It is said that, unlike other Royal Families, the Spanish Royal Family is not specifically one that has a large collection of jewels, and those that do have are not called Crown jewels, that is, they belong to the Institution . The vast majority of jewelry owned by the current Kings are private property.

However, it is true that they have a small set of jewels, known as “passing jewels” reserved exclusively for the use of the Spanish Queens, of an incomparable economic and historical value, capable of positioning the House in the foreground Real in the field of high jewelry.

The queen's will

The origin of the collection of “jewels to pass” dates back to 1963 when Queen Victoria Eugenia, wife of Alfonso XIII, when making her will, indicated, by hand, which jewels had to pass from Queen to Queen.

The testament begins like this "Given in Lausanne, on June 29, 1963. I, Mrs. Victoria Eugenia de Battenberg and Windsor, Queen who went to Spain because of my marriage to King Alfonso XIII, from whose link four children survived, called Don Jaime, Don Juan, Doña Beatriz and Doña Cristina, by the present will holograph I order my last will according to the following clauses… ”.

Followed by this, in two more codicils, also holographs and written on paper specified what he wanted the fate of his most important jewels to be, the "relics of the crown", that is, the "jewels of passing", an expression that was previously coined by the Countess of Barcelona, ??Mrs. María de las Mercedes de Borbón y Orleans, the first to receive the jewels.

In it you can read the following: “The jewels I received in usufruct from King Don Alfonso XIII and from Infanta Isabel herself, which are: a diadem of diamonds with three fleurs-de-lis, the largest necklace of chatons, the necklace with thirty-seven large pearls, a brilliant brooch from which hangs a pear-shaped pearl called “La Peregrina”, a pair of earrings with a thick brilliant and brilliants around it, two equal bracelets of brilliants, four large strands of pearls, a brooch with a large pale gray pearl surrounded by diamonds and from which a pear-shaped pearl hangs, all of them, I wish, if possible, were awarded to my son Don Juan, begging him to transmit them to my grandson Don Juan Carlos . The rest of my jewelry, to be distributed between my two daughters. ”

And so, by express mandate, and as the Queen indicated in her day, in 1975, after the proclamation of Juan Carlos as King of Spain, the jewels of passing became part of Doña Sofía. Later, in 2014, after the new appointment of King to Don Felipe, it is now Mrs. Letizia who presumes to have them in her possession.

The jewels of passing

More than five years have passed since the beginning of Don Felipe's reign, and although at first it seems that Doña Letizia resisted opening the jeweler, she has known how to take advantage of her "inheritance" because she has already worn almost all the jewelry, Except for the chaton necklace, which, it is said, is being reserved for a special moment.
Let's see some of them:

Flor de Lis tiara

It is the most representative jewel of the Royal Family, although not the most valuable. Created in 1906 by the Ansorena house, it was the request gift that Alfonso XIII made to his fiancée, the then princess Victoria Eugenia of Battemberg, who wore it on her wedding day.

Made in platinum and with numerous diamonds, in the center is the fleur de lis, heraldic emblem of the Bourbon dynasty, united by scrolls and vegetable leaves, also made of diamonds. In 2017, Doña Letizia made an appearance with her premiering her at the gala dinner held at the Royal Palace, in honor of President Macri and his wife, Juliana Awada.

It looks great in the last official photos of the Royal Family:

Chatones necklace

It was another wedding gift from Alfonso XIII to Victoria Eugenia, who also wore it on her link. Made by the Spanish firm Ansorena, it was formed from a choker made up of large round cut diamonds.

When the queen passed away, she left two necklaces of chatons, the largest (to which she refers in her will) which is the one she used at her wedding, consisting of 30 diamonds, the other, smaller, consisting of 27 diamonds, passed to be part of Don Jaime's inheritance until 1982, which was auctioned off by his widow.

As we have said in previous paragraphs, this is the jewel that still resists Doña Letizia. The last time he was seen in public was at the gala dinner offered by the kings Juan Carlos and Sofía, covered by the latter, in June 2014.

Button earrings

In her will, Queen Victoria Eugenia referred to them as a pair of earrings with a thick and shiny diamonds around them, and "buttons" is a name of the time to refer to those earrings that did not hang.

Like many other jewels of the Royal Family, these were made by Ansorena's workshops, and are the earrings that go with the chaton necklace.

Doña Letizia, since she put them on for the first time, at that gala dinner where she was crowned queen consort of Spain along with the fleur de lis tiara, has taken them out on several occasions.

As a curiosity to comment that despite being a "jewel to pass", and that therefore they can only be worn by Queens, it was those that the princess Cristina chose for her wedding in 1997, with Iñaki Urdangarin.

Russian pearl necklace

According to experts among all the jewels to pass, this is the piece of greatest value. This necklace, originally made up of 41 thick pearls and weighing more than two kilos, was a gift that Alfonso XII made in 1878 to his first wife, Queen María de las Mercedes. Later, Victoria Eugenia was in charge of removing four pearls, which is why in her will she appears as “the necklace with 37 large pearls”.

This was the first gem to pass that Letizia wore, and she did it in 2015, at the Princess of Asturias Awards ceremony.

Diamond brooch with “La Peregrina”

La Peregrina is, without hesitation, the jewel with the most legends of the Royal Family. It is a pearl of unusual size and shape and a strange shine, which was discovered in the waters of the Pearl archipelago in Panama in the 16th century, and passed into the hands of King Felipe II of Spain as part of the jewels of the crown.

However, as we have been saying, around this mother-of-pearl sphere there are many legends told, and the most widespread precisely is that of its authenticity, since it is said that, although it is true that it was part of the House's jewelry collection Real, with the arrival of José Bonaparte as monarch, he took it with him to France to later be auctioned and bought by actor Richard Burton to give it to Elizabeth Taylor.

True or not, the Queens of Spain have always wore it as a complement to a pearl necklace, or as a diamond brooch pendant, as Queen Letizia showed it at the 2017 National Holiday.

Twin shiny bracelets

They are two exactly the same bracelets whose original parts were part of a Cartier tiara, but which, due to its discomfort when wearing it, Queen Victoria Eugenia decided to remodel it, and with the remaining diamonds she made these two bracelets.

This is a jewel that, although Doña Sofía hardly wore during her reign, Doña Letizia has been easy to see on numerous occasions with them, carrying them in various ways, one in each hand, both together or one.