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 Buckingham Palace again next year as she is set
to take centre stage in the summer opening at the most famous royal
residence…
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…
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…
‘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 she had seen Mrs Clark, the
nurse who had attended the confinement in Darmstadt of her second
daughter, Alice, Princess…
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…
Princess Frederica was born into the
House of Hanover in 1848. Her parents were George, Crown Prince of
Hanover and his wife, Princess Marie of Saxe-Altenberg. The
Princess was also addressed as ‘Her Highness’ when in the United
Kingdom due to her descent from King…
Details of the major restoration project
being carried out at the final resting place of Queen Victoria and
Prince Albert at Windsor have been revealed. It’s a rare chance to
see behind the scenes at the Royal Mausoleum at Frogmore where the
queen and her beloved consort were laid to rest. The Royal
Mausoleum at Frogmore was built on swampy land (photo Royal Family
Instagram) The work is needed…
Queen Victoria’s accession began with a
staircase. Fascinating to consider is the fact that this very
staircase survives at Kensington Palace and may be seen today. A
staircase had also played a part on another historic day in
Victoria’s life, much later. On 10 October…
Hanging in the magnificent Waterloo
Chamber at Windsor is the state portrait of King William IV in his
Garter robes with the Garter and Bath collars, painted by Sir David
Wilkie for the King in 1832, that parliamentary historic year of
the Reform Act and also the year in…
For some, Queen Victoria remains etched
into the popular memory as the monochrome royal widow, dressed in
black for the rest of her life, a black occasionally relieved by
the enormous white handkerchiefs which she often took around with
her, or the little lace cap, that became in a different way, a
symbol of her mourning. This, of course, is true. It is an image
the Queen firmly cultivated. But it…
