FeaturesHistoryInternational royals

Strange and insulting historical royal nicknames

The use of nicknames or epithets to describe a royal or a local ruler was quite common until recent times. Before pictures were easily accessed, or in places where the first name was repeatedly used for consecutive rulers, a nickname was a useful way to distinguish one person from another. Sometimes these names were chosen by the bearer themselves, sometimes they were gained through a courageous…
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FeaturesHistory

Looking at the birth of Queen Victoria

It is hard to imagine British history without Queen Victoria. So deeply has she made an impression on British history andbestowed her name upon anera that we could be momentarily forgiven for thinking that she had always existed. During her reign, she oversaw a period of unprecedented national change and industrial advancement, dying just a year after the turn of the 20th century, yet…
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HistoryPrince PhilipQueen Elizabeth II

Seventy years ago today Buckingham Palace announced the engagement of Princess Elizabeth & Philip Mountbatten

Seventy years ago today, Buckingham Palace announced the engagement of Princess Elizabeth and Lieutenant Philip Mountbatten. The couple were married in Westminster Abbey on 20th November 1947 – meaning in just four months time The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh will be celebrating their historic Platinum wedding anniversary. The Queen first met her future husband Prince Philip when she was…
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FeaturesHistory

What Happened to the Monarchy Between 1649 to 1660?

Outside the Houses of Parliament, standing rather boldly with a hand on his sword and the other clutching a Bible, stands a statute of Oliver Cromwell. For a time, Cromwell was the sole interruption in a long line of English monarchs, during which the British Isles were no longer governed by a monarchy but instead by a republican “Commonwealth of England, Scotland and Ireland”. This…
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