FeaturesHistory

The lost royal 'zoo' at Windsor

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5th July 2018
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 founded at the Austrian imperial summer residence of Schönbrunn, in 1760, just as there was a Royal Menagerie in the fabled…
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FeaturesHistoryInsightNorway

The King of Appleton House

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4th July 2018
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 RoyalsFeaturesHistory

Before they were royal: The life of Diana, Princess of Wales

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3rd July 2018
The life of Diana, Princess of Wales was never far removed from royalty even before she married into the House of Windsor. A member of the influential Spencer family, she counted King Edward III, King Henry VII and King Charles II among her ancestors while she’d been named in honour of a distant relative who had once been mooted as a bride for George II’s son and heir, Frederick, Prince of…
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British RoyalsFeaturesHistory

History's Royal Kates: the almost queen

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30th June 2018
Born a princess, daughter of a feted king and a much-admired queen, this royal Kate seemed destined for a crown of her own. But when civil war once more erupted in England, she found herself on the wrong side of royal favour and ended up a countess instead. This is the story of Katherine of York, one of the last Plantagenet princesses. Katherine was born on August 14th, 1479, at Eltham Palace in…
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FeaturesHistory

The Swiss Cottage, Osborne and Queen Victoria's Children

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28th June 2018
The Swiss Cottage at Osborne is a capsule of successive royal childhood, which continued to hold a place in the affections of the first children that used it – the nine children of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert – long after they had grown up, just as it would for their own children, most of whom played there in the next generation. The Princess Royal, for example, returned to the Swiss…
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