Crowns worn by Queens Adelaide, Mary and Alexandra could be worn by Camilla at Charles’ coronation

A little-known crown that was last worn nearly 200 years ago may be used for the Queen Consort’s coronation amid controversy over the Koh-i-Noor diamond.

There are fears an international row could be triggered if Camilla wears the Queen Mother‘s coronation crown, which features the sparkling gem. 

The huge diamond originated from India and was given to Queen Victoria by the last Sikh emperor of India – who at the time was just 10 years old. 

But the gifting of the diamond is disputed, with both Pakistan and Afghanistan also claiming the jewel as theirs. 

The governing party of Indian prime minister Narendra Modi is reported to have expressed concern that if Camilla were to display the diamond at King Charles’s coronation next year, it would would provide an unwelcome reminder of the British Empire. 

But Buckingham Palace is said to be considering the use of other crowns, including the one worn by Queen Adelaide at her husband William IV’s coronation in 1831. 

Other options are said to include the 1820 Diamond Diadem, which was made for use at the coronation of George IV and was worn by the late Queen Elizabeth II on her way to her coronation in 1953, and then at each State Opening of Parliament.

Crowns created for the coronation of Queen Alexandra – the wife of King Edward VII – and King George V’s wife Queen Mary are other options that are under consideration, the Telegraph reported. 

Christopher Joll, a royal and military historian, told the Telegraph that the Queen Adelaide’s crown would be a frontrunner for use by Camilla if Buckingham Palace opts not to use the Queen Mother’s crown at all.

It was created for William IV’s coronation, which at the time was described as the ‘Half-Crown nation’ due to the king’s insistence to remove expensive ceremonial events from the occasion.

It followed the most extravagant coronation in history the decade prior, when George IV was crowned.

After William’s coronation, the jewels that had been set in Queen Adelaide’s crown were removed.

The crown is currently part of the Royal Collection and had been on display at the Tower of London, but was removed in May. It’s current location is unknown.

The Diamond Diadem was well-known due to the fact that the Queen wore it when arriving for the State Opening of Parliament and then when she posed for images on coins, bank notes and stamps. 

Made from silver and lined with gold, it has a distinctive openwork frame set with 1,333 diamonds and a narrow band edged with pearls.

It has four distinctive ‘crosses-pattée’ – the front cross set with a four-carat pale yellow brilliant diamond – as well as four sprays representing the national emblems of England, Ireland and Scotland, roses, shamrocks and thistles.

It was made by Rundells in 1820 and, together with a diamond-studded loop (which was broken up to help make Queen Victoria’s Garter armlet), the bill for the diadem amounted to the huge sum of £8,216.

This included an £800 hire charge for the diamonds – stones were regularly hired for use at coronations up to 1837.

Normally the stones would have been returned to Rundells after the coronation, but in this case there is no sign that the delicately worked diamond sprays and crosses have been disturbed.

The Queen Mother’s coronation crown features 2,800 diamonds with the front cross holding the famous 105-carat Koh-i-Noor diamond, one of the largest cut diamonds in the world 

The Koh-i-noor diamond is the largest among 2,800 that are mounted on the Queen Mother’s crown. 

The controversial diamond was first recorded in 1306. A Hindu text at the time said: ‘Only God or woman can wear it with impunity’.

The diamond was given to Queen Victoria in 1855 by 10-year-old Duleep Singh, last emperor of the Sikhs. 

Although much has been made of the fact that it was ‘given’ to this country, critics point out that this was only after the mother of the 10-year-old was held prisoner and he was forced to sign it away.

After it fell into Queen Victoria’s ownership, it was displayed at the 1851 Great Exhibition in London.

The jewel was seized by the East India Company as one of the spoils of war and presented to Queen Victoria in 1850. 

Her husband Prince Albert ordered the diamond, then weighing 186 carats, be recut to improve its brilliance.

It was reduced in weight by 42 per cent and cut into an oval brilliant weighing 109 carats.

The Koh-i-noor was then mounted into Victoria’s crown.

It passed to consorts Queen Alexandra in 1902 and Queen Mary in 1911 for their coronation crowns and then to the late Queen Mother in 1937, being set in a Maltese Cross.

The diamond is the third largest in the Crown collection, behind the Cullinan 1 and 2 jewels cut from the Cullinan diamond – the largest rough diamond ever found. They are set in the Sovereign’s sceptre with cross and the Imperial State Crown.

In 1976, prime minister Jim Callaghan refused a request to hand the diamond back to nations claiming it saying: ‘I could not advise Her Majesty the Queen that it should be surrendered.’

Speaking of the controversy over its potential use, William Dalrymple, who co-wrote Koh-i-Noor: The History of the World’s Most Infamous Diamond with colleague Anita Anand said: ‘It is not a small sensitive issue in the eyes of India. It is a massive diplomatic grenade.

‘One of the reasons we wrote our book was that we don’t believe anyone in this country has the slightest conception of how much it matters in India.

‘For people here it is the name of an Indian restaurant or a brand of pencils or maybe something they have seen on a school trip to the Tower of London.

‘But it is actually part of a wider disconnect of a number of things that Indians get very upset about to do with the colonial period.

‘The diamond has been claimed by Pakistani, Bangladesh, Afghanistan and also the Taliban. It is a hugely sensitive and much claimed stone. 

‘It matters to a huge number of people and has continued to be very controversial since the Queen died.

‘There is an expectation that this is an issue that will come back. Colonialism is over, Britain wants to make friends with India, it is a major new rising power.

‘In a sense the British have brought this on themselves because they turned the stone into a symbol of their empire by putting it on display in the Great Exhibition of 1851.

‘It has [since] become, rightly or wrongly, a symbol for many colonised people of all they think that we took from them. Whatever your position on it, that is how it’s viewed.

‘This tiny stone, which is actually not that big – in fact, and it’s not even in the top 100 of the worlds diamonds any more – has come to take the whole weight of colonisation on its shoulder. It it has become this very, very sensitive object and is a major issue now between the two countries. ‘

Other options besides swapping the Queen Mother’s crown for another include the replacement of the Koh-i-Noor with a crystal replica or just removing the diamond and not swapping in another jewel at all.

Palace officials are understood to be reviewing whether she should wear the jewel, with the King acutely aware of the sensitivities.

She is due to be crowned in a similar but simpler ceremony as part of the King’s coronation on May 6 next year in Westminster Abbey.

According to the Telegraph, a spokesman for Indian prime minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party said: ‘The coronation of Camilla and the use of the crown jewel Koh-i-noor brings back painful memories of the colonial past.

‘Most Indians have very little memory of the oppressive past. Five to six generations of Indians suffered under multiple foreign rules for over five centuries.

‘Recent occasions, like Queen Elizabeth II’s death, the coronation of the new Queen Camilla and the use of the Koh-i-noor does transport a few Indians back to the days of the British Empire in India.’

The date for the coronation, May 6, was unveiled on Thursday. 

The deeply religious affair will take place in the London Abbey, eight months after Charles’s accession to the throne and the death of the Queen. 

The Palace said the ceremony will be ‘rooted in longstanding traditions and pageantry’ but also ‘reflect the monarch’s role today and look towards the future’.

Charles III will be anointed with holy oil, receive the orb, coronation ring and sceptre, be crowned with the majestic St Edward’s Crown and blessed during the historic ceremony, with Camilla also be anointed with holy oil and crowned.

Buckingham Palace has declined to comment about the use of the Queen Mother’s crown.

Other objects that make up the Crown Jewels include the Ampulla, an eagle-shaped vessel of pure gold. It held the holy oil which used for the anointing of the Queen in 1953.

The Anointing Spoon, which dates back to the 14th-century, is used to hold the oil poured from the Ampulla. 

After the execution of Charles I in 1649, Oliver Cromwell melted down the original English Crown Jewels. Any objects that could not be melted down were sold off. 

It was only because of the survival of records detailing what the original jewels looked like and which objects were sold off that they were able to be faithfully recreated when the monarchy was restored in 1660.

Another post-revolution addition to the Crown Jewels was the Sovereign’s Orb, which acts as the symbol of Godly power within the monarchy.

The item was made for Charles II’s coronation in 1661 and is a 30cm-wide hollow gold sphere with a crucifix above it, adorned with nine emeralds, 18 rubies, nine sapphires, 365 diamonds, 375 pearls, one amethyst and one glass stone. 

The cross remaining above the orb represents the dominion of Christ over the world with the monarch holding it as God’s representative on Earth.

The oldest part of the collection is the Scottish Crown Jewels, which date from the early 1500s. They are held at Edinburgh Castle.