European RoyalsFeaturesHistory

What happened to Russia's monarchy?

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16th August 2018
“For centuries the Tsars of Russia have been waging wars simply for the lust of territory and for the glory of Autocracy. The rulers of Russia have sown the wind and they are now beginning to reap the whirlwind.” -Carl Joubert The story of Russia’s last Tsar and his family is perhaps one of the most tragic royal stories to unfold. The Communist uprising led to the death of Tsar Nicholas…
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FeaturesHistory

An Imperial Russian summer at Windsor

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8th August 2018
The visit of the future Tsar Nicholas II to Queen Victoria in the summer of 1894 has a fabled quality; it took place a mere two months after his engagement to Princess Alix of Hesse in Coburg. This visit has a special poignancy when viewed through later eyes; we know of course, that far from enjoying a period as Tsarevich and Tsarevna of Russia, Nicholas and Alix would, in fact, marry in November…
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History

'Dearest Mary': Letters from the last Tsarina

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6th August 2018
‘What sorrows this last year brought us, what endless anxieties, what worries and losses – God grant the new year may be a calmer and happier one for the whole of dear Russia. Sleep well and peacefully…’ With these words, Tsarina Alexandra Feodorovna (1872-1918) closed a letter on New Year’s Eve 1900 to Princess Marie Bariatinsky, one of the few close friends of her early years as…
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FeaturesHistory

Looking inside the bedrooms of Queen Victoria

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5th August 2018
A bedroom gives a uniquely personal insight into any historical personality and a royal personage no less so. Many key moments in Queen Victoria’s life also took place in her bedrooms, which help in no small way, to tell the story of that life. The furnishing of this most private of spaces – usually the penultimate room in the sequence of rooms which defined through architecture, the level of…
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