On May 7 1697, a fire broke out and
destroyed much of the old royal palace in Stockholm. The castle Tre
Kronor, or Three Crowns in English, is now only a footnote in
history with the present royal palace of Stockholm built above the
ruins of the old middle-aged castle that burned down over 320 years
ago. But why exactly did the castle burn to ashes so mysteriously
and suddenly? Tre Kronor…
Her Majesty’s Royal Palace and Fortress
of The Tower of London is steeped in history and has occupied a
major part in royal life since it was constructed by William the
Conqueror almost 1,000 years ago. The Tower has been the backdrop
to royal life, beheadings, scandals…
In the ancient world, many cultures
invoked different forms of magic to protect their dead from those
still in the physical world. In ancient Egypt, this included
placing a curse on the mummy. One of the most famous instances of
this was the curse placed on King…
You may think that all the Kings and
Queens of Great Britain are buried somewhere in our sceptre isle,
even if in the case of some efforts are still going on to work out
exactly where. In fact, two of our Kings and one of their wives at
buried at the Royal Abbey of Our Lady of Fontevraud, in Anjou,
France. They are Henry II, his wife Eleanor of Aquitaine and their
son Richard I. For this was in…
History has her down as the ultimate
survivor but the sad end to the story of Katherine Parr, sixth wife
of Henry VIII, is behind the tales of sightings of her ghost at the
last castle she called home. For the queen consort who avoided the
axeman is said to roam the…
She was a hugely popular queen who became
beloved in the country she made her own. But Elisabeth of Belgium
was also intrigued by the past of another nation and she ventured
to King Tut’s tomb and was fascinated with Egyptology. Queen
Elisabeth of Belgium was born…
The site of Christchurch Greyfriars, is a
strange, haunting place, redolent of history. It is now a ruined,
public garden and a popular place for Londoners to take their
sandwiches for lunch. Long gone is the atmosphere of bells and
prayer from the Middle Ages; although in an odd parallel to its
previous use as a church, it manages to be a place of peace in the
noise of the City and nearby Stock…
As the only son of the Russian Empress
Catherine the Great, Tsar Paul I succeeded his mother on her death
in 1796. He would rule the Russian Empire for the next five years.
Probably, he would had ruled the Russian Empire much longer than
that. But Paul was murdered. And his…
She was the queen who gave Henry VIII the
son he so desired but Jane Seymour’s story had far from a happy
ending. The consort died just a few days after presenting the Tudor
monarch with his longed for male heir and is now said to haunt one
of the most famous royal…
Elizabeth “Jane” Shore (née Lambert) was
one of the many mistresses of King Edward IV of England. Jane would
go on to become one of the most intelligent and beautiful women in
the realm. Known as the witty mistress of the king, she would come
to be known as a dangerous political conspirator against Richard
III. [getty src=”51239545″ width=”475″…
