Ancient royal tradition revived when Britain gave precious jam to Spain

Yesterday the British ambassador had a difficult mission in Spain.

As part of efforts to breathe new life into an old tradition, Hugh Elliott presented the mayor of SevilleJosé Luis Sanz, with jars of jam that he himself had made with oranges plucked from a 500-year-old tree in the fragrant gardens of the royal Alcázar.

In the past he sent jam to Buckingham Palace but this time he wanted the oranges to return to the Alcazar, transformed into diplomatic gold.

In his speech at the first Hay Forum in Seville, Sanz admitted: “I don’t usually like jam but I have to say that this one has ‘a special touch’. It is sweeter than other jams. Starting tomorrow it will become part of my family’s breakfast table.”

‘Diplomacy is not just about negotiations and international treaties’

Many Spaniards are happy to see the back of their bitter oranges, as hundreds of tonnes of them are shipped from Seville to Britain each year. But Elliott is on a mission to change the local perspective on jam, seeing it as an opportunity to further sweeten Spanish-British relations.

“Diplomacy is not just about international negotiations and treaties. For me, diplomacy is about weaving bonds and celebrating the things that unite us,” he stated.

The custom of sending oranges from the Alcazar to the British royal family began after Queen Victoria’s granddaughter, Victoria Eugenia of Battenberg, married King Alfonso XIII of Spain in 1906.

It became extinct in 1931 when King Alfonso went into exile. But he was revived in 2019, when Elliott became an ambassador. That year the new director of the Alcázar, Isabel Rodríguez, remembered by an elderly guardian of tradition, contacted the honorary British consul in Seville, Joe Cooper, to offer him a box of oranges. Delighted, she sent them to the embassy in Madrid, where Elliott greeted them enthusiastically.

“This is a wonderful tradition,” enthuses Elliott, “resurrected many years ago but with a modern twist, sending Spanish oranges from the Royal Palace in Seville to the most British breakfast tables.”

Queen Elizabeth especially liked citrus cream. Last year, in a surprise video recorded for her Platinum Jubilee celebrations, she revealed to Paddington Bear that she, like him, always keeps a jam sandwich for emergencies and opens her bag to pull one out.