Features

Princess Leonor’s first foreign honour has an ancient history

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14th July 2024
As she undertook her first official visit to Portugal, Princess Leonor was given the Grand Cross of the Military Order of Christ by President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa.The Order, which has three homonyms around the world in the Holy See, the House of Orléans-Bragança and Kongo (an ancient African Kingdom located in the territory of modern day Angola), has very ancient origins, as it is…
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Features

Is this queen England's greatest ever consort?

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12th July 2024
On a hot summer day in 1543, a young widow married an ageing and much wed king in a ceremony that took many by surprise. By the time Katherine Parr said ‘I do’ to Henry VIII in the Queen’s Closet at Hampton Court Palace on July 12th1543, his five previous unions…
Features

The unhappy royal bride who links Monaco to a very famous throne

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10th July 2024
While some links between royal houses are well known and rather close, others are a little more distant and perhaps all the more interesting for that. And although the links between Albert II and Charles III might be stretched, they are still there.The connection between the House of Windsor and the House of Grimaldi begins in the 19th century when Albert I, Prince of Monaco married a British…
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Features

The princess who gave up being HRH - for love

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10th July 2024
Many of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert’s grandchildren married into various royal families across Europe. Not all did, though. Princess Patricia of Connaught was the daughter of Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught and Strathearn and Princess Margaret Louise of Prussia, and…
Features

A royal rarity - an emerald engagement ring

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10th July 2024
It’s rare to see a royal engagement ring featuring an emerald. The striking stone features in very few of these most romantic pieces of jewellery but it has a starring role in the ring worn by a princess who will walk down the aisle at this summer’s biggest royal…
Features

The Palais-Royal: from a prince of the church to revolution

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9th July 2024
While we often associate the French royals with the Palace of Versailles and the Louvre Palace, they owned far more than that over the centuries. The Palais-Royal in Paris began as a cardinal’s palace but made its way into royal hands.The Palais-Royal is in the 1st arrondissement of Paris, on Rue Saint-Honoré. Architect Jacques Lemercier was commissioned in the late 1620s to create a…
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Features

The Prime Minister who had to go to France to kiss hands with a monarch

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5th July 2024
When Edward VII had headed to Biarritz for a springtime break in 1908, his government had been under the stewardship of Liberal Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman. But his health was failing fast and on April 3rd, he resigned. Herbert Asquith, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, was selected as his successor without opposition ensuring a smooth transition – with one small obstacle. The king was still…
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