Features

A royal rarity - an emerald engagement ring

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28th August 2023
It’s rare to see a royal engagement ring with a flash of green about it. Emeralds aren’t the most popular pick for royal betrothals but the few that have hit the headlines are all rather striking.Here’s our rundown of that rarest of royal sparklers – the emerald engagement ring.Queen Victoria’s serpent ringEngagement rings were rarely used when Queen…
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Norway

A fairytale bride and the first big royal wedding of the 21st century

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25th August 2023
It was the first big royal wedding of the 21st century bringing kings, queens, princes and princesses together for a very modern monarchical marriage. The relationship between Crown Prince Haakon of Norway and Mette-Marit Tjessme Hoiby had been under scrutiny from the moment it became public knowledge. But by the time they took their vows, in front of the ruling houses of Europe, their romance had…
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Features

The royal bridesmaid who became a queen

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25th August 2023
As 1922 got under way, newspapers began to run excited articles about a royal wedding. The only daughter of King George V and Queen Mary was about to say ‘I do’ and every moment of her marriage ceremony was up for scrutiny. Princess Mary’s wedding dress…
Features

The princess who wore blue to say 'I do' to a prince who waited decades to marry her

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24th August 2023
It’s one of my all time favourite royal wedding dresses and just a glimpse of it can make me feel ever so slightly emotional. For not only was the pale blue gown worn by a lass called Lilian from Swansea on a cold, December day in 1976 a masterclass in elegance and chic, it was also the wedding dress of a princess decades in the making. It’s now forty four years since Prince Bertil of…
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Features

The princess named after Ireland's patron saint

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23rd August 2023
For a princess who claimed a bit of a royal first at the baptismal font, it’s perhaps not surprising that Patricia of Connaught – known for most of her adult life as Lady Patricia Ramsey – ended up changing plenty of regal rules on her way. The little girl who was born in Buckingham Palace on March 17th 1886 grew up to be one of the most eligible women in Europe, and when…
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