Palaces & Buildings

The ghost of George II: royal scare shows are all the rage this year

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23rd September 2015
Hot on the heels of Hampton Court announcing a series of spooky walks for Hallowe’en, another of the buildings under the care of Historic Royal Palaces is offering the chance to look for regal ghosts. In just a few weeks time, Kensington Palace will open its doors for eerie evening tours which HRP say will offer three hundred years of secrets – all to be uncovered in just a few hours. The…
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Palaces & Buildings

A star of Downton Abbey with royal history sells for millions of pounds

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22nd September 2015
It’s currently best known as the Dower House in Downton Abbey, the place where the waspish Dowager Countess of Grantham dispenses some of her wittiest and most withering put downs but in times past it has seen kings, queens, princes and princesses at play in its surrounds. And now Byfleet Manor in Surrey is making headlines again as it stars in a multi million pound sale. Byfleet Manor in…
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FeaturesHistory

Monarchy Rules: a look at Edward VII

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19th September 2015
Today, our dear Prince Harry would be what many may define as a “playboy prince”, but he doesn’t even begin to hold a candle to his ancestor Edward VII. King Edward VII of Britain – From the painting by W. H. Margetson Born 9 November 1841 to Queen…
FeaturesHistory

Monarchy Rules: a look at George V

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17th September 2015
George V was born George Frederick Ernest Albert to the Prince and Princess of Wales, the future King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra, on 3 June 1865. He was their second child, their first being Prince Albert Victor. When George was twelve, he and his brother were sent to the Royal Navy’s training ship where they would spend three years visiting places including Egypt, the Caribbean, and…
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History

Edward & Joan: A Plantagenet Love Story

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6th September 2015
“The most beautiful woman in all the realm of England, and the most loving,” fourteenth-century French chronicler, Jean Froissart once said of Joan of Kent. Joan, known by the sobriquet of “the Fair Maid of Kent,” was thirty-two and recently widowed upon the death of her late husband, Thomas de Holland, Earl of Kent. A Woman of Controversy The right panel of the Wilton Diptych…
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