The Queen Mother’s 1937 coronation crown, which includes the Koh-i-Nûr diamond, has become controversial again. Buckingham Palace revealed earlier this week that Queen Camilla will be crowned during the service when King Charles is. Camilla, 75, may wear the crown worn by Queen Mother for King George VI’s 1937 coronation.
The crown was once owned by Charles’s grandmother, Queen Elizabeth, who became known as the Queen Mother when her daughter, Queen Elizabeth II, became monarch. However, it holds one of the Crown Jewels’ most illustrious and controversial gems.
Will Queen Camilla wear the controversial crown she inherited from the Queen Mother?
The Koh-i-Nûr diamond in the famous crown worn by the Queen Mother is at the center of a diplomatic dispute between Britain and India about who owns the precious gem. The then-East India Company bought it and shipped it to Britain, where it eventually became a part of Queen Victoria’s treasury. Similarly, there are competing claims of ownership in Pakistan and Afghanistan.
A diplomatic dispute over the crown is overshadowing the upcoming coronation in India. One Bharatiya Janata Party insider said, “The coronation of Camilla and indeed the usage of the crown diamond Koh-i-Nûr brings back sad memories of the colonial past.” “Most Indians today have no memory of the brutal regimes of the past.
Indians are taken back to the times of the British Empire because of the coronation of Queen Camilla and the use of the crown, which contains the Koh-i-Nûr diamond. Indians have been subjected to successive foreign rulers for nearly 500 years, affecting five or six generations of their people”.
The source claimed. The Koh-i-Nûr diamond was used in the crown that King Edward VII‘s wife, Queen Alexandra, wore when she became queen in 1902. She was crowned at Westminster Abbey. Queen Mary, King George V’s wife, wore it in a separate crown for her husband’s 1911 coronation.
The 1937 crown is a true work of art. The controversial crown has 2,800 diamonds and a lighter platinum construction. In addition to the Koh-i-Nûr diamond, set separately, the crown also has a large diamond that the Sultan of Turkey gave to Queen Victoria in 1856 as a thank-you for British help during the Crimean War.
During King George VI‘s reign, the Queen Mother wore it without the arches to the State Opening of Parliament and again for her daughter’s coronation in 1953. At her burial in 2002, it was laid atop her coffin. For emotional reasons, Camilla should wear the historic item when she and Charles are crowned in May 2023.
Multiple sources claim that the King always intended for Camilla to wear this crown because of the close relationship Kong Charles had with his grandmother. In light of the controversy surrounding the crown jewel, King Charles and Queen Camilla have the option of replacing the crown or removing the stone before the coronation ceremony. Without comment from Buckingham Palace, it seems no decision has been made.