A queen at the bottom of a beer glass

The sign for the Queen Adelaide, London, SW18 - it's one of a handful of pubs in England that bear the name of this former Queen Consort

It's estimated that around 50 million pints of beer are at risk of going off as the UK's pubs remain shut. They were asked to bolt their doors as lockdown measures were introduced to try and stop the spread of coronavirus. Some of that beer is getting old in pubs bearing the name of a largely forgotten but really rather admirable queen consort. Ten or so pubs bear rejoice in the name of Queen Adelaide, a quiet princess who turned a drinking duke into a popular and successful king.

Celebrating Elizabeth the Great

It's never too early to call this one. On her birthday, the 94th if you don't mind, let's call a great by the name she deserves. The world is celebrating Elizabeth II and there's little doubt in anyone's mind, she really is a great monarch.

Naming a princess: politics and power

Elizabeth Woodville had been pretty unstoppable until 1466.  She had married a king, seen off those who wanted to denounce her marriage as invalid, been crowned queen of England and started to snap up some of the most eligible spouses in town for her siblings.  When she gave birth to her first baby with Edward in 1466 everyone expected it be a boy.  The queen had had two sons with her first husband and, what's more, until then Elizabeth and Edward got whatever Elizabeth and Edward wanted. They wanted a son and heir for the House of York. So the arrival of a little girl was a surprise, as was her name.  And their choice perhaps gives us more pointers to the politics of the court of the House of York.

Anne Neville, the odd queen out

Anne Neville (Faye Marsay) and Richard III (Aneurin Barnard) save money by being crowned at the same time in The White Queen

To catch a king - the romance and politics behind a royal marriage have long fascinated historians and novelists alike. What is it about the women who wear a consort's crown that makes them marriage material for monarchs?  The hint of a love story is enough to send hearts racing and pens pounding paper while the heartbreak of young women left in miserable marriages because it suited the ambitions of their husbands, fathers and brothers has a poignancy all of its own.  In England, monarchs have ascended the throne with a spare consort's seat to their left with astounding regularity.  Kings complete with queens on the day they took the throne were a rarity and from 1377 until the rise of the House of Stuart in 1603, just one queen was already wed to her king on the day of his accession.  And that was Anne Neville.

Maria, the unwilling queenmaker

History is full of ifs and buts.  If, if, if....the nagging wonder of what might have happened if just one thing had been slightly different.  But, but, but...but for a tiny moment, what might have been?  So how about this if?  If one woman, born in 1491, had been slightly more interested in song, dance and storytelling might the whole history of England have been different?