It’s been a seat of royal tradition for centuries, a place of coronations, kings and queens. But for much of its ancient history, Westminster Abbey was far from a go to place for royal weddings. From the end of the 14th century until the beginning of the 20th, no regal marriages took place there at all. But the House of Windsor changed all that. For the last century, it’s been a…
As 1922 got under way, newspapers began to run excited articles about a royal wedding. The only daughter of King George V and Queen Mary was about to say ‘I do’ and every moment of her marriage ceremony was up for scrutiny. Princess Mary’s wedding dress…
When Princess Patricia of Connaught, granddaughter of Queen Victoria, wed Alexander Ramsay in London in 1919, she more than made her mark. For not only had Patricia wed a man with no royal title. She had given up her own HRH to become his wife.
Victoria Patricia Helena…
The royal diary is filling up after the summer break and autumn is bringing its own fair share of fresh stories all about the past. Royal history continues to fascinate and dominate with an eternally controversial king leading the way this week. Here’s Royal Central’s round up of the best history stories from the past week.
The Face of a King
He is one of history’s most…
This month, Westminster Abbey became a royal wedding venue for the first time in centuries when Princess Patricia of Connaught married there. She was the church’s first royal bride in over 500 years. As the centenary of her wedding approaches, Royal Central is looking…
Princess Eugenie of York is just days away from marrying her partner, Jack Brooksbank, in a ceremony at St. George’s Chapel, Windsor and as she says ‘I do’ she’ll join an ever growing list of HRHs who have wed men with no royal title of their own. While princesses of yore had to say ‘I do’ to a suitably regal groom who would cement dynastic alliances, Eugenie is…
A royal wedding just wouldn’t be a royal wedding without a tiara or three. But when the then Princess Elizabeth married the Duke of Edinburgh on November 20th 1947, she almost missed out on wearing the diadem on which she’d set her heart. For just before the…
This morning, Her Majesty The Queen, accompanied by the Prince of Wales, opened The Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Galleries at Westminster Abbey.
The exhibition will display over 300 treasures from Westminster Abbey’s collection, spanning its 1000 years of history. The new…
In addition to the handful of tombs of England’s medieval kings and their queens consort clustered close to or around the great shrine of Edward the Confessor at Westminster Abbey, one royal vault is quite unlike the rest.
Some tombs are harder to find in the first instance. The first Stuart King of England James I, for example, shares mortal eternity in the resplendent Torrigiano tomb designed…
