King Charles III will be presented with
the Honours of Scotland at a Service of Thanksgiving at St. Giles’s
Cathedral on 5 July. However, King Charles II was the last monarch
to be crowned with the Honours of Scotland in 1651. King Charles II
was crowned in England in 1661 but was crowned in Scotland a decade
earlier. On 1 January 1651, Charles was crowned as head of Scotland
at Scone…
Not many people know that the continent
of Europe is home not to one but two principalities recognised by
most international organisations. While most people have
heard about Monaco, the Principality of Andorra remains mostly
hidden from the majority of the…
This week, Buckingham Palace announced
that King Charles had appointed Queen Camilla to the Order of
Thistle. The Order is the highest chivalric order in Scotland. King
James VII founded the first confirmed iteration of the Most Ancient
and Most Noble Order of the Thistle…
The Most Noble Order of the Garter was
founded in 1348 during the reign of King Edward III. It is the
highest order of chivalry in the United Kingdom and membership is
limited to 24 Knights and Ladies Companion. The Sovereign has the
sole discretion to fill memberships to the Order of the Garter, and
each June, the Order celebrates Garter Day at Windsor Castle.
Garter Day sees members…
Although Queen Victoria inherited the
throne in the United Kingdom, and during her reign, the British
Empire gained a vast amount of territory, she was still unable to
inherit the throne of Hanover as a woman. Her uncle, Ernest-August,
became King of Hanover instead. And…
The royal family of Sweden do like a
royal wedding in June. King Carl XVI Gustaf and Queen Silvia
married in the month as did all three of their children while three
of the king’s four sisters were June brides, too. And all of them
had something else in common, too. For…
The Bernadottes first began ruling over
the Kingdom of Sweden in 1818 with King Karl XIV Johan (also called
King Charles XIV John), who was also the King of Norway during this
time. He was born on 26 January 1763 in France as Jean Bernadotte.
It was in 1810 that he was unexpectedly elected as the heir to King
Charles XIII of Sweden just as he was preparing for his new role as
the governor of…
The idea of the Crown Jewels being stolen
might seem like a movie. Well, it’s not. They really were stolen
thanks to one Irishman, Thomas Blood. Born in County Meath in 1618,
Blood came from a good family. His father was a prosperous
blacksmith, and his…
It’s been nearly 90 years since the
United Kingdom crowned its last King, King George VI. And the
outfit worn by George on 12 May 1937 might give us an idea of how
King Charles III may dress when he is crowned on 6 May, and how he
could follow tradition. As he…
A significant artefact of the Chinese
Ming Dynasty will be put up for auction in London after spending
almost eight decades in private hands. The artefact in
question is a decorative box that is believed to be part of a
five-piece set of such items designed specifically for Emperor
Xuande; the pieces all bear his reign’s characters etched at the
bottom of the box and inside the…
