Features

The year 1923 saw the marital calendar was packed with princely nuptials. The springtime wedding of Albert, Duke of York had brought huge crowds to London, and there was an impressive turnout in the city that autumn when Lady Louise Mountbatten wed Crown Prince Gustaf Adolf of Sweden and began a path that would lead to a crown.This second royal wedding of 1923 was a happy ending for a…

The Duchess of Gloucester has a jewellery collection to rival some of those held by royal dynasties in Europe. Some of her pieces come from Queen Mary thanks to the current duke’s mother and her mother-in-law, Princess Alice. But one tiara in particular has a different origin, coming from a lesser-known branch of Queen Victoria’s family tree. It’s known as the Cartier India…

It is a scenario that lies more in the realm of royal drama than modern reality: a monarch dies suddenly, leaving behind a pregnant consort and a nation unsure of its next sovereign. Yet this constitutional conundrum is one that has been anticipated for centuries. British royal succession law, as arcane as it may sometimes appear, offers a clear and carefully constructed answer to what happens if…