Mary Tudor, sister of Henry VIII, married
King Louis XII of France on October 9th 1514 On this day, 501 years
ago, Mary Tudor, sister of Henry VIII, married the French
king, Louis XII. The spectacular ceremony in Abbeville in
Northern France transformed Mary into the Queen of France. No
other English princess held that title after her. In fact,
only one other daughter of a King of England…
When you think of the Victorian era, you
often think of Dickensian London, with its back-alleys, opium dens,
brothels, corrupt aristocrats and shady characters. Perhaps there
is some truth in this perception, Dickens being a social
commentator of the age; this image is also…
Within the walls of one of England’s most
picturesque castles, a queen gave birth to her only child and set
in motion a chain of events that would become one of Tudor
England’s most intriguing mysteries. The birth had been much
anticipated and much talked…
The Church of St Peter ad Vincula is a
royal peculiar and it dates back to 1520. It is situated in the
Tower’s Inner Ward, the name of the church comes from St Peter’s
incarceration under Herod Agrippa in Jerusalem. Although the
present chapel dates back to 1520, it is believed that there has
been a chapel on the site since before the Norman Conquest. The
Church of St Peter ad Vincula…
True Plantagenet, The Life of Edmund
Mortimer is a historical novel published on the life of
Edmund Mortimer, fifth Earl of March. Edmund was born in to a life
of turmoil following the deposition of King Richard II and the
accession of Henry Bolingbroke, whose claim to the…
Portsmouth comes from the Old English
Portesm?ða, which translates to: “mouth of the harbour called
Portus.” It was a city founded in the year 1180 by John of Gisors,
a Norman lord. Before that, it was known to have been a Saxon fort
called Portus Adurni in the…
George I became an international name in
1714 when he became King of Great Britain and Ireland. Until then,
he was one of many German princes and dukes with their own patch to
rule but not much reason for the rest of the world to take notice
of them. George had acquired some notoriety because of his
action-packed private life, but nothing could have prepared him for
the changes that inheriting the…
An alternative to the popular election is
the hereditary principle, which in the case of the British monarchy
is governed by the rules of primogeniture. Primogeniture is nothing
more than an algorithm for inheritance where the eldest child has
the sole right of succession.
Longevity, popularity and, above all,
impartiality. Over more than 63 years, Elizabeth II has been an
embodiment of a monarchy that always puts people first. Her
frequent engagements with her subjects and unrelenting willingness
to listen to them have distinguished her from…
Maria of Modena was born in October 1658
and is the last queen consort, so far, to have celebrated a
birthday in that month When being a queen meant that you had
married a king, rather than being a ruler yourself, life stories
were told very differently. The queens of yesteryear might have
ended up as some of the best known personalities of their time but
the start of their stories were often as…
