The Queen's Victoria Bow Brooch Has a Princess Diana Connection

queen elizabeth princess diana victoria's bow brooch

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published 17 July 2021

For a meeting on Friday with young leaders whose work is supported by the Queen's Commonwealth Trust, Queen Elizabeth II appeared to wear one of her Victoria Bow brooches. The official Royal Family Instagram shared video from the virtual meeting in which the brooch is clearly visible.
The Queen owns three of the brooches, which were passed down to her from her great-grandmother, Queen Victoria. While Victoria often wore all three of the brooches together as a set, Elizabeth has historically opted to wear just one at a time.
The Queen has worn the Victoria Bow Brooch on several important occasions over the years, including to Princess Diana's funeral in 1997, and in September 2015, when she officially passed Queen Victoria as Britain's longest-reigning monarch.

Queen Elizabeth II wore a very special accessory for a video call this week.

On Friday, the monarch participated in a virtual meeting with four young leaders (Safaath Ahmed Zahir from the Maldives, Jubilanté Cutting from Guyana, Jean d’Amour Mutoni from Rwanda, and Brad Gudger from the United Kingdom) whose work is supported by the Queen's Commonwealth Trust to "discuss their remarkable work" and the "importance of teamwork in delivering vital work in the Commonwealth community," Buckingham Palace wrote in an Instagram post about the call.

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The Queen chose an important accessory to wear for the important call; as People reports, she appears to be wearing one of her Victoria Bow Brooches in the video, which was shared on the official Royal Family Instagram account. The Queen actually owns three of the iconic brooches, which were passed down to her from Queen Victoria herself and date back to the late 1800s.

Over the years, the Queen has worn the brooches on several important occasions. In 1997, she wore one to Princess Diana's funeral:

queen elizabeth ii and queen mother at funeral of diana, princess of wales at westminster abbey awaiting the arrival of the coffin of diana, princess of wales, dressed in black standing next to priests photo by jeff oversbbc news current affairs via getty images

And in September 2015, she wore the brooch again to mark a huge personal milestone—the day when she officially passed Queen Victoria to become Britain's longest-reigning monarch:

tweedbank, scotland september 09 queen elizabeth ii smiles as she arrives at tweedbank station on september 9, 2015 in tweedbank, scotland today, her majesty queen elizabeth ii becomes the longest reigning monarch in british history overtaking her great great grandmother queen victorias record by one day the queen has reigned for a total of 63 years and 217 days accompanied by her husband, the duke of edinburgh and scotlands first minister nicola sturgeon, she will officially open the new scottish borders railway which runs from the capital to tweedbank photo by chris jacksongetty images

Kayleigh Roberts is a freelance writer and editor with over 10 years of professional experience covering entertainment of all genres, from new movie and TV releases to nostalgia, and celebrity news. Her byline has appeared in Marie Claire, Cosmopolitan, ELLE, Harper’s Bazaar, The Atlantic, Allure, Entertainment Weekly, MTV, Bustle, Refinery29, Girls’ Life Magazine, Just Jared, and Tiger Beat, among other publications. She's a graduate of the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University.