royal yacht queen elizabeth

Inside ‘Britannia,’ Queen Elizabeth II’s Floating Palace

The Royal Yacht, according to Her Majesty, was “the one place where I can truly relax.”

But Britannia was far more than a posh royal cruise liner. She was a showcase for cutting-edge naval engineering and the first royal yacht that could do double duty as a floating hospital in wartime, if necessary. In 1986, for instance, she rescued more than 1,000 refugees from South Yemen. Over the course of her 44 years in service, Britannia facilitated 968 official visits and traveled over one million nautical miles.

She was also, of course, a time capsule of the best British design of the time, in terms of both technological prowess and decoration. Read on for more about the ship’s history, and where the Royal Yacht Britannia is now (hint: You can visit !).

What’s the backstory of Britannia ?

This history of royal liners goes back centuries. In fact, Britannia was the 83rd royal yacht; the first, HMY Mary, was constructed in 1660 by the Dutch East India Company and given as a gift to Charles II. Britannia ’s predecessor, Victoria & Albert III, was completed in 1901 and used by Edward II up through George VI, but was decommissioned in 1939 and eventually broken up as scrap. A new yacht was commissioned on February 4, 1952, in an effort to help King George VI’s health, according to the Royal Yacht Britannia museum, but the king died just two days later. The task to oversee the construction of the new yacht, then, fell on the young Queen Elizabeth II.

Who Built the Royal Yacht Britannia ?

Britannia was designed by John Brown & Co., the same marine engineering firm that built the RMS Lusitania and the Queen Mary. Construction on Britannia began in June 1952, and she was launched in a ceremony on April 16, 1953. The young queen didn’t reveal the name of the liner until her televised address in which she proudly stated before roaring crowds, “I name this ship Britannia .” Notably, a bottle of wine as opposed to the more traditional Champagne, was smashed across the ship’s bow during the christening—Champagne would have been much too ostentatious amid postwar austerity.

Who designed the Royal Yacht Britannia ’s interiors?

According to a technical paper presented to the Institution of Naval Architects in the spring of 1954, the royal and state apartments were to be on par with those of a first-class ocean liner. “The suitability of the decorative design and the furnishing of the Royal and State apartments has, of course, been very important,” the paper noted.

At first, Patrick McBride of the Glasgow, Scotland–based firm, McInnes Gardner & Partners, was selected to design the interiors, but the Queen and Duke of Edinburgh rejected those plans, deeming them too lavish, according to the Royal Yacht Britannia museum. Sir Hugh Casson, the director of architecture at the 1951 Festival of Britain, was the perfect candidate, with his modern eye and lack of ostentation. The design, the architect later wrote in his diary, “was really running a lawn mower over the Louis XVIl adornments. I was going to concentrate on one-color carpet throughout, which was sort of lilac/gray, and all the walls would be white. The only enrichments would be a bit of gilding in grand places.”

Working with Casson, Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip were highly involved, giving input for everything ranging from the furniture (much of it salvaged from the vessel’s predecessor, Victoria & Albert III , as another way to appear thrifty) to the ship’s blue exterior paint, inspired by the Duke of Edinburgh’s racing yacht, Bluebottle. Apartments featured a design like an elegant-yet-muted English country house, filled with floral sofas and antiques. The state drawing room could accommodate up to 250 guests. The Queen’s favorite room was the sun lounge, with its warm teak walls and rattan furnishings, and views across the veranda deck.

“I suppose Britannia was rather special as far as we were concerned because we were involved from the very beginning in organizing the design and furnishing and equipping and hanging the pictures and everything else,” Prince Philip said in a 1995 documentary film about the yacht. “For us it was rather special because all the other places we live in have been built by our predecessors. They started building Windsor 1,000 years ago, and they built Balmoral 100 years ago, and they built Sandringham 70 or 90 years ago. So we, in a sense, had our own.”

So successful was the partnership that Casson would go on to become a dear friend of the royal family and design interiors for Buckingham Palace, Balmoral , and Windsor Castle

Britannia was also a second home for the royal children. Each was given a member of the crew or “sea daddy” to look after them. “We found as children that there was so much to do, we expended so much energy that we couldn’t describe our time on the yacht as a rest,” Princess Anne said. Milk was delivered fresh from a farmer each day for the royal children, according to letters from the ship’s Acting Captain J. S. Dalglish. Later, the yacht would become the venue for numerous royal honeymoons and vacations, including Princess Diana and Prince Charles’s infamous 1981 Mediterranean cruise.

Where is the Royal Yacht Britannia Now?

As documented in season 5 of The Crown , the Royal Yacht was decommissioned on December 11, 1997, at a ceremony in Portsmouth, U.K., after nearly half a century in service and having traveled more than one million nautical miles. In addition to Queen Elizabeth II and the Duke of Edinburgh, Prince Charles, Princess Anne, Prince Andrew, and Prince Edward all attended the ceremony. As the British ensign was lowered to the tune of a navy band, Her Majesty was photographed blinking back tears .

Britannia was retired to Port of Leith in Edinburgh. Today, as one of the most popular tourist sites in the U.K., she serves as a museum and receives some 350,000 visitors per year who can tour the State dining room, the Queen’s bedroom, and sun lounge, as well as view the engine room and crew’s cabins. Visitors can even have tea and scones on the royal deck. The majority of the items on display are original to the yacht and are on loan from the Royal Collection.

In a bizarre 21st-century twist, former British prime minister Boris Johnson announced plans to build a Britannia successor, a £250 million yet-to-be-named, taxpayer-funded superyacht to operate as a “floating embassy.” The new British prime minister, Rishi Sunak, recently torpedoed those plans in favor of building a surveillance ship.

Anna Fixsen, Deputy Digital Editor at ELLE DECOR, focuses on how to share the best of the design world through in-depth reportage and online storytelling. Prior to joining the staff, she has held positions at Architectural Digest, Metropolis, and Architectural Record magazines. elledecor.com 

Celebrity Style

From the Archive: At Home with John Mayer

Drew Barrymore Lists Her Home for $8.4 Million

Why the Real Met Gala Theme Was Interior Design

Troye Sivan’s Home Line Is Popping Up In NYC

Expats Creator Is a Farmer Girl at Heart

Kim Kardashian Is Being Sued Over Tables

Inside Kate Middleton’s Adelaide Cottage

Kate Middleton Has Been Diagnosed With Cancer

Inside Lady Rose Hanbury’s Houghton Hall Residence

A Look at the Homes of the British Royal Family

Alicia Keys Reveals Her Tips for Collecting Art

Find anything you save across the site in your account

The Royal Yacht Britannia : A History of Queen Elizabeth II’s Favorite Palace

By Lisa Liebman

The christening of The Royal Yacht Britannia serves as a cheeky season opener to  The Crown . Black-and-white Pathé News–style footage shows a soon-to-be-crowned Queen Elizabeth II (Claire Foy) cheered on by shipbuilders as she launches her new 412-foot yacht. “I hope that this brand-new vessel, like your brand-new queen, will prove to be dependable and constant. Capable of weathering any storm,” she says about the royal replacement for the  Victoria and Albert III . By the series’ season finale, set 44 years later, both the sovereign and the floating palace she christened  Britannia will have hit rough seas—the cost of repairing the creaky old vessel and the modern role of the monarchy both in question. Ultimately, the yacht that undertook 968 official voyages all over the world, hosting dignitaries—including 13 US presidents—at receptions and banquets, was dry-docked near Edinburgh, Scotland, where it continues to be a popular tourist attraction. Here are some of the most buoyant facts about the palace the Queen famously said was “the one place where I can truly relax.”

The sun room on the Royal Yacht Britannia as photographed in 1981. 

In a nod to the country’s post-war austerity, Elizabeth scaled back the design of the ship that her father, King George VI, had commissioned just two days before he died. Rather than following the opulent plan laid out by the Scottish firm McInnes Gardner & Partners, she opted for the understated elegance envisioned by architect Sir Hugh Casson, who described “running a lawn mower over the Louis XVIl adornments” in favor of simple white walls, lilac-gray carpeting, and “a bit of gilding in grand places.” Elizabeth and her husband, Prince Phillip, were said to have personally chosen the furniture—much of it, including linens, recycled from the  Victoria and Albert —fabrics (florals, chintz, toile), and paintings. 

Prince Charles and Princess Diana on board the Royal Yacht Britannia as they prepare to depart on their honeymoon cruise in 1981.

As a former Royal Navy Commander, Prince Phillip also saw to the ship’s technical details, and his Bluebottle racing yacht inspired the Britannia ’s navy-hued hull. Outer decks were made of two-inch Burmese teak. The steering wheel was reclaimed from Britannia ’s namesake, King Edward VII’s 1893 racing yacht; a wheelhouse wheel came from George V’s racing yacht; and a gold-and-white binnacle (housing the ship’s compass) was salvaged from King George III’s yacht and installed on the Veranda deck. Fittings from former royal ships were also reused. 

The drawing room on the Royal Yacht Britannia as photographed in 1978. 

The 4,000-ton yacht had a crew of 220 Royal Yachtsmen who lived on board, about 45 household staff, and occasionally a 26-member Royal Marine embarked to entertain dignitaries. The monarch often welcomed guests from the ship’s grand staircase. (Stairs leading from the Veranda to the Royal deck were sometimes transformed into a water slide for the kids.)  Britannia ’s apartments were designed like those of a first-class ocean liner. A 56-seat state dining room, where many of the gifts given to the monarch (a wood-carved shark from Pitcairn Island, a bejeweled gold statue from Bangkok) were displayed, was the scene of formal dinners with guests such as Sir Winston Churchill, Frank Sinatra, Nelson Mandela, and Bill and Hillary Clinton. More intimate gatherings were held in the Queen’s official reception room, a smaller state drawing room with floral upholstered pieces, simple wood tables, an electric fireplace, and a Welmar baby grand piano bolted to the deck—played by everyone from Sir Noël Coward to Princesses Diana and Margaret. The teak-clad sun lounge, with rattan furniture and a toile loveseat, was Elizabeth’s favorite place—where she had her breakfast, afternoon tea, and also enjoyed her favorite Dubonnet and gin cocktails.

The Queen’s sitting room on the Royal Yacht Britannia as photographed in 1981. 

By Eric Wills

By Vaishnavi Nayel Talawadekar

By Katie Schultz

A ship elevator reserved for royal use moved between the Upper and Shelter Decks. The latter is where four Royal Apartments (bedrooms), including the Queen and Prince Phillip’s connecting compartments, were located. Hers featured florals, his had red accents. Elizabeth’s understated Upper Deck private sitting room, done in pastels and neutrals, served as the office where she conducted state business. Phillip used his sitting room, with its wood desk facing a model of his first command, the HMS Magpie , as his study. Below deck there was a wine cellar, as well as a cargo hold that could carry a barge, speed- and sailboats, plus a royal Range Rover and Rolls-Royce. The yacht could also be converted into a hospital (though it never was).

The Queen shed a tear at the decommissioning ceremony for thye Royal Yacht Britannia.

As depicted in  The Crown, Britannia ’s final official trip was to Hong Kong in 1997, where Prince Charles attended the handover of the territory to China. By then, Prime Minister Tony Blair’s administration was complaining that the £11 million a year needed to keep the boat afloat couldn’t be justified. With Queen Elizabeth, Prince Phillip, and all of their children in attendance,  Britannia was decommissioned at a ceremony in Portsmouth, England on December 11, 1997, with the monarch seen wiping away a tear. The yacht, now docked in Leith, Scotland, is open to the public as a museum and events space. (Prior to their wedding, Princess Anne and Mark Phillips’s daughter Zara Phillips and her fiancé Mike Tindall had a celebration there.) Visitors will note that every clock on board reads 3:01, the exact time the Queen disembarked her beloved  Britannia for the final time on that December day.

By Claudia Williams

By Katherine McLaughlin

By Erika Owen

By Morgan Goldberg

The Story Behind the Royal Family's Yacht, Britannia

The ship hosted four royal honeymoons in its 44 years of service.

Often referred to as the last royal yacht, the Britannia was decommissioned in 1997, and despite some efforts , there are no signs of a new one in the near future. Though its seafaring days may be behind it (the ship now serves as a tourist attraction in Edinburgh, Scotland), the Britannia remains an important artifact and a peek behind the curtain of royal life—it even garnered a prominent place in the fifth season of The Crown . Below, a few of its most notable moments throughout history.

It was the first royal yacht designed for ocean travel.

The ship was built by John Brown & Co at the same shipyard in Clydebank, Scotland in the same location the famous ocean liners the Queen Elizabeth and Queen Mary were constructed. With 12,000 horsepower, the ship could travel at a maximum 22.5 knots (approximately 25 miles per hour), ideal for ocean-going diplomacy. Prior to its launch in 1953, the royal family used ships from the Royal Navy or even passenger liners for the overseas portions of the royal tour.

In its 44 years of service, the HMY Britannia traveled around 1.1 million miles.

It was commissioned just two days before the death of King George VI.

The King was already in failing health by the time the designs for the HMY Britannia were submitted, and the hope was that traveling might help alleviate some of his symptoms. However, just two days after the John Brown shipyard in Clydebank, Scotland received the order the King passed away on February 6, 1952.

It would take just over a year for the ship to be completed, during which time its name remained a secret—it wasn't announced until the ship's official launch in April of 1953, less than two months before the Queen's coronation . Elizabeth cracked a bottle of English wine (in the post-war era, champagne was considered too extravagant for the launch of a ship) and announced, "I name this ship Britannia … I wish success to her and all who sail in her."

It was created to double as a hospital.

When Britannia was first envisioned, less than a decade after the end of World War II, the designers sought to make it as functional as possible, crafting a space that could be converted from an ocean-going royal residence to a seafaring hospital during any possible future wartime. The main veranda was laid out and re-enforced so that it could support a helicopter landing and the laundry was made much larger than on a standard naval vessel to accommodate the potential patients. Though the ship was never actually put to that purpose, it was pressed into service on a rescue mission to help evacuate European nationals from South Yemen in 1986.

The ship was home to a lot of history.

Long before it became a floating museum, the Britannia had an eye for history. The gold and white binnacle housed on the ship's veranda deck was originally part of the HMY Royal George , a royal yacht that served Queen Victoria . Likewise, some of the bed linens used by Queen Elizabeth aboard the vessel were originally made for Victoria's bed for one of the previous royal yachts.

Britannia's steering wheel was lifted from her namesake, the racing yacht HMY Britannia , built in 1893 for King Edward VII .

It was redesigned to be less opulent.

Despite the sense of luxury that the term "royal yacht" inspires, the Queen and Prince Philip were actually concerned when they began overseeing the project in 1952 that the original interior design plans by the design firm McInnes Gardner & Partners were too lavish for a country still recovering from the war. The interiors were ultimately redesigned by Sir Hugh Casson and received very minimal updates throughout her 44 years of service.

But it still had homey touches—by royal standards.

Suffice to say that even low-key royal living is a fairly high class. In addition to the 56-seat State Dining Room, which hosted luminaries including Winston Churchill, Noel Coward, Nelson Mandela, and multiple US Presidents, the ship also sported a formal staircase where the Queen would greet guests, separate bedrooms and sitting rooms for both Her Majesty and the Duke of Edinburgh, and a phone system designed to match the unique configurations of Buckingham Palace's telephones.

In the early years of the Britannia's life it was also home to the Queen's Rolls-Royce Phantom V which was hoisted and lowered from a special garage compartment at port so that the Queen could drive her own car at each location. The space was ever so slightly too small, forcing the bumpers to be removed in order to get it into the garage without damage and then refitted when the car was removed. Ultimately Elizabeth began using cars provided for her at port instead and the garage was converted into a storage area for beer.

The steering crew couldn't see where they were going.

Life on board the HMY Britannia was far from typical for her crew. To begin with, due to the prestige and pressure of the position, the commanding officer of the royal yacht was always a flag officer, most commonly a Rear Admiral, although the first two to serve were Vice Admirals, and Britannia 's final CO was a Commodore.

While working, the crew reportedly used hand signals to communicate rather than shouting orders, in order to maintain a sense of quiet and calm for the royal residents. It was also the last ship in the royal navy where the crew members slept in hammocks, a practice that they maintained until 1973.

Perhaps the most unusual element of the ship's functioning, though, was the steering. While on most ships, the steering wheel sits on the bridge, overlooking the front of the vessel, Britannia 's was on the deck below, in the wheelhouse, which meant that the yachtsmen who were actually doing the steering couldn't see where they were going. The crew got around this rather surprising pitfall by using voice pipes from the bridge to confer navigational orders.

It was a royal honeymoon essential.

No fewer than four royal couples celebrated their honeymoons in the HMY Britannia 's honeymoon suite (the only room onboard with a double bed.)

Princess Margaret started the tradition in 1960 for her Caribbean honeymoon with Anthony Armstrong-Jones , a quiet, formal affair where dinners were taken in full evening dress every night. Things didn't go quite as smoothly for Princess Anne on her honeymoon with Captain Mark Phillips in 1973—storms and 20-foot waves left the couple stricken with seasickness for the first week of their Caribbean cruise. Prince Charles and Princess Diana famously spent their 1981 honeymoon on a Mediterranean cruise aboard the yacht. The crew managed to duck the press so efficiently they garnered the nickname "the ghost ship." The final royal honeymoon aboard the Britannia was taken by Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson , Duchess of York in 1986 when the couple traveled around the Azores.

And a family vacation spot.

In addition to her diplomatic duties on royal tours and her service as a post-wedding retreat, the Britannia was also a vessel for family vacations. During the summer months, the royal family would often take off on what became known as the Western Isles tour, cruising around the western isles of Scotland. During the trip, the family would play games and have barbecues on the islands. The stairway off of the veranda was sometimes even converted into a waterslide for the younger royals. The tour often included a stop off at the Castle of Mey to visit the Queen Mother, then making berth in Aberdeen so that the Queen could travel to her favorite summer home, Balmoral .

The Queen openly wept when HMY Britannia was decommissioned in 1997.

With so many memories around the yacht, it's not hard to understand why the decommissioning of the Britannia was upsetting for the royal family. Though plans were initially drawn up for a replacement yacht, the government ultimately determined not to fund the effort. After the Queen officially took her leave of it in 1997, the ship was placed in the port of Leith in Scotland where it serves as a floating museum and events venue . All of the clocks on board remain stopped at 3:01, the exact time that Her Majesty disembarked for the last time.

It was used for a reception for Zara Phillips before her wedding.

Though it's no longer used as their private vessel, the Britannia 's connection to the royal family didn't end in 1997. In 2011 on the night before her wedding, the Queen's oldest granddaughter Zara Phillips contracted the ship for a reception. Though her grandmother wasn't in attendance Zara celebrated her upcoming marriage to Mike Tindall onboard along with her mother and her cousins Prince Harry, Prince William and Kate, Princess Eugenie, and Princess Beatrice.

Lauren Hubbard is a freelance writer and Town & Country contributor who covers beauty, shopping, entertainment, travel, home decor, wine, and cocktails.

@media(min-width: 40.625rem){.css-1jdielu:before{margin:0.625rem 0.625rem 0;width:3.5rem;-webkit-filter:invert(17%) sepia(72%) saturate(710%) hue-rotate(181deg) brightness(97%) contrast(97%);filter:invert(17%) sepia(72%) saturate(710%) hue-rotate(181deg) brightness(97%) contrast(97%);height:1.5rem;content:'';display:inline-block;-webkit-transform:scale(-1, 1);-moz-transform:scale(-1, 1);-ms-transform:scale(-1, 1);transform:scale(-1, 1);background-repeat:no-repeat;}.loaded .css-1jdielu:before{background-image:url(/_assets/design-tokens/townandcountrymag/static/images/diamond-header-design-element.80fb60e.svg);}}@media(min-width: 64rem){.css-1jdielu:before{margin:0 0.625rem 0.25rem;}} Royal Family News @media(min-width: 40.625rem){.css-128xfoy:before{margin:0.625rem 0.625rem 0;width:3.5rem;-webkit-filter:invert(17%) sepia(72%) saturate(710%) hue-rotate(181deg) brightness(97%) contrast(97%);filter:invert(17%) sepia(72%) saturate(710%) hue-rotate(181deg) brightness(97%) contrast(97%);height:1.5rem;content:'';display:inline-block;background-repeat:no-repeat;}.loaded .css-128xfoy:before{background-image:url(/_assets/design-tokens/townandcountrymag/static/images/diamond-header-design-element.80fb60e.svg);}}@media(min-width: 64rem){.css-128xfoy:before{margin:0 0.625rem 0.25rem;}}

Jack Schlossberg Comments on Charles's Portrait

Meghan Channeled Princess Diana's Off-Duty Style

Queen Camilla Says She'd "Love to Go to Hogwarts"

Unseen Picture Released of Elizabeth & Margaret

Royal-Favorite Label ME+EM Opens Its Doors in Soho

California Gov. Praises Harry & Meghan's Nonprofit

Archewell Foundation Issue Resolved

King Charles Unveils Official Portrait

Frederik and Mary of Denmark's 20th Anniversary

Royal Warrant Review 2024: Winners and Losers

Meghan Markle's Signature Shoe Wardrobe

10 surprising facts about the Royal Yacht Britannia, one of the Queen's favorite homes, featured on 'The Crown'

• The Royal Yacht Britannia was the royal family's private yacht from 1953 to 1997.
• The Queen once said that "Britannia is the one place where I can truly relax."
• The ship has made several appearances in Netflix's "The Crown," including season five.

The Royal Yacht Britannia served as the royal family's private yacht from 1953 to 1997. The Queen shed a rare public tear when it was decommissioned.

The first episode of season five of Netflix's "The Crown" flashes back to 1954, when Queen Elizabeth christened the Royal Yacht Britannia, and shows the royal family spending time aboard the luxurious ship.

Later on in the episode, when asked if Balmoral is her favorite home, Imelda Staunton's Queen Elizabeth replies, "There is another that's even more special to me," alluding to the Royal Yacht being her favorite.

Despite the Queen's fondness for the Britannia, the Labour government decided to decommission it in 1997 due to its high operation cost of £11 million each year, Reuters reported . That's equivalent to about $23 million today.

At the decommissioning ceremony, the Queen shed a rare public tear .

Shouting was forbidden on the Royal Yacht Britannia.

Officers wore gym shoes to stay silent near areas where the royal family ate and slept, according to the yacht's official website .

Children were assigned an officer known as a "sea daddy" to look over them while onboard.

"Sea daddies" kept royal children entertained with activities like treasure hunts and water fights.

There was a room aboard the ship called the "Jelly Room" that existed for the sole purpose of storing royal children's jellies, a gelatin dessert that Americans might call "Jell-O."

In addition to the chilled "Jelly Room," the yacht had a total of three galley kitchens where chefs from Buckingham Palace prepared meals.

The State Dining Room tables, which could seat 56 people, took three hours to set.

The location of each utensil was measured meticulously with a ruler, according to the book " Royal Transport: An Inside Look at the History of Royal Travel " by Peter Pigott.

All of the clocks onboard the Royal Yacht Britannia are stopped at 3:01 pm.

The clocks are frozen at the time the Queen stepped off the ship for the last time during its decommissioning ceremony in December 1997.

The ship had a full-time staff of more than 240 yachtsmen, known as "yotties."

The Royal Yacht Britannia cost an estimated $15 million to operate each year, Reuters reported .

The "yotties" had a daily ration of rum until the 1970s.

Yotties carried out a range of duties , including scrubbing the decks, polishing silverware, arranging flowers, and diving beneath the ship to search the seabed.

The former royal yachtsmen reunite annually to help maintain the ship.

Founded in 1989, the Association of Royal Yachtsmen organizes reunions and an annual dinner and dance.

With its many royal family vacations and official tours, the yacht logged over one million miles, the equivalent of one trip around the world for each of its 44 years at sea.

The ship docked at over 600 ports in 135 countries .

• Main content

The Royal Yacht Britannia Has a Fascinating History—Here's Everything You Should Know

It doesn't get more majestic than Queen Elizabeth II's yacht.

“Britannia is special for a number of reasons,” Prince Phillip once said. “Almost every previous sovereign has been responsible for building a church, a castle, a palace or just a house. The only comparable structure in the present reign is Britannia. As such she is a splendid example of contemporary British design and technology.”

Although she retired from service in 1997, today the Britannia, one of many of the world's grandest yachts , is docked in Edinburgh, where she is open as a visitors’ attraction and host of private events. Below we give you all the Royal Yacht Britannia facts you might want to know, from who owns the yacht now to why she was decommissioned to how fast she is to how to get tickets to visit. Britannia was, after all, the one place the queen said she could “truly relax,” so why not see why for yourself?

Royal Yacht Britania Facts and History

On February 4, 1952, John Brown & Co shipyard in Clydebank, Scotland, received the order from the Admiralty to build a new Royal Yacht to travel the globe and double as a hospital ship in times of war, according to the royal yacht's website . King George VI passed away two days after, sadly, and so on April 16, 1953, the newly crowned Queen Elizabeth II announced the yacht’s new name as the ship was revealed.

"I name this ship Britannia,” she said. “I wish success to her and all who sail in her." Britannia was commissioned into the Royal Navy in January 1954 and by April of that year sailed into her first overseas port: Grand Harbour, Malta.

The queen and The Duke of Edinburgh worked with interior designer Sir Hugh Casson for the ship to serve as both a functional Royal Navy vessel and an elegant royal residence. Queen Elizabeth II selected deep blue for Britannia’s hull, instead of the more traditional black. Its Naval crew included 220 Yachtsmen, 20 officers, and three season officers—plus a Royal Marines Band of 26 men during Royal Tours.

All of them might have had to change uniform up to six times a day, so the laundry service on board worked nonstop. The yacht also engaged in British overseas trade missions known as Sea Days and made an estimated £3 billion for the Exchequer between 1991 and 1995 alone.

The ship’s wheel was taken from King Edward VII’s racing yacht, also named Britannia, according to Boat International , and the 126-meter ship could reach speeds of 22.75 knots, or a seagoing cruising speed of 21 knots, according to Super Yacht Times . Other fun facts: The yacht could produce her own fresh water from sea water, and shouting was forbidden aboard to preserve tranquility, favoring hand signals for Naval orders instead.

Over the next 44 years, the Britannia would sail the equivalent of once around the world for each year, in total visiting 600 ports in 135 countries. Princess Margaret and Anthony Armstrong-Jones were the first of four couples to honeymoon on the ship in 1960, gifting them all privacy to sail to secluded locations. Prince Charles and Princess Diana followed in 1981 on the Mediterranean as well as Princess Anne and Captain Mark Phillips before them in 1973 in the Caribbean and Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson in 1986 in the Azores.

For family vacations aboard the ship, games, treasure hunts, plays, and picnics were organized, and on warm days the children could play in an inflatable paddling pool on the Verandah Deck.

In the Sun Lounge, the queen especially enjoyed taking breakfast and afternoon tea with views through large picture windows, a space you can see replicated in the TV show The Crown. Although no filming took place on board the Britannia for the show, researchers ensured scenes aboard it were accurate. In the queen’s bedroom, the resemblance is seen down to the decorative wall light fittings and embroidered silk panel above her bed that had been specially commissioned.

In 1997, the ship was decommissioned after the government decided the costs to refit it would be too great. On its final day in her service that followed a farewell tour around the U.K., the queen openly wept as the Band of HM Royal Marines played "Highland Cathedral."

"Looking back over 44 years we can all reflect with pride and gratitude upon this great ship which has served the country, the Royal Navy and my family with such distinction," Queen Elizabeth II said. All clocks on the ship stopped at 15:01, the exact time the Queen disembarked from the yacht for the final time, and they would remain at that time until the present.

How to Tour the Royal Yacht Britania

Today the yacht is owned by Royal Yacht Britannia Trus t, and all revenue it generates goes to the yacht’s maintenance and preservation. Ticketed entry allows you to step into state rooms like the Sun Lounge, the State Dining Room and State Drawing Room, in addition to the working side of the ship in the Crew’s Quarters, Laundry and gleaming Engine Room. Along the way you will see original artifacts from the shop—95 percent of which is on loan from The Royal Collection.

How to Visit the Royal Britania

You can visit the Britannia any day of the year on Edinburgh’s waterfront. Hours vary by season, and you can find them listed and purchase tickets on the yacht’s website . Private tours are also available, and you can visit the Royal Deck Tearoom, where the Royal Family hosted cocktail parties and receptions, for drinks, meals and scones. Additionally, the Britannia hosts special ticketed events for New Year’s and other occasions, and event spaces can be booked as well.

While you are in Edinburgh, you can also stay on the Fingal , a neighboring yacht-turned-floating-hotel, which is a seven-minute walk from the Britannia, and dine at its Lighthouse Restaurant & Bar, which serves breakfast, afternoon tea, dinner, and cocktails.

These Are the 17 Best Places to Travel in June

The 20 Best Countries for American Expats

The 21 Best Spa Weekend Getaways in the U.S.

How to Shop Eau Palm Beach's Lilly Pulitzer Suite

Take an Eco-Tour Through the BVI

How to Spend a Perfect Weekend in St. Barts

15 Best Historic Homes to Visit in America

The 5 Best Nantucket Hotels

The 15 Best Hamptons Hotels

49 Museums You Need to Visit in Your Lifetime

The 8 Most Beautiful Gardens in France

clock This article was published more than  1 year ago

What really happened to Royal Yacht Britannia from ‘The Crown’ Season 5?

LONDON — The much-hyped fifth season of “The Crown” opens with a heavy-handed metaphor weighing approximately 4,000 tons.

It’s 1953, and a young Queen Elizabeth II, a month before her coronation, is in Scotland to launch the new royal yacht, the Britannia. “I hope this brand-new vessel, like your brand-new queen, will prove to be dependable and constant, capable of weathering any storm,” she declares to great applause.

And so the queen and her ship are inextricably linked as the Netflix TV show fast-forwards to 1991, when questions about costly repairs for the Britannia are presented in parallel to questions about whether the 65-year-old queen is too old for her role.

King Charles III wants to look ahead. ‘The Crown’ drags him back.

There is no missing that this is a narrative device in a series now labeled a “fictional dramatization.” But the episode’s release this week has renewed interest in the history of the royal yacht and ignited a debate about how the British monarch interacted with her government. It also happened to coincide with a modern-day echo of 1991, as new Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, facing a recession, sank plans for a replacement royal yacht.

What to know about Britannia, ‘the floating palace’

There is a real Royal Yacht Britannia, and, as in the show, the young queen really did announce its name and christen it with a bottle of Empire wine. (Though not with a self-referential speech.)

The Britannia was the latest in a series of royal yachts dating back to 1660 and King Charles II . In 44 years of service, the ship sailed more than 1 million nautical miles — equivalent to more than 40 circumnavigations of Earth — calling at more than 600 ports in 135 countries and projecting British influence around the world.

The Britannia was used for state visits and receptions, royal family holidays and honeymoons. Presidents Dwight D. Eisenhower, Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton all spent time on board, as did Boris Yeltsin and Nelson Mandela. When civil war broke out in South Yemen in 1986, the yacht was rerouted to help evacuate civilians.

“The Crown” suggests the yacht was the queen’s favorite “home,” cherished even more than Balmoral in the Scottish highlands. Biographers don’t dispute that this could have been true. In his book “Queen of Our Times,” Robert Hardman writes, “There were few places where the Queen would be happier.”

Although served by a crew of 220, the ship was a place where the royal family could relax and escape the watchful eye of the public. Hugh Casson, who designed the interior, once recounted, “the overall idea was to give the impression of a country house at sea.” Prince Philip, the queen’s husband, was fascinated with the birds he saw during voyages in the 1950s and even published a book titled “Birds from Britannia.”

Did the queen lobby for repairs?

The controversial part of “The Crown” portrayal centers on whether the queen actively lobbied Prime Minister John Major for the government to pay for extensive repairs — which could have amounted to inappropriate interference in politics by a constitutional monarch.

She says in the show: “Here I am, coming to you, prime minister, on bended knee, for the sign-off, but I’m hoping that will be a formality.”

The character of Major, who was prime minister during a tough recession, responds by suggesting the royal yacht is “something of a luxury” and that spending public money on it while the economy is in the tank would not be good for the government or the royal family.

The queen persists, arguing that the yacht is “a central and indispensable part of the way the crown serves the nation” and “a floating, seagoing expression of me.”

The queen-ship metaphor is dragged out in a later conversation, when the character of Prince Charles — impatient to be king — tells Major about the Britannia: “Sometimes these old things are too costly to keep repairing.”

So did any of that actually take place?

The real-life Major has called the show’s imagined conversations “a barrel-load of nonsense.”

Robert Lacey, a historical consultant on “The Crown,” defended the depiction. He told The Washington Post that the subject of the yacht would have inevitably come up between the queen and the prime minister, who met once a week to discuss matters of state.

“She certainly spoke about it to the prime minister,” Lacey said. “Obviously, the royal family would have lobbied for it. The queen did want another royal yacht.”

Hardman, the royal biographer, insisted that while the queen no doubt would have been interested in repairs or a replacement, she would not have “leaned on her prime ministers for money.”

In a letter written in 1994, later stored in the National Archives, the queen’s deputy private secretary Kenneth Scott wrote to the cabinet office that “the Queen would naturally very much welcome it if a way could be found of making available for the nation in the 21st century the kind of service which Britannia has provided for the last 43 years.”

Scott noted, however, that “the question of whether there should be a replacement yacht is very much one for the government” and “the last thing I should like to see is a newspaper headline saying ‘Queen Demands New Yacht.’”

The Times of London headline when the letter was uncovered in 2018: “ I want a new yacht, Queen told Whitehall in secret letter .”

What happened to the Britannia?

Major’s government wasn’t swayed by arguments to repair or renew the ship. Even with a retrofit costing an estimated 17 million pounds, the Britannia would be expensive to run and hard to maintain. It was hard to justify when air travel was a readily available alternative for royal trips and trade missions.

The yacht’s final voyage abroad was to Hong Kong in 1997, when the territory was handed back to China. A few months later, the Britannia undertook a farewell tour of Britain, calling at six major ports and blasting its sirens as it passed the shipyard that built it, before returning for a decommissioning ceremony in Portsmouth, England on Dec. 11, 1997. The ship’s clocks were stopped. The Royal Marines band played. Lacey noted: “The only time the queen was seen to cry was when the royal yacht was de-commissioned.”

The ship is now a visitor attraction site in Edinburgh, Scotland. On the day of the queen’s state funeral in September, a lone piper played a lament on the deck.

What about plans for a replacement royal yacht?

The possibility of a replacement yacht gained some traction during the 1997 general election, but the incoming Labour government nixed the idea.

More than two decades later, as part of a campaign to promote a reinvigorated “Global Britain” in the aftermath of Brexit, Prime Minister Boris Johnson proposed a new royal yacht . There was a push to name the ship after Prince Philip, who died last year, though it would be more for the government than for the royal family. In Johnson’s vision, the ship would tour the world as a “floating embassy,” where officials would host summits and cement trade deals. It would cost an estimated 250 million pounds to build, plus 30 million pounds a year to run.

But once again, the economic climate is not favorable for big yacht projects. The new Sunak administration announced this week that it was terminating the royal yacht plan and would instead procure a surveillance ship that could protect energy cables and other infrastructure. The prime minister’s spokesman said it was “right to prioritize at a time when difficult spending decisions need to be made.”

Honeymoons and holidays - How much do you know about the Royal Yacht Britannia?

Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip on the Royal Britannia. Getty

The Royal Yacht Britannia served the Queen for 44 years from its launch on April 16th, 1953 until it was decommissioned in 1997.

Editor's note: Queen Elizabeth II, Britain's longest-serving monarch passed away on Sept 8, 2022, aged 96. Now, BHT takes a look back at some of the most popular stories which arose during her 70-year reign. 

It seemed very fitting that, just as Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth was celebrating becoming the longest-serving monarch in British history, I should be visiting one of her most faithful and loyal servants. 

The Britannia was actually commissioned by the Queen’s father, King George VI. Sadly, he died on February 6, 1952, just two days after the order to build a new Royal Yacht had been given to John Brown & Company in Clydebank. This meant, however, that the Queen was given the opportunity to play an important role in the design and fitting out of the ship to reflect the personal tastes of Her Majesty and Prince Phillip.

The Royal Yacht has been described as two ships in one, with the operational side of the ship, where the naval personnel lived and worked, in the area forward of the mainmast, and the Royal Apartments occupying the rear.

• Footage of Queen Elizabeth II in Ethiopia in 1965
• The Coronation of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth
• Incredible footage of the Queen addressing Westminster

Yet, if Britannia was thought of as two ships it also served a dual purpose. The Royal Yacht has been described by the Queen as the place where she could “truly relax.” The Queen had said that “Britannia is to be at times the home of my husband and myself and of our family.” This was achieved partly in the understated design of the Royal apartments and also by the use of personal photographs and items from previous Royal Yachts, all giving a country house atmosphere to the whole experience.

Royal Yacht

In addition to being a home for the family, however, it also had a diplomatic role, serving as a base for state visits and later for trade missions. Indeed, the State Dining Room, the grandest room onboard, was the scene of numerous formal banquets involving many illustrious guests, ranging from Prime Ministers Winston Churchill and Margaret Thatcher to Presidents Reagan, Clinton, Mandela, and Yeltsin, who were all entertained there. Very few people, of whatever nationality, ever refused an invitation to dine on Britannia .

Even though being on board Britannia allowed Her Majesty to relax, she was still faced with affairs of state, and would spend several hours each day working on official documents, ferried to wherever the Royal Yacht was in the world in their distinctive red dispatch boxes. The Queen’s sitting room on the ship was also her office. Prince Phillip had his own sitting room, a much more masculine design, although he referred to it as his study.

JONATHAN EASTLAND/ALAMY

How many bedrooms are on the ship?

The Queen’s bedroom and Prince Philip’s have a connecting door and both had buzzers by the bed so that they could summon a steward at any time. Each room had a bathroom, equipped with a thermometer so that the Royal bath water was always at the correct temperature.

Although both bedrooms are quite modestly decorated and fitted out, Her Majesty’s bedroom, described as having “floral charm,” included a silk panel, specially commissioned in 1953, above her bed. Prince Philip’s, as one might expect from a former Navy officer, was finished in darker timber, again giving it a slightly more masculine look.

There are two further bedrooms on the Shelter deck, including one known informally as the honeymoon suite which houses the only double bed on board. Four newly married Royal couples have used the room; Princess Margaret and Anthony Armstrong Jones in 1960, Princess Anne and Captain Mark Phillips in 1973, Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer in 1981 and the Duke of York and Sarah Ferguson in 1986.

Just along from the Royal bedrooms is the Verandah Deck, which also served a dual function as a leisure area for the family or a reception area during official visits. Among its furnishings is an impressive binnacle—a receptacle for a compass. The binnacle, originally carved from a single piece of teak, was one of several items rescued by Prince Philip from the previous Royal Yacht, Victoria & Albert III , having originally been part of Queen Victoria’s yacht, Royal George . Beside the Verandah Deck is the Sun Lounge, described as the Queen’s favorite room, a place where Her Majesty could really relax with the family, take tea or perhaps enjoy a drink.

PRESSELECT/ALAMY

Britannia carried a crew of 21 officers and 220 yachtsmen (known as “yotties”), who were required to carry out their duties in a way that allowed Her Majesty to relax completely. This regime, known as “unobtrusive excellence,” meant that most orders were given using sign language and crew members wore sneakers to further minimize noise.

In Britannia ’s ambassadorial role, during its working life, the ship made more than 700 visits to countries in the British Commonwealth and across the world. Nevertheless, it was difficult in the modern world to justify the existence of a Royal Yacht.

In 1994, the decision was finally taken to decommission Britannia . Just three years later the British Government announced that it would not be replaced. It was decided, however, that unlike its predecessors, the yacht would not be scuttled, but would go on show as a tourist attraction at a location to be decided. There was stiff competition to host the Royal Yacht, but the port of Leith, near Edinburgh, was successful.

The decommissioning of Britannia in Portsmouth on December 11, 1997, was an emotional moment for all concerned, with Her Majesty, Prince Philip and members of the crew all striving to keep their feelings in check.

Her Majesty’s loss has been the public’s gain, presenting a unique opportunity to get a fascinating glimpse of the life of the Royal family and their relationship with this amazing ship.

* Originally published in March 2016.

BHT newsletter

You may also like.

• Most Recent

Recognising the style icon, Quee...

Over the years we've seen Royals break out some truly unique clothi...

Everything you need to know abou...

Prince Philip sadly passed away on April 9, 2021. We take a look ba...

The great castles of North Wales

King Edward I’s chain of stone fortresses, across Wales is as impos...

Exploring Wales and unearthing m...

Exploring the castles, mountains, winding roads, and valleys of the...

The lost Roman city of the legio...

Where ancient Roman history and legend make romance in the small We...

Abandoned British ghost towns th...

Have you heard of these British ghost towns?

The memories of a soldier - refl...

Join Jim Corbett as he reminisces about his previous life as a sold...

Roll into the weekend with this ...

Buckingham Palace's Royal Chefs share their recipe for tasty pancak...

Hauntingly beautiful British cem...

The countless cemeteries and graveyards across Britain can tell us ...

To revisit this article, visit My Profile, then View saved stories .

What Happened to the Royal Yacht Britannia?

By Elise Taylor

The Crown season five begins and ends with the same plot point: The Royal Yacht Britannia. The vessel serves as a—fairly obvious—metaphor in the first episode, where Imelda Staunton’s Queen Elizabeth describes it as “a floating, seagoing version of me.” The problem with her metaphorical marine self? It’s in desperate need of multi-million dollar repairs. 

She asks British prime minister John Major, played by Jonny Lee Miller, whether the government might be able to help foot the bill. He, in turn, asks if the royal family might front the cost, given the public pushback they both might receive if such a seemingly extravagant project was approved. In the final episode of the season (a note to the reader: spoilers will follow), Tony Blair and Queen Elizabeth agree to decommission the yacht after Prince Charles’s trip to Hong Kong.

The Crown is known for taking much of its plot material from real-life events. In the case of the Royal Yacht Britannia, though—what really happened to the boat, and how much political controversy did it really cause?

To go back to the beginning, King George VI first commissioned the royal yacht that would become the Britannia in 1952. It was an exciting project, as the previous official boat had belonged to Queen Victoria, and was rarely used. (Queen Victoria, for one, did not like the water and never sailed.) Then, during the early 20th century, England was mostly at war, and making a massive, slow-sailing luxury ship would be a massive security risk in international waters. 

The Royal Yacht Britannia, George decided, should both be an extravagant vessel and a functional one, able to double as a hospital if times of war were to arise again. In 1953, the newly-crowned Queen Elizabeth christened the ship with a bottle of wine, as champagne was still seen as too extravagant post-war. In 1954, she set sail for the first time.

The Royal Yacht fulfilled many functions, most of them leisurely. Over the years, the boat hosted four royal honeymoons, including that of Princess Diana and Prince Charles, as well as many family vacations. In 1969, after his investiture as the Prince of Wales, Charles hosted an intimate party on board to celebrate. (Newspapers at the time wrote that he danced with his dear friend Lucia Santa Cruz —the very person who eventually introduced him to Camilla Parker Bowles.)

By Hannah Jackson

By Philipp Wehsack

It also served as a grandiose mode of transport for many royal visits. In 1959, for example, Britannia sailed to Chicago to celebrate the recently-opened St. Lawrence seaway in Canada, and President Eisenhower joined her on board. Twenty years later, she sailed to Abu Dhabi for her first official visit to the United Arab Emirates, where she held a grand dinner for Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan.

And although Queen Elizabeth's reign was not during wartime, the royal yacht did execute a humanitarian mission, as King George VI had always planned for: In 1986, it sailed to Aden to evacuate over 1,000 refugees from the civil war in Yemen.

The New York Times once described the 412-foot Britannia as “an ordinary yacht what Buckingham Palace is to the house next door.” It wasn’t an exaggeration—Britannia was essentially a floating palace. It had a drawing room, a dining room, two sitting rooms, as well as galleys and cabins for all the officers. The stateroom interiors were just as ornate as any other royal estate, while the bedrooms—which all had their own bathrooms and dressing rooms—were designed to feel surprisingly personal. 

“Within the royal apartments, however, the regal elegance gives way to the homey, patched elbow chic of an English country house, with flowered chintz slipcovers, family photographs, and rattan settees, interspersed with the occasional relic of Empire—shark's teeth from the Solomon Islands here, a golden urn commemorating Nelson's victory at Trafalgar there,” the New York Times found when it boarded the ship in 1976.

The cost of running Britannia was always an issue. Politicians raised questions about its financial value as far back as 1954, when two MPs lobbied for an investigation on why the yacht’s refurbishment would cost 5.8 million pounds, accusing the royal family of waste and extravagance. A government committee later dismissed the accusations. In 1994, the Conservative government ruled the yacht too costly to refurbish, when repairs came in at a whopping 17 million, but then briefly walked back on their decision a few years later. 

However, when Tony Blair’s Labour government won the election, and the new government once again declined to pay for Britannia. Britannia’s final journey was to far-flung Hong Kong in 1997, as Prince Charles turned over the British colony back to the Chinese at the end of Britain's 99-year lease. When they finally decommissioned the boat that summer, the queen cried—one of the few times she’s shown emotion in public. The boat had logged over one million nautical miles.

Today, Britannia sits permanently docked in Edinburgh. Visitors can take tours of its grand galleys, or even rent it out for events. Yet, despite its retirement, the concept of the royal yacht lives on: In 2021, Boris Johnson floated the idea of a new boat. However, a mere eight days ago, Rishi Sunak has scrapped the project—showing that, even now, the concept remains a controversial one.

More Great Living Stories From Vogue

The Best Places in the World for Solo Travel

Candice Bergen on What It Was Really Like to Attend Truman Capote’s Black and White Ball

The Curious Case of Kate Middleton’s “Disappearance”

Sofia Richie Grainge Is Pregnant! And It’s a….

Never miss a Vogue moment and get unlimited digital access for just $2 $1 per month.

• Search Please fill out this field.
• Manage Your Subscription
• Give a Gift Subscription
• Newsletters
• Sweepstakes

King Charles Visits His Mother Queen Elizabeth's Beloved Royal Yacht in Scotland

The impressive vessel even surfaced in season 5 of 'The Crown'

Janine Henni is a Royals Staff Writer for PEOPLE Digital, covering modern monarchies and the world's most famous families. Like Queen Elizabeth, she loves horses and a great tiara moment.

Andrew Milligan - Pool/Getty 

King Charles is back on board the Royal Yacht Britannia before his coronation celebration in Scotland.

On Monday, the King stepped out in Edinburgh for the first Royal Week of his reign. King Charles, 74, is continuing Queen Elizabeth ’s tradition of spending a special summer week in Scotland and made a meaningful visit to the royal yacht on his first day there.

The Royal Yacht Brittania, otherwise known as Her Majesty's Yacht Britannia, was launched in April 1953, one month before Queen Elizabeth’s coronation. The 412-foot vessel was known as the royal family’s "floating residence" during its 44 years of service and sailed over 1 million nautical miles on 968 state visits as they entertained world leaders like Ronald Reagan, Winston Churchill, Nelson Mandela, Ronald Reagan and Rajiv Gandhi. Several royal couples also honeymooned on the ship, including Charles and Princess Diana in 1981, and they later used it for official trips with Prince William and Prince Harry .

Diana Archive/Getty

RELATED: King Charles Is Having a Coronation Celebration! All About What's Happening in Scotland

Though the Royal Yacht Britannia offered the royal family a unique privacy away from their public life and was described by Queen Elizabeth as “the one place I can truly relax,” per ship history , it would not sail forever. As seen in season 5 of The Crown (spoiler alert!), it was decommissioned in 1997 after it was determined the $22 million needed to keep the yacht going for another five years was too much for the government to spend. The Royal Yacht Britannia moved to Leith, Edinburgh, the following year, where it has operated as a tourist attraction since.

The King visited on Monday in honor of the docking’s 25th anniversary, his first formal visit to the ship since 1997. He was welcomed by Bob Downie, Chief Executive of The Royal Yacht Britannia Trust, and toured the engine room, laundry and Rolls Royce garage. King Charles spent time with former crew members and staff before attending a reception with the Trust’s trustees and senior management team in the State Dining Room and Drawing Room, which surely evoked memories of celebrations past.

RELATED: What to Know About the Royal Yacht Britannia Featured on The Crown Season 5

Earlier on Monday, King Charles kicked off Royal Week with a visit to Kinneil House in Bo’ness, where he met representatives from organizations including The Prince’s Trust and planted a tree to mark the 100th anniversary of the estate becoming a public park.

He then moved to the Palace of the Holyroodhouse, the British sovereign’s official royal residence in Scotland, for the traditional Ceremony of the Keys.

According to The Scotsman , the annual ceremony marks the start of the monarch’s stay in Scotland. The sovereign is handed the keys of the city of Edinburgh and welcomed to "your ancient and hereditary kingdom of Scotland,” and then returns them to local elected officials for safekeeping.

Though the first Royal Week of Charles’ reign is only beginning, Monday’s Ceremony of the Keys was not the first of his royal reign.

The King participated in the ritual in September 2022 following the death of Queen Elizabeth at Balmoral Castle on Sept. 8. King Charles, Queen Camilla and Princess Anne were coincidentally in Scotland at the time, and the Queen’s two eldest children arrived at her side before she died.

Earlier, Charles was formally welcomed to the city and Holyroodhouse at the official ceremony of the keys.

Peter Byrne/WPA Pool/Getty

Can't get enough of PEOPLE's Royals coverage? Sign up for our free Royals newsletter to get the latest updates on Kate Middleton, Meghan Markle and more!

Royal Week in Edinburgh will continue on Tuesday when King Charles, Queen Camilla and Princess Anne host a garden party at the Palace of Holyroodhouse.

Chris Jackson/Getty 

Then on Wednesday, the King will be presented with the Honours of Scotland at a National Service of Thanksgiving and Dedication at St. Giles’ Cathedral celebrating his coronation. Queen Camilla, Prince William and Kate Middleton will also be in attendance at the ceremony, which will feature a Royal Procession and a flypast.

King Charles and Queen Camilla will also carry out engagements in Scotland on Thursday.

Related Articles

• Royal Deck Tearoom
• Group Visit
• Accessibility
• Annual Pass
• Our Green Tourism
• Weekly Snaps
• Things to do in Edinburgh
• What's On
• Private Events
• Private Dining
• Drinks Reception
• Private Tours
• Burns Supper
• Meet The Team

Historical Timeline

• Explore Britannia
• Royal Residence
• Life Below Decks
• Bestsellers
• Gift Vouchers

The Royal Yacht Britannia, Ocean Drive, Leith, Edinburgh EH6 6JJ

Tel: 0131 555 5566 Email us: [email protected]

• Search this website

Britannia was the first Royal Yacht to be built with complete ocean-going capacity and designed as a Royal residence to entertain guests around the world. When she was decommissioned in 1997, it marked the end of a long tradition of British Royal Yachts, dating back to 1660 and the reign of Charles II.

There is additional information about Britannia's specifications and construction contained in the technical paper .

VICTORIA & ALBERT III

Britannia's predecessor was the Victoria & Albert III - the first Royal Yacht not to be powered by sail. It was built for Queen Victoria, but she never stepped on board, concerned about the yacht's stability. King Edward VII did sail on the Victoria & Albert, mainly in local waters and the Mediterranean. Having served four sovereigns over 38 years and not left Northern Europe since 1911, the Victoria & Albert was decommissioned in 1939. She was eventually broken up for scrap at Faslane in 1954

THE LAST ROYAL YACHT

It was decided that a new Royal Yacht should be commissioned that could travel the globe and double as a hospital ship in time of war. It was also hoped a convalescence cruise would help the King's ailing health. The John Brown & Co shipyard in Clydebank received the order from the Admiralty for a new ship on 4 February, 1952. Sadly King George VI passed away two days later. Not only did Queen Elizabeth II now have to prepare for her new role, but she also had responsibility for the commissioning of the new Royal Yacht.

BUILT IN SCOTLAND

John Brown & Co was one of the most famous shipyards in the world, having built the famous liners Queen Elizabeth and Queen Mary. The keel of the new, as yet unnamed, Royal Yacht was laid down in June 1952. One of the last fully-riveted ships to be built with a remarkably smooth painted hull, she was finally ready to be launched on 16 April, 1953. The ship's name was a closely guarded secret, only being revealed when Queen Elizabeth II smashed a bottle of Empire wine (Champagne was considered too extravagant in post-war Britain) and announced to the expectant crowds "I name this ship Britannia… I wish success to her and all who sail in her". You can read more about getting Britannia ready for Royal service by downloading Letters from a Fish to his Admiral (below), a series of notes and letters written by Acting Captain J S Dalglish, the Officer in charge of commissioning Britannia. John Brown continued as a shipyard until they sadly closed in 2001.

BRITANNIA COMMISSIONED

After the launch, Britannia's building work continued as her funnel and masts were installed, before beginning sea trials on 3 November 1953 off the West Coast of Scotland. On successful completion, she was commissioned into the Royal Navy on 11 January 1954. On 22 April, Britannia sailed into her first overseas port as she entered Grand Harbour, Malta. During 44 years in Royal service Britannia sailed the equivalent of once round the world for each year, calling at over 600 ports in 135 countries, including the United States of America, Australia, Canada and New Zealand.

ROYAL HONEYMOONS

Britannia was an ideal Royal honeymoon venue. The Royal Yacht was very private and could sail to secluded locations. Four Royal honeymoons were enjoyed on board, Princess Margaret and Anthony Armstrong-Jones being the first in 1960.

THE FIRST DAY AT SEA

As well as hosting state functions, Britannia was an ambassador for British business, promoting trade and industry around the globe. These British overseas trade missions were known as ‘Sea Days’ and an invitation to come aboard proved irresistible to the world’s leading business and political figures. The Overseas Trade Board estimated that £3 billion was made for the Exchequer as a result of commercial days on Britannia between 1991 and 1995 alone.

EVACUATION OF ADEN, SOUTH YEMEN

At 20:00 on 17 January 1986, the Yacht dropped anchor at Khormaksar Beach. Civil war had broken out in South Yemen and ships were urgently required to evacuate British nationals and others trapped by fighting. As a non-combatant Royal Navy ship, Britannia would be able to enter territorial waters without further inflaming the conflict.

DECOMMISSION

"Looking back over forty-four years we can all reflect with pride and gratitude upon this great ship which has served the country, the Royal Navy and my family with such distinction." - Queen Elizabeth II. View the entire Paying-Off Ceremony letter below.

OPENED AS A VISITOR ATTRACTION

After arriving in Leith, Edinburgh on 5 May 1998, The Royal Yacht Britannia opened as a visitor attraction on the 19 October 1998.

BRITANNIA WELCOMED 5 MILLION VISITORS

The Royal Yacht Britannia, now a five-star visitor attraction and exclusive evening events venue, celebrated welcoming 5 million visitors since opening in 1998.

OUR LUXURY FLOATING HOTEL, FINGAL, OPENED

In January 2019, our luxury floating hotel Fingal opened to the public. Fingal, a former Northern Lighthouse Board tender, had undergone a £5 million development to become a 22 cabin five-star floating hotel, berthed moments away from Britannia. In September 2023, Fingal was awarded AA Hotel of the Year Scotland.

TRIPADVISOR'S NO.1 UK ATTRACTION 2023

The Royal Yacht Britannia was voted Tripadvisor's No.1 UK Attraction 2023. What a wonderful accolade for our team who passionately provide a five-star customer experience to ensure each and every visitor has a memorable time on board. Britannia had previously been awarded this prestigious accolade in 2014.

CELEBRATING BRITANNIA'S 25 YEARS

19 October 2023 marks 25 wonderful years since Britannia opened to the public as a visitor attraction. During this time we have welcomed over 7 million visitors, a brilliant milestone to mark the occasion. We thank each and every visitor who has stepped aboard and look forward to welcoming many more to share our history.

Visiting Britannia

Tripadvisor’s No.1 UK Attraction 2023

Start your tour at our entrance, currently located on the Ground Floor of Ocean Terminal. Please note that tickets purchased in person are by card/contactless only. 

Please pre-book your tickets to guarantee admission.

Click on the Visit page  for more information before you visit.

Step aboard to enjoy a great day out!

Fingal Hotel

AA Hotel of the Year Scotland, AA five-star hotel and 2 AA Rosettes

Learn more: fingal.co.uk

History of the Queen’s beloved Royal Yacht Britannia as seen in The Crown, why it led to rare public tears from Her Majesty and how it ended centuries of tradition

The new season of The Crown shows the Queen fighting for her Royal Yacht, but the real story is even better than fiction.

• Sign up to W&H Newsletter Newsletter

In the opening episode of The Crown season 5 , Queen Elizabeth II ( played by Imelda Staunton ) is shown fighting for the survival of her beloved yacht, the Royal Yacht Britannia. Officially known as HMY Britannia (Her Majesty’s Yacht Britannia), the ship did indeed hold deep sentimental value to the late Queen, as captured in the fictionalized drama of The Crown . Here, we investigate why it meant so much and what happened to it.

• The new series of The Crown shows the late Queen Elizabeth II fighting to save the Royal Yacht Britannia. Reality wasn’t too different, as Her Majesty loved the ship. 
• Find out more about Her Majesty’s Yacht Britannia, including how it became a honeymoon spot for the royals, why the Queen shed tears over it years later and the touching reason the clocks are stuck at 3:01pm
• In other royal news , King Charles’ coronation could ‘never’ compare to Queen Elizabeth’s ‘absolute perfection’ says former lady-in-waiting

As captured in The Crown season 5, the Queen truly did love the Royal Yacht used by the family between 1953 and 1997. In fact, she once said that "Britannia is the one place where I can truly relax."

Here, we take a deeper look at the yacht. Find out the sad origins behind it, the amazing rooms onboard and the moving way the ship still pays tribute to the Queen today.

When was the Royal Yacht Britannia built?

In 1952, the Queen’s father, George VI, made plans for a new yacht to replace the Victoria and Albert.

The Victoria and Albert was a royal yacht which had been in commission since the reign of Queen Victoria .

George’s new ship was to be named HMY Britannia – His Majesty’s Yacht Britannia - and would be able to transform into a hospital ship if the country was again plunged into war.

World War II was still looming large in the mind of many Britons, so George’s ship would be able to convert in times of need. For example, the laundry room could be converted into a ward, and the main veranda would double as a helicopter landing pad.

Sign up to the woman&home newsletter

Sign up to our free daily email for the latest royal and entertainment news, interesting opinion, expert advice on styling and beauty trends, and no-nonsense guides to the health and wellness questions you want answered.

In tragic timing, just two days after Scotland’s John Brown shipyard received the commission for the ship, George passed away.

After George’s untimely passing, aged just 56, Elizabeth became Queen. The shipyard decided to proceed with the commission, making the royal yacht for the new Queen.

Proving she had a natural talent for making shrewd leadership decisions, once the Queen was at the helm of the ship’s plans, she and Prince Philip altered them, concerned they were still too opulent for a post-war economy.

Still, the yacht wasn’t without its touches of glamour and luxury.

The finished product – what did HMY Britannia look like?

At five stories tall and with more than 240 staff, the Britannia was known as the queen's "floating palace."

There was a large State Dining Room, which could seat 56 guests, and a charming State Drawing Room, which served as a place for the family to relax and receive guests.

Rooms onboard also included a teak-lined sun lounge, reported to be the Queen's favorite room, where she always took her breakfast and afternoon tea.

Among its many elegant touches, the yacht had a bespoke garage, made to fit the Queen’s Rolls-Royce Phantom V.

The Queen and Prince Philip also had separate bedrooms, bathrooms and living spaces, designed to reflect their individual styles.

The Queen’s were reportedly heavy on florals, while Philip opted for dark timber.

In a nod to their heritage, a piece of maritime history was incorporated into the build.

Philip had saved the teak binnacle – or part of a compass - from one of Queen Victoria’s royal yachts which was fit into the design.

The role the Britannia played during the Queen’s reign

Built in just under a year, the Britannia launched in April 1953 – months before the Queen’s coronation.

In another shrewd move, the Queen decided against the traditional smashing of a champagne bottle against the stern of the ship to christen it, instead opting for wine.

Champagne, in a struggling post-war economy, was still seen as decadent.

While in commission, the Britannia served the Queen well, having made over 700 journeys to countries in the Commonwealth and beyond.

Reports estimate the ship travelled around 1.1 million miles.

Many iconic figures throughout history were also invited aboard, including Nelson Mandela, former  President of Russia Boris Yeltsin, and Winston Churchill – the Queen’s first of 15 Prime Ministers during her historic role with Parliament .  

Which royals honeymooned on the Britannia?

Aside from diplomatic purposes, the ship also became the hottest of honeymoon spots, with four different newlywed royal couples choosing to celebrate their nuptials aboard the Britannia.

Princess Margaret was the first to make use of the so-called “honeymoon suite” when she and the Earl of Snowdon enjoyed a Caribbean cruise in 1960.

Prince Charles and Princess Diana also sailed on the ship in 1981, when they toured the Mediterranean for their honeymoon, with Charles rather roguishly bringing a double bed onto the yacht during their trip, as all of the bedrooms had single beds.

Princess Margaret took the ship for her honeymoon a second time, when she later married Antony Armstrong-Jones.

Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson also honeymooned aboard the yacht.

The end of an era – how the Royal Britannia ended nearly 400 years of tradition

The Britannia cost about £11 million to run each year, Reuters reported and, in 1997, the British Parliament – led by the left-wing Labour Party – decided to decommission it.

When the ship was decommissioned, it wasn’t just a personal blow to Her Majesty because of the emotional roots anchored in its history.

The decommissioning of Britannia meant that Queen Elizabeth II was the first monarch to be without a royal yacht in nearly 400 years.

No monarch had been without one since royal yachts were introduced by Charles II in 1660.

The ship is now open as a tourist attraction in Scotland, not far from Edinburgh.

In a moving tribute to the late Queen who found such happiness aboard, the clocks on the Royal Yacht Britannia are never changed. They are permanently stopped at 3:01 p.m., the time when the Queen stepped off the ship for the very last time.

Jack Slater is not the Last Action Hero, but that's what comes up first when you Google him. Preferring a much more sedentary life, Jack gets his thrills by covering news, entertainment, celebrity, film and culture for woman&home, and other digital publications.

Having written for various print and online publications—ranging from national syndicates to niche magazines—Jack has written about nearly everything there is to write about, covering LGBTQ+ news, celebrity features, TV and film scoops, reviewing the latest theatre shows lighting up London’s West End and the most pressing of SEO based stories.

It's only £18!

By Kerrie Hughes Published 17 May 24

We look at the Duke of Sussex's achievable - and healthy - lifestyle habits

By Elena Kiratzi Published 17 May 24

Many royal brides' 'something blue' isn't noticeable to anyone else but they've included it as a special nod to the wedding tradition

By Emma Shacklock Published 29 April 24

Princess Diana's off-duty outfits - from the school run to the gym - are proof that she was the queen of cool...

By Lauren Clark Published 25 February 24

These are the best royal moments in the snow caught on camera...

Want to know how the other half vacations? These are the royals' favourite holiday destinations...

By Lauren Clark Published 24 February 24

All of Princess Diana's cutest moments with Harry and William rounded up...

By Lauren Clark Published 22 February 24

A royal expert has said that 'Diana cosplay' inspires Kate Middleton and Meghan Markle's royal wardrobe, so 'Diana's shine rubs off on them'

By Laura Harman Published 29 November 23

One of Princess Diana's most iconic beauty products is currently on sale ahead of Black Friday - and we're loving this discount!

By Laura Harman Published 22 November 23

Princess Diana wore the animal print swimsuit in St. Tropez in 1997

By Caitlin Elliott Published 17 November 23

Useful links

Most popular.

• Best gifts for couples
• Best bob hairstyles

Buying Guides

• Best induction pans
• Best hair dryer
• Subscribe to woman&home magazine
• Sign up to our newsletter
• Join the woman&home book club
• Contact Future's experts
• Advertise with us
• Terms and conditions
• Privacy policy
• Cookies policy

Woman & Home is part of Future plc, an international media group and leading digital publisher. Visit our corporate site . © Future Publishing Limited Quay House, The Ambury, Bath BA1 1UA. All rights reserved. England and Wales company registration number 2008885.

'The Crown': Did the Queen Really Demand That the Public Pay for the Britannia Yacht Refurb?

In season five of the Netflix drama, the Queen asks Prime Minister John Major to intervene. This is what actually happened

In episode one, series five of The Crown , a GP asks a “rather personal” question of the Queen (Imelda Staunton): is Balmoral her favourite residence? She demurs to answer, and instead the scene cuts to a majestic yacht, the HMY Royal Britannia, sailing somewhere in the Irish sea, presumably up to Scotland.

Five-star service? Try 10-star service on board this boujie boat: silver service suppers by candlelight; landscape painting sessions on the portside deck, a waiting staff of hundreds. Well, who wouldn’t love it? Try the British public, when, in the middle of a global recession, they were expected to shoulder a not-so-slight refurb costing £14.745 million (according to papers held by The Crown ’s Prince Phillip, Jonathan Pryce).

But while the Queen is seen asking – nay, telling – the then-PM John Major (Jonny Lee Miller) that her royal subjects will foot the bill in Peter Morgan's series, how much of this is true, and what happened to the luxury yacht in the end?

Royal Yacht Club

King Charles II first kicked off the idea that a personal boat was essential to the ruling monarch in 1660, and by the time the tradition was passed on to HRH Elizabeth II in 1953, it had evolved into the most luxury of ships.

The Queen launched the yacht in 1953, a 126-metre beast that could accommodate up to 250 guests, manned by 21 officers from the Royal Navy and 250 Royal Yachtsmen. The maiden voyage in 1954 took Prince Charles and Princess Anne to Malta to meet their parents, and over the years the boat entertained everyone from presidents Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton to Nelson Mandela. Interestingly, the boat also doubled as a nuclear shelter for the Royals, who would have taken shelter in it off the coast of north-west Scotland, in case of an emergency.

While the yacht was mainly used for maritime jollies – Charles and Diana honeymooned on it in 1981, while the rest of the royal family used it for their annual fortnight jaunt to the west coast of Scotland, also known as their Western Isles Tour – it was also utilised to evacuate 1,000 people from Aden, Yemen, during a civil war in 1986.

However, in 1994, the Conservative government, then headed up by John Major, announced that the yacht would be lowering its anchor for the last time, due to the exorbitant running costs. Viscount Cranborne, House of Lords, said at the time: “The yacht last underwent a major refit in 1987. A further refit at an estimated cost of some £17 million would be necessary in 1996–97 but would only prolong her life for a further five years. In view of her age, even after the refit she would be difficult to maintain and expensive to run. It has therefore been decided to decommission "Britannia" in 1997.”

However, by 1997, and with a general election looming, the idea of royal yacht became a contentious issue, and the Tories declared they would recommission the yacht if they were re-elected. According to The Guardian at the time, the Queen was “furious” that the royal family was “dragged into the centre of the election campaign, just as it is fighting to restore its public image.”

“At the same time I hope it is clear to all concerned that this reticence on the part of the palace now way implies that Her Majesty is not deeply interested in the subject; on the contrary, the Queen would naturally very much welcome it if a way could be found of making available for the nation in the 21st Century the kind of service which Britannia has provided for the last 43 years.”

Speaking to the Daily Express , Professor Murphy, director of the Institute of Commonwealth Studies, said of his letter discovery: “It is clear that behind the scenes the palace, which had been closely informed of the progress of discussions, was keen to keep the issue alive and was putting discreet pressure on Whitehall to come up with some alternative proposals.”

While The Crown goes a step further and shows the Queen putting her foot down to demand that John Major’s party – and the public – should pay for the refurb and to keep the boat on high seas, it’s highly unlikely this meeting ever took place. In 2003, the Sunday Telegraph quoted a source that claimed the monarch would have never put pressure on the government over a politically sensitive subject: “Neither the Queen or the Duke of Edinburgh have ever expressed an opinion on the way the issue was handled and nor would they do so.”

Britannia was eventually decommissioned in 1997, after Tony Blair and Labour were voted into power, ​​and its final trip was to convey the last Governor of Hong Kong, Chris Patten, and the Prince of Wales back from Hong Kong after its handover to the People's Republic of China. The Queen was later captured shedding a tear when it moored up in Portsmouth. The yacht is now a permanent visitor attraction in Port Leith, Edinburgh, and gets up to 300,000 shipmates a year.

@media(max-width: 73.75rem){.css-1ktbcds:before{margin-right:0.4375rem;color:#FF3A30;content:'_';display:inline-block;}}@media(min-width: 64rem){.css-1ktbcds:before{margin-right:0.5625rem;color:#FF3A30;content:'_';display:inline-block;}} Culture

Inside the Movement to Bring Arts to Outer Space

Lenny Kravitz on Love, London And Playing Wembley

Everything We Know About 'The Handmaid's Tale' S6

How To Read All The Jack Reacher Books In Order

‘Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes’: Woah, Apes!

Kings of Leon's Caleb Followill Is Different Now

Vinnie Jones on Football and His New Pepsi Film

‘Hollywood Con Queen’: What We Know

One Year On, I Confess: I Miss ‘The Idol’

Why We Love Time Travel Stories

Director David Leitch Breaks Down 'The Fall Guy'

Woman&Home

30 of Queen Elizabeth II's best tiara moments

Posted: May 15, 2024 | Last updated: May 15, 2024

The late Queen Elizabeth II was no stranger to wearing astonishing jewels. We remember her most iconic tiara moments during her 70-year reign...

Throughout her 70-year reign, the late Queen Elizabeth wore a dazzling array of showstopping tiaras, from classic pieces to showstopping crowns encrusted with glittering jewels.

Each one with its own rich history and individual design, many of Queen Elizabeth's tiaras were a gift from her grandmother Queen Mary who came to be known for her passion for jewellery.

We look back at our favourite tiara moments from across the years from Queen Elizabeth.

Queen Elizabeth II and Princess Anne in Vienna

This might just be our favourite tiara moment from Queen Elizabeth. In this picture, she's wearing the Girls of Great Britain and Ireland Tiara. Standing proud next to sister Princess Anne at the Hotel Imperial in Vienna, this was taken during a state visit to Austria in May of 1969.

Overseas tour of Germany in 1978

While on a state visit to Germany in 1978, Queen Elizabeth II wore the stunning Grand Duchess Vladimir of Russia tiara together with a diamond and pearl necklace. This tiara was originally bought by Queen Mary in 1921 for the price of £28,000.

Attending a Paris Banquet, 1992

The Burmese Ruby tiara was one of the late Queen's most decorative and colourful headpieces. Pictured here at a banquet during a state visit to Paris in 1992, Her Majesty wore the iconic tiara, designed to resemble a wreath of roses with silver, diamonds, gold and rubies. There is a touching reason the Queen had this Burmese Ruby tiara made and why specifically it holds 96 rubies in total.

At the Islamabad banquet, 1997

When it comes to regal jewels we could always rely on Queen Elizabeth II to showcase some of the best. For a banquet in Islamabad in 1997, she wore a diamond and sapphire adorned tiara which matched her large drop earrings and statement necklace.

The State Opening of Parliament, 2006

The late Queen Elizabeth II, pictured here wearing the Diamond Diadem tiara, was renowned for always looking her absolute best whenever attending public events. The tiara she wore to the 2006 Opening of Parliament is a particularly important one as it has been passed down through the reigning royals since 1820. She wore this tiara on the day of her coronation in 1953. Fun Queen Elizabeth fact: it was the third crown or tiara the Queen wore that day.

A State Dinner with President Edward Fenech Adami in Valletta, 2005

The tiara worn by Queen Elizabeth II to a state dinner during her visit to Malta in 2005, is possibly one of her most ornate. The jewellery originally belonged to Queen Victoria and is aptly named 'Queen Victoria's Oriental Circlet Tiara'. When it was first made it featured opals, which were later replaced with rubies. Queen Elizabeth II only wore this tiara once and it was during this visit.

A State Banquet in Russia, 1994

During a state banquet in Moscow, Russia in 1994, the late Queen wore the Brazilian Aquamarine Parure tiara which was gifted to her by the Brazilian president Getuilo Vargas and the people of Brazil. Given to her for her 1953 coronation, she was also gifted a matching necklace and earrings, which were made up of several emerald-cut aquamarines and diamonds.

A State Dinner in Reykjavik, 1990

During a state visit to Reykjavik, Iceland in 1990, Queen Elizabeth II was pictured attending a State Dinner alongside husband Prince Philip. She wore the Kokoshnik Tiara, a design inspired by a traditional Russian folk headdress that features vertical gold bars all set with diamond, the longest of which is 6.5cm.

A State Banquet in Paris, 1992

Queen Elizabeth paired her white and silver embroidered evening dress with the iconic Queen Mary's Girls of Great Britain and Ireland tiara at a banquet in Paris in 2008. A vision in silver, she positively glowed in the statement tiara with matching diamond earrings and necklace.

The Order of the British Empire Ceremony, 2012

It's not only Queen Elizabeth II's tiara here that makes this picture noteworthy, but her head-to-toe regal attire ready for the service for the Order of the British Empire at St.Paul's Cathedral in 2012. At the time, the Queen was Sovereign of the Order of the British Empire. For the occasion, she wore Queen Mary's Girls of Great Britain and Ireland tiara.

Her 1955 Studio Portrait

A truly iconic image of the late Queen, this black and white studio portrait taken of the young royal in 1955 shows her wearing a regal brocade dress, a red sash with the star of the Order of the Garter attached and of course a breathtaking diamond and pearl tiara atop her head.

When most people think of the late Queen or perhaps any reigning royal, this particular headdress will often spring to mind. While not technically a tiara, the Imperial State Crown that the Queen can be seen wearing here at the 2006 State Opening of Parliament, is a sight to behold.

A State Banquet in Bruhl, Germany, 1992

Although this tiara is similar to the Kokoshnik Tiara Queen Elizabeth II wore to a State Dinner in Iceland in 1990, it's an entirely different headpiece. This tiara, named the Queen Mary Fringe Tiara was made for Queen Mary in 1919 and reused diamonds taken from a necklace that Queen Victoria purchased in 1893.

A visit to the Tivoli theatre, 1954

Perhaps not the most relatable theatre attire, but what else would you expect from the Queen of England? Here she is pictured smiling to the crowds along with her sister, Princess Margaret. The diamond tiara was paired with large jewelled earrings and a matching necklace.

Order of St Michael and St George, 1968

We simply love the Queen's colour-coordinated look here and her velvet blue cape perfectly matches the blue sapphires in her tiara. The diamond and sapphire headpiece was made from a necklace bought by the late Queen Elizabeth II in 1963, a necklace which previously belonged to Princess Louise of Belgium.

State visit to Peking, China, 1986

Holding up your tiara while looking at a dinner menu might not be an experience we can all relate to but we love this picture of Queen Elizabeth II doing just that. At a banquet held in her honour in Peking, China in 1986 the Queen wore a beaded long-sleeve baby pink gown paired with her beloved Queen Mary's Girls of Great Britain and Ireland tiara.

State Banquet in Germany, 1978

This ornate tiara has had many lives and owners. It was first bought by Queen Mary from Grand Duchess Elena Vladimirovna of Russia in 1921 and was originally made with 15 large drop pearls. However, when Queen Mary purchased the tiara she had it altered so that it could also accommodate 15 emeralds. Interestingly, the tiara can now be worn either way with both pearls and emeralds.

A banquet on Royal Yacht Britannia in France, 1963

During a banquet on board the Royal Yacht Britannia in France, the late Queen wore the King George VI Victorian suite of sapphire and diamond necklace with matching earrings. Her tiara, made to match the jewellery, looked exquisite with her dark blue satin dress and white evening gloves.

Touring The Gulf states, 1979

Yellow isn't a colour we often saw the late Queen wearing during the middle of her reign, however after seeing this picture of her here with the Girls of Great Britain and Ireland tiara, we can't understand why. She wore this ensemble whilst exchanging gifts with the Emir of Dubai, Sheikh Rashid bin Saeed Al Maktoum at the Jumeirah Palace in Dubai, United Arab Emirates in 1979.

Visit to the Vatican, 1980

Visiting the Vatican calls for an unusual regal ensemble, which is why Queen Elizabeth II is seen here wearing a traditional black full-length dress and matching black veil. She wore the outfit, along with the Grand Duchess Vladimir Tiara during an audience with the Pope in 1980.

Portrait with Prince Philip, 1954

Posing for a portrait alongside Prince Philip (not pictured here), Queen Elizabeth II wore her Blue Ribbon, Star of the Garter and the Girls of Great Britain and Ireland tiara that she received as a wedding present in 1947 from her grandmother. The portrait was taken shortly before the royal couple left for their six-month tour of the Commonwealth in 1954.

Reception for The Diplomatic Corps, 2019

Along with other members of the royal family, the late Queen attended a reception for the Diplomatic Corps at Buckingham Palace in 2019. She wore the Grand Duchess Vladimir Tiara with the emerald jewels instead of the drop pearls, an alteration that looked elegant alongside her matching emerald necklace and earrings.

The State Opening of Parliament, 2002

Queen Elizabeth II was no stranger to glamour, and this picture of her wearing a remarkable fur-trimmed robe is complete proof of that. For The State Opening of Parliament in 2002, the late Queen paired her robe and embroidered cream satin dress with The State Diadem tiara and a layered diamond necklace.

Her wedding, 1947

Posing for perhaps one of the most iconic wedding pictures ever taken (and one of the most romantic royal moments!), the then Princess Elizabeth wore the Queen Mary Fringe tiara as a 'something borrowed' token. A token, which she had been lent from her mother Queen Elizabeth, that immediately snapped before her 1947 wedding and had to be emergency repaired by the on-hand court jeweller.

A dance with President Gerald Rudolph Ford Jr., 1976

Dancing with the 38th President of the United States, Gerald Rudolph Ford Jr. called for a particularly magnificent tiara, and Queen Elizabeth II delivered just that. Whilst attending a ball at the White House during the 1976 Bicentennial Celebrations of the Declaration of Independence, Her Majesty wore the Queen Alexandra Kokoshnik Tiara which looked decadent with her buttercup yellow dress and white evening gloves.

Leaving a Banquet in Australia in 1954

Over her 70-year reign, the late Queen travelled the world many times and often visited Australia on Commonwealth state visits. Seen here leaving a Banquet during her visit to the country in 1954, Queen Elizabeth II wears a breathtaking white lace gown with a matching fur shrug. The real star of the show is of course the Girls of Great Britain and Ireland tiara, one of her favourites.

An official engagement in Bangladesh,1983

It's not just the tiara we love in this picture, it's the late Queen's opulent four-strand diamond and pearl choker, too. The tiara that she wore for a state visit to Bangladesh in 1983, is nicknamed 'Granny's tiara' and it's the headpiece we most often saw the late Queen in - the Queen Mary's Girls of Great Britain and Ireland tiara.

Visit to Zambia with Margaret Thatcher, 1979

During a visit to Zambia for the Commonwealth conference in 1979, Queen Elizabeth II was pictured next to the then Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. She wore her diamond and sapphire tiara with its matching earring and necklace set, an extremely elegant choice as it complemented her glittering baby blue evening gown wonderfully.

A visit to Empire Theatre, 1952

This might be perhaps the grandest exit of the theatre we've ever seen. Pictured here leaving the Empire Theatre in Leicester Square after attending the Royal Film Show in 1952, Queen Elizabeth looks an absolute vision in her black and white satin gown. The regal ensemble was of course topped off with 'Granny's tiara', some elongated diamond earrings and a matching bracelet.

State Banquet with Barack Obama, 2011

In her long and impressive reign, Queen Elizabeth II met several American presidents, from President Harry Truman to President Joe Biden. She's pictured here meeting the 44th President of the United States, Barack Obama, whom she invited to a State Banquet in 2011 in Buckingham Palace. The Queen wore her finest jewels for the engagement, a mixture of pearls and diamonds along with the Grand Duchess Vladimir tiara.

More for You

Caitlin Clark breaks unbelievable WNBA record in her debut with the Indiana Fever

Scottie Scheffler climbs leaderboard despite arrest at PGA Championship

Doctor shares what happens to our bodies moments before we die

I've flipped burgers and hauled packages, but I didn't realize how bad hourly service jobs were until I got a 9-to-5 office job

Tom Brady admits officials made wrong call in 2017 AFC Championship Game

16 Popular Pizza Chains, Ranked Worst to Best

223 vs 556: What's the Difference?

Dua Lipa Wore Two Totally Different Sheer Gowns to the ACM Awards

7 Things Stroke Doctors Say You Should Never, Ever Do

Michael Cohen Was 'Devastating' to Alvin Bragg's Case—Legal Analyst

2024 Dallas Cowboys schedule has been officially released

Neurodivergent employees aren’t disclosing their conditions at work because they worry it will hurt their career

The Best Hot Dogs in Every State

Human bones unearthed from a German cave have altered the timeline of ancient human history

Dabney Coleman cause of death: Actor who specialized in curmudgeons dies at 92

Is your sleep interrupted by leg cramps? Here are some of the most surprising causes

Rihanna Wears a Sheer Gown and ’90s It Bag on Date With A$AP Rocky

This Is the Average 401(k) Balance for Retirees Age 65 and Older

This 30-year-old won the NYC housing lottery and pays $1,000/month for a luxury 1-bedroom apartment—take a look inside

20 Best Sandwiches in America You Need to Try At Least Once

King Frederik and Queen Mary hosted a reception on the Royal Yacht Dannebrog

On the evening of May 15, 2024, King Frederik and Queen Mary of Denmark held a reception for the Norwegian Royal Family on the Royal Yacht Dannebrog. King Harald, Queen Sonja, Crown Prince Haakon and Crown Princess Mette-Marit attended Return Reception hosted by King Frederik and Queen Mary on the Royal Yacht Dannebrog. The state visit ended with a farewell ceremony on board "Dannebrog" Royal Yatch.

You might like

25 comments.

(We will not publish anonymous comments that were posted without stating a name or nickname)

Loving all the fashion from this visit! They all are showing well amid the busy schedule and the weather looks perfect. One question, I’ve never seen a car shown in the first photo. Are there three sets of doors…one for the driver plus two more?

I guess it's a Stretch-Limousine ... please search the internet for more ...

All the big brands of cars like Rolls, Mercedes, ... sell cars like that. It is called a limo. Aristocrats, movie stars, musicians, famous hotels, .... they all have (or hire) a car like that to drive (and entertain) their guests from one place to another.

The car is an Audi A8 L Extended 2015 model with a total length of 636 cm and has three doors on each side and two seat rows in the back with very comfortable seats. The car was delivered when the King and Queen celebrated their 25 years anniversary on the throne. You can see pictures here: https://www.tv2.no/broom/sjekk-kong-haralds-nye-luksus-flak/8215642/

That’s an extended limousine. I think other royal families have similar limos too. -B

Now girls (and boys) isn't this off topic? BUT as it's for the 'royals' maybe the off topic can be stretched a bit (like the car) 😊

I always think it's a great sign when a dress looks better on the subject than on the model. Here, it may be that I just prefer Queen Mary's choice of shoes. Either way, pretty dress! Everyone looked very well turned out, and happy to be together.

Apparently the wardrobe teams/planners/advisors/coordinators in both Norway and Denmark did their jobs well and communicated between the two royal houses about who’s going to be wearing what and when. I can imagine there must have been a lot of memos going backward and forwards with details to avoid clashes, embarrassing moments, faux pas. Hope they give each team a bonus for the good synchronisation with the ladies (and gent's) wardrobes.

Q S looks fantastic, like a sister to M and MM!

I think we have seen this lovely dress on Mary before but those shoes would be way too high for me. MM looks smart and Queen S always looks great in a bright color.

MM is wearing a new Pia Tjelta Alice Tinkerbell dress. They all look fab. So nice to see how close they are, and how much they appreciate each other.

They all sens so sooo happy and relaxed with each other

Nice summery dresses on both Queen Mary and CPMM. I am not a fan of prairie dresses but at least these do not have flounces.

Great fashion and love seeing the close relationships during this visit! And, this Zimmermann dress on QM is an excellent example of an otherwise "girly" or "frilly" dress or pattern that still looks stylish and sophisticated because of the shoes and the overall styling and tailoring to body type. We never really see this work out entirely for MM, but I do think we see how it can work well with QM's styling here. -Aloise

Celebrating, dining and dancing!

All of them turn out well and relaxed. Especially the women have particular taste when it comes to their outfits.

Queen Mary and Mette M look very nice and springy. Queen Sonja not so much, the color and shape of her dress clashes with the other ladies' looks.

? Clashes with the others? What are you talking about? Queen Sonja look wonderful!

Its splendid to see Queen Mary in the Zimmermann dress, Australian brand, wonderful. She looks fabulous. Love her shoes. Very elegant and attractive look overall.

Nice looking outfits. css

I like Mary's dress; and her earrings and jewellery,but I think Queen Sonia looks fresh and bright.I dont particularly like Mette's dress a bit old fashioned;even her hair looks boring(Tara)

Q S green dress is very much spring! Great!

De ces dames, c'est la reine Silvia qui est vêtue d'une tenue printanière !

Personne n'a remarqué mon lapsus ; lire la reine Sonja !

My favourite here is the crown princess’ outfit, but all the ladies look beautiful. T

Post a Comment