FeaturesHistory

Taking a look at the Order of the Norwegian Lion

The royal order of the Norwegian Lion was a Norwegian and Swedish royal order that was instituted by King Oscar II on 21 January 1904. It had the King as the Grandmaster, and the order consisted of only one degree, similar to the Order of the Garter. The intention was that the Norwegian Lion should be a “sovereign knight order” equivalent to the Swedish Seraphim Order and the Danish…
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FeaturesHistory

Royal Wedding Dresses: Queen Mary

On July 6th 1893, London woke to a blazing hot morning after two days of rain. The streets were decked with flowers and large crowds were already settled on the pavements and lampposts as dawn broke. They had come for the royal wedding of George, Duke of York, second in line…
British RoyalsFeaturesHistoryThe Gloucesters

Royal Wedding Rewind: the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester

It was a quiet country affair, far removed from the pomp and ceremony we’ve come to expect from royal weddings. The setting was an English parish church, the regal guest list only filled a couple of pews, and the bride walked in several minutes late carrying her own train to protect it from the rain. The marriage of the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester, on 8 July 1972, was a royal wedding with a…
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HistoryQueen Elizabeth II

Princess Elizabeth and the Summer of 1938

In 1938, 80 summers ago, twelve-year-old Princess Elizabeth (now Queen Elizabeth II) and her younger sister, Margaret, looked forward excitedly to their annual holiday in Scotland during August and September. Only the recent death of their beloved maternal grandmother, the Countess of Strathmore, would mar their visit to Glamis Castle, still occupied for part of the year by their grandfather, the…
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FeaturesHistory

The lost royal 'zoo' at Windsor

Royal menageries became homes for the many animals that were given in previous centuries as political presents from their respective countries and thereby entered a life of exalted captivity, the nature of any zoo now being a controversial one. The oldest baroque zoo was…
FeaturesHistoryInsightNorway

The King of Appleton House

It was a quiet country house, described by several who knew it as ‘’little’’ and a ‘’pied a terre’, given as a wedding present to a royal couple who were expected to linger on the fringes of regal life. Yet on July 2nd 1903, it became the birthplace of one of…
British RoyalsFeaturesHistoryInsightQueen Elizabeth IIThe Netherlands

The Dutch state visit to the UK: history and memories

The official announcement that King Willem-Alexander and Queen Maxima of the Netherlands will make a state visit to the UK this autumn is confirmation of a long-awaited and hotly anticipated trip. The visit will run between October 23rd and 24th and will see the Dutch royals hosted at Buckingham Palace. Ahead of the visit, Royal Central looks back at past trips between the two nations. One of the…
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