British RoyalsFeatures

The Queen puts up her Christmas tree

Windsor Castle is ready for Christmas as the Queen prepares to spend the festive season there for the first time in over thirty years. The tree is up in St. George’s Hall and sparkling ready for the big day. Royal Collection Trust / © Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II 2020 A 20 feet Norway spruce was selected from Windsor Great Park to form the central part of the Christmas decorations…
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Features

Who was Ealhswith, queen to King Alfred?

Fans of the Netflix series “The Last Kingdom” and the series of books by Bernard Cornwell, on which the series is based, will know the main character Uhtred of Bebbanburg. He is a fictional character; however, many events in the series based in ninth-century…
History

The tragedy of the last Stuart Monarch – Queen Anne’s 18 pregnancies

Queen Anne quite frankly had a tremendous reign becoming the first Monarch of a united single sovereign state, known as Great Britain in 1707 as well as showing her worth as a Queen Regnant in a male dominated society. Though tragedy was never far away from the last of the Stuarts as not many people will be aware that Queen Anne became pregnant an astonishing 18 times, though not one of her…
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Features

December's calendar of historic royal moments

1 December 1135: On this day in 1135, King Henry I died in Normandy, France. The fourth son of William the Conqueror was married to Matilda of Scotland, with whom he had three children, and to Adeliza of Louvain, after Matilda’s death. He also had at least twenty-four…
European RoyalsFeaturesHistoryHistory

Hermine: An Exiled Empress

Hermine Reuss of Greiz was born on 17 December 1887 as the fifth child and fourth daughter of Heinrich XXII, Prince Reuss of Greiz, and Princess Ida Mathilde Adelheid of Schaumburg-Lippe. Her elder brother had been injured during a childhood surgery, leaving him mentally and physically disabled. Her parents had been praying for a boy, but they would not have another son. Her mother gave birth to a…
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History

How did Queen Mary become known as ‘Bloody Mary’?

While King Henry VIII lived, his greatest fear was dying without a male heir to the throne. As it turns out, he needn’t have worried, for when he died in 1547, King Henry was succeeded by his son Edward VI. But the new King Edward was very frail and sickly boy of nine, and in just six short years he succumbed to his illness, bringing his reign to an end and leaving the throne unoccupied once…
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