Today we’re looking at the history of the Palace of Zarzuela, which is the home of King Felipe, his wife, Queen Letizia, and their two daughters, Princess Leonor and Infanta SofÃa; as well as King Juan Carlos and Queen SofÃa.
Construction began on Zarzuela Palace back in the 1600s, though the then-King Felipe IV meant for it to function as a hunting lodge or country palace instead of an…
In June, the temporary summer exhibition opened at the Royal Palace in Oslo. This is an excellent exhibition that anyone who visits Norway’s capital should see. For those of you who cannot visit Oslo this summer, you can see the presentation here:
The backyard of the…
It’s set to be a right royal turnout at Wimbledon this weekend as the famous tennis tournament comes to a close. Leading the way will be the Duke of Kent who is President of the All England Club and whose presence at the finals is a long standing royal commitment. But…
In 1888, a year whose numbering Queen Victoria thought odd (‘Never can it be written again!’), her daughter, the Princess Royal and Crown Princess of Prussia, had become German Empress, prompting the proud words from her mother: ‘My OWN dear Empress Victoria… may God bless her!’ (cit., Elizabeth Longford, Queen Victoria, 551). After a reign of a mere ninety-nine days, her husband Emperor…
Frederick II, accorded the epithet ‘the Great’ already during his own lifetime, had in fact, a whole other life after death, aside from his legacy. The great King’s legend stalks the eighteenth century like a gigantic historic shadow, much as the oversize silhouette of…
It’s the hashtag to have this summer and now the royals are part of the craze, too. England is awash with wildflowers as the sun reaches its height with everywhere from motorway verges to public parks going for the natural look. And now Kensington Palace has shared its…
This summer, Royal Central is taking a look at who’s who in the lines of succession around the world. And our latest instalment takes us to Spain. By law, the line of succession there is limited to the descendants of King Juan Carlos I, a rule that remained unchanged following his abdication in 2014 in favour of his only son, Felipe. The law there also means brothers always outrank sisters.
After the First World War, several of Europe’s monarchies fell, and among them were the German and Austrian-Hungarian Empires. While many of the royalty in these countries fled to other countries to live their lives in exile, others chose to remain in their country of…
A fond tradition arose in the lifetime of Benjamin Disraeli, Lord Beaconsfield, Queen Victoria’s two-time Prime Minister, namely that of his receiving flowers, often primroses from the Queen. To Disraeli, Queen Victoria was the ‘Faery’ – his endearing name for his…
Today we’re looking at the line of succession to the Belgian throne.
Current Monarch: King Philippe, who succeeded his father, King Albert II, on 21 July 2013 after he stepped down for health reasons.
Photo: Laura Dekkers
King Philippe was considered by many to be the heir to his uncle, King Baudouin, but after his death in 1991, Baudouin’s younger brother, Albert succeeded to the…
