Currently displayed in the special
exhibition at London’s Science Museum, The Last Tsar: Blood and
Revolution – exploring the role of medicine in the lives of the
Russian Imperial Family as well as the use of modern science
involved in the investigation concerning their murder – is a
chandelier, but no ordinary one. I first encountered this
chandelier nearly twenty years ago, as a black…
Royalty is a world where the past is as
much a part of the present as the future. The past seven days have
seen the spotlight fall on celebrations and commemorations in equal
measure – here’s the week in royal history. Queen Victoria will be
reigning supreme at…
Royal weddings, eh? You wait ages for one
to come along and then two arrive at once. We’ve just had a double
dose of regal matrimony with the wedding of the Duke and Duchess of
Sussex in May followed swiftly by the marriage of Princess Eugenie
and Jack Brooksbank in…
The first thing that Princess Victoria
did on the morning of 20 June 1837 was to reach for her dressing
gown. This historic moment in the Queen’s life has always held a
particular fascination for me, and I have regularly revisited it
from various angles, from profiling the Archbishop of Canterbury
who knelt before her that morning with the Lord Chamberlain, Lord
Conyngham, to the staircase she…
Personal items of Queen Victoria acquired by Historic Royal Palaces
2nd November 2018
Some personal items belonging to Queen
Victoria have been acquired by Historic Royal Palaces, the
independent charity which maintains Kensington Palace, ahead of the
bicentenary of the Queen’s birth in 2019, which the palace will
celebrate with a new exhibition and…
The Royal and Military Order of Saint
Ferdinand is a Spanish military order and Spain’s highest military
decoration for gallantry. The Royal Military Order of Saint
Ferdinand was set up by the Cádiz Cortes in 1811 to honour the
heroic fight against the Napoleonic…
It was a famous royal love story that
shocked as much as it thrilled. John of Gaunt was the
ultra-ambitious prince whose desire to be a king almost cost him
his life, Katherine Swynford was the mysterious commoner who
supplanted a queen in his affections. Their relationship lasted
decades, survived a serious separation and ultimately led to the
creation of a dynasty which would snatch the throne…
‘Saw good Mrs Clark, returned from
Darmstadt, who gave me an excellent account of Alice, the Baby &
dear little Victoria’(Quoted in Charlotte Zeepvat, From Cradle to
Crown, 13). With these words, Queen Victoria recorded in her
journal for 13 December 1864, that…
The white caps worn by Queen Victoria
have – correctly – come to be regarded as a symbol for her
widowhood. They represent one of the few contrasts in colour to the
deepest mourning that she adopted after 1861, as a declaration in
textile, of the colossal…
Following the recent wedding of Princess
Eugenie and Jack Brooksbank, we take a look at other princesses who
have married commoners. Here is the story of Princess Margaret and
her photographer husband, Antony Armstrong-Jones. Princess Margaret
was always one to do things her way, and Antony “Tony”
Armstrong-Jones was far from the typical royal suitor. Born 7 March
1930, Antony grew up…
