One of the earliest names that occurs in
the life of the future Queen Victoria is that of ‘Siebold’;
although the name vanishes almost on the first mention. But no
single name should be rendered insignificant just because it only
occurs once. This is undoubtedly the case with Madame Siebold or
more precisely, Charlotte Heidenreich von Siebold (1788-1859).
Madame Siebold was an accoucheuse who…
In the series “Before they were royal” we
are taking a look at their young lives, education, and professional
lives before gaining their royal title. The third edition focuses
on The Duchess of Sussex or Meghan Markle as she was known
before her marriage. Her…
In the series “Before they were royal” we
are taking a look at their young lives, education, and professional
lives before gaining their royal title. The second edition focuses
on Queen Máxima of the Netherlands or Máxima Zorreguieta
Cerruti as she was known…
The Swiss Cottage at Osborne is a capsule
of successive royal childhood, which continued to hold a place in
the affections of the first children that used it – the nine
children of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert – long after they had
grown up, just as it would for their own children, most of whom
played there in the next generation. The Princess Royal, for
example, returned to the Swiss…
Twice a year the Queen bestows upon the
hardest working people an award of achievement. This award can be
given to people from all walks of life, and is a formal
recognition by the royal family of an individual’s achievements in
their sector. A person can be awarded a…
Released in the United States on 1 June
2018 (and due to be released on 5 July in the UK), Jane Dismore’s
Princess The Early Life of Queen Elizabeth II takes a look back, as
the title states, at Her Majesty’s young life beginning before she
was even born. While…
On 20 June 1837, Princess Victoria of
Kent was awoken in her bedroom at Kensington Palace, writing later
in her journal entry for that day, in which significantly the proud
new word ‘alone’ features intermittently (also underlined), we
read: “I was awoke at 6 o’clock by Mamma, who told me the
Archbishop of Canterbury and Lord Conyngham were here and wished to
see me. I got out of…
Catherine of Braganza has gone down in
history as a rather nice lady who liked drinking tea. The
Portuguese princess who arrived in Portsmouth in 1662 to marry
Charles II has been portrayed as a gentle soul whose heart was
broken by her inability to have children and who…
The artworks by the fashionable German
portrait painter and historical artist Friedrich August von
Kaulbach (1860-1920) of Princess Alix of Hesse, later Tsarina
Alexandra Feodorovna and her elder sister, Elisabeth Feodorovna,
‘Ella’ Grand Duchess Sergei of Russia, provide, I think, a rare
insight into these two princesses who would both marry into the
Russian Imperial House of Romanov. Not…
