On 29 May 1894, Tsarevich Nicholas of Russia wrote to his mother, Empress Marie Feodorovna, that he could see the sea from the room in which he was writing, in the imperial palace of Peterhof and that he had ‘such a longing for the yacht and want to fly there to join my betrothed’(Edward J. Bing, Letters of Tsar Nicholas II and Empress Marie, 81). He planned to leave for England on 31st…
During the time they were at Coburg, Princess Alix of Hesse and Tsarevich Nicholas of Russia became engaged, a date they would treasure for the rest of their lives – 8 April 1894. Whilst they were in Coburg, visited the theatre and saw an operetta of which they would…
In May 1894, Princess Alix of Hesse undertook a cure in the fashionable Yorkshire spa town of Harrogate for sciatica. She had become engaged to Tsarevich Nicholas of Russia at Coburg the previous month. Whilst she stayed at Harrogate, she regularly corresponded with her…
The earliest memories of a historical personage are extraordinarily important, as not only do they reveal first consciousness of their world and circumstances but crucially, what they remembered first. They tell snippets of true events, as they saw them. Of course, we know that all true biography begins before birth and that event could hardly be expected to count amongst any of even the very…
On 16 March 1861, Queen Victoria’s mother, the Duchess of Kent, died at Frogmore House, the private residence in Windsor Great Park which she had often used, living there for approximately two decades. After her death, the summer house she had planned during her lifetime…
As D-Day took place, King George VI spoke to the people of Britain and the Empire it still retained. His speech was set to inspire, to comfort and to look to the future with determination as World War Two entered a new phase, one which he himself referred to as ‘a…
Queen Victoria’s visited Balmoral in her beloved Scottish Highlands in the late autumn of 1900. The Queen could not know it, but it was the last time that she would see the new castle which Prince Albert had erected in her words as his ‘own work… as at Osborne’ and which had become a box of intensely personal memories. So deeply did the Queen feel her first visit to Balmoral after Prince…
The Queen was crowned 66 years ago today. The coronation of Elizabeth II took place at Westminster Abbey and while the ancient ceremony took place, a nation celebrated. This glittering moment in what would become a record breaking reign was shared by millions who took to the…
The Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II took place 66 years ago today. The young monarch, who had succeeded to the throne on the death of her father, King George VI, on February 6th 1952 was carried to this ancient ceremony in a golden coach while the world watched. Millions of…
Was Queen Victoria a Victorian? The question is a complex and fascinating one to answer.
In the immediate response, Victoria would seem to typify what it meant to be ‘Victorian’ because her long reign straddled the nineteenth century, and the age was accordingly named after her. It begs then the further question of what a Victorian was if Queen Victoria wasn’t one, as well as…
