Our Guide To The Royals' Gorgeous Engagement Rings

Talk about perks to marrying royal. The royal women rock some breathtaking engagement rings. From Queen Camilla to Princess Anne and on, the titled women of Britain all have something shiny to look at thanks to the baubles they received during their proposals. There's a long history to the jewels in the British royal family; crowns, necklaces, and brooches all have a story within the monarchical chronicle, and these illustrious engagement rings are no different. The royals pass on their gems and jewels to future generations, and this provides a sentimental, familial link to many of these famous rings. Princess Diana's engagement ring, which now belongs to Catherine, Princess of Wales, might be the most obvious case, but many of the royal women can look back at the generations that came before them when they think of the genealogy of their rings. 

But these bands are not just rooted in history. The engagement rings of the royal women are genuinely beautiful, and boast some substantive carats. There's no demure jewelry here. Things are big, bold, and colorful for this crowd. Plus, they're very sentimental. 

Queen Camilla's engagement ring is a whopping work of Art Deco beauty. Camilla's engagement ring centers around a five-carat emerald-cut diamond with an additional three baguette diamonds on each side. And it's worth a hefty sum. Gemologist Deborah Papas told Brides that the ring is worth around $288,000 U.S. Hopefully Camilla doesn't take it off when she washes the dishes. 

News broke that the then-Prince Charles proposed to Camilla in February 2005, and Charles used a ring that was already in his family. The story is that Camilla's glitzy diamond ring first belonged to the Queen Mother, mom to the late Queen Elizabeth II, who adored her grandson, Charles. In fact, the Queen Mother and Charles reportedly had a notably loving relationship within the royal family. While others in the family, particularly Queen Elizabeth herself, took a long time to warm to the relationship between Charles and Camilla, the jewelry link between the couple and the late Queen Mother makes one wonder if she was supportive. To make matters even more intimate, the Queen Mother received the Art Deco diamond ring from her husband, King George VI, after she gave birth to Queen Elizabeth, so the ring wasn't initially an engagement ring at all. The Queen Mother was photographed wearing the ring in the 1980s. Of course, Charles' proposal to Camilla gave the exquisite piece a whole new life. 

Of all of the royal engagement rings, the one worn by Catherine, Princess of Wales is the most famous, because it previously belonged to Princess Diana. The late princess understood the importance of expressing individuality through an engagement ring, which is why she departed from the diamond tradition. The practice within the royal family is that an engagement ring comes from within the family line. However, when it came to Diana's engagement ring, she broke with protocol and chose one from a catalogue by Garrard, the jewellers who worked with the royal family since 1843. The problem was that anyone from the public (who could afford it) could have the exact same piece as the princess, and some royals were irked by the lack of exclusivity. At the time, it sold for $60,000. 

Allegedly, after Diana's death, the ring went to Prince Harry, but he decided that the ring should go to Prince William so that it would be worn by the future Queen of England, which is how it ended up with Catherine. She now rocks the incredible 12-carat Ceylon sapphire accompanied by 14 diamonds set in 18-karat white gold. William popped the question in October 2010 while they were vacationing in Africa. "We'd been talking about marriage or a while, so it wasn't a massively big surprise, but I took her up somewhere nice in Kenya," William said in their engagement video, per Elle, and the sapphire was a big part of the story.

While there's no denying that Meghan Markle has undergone a stunning style transformation, one of the biggest changes in her daily look is her massive engagement ring. Prince Harry proposed to the former actor in 2017, and his mother, Princess Diana, was a part of the gorgeous gems. Using the jeweler Cleave & Company, the prince asked for Markle's hand using a diamond from Botswana in a cushion cut with two smaller diamonds on each side from his mother's private collection. 

The couple talked about the ring during their engagement interview. "It's beautiful, and he designed it, it's incredible," Meghan said of her new jewelry. Meanwhile, Harry spoke of the sentimental feelings behind the ring. "The ring is obviously yellow gold because that's [Markle's] favorite and the main stone itself I sourced from Botswana and the little diamonds either side are from my mother's jewelry collection, to make sure that she's with us on this crazy journey together," Harry told the BBC. In 2019, after they were married, fans noticed some changes to Meghan's jewelry collection. She had the band changed on her engagement ring into a micro pavé band, and she was also wearing an eternity band in addition to her engagement ring and wedding band. Harper's Bazaar reported that the new eternity band was to mark their one year anniversary and to honor the birth of their son, Archie. So Meghan has a lovely grouping of sparkle on her ring finger. 

Princess Anne has had two engagement rings; the first came from husband Captain Mark Phillips and the second came from husband Sir Timothy Laurence. Remarkably enough, both of her engagement rings featured sapphires, proving that the Princess Royal likes to veer away from traditional diamonds when it comes to these significant rings. Anne's ring from Laurence features an oval cabochon sapphire center with diamonds on the sides. She and Laurence married in 1992 in Scotland and viewers have caught glimpses of her engagement ring ever since. 

While both Anne and Princess Diana favored sapphires, this stone wasn't typical for royal engagements. The late Queen Elizabeth II's ring from Prince Philip was a three-carat diamond set in platinum with more diamonds on the sides. The diamonds came from a tiara worn by Philip's mother, Princess Andrew of Greece and Denmark, and Philip used the extra diamonds in the tiara to make a wedding bracelet for his bride. While the late queen's ring might not have had a colorful stone in its center, it allegedly did have a secret message inscribed inside of it that was known only to Philip, Elizabeth, and the jeweler.  However, Elizabeth was not buried wearing her engagement ring, so it may be available for a future royal woman to wear one day. We can only hope one day the affectionate message inside is revealed. 

Sophie, Countess of Wessex, received a very special engagement ring when Prince Edward proposed to her in December 1998 during a vaction in the Bahamas. Sophie's ring is significant in terms of royal history because it was made by Garrard, the same jeweler who was responsible for Princess Diana's iconic sapphire ring. Daena Borrowman of jewellerybox told Express what made her ring so special. "The white gold ring features a two-carat central oval diamond flanked by two smaller heart-shaped diamonds," Borrowman explained. It's worth over $130,000 U.S. 

There's another nostalgic element to Sophie's engagement ring. It looks strikingly similar to the one that Prince Philip used to propose to Queen Elizabeth II, so it has sweet ties to other rings treasured by the family. On top of that, the heart-shaped diamonds on either side of the central one add a nice touch of romance.