Features

The royal Christmas marked by a theft that stunned the world

Royal Christmas traditions have evolved through the centuries. Some are based in ancient history, others are ones that the family would create over time. Some are no longer and some have evolved into what we know a royal Christmas to be today. In the 1800s, the then-Princess Victoria enjoyed many Christmases at Kensington Palace. Christmas Eve 1832, the future monarch wrote in her journal how…
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History

The king who was crowned on Christmas Day

For almost a thousand years, coronation services have taken place at Westminster Abbey, in times of peace and strife. The sovereign sometimes arrives at the Abbey a popular figure; sometimes, they’re deeply unpopular. More often than not, they’re crowned by birthright…
Features

The last Christmas of a great queen

Queen Victoria spent her last Christmas at Osborne in 1900. It was forty years exactly since Prince Albert had celebrated his final Christmas in 1860 at Windsor, the setting for so many happy family festivities in the past. Prince Albert did not live to see Christmas 1861…
Features

The royals who have loved playing in the snow

Snow has provided enjoyment for countless generations of children and adults alike; royalty, of course,is no exception to this time-honoured rule. English monarchs have wintered at Windsor since the twelfth century. Windsor Castle was the preferred royal residence in whichto spend Christmas for Queen Victoria during Prince Albert’s lifetime, Osborne House being chosen on occasion…
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Features

The future queen who has to take second place to a younger brother in a different line of succession

She’s in line to be Queen of Norway one day, but Princess Ingrid Alexandra has to take a lower place in another line of succession thanks to different rules. She is one step behind her younger brother, Prince Sverre Magnus, in the line to the British throne. Ingrid Alexandra is second in line to Norway’s crown. Her father, Crown Prince Haakon, is first in line and she is directly behind…
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History

A Royal Christmas: Celebrating in the Middle Ages

Every Christmas, we expect the Royal Family to go to Sandringham for their annual Christmas Day church service and later, hear a speech from the Monarch. While that is the tradition in the 21st century, the days of the Royal Family celebrating Christmas in a big way date…
Features

The revealing Christmas celebrations of a future queen

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…
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