In June of 1805 Napoleon, recently coronated as Emperor of France, gave a tiara to Pope Pius VII. Pius had officiated at Napoleon’s investiture ceremony. Popes had been wearing tiaras since about the ninth century, which started as simple linen circlets and morphed over time into triple-tiered, heavily decorated metal crowns with a monde bearing a cross at the top. The word tiara is Persian and refers to the head-dresses worn by powerful men and women in ancient times, which were typically made of precious metals and jewels to convey the wearer’s wealth and status.
Royalty during the Napoleonic era still wore jewel-studded crowns, and had done so since time immemorial, but by the 1800s the only men calling their headpieces tiaras were the popes. Tiaras were becoming all the rage for wealthy women, though. Interest in all things Greek and Roman, plus a style shift from humongous wigs to simpler hairstyles, had made precious metal semicircles with jeweled decorations—the contemporary version of the tiara—easier to wear as well as fashionable.
Napoleon was instrumental in popularizing women’s tiaras. He gave many bejeweled dazzlers to his wife Josephine and encouraged the ladies in his court to adorn themselves likewise. Tiaras became expected at fancy events and have remained a staple ever since, especially for brides and beauty pageant contestants. In fact, today, May 24, 2024, is International Tiara Day. This observance was created in 2005 by Martha’s Vineyard resident/consultant Barbara Bellissimo as a one-time event. May 24 was chosen because it’s Queen Victoria’s birthday. A few years later the idea was picked up by the American Rose Bridal company and promoted as a day every year for women to treat themselves like queens, so here we are. “Like a queen” means bubble baths and spa appointments, selfies, being nice, and knowing that your subjects love you. That’s maybe more pleasant than being betrothed at birth to a cousin, birthing multiple sons, making speeches and cutting supermarket ribbons every day, and strategizing to avoid being beheaded. But I digress…
Participating in International Tiara Day is easy. There’s no need for a Tiffany creation that requires insurance and pinches your skull. A party-store plastic band with some glued-on bling, or even something hand-made (providing you’re crafty) will do. Half of me is, frankly, repulsed by this idea. The other half wishes that I was typing this while wearing the biggest tiara from Itzaparty.
That adornment would pale in comparison, though, to Napoleon’s gift to Pope Pius VII. Designed by the House of Chaumet, it had gold hoops separating three crowns (tiers), with a white velvet background covered with floral designs made of 3,345 precious stones and 2,990 pearls. One of those precious stones, a 404.5 carat (!) emerald that the French had recently, um, appropriated from Pope Pius VI, sat on the monde. Each hoop had a bas relief and inscription illustrating what a badass Napoleon was and how many battles he’d won. Reportedly the tiara cost 179,800 francs. (Dunno how much that would be in today’s money, but it sounds like a hefty sum.) Except for the two cloth tails hanging off its back, the thing looked more like a vase than a hat.
Oh, and it weighed 18 pounds—the typical Papal tiara weighed 2 to 5 pounds, and the average human head weighs around 11 pounds—and was too small to fit Pius VII’s head, or anyone’s head, actually. So it would have been more useful sitting on a mantelpiece. Speculation is that the gift was intended as an insult. The Pope and Napoleon had had quite a few disagreements, including about the legitimacy of the marriage to Josephine, with the Pope expressing his views too openly for Napoleon’s taste. As an insulting gift, it’s almost ideal. Expensive, designer, appropriate…and utterly unusable.
Most people have received presents that hit the wrong way. Not always on purpose: gifting is hard. There’s the cliche of the husband being confused by his wife’s reception of that Mother’s Day vacuum cleaner. The obvious regift, or the extra stock that’s sitting around in a Mary Kay salesperson’s basement. Closer to deliberate insult are the presents that imply you need to change, like a gym membership or a cookbook for dummies. Intentionally insulting presents are rare, I think. I’ve only gotten one. My reaction wasn’t brave or clever. I put the gift down and said nothing. The reception, of course, is the hardest part.
Pope Pius VII…wrote Napoleon a thank-you note, in which he said he’d be wearing the tiara at an upcoming mass. Which he didn’t do. Eventually Pius had the decorations that lauded Napoleon removed and replaced with Bible verses.
The Napoleon Tiara did eventually get some practical use. In 1834—after damage sustained when it had been buried in a garden during an insurrection—it was resized so that a human could wear it. Popes occasionally donned the tiara until 1870. Another modification was to replace almost all of its jewels (except for the emerald and some rubies) with glass replicas. The jewels themselves were sold, and the funds were used to help victims of World War I.
That’s the kind of behavior one would hope for from a queen, on International Tiara Day and every day.
the jeanSpace 