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 bride was set to leave for Westminster Abbey, her tiara snapped in two.
The diamond disaster happened as the future Queen was…
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…
The Coronation of Elizabeth II on June 2nd 1953 is often spoken of as the moment that a new era began. It was a moment of history and just the sixth time a queen regnant had been crowned in England’s history. As Royal Central marks 65 years since the Queen’s Coronation, here’s a look back at the crowning of England’s other female rulers.
Mary I
Mary I became the first woman…
First and foremost, we think of bells as something we hear and don’t see. The bells of Westminster Abbey now mingle in between the great soundscape of London noise and the busy restlessness of Westminster, blending the secular with the divine, much as they have done for…
It was filled with special symbolism for the bride and groom and became a popular favourite, too.  The dress worn by the then Sarah Ferguson for her marriage to Prince Andrew on July 23rd 1986 at Westminster Abbey is still one of the most talked about royal weddings gowns…
It’s the cake that keeps on giving. The flower strewn bake that took centre stage at the wedding of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge on April 29th 2011 still makes its presence felt with slices of it popping up at auction with what seems like an almost metronomic regularity. But then there was plenty to go round as this was a whopper of a cake. Standing eight tiers tall and weighing in at over…
Princess Anne, the Princess Royal, was the first of the Queen and Duke of Edinburgh’s children to wed and she was also the first to contract a second marriage. For both ceremonies, she chose striking outfits which would take their own places in royal wedding…
Some royal wedding dresses stand the test of time, others are always very much of the era they were worn but some are such instant hits that they take on a fame all of their own. The gown worn by the Queen’s only sister, Princess Margaret, for her wedding to…
The only daughter of the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh is known for her down to earth, no-nonsense approach to life and in many ways, the flowers chosen by Princess Anne for her wedding in 1973 to Captain Mark Phillips were that attitude in petal form. As she became the first royal bride of her generation, the Princess chose a simple selection of flowers that fit perfectly with her classic…
