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Queen Victoria's wedding

“Oh! This was the happiest day of my life!” With these words, Queen Victoria described her wedding day in her diary – 10 February 1840, writing up the event for the day’s entry from Windsor Castle. It marked the beginning of her marriage to her cousin, Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. The opposite date of this ecstatic exhortation of joy on behalf of the Queen was unquestionably 14…
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King Harald could have become King at the age of three

On Wednesday, King Harald of Norway turns 81-years-old. There will be no big celebration like last year, but a private celebration with friends and the closest family. On the occasion of the King of Norway’s birthday, we will look at the not so well known history of His Majesty. King Harald was only a prince and three-years-old when the Germans invaded Norway during World War II. King…
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History

Rukidi IV of Toro: The Boy King

When most of us are three-years-old, we are in our front yard playing with our toys and neighbourhood kids and running around without a care in the world besides who’s going to win hide and seek. On 26 August 1995, Crown Prince Oyo Nyimba succeeded his father as the…
FeaturesHistory

Queen Victoria's Journals

On 1 August 1832, the thirteen-year-old Princess Victoria of Kent made her first entry into her diary; it was a diary, as she described it on its title page, which had been given to her by her mother, the Duchess of Kent, at Kensington Palace the day before. Bound in…
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Queen Victoria's Mother - the Duchess of Kent

On 16 March 1861, the Duchess of Kent, born Princess Marie Louise Victoire of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld and by her first marriage, Princess of Leinigen, died at her residence of Frogmore House, in Windsor Great Park. Though she had been mother to Queen Victoria, the Duchess of Kent had never herself been Princess of Wales, because her second husband, Edward, Duke of Kent had been George III’s fourth…
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Taking a look at other royal pets and animals

Animals given to royalty could, of course, become pets – but they could often be presented in the form of political gifts, adding therefore to the monarch’s personal sense of majestas. An example of this is the bay horse and three brood mares, sent to Henry VIII by Francesco Gonzaga, Marquis of Mantua in 1514. The personal prestige of the monarch was also flattered by the exotic nature of…
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