Features

A Somerset church and the lost Palace of Whitehall

A fourteenth-century Anglican church in the Somerset parish of Burnham-on-Sea and Highbridge is not perhaps the place where you might expect to find several remnants from the lost Palace of Whitehall, the main London residence of England’s monarchs until 1698. A second fire destroyed most of Whitehall, with the exception of Inigo Jones’s magnificent neo-classical Palladian-style Banqueting…
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Features

A monument that mentions a royal kiss

The sixteenth century late-GothicSint-Andrieskerk on the Augustijnenstraat in Antwerp preserves a monument with a quite extraordinary royal connection, for which reason many English visitors in particular, seek it out.In 1513,Augustine friars established a…
Features

Mozart's visit to what became Buckingham Palace

As part of the ‘Great European Tour’ of the Mozart family, which began from Salzburg in June 1763 and extended across the Holy Roman Empire to France, the Netherlands and Switzerland until November 1766, there was a long visit to London from April 1764 until 1 August 1765. The Mozart family arrived in London fresh from their stay in Paris, arriving in England at Dover. Our best account…
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Features

Tombs of Kings of England not in England

Outside of the traditional burial sites of Westminster Abbey and St George’s Chapel, Windsor, some English (and British) monarchs are missing. The tomb of King John resides in the chancel at Worcester Cathedral, not far from the chantry that contains the grave of the son…
Features

The grave of Anne Boleyn

The new memorial that has been erected in front of the Chapel of St. Peter ad Vincula on Tower Green marks the spot ‘identified’ in the Victorian period as being the site of the scaffold, which may have been a misunderstanding of the Tower’s geography in proportion to…
Features

Looking at the women behind the Windsor Beauties

The gallery of so-called ‘Windsor Beauties’ is the name given to the collection of portraits painted by Sir Peter Lely (1618-80) of celebrated courtesans and women of the nobility in Restoration England, which can be seen – and indeed, still admired – in the Communication Gallery at Hampton Court Palace. Ten portraits today in The Royal Collectioncan be identified as having…
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FeaturesHistoryRoyal Weddings

Looking back at the wedding of George V and Queen Mary

On 6 July 1893, another royal wedding was celebrated at the Chapel Royal, St. James’s Palace, between Prince George of Wales – created Duke of York in 1892 – and Princess Mary of Teck, the future George V and Queen Mary. Princess Mary of Teck had been betrothed in December 1891 to Prince Albert Victor, Duke of Clarence and Avondale, eldest son of the Prince and Princess of Wales, who had…
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