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Queen Victoria and Windsor Castle

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1st April 2018
Queen Victoria is inextricably linked with Windsor Castle, but these associations, whilst deep-rooted, are in fact not always visible. A statue of her is within the first section of the State Apartments at Windsor Castle and her throne and footstool – presented to her in 1851 – upon which she chose to be photographed officially as Empress of India, is displayed in the Garter Throne Room. A…
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Queen Victoria's wedding

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3rd March 2018
“Oh! This was the happiest day of my life!” With these words, Queen Victoria described her wedding day in her diary – 10 February 1840, writing up the event for the day’s entry from Windsor Castle. It marked the beginning of her marriage to her cousin, Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. The opposite date of this ecstatic exhortation of joy on behalf of the Queen was unquestionably 14…
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Queen Victoria's Journals

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11th February 2018
On 1 August 1832, the thirteen-year-old Princess Victoria of Kent made her first entry into her diary; it was a diary, as she described it on its title page, which had been given to her by her mother, the Duchess of Kent, at Kensington Palace the day before. Bound in…
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Taking a look at other royal pets and animals

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23rd January 2018
Animals given to royalty could, of course, become pets – but they could often be presented in the form of political gifts, adding therefore to the monarch’s personal sense of majestas. An example of this is the bay horse and three brood mares, sent to Henry VIII by Francesco Gonzaga, Marquis of Mantua in 1514. The personal prestige of the monarch was also flattered by the exotic nature of…
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Victory as the battle to keep Victoria's coronet in the UK is won

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27th August 2017
A long battle to keep one of Queen Victoria’s most magnificent jewels in the UK seems to have been won. The Queen’s sapphire and diamond coronet is now heading to the Victoria & Albert Museum in London after it was bought and donated by an Irish-American hedge fund owner, identified by the Sunday Times as William Bollinger. The iconic jewel, designed by the Queen’s dear husband Prince…
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