Spain

Another emotional farewell for Spain's royals as Infanta Sofia begins new chapter

The King and Queen of Spain have seen their younger daughter off on the next chapter of her life. Infanta Sofia has left the family home at the Zarzuela Palace in Madrid for Wales where she is beginning a two year course at UWC Atlantic College. Casa de S.M. el Rey Sofia, 16, was seen with her parents and the family’s pet dog, Jan, as she loaded her cases ready for the airport trip…
Read more
Features

A royal rarity - an emerald engagement ring

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 ring Engagement rings were rarely used when Queen…
Read more
Norway

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

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…
Read more
Features

The royal bridesmaid who became a queen

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

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…
Read more