FeaturesHistory

Queen Victoria's Saloon

Queen Victoria’s relationship with the railway began on 13 June 1842, when she drove from Windsor to Slough with Prince Albert, to make the historic first royal journey by train to Paddington. This relationship would continue throughout her life and endure, even beyond her death, as the Great Western Railway conveyed the Queen’s body in the Royal Train from Paddington to Windsor for her…
Read more
History

The Abdication of Mary, Queen of Scots

Mary, Queen of Scots is one of the most tragic figures in royal history. She inherited her crown at only six-days-old and spent her childhood and adolescence in France. After the death of her first husband, King Francis II died in 1560, she returned to a turbulent and…
British RoyalsFeatures

Season 5 of The Crown won't premiere until 2022

Season five of The Crown won’t premiere on Netflix until 2022 as the series will take a filming break ahead of the final cast changeover. Olivia Colman will conclude her role as Queen Elizabeth II in season four before being replaced by Imelda Staunton for the final two seasons. Helena Bonham Carter will finish up as Princess Margaret, and Lesley Manville will then take over the role…
Read more
British RoyalsFeaturesRoyal Weddings

Royal Wedding Rewind: Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson

The marriage of the Duke of York and Sarah, Duchess of York took place on July 23rd 1986. Prince Andrew Albert Christian Edward and Sarah Margaret Ferguson had known each other since childhood but romance blossomed in the summer of 1985 after they sat next to one another at a meal during that season’s Royal Ascot. He’d tried to get her to eat profiteroles, she had protested as she was on a…
Read more
Features

Taking a look at Queen Victoria's Tea House

Queen Victoria wrote in 1867 of the peace at Frogmore, in Windsor Great Park, in ‘this dear lovely garden’.  By this point, she was six years into the widowhood, which would last until the end of her life. The gardens at Frogmore had a particularly sacred meaning for…
Features

Taking a look at Queen Victoria's Gothic Ruin

In the northern end of the gardens at Frogmore is a small building, the so-called Gothic Ruin. We know that Queen Victoria used her brick and tiled Tea House in which to breakfast, write, sit and take tea. She often worked outdoors on her papers in a tent set up close to the Tea House. The gardens at Frogmore were of profound emotional importance to the Queen, not only for the peace and…
Read more