State & Ceremonial

New law calling for women to inherit hereditary titles passes first stage in Parliament

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5th March 2019
A bill calling for the law to be changed so that women can inherit titles and hereditary peerages has passed its first stage in the House of Commons. Conservative MP Philip Davies introduced a Ten Minute Rule motion in the Commons on Tuesday which called on the law to change so that hereditary titles aren’t exclusively passed down to men. NEW: MPs have approved Philip Davies’s Ten Minute…
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HistoryPalaces & Buildings

Caernarfon Castle - A History of Investitures

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4th March 2019
On Tuesday, 5 March, a special reception will be held at Buckingham Palace in honour of Prince Charles, who is this year celebrating 50 years as the Prince of Wales. Hosted by Her Majesty The Queen, the reception is expected to be attended by all of the senior members of the Royal Family and will be a celebration of Welsh organisations, businesses, charities and music. The investiture of Prince…
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FeaturesHistory

Poetry and the Tsarina?

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27th February 2019
Included amongst the works read as a young woman by Princess Alix of Hesse, later Tsarina Alexandra Feodorovna (1872-1918), were – according to letters that she wrote to her eldest sister, Victoria, Princess Louis of Battenberg – Guizot’s Reformation de la Litterature, the Life of Cromwell and Raumer’s nine-volume set, Geschichte der Hohenstaufen (Baroness Sophie Buxhoeveden, the Life and…
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FeaturesHistory

'My darling Auntie': Tsarina Alexandra Feodorovna and Princess Louise

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21st February 2019
Amongst the extensive collection of letters left by Princess Louise, Duchess of Argyll, the sixth daughter of Queen Victoria, are at least two from her niece, Tsarina Alexandra Feodorovna (1872-1918). Two of Alexandra’s letters to her aunt were reproduced in the admirable book Darling Loosy, Letters to Princess Louise 1856-1939, ed. Elizabeth Longford (1991). I want to explore these letters and…
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