The Dutch Ears of Wheat Tiara has often been used as a Dutch royal wedding tiara.
The tiara was originally a set of eight diamond and silver brooches, and they belonged to Grand Duchess Catherine Pavlovna of Russia. They were apparently made before she was married to her first husband, Duke Georg of Oldenburg. They had two sons before Georg died in 1812. She remarried in 1816 to King William I of Württemberg, and the brooches went with her to her new home. Through this second marriage, she became the mother of two daughters: Princess Maria and Princess Sophie. The latter became Queen of the Netherlands as the wife of King William III.
Sophie inherited the brooches from her mother, and when Sophie herself died, they passed to her youngest son, Prince Alexander. His death just seven years later meant that the brooches went to his half-sister, the future Queen Wilhelmina.
Queen Wilhelmina used the brooches on a headdress, but they weren’t actually mounted on a tiara frame until the 1950s.
It became a favourite tiara of Wilhelmina’s granddaughter, Princess Margriet. All four of her daughters-in-law have worn the tiara on their wedding day. Princess Irene’s daughter, Margarita, also wore it for her first wedding, as did her daughter-in-law, Viktoria.
Queen Máxima has worn the Ears of Wheat but not as a tiara.
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