History

Christmas at Windsor to include gifts exchanged by Queen Victoria and Prince Albert

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23rd November 2019
The bicentenary of the births of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert will be celebrated by a small display at Windsor, once the setting for the many Christmases which the royal couple spent together with their growing family of nine children. Displayed in the Octagon Dining Room, it will recall the ritual of the Bescherung, [‘Giving of Gifts’] the traditional German custom of exchanging gifts on…
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HistoryRoyal Weddings

Princess Charlotte: a historic royal wedding dress

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17th August 2019
In the Royal Ceremonial Dress Collection at Kensington Palace is preserved one of the most important wedding dresses in British history. Worn by Princess Charlotte (1796-1817) for her wedding on 2 May 1816 in the magnificent Crimson Drawing Room at Carlton House to Prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld. It was a wedding dress to celebrate not only the personal happiness of the popular Princess…
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FeaturesHistory

The Week in Royal History: Queen Victoria rules

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20th July 2019
As summer approaches, Queen Victoria is the royal everyone is talking about. Even the descendant who supplanted her as longest reigning monarch in British history has been following in her famous footsteps in the past few days as the woman who changed our concept of royalty forever takes centre stage in one of the biggest royal exhibitions of the year. Even Victoria herself might be amused.
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FeaturesHistoryInsight

Two Empresses: Two Widows

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12th July 2019
In 1888, a year whose numbering Queen Victoria thought odd (‘Never can it be written again!’), her daughter, the Princess Royal and Crown Princess of Prussia, had become German Empress, prompting the proud words from her mother: ‘My OWN dear Empress Victoria… may God bless her!’ (cit., Elizabeth Longford, Queen Victoria, 551). After a reign of a mere ninety-nine days, her husband Emperor…
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