By Zambian Emeralds Co - Open Publications Magazine, October 2025
When it came to jewelry and adornment in palaces throughout Europe, Emeralds have been famed by the European nobility and royalty since times immemorial. For centuries, the aristocracy prized emeralds for their deep green color which has been thought to symbolize life, renewal, and nature. Emeralds have also been associated with springtime meadows and ancient forests that have been a part of European culture throughout its history. Emeralds can be found in the royal jewelry boxes and state jewelry collections of European nobility and upper aristocracy for centuries. From the gemstone collections of the Roman Empire to the coronation jewelry of today’s royal families, emeralds have long been prized by the aristocracy as a symbol of refinement, elegance, and power. The history of these green gems within aristocratic circles is as revealing of changes in European fashions and tastes as it is of exploration and conquest as well as global trade, shifting power dynamics, and diplomacy which have all come to shape modern Europe.
Emeralds had become one of the most coveted gemstones by the European nobility as early as in ancient Roman times, when Roman aristocracy first began to prize emeralds over other gemstones. Emeralds were not as common in Europe after the fall of the Roman Empire and so the stones were all the more desired among the continent’s wealthy elite who were able to afford to purchase them. During the medieval period, emeralds began to take on the aura of aristocratic status and rank for Europe’s upper crust. Emeralds were so rare before the discovery of mines in the Americas that only the wealthiest and most aristocratic of families would be sure to own emeralds.
Emeralds did become more popular with the aristocratic circles during the Renaissance, however, with the expansion of trade and trade routes at the time. Noble families in Venice were able to acquire emeralds through their maritime trade, and the Medici family of Florence began to add emeralds to their family collections during the period. The discovery of emerald mines in the New World, in Colombia by Spanish conquistadors soon had emeralds flooding the European royal courts, with aristocrats all vying to obtain the largest and finest emerald specimens. Emeralds soon became such a strong and recognizable part of European aristocratic identity that their appearance at this time only increased the gemstone’s value.
Emeralds have been a part of aristocratic jewelry collections throughout the centuries, even as tastes and preferences have shifted for other stones and metals. Emeralds remained very much in vogue throughout the Belle Époque and Art Deco periods, with aristocratic families across Europe commissioning pieces by Cartier, Van Cleef & Arpels, Boucheron, and other notable jewelers to create over-the-top and on-trend emerald jewelry. Aristocratic and royal women of Europe’s royal families are still dressed in emeralds for the most important state dinners, coronations, and even royal weddings today by European royal jewelers. This way, emeralds have remained the choice gemstone of Europe’s last remaining upper-class and aristocratic families well into the twenty-first century.
Emeralds in particular were always a key part of Europe’s royal courts and their self-imagery of the aristocratic crown. European royals viewed emeralds as objects of imperial significance, regalia, or a link to myths and stories that supported their right to rule. For example, the Holy Roman Emperors incorporated emeralds into their imperial crowns since the stone was considered symbolic of truth and immortality - concepts that were highly relevant to the Emperors of the Holy Roman Empire, who were elected by the other princes of Europe and also claimed that their power was granted through the grace of God. In the Imperial Crown of the Holy Roman Empire, emeralds were included in large numbers, setting a standard for later coronation regalia in European history.
Emeralds, in particular, became very associated with the Spanish royal houses of the Habsburgs and Bourbons. After the successful Spanish conquest of the New World, Spanish and Portuguese royals and nobility came back to Europe with untold wealth and very large emerald jewelry pieces and collections. Queen Isabella of Castile’s famous emerald collection was a statement of her dominance over the new world and Colombian mines that had fallen to her conquests. Emeralds appear in many portraits of Spanish royalty as the Spanish Empire became one of the most expansive and far-reaching in all of European history. In Britain, Queen Victoria and her husband Prince Albert began to favor emeralds heavily during their reign. Prince Albert is thought to have gifted his wife Queen Victoria her favorite tiara, an emerald and diamond tiara, during their marriage.
The most impressive imperial collection of emeralds was developed at the court of the Russian tsars. The Romanovs began to amass very fine and very large emeralds from several different sources, many of which came from the Ural Mountains of Russia. Catherine the Great’s emerald parure, or matching set of regal jewels, is a set that is still legendary in jewelry lore to this day. The most famous of all of the imperial Russian emeralds, however, were the emerald imperial eggs, which were designed and manufactured by the famous Russian jewelry house Fabergé for the last tsars and empresses of Russia. Many of the royal families in Europe were forced to lose their thrones in revolutions during the twentieth century, and in some cases, even execute the former royals, but royal emeralds were still seen as the very pinnacle of royal legitimacy. For exiled royals and their descendants, family emeralds became a portable asset which could allow the old nobility to maintain at least some of their status and lifestyles as exiles in other countries.
Emeralds still have a ceremonial role today by most of Europe’s royal families. Sweden’s Princess Victoria, Spain’s Queen Letizia, and Britain’s Catherine, Princess of Wales, have all worn historic emeralds at state dinners and other formal events in recent years, which helps to forge a link between the past and present for the European royal families which have survived and maintained their monarchies into the twenty-first century.
Emeralds, in aristocratic circles, however, are still having to adjust to the rapidly changing twenty-first century. Most European noble families no longer hold the fates of their countries and their people in their hands, but historic aristocratic emeralds remain a very visible cultural touchstone which can be seen in today’s museum exhibitions, state dinners, and other occasions, and ceremonies involving the royal families of Europe which still reign over their countries. Historic European aristocratic emeralds have become a very direct, tangible, and visual connection between modern Europeans and their past. European aristocrats of the modern age, however, have also had to find new ways of dealing with the challenges of maintaining their historic jewelry collections. Selling family emeralds has become one method which allows modern aristocratic families to maintain their estates or even found charities and other non-profit organizations in Europe and beyond. Even the family’s use of emeralds has had to change for modern European aristocrats. Historic emeralds have been redesigned and reset by aristocrats and their jewellers, worn in modern settings and with modern couture, and made more visible to the public than in any previous period of European history. The desire for emeralds in European aristocratic circles has shifted over the centuries, but the strength of the bond between these green gems and the old aristocracy of Europe has never waned. As long as human beings continue to hold beauty, history, and tradition in such high regard, emeralds will continue to have a very special place in the jewelry collections of the twenty-first century just as they did for the dukes, princes, counts, and queens of centuries past.
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