If you think royal baby mania is a new thing, think again. For centuries, the arrival of a regal bundle of joy has got plenty of people talking. Queen Victoria and Prince Albert kept the papers and the people happy for the best part of two decades as they went about building a family of nine princes and princesses. And one month saw them welcome more bundles of joy than any other – April.
The…
Two hundred years after her birth, Queen Victoria is taking over Buckingham Palace again. As part of the celebrations for the bicentenary of the birth of Britain’s second longest reigning monarch, the most famous royal residence of them all will host a special exhibition…
When Prince Edward, the youngest child of The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh, married Sophie Rhys-Jones in June 1999, it was expected that he would be bestowed with a dukedom, as is customary for the son of a monarch on the occasion of marriage. It was instead announced…
It’s a royal relationship that has continued to intrigue even though it officially came to an end over twenty years ago. Now, the possible reunion of the Duke of York and his former wife, Sarah, is hitting the headlines once again as the pair travelled to Bahrain together, their first joint overseas trip for a quarter of a century. It was a private visit, although the Duke of York carried…
When HM The Queen bestowed the title of Duke of Cambridge on her grandson, Prince William, on his wedding day in April 2011, it marked the recreation of a title that first originated in the time of King Charles II.
A dukedom is the highest title in the British peerage system…
Moments that defined the British Monarchy – The abdication and scandal of Edward VIII
28th March 2019
On 20 January 1936, Britain’s King George V died. George V was a popular monarch with strong public morals, his son, the Prince of Wales acceded to the throne upon his father’s death. He became King Edward VIII, a name chosen as opposed to King David as there had been no…
Contained within the report made by Nicholas Sokolov, who was charged with conducting the official investigation into the fate of the Russian Imperial Family by the White Russian Government in February 1919, is an extraordinary set of four images, listed as ‘Nos. 15, 16, 17 and 18’ in my copy of The Sokolov Investigation, translation and commentary by John F. O’ Connor (1971).
It is a…
Dukedoms have been bestowed on royal males for hundreds of years, and each title carries with it a history of some description. The most recent dukedom to be bestowed by HM Queen Elizabeth was that of the Duke of Sussex – a title given to Prince Harry on the occasion…
I first encountered this hitherto neglected and virtually ‘forgotten’ letter, categorised as by Tsar Nicholas II, within the volume The Complete Wartime Correspondence of Tsar Nicholas II and the Empress Alexandra April 1914-March 1917, skilfully edited by Prof Joseph T.
Some photos tell their own story and take their own place in history as a result. While we are inundated with images of royalty, some pictures stand out as a snapshot of a moment that has its own resonance. In this occasional series, Royal Central looks at some of the best known images of royal life and the story behind them. And this time, it’s a close up on a very famous christening…
