It was the rural idyll where they
entertained some of the most famous names of the 20th century and
now the one time weekend retreat of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor
is on the market. Le Moulin de la Tuilerie became a royal residence
in 1952 when Edward and Wallis bought it as a getaway. The main
residence is a converted mill but the entire property includes six
other buildings as well as a polo…
Queen Victoria’s love of Scotland and the
Scottish Highlands is of course, legendary – immortalised in a
wealth of artworks, souvenir albums, including the Queen’s own
watercolours and not least of course, the Queen’s Highland
journals. She praised…
Royal Central takes a look at the
tradition of celebrating the monarch’s birthday that began as
Princess’s Day. In the 19th century, King William III of the
Netherlands faced quite a bit of unpopularity but his four-year-old
daughter Wilhelmina, his future…
Her story is amongst the most
controversial of all the Queens of England and now a new twist has
appeared in the tale of Elizabeth Woodville. An expert at the
National Archives in London has found a document suggesting that
the consort who revolutionised royalty may have died of the plague.
Euan Roger is a records specialist at the National Archives and
while looking through 16th century…
Jean of Luxembourg, who ruled the tiny
state for 36 years, died early this morning. He was 98. As his
family say their final farewells to a much-loved member, Royal
Central takes a look back at his extraordinary story. From heir to
exile, soldier to hero, Grand Duke to…
The wedding of Princess Elizabeth to
Prince Philip in November 1947 was a day of celebration in post-war
Britain. The ceremony was broadcast to a worldwide audience of
approximately 200 million people and as the princess arrived at
Westminster Abbey with her father, King…
But for the moving memorial that Queen
Victoria erected to her and for a letter in which this is
described, the name of Ida Bonanomi might have been completely
forgotten in historical terms. Thanks to these, this is not the
case. It can be found in Edinburgh’s Rosebank Cemetery and stands
in the avenue containing the grandest of the monuments, itself an
impressive example of mid-Victorian…
Millions are watching as efforts continue
to save Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris which continues to burn after
a huge fire broke out in the roof in the early evening of April
15th 2019. Messages of support for France are pouring in from
around the world. And among those…
A race against time and flames to save
the priceless artwork of Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris has begun
after it caught fire on the late afternoon of April 15th 2019.
Fortunately, it appears that no one has been hurt in the blaze
which engulfed the top part of the church as…
An exquisite gold, sapphire and diamond
brooch crafted in St Petersburg was consigned to auction in October
2018. I had first encountered it as a personal gift from Tsarina
Alexandra Feodorovna (1872-1918) to the friend of her youth, Marion
Louisa ‘Pollie’ Delmé-Radcliffe, Baroness Ungern-Sternberg whose
touching connection I explored in a short article for my Royal
Central blog back in…
