The British monarchy is the one of the most iconic and enduring institutions in the world. It has weathered the storms of rebellion, revolution and war that brought many of Europe’s royal families to an abrupt and bloody end. Its unique survival owes much to the fact that, for all its ancient traditions and protocol, […]
The crown: secrets for success
Tracy Borman, author of Crown & Sceptre, writes about how English, and later British, monarchs have, on the whole, held onto the crown with a great deal of success. What’s the secret of royal continuity? In February 2022, Queen Elizabeth II will celebrate her Platinum Jubilee – by far the longest reign of any British […]
Love Letters of Kings and Queens (ed) Dan Smith
Tender, moving, heartfelt and warm (and sporadically scandalous and outrageous too), these are the private messages between people in love. Yet they are also correspondence between the rulers of nations. From Henry VIII’s lovelorn notes to Anne Boleyn and George IV’s impassioned notes to his secret wife, to Queen Victoria’s tender letters to Prince Albert […]
The monarch with the magic touch
Author Andrew Taylor writes for Historia about the King’s Evil and the royal ritual surrounding this disease.
Kings and Queens
The Price of Blood by Patricia Bracewell (HarperCollins) I’m afraid I knew nothing about Emma of Normandy until I came across this splendid series from Patricia Bracewell. In the first volume, Shadow on the Crown, the young Emma arrives in a hostile country to marry Æthelred of England with little but her own wits to defend […]