Goodbye Queen Bea!

 Enjoy! These are high-resolution images provided by the official website of the Dutch Monarchy. Queen Bea, as Beatrix II was affectionately known to the Dutch people, now goes by HRH Princess Beatrix.

Maxima the Beautiful

 The Dutch Royal family kindly offers high resolution images of their members on their website. I was in the Netherlands when Maxima turned 40, and the image below with Maxima in a tiara was on Dutch magazines. I always wondered how the magazines got such good pics! Turns out, we can all use these pics, as long as it's for nothing political or otherwise inappropriate.

Maxima on her 40th birthday.

40th Birthday shot of the then Princess Maxima of the Netherlands.

Máxima Zorreguieta in her homeland of Argentina.

Máxima Zorreguieta as a baby in Argentina.

Máxima Zorreguieta as a baby.

Maxima early on in her marriage to King Willem-Alexander.

The Princess of Orange.

Maxima on her wedding day to Prince Willem-Alexander, Prince of Orange.

Maxima at the time of her engagement to the King.

Collector of Jewels: Queen Mary of Great Britain

Did you know that Queen Mary wore a tiara every night for dinner, even when she and King George V were dining alone? And she had a sixth child, Prince Johnny, who was Tsarevich Alexei of Russia's age. Johnny had epilepsy and was shunned from the family, living with his nanny and dying at the age of 14. Just so you know.

A painting of Queen Mary wearing the Cambridge Lover's Knot tiara. It originally had upstanding pearl spikes, which were later replaced with large round diamonds.

Queen Mary on her Coronation day in 1911. Her dress is embroidered with emblems of the United Kingdom: thistles, roses, and clovers.

Queen Mary wearing the Delhi Durbar parure. The tiara used to be topped by pear cabochon emeralds, and the center could be interchanged with on of the Cullinan diamonds. The current tiara has been worn by Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, and it sits less as a crown (like in the above picture) and more as a tiara.

Queen Mary wearing the Cullinan III and IV brooch on her bodice. She is also wearing her crown without the arches.

Queen Mary in the George IV Diadem. She is also wearing many rows of diamond choker necklaces.

Queen Mary wearing the diamond spike tiara and Queen Victoria's jubilee diamond necklace. She is also wearing the sapphire and diamond brooch that Prince Albert gave to Victoria on their wedding day.

Queen Mary in another pose from the above photo shoot. She was Duchess of York for a long time, before becoming Princess of Wales from 1901-1911.

Queen Mary wearing the Grand Duchess Vladimir of Russia tiara. It was said to have been smuggled out of Russia after the revolution by being concealed in a bonnet. The pearl drops are interchangeable with cabochon pear emeralds.

A young picture of the then Duchess of York.

Queen Mary wearing the Vladimir tiara with the emeralds, and other impressive diamond and cabochon emerald jewellery.

Queen Mary wearing a large diadem that was later disassembled.

A young picture of Queen Mary wearing a flat diamond bandeau tiara in her hair.