The monarchy in France has been confined
to the history books for many years now but that hasn’t stopped the
country’s government intervening to stop artefacts linked to its
royal past being auctioned and possibly ending up overseas. The
French Culture Minister has ensured that three items due to be sold
by descendants of the former ruling house of France can’t now go
under the hammer…
Royal Mail have released a special set of
commemorative stamps to mark the 800th anniversary of Magna Carta.
The six stamps that have been issued feature text from Magna Carta
as well as text from other charters, bills and declarations that
have developed the rule of law…
The Duke and Duchess of Windsor on their
wedding day in 1937 It was a love story that changed the course of
British history and rocked the monarchy. This is perhaps why a car,
said to have been used to sneak Wallis Simpson in and out of
Balmoral during her relationship with…
Anne Boleyn is probably best remembered
as the most controversial Queen in British history, which is
perhaps not entirely deserved. Even though much is said about her,
there are a lot things we don’t know, such as her birthday.
Unfortunately for women of that time period, it was not uncommon
for her birth date not to be recorded. Eric Ives settles on 1501 in
his magnificent biography on…
On 17 November 1558 England’s first
undisputed Queen regnant, Mary I, died, paving the way for the
accession of her half-sister Elizabeth I. Mary had been a
staunch Roman Catholic and she had been determined to bring England
back to what she believed to be the true…
by Alexander Bassano, half-plate glass
negative, circa 1888 It has been quite some time since the last
Princess of Cambridge – 132 years to be exact. Princess Mary
Adelaide of Cambridge was born in 1833. She had earned the nickname
of Fat Mary and is recorded as a…
Charles I was never popular with his
Parliament. Upon his accession to the throne in 1625, members made
clear that they would not be bullied. In an unprecedented break
with tradition, England’s law-making body decided to allow the king
to collect customs duties for only one year, as opposed to previous
monarchs who had been granted the right for life. Despite this,
Charles decided to levy tax…
The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge named
their daughter Charlotte. It’s not a big shock – the name has been
one of the favourites with the bookmakers almost since Kate
announced she was expecting back in September. And one of the
reasons it’s always been such a popular…
Although one of our more controversial
monarchs, Richard III has been ill-served by history. On the basis
of very little evidence, he has been portrayed as a child-killing
monster who waded in blood to a throne that wasn’t his to take, but
the facts show that relatively…
On 26th March, thousands came
together to say goodbye to the last Plantagenet King, Richard
III. The King’s much-publicised reburial marks the first time
since 1485 that the two opposing sides in the Wars of the Roses,
the Yorks and the Lancasters have met at Bosworth. However in 1486,
the year after the famed battle, the two families met in a very
different place. On 18th January, Elizabeth…
