Elizabeth Jane Timms

Munich has a lost royal garden. As with so much that surrounds the legendary King Ludwig II of Bavaria (1845-1886), the myth has its roots in reality. That King who once said of himself ‘I want to remain an eternal enigma to myself and to others’ is now an established part of Bavarian folklore in his own right, something to which his activities consciously contributed during his lifetime. Not…

Whilst on one of her late holidays in the south of France, Queen Victoria made her only visit to Spain. It was a visit that aroused the Queen’s socio-historic curiosity in national culture and peoples, something she often gave expression to in watercolour sketches as vivid pen portraits to record what she saw, alongside her accounts in her Journal. The Spanish visit was also historically…

All this week, Royal Central’s Elizabeth Jane Timms has been telling the story of Marie Antoinette’s bridal procession as she made her way to her new home in France. Today, she reaches the end of the story and that first, fateful meeting between Marie Antoinette and her groom: On 14 May, the procession reached Compiegne. The first meeting between Marie Antoinette and Dauphin…

Situated between Abergeldie and Balmoral is a house and little shop which claims a charming association with Queen Victoria’s grandchildren. The shop was originally owned by Mr and Mrs Symon, who were related to Queen Victoria’s devoted Highland servant John Brown and a house that Brown once occupied on the Estate is bypassed on the way to the shop. Mr and Mrs Symon were photographed by George…