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Exploring Royal Scotland: The Royal Yacht Britannia

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2nd July 2019
In honour of The Queen’s Holyrood Week, we’re taking a look at royal history in and around Edinburgh. Our senior reporter Kristin Contino headed to Scotland to find out more about some favourite royal spots.“Britannia is the one place where I can truly relax,” The Queen once said, and when you tour the ship for yourself, you can understand exactly why.The decommissioned yacht, now…
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Queen Victoria's wedding shoes?

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1st July 2019
Northampton Museums own a pair of flat shoes, believed to be those worn by Queen Victoria on her wedding day, 10 February 1840. Of white satin, they certainly would have complimented the Queen’s own simple wedding dress of finely woven Spitalfields silk satin in her own words: ‘I wore a white satin gown with a very deep flounce of Honiton, imitation of old…’ Northampton Museum & Art…
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History

'We go together to Marlborough House!': 'Nicky' and 'Alix'

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29th June 2019
When Tsarevich Nicholas visited Windsor as a guest of Queen Victoria in the summer of 1894, he spent a brief time with his fiancée, Princess Alix of Hesse, at Marlborough House, the London residence of the Prince and Princess of Wales on the Mall. As Nicholas wrote with glee to his mother, Empress Marie Feodorovna, that following his short visit to Sandringham, the Norfolk residence of the Prince…
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History

Queen Victoria's 'covered' walkway at Windsor

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29th June 2019
Descending the hill at Windsor Castle down towards St George’s Chapel, today’s visitor passes the Deanery at St George’s. The upper level of this building, however, has a hidden secret within its sacred architecture. Over the leads of the Deanery was a constructed…
History

Queen Victoria's engagement to Prince Albert

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28th June 2019
One room at Windsor Castle is perhaps more associated with Queen Victoria’s marriage to Prince Albert than any other. This is what was called the Blue Closet, part of the private apartments. By a curious coincidence, Prince Albert would later die in another room of the…
History

The last will of Queen Victoria

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28th June 2019
On 25 October 1897, Queen Victoria drafted her last will, the manuscript of which is preserved at Windsor. Typically for the Queen, such a document existed outside of her journal and in her entry for that day – written up at Balmoral – there is no mention of her making it, although admittedly, this is the journal entry which survives in the copies made by her beloved daughter, Princess…
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