The Gist
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Queen Camilla’s engagement ring from King Charles features a 5-carat emerald-cut diamond and six baguette stones.
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The elegant jewelry is believed to have belonged to the Queen Mother, Charles’s grandmother.
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With an estimated worth of around $250,000, it’s about half the value of the engagement ring Charles gave to Princess Diana.
In early 2005, then-Prince Charles and Camilla Parker Bowles shared news of their engagement with the world. While the exact details of their proposal are one part of their relationship they’ve successfully kept out of the spotlight, Camilla did confirm to The Telegraph that Charles got down on one knee. “Of course. What else?” she quipped at the time.
Her engagement ring from the future monarch has an equally ambiguous origin story, although Buckingham Palace did confirm it to be a royal family heirloom, per The Telegraph’s 2005 report. Savvy Internet sleuths have uncovered photographs of the Queen Mother (Charles’s grandmother, Elizabeth) wearing the ring in the 1980s, suggesting it previously belonged to her. Details of its provenance before that are murky. The ring’s Art Deco design suggests a 1920s or 1930s origin.
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Camilla Parker Bowles (now Queen Camilla) showing her engagement ring in February 2005.
Fictionalized depictions of the pair’s engagement and wedding appear in the final season of The Crown, with Dominic West playing Charles and Olivia Williams portraying Camilla. West’s character’s impromptu proposal happens while Camilla is gardening. “I think [show creator] Peter [Morgan] rather liked the fact that Charles would kneel down in the dirt of the potting shed and ask [Camilla] to marry him,” West told the Los Angeles Times of the imagined proposal. “There’s something intensely moving about their middle-aged love.”
On the couple’s big day—a civil ceremony held on April 9, 2005—the real Charles and Camilla stuck to tradition as far as jewelry was concerned. They exchanged Welsh gold wedding bands as part of a tradition that dates back to 1923, when the royal family was gifted a nugget of pure gold from the Clogau St David’s mine. Today, the 78-year-old Queen Consort often stacks both bridal pieces—engagement ring and wedding band—together for a subdued sparkle.
Here’s everything to know about Queen Camilla’s engagement ring from King Charles.
It’s a 5-carat emerald-cut diamond with side baguettes and a platinum setting.
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A close-up of Queen Camilla’s engagement ring, photographed in 2011.
Camilla’s engagement ring features a 5-carat emerald-cut diamond with remarkable clarity. The emerald cut is a classic choice for engagement rings, with everyone from Old Hollywood icons Grace Kelly and Elizabeth Taylor to nouveau style muses Amal Clooney and Sofia Richie opting for diamonds in the elegant shape.
Per The Telegraph, Camilla’s ring has three baguette-cut diamonds on either side of the central jewel. The stones are set in a platinum band. A family heirloom, the vintage bijou could be over 100 years old today.
It has sentimental value for Charles.
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The Queen Mother in the 1980s, wearing the ring given to future Queen Camilla as an engagement ring.
Before Charles’s 2005 proposal to Camilla, it’s widely believed that the ring he popped the question with belonged to his grandmother. In the 1980s, what appears to be Camilla’s future engagement ring was photographed on the Queen Mother’s finger, lending credence to this theory. Since the palace confirmed it to be a “family heirloom” in their initial announcement of the engagement to the press, it’s at least verified that the ring has royal provenance.
As for the significance of using this particular heirloom to ask Camilla for her hand in marriage, royal experts have long noted Charles’s close relationship with his grandmother. Proposing with a ring from her collection may have been a way to honor the late Queen Mother, who died in 2002 at 101 years old.
“In some ways, the Queen Mother was a mother figure to Charles just because [his mother] the Queen [Elizabeth II] became Queen when Charles was so young. There were a lot of tours of the Commonwealth and every time the Queen had to go away, Prince Charles stayed with the Queen Mother,” historian Gareth Russell explained to People in 2022, adding, “They had a great sense of humor, and she always encouraged him.”
It’s estimated to be worth over $250,000—half the value of Princess Diana’s engagement ring.
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Princess Diana wearing her sapphire engagement ring from Charles in 1991.
While it’s no match for the price tag of the 12-carat sapphire-and-diamond ring Charles proposed to Princess Diana with (which went on to become Kate Middleton’s engagement ring from Prince William), Camilla’s vintage bling is still worth a pretty penny. One expert told Brides in 2024 that the 5-carat ring has an estimated value of $288,000—aka over a quarter of a million dollars. Diana’s ring, in contrast, is worth around $520,000 today, InStyle previously reported.
She’s worn it to flower shows, polo games, and on royal tours.
Tim Graham/Getty Images
Camilla sporting her engagement ring at a June 2005 polo match in Cirencester, England.
Since her 2005 engagement and subsequent wedding to the future king, Camilla has often worn her engagement ring. The sparkler can be seen on her ring finger in photographs from casual events like a polo game to official royal tours abroad.
Of course, the 5-carat diamond is one of the more modest pieces in her impressive collection. From donning Queen Elizabeth II’s favored Belgian Sapphire Tiara for several state banquets, to wearing an emerald brooch refashioned from one of Princess Diana’s necklaces, she’s had several standout jewelry moments over the years.
Read the original article on InStyle