“Great by birth, greater by marriage,
greatest in her offspring: here lies Matilda, the daughter, wife,
and mother of Henry” – The epitaph on Empress Matilda’s tomb In
the first blog of this series, we looked at the prominent
medieval figure of Eleanor of Aquitaine. However, Eleanor
wasn’t the only dominant female, or ‘Queen Mother’ to be specific,
of the Middle Ages. It is in…
th century. The Navy is the oldest of the
British Armed Services and was the largest and most powerful from
the 18th century until the middle of the 20th century. With its
fabled history, it is no surprise that the Royal Navy is a premier
choice for service of The Royal…
one chap who is constantly sticking his
nose into things that don’t concern him, badgers people about
issues he knows nothing about or constantly insists that they know
what is going on and everyone should listen to them. These people
are all around us and, let’s face…
The Battle of Bosworth, which was fought
on 22nd August 1485, is one of England’s defining battles as it
resulted in the end of Richard III’s reign and led to Henry
Tudor becoming King Henry VII. This marked the beginning of the
infamous Tudor dynasty. Henry Tudor had a claim to Richard’s
throne, however it wasn’t particularly strong as it came from
John of Gaunt’s questionable union…
'Gloriana', as she was once referred to,
will return to the city on Saturday 13th September after a break of
four and half centuries as part of the Open Cambridge Festival. The
Festival will also see courtiers and musicians accompanying the
Tudor Queen. The Queen…
Today in 1765 King William IV was born in
Buckingham Palace. So often looked over by historians and royalists
alike, William IV lived an extraordinary life that covered war,
peace, rebellion and personal triumph. He is perhaps best known for
being the oldest person to come…
Perhaps one of the most enduring aspects
of Medieval England is heraldry. Though it originated in the 12th
century, coats of arms and other forms of heraldry continue to be
used even today, be it by religious and educational institutions,
by countries, and, most importantly for us here at Royal Central,
by the Royal Family. The concept of heraldry emerged around 900
years ago. A heraldic device…
then Princess Elizabeth, was born in
Clarence House at 11:50am. Princess Anne, who today is recognised
across the world as a shining example of Royalty putting in hard
graft and work, was baptised later on 21 October 1950 in the Music
Room of Buckingham Palace. Her…
“She could quite easily take the field,
muster a great army, and wage against me a war as fierce as any her
mother Isabella ever wages in Spain”. – Henry VIII Some readers may
question why I have decided to include Katherine of Aragon in this
blog series on prominent…
Almost instantly, the question of how
this new, foreign dynasty came to rule Great Britain springs to
mind. The Act of Settlement 1701 was passed in the instance that
Queen Anne died without an heir. Even after baring many children,
when she died Anne did not leave a living child to succeed her and
so the Protestant succession was secured by that of
her closest successor; her third cousin, George…
