In addition to the handful of tombs of England’s medieval kings and their queens consort clustered close to or around the great shrine of Edward the Confessor at Westminster Abbey, one royal vault is quite unlike the rest.
Some tombs are harder to find in the first instance. The first Stuart King of England James I, for example, shares mortal eternity in the resplendent Torrigiano tomb designed…
In addition to the private gifts exchanged at royal weddings were also those public gifts given on behalf of a nation. Either to accompany its native bride on her marriage, or increasingly, to take the form of diplomatic presents, such as the Sevres porcelain dinner service…
The Coronation of Elizabeth II on June 2nd 1953 is often spoken of as the moment that a new era began. It was a moment of history and just the sixth time a queen regnant had been crowned in England’s history. As Royal Central marks 65 years since the Queen’s…
Today is the 65th anniversary of the coronation of The Queen. On 2 June 1953, Queen Elizabeth who succeded her father on 6 February 1952, held her coronation in which she was sworn in as Sovereign of the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Pakistan, and Ceylon.
As we mark another milestone Her Majesty The Queen has reached, we take a look back at the day in numbers.
It…
It has been described as the most important British dress design of the 20th century and the gown that the Queen wore at her Coronation, on June 2nd 1953, has its own place in history. The work of Sir Norman Hartnell, created in partnership by the Monarch, it has become one…
The third son of King George V and Queen Mary, Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucester was born on 31 March 1900.
He was the first son of a monarch to be educated at school and went onto study at Eton College.
His life was full of tragedy starting with not being able to continue…
First and foremost, we think of bells as something we hear and don’t see. The bells of Westminster Abbey now mingle in between the great soundscape of London noise and the busy restlessness of Westminster, blending the secular with the divine, much as they have done for centuries.
These bells are, however, extraordinarily special in the history of the nation and are in fact, one of London’s…
In St. Thomas’ Church, Newport on the Isle of Wight, stands an extraordinary monument, touching in its simplicity. It was erected over the tomb of Princess Elizabeth, daughter of Charles I (1635-1650). This beloved royal child was immortalized as such by Van Dyck in his…
Following her wedding at St James’s Palace to Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha on 10 February 1840, Queen Victoria drove to Windsor for her honeymoon. Windsor had mixed associations for the Queen. It was the place of the famous contretemps between her uncle, King…
Praised by Alexander Pope in his Moral Essays as possessing a ‘proud alcove’ in which one might happily be ‘galant and gay’, the great house of Cliveden, Taplow, where Meghan Markle spent the night before her wedding to Prince Harry, was visited by Queen Victoria in 1866, who stayed as guest of the Duchess of Sutherland from 26 May to 5 June. It was not the first time she had visited…
