FeaturesHistory

The 'Forgotten' Georgian Vault at Westminster Abbey

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…
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FeaturesHistory

Flora Danica and a Royal Wedding

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…
HistoryQueen Elizabeth II

The Queen's Coronation in numbers

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…
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History

The secret tragedy Princess Alice kept from Prince Henry

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…
FeaturesHistory

The bells of Westminster Abbey

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…
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FeaturesHistory

Queen Victoria and Cliveden

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…
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