In 1888, a year whose numbering Queen
Victoria thought odd (‘Never can it be written again!’), her
daughter, the Princess Royal and Crown Princess of Prussia, had
become German Empress, prompting the proud words from her mother:
‘My OWN dear Empress Victoria… may God bless her!’ (cit., Elizabeth
Longford, Queen Victoria, 551). After a reign of a mere ninety-nine
days, her husband Emperor…
Frederick II, accorded the epithet ‘the
Great’ already during his own lifetime, had in fact, a whole other
life after death, aside from his legacy. The great King’s legend
stalks the eighteenth century like a gigantic historic shadow, much
as the oversize silhouette of…
Emanuela Orlandi – the 15-year-old
daughter of a Vatican clerk – went missing in 1983 when she failed
to return home after a music lesson in Rome. The search for her
continues to this day and her family recently received an anonymous
letter saying that her body…
After the First World War, several of
Europe’s monarchies fell, and among them were the German and
Austrian-Hungarian Empires. While many of the royalty in these
countries fled to other countries to live their lives in exile,
others chose to remain in their country of birth. Many of these had
no idea of what was to come – that they would suffer greatly under
Nazism, which would affect…
A fond tradition arose in the lifetime of
Benjamin Disraeli, Lord Beaconsfield, Queen Victoria’s two-time
Prime Minister, namely that of his receiving flowers, often
primroses from the Queen. To Disraeli, Queen Victoria was the
‘Faery’ – his endearing name for his…
Buckingham Palace has confirmed that a
man was detained in the early hours of this morning in Buckingham
Palace’s forecourt. The 22-year-old man is believed to have climbed
over the fence from the Buckingham Palace Road side of the
building; he was arrested just a few…
Perched atop Castle Rock, the ancient
volcanic plug that towers above the city of Edinburgh, sits the
most besieged place in Britain. Edinburgh Castle has served as a
military fortress, royal residence, and prison of war, but today it
stakes its claim as the most-visited paid tourist attraction in
Scotland. The castle is on the must-see list for every tour group
that travels through the…
They have been home to generations of
royals who have carved their names in the history books and in
2019, their power to fascinate continues. A new survey has taken a
look at the most popular regal residences in Europe and those
belonging to the British royals take four of…
In the Western manuscripts collection
held at the British Library are what are known as the Boyd
Carpenter papers, Vol. V, Add MS 46721: 1884-1917. This remarkable
collection of documents contain letters written in English from or
on behalf of various crowned heads of Europe…
In the British Library five letters from
Princess Alix of Hesse, later Tsarina Alexandra Feodorovna of
Russia (1872-1918) are preserved. Initially, I thought there were
seven letters of hers at the British Library, but further research
has enabled me to establish that these are instead, two postcards
in Russian, to her only son, Tsarevich Alexei Nikolaevich
(1904-1918). These letters are…
