HistoryInsight

'Dear Mama': A little-known memorial to the Duchess of Kent

On 16 March 1861, Queen Victoria’s mother, the Duchess of Kent, died at Frogmore House, the private residence in Windsor Great Park which she had often used, living there for approximately two decades. After her death, the summer house she had planned during her lifetime was converted into a mausoleum on two levels, built on a mound overlooking the lake. The lower level contains the burial…
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HistoryInsight

Was Queen Victoria a Victorian?

Was Queen Victoria a Victorian? The question is a complex and fascinating one to answer. In the immediate response, Victoria would seem to typify what it meant to be ‘Victorian’ because her long reign straddled the nineteenth century, and the age was accordingly named after her. It begs then the further question of what a Victorian was if Queen Victoria wasn’t one, as well as…
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HistoryInsight

Tea and Queen Victoria

Queen Victoria is for many, synonymous with the notion of afternoon tea, probably because the social ceremony became properly established during the later years of her reign. The Queen’s evident love of tea, however, reaches back much further than this elegant ritual. Indeed, the word occurs 7,587 times in the various typescripts or edited copies of her journal, proving it was part of her…
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British RoyalsInsightRoyal WeddingsThe Kents

Lady Gabriella Windsor's Wedding Dress: romance along classic lines

Tulle and organdie were layered to create a cream and blush effect It was a closely guarded secret but now we know. Lady Gabriella Windsor’s wedding dress had caused plenty of speculation ahead of her big day but in the end the only daughter of Prince and Princess Michael of Kent chose a romantic design along classic lines for her marriage to Thomas Kingston at St. George’s Chapel…
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