FeaturesHistoryInsight

The Tsarina's letters to William Boyd Carpenter, Bishop of Ripon

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7th July 2019
In the British Library five letters from Princess Alix of Hesse, later Tsarina Alexandra Feodorovna of Russia (1872-1918) are preserved. Initially, I thought there were seven letters of hers at the British Library, but further research has enabled me to establish that these are instead, two postcards in Russian, to her only son, Tsarevich Alexei Nikolaevich (1904-1918). These letters are…
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Knitting with Queen Victoria

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5th July 2019
A charming photograph taken by Mary Steen in the Queen’s Sitting Room at Windsor on 21 May 1895 shows an elderly Queen Victoria knitting or crocheting, sat with her youngest daughter, Beatrice, Princess Henry of Battenberg, who dutifully reads the newspaper aloud to her…
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Queen Victoria's Bridesmaids

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4th July 2019
Queen Victoria had twelve bridesmaids. What do we know about them? What did they wear? Certainly the Queen – as might be expected – had a greater number of bridesmaids than her daughters would at their weddings, eight being a recurring choice. We can see them clustered in pairs in Sir George Hayter’s large painting The Marriage of Queen Victoria, 10 February 1840, gathered respectfully…
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An Earlier Royal Christening at Windsor

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4th July 2019
Of Queen Victoria’s nine children, one alone was born at Windsor Castle. This royal child was also christened there. This was the second son of the Queen and Prince Albert, baptised in the Private Chapel at Windsor Castle on 6 September 1844. This child would be Prince…
FeaturesHistoryInsight

Queen Victoria's sapphire brooch

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3rd July 2019
On the eve of her wedding to Prince Albert, Queen Victoria received a sapphire diamond-bordered brooch. It was an item of personal jewellery to which she would attach intense sentimental importance. It became in a way, a symbol of her marriage to Prince Albert and she valued it so highly that on her death, she willed it to the Crown to prevent its being given on further within the Royal Family. It…
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When Russia came to Sandringham

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3rd July 2019
In the summer of 1894, the Tsarevich Nicholas came to England as a guest of Queen Victoria, first staying for a brief few days with his fiancée, Princess Alix of Hesse, at Walton-on-Thames before continuing to Windsor Castle. This was a blissful period for a young couple…
HistoryRoyal Weddings

Flowers from the weddings of Queen Victoria's daughters

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30th June 2019
On the upper floor of the Swiss Cottage at Osborne, a rustic structure carved with Biblical texts in German and built behind the individual garden plots belonging to each of the royal children, today’s visitor finds this large room set as if for tea, with napkins turned to the shape of the Prince of Wales’ feathers, as if the Royal Family are at any moment, expected. An afternoon memorialised…
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