All About Royal Families

Readers of this blog know already that I love big jewelry or bling. My admiration for the Manchester Tiara was therefore endless.  The Tiara is on display at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. But what is the history of this wonderful bling? Fit for a duchess The Manchester Tiara once belonged to Consuelo Montagu, Duchess of Manchester.  The Duchess was a celebrated society figure, belonging to the intimate circle of Edward VII of the United Kingdom, formerly the Prince of Wales.  Shortly before her death, she entertained King Edward and Nicholas II, the Tsar of Russia, while the Tsar was on a visit to England. However she wasn't born to become such an important woman. Or perhaps she was. Birth Consuelo Yznaga was born in 1853, in New York City, as the second of four children of diplomat Antonio Modesto Yznaga del Valle and wife Ellen Maria Clement of Ravenswood Plantation. Her father was from an old Cuban family that owned a large plantation and sug...

On 5 February 1972 , Mary Elisabeth Donaldson was born in Hobart, Tasmania, Australia.  Source picture: Hasse Nielsen Family Mary was born the youngest of four children to Scottish parents, Henrietta (née Horne), an executive assistant to the vice-chancellor of the University of Tasmania, and  John Dalgleish Donaldson, a mathematics  professor Her paternal grandfather was Captain Peter Donaldson (1911–1978). Mary was named after her grandmothers, Mary Dalgleish and Elizabeth Gibson Melrose, and was born and raised in Hobart, Australia.  Mary has two older sisters, Jane Stephens and Patricia Bailey, and an older brother, John Stuart Donaldson. Her mother died from complications following heart surgery on 20 November 1997 when Mary was 25. In 2001, her father married the British author and novelist Susan Horwood. Education In 1974, Donaldson started schooling in Clear Lake City Elementary School in Houston, Texas, where her father was working and moved to Sandy Ba...