Queen Fabiola just did not want to wear grand jewels during her lifetime! That is the only reason! The crown-version was just too big for her in her later life.
The crown was said to come from a Noble family who lost it during the civil war
--Previous Message-- : Sal you are right, it is therefore that it was : Mrs Franco who was pictured giving the tiara : to Donna Fabiola. : : For the two pre-wedding events and at the : first years of being Queen Fabiola wore the : Spanish tiara. : And suddenly , this tiara was changed for : ever and we never saw its base again. The : larger base could be used as a tiara by : itself. : : I am confused since what I heard Yesterday : : : --Previous Message-- : As I understood the tiara came indeed from a : monastery where it was use to adorn one of : the Maria statues. It was not a valuable : tiara, fake so to say. : The Belgium government did not want General : Franco at the wedding so he was not invited : and that was a little strange because the : bride was Spanish after all. So he did not : want to spend a lot of money for a : present.... That the stones were fake was : discovered by the Belgian court jewelers. : After that there are different versions : about what happened. : In one of the newspaper it was also : mentioned that all of Fabiolas jewelry went : to Mathilde. : : : --Previous Message-- : : Only the central green Stones ware fake! : : The tiara was bought by Franco from nuns and : the nuns had replaced the emeralds with : false Stones. After Franco discoverred this, : the Stones were again relaplaced with real : emerald. So when Fabiola received the tiara : in 1960, everything was real! : : --Previous Message-- : : Arthur , : It was yesterday on the day and evening news : on RTL with a lot of black and white : pictures. : They said also that altough the Queen died : in 2014 eight people are still working in : Stuyvenberg Castle. : It is coming from the spanish Press and on : TV they said a "pacotille" tiara.I : cannot translate. : There was also an interview of Patrick Weber : "si celà c'est su , celà s'est : tu"... : : I wait for further information but I : understand now why the Queen changed the : tiara and we never saw its base again.(again : on TV it was not even silver or gold !) : : : --Previous Message-- : Maria-Olivia, : : I am not sure to fully understand your post. : I don't understand, for instance, if the : "news" that the Spanish tiara : would be fake was confirmed by an official : statement, or if it is still media : speculation so far. Nor do I understand if : it is only about the coloured stones (which : would hardly be a surprise), or about the : whole tiara. I did not find any recent : statement of the Belgian Monarchy's website, : or on its Twitter account. : : Which programme of Belgian TV are you : refering to? : : : : : : : : : : : : :