On 16 March 1861, the Duchess of Kent,
born Princess Marie Louise Victoire of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld and by
her first marriage, Princess of Leinigen, died at her residence of
Frogmore House, in Windsor Great Park. Though she had been mother
to Queen Victoria, the Duchess of Kent had never herself been
Princess of Wales, because her second husband, Edward, Duke of Kent
had been George III’s fourth…
Today, Queen Elizabeth will be entering
her 67th year as monarch. A feat never achieved before by a British
monarch. She will not be celebrating the occasion because the date
also marks the anniversary of her father’s death. The next
nationwide celebrations for a…
The spectacular pyramids which cover the
tombs of the pharaohs are well-known, but the long-running
excavation of the Western Cemetery at Giza has recently discovered
the tomb of a female official from around 4500 years ago. Egypt’s
Ministry of Antiquities announced the…
With invitations set to go out this week
for the biggest event of the year, rumours are circulating over who
has been invited to Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s wedding, and
also, those who will be staying away. Until May 19th, we will not
know who will sit in the aisle of St George’s Chapel at Windsor,
although we certainly have a good idea of who won’t be in
attendance. Donald…
Looking for a lost Queen in Berlin: Queen Elisabeth Christine of Prussia
31st January 2018
Today, Queen Elisabeth Christine of
Prussia (1715-1797) enjoys a kind of historical exile, banished to
footnotes and paragraphs amidst the mountainous body of
biographical material which exists about her exalted husband,
Frederick II, King of Prussia, already christened…
Animals given to royalty could, of
course, become pets – but they could often be presented in the form
of political gifts, adding therefore to the monarch’s personal
sense of majestas. An example of this is the bay horse and three
brood mares, sent to Henry VIII by…
Born on 23 August 1740 to the Duke
Anthony Ulrich of Brunswick-Luneburg and his wife Anna Leopoldovna,
Ivan was the only grandson of the former Tsar of Russia Ivan V, and
consequently in line to the Russian throne. His mother was the
niece of Empress Anna and expected that one of her line would
inherit the throne once her aunt died. Consequently, Anna and her
husband had spent the majority of…
Alongside the well-established royal love
of dogs, cats are far less recorded as preferred pets, unlike their
canine counterparts. They have, however, been no less loved by
those that did own them. So revered were cats (“mau”) as sacred
animals in Ancient Egypt that they…
One of English history’s ‘forgotten’
queens, is actually one who was arguablyamong the most loved. This
was Mary II, the joint monarch – not queen consort of William III.
Forgiven by posterity for deposing her father, contemporary history
seems to have accepted…
Today we’ll explore the life of Princess
Michael of Kent. She is the wife of Prince Michael and was born
Baroness Marie Christine von Reibnitz in Sudetenland (now in the
Czech Republic) on 15 January 1945. Baroness Marie Christine’s
parents were Baron Günther Hubertus von Reibnitz and Countess Maria
Anna Szapáry von Muraszombath. She had two older half-siblings,
Margarita von Reibnitz and…
