The Most Romantic Royal Proposal Stories — and the Must-See Diamond Rings

Princess Beatrice and Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi

About one year after news of their relationship surfaced, Princess Beatrice and Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi announced their engagement in September 2019. The property developer proposed to Beatrice during a trip to Italy earlier that month ahead of Misha Nonoo's wedding, popping the question with a bespoke platinum and diamond ring by Shaun Leane.

The couple intended to wed in May 2020 but pushed back the plan after the pandemic began. In July, the palace announced that Beatrice and Edo quietly tied the knot in a "small private ceremony" at the Royal Chapel of All Saints at the Royal Lodge, where the princess grew up. Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip attended the nuptials, held under government safety guidelines.

Princess Eugenie and Jack Brooksbank

Seven years after they got together, Jack Brooksbank got down on one knee during a vacation to Nicaragua in January 2018 and asked Princess Eugenie to marry him. In a nontraditional twist, the brand manager didn't have a ring in his pocket — but he did have a dazzling pink sapphire in mind. During their BBC engagement interview, Jack explained that he "didn't want to do anything until Eugenie had signed off on it." The couple would design her ring together, surrounding the blush-colored padparadscha with diamonds. The sparkler is reminiscent of the ring Eugenie's father Prince Andrew gave her mother Sarah Ferguson when they got engaged in 1986.

"The lake was so beautiful. The light was just a special light I had never seen. I actually said, 'This is an incredible moment,' and then he popped the question, which was really surprising even though we have been together seven years," Eugenie said of Jack's romantic proposal.

"I was over the moon. [It was a] complete surprise. But it was the perfect moment, we couldn't be happier," she added.

The couple got married that October at St. George's Chapel at Windsor Castle, tying the knot in a classic royal wedding with autumnal touches.

Meghan Markle and Prince Harry

A little over a year after they met on a blind date, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle announced their engagement in November 2017. During their interview with the BBC, the former Suits star said that Harry proposed earlier that month during a "cozy night" at their Nottingham Cottage home while she was roasting a chicken. Five years later, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex would share even more about their engagement night in their Netflix docuseries Harry & Meghan.

"I wanted to do it earlier, because I had to ask permission from my grandmother [Queen Elizabeth]," Harry began. "I couldn't do it outside of the U.K."

"I did pop a bottle of champagne while she was greasing the chicken, and that kind of slightly gave the game away," he joked. "She was like 'You don't drink champagne, what's the occasion?' I was like 'I don't know, just had it lying around, whatever.' "

Meghan Markle and Prince Harry

From there, Meghan would tiptoe into the garden to find Harry down on one knee, surrounded by electric candles, white roses and her rescue beagle Guy — later sharing photos of the moment on their Netflix show.

The royal popped the question with a three-stone diamond ring that he designed with Cleave and Company. The center gem is ethically sourced from Botswana, where the couple fell in love, flanked by two smaller diamonds from Princess Diana's personal collection. During their engagement interview with the BBC, Harry said he incorporated his late mother's jewels "to make sure that she's with us on this crazy journey together."

Six months later, Harry and Meghan wed in a storybook ceremony at St. George's Chapel in Windsor in May 2018.

Zara Phillips and Mike Tindall

Prince William and Kate Middleton's royal engagement wasn't the only one in 2010! After seven years of dating, Mike Tindall proposed to Zara Phillips during a quiet night at their townhouse in Cheltenham that December.

"I was upstairs, plucking up the nerve to do it, while Zara was downstairs watching television," the former pro rugby player told The Daily Mail in 2011. "It was all about shock value — I wanted to catch her when it was quiet and she wasn't expecting anything."

The couple got engaged just a few weeks after Zara's cousin Prince William and then-girlfriend Kate announced their own engagement news — which Mike admitted affected his plans to propose to Zara!

"I had been thinking about it for ages, waiting to ask, but then my brother got engaged and so did a certain Duke of Cambridge. I thought I'd better get on with it," he joked to the Daily Mail.

Mike presented Princess Anne's equestrian daughter with a solitaire diamond on a split platinum pavé band. The sporty couple would wed at Canongate Kirk in Edinburgh, Scotland in July 2011.

Kate Middleton and Prince William

After eight years of dating (and endless speculation), Prince William and Kate Middleton announced their engagement in November 2010. William popped the question during a vacation in Kenya with friends, and the couple shared the news with the world a few weeks later. While the college sweethearts had been discussing the next step for a while, Kate said she was still surprised when he asked.

"It was a total shock when it came," Kate said in the ITV interview that followed the announcement. "There's a true romantic in there."

"As every guy out there will know, it takes a certain amount of motivation to get yourself going. So I was planning it and then it just felt really right out in Africa. It was beautiful," William added.

In a now-iconic surprise, the prince proposed with the 18-carat sapphire ring that had been Princess Diana's engagement ring from then-Prince Charles.

On the sentimental gesture honoring his late mother, William said, "Obviously, she's not going be around to share in all the fun and excitement, so this is my way of keeping her close to it all."

That spring, the future Prince and Princess of Wales wed in a fairy-tale ceremony at Westminster Abbey in April 2011.

King Charles and Queen Camilla

In February 2005 — 35 years after they first met — King Charles III and Queen Camilla announced their engagement, celebrating with a party at Windsor Castle.

The royal popped the question with a family heirloom — an emerald-cut diamond ring that belonged to his grandmother, Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother. The Art Deco-style sparkler features a five-carat diamond hugged by three smaller baguettes on each side.

Charles and Camilla, who were both divorced, wed in a civil ceremony at Windsor Guildhall in April 2006. Though Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip did not attend, they were present for the blessing that followed at St. George's Chapel and hosted a reception for the newlyweds afterward.

Prince Edward and Sophie Rhys-Jones

After five years of dating, Prince Edward proposed to Sophie Rhys-Jones while vacationing in the Bahamas in December 1998, Vanity Fair reported. The couple announced the happy news in January 1999, and Sophie showed off her three-diamond engagement ring at the accompanying photo call. The Garrard sparkler features an oval-cut diamond set between two smaller heart-shaped stones.

"I managed to take her completely by surprise. She had no idea that it was coming, which is what I really wanted to do," Prince Edward said in video footage shared by the Associated Press. "I mean, trouble is, everybody always speculating made it very difficult. Every time there was another round of speculation, I had to go very quiet again."

Agreeing with her fiancé, Sophie told reporters, "I was slightly stunned for a minute, and then I realized I should actually answer the question, so then I said yes. I said, 'Yes, please.' "

Edward and Sophie made it official five months later, marrying at St. George's Chapel at Windsor Castle in June 1999.

Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip

In July 1947, Buckingham Palace announced that then-Princess Elizabeth was engaged to Prince Philip of Greece. The royals met in 1934 when Elizabeth was 8 and Philip was 13. They reconnected as teenagers five years later, meeting again at the Britannia Royal Naval College, where Philip was a cadet. Elizabeth would later say this was when she fell in love with the prince. She reportedly "never had eyes for anyone else" from that moment on, and they began exchanging letters.

Royal biographer Philip Eade writes in Young Prince Philip: His Turbulent Early Life that the prince probably proposed at Balmoral during the summer of 1946. However, King George VI reportedly encouraged the couple to hold the announcement until after Elizabeth turned 21 and completed her first foreign tour.

The romance stayed strong, and the young couple took the news public the following summer. The official engagement portraits show Elizabeth proudly displaying her three-carat diamond ring surrounded by pavé stones, which Philip sweetly sourced from a tiara that belonged to his mother, the former Princess Alice of Battenberg, The Court Jeweller reported.

Elizabeth and Philip's royal wedding was held at Westminster Abbey in November 1947, and the future Queen would faithfully wear it through their 73-year marriage.

King George VI and the Queen Mother

The third time was the charm for the determined Prince Albert of York, who asked Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon for her hand in marriage three times before she accepted.

In Do Let's Have Another Drink!: The Dry Wit and Fizzy Life of Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother, historian Gareth Russell writes that Elizabeth rejected Bertie's first two proposals over fears of how restricted her life would become if she married into the royal family.

The engagement was announced in January 1923, "before Elizabeth had a chance to change her mind," Russell writes, and the two wed that April at Westminster Abbey. Ten years later, they would be coronated there as King George VI and Queen Elizabeth, who would later become known as the Queen Mother.

In an interesting twist, around the 1940s, Elizabeth stopped wearing the sapphire and diamond engagement ring that her husband gave her, swapping it instead for a large pearl circled by diamonds, the Daily Express reported.

"Originally refusing to marry Prince Albert in fear of losing her freedom, the switch from a typically very regal stone, a sapphire, to an unexpected pearl is very indicative of the Queen Mother and who she was," Joanna Wyganowska of British jeweler Queensmith told the outlet.

Queen Victoria and Prince Albert

It's a little-known fact Queen Victoria proposed to Prince Albert! The royals first met at her 17th birthday party in 1836 and "almost instantly fell in love," according to Royal Museums Greenwich.

"After Victoria acceded to the throne in 1837, tradition dictated that no one could propose to a reigning monarch. Therefore, Victoria proposed to Albert — she proposed during his second visit in October 1839 at Windsor Castle in Berkshire," the historical organization states.

Their wedding was held in February 1840 at the Chapel Royal of St. James' Palace, where Queen Victoria set the still-iconic bridal trend of wearing white.

Though Victoria did the asking, Albert still gave her a ring to commemorate their engagement, The Court Jeweller reported. The unique gold band looked like a serpent, glittering with emeralds and rubies. Though serpentine jewelry is atypical for engagements today, it was a spot-on trend for Victorian times, as snakes were seen as symbols of eternal love.