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 own take with a celebration of its
wildflower meadow for 2019. A team from Historic Royal Palaces has
been working through…
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…
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 Sovereign, whatever the
intention of Edmund Spenser’s epic poem Faerie Queene. Disraeli
told his friend, Lady Bradford, that…
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…
Perched atop Castle Rock, the ancient
volcanic plug that towers above the city of Edinburgh, sits the
most besieged place in Britain. Edinburgh Castle has served as a
military fortress, royal residence, and prison of war, but today it
stakes its claim as the most-visited…
They have been home to generations of
royals who have carved their names in the history books and in
2019, their power to fascinate continues. A new survey has taken a
look at the most popular regal residences in Europe and those
belonging to the British royals take four of the top five spots.
Buckingham Palace, Kensington Palace, Windsor Castle and Hampton
Court Palace dominate the head of the…
In a new series, we are taking a look at
the various lines of successions in the world’s monarchies. This
edition is looking at the ten people in the Swedish line of
succession. Current monarch: King Carl XVI Gustaf (b. 1946) who
came to the throne in 1973 after the…
In the Western manuscripts collection
held at the British Library are what are known as the Boyd
Carpenter papers, Vol. V, Add MS 46721: 1884-1917. This remarkable
collection of documents contain letters written in English from or
on behalf of various crowned heads of Europe…
In the British Library five letters from
Princess Alix of Hesse, later Tsarina Alexandra Feodorovna of
Russia (1872-1918) are preserved. Initially, I thought there were
seven letters of hers at the British Library, but further research
has enabled me to establish that these are instead, two postcards
in Russian, to her only son, Tsarevich Alexei Nikolaevich
(1904-1918). These letters are…
