#isabel farnesio

[isadomna]

La Vida Breve

Leonor Watling as Isabel Farnesio

Javier Gutiérrez as Felipe V of Spain

Carlos Scholz as Luis I of Spain

Alicia Armenteros as Luisa Isabel de Orleans

[royaltyandpomp]

THE QUEEN

H.M. Queen Isabel of Spain, née Princess Farnese of Parma  (1692-1766)

[isadomna]

La Vida Breve 2025

Javier Gutierrez as Felipe V of Spain

Leonor Watling as Isabel Farnesio

Carlos Gonzalez as Farinelli

[isadomna]

La Vida Breve 2025

Leonor Watling as Isabel Farnesio

Alicia Armenteros as Luisa Isabel de Orleans

[isadomna]

La Vida Breve 2025

Leonor Watling as Isabel Farnesio

Alicia Armenteros como Luisa Isabel de Orleans

[isadomna]

The Farnese Blue Diamond

In 1714, Philip V of Spain married an Italian princess: Elisabeth Farnese. Philip was one the Sun King's grandsons. She was his second wife and daughter of the Duke of Parma. To provide a suitable dowry for the new queen, the Spanish government sent word to the governors of all the Spanish colonies in the East and West, ordering them to send wedding gifts to Madrid. It took one year to assemble the treasures.

In August 1715 the Golden Fleet sailed from Cuba: twelve ships carrying hundreds of gold bullion and a case of enormous emeralds. Unfortunately, after 10 days at sea, a hurricane destroyed most of the fleet in the Gulf of Florida, with only one ship escaping. The story goes that the emeralds were lost in one of the sunken ships. But one diamond found it’s way to Spain: a pear-shaped blue diamond offered to the new Spanish Queen by the governor of the Philippines Islands. 

Over the next 300 years, as Elisabeth’s and Philip’s descendants married into Europe’s most important dynasties, the Farnese Blue passed down through royal families in Spain, France, Italy and Austria, travelling across the continent in a royal casket. Nobody — except from close relatives and the family jewellers — knew of the gem’s existence.

Its rich journey and history were uncovered through a detailed inventory of family jewels compiled by Maria Anna von Habsburg—Archduchess of Austria—the wife of Elias of Bourborn, Duke of Parma. The 6.16-carat, pear-shaped, dark grey-blue gem was found the Golconda diamond mines of India and ranks among the most important historic diamonds in the world. In 2018 the Farnese blue was fetched $6.7 million at a Sotheby’s auction in Geneva.

[isadomna]

La Vida Breve

Leonor Watling as Isabel Farnesio

Alicia Armenteros as Luisa Isabel de Orleans

Carlos Scholz as Luis I of Spain

[isadomna]

The Tumular Crown of the Kings of Spain

The corona tumular is a physical crown used during Spanish royal proclamation ceremonies since the 18th century. It is never worn by the monarch. The last time the tumular crown was used in a public ceremony was at the Congress of Deputies in Madrid during the swearing-in of King Felipe VI, on 19 June 2014, after the abdication of his father.

Since July 2014, the royal crown and sceptre are on permanent public display for the first time ever in the so-called Crown Room at the Royal Palace of Madrid.

Unusually for a European royal diadem, Spain’s crown is made solely of gold-plated silver, with no embedded gemstones. It was made in Madrid during the reign of King Carlos III. There’s some debate about which occasion the crown was actually made for, but many believe it was created for the funeral of King Carlos’s mother, Queen Isabel Farnesio (born Elisabetta Farnese), who died in 1766. Isabel served as Spain’s regent after the death of her husband, King Felipe V, the first Spanish monarch from the House of Bourbon (in Spanish Borbón).