The dazzling – and scandalous – history of Princess Eugenie's wedding tiara

It was a day of royal splendour when Princess Eugenie and Jack Brooksbank exchanged vows at Windsor Castle, eight years ago today.

The couple were joined by friends and family, including the bride's grandparents Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, as they tied the knot at St George's Chapel – just a few months after Prince Harry and Meghan Markle married at the same venue.

Yet although there were similarities in the guest lists – making it a bumper year for royal wedding watchers – Princess Eugenie's wedding was deeply personal to her and Jack. The bride chose a stunning dress by Peter Pilotto which showed off a scar on her back, a move designed to draw attention to the issue of scoliosis. She carried a simple bouquet of white buds and thistles, a colour scheme which was reflected in the outfits of the flower girls and page boys, including Prince George and Princess Charlotte.

But all eyes were on her wedding tiara, the Greville Emerald Kokoshnik Tiara, which with its dazzling central emerald, is quite unlike many of the other royal wedding tiaras seen in recent years. Loaned to Princess Eugenie by her grandmother, the Queen, the tiara has a glittering history that is entwined with one of the biggest names in British royal jewellery: Margaret Greville.

The name Margaret Greville – or, officially, ‘Mrs Ronnie Greville’ – sets off shivers of delight among royal jewellery connoisseurs. Why? Because some of the most spectacular pieces in the House of Windsor’s vault once belonged to this woman, born in St John’s Wood in 1863 as Margaret Helen Anderson. The working-class daughter of a Scottish servant, she inveigled her way into the British aristocracy’s inner circle, becoming revered by politicians and potentates. With charm and cunning, she rose from illegitimate obscurity to the highest echelons of Edwardian society; her unimaginable wealth matched only by the power and influence she wielded over the most prominent figures of the early 20th century.

Margaret’s life was laced with scandal from the off. Her registered parents were Helen and William Anderson, a serving girl and porter who shared the same surname but were unmarried. In fact, Margaret’s true father was the bachelor William McEwan, millionaire founder of Edinburgh’s Fountain Brewery – and boss of William Anderson. When Helen fell pregnant, McEwan enlisted this trusted and conveniently named employee in a plan that would spare his dependants the stigma of so-called ‘bastardy’. The pseudo-Mr and Mrs Anderson moved to London, where Margaret was born, before soon returning to Scotland. Helen, now a supposed widow, would go on to become an Edinburgh landlady; William returned to his family – in the same city – and was amply compensated for the subterfuge.

In November 1885, the boarding-house matron Anderson and the fabulously wealthy McEwan were discreetly married in Pimlico, and the decades-old rumour of their dalliance became irrefutable. Margaret became McEwan’s ‘step-daughter’, and he let it be known that she would inherit his immense fortune. (By the time he died in 1913, he was worth over £1.5 million; £140 million today.) Whatever her origins, this made her quite a catch for the Hon Ronald Greville, son of the 2nd Baron Greville: one of a generation of cash-strapped landed gentry who sought betrothal to new-money heiresses.

Ronnie and Margaret married at St Mark’s church in Mayfair on 25 April 1891; the bride wore white satin and Brussels lace, along with a diamond tiara worth £50,000, a gift from her ‘step-father’. And so began Maggie Anderson’s new life as Mrs Ronnie Greville, a bona fide member of the blue-blooded elite. Thanks to their friendship with Alice Keppel – the favourite mistress of ‘Bertie’, Prince of Wales – the couple were ensconced in the future king’s inner circle. In 1906, they bought Polesden Lacey, a grand country estate near Great Bookham, Surrey. They enlisted celebrated architects Charles Mewès and Arthur Davis, who had recently designed London’s Ritz hotel, to refurbish it; and they spared no expense in creating a saloon ‘fit for entertaining maharajas’, alongside a sumptuous private suite for their royal chum (now Edward VII). But before the sovereign could visit, Ronald Greville was diagnosed with cancer; he died of pneumonia in 1908 at the age of 43, and Margaret Greville was forced to adopt the unexpected new persona of a society widow.

Among her closest friends was Queen Mary, wife of George V. The two women bought voraciously, commissioning and resetting jewels with abandon. Mrs Greville frequented the likes of Cartier, Fabergé and Garrard, had her pearls restrung yearly and remodelled her Boucheron tiara four times.

According to one report – by Sir Conran Corfield, who met Margaret Greville during a tour of India in 1921 – she owned jewels which ‘a maharaja would envy’, including ‘emeralds, which… seemed to cover her from forehead to fingers’, and ‘diamonds of equal magnificence and extent’.  In exchange for a reduction in insurance premiums, she travelled with copies of them all – secretly switching from fake to real and real to fake, so that no one knew which was which. ‘She was not only rich but prudent; she was also very good company,’ concluded Corfield.

Among her treasures were Greville Emerald Kokoshnik Tiara, also known as the Boucheron tiara after its maker, which features brilliant and rose-cut diamonds pavé set in platinum, with six emeralds on either side of a central 93.70-carat cabochon-cut emerald. When Greville died, the tiara was passed on to Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, and later Queen Elizabeth II, who loaned it to her granddaughter on her wedding day.

Most recently, the Greville Emerald Kokoshnik Tiara adorned the head of Queen Camilla at the Diplomatic Corps reception at Windsor Castle in December 2025. It proved the perfect finishing touch to her resplendent ensemble. The Queen was the picture of elegance in a cream gown, which she accessorised with the earrings from her diamond demi-parure. The earrings date back to the earliest days of Her Majesty's marriage, with the set first spotted on an outing in California in 2005.