History

All Fine on the Day: a look at past royal weddings which have turned out well despite problems

On the day Princess Beatrice was supposed to marry her fiancé EdoardoMapelli Mozzi, Jane Dismore takes a look back at other royal weddings which faced problems, but turned out fine in the end. Being part of a royal family may be a privilege but it does not protect its members from the worries and woes that beset everyone else. Weddings are famously fraught with difficulties, as…
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A PORTRAIT OF COMPASSION: The Duchess of Abercorn, who died on 10 December 2018

Having lunch around their kitchen table with the Duchess of Abercorn (‘Do call me Sacha’) and the Duke (‘James is fine’) was as informal and warm as the couple themselves. That they have close connections with the Queen and Prince Philip, and come from old and complex nobility, gave them no airs or graces. I had been interviewing the Duchess in the comfortable library at their home…
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FeaturesHistoryInsight

The Queen's first Christmas 1926: As Meghan looks ahead to her first royal Christmas, we look back at Princess Elizabeth's

As Meghan Markle prepares to spend her first Christmas with the royal family at Sandringham, her fiancé’s grandmother may recall fondly her own early Christmases at the much-loved Norfolk estate. One such occasion the Queen would be unable to remember, however, is her first one, in 1926, when she was just eight months old. Christmas 1926 was special in several ways. Until that year, Princess…
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FeaturesHistoryInsight

Death of an artist: Princess Louise, Duchess of Argyll

<![CDATA[Seventy-five years ago, on 3rd December 1939, the most feisty of Queen Victoria’s children died at Kensington Palace, aged 91. Princess Louise, through marriage to a Duke, had become a rare example of a Princess who was also a non-royal Duchess.  Above all, Louise was a talented artist and, as far as her restricted position allowed, a feminist. Such attributes endear her to…
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