When the newly-married Queen Victoria returned with Prince Albert to Buckingham Palace, she was with the Prince ‘from 10m. to 2 till 20 m.p.2’, after which the couple went down for the wedding breakfast. During these thirty minutes, Queen Victoria gave Prince Albert his own wedding ring (Elizabeth Longford, Queen Victoria, 152). At this wedding breakfast was the royal cake. This cake, unlike…
Queen Victoria’s wedding veil was an object of singular poignancy because of the enormous sentimental value that it represented to her in personal terms and the context in which she last wore it. She wore in on the monumental day – 10 February 1840 – the day she…
In the summer of 1894, Tsarevich Nicholas of Russia came to stay at Walton-on-Thames, in the house which his fiancée, Princess Alix of Hesse’s eldest sister, Victoria, Princess Louis of Battenberg and her husband, Prince Louis of Battenberg had rented. They would stay in…
The first and only time that the boy Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart visited London occurred between 1764-5, at about the half-way point of the Mozart family’s monumental European Grand Tour, which was to prove pivotal in Wolfgang’s developmental process as a composer, the beginning proper of those childhood travels he would make on his path towards musical maturity.
Over the fifteen months that…
His birth secured the succession in a way the British royal family had never known before. When Mary, Duchess of York delivered a healthy boy on June 23rd 1894 she ensured that her royal dynasty had three heirs in direct line to the throne. But the baby who arrived that day…
It is the high point of summer and a high point in the royal history books. For June 22nd, in the very heart of midsummer, has seen some of the most celebrated and sparkling of all regal events. And all of them are milestones in famous reigns. Here are four special royal…
A picture is worth a thousand words and sometimes captures the essence of a moment more than the most perfect prose. The royal story is filled with images that tell a tale all of their own. In this occasional series, Royal Central looks at some of the best known pictures in regal history and today we rewind almost four decades to a very famous debut in London.
The picture – June 22nd 1982…
The last major Windsor wedding of the 20th century became something of a turning point for The Queen and her family. It wasn’t just that this royal celebration was more informal and more relaxed than the spectacular ceremonial of previous royal marriages. The wedding of…
Every picture tells its own story. In this occasional series, Royal Central looks at some of the most interesting regal images ever taken and today, it’s time to go to Ascot. The meeting, which takes place every June at the famous racecourse just down the road from…
Wallis Simpson was a polarising figure in the British Royal Family and continues to divide royal watchers today. Born on 19 June 1896 as Bessie Wallis Warfield, Simpson would go on to marry the former King Edward VIII.
The women in the British Royal Family have been using fashion and style to make statements for centuries. Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother very specifically used fashion to create…
