She became an empress in the most difficult of circumstances and her short reign ended in exile and a lifetime of supporting her royal heritage from afar. Zita, Empress of Austria found herself with an imperial crown as a result of an assassination which sent the world to war. When conflict consumed the globe again, she once more had to flee. In the latest of our ‘Last Consorts’…
We’re all facing a very different way of life for the next while as measures are put in place to control and hopefully eradicate the spread of coronavirus. It means we’re all staying in more but that doesn’t mean we can’t travel from our sofas. Over…
Early Life
Giovanna Elisabetta Antonia Romana Maria was born on 13th November 1907; her parents were King Victor Emmanuel III of Italy and Queen Elena. Giovanna was born in Rome into the house of Savoy, as the fourth child of the couple; she had two older sisters Yolanda…
In my article on numbering the Kings and Queens of Britain, I mentioned that this practice was not always accurate and, I’d like to add, not without its controversy.
On February 6 1952, came the death of King George VI of the United Kingdom. It occurred during the night and the new sovereign didn’t know she was now Queen for she and her husband, the Duke of Edinburgh, were thousands of…
While the coronavirus continues to spread, we can rewind a little over a hundred years in time. In 1918 and 1919, another virus as ravaged countries across the globe. It caused widespread devastation but, despite its origins, it became known as Spanish flu because of a much…
Queen Geraldine occupies a unique position in Albanian history: she’s the only queen consort in modern times, and she reigned alongside her husband for less than a year before they had to flee an Italian invasion.
Though she spent the rest of her life zigzagging the…
The remains of Princess Eanswith, also written as Eanswythe or Eanswide, have been discovered hidden inside the wall of a church in Kent. Historians say that the bones and teeth that were found are almost certainly those of the 7th century Princess and saint.
Dr Andrew Richardson, from the Canterbury Archaeological Trust, told the BBC: “It now looks highly probable that we have the only…
Every royal life is peppered with milestones, the moments that mark beginnings and ends, filled with joy and sometimes sadness. On Royal Central, we’re charting the famous dates throughout the year in our Calendars of Kings and Queens. And as March gets well and truly…
Carolina - The blue-eyed Princess who became the grandmother of Europe
28th February 2020
It has been nearly two years since I first saw the portrait of a young Princess with blue eyes in a beautiful blue dress. Since then I’ve visited archives, held her letters to her brother in my hand and visited the places where she lived and died.
Carolina of…
When Princess Patricia of Connaught, granddaughter of Queen Victoria, wed Alexander Ramsay in London in 1919, she more than made her mark. For not only had Patricia wed a man with no royal title. She had given up her own HRH to become his wife.
Victoria Patricia Helena Elizabeth, second daughter of Victoria’s third son, the Duke of Connaught, walked into Westminster Abbey on February 27th…
