen her in those tiaras several times but she hasn't worn the cartier scroll since her marriage to prince william fourth rule tiaras are often sewn into the hair which actually was new for me to actually discover that and i'm just trying to think back to my wedding if i had mine sewn into my hair and actually i'm pretty sure i did so how it works is the tiara is set onto the head but of course you're going to be engaging with people you might be dancing that night especially if it's for your wedding and the tiara needs to stay in place and so what usually happens is that hair will be braided across the base of the tiara which also in one sense disguises the base of the tiara so it almost flawlessly uh and seamlessly uh comes onto the head and then from there once you've done the braid across that then gets that braid then gets sewn into the base of the tiara and that of course is to make sure that it's secure on the head and that you can have a great night uh dancing the night away without fear that the tiara will fall off your head adding on to rule number four we've got rule number five which is you must disguise the band of the tiara so of course we know we're going to braid across it but also you've just got to make sure that it is really really disguised so that base of the tiara usually what happens is that there will be a piece of velvet the same color as whoever's wearing it let's use the duchess of cambridge for example that would be of course a brunette a darker brown color if you like band across velvet band across the base so that really there's no way that you can see the base of the tiara it gets then nestled into the head and then on top of that you can usually braid something across not always you don't always have to braid something across but it can be then sewn into the head so rule number five and rule number four are similar but it's really making sure that the band never gets seen that it matches the velvet uh strap or piece of fabric that you're going to use matches the color of your hair then you have the choice to braid across that band even more and of course so it in complicated stuff here royal rule number six tiaras are loaned officially and specifically and what that means is that if the queen has a collection of tiaras which we know that she does i couldn't just say well this one's lovely i would like to wear that you just don't get to choose and we saw that with meghan markle it was reported whether or not it's true or not is of course debatable that there was a tiara that she was interested in wearing um but she was told she couldn't wear that tiara and the queen gave her another tiara so really the queen the queen can do anything she likes we love the queen and but um so she can either say this is the tiara that i'm officially loaning you and it's specific this is the one you're going to wear or the queen might say here's a small selection for you to choose from and then obviously lend it to me for the rest of my life rule number seven no tiaras before the age of 18. that is true so i think we can even look back on in particular uh the members of the royal family now and i can't think of princess eugenie or princess beatrice wearing a tiara prior to their 18th birthday however for their 18th birthday um amongst members of the royal family it's common that a tiara is given or lent i should say as a gift for their 18th birthday remember in particular in the uk 18 is a big birthday over here 18 is when you can drive and 18 is when you can drink so it is a big birthday over here and thus it would require i guess if you're a member of the royal family a big birthday celebration and a big birthday present which many of the female members of the royal family received tiaras rule number eight tiaras are only for certain occasions so after you're married and you wear your tiara on your head of course you have options to wear a tiara again the one that's been lent to you for your entire life but what are these occasions well mostly the occasions are state visits inaugurations royal dinners balls and of course we have coronations now if you noticed at the platinum jubilee the tiaras i didn't see any tiaras being worn so that is acts no tiaras for celebrations of jubilees but they are for the coronations rule number nine the tiaras history matters and a really good example of this is meghan markle the duchess of sussex it was rumored that she had her eye on an emerald piece um an emerald tiara if you like and that she was denied that because of the ambiguous russian ties that were attached apparently to this tiara the duchess of cambridge kate middleton was loaned the cambridge lovers knot tiara and the reason that she was loaned that is because it had been held by previous duchess of cambridge so history of the tiaras they do matter and last rule rule number 10 tiaras rarely leave this country well i'm speaking of the uk of course but what i mean is that tiaras rarely travel overseas unless the queen orders it and you can look back at photos of members of the royal family and it's very hard to find photos of them wearing tiaras overseas but the exception around that is for foreign royal weddings and diplomatic visits so there are of course some photos out there with members of the royal family wearing their tiara but as a rule goes a royal rule goes tiaras rarely leave well probably leave the members of the royal family's house or really the country that they reside in history hit is an on-demand channel and podcast network which is the sponsor of this week's episode and history hit is filled with incredible stories they're basically bringing history to life um and for me it's been fantastic in doing a lot of my research for my vlogs and doing research for historic houses that i film in so many of you know that i go around the uk and i film at incredible historic houses i'm actually in a historic house right now our house matt britton house which dates back to the tudor period but history has been a real source of inspiration for me on my own research but also because i'm fascinated by it as well history hit has hundreds of programs a thousand plus podcast episodes and five thousand history related travel articles and every week they launch 15 new podcast episodes and two new programs i'm currently obsessed with all of their programs on queen victoria like queen victoria at kensington palace and the diaries of the young queen victoria i've set up a special code for you to get fifty percent off your first three months when you subscribe to history hit and that code is of course american vi countess you can find the link down below and again using my code american vi countess you'll get 50 off your first three months when you subscribe to history hit so as i said in the beginning of the video that i actually was fortunate enough to wear the montague family tiara and it is a stunning exquisite tiara in fact i got married here at mapleton house in the church that's actually connected to the house but i arrived uh here getting ready for the day and not knowing about the tiara at all i had no idea that a montague family tiara even existed my mother-in-law came in gave me a box and said if you'd like to wear the montague family tiara you can but if you don't want to you don't have to uh either so i was given the choice and of course as the american i was like yes oh my gosh i can't believe i'm wearing a tiara it was so exciting and i just remember the feeling of it being put on my head and a lot of range of emotion kind of uh came over me number one i felt like i was being accepted and really welcomed really with open arms into the montague earl of sandwich family but also i had known um that another american had worn this tiara as well and that was my husband's great grandmother alberta sturgis the ninth countess of sandwich who came over from chicago like me from chicago or outside chicago came over in 1905 to marry luke's great grandfather the 9th earl of sandwich and she actually wore that tiara but it looks a little bit different because when she wore it it really just had the diamonds in front and many tiaras are added on it was a very common practice to uh continue to in one sense to embellish the tiara and to add pieces on so the montague family tiara that alberta wore wasn't as sparkly as mine but i'm pretty sure we've done some research on it and we think that it was alberta who added on on either side there's uh brooches there there's a the base is actually a necklace a diamond necklace and so you can take apart the tiara and wear parts of it to dinner parties um if you like so we do think that probably alberta was the one who added on remember she was this american heiress who came over during the gilded age and she would have either added on probably for the coronation of king george v in 1911 or possibly for the coronation of king george the sixth in 1937. i'm not sure which one it is a mystery i will be exploring this as much as i possibly can through her letters um and hopefully uncover something more while i do my dissertation on alberta sturgis again it was just a wonderful time for me to be able to wear such a brilliant and absolutely exquisite tiara thank you all for joining me and i hope you enjoyed this video be sure to comment down below if you've worn a tiara or what your favorite royal tiara is uh make sure you subscribe and turn notifications on as i do put out videos every week so you'll find me back here every week only on youtube the american vi countess thanks everybody

Channel: American Viscountess

Views: 267,514

Keywords: julie montagu mapperton house, julie montagu american aristocrat, mapperton house, aristocracy documentary, meghan markle, prince harry

Id: YvHPL-OJAzU

Length: 17min 40sec (1060 seconds)

Published: Sat Jul 30 2022