The new memorial that has been erected in
front of the Chapel of St. Peter ad Vincula on Tower Green marks
the spot ‘identified’ in the Victorian period as being the site of
the scaffold, which may have been a misunderstanding of the Tower’s
geography in proportion to the apartments where Anne Boleyn had
been housed. The fact that Anne’s burial place of St Peter ad
Vincula lay only behind…
Tributes have been paid to royal reporter
Kjell Arne Totland who has died at the age of 74 following a short
illness. Totland, who was royal correspondent for Norwegian TV
station TV 2, regularly appeared in the media across the globe to
offer commentary on The Royal…
Her Majesty The Queen is related to many
of Europe’s sovereigns, not in the least because of Queen
Victoria’s matchmaking but also because of another woman, Princess
Carolina of Orange-Nassau. Princess Carolina was born on28 February
1743 as the daughter…
The gallery of so-called ‘Windsor
Beauties’ is the name given to the collection of portraits painted
by Sir Peter Lely (1618-80) of celebrated courtesans and women of
the nobility in Restoration England, which can be seen – and
indeed, still admired – in the Communication Gallery at Hampton
Court Palace. Ten portraits today in The Royal Collectioncan be
identified as having…
A building in the Oxford suburb of
Marston preserves a unique connection with the lost world of
imperial Russia. Its typical late-Victorian exterior belies the
remarkable nature of its hidden history. In this building for a
period of time, personal possessions once owned by…
The Archduchess Maria Antonia of Austria
– Mariabeing an establishedHabsburg prefix given to all the
daughters of Empress Maria Theresia to mark the dynasty’s special
veneration for The Virgin Mary – was born as the 15thchild of Maria
Theresia on 2…
On 6 July 1893, another royal wedding was
celebrated at the Chapel Royal, St. James’s Palace, between Prince
George of Wales – created Duke of York in 1892 – and Princess Mary
of Teck, the future George V and Queen Mary. Princess Mary of Teck
had been betrothed in December 1891 to Prince Albert Victor, Duke
of Clarence and Avondale, eldest son of the Prince and Princess of
Wales, who had…
The use of perfume can be traced back to
the world’s most ancient civilisations, notably Mesopotamia and
Egypt. It flourished during the Italian Renaissance and the
personal perfumer of the French Queen Catherine de’ Medici
Rene the Florentine, brought his perfumes with…
This summer, we are taking a look at the
various lines of successions in the world’s monarchies. Today, we
are focusing on the sixteen people in line to the Monégasque
throne. There was a major change to the Constitution of Monaco in
2002 regarding the line of…
Jane Seymour was the only one of Henry
VIII’s queens to share a grave with him, but the tomb is not what
Henry VIII originally intended. The King had planned an impressive
monument, to include a recumbent statue of his most “entirely
beloved” Queen Jane, a tomb which he would share with her in due
course, overshadowing her to the last with all the straddling
bravura of the Whitehall mural.
