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 taking the step that would
inevitably follow this brief exchange. But after a short time
together, with chaperones, of…
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…
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 to protect it from the rain.
The marriage of the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester, on 8 July 1972,
was a royal wedding with a…
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…
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 hosted at Buckingham Palace.
Ahead of the visit, Royal Central looks back at past trips between
the two nations. One of the…
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…
History’s royal Kates have taken part in
some of the best-known stories in Britain’s regal history but while
royal Katherines can be found in England as far back as the 13th
century, it’s a name that has gone in and out of favour as a regal
choice. A…
Born a princess, daughter of a feted king
and a much-admired queen, this royal Kate seemed destined for
a crown of her own. But when civil war once more erupted in
England, she found herself on the wrong side of royal favour and
ended up a countess instead. This is the story of Katherine of
York, one of the last Plantagenet princesses. Katherine was born on
August 14th, 1479, at Eltham Palace in…
