Lockets form an important part in Queen Victoria’s personal jewellery. The first of these lockets was given to the baby Princess Victoria and the last mentions of them occur at the end of her life. Like any object, therefore, they tell a life story in a new way. In briefly exploring their story of Queen Victoria through original research, I hope to bring fresh understanding to the Queen’s…
We know that rings were important to Queen Victoria because of the numerous references to them which she made in her journal and the fact that they feature so strongly in her photographic legacy. Her hands are literally covered with them. We must assume then, that they…
Sometimes known as ‘the annexe to Buckingham Palace’, the classic hotel in London’s Mayfair has time-honoured connections with royalty that exist into the present day. From the earlier single building run by William and Marianne Claridge at 51 Brook Street…
Queen Victoria’s exquisitely woven wedding dress of
Spitalfields silk satin survives. Her wedding veil was placed over her face as her
body was dressed and prepared for burial at Windsor. Fascinatingly as I found
out during research, the wedding veil and one of the Queen’s famous white caps
were both placed on her head after death, a fitting analogy of Queen Victoria’s
personal identities…
This year marks the bicentenary of not only the birth of Queen Victoria but also of her husband, Prince Albert. Prince Albert, Queen Victoria’s beloved consort, was an eager skater who loved winter sports as part of enduring royal pleasure. Not only did he drive the…
Queen Victoria spent her last Christmas at Osborne in 1900. It was forty years exactly since Prince Albert had celebrated his final Christmas in 1860 at Windsor, the setting for so many happy family festivities in the past. Prince Albert did not live to see Christmas 1861…
It might be argued that the lack of a father in the life of the future Queen Victoria was the singular most important influence on her emotional life. It is surely significant that she referred to those men she regarded as fathers of sorts, in correspondingly filial language, such as her beloved uncle Leopold, King of the Belgians, as “il mio secondo padre”, [a second father to me] or rather…
Christmas at Windsor to include gifts exchanged by Queen Victoria and Prince Albert
23rd November 2019
The bicentenary of the births of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert will be celebrated by a small display at Windsor, once the setting for the many Christmases which the royal couple spent together with their growing family of nine children. Displayed in the Octagon Dining…
After the wedding of Princess Elizabeth and Lieutenant Philip Mountbatten at 11:30 am in Westminster Abbey on 20 November 1947, the bridal gifts given to Princess Elizabeth were exhibited at St James’s Palace, numbering over 2,500. Like the gifts, Princess Elizabeth’s…
New findings on Queen Victoria and the midwife who delivered her
11th November 2019
I first encountered Marian Theodore Charlotte Heidenreich von Siebold back in 2018 when I was researching the birth of the future Queen Victoria, ahead of this year’s bicentenary. Madame Siebold was the skilled German obstetrician who by an extraordinary circumstance, assisted at the births in 1819 of both Princess Victoria and that of her future husband, Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, a…
