She is set to become Japan’s next Empress
in May 2019, but today we take a look at the life of Crown Princess
Masako of Japan before she married Crown Prince Naruhito. Born
Masako Owada on 9 December 1963 at the Toranomon Hospital in
Tokyo, Japan, she is the eldest daughter of Hisashi Owada
and Yumiko Egashira. Masako’s younger sisters are
twins Reiko and Setsuko. Her father recently…
Thomas Markle was catapulted into the
spotlight when his daughter, Meghan began dating Prince Harry and
even more when it was announced that they would marry. We’ve since
seen him stage photographs and fake surgery so he wouldn’t have to
attend the wedding. And let’s…
Antony Armstrong-Jones was born on the
7th March 1930, the son of barrister Ronald Armstrong-Jones and his
first wife Anne Messel, in Belgravia, London. It is perhaps his
mother’s lineage that later led to his creative side, Oliver Messel
the stage designer was a maternal…
The Eleanor’s Cross at Hardingstone in
Northampton is a monument to medieval love. It’s one of a dozen
crosses built on the orders of King Edward I in memory of his first
wife, Eleanor of Castile. Constructed between 1291 and 1294 at the
places her coffin had rested on the way to her funeral in London in
1290, the crosses are famous across the world but just three
originals now survive in the…
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…
Princess Mabel of Orange-Nassau, or Mabel
of Orange as she is known in her daily life, is today world widely
praised for her work for children’s rights and as a global power
broker. The wife of the late Prince Friso of Orange-Nassau is the
mother of two girls. Mabel’s…
Queen Victoria began her journal in 1832
at the age of thirteen and continued to keep it until old age, with
the last entry made just nine days before she died, constituting,
therefore, a remarkable royal record. She took her journal with her
wherever she went on her travels, which was entrusted to the care
of her Wardrobe Maids. The one hundred and forty-one bound volumes
of Queen Victoria’s…
This year marks 25 years since King
Baudouin of Belgium unexpectedly died while on holiday in Spain. He
was the sixth King of the Belgians and at the same time one of the
most popular kings Belgium ever had. King Baudouin reigned from
1951 until his death in 1993. However…
Queen Victoria famously wrote of her
wedding day – 10 February 1840: ‘“Oh! This was the happiest day of
my life!” The day – 10 February – became one which the Queen – so
peculiarly concerned with dates and anniversaries – would ever
refer to as having been…
Countess Stéphanie de Lannoy was born in
Renaix, Belgium, on 18 February 1984. She is the eighth and
youngest child of the Count de Lannoy and the late Countess de
Lannoy, born Alix della Faille de Leverghem. She grew up on the
family estate in Anvaing in Hainaut, Belgium, with her seven
brothers and sisters. Stéphanie began her education at Sancta Maria
Primary School in Renaix. She went on to…
