Northampton Museums own a pair of flat
shoes, believed to be those worn by Queen Victoria on her wedding
day, 10 February 1840. Of white satin, they certainly would have
complimented the Queen’s own simple wedding dress of finely woven
Spitalfields silk satin in her own words: ‘I wore a white satin
gown with a very deep flounce of Honiton, imitation of old…’
Northampton Museum & Art…
The Duchess of Cambridge was beaming on
Tuesday when she stepped out with youngsters from Action for
Children, to attend a photographic workshop held by the Royal
Photographic Society. The event was timed to coincide with the
announcement from Kensington Palace, that Kate…
The Queen had a good Ascot and so did the
bookies, thanks in part to the now customary practice of predicting
the colour of the royal hat in carriage number one. Betting on the
Queen’s choice of topper is as much a part of Ascot as the royal
procession itself and this…
As she celebrated her twentieth wedding
anniversary with a day out at Royal Ascot with her husband, it
appeared that the Countess of Wessex was paying her own tribute to
her famous day as a royal bride. For Sophie was in white and black
on her big anniversary, just as she was two decades ago when she
said ‘I do’ at St. George’s Chapel, Windsor. Embed from Getty
Images As she…
As the crowds began to take their places
in Windsor ahead of the 2019 Order of the Garter procession and
ceremony, the royals involved in this year’s event took to social
media to share some behind the scenes details. From the stunning
setting for a very regal meeting…
“The dedicated efforts of Elephant Family
are helping to highlight and resolve the issues faced by Asia’s
vulnerable elephants. Not only are these magnificent animals
trapped in a daily battle for food, water and space with an
ever-expanding human population, but…
In May 1894, Princess Alix of Hesse
undertook a cure in the fashionable Yorkshire spa town of Harrogate
for sciatica. She had become engaged to Tsarevich Nicholas of
Russia at Coburg the previous month. Whilst she stayed at
Harrogate, she regularly corresponded with her fiancé, who would
later join her at the house her eldest sister, Victoria, Princess
Louis of Battenberg had rented at…
The earliest memories of a historical
personage are extraordinarily important, as not only do they reveal
first consciousness of their world and circumstances but crucially,
what they remembered first. They tell snippets of true events, as
they saw them. Of course, we know…
On 16 March 1861, Queen Victoria’s
mother, the Duchess of Kent, died at Frogmore House, the private
residence in Windsor Great Park which she had often used, living
there for approximately two decades. After her death, the summer
house she had planned during her lifetime…
Was Queen Victoria a Victorian? The
question is a complex and fascinating one to answer. In the
immediate response, Victoria would seem to typify what it meant to
be ‘Victorian’ because her long reign straddled the nineteenth
century, and the age was accordingly named after her. It begs then
the further question of what a Victorian was if Queen Victoria
wasn’t one, as well as…
