On this day in 1911, King George V and Queen Mary were crowned at Westminster Abbey in London.
George Frederick Ernest Albert was born on 3 June 1865 in Marlborough House as the second son of the Prince and Princess of Wales, Albert and Alexandra. Queen Victoria was George’s paternal grandmother, and King Christian IX of Denmark was his maternal grandfather. He was christened on 7 July 1865…
#OnThisDay in 1377: King Richard II succeeds King Edward III
21st June 2016
On June 21, 1377, ten-year-old Prince Richard of England succeeded his grandfather, King Edward III, to become King Richard II. At the time of his death, King Edward was 64 years old and had ruled England for half a century.
Prince Richard was born in Bordeaux, in France…
#OnThisDay in 1999: Prince Edward marries Sophie Rhys-Jones
19th June 2016
Today the Earl and Countess of Wessex celebrate their 18th wedding anniversary.
The couple met in 1993 at a tennis event and began dating afterwards, ultimately for six years before an engagement.
The prince proposed with an engagement ring from Garrard & Co. worth an…
Wallis and Edward: Love Over Duty
13th June 2016
It was on January 10, 1931 at Burrough Court that Miss. Wallis Simpson was introduced to Edward, Prince of Wales for the first time. Wallis was a divorced woman who was then married to Ernest Aldrich Simpson, a shipping executive, and Edward was the Heir Apparent to the British throne. They were introduced to each other through a friend of Wallis’s. Thelma, Lady Furness, who was the then…
On 13 June 1987 Princess Anne, only daughter of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh was given the title of ‘Princess Royal’.
In her role as Princess Royal, Princess Anne supports the Queen’s role as sovereign and carries out official duties on…
#OnThisDay in 1683: The Rye House Plot, to assassinate English king Charles II was discovered
12th June 2016
On this day in 1683 a plot to assassinate King Charles II of England and his brother/heir James was discovered.
King Charles II was unpopular with the Protestant members of Parliament because although he was officially an Anglican, both he and his brother/heir were very…
#OnThisDay in 1488: James III of Scotland is murdered
11th June 2016
On this day in 1488, King James III of Scotland was murdered soon after the Battle of Sauchieburn.
King James III ascended to the throne at the age of eight years old after his father King James II passed away. As the young king was only a boy, three different authorities administered the kingdom in his place. The first of these was his mother, Mary of Guelders who was in authority for three…
#OnThisDay in 1183: Henry the Young King of England died while attempting to usurp his father’s crown.
11th June 2016
On this day in 1183 Henry the Young King of England died at 28
King Henry II had noticed that to wait until the death of the king to determine his successor only caused uproar in his family. So King Henry II decided that the solution was to make his son Henry the co-king, an…
The Queen ascended to the throne on 2 February 1952, upon the death of her father King George VI, but was not crowned for more than a year afterwards, as the period of mourning required wouldn’t allow a swift ceremony, and the planning behind it would take some time.
The…
On this day in 1670 King Charles II, his sister Princess Henrietta, and King Louis XIV of France made a deal behind closed doors.
In 1534 King Henry VIII formally severed English ties to the Catholic Church by the passing of laws through Parliament including The Act of Supremacy. After these laws were passed the King was the head of the English church. 100 years later there were still conflicts…