Princess Margaret’s years as a single woman were followed with the most considerable interest in Britain, where there was a great deal of excitement over her choice of husband.
It was assumed in 1955 that she would marry Peter Townsend. However, Townsend was a divorcee at a time when the Church of England wouldn’t allow the remarriage of a divorcee with a living former spouse. Princess…
Queen Victoria's wedding
3rd March 2018
“Oh! This was the happiest day of my life!”
With these words, Queen Victoria described her wedding day in her diary – 10 February 1840, writing up the event for the day’s entry from Windsor Castle. It marked the beginning of her marriage to her cousin, Prince Albert…
Why Charles and Camilla couldn’t wed at Windsor Castle
3rd March 2018
When the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall announced their engagement in February 2005 they wasted no time in setting a date or venue for their marriage. They immediately told the world they would marry in April that year in a civil ceremony at Windsor Castle…
In the magnificent twelfth-century Gothic cathedral church of Roskilde on the island of Zealand, thirty-nine Kings and Queens of Denmark are buried. One Danish queen, however, is missing – and by no mere accident or fluke of history. Members of the Royal House of Denmark that she knew, such as her formidable stepmother-in-law, Queen Juliana Marie, are at Roskilde, as is, of course, her one-time…
King Harald could have become King at the age of three
20th February 2018
On Wednesday, King Harald of Norway turns 81-years-old. There will be no big celebration like last year, but a private celebration with friends and the closest family. On the occasion of the King of Norway’s birthday, we will look at the not so well known history of…
Rukidi IV of Toro: The Boy King
13th February 2018
When most of us are three-years-old, we are in our front yard playing with our toys and neighbourhood kids and running around without a care in the world besides who’s going to win hide and seek. On 26 August 1995, Crown Prince Oyo Nyimba succeeded his father as the…
Queen Victoria's Journals
11th February 2018
On 1 August 1832, the thirteen-year-old Princess Victoria of Kent made her first entry into her diary; it was a diary, as she described it on its title page, which had been given to her by her mother, the Duchess of Kent, at Kensington Palace the day before. Bound in red, the diary bears the stamp of her name in gilt letters: “H.R.H The Princess Victoria”; it had been given to her so…
Queen Victoria's Mother - the Duchess of Kent
7th February 2018
On 16 March 1861, the Duchess of Kent, born Princess Marie Louise Victoire of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld and by her first marriage, Princess of Leinigen, died at her residence of Frogmore House, in Windsor Great Park. Though she had been mother to Queen Victoria, the Duchess of…
4500-year-old tomb found of royal palace official in Egypt
5th February 2018
The spectacular pyramids which cover the tombs of the pharaohs are well-known, but the long-running excavation of the Western Cemetery at Giza has recently discovered the tomb of a female official from around 4500 years ago. Egypt’s Ministry of Antiquities announced the…
Looking for a lost Queen in Berlin: Queen Elisabeth Christine of Prussia
31st January 2018
Today, Queen Elisabeth Christine of Prussia (1715-1797) enjoys a kind of historical exile, banished to footnotes and paragraphs amidst the mountainous body of biographical material which exists about her exalted husband, Frederick II, King of Prussia, already christened ‘the Great’ by contemporary Europe and whom she prided herself on having been married to.
It is a sad echo of the type of…