On this day in 1840, John Francis made a
second attempt at an assassination of Queen Victoria. The day
prior, John Francis had misfired his gun after aiming at Queen
Victoria and fled. Prince Albert and a young boy were the only two
to witness the incident. It was decided by Queen Victoria and
Prince Albert that the safest way to reduce the threat on their
lives by the hand of John Francis was to…
A controversial figure in the 1930s, this
King caused a scandal when he became the first royal to abdicate
the throne – and he did it for love. Born on 23 June 1894 as David,
he was the first son of the future George V and his wife, Mary of
Teck. Edward VIII became King on…
On this day 1487, the pretender Lambert
Simnel was crowned as King Edward VI in Dublin. The boy was ten
years old at the time, and kept up the pretence for nearly a month
before the rebels who supported him were defeated at the Battle of
Stoke Field. In August 1485, Henry…
Britain has two months to raise £10m to save most famous Armada portrait of Elizabeth I
23rd May 2016
The famous Armada portrait of Queen
Elizabeth I, which was once owned by Sir Francis Drake, is to be
sold for the first time in 400 years, as a £10m campaign is
launched to save it. It has been privately held by the
Tyrwhitt-Drake family for generations and it is now up for sale.
The Art Fund and Royal Museums Greenwich has launched a fundraising
campaign to save it for the nation and needs to…
The short service of remembrance, known
as The Ceremony of the Lilies and the Roses, is held every 21 May,
to commemorate the fact that Henry VI, England’s so-called “saintly
king”, died at the Tower of London in 1471. Tradition has adopted
the Norman Wakefield Tower…
One hotel in Northamptonshire preserves a
possibly extraordinaryfeature within its walls. The Talbot Hotel in
Oundle is located some thirteen miles outside Peterborough and is
aten-minutedrive from Fotheringhay. It preserves the staircase
which is…
When she was aged six, the young Princess
Elizabeth received a special present from the people of Wales. It
was a cottage of her very own. She came into possession of this
unique gift when her parents, the Duke and Duchess of York took
over the use of Royal Lodge in Windsor Great Park in 1932. It was
given to the young princess to enjoy with her baby sister Princess
Margaret Rose, who had been…
On 29 May 1926, the christening of the
future Queen Elizabeth II, took place. The baptismal service was
performed at the private chapel at Buckingham Palace and the
occasion of HM The Queen’s 91st birthday provides a pleasant
opportunity to revisit this important event.
New archeological evidence seems to
confirm the bones found in a medieval reliquiary at Uppsala
Cathedral in Sweden, belong to Saint King Erik. Erik IX was a
Swedish king, who reigned c. 1155-1160. No contemporary
historical records of Erik survive, what little is known…
Probably best known for the exquisite
Easter eggs that he crafted for the Russian Imperial house of
Romanov, Peter Carl Faberge was Russia’s premier master goldsmith
at the beginning of the twentieth century, the House of Faberge
having been founded in St. Petersburg by his father, Gustav Faberge
in 1842. Although Faberge would go on to design spectacularobjects
of ornamentation such…
