They are monuments to love that have told
a royal romance for seven centuries. The Eleanor Crosses are a
famous part of England’s regal history and, for hundreds of years,
they have told the story of the king who built them for the queen
he had lost and could never forget. Now, in 2018, just a handful
survive to pay witness to the devotion of Edward I to his consort,
Eleanor of Castile. But…
A royal wedding just wouldn’t be a royal
wedding without a tiara or three. But when the then Princess
Elizabeth married the Duke of Edinburgh on November 20th 1947, she
almost missed out on wearing the diadem on which she’d set her
heart. For just before the…
On a summer’s day in 1818, a young German
princess walked into one of the most famous hotels in London to
meet a man twice her age. Just a year earlier, Adelaide of
Saxe-Meiningen and her suitor, William, Duke of Clarence, would
never have considered chatting let alone…
On July 6th 1893, London woke to a
blazing hot morning after two days of rain. The streets were decked
with flowers and large crowds were already settled on the pavements
and lampposts as dawn broke. They had come for the royal wedding of
George, Duke of York, second in line to the throne but what many
really wanted to see was the bride. And Princess Mary of Teck was
ready to step into the…
It’s the hat that almost stole the show
at the Royal Wedding of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, and now
the man who designed it has revealed that it made as big an
impression on him as it did on the rest of us. Milliner Philip
Treacy has admitted that the reaction to…
It was a quiet country affair, far
removed from the pomp and ceremony we’ve come to expect from royal
weddings. The setting was an English parish church, the regal guest
list only filled a couple of pews, and the bride walked in several
minutes late carrying her own train…
It’s coming home, it’s coming home, it’s
coming…the tapestry is coming home. The Bayeux Tapestry is heading
back to British shores, for the first time in almost 1000 years,
and you need to put 2022 in your diary right now if you want to see
this famous piece of history up close and personal. OK, the opening
line might not have the ring or the emotion of the football song
we…
It was a quiet country house, described
by several who knew it as ‘’little’’ and a ‘’pied a terre’, given
as a wedding present to a royal couple who were expected to linger
on the fringes of regal life. Yet on July 2nd 1903, it became the
birthplace of one of…
The official announcement that King
Willem-Alexander and Queen Maxima of the Netherlands will make a
state visit to the UK this autumn is confirmation of a long-awaited
and hotly anticipated trip. The visit will run between October 23rd
and 24th and will see the Dutch royals…
The life of Diana, Princess of Wales was
never far removed from royalty even before she married into the
House of Windsor. A member of the influential Spencer family, she
counted King Edward III, King Henry VII and King Charles II among
her ancestors while she’d been named in honour of a distant
relative who had once been mooted as a bride for George II’s son
and heir, Frederick, Prince of…
