She was the queen who made her mark on
Christmas. So much of how we celebrate the festive season began in
the Victorian era and the monarch who gave her name to that time
left intricate records of how she celebrated. In this special
series, Royal Central looks at some of the most important of them
and discovers how Queen Victoria celebrated Christmas. The
Christmas of 1832 is the first recorded…
King Harald’s gift to Prince Sverre
Magnus on his 18th birthday was the designation as a Grand Cross of
the Order of St. Olav. The prince, the only grandson of King Harald
and Queen Sonja, received the gift just days before he comes of
age. And it’s a very special…
All the brand new Christmas traditions being put in place by the Royal Family
1st December 2023
The Christmas period is always a
particularly fun time for royal watching, with behind-the-scenes
pictures of the palaces being decorated for the holidays and royals
carrying out holiday-themed engagements moving to the forefront.
The Royal Family have always played a…
The royal reason a magnificent Christmas tree stands in Trafalgar Square
1st December 2023
Every year since 1947, a 20-metre tall
tree has been donated to the British as a thank-you from Norway.
Now, that tree shines in London’s Trafalgar Square every holiday
season. The tree was given to thank the British for their support
during World War II. In April 1940, Germany invaded Norway and
attempted to capture King Haakon VII, the royal family, and other
members of the Norwegian…
King Karl XII of Sweden was born 17 June
1682 as the son of King Karl XI and the Danish-born Ulrika
Eleonora. Karl continued his father’s war politics against other
Nordic nations, which led to Denmark joining forces with Poland and
Russia. They then went to war with…
Many choose to send holiday greetings to
the royal families around Christmas. In response, most get a
Christmas reply, expressing the royals’ thanks and well wishes for
the year ahead. So, what address should you send your Christmas
letters to? We have a breakdown…
The royal wedding that glittered for a dynasty heading for crisis
29th November 2023
It was a wedding featuring two very
popular royals and two ceremonies and it led to one of the most
influential unions of the 20th century. The marriage of Prince
George, Duke of Kent and Princess Marina of Greece, on November
29th 1934, was a day that changed the House of Windsor forever. The
couple matched each other in popularity and royal suitability. The
groom was the dashing fourth son of…
The future queen who decided to accept the possibility of a crown over tea at a London hotel
27th November 2023
On a summer’s day in 1818, a young German
princess walked into one of the most famous hotels in London to
meet a man twice her age. Just a year earlier, Adelaide of
Saxe-Meiningen and her suitor, William, Duke of Clarence, would
never have considered chatting let alone…
Poignant heirlooms and peacocks - the historic emeralds of a royal family
27th November 2023
The emerald features in some of the most
striking royal tiaras and necklaces currently used by ruling houses
around Europe. Among the most historic are the tiaras dominated by
that stone which are owned by the Luxembourg Grand Ducal Family.
Chaumet Emerald Tiara The…
The princess who wore blue to say I do to a prince who waited decades to marry her
26th November 2023
It’s one of my all time favourite royal
wedding dresses and just a glimpse of it can make me feel ever so
slightly emotional. For not only was the pale blue gown worn by a
lass called Lilian from Swansea on a cold, December day in 1976 a
masterclass in elegance and chic, it was also the wedding dress of
a princess decades in the making. It’s now forty four years since
Prince Bertil of…
