British RoyalsFeaturesInsightOpinionQueen Elizabeth II

The Queen's Top Five Christmas Messages

The Queen’s Christmas Message, broadcast on television, radio, and the internet on Christmas Day, is a staple of the royal calendar. It is a tradition started by her grandfather, King George V and continued by her father, King George VI via radio broadcast. It wasn’t until the 1957 Christmas Message that they became televised. King George V delivered the first Christmas Message in 1932…
Read more
FeaturesHistoryInsightOpinion

Top 5 outgoing State Visits from Queen Elizabeth II

Queen Elizabeth has undertaken 94 official State Visits during her reign, plus two State Visits in her capacity as Queen of Canada (she visited the United States twice in the ‘50s). A State Visit is when a foreign head of state is invited to visit a country by that country’s head of state. State Visits differ from Official Visits, as an Official Visit is when high-ranking government officials…
Read more
FeaturesHistoryInsight

Christmas Trees: A Royal History

Prince Albert is generally credited with introducing the Christmas tree to Britain, but in fact, it was the work of his wife’s grandmother, Queen Charlotte. Like Prince Albert, Charlotte was born and raised in Germany, where the tradition of bringing a tree inside at Christmas time, decorated with lights and sweets, is believed to date back to the 16th century. As a child, Charlotte’s family…
Read more
OpinionThe Netherlands

Review: Darling Queen - Dear Old Bones

I have long been advocating for more books to be written in English about the royals of mainland Europe, so I was thrilled to hear about and read Darling Queen – Dear Old Bones: Queen Wilhelmina’s correspondence with her English governess Miss Saxton Winter by Emerentia van Heuven-van Nes and published by Amsterdam University Press. It was initially printed in Dutch several years ago…
Read more