How important are the Royal Family to the
idea of Britishness today? That’s one of the questions raised by a
set of coins which go into circulation in the UK on March 1st 2018.
The Royal Mint has launched a series of new ten pence pieces– 26 in
all, created to form an A-Z of British life in the 21st century.
They’re described as ‘Quintessentially British’ and two of the
designs are…
The Duchess of Cambridge has become the
patron of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists
(RCOG). She’s just the second patron of the organization but her
new role is the continuation of a long association between the
college and the Royal Family. To mark the…
On July 12th 1543, a rather low key royal
wedding took place. The groom was Henry VIII and his sixth wife was
Katherine Parr, a relatively unknown minor noblewoman who had risen
from daughter of a knight to Queen of England in thirty years. The
woman who became a…
After weeks of speculation, we now know
which of the stunning tiaras in the royal collection was Kate’s
choice for her first State Banquet. The Duchess of Cambridge chose
the Lotus Flower tiara that she was last seen wearing in 2013 for
this mahor event of the State Visit by Chinese President, Xi
Jinping, and his wife, Peng Liyuan. The sparkling diadem, worn with
an equally sparkling gown, made…
William III and Mary II are an odd couple
in British royal history. They are our only joint sovereigns, so
far, and they swept to power in a series of events that were
romantically named the ‘Glorious Revolution’. The deal they did
with parliament to make…
Within the walls of one of England’s most
picturesque castles, a queen gave birth to her only child and set
in motion a chain of events that would become one of Tudor
England’s most intriguing mysteries. The birth had been much
anticipated and much talked…
George I became an international name in
1714 when he became King of Great Britain and Ireland. Until then,
he was one of many German princes and dukes with their own patch to
rule but not much reason for the rest of the world to take notice
of them. George had acquired some notoriety because of his
action-packed private life, but nothing could have prepared him for
the changes that inheriting the…
Maria of Modena was born in October 1658
and is the last queen consort, so far, to have celebrated a
birthday in that month When being a queen meant that you had
married a king, rather than being a ruler yourself, life stories
were told very differently. The queens of…
October is truly the king of all the
autumn months as the leaves turn to gold and regal red and the
fading sun adds a gentle sparkle to all it touches. And it’s marked
the beginning of five royal roads that ended with a crown –
although all five monarchs had very…
William IV was the man who left his
throne to Queen Victoria, but he was king for just seven years and
heir to the throne for only three years before that. And yet he
holds the record, at the moment, as the oldest person ever to
inherit the British crown. William IV was a truly unexpected
king but a good one, a popular one and a man whose reputation
continues to grow. In many ways, he laid the…
