History

Royal pets – A look at the royals and their beloved companions

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28th October 2019
For centuries and centuries, royals have adored their beloved pets the same as we have. Royal canine companions have held a treasured place in royal families for over 500 years, and we continue to see them highlighted in family photos and holiday cards. There is more than one royal pet cemetery in Europe, and they hold treasured places. Charles II and His Spaniels Although spaniels were a…
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Features

The lost royal garden - on a roof: Ludwig II's Wintergarten

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25th October 2019
Munich has a lost royal garden. As with so much that surrounds the legendary King Ludwig II of Bavaria (1845-1886), the myth has its roots in reality. That King who once said of himself ‘I want to remain an eternal enigma to myself and to others’ is now an established part of Bavarian folklore in his own right, something to which his activities consciously contributed during his lifetime. Not…
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Queen Elizabeth IIReviews

Review: "A day with The Queen"

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25th October 2019
I was sent this lovely illustrated book by a Portuguese author, Diana Del-Negro for a review. It’s a children’s book that Del-Negro wrote and illustrated herself. She wrote it for her five-year-old daughter, Laura, to “explain that real princesses…
FeaturesHistory

A mystery linked to William the Conqueror is finally solved

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24th October 2019
It’s puzzled historians for centuries but now one of the pressing questions hanging over one of the most famous royal artefacts in the world has an answer. And it sheds a new light on the reign of the king it celebrates, William the Conqueror. The conquest that gave him a throne and a place in royal legend was commemorated in the Bayeux Tapestry. It tells the story of his decision to…
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Features

Finding five cards from the Tsarina

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22nd October 2019
Whilst researching on the correspondence of the last Tsarina Alexandra Feodorovna (1872-1918) of Russia and Princess Marie Bariatinsky, one of the Tsarina’s first maids-of-honour (freilina) in her early years in Russia and a later friend, I discovered a series of…
British RoyalsEuropean RoyalsInsight

The rise of royal photography

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21st October 2019
Recently there has been a remarkable shift in the photographs shared by the royal courts. Increasingly, the official pictures are no longer taken by professional photographers but by members of the royal families themselves. Photographing has become a typical “royal” hobby. In the previous decades, the royal courts instantly contacted professional photographers when there was a need…
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