The monarchy in France has been confined to the history books for many years now but that hasn’t stopped the country’s government intervening to stop artefacts linked to its royal past being auctioned and possibly ending up overseas. The French Culture Minister has ensured that three items due to be sold by descendants of the former ruling house of France can’t now go under the hammer…
Royal Mail have released a special set of commemorative stamps to mark the 800th anniversary of Magna Carta. The six stamps that have been issued feature text from Magna Carta as well as text from other charters, bills and declarations that have developed the rule of law…
The Duke and Duchess of Windsor on their wedding day in 1937
It was a love story that changed the course of British history and rocked the monarchy. This is perhaps why a car, said to have been used to sneak Wallis Simpson in and out of Balmoral during her relationship with…
Anne Boleyn is probably best remembered as the most controversial Queen in British history, which is perhaps not entirely deserved. Even though much is said about her, there are a lot things we don’t know, such as her birthday. Unfortunately for women of that time period, it was not uncommon for her birth date not to be recorded. Eric Ives settles on 1501 in his magnificent biography on…
On 17 November 1558 England’s first undisputed Queen regnant, Mary I, died, paving the way for the accession of her half-sister Elizabeth I. Mary had been a staunch Roman Catholic and she had been determined to bring England back to what she believed to be the true…
by Alexander Bassano, half-plate glass negative, circa 1888
It has been quite some time since the last Princess of Cambridge – 132 years to be exact. Princess Mary Adelaide of Cambridge was born in 1833. She had earned the nickname of Fat Mary and is recorded as a…
Charles I was never popular with his Parliament. Upon his accession to the throne in 1625, members made clear that they would not be bullied. In an unprecedented break with tradition, England’s law-making body decided to allow the king to collect customs duties for only one year, as opposed to previous monarchs who had been granted the right for life. Despite this, Charles decided to levy tax…
The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge named their daughter Charlotte. It’s not a big shock – the name has been one of the favourites with the bookmakers almost since Kate announced she was expecting back in September. And one of the reasons it’s always been such a popular…
Although one of our more controversial monarchs, Richard III has been ill-served by history. On the basis of very little evidence, he has been portrayed as a child-killing monster who waded in blood to a throne that wasn’t his to take, but the facts show that relatively…
On 26th March, thousands came together to say goodbye to the last Plantagenet King, Richard III. The King’s much-publicised reburial marks the first time since 1485 that the two opposing sides in the Wars of the Roses, the Yorks and the Lancasters have met at Bosworth.
However in 1486, the year after the famed battle, the two families met in a very different place. On 18th January, Elizabeth…
