tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21107420808287934262024-03-14T16:34:27.758+00:00Queens of EnglandThe women who have worn the crown: their lives, their loves, their stories.Lydia Starbuckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11110810160077804306noreply@blogger.comBlogger2973125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2110742080828793426.post-36479984981637940422024-03-14T14:43:00.003+00:002024-03-14T16:33:52.752+00:00Why doesn't this royal event look just, well, more glamourous?<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBAhb5XBdFU4KYuIM9AtwFBtCPalDxV8OlhG5tNN2BzeCWg8vTgNZJHlxcB7gzkM7DFwaWsr1zwWt_AJEmLbuhmIbMfgt0QBXXa1k8tZXOfj9jltu3WzeqPV0YAC9nE2DnII6MnJTw2Id4hXqcBoD10RscodS-AbAC9_bf7qhSzhxisEkHrNI4ZA6dwQk/s741/Camill.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="548" data-original-width="741" height="474" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBAhb5XBdFU4KYuIM9AtwFBtCPalDxV8OlhG5tNN2BzeCWg8vTgNZJHlxcB7gzkM7DFwaWsr1zwWt_AJEmLbuhmIbMfgt0QBXXa1k8tZXOfj9jltu3WzeqPV0YAC9nE2DnII6MnJTw2Id4hXqcBoD10RscodS-AbAC9_bf7qhSzhxisEkHrNI4ZA6dwQk/w640-h474/Camill.png" width="640" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p><p>It's that time of year again. The sun is starting to set a little later, the birds are getting up a bit earlier (5am here this morning which is excessive in March) and the royal calendar heads into annual events territory. Yes, mid March means Cheltenham and, once more, these days at the racing are proving, well, slightly dowdy.</p><span><a name='more'></a></span><p><br /></p><p>Sorry, I know we're all meritocrats now and it's all about what's inside rather than what has hopped out of the wardrobe. But while this festival of racing might be tops for the horses, it's never been top of my list for clothes. </p><p><br /></p><p>
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</p><p><br /></p><p>It's not that I'm a royal fashion maven. Truth be told, I couldn't care less where someone with a title buys their clothes. I'll never be able to afford it, I don't want to look like them and a lot of it is fine for cutting ribbons but not exactly must have couture. Sorry, Again. No, I'm not foaming at the mouth for fantastic fashion, I just want a bit more glitz. And yes, I get that the dress code was recycle. But just because you've worn something before, doesn't mean it has to be dull.</p><p><br /></p><p>
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</p><p><br /></p><p>Can we start with the queen (I guess we should, I called this blog Queens of England though in the reboot I have promised myself not to get hung up on making everything I write match the title). HM is great, doing a stirling job, keeping the flag flying, actually really like her. But every year she arrives at the festival looking like she's popping to the shops or, at best, out for a boozy lunch with the girls. Which I guess she is to an extent. But that's not the point of royals at the races. We expect utter glam.</p><p><br /></p><p>
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</p><p><br /></p><p>This is part of the royal pact. We need more Queen Mum, tbh. She's the last person I can find a photo of actually boarding a plane in a ballgown and tiara. This is what we come for. The high point of the fashion stakes at Cheltenham this year, Style Wednesday, saw Queen Camilla in a perfectly acceptable but not sensational, long green coat and one of those fur trimmed hats she's been wearing since the 1990s. </p><p><br /></p><p>
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</p><p><br /></p><p>We all know Princess Anne's clothes are older than that so no expectations. She went beige this year. All very neat and tidy but where are the feathers? Princess Eugenie gave us an all white ensemble that, again, was perfect for a trot down Kensington High Street for tapas and cocktails but nowhere near the regal rundown that we all secretly crave.</p><p><br /></p><p>
<a class="gie-single" href="http://www.gettyimages.com/detail/2082170583" id="lukTzoILTqhTWctpRYTGRw" style="border: none; color: #a7a7a7; display: inline-block; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Embed from Getty Images</a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'lukTzoILTqhTWctpRYTGRw',sig:'IfhqbAYGttCoRXzFCn9lwn7-TQ1NDvP0VUeeetL0CGU=',w:'385px',h:'594px',items:'2082170583',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});</script><script async="" charset="utf-8" src="//embed-cdn.gettyimages.com/widgets.js"></script> </p><p><br /></p><p> In the end, it was the one member of the party with no title who brought home the sauce. Zara Tindall went for a pinstripe trouser suit with mismatched hat which was very Diana at her peak and gave plenty of glamour. She also let her husband indulge in the main male style fantasy of the 2020s and get dressed as if he's in Peaky Blinders, complete with cap.</p><p><br /></p><p>
<a class="gie-single" href="http://www.gettyimages.com/detail/2082151570" id="_RUsaUuOTYNXfi-XkNrj8Q" style="border: none; color: #a7a7a7; display: inline-block; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Embed from Getty Images</a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'_RUsaUuOTYNXfi-XkNrj8Q',sig:'gwjyeZF45UWNevhQYUCLfGR9_2Ny8Pj-mB9_ba4f2tA=',w:'334px',h:'594px',items:'2082151570',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});</script><script async="" charset="utf-8" src="//embed-cdn.gettyimages.com/widgets.js"></script> </p><center><br /></center><center> I can't pretend I'm not disappointed, again, with the Cheltenham wardrobe. Every year, it's just slightly underwhelming. Yes, there's Ascot. Yes, there will be plenty of hats and jewels there. But low key isn't really what royalty is about. Find me the feathers.</center><p></p>Lydia Starbuckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11110810160077804306noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2110742080828793426.post-58842350081236573362024-03-14T14:24:00.002+00:002024-03-14T14:24:17.029+00:00One of the world's prettiest tiaras, end of<p> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLGpijP3LKi1X27B58xKmy9vZmD6RQSIrXRAi7NiFb1SCcZW2vL6nWI2MPIV7JrynoSHCdGMQP82QXi3OQ9guTzW5CSDyVkSZhBt9BEDZZrpJlRWYp7UeJZiU9rXdZOIwlTvu98FBlpX3B/s1600/MADELINE+IN+GREY.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="478" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLGpijP3LKi1X27B58xKmy9vZmD6RQSIrXRAi7NiFb1SCcZW2vL6nWI2MPIV7JrynoSHCdGMQP82QXi3OQ9guTzW5CSDyVkSZhBt9BEDZZrpJlRWYp7UeJZiU9rXdZOIwlTvu98FBlpX3B/s640/MADELINE+IN+GREY.jpg" width="640" /></a></p><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><i>Princess Madeleine in one of the famous aquamarine tiaras belong to Sweden's royals</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>(photo kungauset.se)</i></div><br />Let's start with the star tiara of this month's birthstone. Right now, say royal and aquamarines in close proximity and someone will say Princess Madeleine. The Aquamarine Kokoshnik that the sixth in line to the throne of Sweden has made her go to is among the most photographed diadems of recent years. But the sparkler actually belongs to her auntie and is one of two aquamarine tiaras that call the Swedish royal jewellery box home. To start off <a href="http://queensconsortofengland.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Calendar%20of%20Jewels" target="_blank">Aquamarines for March</a>, we're off to Sweden.<br /><a name='more'></a><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><center><div class="getty embed image" style="background-color: white; color: #a7a7a7; display: inline-block; font-family: "helvetica neue", helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; max-width: 594px; width: 594px;"><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><a href="http://www.gettyimages.com/detail/500822966" style="border: none; color: #a7a7a7; display: inline-block; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Embed from Getty Images</a></div><div style="height: 0px; overflow: hidden; padding: 412px 0px 0px; position: relative; width: 594px;"><iframe frameborder="0" height="412" scrolling="no" src="//embed.gettyimages.com/embed/500822966?et=zlIc0ysITdFVT-t1gFy4fA&viewMoreLink=off&sig=P2JtO5mPZD-VBtqSbz-xrPRTsjIOi4UgEzGa2y3u45M=&caption=true" style="display: inline-block; height: 100%; left: 0; margin: 0; position: absolute; top: 0; width: 100%;" width="594"></iframe></div><div style="margin: 0px;"></div></div><br /><br /><br /><div style="text-align: left;">The biggie in the Swedish royal aquamarine collection is that kokoshnik and there's no missing this beauty - it's set with five huge aquamarines which nestle in a neat framework of sparkling diamonds.<br /><br /><br /></div><center><div class="getty embed image" style="background-color: white; color: #a7a7a7; display: inline-block; font-family: "helvetica neue", helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; max-width: 594px; width: 594px;"><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><a href="http://www.gettyimages.com/detail/500826918" style="border: none; color: #a7a7a7; display: inline-block; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Embed from Getty Images</a></div><div style="height: 0px; overflow: hidden; padding: 394.99px 0px 0px; position: relative; width: 594px;"><iframe frameborder="0" height="395" scrolling="no" src="//embed.gettyimages.com/embed/500826918?et=DXkC5MnhRUh4YVzsGHcjvg&viewMoreLink=off&sig=icwWbzKICIAHHCo25QNSC1AtXs7jYDgkweVm8IwMRpU=&caption=true" style="display: inline-block; height: 100%; left: 0; margin: 0; position: absolute; top: 0; width: 100%;" width="594"></iframe></div><div style="margin: 0px;"></div></div><br /><br /><br /><div style="text-align: left;">The kokoshnik style of tiara was made popular at the Romanov court - it is a very sparkly imitation of a traditional Russian headdress. This version is said to have first belonged to Margaret of Connaught, the granddaughter of Queen Victoria who married king in waiting, Gustaf Adolf, in 1905 and became Crown Princess in 1907. It was a major part of the family sparkle used by Princess Sybilla who, like Margaret, was expected one day to become Queen of Sweden and who, again like her husband's mother, would never become consort. Margaret died in 1920, before her husband became king, while Sybilla's husband, also Gustaf Adolf, was killed in a plane crash in 1947 when he was second in line to the throne.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><center><div class="getty embed image" style="background-color: white; color: #a7a7a7; display: inline-block; font-family: "helvetica neue", helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; max-width: 557px; width: 557px;"><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><a href="http://www.gettyimages.com/detail/461480858" style="border: none; color: #a7a7a7; display: inline-block; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Embed from Getty Images</a></div><div style="height: 0px; overflow: hidden; padding: 594px 0px 0px; position: relative; width: 557px;"><iframe frameborder="0" height="594" scrolling="no" src="//embed.gettyimages.com/embed/461480858?et=-l0gCOxaS2tz_DtpdGqhfA&viewMoreLink=off&sig=xqMsvRWWpJPg60MwVWfq8F7JrODmSRfP0rkP_2BO8l4=&caption=true" style="display: inline-block; height: 100%; left: 0; margin: 0; position: absolute; top: 0; width: 100%;" width="557"></iframe></div><div style="margin: 0px;"></div></div></center><center style="text-align: left;"></center><center style="text-align: left;"></center><center style="text-align: left;">Aquamarines aren't up there with rubies or sapphires in the royal jewel collection so this very pretty tiara might have had trouble making it into a queen's only collection even without its sad history. But its charm and elegance have made it a popular piece with Sweden's royals over the last eighty years. Sybilla left it to her eldest daughter, Princess Margaretha, who had been seen in it many times already. Margaretha's daughter, Sybilla, wore it for her own wedding. And the nuptial connections don't end there - Princess Margaretha showed it off at the marriages of Crown Princess Victoria in 2010 and <b><a href="http://queensconsortofengland.blogspot.co.uk/2015/06/the-wedding-dress-of-princess-sofia-of.html" target="_blank">Prince Carl Philip in 2015</a></b>.</center><center><br /><center><div class="getty embed image" style="background-color: white; color: #a7a7a7; display: inline-block; font-family: "helvetica neue", helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; max-width: 594px; width: 594px;"><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><a href="http://www.gettyimages.com/detail/476990096" style="border: none; color: #a7a7a7; display: inline-block; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Embed from Getty Images</a></div><div style="height: 0px; overflow: hidden; padding: 396px 0px 0px; position: relative; width: 594px;"><iframe frameborder="0" height="396" scrolling="no" src="//embed.gettyimages.com/embed/476990096?et=FSYIA26HQ_hN1FnZMOg-rg&viewMoreLink=off&sig=UV6JyV6M3RU_2YRswP3_PMoe09XVMsnNhqxKP6E2XVk=&caption=true" style="display: inline-block; height: 100%; left: 0; margin: 0; position: absolute; top: 0; width: 100%;" width="594"></iframe></div><div style="margin: 0px;"></div></div><br /><br /><div style="text-align: left;">But in recent times, it's become associated with Princess Madeleine who wore it to the Nobel Prize ceremony in December 2015 and used it for an official portrait not long afterwards. It got even more international attention when she chose it for the <b><a href="http://queensconsortofengland.blogspot.co.uk/2016/12/the-royal-2016-madeleine-making.html" target="_blank">tea party for seriously ill children</a></b> she held at the Royal Palace in 2016 - that super sweet event, a royal dream come true, made headlines around the world with the tiara flashed up alongside them. Madeleine was last seen wearing it at the State Banquet earlier this year for the Governor General of Canada as part of the <b><a href="http://queensconsortofengland.blogspot.co.uk/2017/02/february-state-visits-canada-to-sweden.html" target="_blank">State Visit to Sweden</a></b>.<br /><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtnzE2ifQQH7J-2ZT2jIg_fP7mpJ1Yyi0STvEj2ARxl2u8U2vmh9crS-bv2f0Rfl84ZfmUrWikPFJWew8k71m7qQXklHm3Hlr3R4Gf9YZgpKMB3s0nNt2GgZ47RnYf2QudpHO1rljT9fXE/s1600/MADELEINE+party.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="624" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtnzE2ifQQH7J-2ZT2jIg_fP7mpJ1Yyi0STvEj2ARxl2u8U2vmh9crS-bv2f0Rfl84ZfmUrWikPFJWew8k71m7qQXklHm3Hlr3R4Gf9YZgpKMB3s0nNt2GgZ47RnYf2QudpHO1rljT9fXE/s640/MADELEINE+party.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><br /><div style="text-align: left;">It's perhaps no surprise that Madeleine favours aquamarines so much. Apart from this tiara suiting her down to the ground, she had made the stone a go to as a young princess in the other aquamarine piece owned by her royal house. This one is much simpler and nowhere near as striking but it's still a sweet little sparkler. Madeleine had a diadem debut moment in it when she wore it to the Nobel ceremonies of 2000, just months after she turned 18.</div><br /><center><div class="getty embed image" style="background-color: white; color: #a7a7a7; display: inline-block; font-family: "helvetica neue", helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; max-width: 408px; width: 408px;"><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><a href="http://www.gettyimages.com/detail/451792870" style="border: none; color: #a7a7a7; display: inline-block; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Embed from Getty Images</a></div><div style="height: 0px; overflow: hidden; padding: 593.99px 0px 0px; position: relative; width: 408px;"><iframe frameborder="0" height="594" scrolling="no" src="//embed.gettyimages.com/embed/451792870?et=kmfS3AT8QrtGiX7QQ_1Lew&viewMoreLink=off&sig=m6-yTvfZnta-0qPuOCuFObLmggVJ8PP_XH8eyagYbcM=&caption=true" style="display: inline-block; height: 100%; left: 0; margin: 0; position: absolute; top: 0; width: 100%;" width="408"></iframe></div><div style="margin: 0px;"></div></div><br /><br /><div style="text-align: left;">The bandeau style tiara features delicate rows of diamonds rising towards a central arch and holding a giant aquamarine. It's discreet, like every good bandeau should be, and Madeleine kept to the Swedish habit of aquamarines at weddings by wearing this one to the marriage of Crown Prince Frederik and Mary Donaldson in 2004.</div><br /><center><div class="getty embed image" style="background-color: white; color: #a7a7a7; display: inline-block; font-family: "helvetica neue", helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; max-width: 396px; width: 396px;"><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><a href="http://www.gettyimages.com/detail/115141109" style="border: none; color: #a7a7a7; display: inline-block; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Embed from Getty Images</a></div><div style="height: 0px; overflow: hidden; padding: 594px 0px 0px; position: relative; width: 396px;"><iframe frameborder="0" height="594" scrolling="no" src="//embed.gettyimages.com/embed/115141109?et=8CtZDRUZQP9td6WelwUxeA&viewMoreLink=off&sig=aywosC0yC2w-_dkfS58rGqm0gg05EEgtzyJWawOUF9Q=&caption=true" style="display: inline-block; height: 100%; left: 0; margin: 0; position: absolute; top: 0; width: 100%;" width="396"></iframe></div><div style="margin: 0px;"></div></div></center><center></center><center style="text-align: left;"></center><center style="text-align: left;"><br /></center><center style="text-align: left;"><br /></center><center style="text-align: left;">Sweden's aquamarine collection has plenty of history but the pieces have a fresh feel to them and they've been used to great effect by all their royal wearers in recent years. Madeleine's preference for the stone has certainly given it a modern edge and the kokoshnik is so associated with her right now that it's almost a shock not to see her wearing it. But these aquamarines have plenty of royal rivals across the continent. Keep checking back throughout the month for more aquamarines for March.</center><center style="text-align: left;"></center><center style="text-align: left;">Photo credit: kungahuset.se</center></center></center></center></center></center>Lydia Starbuckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11110810160077804306noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2110742080828793426.post-1883975221340557412024-03-13T17:27:00.000+00:002024-03-13T17:27:00.563+00:00Time to lay off Kate<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj25OKUcdPpL16MQWp-aWUUmYTBI2Opcyx3qisHw23yjtD9j5CoI1uLZOrxbCbfKAZg62UyfrBd2_YaogCszRwf3dAGCDBF8Ogo8hPCIJ6iVpuNxix9TPToCo2BmWzyeldtJ4b_bkWNzWVqE0sHc5t_J9nbSsMVtCvuswXr-0OZaueRUqqXM3-A12mkfW8/s609/scr.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="431" data-original-width="609" height="452" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj25OKUcdPpL16MQWp-aWUUmYTBI2Opcyx3qisHw23yjtD9j5CoI1uLZOrxbCbfKAZg62UyfrBd2_YaogCszRwf3dAGCDBF8Ogo8hPCIJ6iVpuNxix9TPToCo2BmWzyeldtJ4b_bkWNzWVqE0sHc5t_J9nbSsMVtCvuswXr-0OZaueRUqqXM3-A12mkfW8/w640-h452/scr.png" width="640" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>OK everyone, you've had your fun. Time to move along. If only it were that simple. But the past few days have shown a side of royal life that few would covet. The Princess of Wales has been the subject of a social media pile on that's turned into a global controversy that makes little sense. And just when you think the craziness is finished, it ramps up again to something even more ludicrous than before. And through it all, the actual human being at its centre seems to be forgotten. It's time to lay off Kate.</p><span><a name='more'></a></span><p><br /></p><p>The Princess of Wales has been at the heart of some of the most hideous social media chatter seen in recent times since she committed the heinous crime of needing a major operation. In January 2024, Kensington Palace announced HRH had undergone abdominal surgery and would need two weeks in hospital before a recuperation period at home expected to last at least two months. If they hoped that would give Kate the chance to get over something pretty tough in private, they were wrong. Almost immediately, the decision not to elaborate on the surgery led to speculation. Soon after, the fact that the hospital she was at managed to get visitors in through an entrance away from press led to claims no one had come to see her. Before the press release revealing she had gone home was shared, conspiracists had come up with some truly shocking speculation online. The worst was yet to come.</p><p><br /></p><p>As the Princess followed doctor's orders, some of those watching on got bored. Kate won't be back before Easter, KP said. That's March 31st in 2024. Yet by middle of February, there were ever louder demands of ''where is Kate''. The answer, at home resting, was rejected by the shouters as just plain wrong. They then shared ideas that were beyond horrible. If you met someone spouting that claptrap in a pub, you'd walk away and tell the owner to get busy with security. But because it's written on social media, it somehow becomes real. Before long, some mainstream journalists were running with it too, in a vague, just asking kind of way.</p><p><br /></p><p>Kensington Palace then decided to share a photo of Kate on Mother's Day. Within moments, the same social sleuths, not satisfied with proof of life, were poring over the photo for edits. In 2024, it would be a surprise if a public figure hadn't enhanced a photo. They soon got their proof. The surprise was that photo agencies then decided to pull the image because of possible manipulation. It became worldwide story.</p><p><br /></p><p>There is a debate to be had about social media and royalty but it's wider than one photo. The main issue in the argument around this picture of Kate seems to be that those who had peddled conspiracy were angered that she appeared not to have done any of the things they claimed, which ranged from leaving her husband to not actually being alive any more. All the claims were filled with melodrama and followed wellworn lines of fainting Victorian victim. The truth of Kate not being well but getting better slowly was far too dull to satisfy. Sadly, it also appears that a photo taken and edited in the same way as millions of family pics around the world wasn't either.</p><p><br /></p><p>The hypocrites have queued up to say that this is Kate's fault. She herself apologised for any confusion her editing had caused but that wasn't what they were after. Basically, she had refused to make her illness public property. The first photo after hospital was a money spinner and she got her husband to take it. No one made a dime. And, worse of all for the conspiracists, she hadn't been abducted by aliens, gone through a portal to Tudor times or retreated to a dustbin to eat scraps rather than stay on the royal hamster wheel. She had failed to live down to all their expectations and their venom has only increased since.</p><p><br /></p><p>But now, it's time to move on. The line between inquiry and bullying has been crossed. This is now a pile on of an ill woman who has done nothing more than tweak a family photo. She doesn't deserve the nastiness being directed at her or the intense scrutiny that is bringing with it. She just needs a bit more time to get better. </p>Lydia Starbuckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11110810160077804306noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2110742080828793426.post-68073708200466018862024-03-13T17:09:00.002+00:002024-03-13T17:38:33.510+00:00The Victorian royal March brides<p> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggYv5xeEW9FXcuLmtwyPheqAfy-6fe7tUHox67Vgg5PRNnb_4s9fvC0vRIiRn7wE0EkQacbt5DCNjqBLbr2KZpp4XLFnV8kLyk7OsKZ_PMulyJbElj_BnMX7NVPlPCn0GqkKQWjlc_D0I/s1600/VICTORIAN+MARCH+BRIDES.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1211" data-original-width="1600" height="484" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggYv5xeEW9FXcuLmtwyPheqAfy-6fe7tUHox67Vgg5PRNnb_4s9fvC0vRIiRn7wE0EkQacbt5DCNjqBLbr2KZpp4XLFnV8kLyk7OsKZ_PMulyJbElj_BnMX7NVPlPCn0GqkKQWjlc_D0I/s640/VICTORIAN+MARCH+BRIDES.jpg" width="640" /></a></p><div style="text-align: center;"><br /><div style="text-align: left;">March royal brides are now rare but go back just a few decades and that's not the case. In particular, Queen Victoria's children were rather partial to a March wedding. Among her nine children are three who wed in this blowy, showy month that bridges winter and spring and that means a hat trick of Victorian March Royal Brides.....<br /><a name='more'></a></div><br /></div><center><center><center><b><span style="font-size: large;">Princess Alexandra of Denmark, March 10th 1863, </span></b></center><center><b><span style="font-size: large;">St George's Chapel, Windsor</span></b></center><center><b><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></b></center><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhv4tC3Yy2RWXGdkxE9mXPbiIMzsnj2z7_C180CKiTDeZgaFuKq9PK6yEvw0CPBoZZEr29GLtFiPbPhBN-Udp2r4Epp4MS_3skaypHcHbtalyhzhDZHvTp_6qpx-HLUpAqkrMAlzkVEE_U/s1600/ALEXANDRA+wedding+dress+ex+wiki+commons.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="580" data-original-width="408" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhv4tC3Yy2RWXGdkxE9mXPbiIMzsnj2z7_C180CKiTDeZgaFuKq9PK6yEvw0CPBoZZEr29GLtFiPbPhBN-Udp2r4Epp4MS_3skaypHcHbtalyhzhDZHvTp_6qpx-HLUpAqkrMAlzkVEE_U/s640/ALEXANDRA+wedding+dress+ex+wiki+commons.jpg" width="450" /></a></div><center><b><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></b></center><center style="text-align: left;"><b>Bride </b>HRH Princess <i>Alexandra Caroline Marie Charlotte Louise Julia</i> of Denmark (born 1844)</center><center style="text-align: left;"></center><center style="text-align: left;"><b>Groom </b>HRH The Prince <i>Albert Edward</i>, Prince of Wales (born 1841)</center><center style="text-align: left;"><b><br /></b></center><center style="text-align: left;"><b>The Bride's Family </b>Alexandra was the daughter of Christian of Denmark who became his country's king just months after her marriage. Mamma was Princess Louise of Hesse-Kassel.</center><center style="text-align: left;"></center><center style="text-align: left;"><b>The Groom's Family </b>Edward was the first born son and heir of Queen Victoria. His father, Prince Albert, had died in 1861 meaning the mother of the groom was in deep mourning at this wedding. </center><center style="text-align: left;"></center><center style="text-align: left;"><b>Royal Romance </b>One of Victoria and Albert's last projects, before the Prince Consort's early death, was finding a bride for Eddie. They had settled on Alexandra just before Albert died. The Danish princess was considered pretty and kind while the playboy prince who would become her husband was allowed one final fling before proposing in 1862.</center><center style="text-align: left;"><b><br /></b></center><center style="text-align: left;"><b>Royal Wedding </b>Edward and Alexandra married on March 10th 1863 at St. George's Chapel, Windsor with Victoria in mourning clothes. They posed for a photo with a marble bust of Prince Albert afterwards. </center><center style="text-align: left;"><b><br /></b></center><center style="text-align: left;"><b>What happened next </b>The new Prince and Princess of Wales quickly had a family but Edward kept up his philandering ways throughout their marriage. They became King and Queen of Great Britain in 1901. Edward VII died in 1910, Queen Alexandra died in 1925.</center><center style="text-align: left;"></center><center style="text-align: left;"></center></center><center><b><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></b></center><center><center style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><b>Princess Louise, March 21st 1871, </b></span></center><center style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><b>St George's Chapel, Windsor</b></span></center><center style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><b><br /></b></span></center><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglBrLQRucZANRVx4OaBVJ9TLJed3PJpbXogoQAdedDLxJZKyoEg9cC9ECvelePLSaComFoYHp-341_YSPyZEJ9wKhQzqhcbOCN1ImlqP9lGjtReT2NB0e8RCPLD2t2DytU99BIgwRlth0/s1600/PRINCESS+LOUISE+wedding+ex+wiki+commons.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="489" data-original-width="329" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglBrLQRucZANRVx4OaBVJ9TLJed3PJpbXogoQAdedDLxJZKyoEg9cC9ECvelePLSaComFoYHp-341_YSPyZEJ9wKhQzqhcbOCN1ImlqP9lGjtReT2NB0e8RCPLD2t2DytU99BIgwRlth0/s640/PRINCESS+LOUISE+wedding+ex+wiki+commons.jpg" width="430" /></a></div><center style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><b><br /></b></span></center><center style="background-color: white; text-align: left;"><b>Bride </b>HRH Princess <i>Louise Caroline Alberta </i>of Great Britain (born 1848)</center><center style="background-color: white; text-align: left;"><b><br /></b></center><center style="background-color: white; text-align: left;"><b>Groom </b><i>John George Edward Henry Douglas Sutherland</i> Campbell, Marquess of Lorne (born 1845)</center><center style="background-color: white; text-align: left;"><b><br /></b></center><center style="background-color: white; text-align: left;"><b>The Bride's Family </b>Louise was the sixth child and fourth daughter of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert.</center><center style="background-color: white; text-align: left;"><b><br /></b></center><center style="background-color: white; text-align: left;"><b>The Groom's Family </b>John was the eldest son of, and heir to George, Duke of Argyll and his wife, Elizabeth. </center><center style="background-color: white; text-align: left;"><b><br /></b></center><center style="background-color: white; text-align: left;"><b>Royal Romance </b>Louise had been talked about in connection with a possible Danish royal marriage but her matchmaker mamma insisted on a wedding with a member of the British aristocracy. Her groom's father had been a good friend of Prince Albert and had served as Privy Seal.</center><center style="background-color: white; text-align: left;"><b><br /></b></center><center style="background-color: white; text-align: left;"><b>The Royal Wedding </b>Louise married John Campbell, Marquess of Lorne on March 21st 1871 at St. George's Chapel, Windsor</center><center style="background-color: white; text-align: left;"><b><br /></b></center><center style="background-color: white; text-align: left;"><b>What happened next....</b>John became Governor General of Canada in 1878 and the couple lived there for several years. They became Duke and Duchess of Argyll in 1900. Louise and John never had children but despite some bumps along the way, they were a devoted couple.</center></center><center><b><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></b></center><center><b><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></b></center><center><b><span style="font-size: large;">Princess Louise Margaret of Prussia, March 13th 1879,</span></b></center><center><b><span style="font-size: large;">St George's Chapel, Windsor</span></b></center><center><b><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></b></center><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2WNXratEMA2EznqVCPBlrxmhA-5CIuPc2v8r8cnw2XQtMKaD0xnP8jFmvVgk4rBNDUBXFIRQDRNj85AuuaMDCCEw0VBy1yCUVor2hgN924gk04gYed1YrUIWQ9xI3krfTmA7qPp5F-R8/s1600/LOUISE+MARGARET+OF+PRUSSIA+WEDDING+ex+pinterest.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="411" data-original-width="258" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2WNXratEMA2EznqVCPBlrxmhA-5CIuPc2v8r8cnw2XQtMKaD0xnP8jFmvVgk4rBNDUBXFIRQDRNj85AuuaMDCCEw0VBy1yCUVor2hgN924gk04gYed1YrUIWQ9xI3krfTmA7qPp5F-R8/s640/LOUISE+MARGARET+OF+PRUSSIA+WEDDING+ex+pinterest.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><center></center><br /><center style="background-color: white; text-align: left;"><b>Bride </b>HRH Princess <i>Luise Margaret Alexandra Victoria Agnes</i> of Prussia (born 1860)</center><center style="background-color: white; text-align: left;"><b><br /></b></center><center style="text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit;"><b>Groom </b>HRH <i>Arthur William Patrick Albert</i>, Duke of Connaught (born 1850)</span></center><center style="text-align: left;"><b><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></b></center><center style="text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit;"><b>The Bride's Family </b>Luise was the daughter of Prince Friedrich Karl of Prussia who called Kaiser Wilhelm I uncle. Her mother was Princess Maria Anna of Anhalt.</span></center><center style="text-align: left;"><b><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></b></center><center style="text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit;"><b>The Groom's Family </b>Arthur was the third, and some say favourite, son of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert.</span></center><center style="text-align: left;"><b><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></b></center><center style="text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit;"><b>Royal Romance </b>Luise's parents were notoriously unhappy together and were leading separate lives by the time their daughter became engaged. Their family fallouts apparently concerned Queen Victoria enough for her to express doubts about the marriage but the couple pressed on.</span></center><center style="text-align: left;"><b><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></b></center><center style="text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit;"><b>The Royal Wedding </b>Luise Margaret of Prussia married Arthur, Duke of Connaught on March 13th 1879 at St. George's Chapel, Windsor.</span></center><center style="text-align: left;"><b><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></b></center><center style="text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit;"><b>What happened next....</b>the couple spent a lot of time abroad as the Duke of Connaught took on various postings around the world. Their home in England was Bagshot Park, Surrey. They had three children together and through their elder daughter, Margaret, they are the great grandparents of King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden and Queen Margrethe II of Denmark.</span></center></center>Lydia Starbuckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11110810160077804306noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2110742080828793426.post-20196092927995717912024-03-13T17:06:00.004+00:002024-03-13T17:06:37.449+00:00The March birthdays of the House of Windsor<p> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikNmylsG-SK_uHZNI_b2OHkteSBsWFhKoDYYr7bc9w_YPLPnIYOWUCBrOh9V-QPRXIfVU4WB5-uTiUy0R5Ab8Z9FruDeLbKmYhMhHlT5WnY4331qdEikYPE91zsKuTd8pPn4rhZJBEihBKD2yXN0SZnBl84V0bJkxsRX0kk5nzC2Sg1cudO0r2ZM-pYxY/s1098/Prince%20Edward%20at%2060.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="815" data-original-width="1098" height="476" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikNmylsG-SK_uHZNI_b2OHkteSBsWFhKoDYYr7bc9w_YPLPnIYOWUCBrOh9V-QPRXIfVU4WB5-uTiUy0R5Ab8Z9FruDeLbKmYhMhHlT5WnY4331qdEikYPE91zsKuTd8pPn4rhZJBEihBKD2yXN0SZnBl84V0bJkxsRX0kk5nzC2Sg1cudO0r2ZM-pYxY/w640-h476/Prince%20Edward%20at%2060.png" width="640" /></a></p><div style="text-align: center;"><br /><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /><div style="text-align: left;">The House of Windsor has a hat trick of high profile royal babies who arrived in March among its current members. And the good news is that they all celebrate towards the middle or end of the month so you've got plenty of time yet to get the post. While you pick out patterns and think of jolly messages, here's a look at the House of Windsor's March royal babies.....</div><a name='more'></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><br /></b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">The Duke of Edinburgh</span></b><br /><b><span style="font-size: large;">Born March 10th 1964</span></b><br /><b><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></b><b><br /></b></div><center><a class="gie-single" href="http://www.gettyimages.co.uk/detail/699430066" id="QI-DudlhRSp6Wqqy64oScA" style="border: none; color: #a7a7a7; display: inline-block; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Embed from Getty Images</a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'QI-DudlhRSp6Wqqy64oScA',sig:'lzbR7O2_Vn-v9fCXn4yZVQC5DompCuxTaK0OMvAMl74=',w:'594px',h:'431px',items:'699430066',caption: true ,tld:'co.uk',is360: false })});</script><script async="" charset="utf-8" src="//embed-cdn.gettyimages.com/widgets.js"></script><div style="margin: 0px;"></div></center><div style="text-align: center;"><b><br /></b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Birthday Royal </b>HRH The Prince Edward Antony Richard Louis, Duke of Edinburgh, Earl of Wessex, Earl of Forfar, Viscount Severn</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Candles on the cake this year </b>60</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Royal story in a sentence </b>Prince Edward was born on March 10th 1964 at Buckingham Palace, the youngest child of Queen Elizabeth II and the Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh and after a Cambridge education and a famous flirtation with the arts, he has become a hard working member of the Royal Family who carries out hundreds of engagements every year.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Most likely to </b>Celebrate with a low key party hosted by his always lovely wife, Sophie. Daughter Lady Louise (20) is currently at uni which means sharing the cake on the day will be the couple's son, James (16). </div></div><center><div></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><b><span style="font-size: large;">Princess Eugenie, Mrs Brooksbank</span></b><br /><b><span style="font-size: large;">Born March 23rd 1990</span></b><br /><b><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></b><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9M8xZcKM7Gb0sMAMZQxvJZHhfhQZin5ieFPnCRThSkZeztMmk-qHYXyHrn0eH_GbIwIyGrE9e-4ma28xsWEHW8cRYpxEYVJCUh6WHXg73TK6IKT9RrJ2A5VgIcZ-OMVO8t66PX6scb4o/s1600/EUGENIE+OFFICAL+PHOTO+RF+Twitter.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="547" data-original-width="491" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9M8xZcKM7Gb0sMAMZQxvJZHhfhQZin5ieFPnCRThSkZeztMmk-qHYXyHrn0eH_GbIwIyGrE9e-4ma28xsWEHW8cRYpxEYVJCUh6WHXg73TK6IKT9RrJ2A5VgIcZ-OMVO8t66PX6scb4o/s640/EUGENIE+OFFICAL+PHOTO+RF+Twitter.jpg" width="574" /></a></div><br /></div><center><div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Birthday royal </b>HRH Princess Eugenie Victoria Helena, Mrs Brooksbank</div><div style="text-align: left;"><b><br /></b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Candles on the cake this year 34</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Royal story in a sentence </b>Eugenie, born on March 23rd 1990 at the Portland Hospital in London, is the younger daughter of Andrew, Duke of York and his former wife, Sarah, and after university in Newcastle she now works for an art firm.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Most likely to</b>...spend the day playing with dinosaurs - Eugenie married Jack Brooksbank in 2018 and they have two young sons, August (3) and Ernest (10 months). </div></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><b><span style="font-size: large;">Isla Phillips</span></b><br /><b><span style="font-size: large;">Born March 29th 2012</span></b><br /><b><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></b><b><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></b><b><br /></b></div><div><div style="text-align: left;"><center><a class="gie-single" href="http://www.gettyimages.co.uk/detail/845328916" id="FFWB6ja_QJtDk5gGoimBhA" style="border: none; color: #a7a7a7; display: inline-block; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Embed from Getty Images</a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'FFWB6ja_QJtDk5gGoimBhA',sig:'r--qn3KBTNSPOVGsnGOpnujHTSd5R-_hYUoGTm45-Z0=',w:'447px',h:'594px',items:'845328916',caption: true ,tld:'co.uk',is360: false })});</script><script async="" charset="utf-8" src="//embed-cdn.gettyimages.com/widgets.js"></script></center><center></center><center></center></div></div></center></center><div><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i><br /></i></span><span style="font-size: x-small;"></span><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Birthday royal </b>Isla Elizabeth Phillips</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Candles on the cake this year 12</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Royal story in a sentence </b>While you might catch a glimpse of Queen Elizabeth II's second great grandchild at big royal events like Trooping the Colour, Isla leads a very quiet life. She is the younger daughter of Peter Phillips and his former wife, Autumn, and she was born on March 29th 2012 at the Royal Gloucestershire Hospital.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Most likely to</b>....keep it real, this is a 12th birthday we're talking about.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div><br /></div></div><span style="font-size: x-small;"></span></div>Lydia Starbuckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11110810160077804306noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2110742080828793426.post-63895695894141231252024-03-13T16:59:00.000+00:002024-03-13T16:59:02.361+00:00Aquamarines for March<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Remember that knockout tiara from what would be the last State Visit that Prince Philip had a real involvement with? And we're not talking La Buena here? While Queen Letizia brought all the glitz to the 2017 trip with the Spanish Royal Family's most famous diadem that can trace its history back all the way to the start of the 20th century, Queen Elizabeth II brought out a very modern addition to her own collection, all featuring a stone traditionally associated with March birthdays. And it's not the only set of that stone in the House of Windsor's vast jewel collection. Here come the aquamarines....<br />
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<span style="text-align: left;">Star of the aquamarine show in this royal jewel box is the rather huge and unable to miss from several miles away tiara which Queen Elizabeth II first wore in the 1970s. This dare you to blink diadem was commissioned by Elizabeth II and incorporates a large number of large, square cut aquamarines given to her by the people of Brazil throughout her reign. Queen Elizabeth received a necklace and earrings on her Coronation and a bracelet and brooch a few years later. In 1957, she commissioned Garrards to turn some of the stones into a tiara but this final version wasn't seen until 1971 when the late Queen added more aquamarines, given to her by the Governor of Sao Paolo in 1968. </span></div>
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<span style="text-align: left;">Perhaps the generosity of Brazil is one reason this tiara is so hard to miss. You want aquamarines then this tiara gives you aquamarines. There's a band of the pretty blue sparklers at the base of the diadem, part of the original design, while the square cut central stone was also part of the early imaginings of this piece. The aquamarine and diamond arches around the side are a later addition and, let's face it, they do look very 70s. But there's something rather lovely about the pale blue of the stones and when worn with all the pieces as a parure, it packs a regal punch and then some.</span></div>
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<span style="text-align: left;">The exact origins of the stones in another very familiar aqumarine tiara belonging to the House of Windsor aren't known but it's thought that this rather unusual piece is another featuring stones gifted to Queen Elizabeth II from Brazil. In recent times it's been used by the Duchess of Edinburgh who likes to dust it down when on royal wedding duty (she and Edward were our regular regal representatives at the nuptials of princes and princesses across the continent for years).</span></div>
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<span style="text-align: left;"><br /></span><span style="text-align: left;">It took a sparkling, starring role at the wedding party for Hereditary Grand Duke Guillaume of Luxembourg and his bride, Stephanie de Lannoy, in October 2012 when Sophie got everyone talking with her tiara choice. This piece, featuring five large, pale aquamarines surrounded by diamonds and mounted on a thin band hadn't been seen in public for over thirty years when the Queen wore it. We didn't have to wait that long for a rewear - just eight months, in fact, as Sophie took the sparkler to Stockholm for the marriage of Princess Madeleine and Chris O'Neill.</span><br />
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In fact, the Windsor aquamarines are a bit of a wedding staple. Another tiara starring the stone was worn by the Countess of Wessex at the wedding of Madeleine's brother, Prince Carl Philip, to Sofia Hellqvist, in June 2015. It's actually one of those royal must haves, a tiara that doubles as a necklace. It features a rather pretty, scrolling design of diamonds working their way to one, central aquamarine in the centre. Again, these are paler aquamarines, fitting for a wedding where no one wants to be so out there that they distract from the bride. It's quite a low key piece but very pretty.</div>
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There's one more aquamarine tiara left in the Windsor collection but finding a good picture of it is hard work. In the image above you can just catch a glimpse of its gleeming blue on the head of Princess Anne. This diadem is made of aquamarines and diamonds with some of the stones shaped into pine cones. Yes, pine cones. It's different, let's leave it there. It was originally owned by the Queen Mother who gave it to Anne around the time of her first marriage in 1973. Anne does wear it occasionally but it's never been a go to. Blame the pine cones. But it's another interesting aquamarine chapter in the jewel story of the House of Windsor which has gathered one of the most impressive collections of the birthstone for March around.</div>
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Lydia Starbuckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11110810160077804306noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2110742080828793426.post-55000694305781965072024-03-13T15:56:00.006+00:002024-03-13T15:56:58.303+00:00Queens of England: past, present and future<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcssA2qzygJ207mzy0Zl9bnb5CxPWGE8iUjxaVjWgM-7KhyphenhyphenlkGSns3UyjJQl3am-8oQRX3HQB97EX6jI29jbmO-SQ8tPS1DtqnvBZKe98Fb6hwqu3J9_vraRCwvewjhBojFrAXlAxj_aHASYtC-Gv1HW8PqMhUgjWlUhK7c1QFSo1_CYVmQIjM64yKMOQ/s609/scr.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="431" data-original-width="609" height="452" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcssA2qzygJ207mzy0Zl9bnb5CxPWGE8iUjxaVjWgM-7KhyphenhyphenlkGSns3UyjJQl3am-8oQRX3HQB97EX6jI29jbmO-SQ8tPS1DtqnvBZKe98Fb6hwqu3J9_vraRCwvewjhBojFrAXlAxj_aHASYtC-Gv1HW8PqMhUgjWlUhK7c1QFSo1_CYVmQIjM64yKMOQ/w640-h452/scr.png" width="640" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p>You know when you lose your mojo? Well, me and this site lost it a little while ago and we've been trying to reconnect ever since. I am hoping this is the moment. No editing involved.</p><span><a name='more'></a></span><p><br /></p><p>Maybe everything we do has a deep, personal connection that we might not sometimes realise. Right now, that photo at the top of this post is everywhere. It's become literally the only thing in the world that anyone wants to talk about and that's even with war, human suffering, destruction, crazy politics. Oh, and also Ryan Gosling as Ken at the Oscars. There is actually so much happening now it's insane. And the most lunatic part is that the world is obsessing over Kate photoshopping a Mother's Day image.</p><p><br /></p><p>
<a class="gie-single" href="http://www.gettyimages.com/detail/2075925086" id="WPn7fUktRDBAOr53qnfSbA" style="border: none; color: #a7a7a7; display: inline-block; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Embed from Getty Images</a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'WPn7fUktRDBAOr53qnfSbA',sig:'lGN9mw9Fe_gxFxwJZFjrhE38EKGECZecvcPiwg3Qjiw=',w:'594px',h:'396px',items:'2075925086',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});</script><script async="" charset="utf-8" src="//embed-cdn.gettyimages.com/widgets.js"></script> </p><p><br /></p><p> And yet here I am. It's not like I haven't written about it. I am now editor in chief at Royal Central and I have written plenty on it there as well as on our socials. I've edited other work on it. I'm currently shoe horning it into a proposal for a proposal for a chapter in an academic book about modern royalty. And after today's binge of Emily in Paris (two episodes max so more like a slightly large lunch really), I'll be scribbling in my ideas jotter to see if I can't come up with a proposal for my own book on royalty and social media. But despite all that, today I just kept opening up this old blog of mine and wanting to write here again. So I am.
</p><p><br /></p><blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p dir="ltr" lang="en">Thank you for your kind wishes and continued support over the last two months.<br /><br />Wishing everyone a Happy Mother's Day. C<br /><br />📸 The Prince of Wales, 2024 <a href="https://t.co/6DywGBpLLQ">pic.twitter.com/6DywGBpLLQ</a></p>— The Prince and Princess of Wales (@KensingtonRoyal) <a href="https://twitter.com/KensingtonRoyal/status/1766750995445387393?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 10, 2024</a></blockquote> <script async="" charset="utf-8" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>
<p></p><p><br /></p><p>I think it's because this story has touched me and, on reflection, brought me back to the very place where I started this blog, almost eleven years ago. In spring 2013, I began writing about royalty here. I called it Queens of England because I was going to make a website all about just that, the Queens of England. I didn't really even know about blogging. Then I tried out blogger and liked it. And made myself post three times a day. And after a week, it was a habit. Then all the big royal stories started to happen and people started to read it and I loved that. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTkSt0AHhjCB6Hur0SXi3R9ezj_E1NAMvjcy6SlIqe5QzWpRb7YfICK_cdHb3NEsQzH5ivF0DAzWK9YCg1HNlQX5ApsEQ2ynBSZyFKgQhFmUFpLQGBiZpYRLE1zDQ6JTjFlXv9UViIPyHpeYd5B7J3LjqYr0VHAbshiYyWRHqhxN581PA7FAzKviDf7so/s648/Catherine_duchesse_de_Cambridge_2012.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="648" data-original-width="512" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTkSt0AHhjCB6Hur0SXi3R9ezj_E1NAMvjcy6SlIqe5QzWpRb7YfICK_cdHb3NEsQzH5ivF0DAzWK9YCg1HNlQX5ApsEQ2ynBSZyFKgQhFmUFpLQGBiZpYRLE1zDQ6JTjFlXv9UViIPyHpeYd5B7J3LjqYr0VHAbshiYyWRHqhxN581PA7FAzKviDf7so/w506-h640/Catherine_duchesse_de_Cambridge_2012.jpg" width="506" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p><p>But how does that link me to the photo frenzy of 2024? Well, poor Kate has been under huge pressure to show herself after several months away from the public eye following major abdominal surgery. I have not been under pressure to show myself which is handy cos I started eating chocolate again at Christmas and now I'm three days into a keto plan that might mean I feel like me again by Easter. Which is when we were told Kate might be well enough to appear again. No, my link is abdomens, knives, stitches and getting well again.</p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyPzVGFt1FHr9CM-xGmXtXNqGFaSeKPqVK6YYx4Ie4QT1aQWkc9vuFPB7czx2TajX-bv-b3HKeGGRATFNXqOYP2QQyFzexgqxg5WImL53Yf0v6BC04Pz48DHnb1AZaSojv711pEkK7VlAgZvF70SPoZKMxPFRG3rsQLeGotjJE3FxFeQW8r-q0fesowag/s825/Kate%20and%20her%20babies.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="825" data-original-width="646" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyPzVGFt1FHr9CM-xGmXtXNqGFaSeKPqVK6YYx4Ie4QT1aQWkc9vuFPB7czx2TajX-bv-b3HKeGGRATFNXqOYP2QQyFzexgqxg5WImL53Yf0v6BC04Pz48DHnb1AZaSojv711pEkK7VlAgZvF70SPoZKMxPFRG3rsQLeGotjJE3FxFeQW8r-q0fesowag/w502-h640/Kate%20and%20her%20babies.png" width="502" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>In March 2013, I had an emergency C section. The only thing that mattered to me as everything went haywire was that my baby was OK. He was. I am eternally grateful for that. I got sewn back together and was kept in hospital for a very long time and then went home where I stayed for weeks. I didn't leave my house for over a month. I couldn't. I can still remember the first time I went out. My mum took me and my son out. He was in his pram, I was tottering alongside very slowly. She pushed the pram cos I couldn't. I managed a tiny little part, holding the handles. It felt magical, just for those few seconds, to be able to do something normal again. I didn't drive a car until the summer and even then, very slowly and with the added bonus of not being able to get out again without putting the seat all the way back and rolling on to the pavement. I ended up in hospital again with complications. I could go on. My life shrank to looking after my child and the tottering steps I could manage. So I feel very strongly about Kate. I don't know what happened to her but I know being sliced across your middle is hard and takes a lot to recover from. And seeing this pile on about her not bouncing through social media videos on demand is really hitting me. I know, to an extent, what she is going through. She needs to be left alone.</p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigmdiZBqnmw17595TyyJguAoYyfPhd6PBu5-vbLpeVsVKusV5Rp3mY23q5qgs8q1pATYOPOlmza-bp9z5KNdxzOsGW7fIqYbIkuaznGgS0JqfUZWtXZbMYe2eBEgr8M-Kbe6Y5LoOsLsk2eXj6eL3yqxcWw_YFxcYtBjetrfKUup3nNjVTmcI_hw8Y2Hc/s559/WILLIAM%20KATE%20CHARLOTTE%20GEORGE%20Christmas%202017.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="559" data-original-width="381" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigmdiZBqnmw17595TyyJguAoYyfPhd6PBu5-vbLpeVsVKusV5Rp3mY23q5qgs8q1pATYOPOlmza-bp9z5KNdxzOsGW7fIqYbIkuaznGgS0JqfUZWtXZbMYe2eBEgr8M-Kbe6Y5LoOsLsk2eXj6eL3yqxcWw_YFxcYtBjetrfKUup3nNjVTmcI_hw8Y2Hc/w436-h640/WILLIAM%20KATE%20CHARLOTTE%20GEORGE%20Christmas%202017.jpg" width="436" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>I don't know how she's making herself feel good about her life being turned upside down by physical issues. She tried taking photos but ended up being hounded by people around the world with nothing better to do than bully someone over their physical disability. I tried writing. I started the blog as something to do. It was an attempt to revive my once zealous passion for writing. It became a great joy.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiajnfGFxeuiiWfN8KYGwgrwaYuuXCoy7TrDWvDhEp18XzbbqOZlEBDnqrqTyfOzWy5L6mx7IBbM26H6EIo0kYBNXNYLcfeGr7BhAV212XRlTciqCGiGJFZVdEjXl_VFB32MQbb5sYsbha-ASl-FoI8Pc7FZbQWYURGqp8QOHkdcL1Rd7omepUPCzFIPQ/s1140/DCT_8990-1140x694.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="694" data-original-width="1140" height="390" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiajnfGFxeuiiWfN8KYGwgrwaYuuXCoy7TrDWvDhEp18XzbbqOZlEBDnqrqTyfOzWy5L6mx7IBbM26H6EIo0kYBNXNYLcfeGr7BhAV212XRlTciqCGiGJFZVdEjXl_VFB32MQbb5sYsbha-ASl-FoI8Pc7FZbQWYURGqp8QOHkdcL1Rd7omepUPCzFIPQ/w640-h390/DCT_8990-1140x694.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>It was also a place where I could have my own voice, where I didn't have to conform. I had spent over fifteen years by then as a journalist for organisations. They had rules, they had styles, they had branding. I had to fit in. Here, I could just write how I wanted and I loved that, too. And then, as time went on, I began to feel I had to up my game and that's where it all went wrong. Instead of doing what I loved, I began to try to conform again. If this was called 'Queens of England' then, surely, that is what it had to be about. I tried to come up with plans about writing only on this country's queens and soon realised that the research involved was epic if I wanted to be good. I also worked out, most importantly, that this wasn't what I wanted my blog to be. I wanted to just write about royalty. Should I change the name? Should I rebrand? Was I reaching a target audience by using a name I loved for something I loved, even if they didn't match?</p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibiQD-24X4EnsIBXOw8qKEnxehYamyVTLOe0yOZ16XnJzK0lzFW-wQVhFD510BUnCw6JUh-cpmTm334XxGVQtdWsL8gX9wEc_-MCXQpxZ5ke6ZgvA0nbq7MCHlQlVtQIncMgkuztafZJCgo4r5cCLuNsN8zQK853x6gZICwK1o0JULCQxmp7OW3wXSLTo/s1200/WILLIAM%20KATE%20KIDS%20CHristmas%202018%20KP%20Matt%20Porteous.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1200" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibiQD-24X4EnsIBXOw8qKEnxehYamyVTLOe0yOZ16XnJzK0lzFW-wQVhFD510BUnCw6JUh-cpmTm334XxGVQtdWsL8gX9wEc_-MCXQpxZ5ke6ZgvA0nbq7MCHlQlVtQIncMgkuztafZJCgo4r5cCLuNsN8zQK853x6gZICwK1o0JULCQxmp7OW3wXSLTo/w640-h480/WILLIAM%20KATE%20KIDS%20CHristmas%202018%20KP%20Matt%20Porteous.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>The end result was paralysis. I just haven't written here for three years. I have written plenty elsewhere and it hasn't all been doom and gloom. But the world is changing again and I miss my lovely blog. And the bullying of England's future queen, Kate, has fired me up. So let's fire this bad baby up again and just do it. My blog is called Queens of England. It's about royalty and the bits of that I love or I'm interested in or I just want to explore right then. And it's about me. That healing woman of 2013 is more solid now. Her voice has changed but her heart hasn't. She loves to write. And she'll be doing it right here. Hello again.</p><p><br /></p>Lydia Starbuckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11110810160077804306noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2110742080828793426.post-69949226260095504122021-05-03T08:50:00.003+01:002024-03-13T16:49:32.905+00:00Rewinding: a look back at The White Queen<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfuvdD-k6i-cKl_LDxsrkphXDs0zx9esiN9J3ph6tUEhG_zGUcQk49sNPzzdWpoXBO5jcI9lwDqWa0cqscNrTUYpH4-i3xepfIy01CFvBcGBWTWaG0w_3cI3FHkp4aT8ZFJyMQRjPA6dI/s743/Rebecca+Ferguson+as+The+White+Queen.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="495" data-original-width="743" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfuvdD-k6i-cKl_LDxsrkphXDs0zx9esiN9J3ph6tUEhG_zGUcQk49sNPzzdWpoXBO5jcI9lwDqWa0cqscNrTUYpH4-i3xepfIy01CFvBcGBWTWaG0w_3cI3FHkp4aT8ZFJyMQRjPA6dI/w640-h426/Rebecca+Ferguson+as+The+White+Queen.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p>Through May, I'm going to be celebrating the White Queen on the blog. This whole little project of mine started back in 2013 so I could write reviews of the TV series based on Philippa Gregory's novel. I was a new mum at the time and this was the first show I'd actually watched properly since welcoming my son a few months earlier. Writing the blog was a chance to start taking just a few minutes a day for me amidst the all consuming and utterly enthralling job of being a mum. Eight years later, my son is happily reading his own books and writing his own stories so I'm taking myself back to that summer and how I felt about a TV show that was like water in a desert for me after months of no books or TV. I feel a little differently about it now but I'll save that for later in May. Let's enjoy the White Queen.</p><span><a name='more'></a></span><p><br /></p><p>And we're off! I can't remember the last time I was so looking forward to a new TV drama and even being in the middle of a house move didn't stop me counting down the minutes to the start of #TheWhiteQueen last night.<br /><br />And I wasn't disappointed. I wasn't totally overwhelmed either, but it was fun, watchable and had enough of the romance of the story of Edward IV and Elizabeth to make up for the fact it seemed to have forgotten most of the history.<br /><br />It all started with a horrible dream which inspired Elizabeth to try and meet the York king who had killed her first husband and swiftly moved to a dreamy vision of the Northamptonshire in which she lived and where that meeting actually took place. There were lots more scenes in forests and beneath trees as the lovers' hearts and lives entwined with the occasional reference to the Wars of the Roses. <br /><br />The actual fighting took place off camera in this episode as we spent a lot of time with Elizabeth and her Woodville family setting out their rivalries or in a hunting lodge where the new royal couple got frisky as required by modern costume drama. We ended with a ten minute stroll round Edward's court as he showed off his pastel clad commoner wife to a strange assortment of people who will be important in the rest of the series. <br /><br />And that was part of the problem with this opening episode - a lot of scene setting. It's an issue that all period pieces run into - how to establish characters, era and the feel of the time for those who known nothing about it without making it sound like a fact heavy GCSE history session. The White Queen went for the total GCSE approach - from characters addressing each other by their full, proper history book names to unnatural conversations about the top ten battles of the last decade. The whole Lancastrian cause, in this episode at least, was confined to a couple of mentions of poor king Henry losing his wits again and a fabulous chin jutting minute from Amanda Hale as Margaret Beaufort.<br /><br />And that's the big draw of this adaptation - fabulous female characters at last given a voice with some fabulous actresses embodying them. Caroline Goodall was magnificent as bitter, unhappy Duchess Cecily and Juliet Aubry could barely contain her ambitions as the Countess of Warwick. But the show belongs to Janet McTeer as The White Queen's uber ambitious mother, Jacquetta of Luxembourg, who dominated every scene she was in. Her demolition of Duchess Cecily at the end was spectacular and made as much by her dominance as by the duchess' fragile attempts at revenge.<br /><br />The men were rather secondary. Every now and again, Elizabeth's father would turn up with a band of her brothers, usually armed with daggers and inappropriate behavior towards their king. Edward rode around the same corner of the same field several times accompanied by the same handful of men. His main adviser, the Earl of Warwick, was full of life, anger and determination and James Frain conveyed the great sense of urgency that must have informed the Kingmaker's life but at times he seemed to have got lost on his way to an EastEnders audition as his shouting turned into estuary English at its best.<br /><br />But what about the star of the show - the White Queen herself? Rebecca Ferguson is good and beyond beautiful, giving an idea of why a king would risk his hard won crown to marry the wrong woman. But the way her character is written is strange - at no point in this opening episode did we get a sense of the scheming, manipulating and downright devious behavior that we know Elizabeth indulged in from the very beginning of her marriage to Edward and her career as queen. A momentary sizzle at poor old Duchess Cecily was about it - other than that, she looked lovely but seemed totally carried along by her mother and events.<br /><br />Another problem for me was the lack of obvious age gap between King Edward and his new queen. We know Elizabeth was at least five years older than her husband and that's one of the reasons she was so mistrusted from the very beginning, inhabiting for many the well worn role of older seductress. And while Max Irons conveyed a great sense of a young man beyond self confident and ready to tackle the world, I worry that he won't have the gravitas to develop into a dominant political force.<br /><br />But then, as I mentioned, the history and politics are all rather back seat here. And perhaps the show is no worse for that. While the Philippa Gregory novels that inspired the show were jam packed with historical accuracy and gorgeous period detail, the TV versions are soft focus, pretty and entertaining enough to make an hour seem like ten minutes. And that, along with the fact that this show covers one of the best life stories never really told, means I'll be just as excited for the next nine Sundays as we head through blood, guts and lots of sauciness towards the founding of the Tudor dynasty.<br /></p>Lydia Starbuckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11110810160077804306noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2110742080828793426.post-24427985324677492752021-05-01T16:08:00.002+01:002021-05-01T16:08:25.246+01:00Hero or villain? The woman who took a throne unnoticed on May Day<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyb-MeoMwbmsolr-uznBhBjxrd1bumXX4X1-dwyfetCPjhyphenhyphenTvpgXSybnORZOkGV5mU9U3mPom0LCKCjq_GP2bbJWfYA12bT1X6gVPX-Y8W-pP-y_m2ihyphenhyphen2UChVDoZAOStgbFRNbBld4Ds/s600/Elizabeth_woodville.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="415" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyb-MeoMwbmsolr-uznBhBjxrd1bumXX4X1-dwyfetCPjhyphenhyphenTvpgXSybnORZOkGV5mU9U3mPom0LCKCjq_GP2bbJWfYA12bT1X6gVPX-Y8W-pP-y_m2ihyphenhyphen2UChVDoZAOStgbFRNbBld4Ds/w442-h640/Elizabeth_woodville.jpg" width="442" /></a></div><br /><p></p><br />A beautiful, ambitious, clever and successful woman who started wars and made kingdoms should really be a little bit more famous than Elizabeth Woodville. Her royal story began in earnest on May 1st 1464 when she married Edward IV in secret. In recent years her tale has become a little better known thanks, in part, to novels that have centred on her life. But they tend to veer between angelic consort and manipulative scheme. Who was the real Elizabeth Woodville?<span><a name='more'></a></span><div><br /></div><div>The modern version of her tends towards the whitewashed, thanks in part to The White Queen. Philippa Gregory's 2009 epic novel puts its protagonist in the right at every turn. Here we meet a pretty woman who charmed a king and fought for what was right. Her family, famous for their ruthless ambition even in her own day, all get the same, sanitised treatment. This herstory is all about a heroine. <br /><br />However, for many historians before then, Elizabeth Woodville was the very opposite of that. The woman who won the heart of the notoriously lusty Edward IV has, for some writers and especially Victorian ones, been nothing more than a strutting strumpet who became queen by charm alone. But both these depictions seem to mask some of the power that England's first Queen Elizabeth wielded.</div><div><br /></div><div>For there is little doubt that the rapid rise to power that was cemented on May 1st 1464 as the sun rose is remarkable. Elizabeth had no royal dynasty to promote her cause. She married a king at a time when they only married princesses. Her wedding took place as her new husband's closest adviser, the Earl of Warwick, was negotiating a diplomatic match with a daughter of a European dynasty. Women like Elizabeth made very good mistresses but they didn't make it to the altar. More than that, once she was queen and acknowledged as such she built a huge power base that saw her family entwined with some of the most important people in England. Elizabeth was far from a baby making adornment. We see in her the beginnings of the pattern of consorts that would mark the Tudor dynasty and change royal dynamics forever.</div><div><br /></div><div>That is perhaps where her problems start. Her story might well have the lost - murder, mystery, jealousy, intrigue and buckets of sex - but it was put on paper by those who'd rather she'd just kept quiet. The fact that Elizabeth is so neglected by history and novelists alike is testament to the power of Tudor propaganda. You either loved Elizabeth or you hated her, a proper marmite queen.</div><div><br />England's first Queen Elizabeth may have been integral to the Tudor success story - she was the mother of Henry VII's consort and grandmother of Henry VIII - but her determination won her enough enemies to make her an uncomfortable reminder of the bloody War of the Roses that had given birth to the new royal house. And quickly, effortlessly, silently, she was relegated to a bit part in the dynasty's story.<br /><br />To her supporters she is the beautiful woman with sense and strength enough to win a King's heart and a share in his realm. To her detractors she is a social climbing gold digger determined to carve up England for her grasping family. As the spotlight falls again on the first commoner to be Queen of England, it's time to ask...who was Elizabeth Woodville, the White Queen?</div>Lydia Starbuckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11110810160077804306noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2110742080828793426.post-47863051095177116602021-04-09T13:24:00.005+01:002021-04-09T13:24:31.341+01:00Prince Philip has died at the age of 99<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXaj9e1phzJoOKoiD-yKi9wVV27yz8EwSyoMYFD2ZOdWzoVSYRiwnk3keq0axTc9hTQC8DYeAKV5wdi0tNPx6zYLfEcF-BAPZ2ECZescSHSzDMxjNjb9mGU9QPtVNLuwJ7JO61oZP20GU/s570/PHILIP+1921+-+2021.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="396" data-original-width="570" height="444" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXaj9e1phzJoOKoiD-yKi9wVV27yz8EwSyoMYFD2ZOdWzoVSYRiwnk3keq0axTc9hTQC8DYeAKV5wdi0tNPx6zYLfEcF-BAPZ2ECZescSHSzDMxjNjb9mGU9QPtVNLuwJ7JO61oZP20GU/w640-h444/PHILIP+1921+-+2021.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p>Prince Philip, The Duke of Edinburgh, has died at the age of 99. The Duke passed away peacefully at Windsor Castle on the morning of April 9th 2021.</p><p>Philip, who was born on June 10th 1921, was the longest reigning consort in British history. He had been at The Queen's side since her record breaking rule started in 1952. The couple were married for over 73 years.</p><p><b>Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh 1921 - 2021</b></p>Lydia Starbuckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11110810160077804306noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2110742080828793426.post-4371932487257379282021-03-02T19:36:00.002+00:002021-03-02T19:36:32.048+00:00The Queen's daughters: Matilda of Flanders<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMbbCHOAptupobTL9OyRa2KW8bJyhVqa7_b95M6OQZ219hhvOBareoOnScLYfze_pEs1uk6JFhW2Rd4jUwVoXU1ZSt1_uEkmzuR4J5zOxYle4CtdJyiYBU5SolkTwsajQ7IkDz7Nqx5-M/s940/Green+Plant+Succulent+Photo+Collage+Facebook+Post.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="788" data-original-width="940" height="536" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMbbCHOAptupobTL9OyRa2KW8bJyhVqa7_b95M6OQZ219hhvOBareoOnScLYfze_pEs1uk6JFhW2Rd4jUwVoXU1ZSt1_uEkmzuR4J5zOxYle4CtdJyiYBU5SolkTwsajQ7IkDz7Nqx5-M/w640-h536/Green+Plant+Succulent+Photo+Collage+Facebook+Post.png" width="640" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p>In Women's History Month, I'm going to take a look at the relationships of England's queens with other women in their families. One of the most crucial bonds is that of the consorts with their daughters, many of whom went on to have famous royal careers of their own. I'm starting with England's first post Conquest queen, Matilda of Flanders.</p><span><a name='more'></a></span><p>Matilda is believed to have had at least five, probably six, daughters although, with no legal requirement to record birth details at the time, finding exact records for her family isn't easy. The chroniclers of the day were more interested in the political events and PR potential of what was going on around them so accurate details of events like new arrivals are hard to come by, even for the Queen of England.</p><p>However, several sources point to Matilda and William having ten children, four sons and six daughters. Among the best known is Cecilia, who may even have been the eldest of their girls. She is thought to have been born around 1056, long before her father conquered England, and had already entered the religious house founded by her mother at Caen by the time William set sail for Hastings. Cecilia rose to be Abbess at the Abbey of Sainte-Trinite in Caen where she was well respected. </p><p>The fact that Cecilia went into her mother's Abbey might well indicate her being first in the pecking order of girls. However, a mortuary roll prepared there suggests another daughter, Adeliza, may have been older. She is much more of a mystery figure although some sources point to her being the daughter William and Matilda chose to betroth to Harold Godwinson in the years before Hastings.</p><p>But then the vagueness starts again. Agatha is the name of another daughter who might have been the one chosen as a potential bride for Harold. Even less is known about her although Agatha of Normandy is also suggested as a fiancee for Alfonso VI of Leon and Castile. Equally little appears to be known about the daughter named after Matilda. Born sometime around 1061, Matilda of Normandy is again a name with little detail.</p><p>Much more is known about Constance of Normandy who was born around 1057 and who became a political pawn of her father just before his death. In 1086, William forced the Duke of Brittany into submission and as part of his peace plan, he married him off to Constance. Her tenure as Duchess lasted just four years with rumours that her husband poisoned her surrounding her death in 1090.</p><p>However, the best known of Queen Matilda's daughters must be Adela. Matilda was mother of two of the three kings that followed her husband on the English throne and Adela was mother of the other. Born around 1067, Adela married Stephen-Henry of Blois in the early 1080s and they soon became something of a power couple, with Adela acting as regent for her husband. She had several children including a son called Stephen who she saw seize the throne of England in 1135, two years before her death.</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p>Lydia Starbuckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11110810160077804306noreply@blogger.com1London, UK51.5073509 -0.127758323.197117063821153 -35.284008299999996 79.817584736178844 35.028491700000004tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2110742080828793426.post-25514452960733365862021-03-02T15:11:00.002+00:002021-03-02T15:11:32.166+00:00Henry VIII's most mysterious queen<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcMxHhudeXAZPPkrbrdgpxGblWZv_0QWXj0YesPxPWuWPldomVEEzvm1CvT2CY0aM3PDQiFDEpdzPAogUFGkyMtiKjlkV_gUta-2NQGwtrR8Zzp3-RJrRhYzlF1S9q5ufMfnqMVkU9p0g/s1600/Janeseymour11.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcMxHhudeXAZPPkrbrdgpxGblWZv_0QWXj0YesPxPWuWPldomVEEzvm1CvT2CY0aM3PDQiFDEpdzPAogUFGkyMtiKjlkV_gUta-2NQGwtrR8Zzp3-RJrRhYzlF1S9q5ufMfnqMVkU9p0g/s1600/Janeseymour11.jpg" width="318" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><em>Jane Seymour, Queen of England and only the second to die from complications of childbirth</em><br /><em><br /></em><br /><div style="text-align: left;"><span>Jane Seymour remains the most elusive and mysterious of all the women who married Henry VIII - and she had some competition. The third queen of the eighth Henry died twelve days after the birth of her only child, the legitimate son that Henry longed for to secure his kingdom and his throne. While little Prince Edward was being tended in his nursery, his mother died of the complications of childbirth - most likely a puerperal fever that came about from an infection not treated properly after the delivery of her baby. </span><br /><a name='more'></a></div></div><br />It was a common enough cause of death among women at the time but not that common among queens of England. And yet rumours have always persisted that Jane died for another reason. Her labour was long and difficult and in the years after her death, a story arose that doctors had performed a caesarean section on the Queen of England and she had died as a result. But most historians agree that this is highly unlikely - mostly because the queen received christening guests three days after the birth of her son and death following a surgical delivery in the 16th century would have been almost immediate. <div><br /></div><div>But it shows how mysterious Jane really was that such a story could come about and stay about for so long. The brevity of her relationship with Henry VIII - she died just seventeen months after their marriage - and the fact that she didn't have time to do anything to really annoy him means that she was painted as a picture of perfection from the very moment of her death. Queen Jane is rather plain compared to her predecessor as consort but she remains even more mysterious.</div>Lydia Starbuckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11110810160077804306noreply@blogger.com0London, UK51.5073509 -0.127758323.197117063821153 -35.284008299999996 79.817584736178844 35.028491700000004tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2110742080828793426.post-45808809936553400532021-03-01T16:19:00.004+00:002021-03-01T16:19:56.533+00:00Matilda, Last Norman Queen<p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEH7pam_NrltlMJnNUirBWg9xNo7azg3LcKDQVU9haL-4eszEwq7rRfiVIhczwROx_JAjsbKP5MvUR-frewnx-C2DuCoG4SA9HdWtBZR3gV4fUjfDM7m1yk_6lq-N7ehnBD7Oge9jrJX0/s2240/Violet+Paris+Travel+Blog+Banner+%252874%2529.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1260" data-original-width="2240" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEH7pam_NrltlMJnNUirBWg9xNo7azg3LcKDQVU9haL-4eszEwq7rRfiVIhczwROx_JAjsbKP5MvUR-frewnx-C2DuCoG4SA9HdWtBZR3gV4fUjfDM7m1yk_6lq-N7ehnBD7Oge9jrJX0/w640-h360/Violet+Paris+Travel+Blog+Banner+%252874%2529.png" width="640" /></a><br /><br /></p><p>Monday means a Norman queen and this week, it's the last consort of the royal dynasty that changed England forever. Meet Matilda of Boulogne.</p><p><span></span></p><a name='more'></a><b><br /></b>The final Norman consort, Matilda put up a brave fight to hold on to the throne occupied by her husband, Stephen, but claimed by Matilda, daughter of Henry I.<br /><br /><i><br /></i>Matilda was born around 1105 in Boulogne, the daughter of Eustace III, Count of Boulogne and Mary, another daughter of King Malcolm III and Queen Margaret of Scotland. Matilda was a niece of the second Norman Queen of England, Edith (later Matilda) Dunkeld.<br /><br /><i><br /></i>Matilda became consort on December 22nd 1135 when her husband, Stephen, was proclaimed King of England. She would become his strongest supporter as the Civil War which swirled around the throne took hold.<br /><br /><i><br /></i>Matilda died of a fever at Hedingham Castle in Essex on May 3rd 1152 and was buried at Faversham Abbey. Her death devastated her husband and left him without one of his most trusted and capable political advisers. The following year he agreed a peace with Henry, his rival for the throne which cut his children with Matilda out of the succession. Her death, in some ways, proved to be the beginning of the end for the House of Norman.<p></p>Lydia Starbuckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11110810160077804306noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2110742080828793426.post-73006222641683580722021-03-01T15:49:00.001+00:002021-03-01T15:49:13.796+00:00Celebrating England's queens in Women's History Month<p> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7EZmeFrG7R9JF6MRym9eeVp7mR5tRI6JxrtOjAcK_q6BHo4D1xy515IYS5Ye9SF0CpagYrLuNEGJlCLdKLm89hzjHLFtThbqZnocaWJPd0JJdd7Ouq4t1XBWw-AHHhpHdGJPWf2d4hU4/s2000/Red+Origami+Art+Photo+Collage.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="2000" height="518" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7EZmeFrG7R9JF6MRym9eeVp7mR5tRI6JxrtOjAcK_q6BHo4D1xy515IYS5Ye9SF0CpagYrLuNEGJlCLdKLm89hzjHLFtThbqZnocaWJPd0JJdd7Ouq4t1XBWw-AHHhpHdGJPWf2d4hU4/w640-h518/Red+Origami+Art+Photo+Collage.jpg" width="640" /></a></p>I talk about women's history all the time on this blog so in a way, every month is women's history month. But in March 2021, I really want to put the focus on the amazing women in royal history as well as the female voices bringing them to life today.<p></p><span><a name='more'></a></span><div><br /></div><div>I want to dive more into the myths and perceptions around England's queens and how their stories are told. As well as my daily focus on a royal house, I'll also be sharing my favourite books and media interpretations of queenly stories and looking at the image of England's royal women. And I'll be explaining why some writers have really helped bring queens and consorts alive for me. Women's history is year round on this blog but, in a month when others are focusing on it too, I'm ramping up the spotlight. </div>Lydia Starbuckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11110810160077804306noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2110742080828793426.post-1793396278024749292021-02-25T10:21:00.004+00:002021-02-25T10:21:06.055+00:00Caroline of Ansbach, Queen of England<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFYN67RznLWI7DOxcY-6r70waVh3J4owA9OXZY0dO18pglQ7nxe1gR5AVOyfaAxui2W5sTdiHEsjEsvbxNwGNpEKxFMeStUwwOgXYVwq5fOIwMYCu91XjMdQ7gWAAon2Npfbb0zqahTCY/s1645/CAROLINE+OF+ANSBACH.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1645" data-original-width="1024" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFYN67RznLWI7DOxcY-6r70waVh3J4owA9OXZY0dO18pglQ7nxe1gR5AVOyfaAxui2W5sTdiHEsjEsvbxNwGNpEKxFMeStUwwOgXYVwq5fOIwMYCu91XjMdQ7gWAAon2Npfbb0zqahTCY/w398-h640/CAROLINE+OF+ANSBACH.jpg" width="398" /></a></div><br /><p>The first queen consort of England to bear the name of Caroline was the wife of George II. Wilhelmina Charlotte Caroline of Ansbach was always known by her last name and was queen consort from 1727 to 1737. </p><span><a name='more'></a></span><p><br /></p><p>She was also the daughter of minor German royalty - in her case daddy was Margrave John Frederick of Brandenberg-Ansbach and mummy was a princess called Eleonore Erdmuthe of Saxe-Eisenach. Her father died when she was three and her mother entered into a very unhappy second marriage before being widowed again soon afterwards and dying herself when Caroline was just thirteen. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">The future queen had been ferried around Europe up until this point and experienced a fragmented and sad childhood. But at this point, things took a happier turn. She went to live with one of her mother's friends, Sophia Charlotte of Brandenburg, whose husband Frederick had just become king of Prussia. In this new home, Caroline was given an education in a court renowned for its intellectual prowess and daring. She became very close to Queen Sophia Charlotte and within a few years had gone from being a sad, lonely teenager to one of the most sought after brides in Europe. A real Cinderella.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Caroline ended up choosing the man who would become George II as her husband - they married in 1705 when his father was still the heir to Hanover and in the middle of negotiations that would secure the English crown for his family as well. Caroline and George had a large family and by 1714, when his father became King of England, they left Germany for their new home and soon established themselves as popular members of the new English royal family.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7DSr2QKL5VTofJJLo7kLlSdg74keVJjWM-b8dqT5m-NhFKBujfXPS-msippGjyPxELlJe_MpAY0uI1I410h6VqXEiw0BXHq2qoFdVxQEHjVG665AF91enmyEi1e2tC7HhmJHcpsL_Jcgv/s1600/504px-Caroline_of_Ansbach_-_Highmore_c__1735.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7DSr2QKL5VTofJJLo7kLlSdg74keVJjWM-b8dqT5m-NhFKBujfXPS-msippGjyPxELlJe_MpAY0uI1I410h6VqXEiw0BXHq2qoFdVxQEHjVG665AF91enmyEi1e2tC7HhmJHcpsL_Jcgv/s1600/504px-Caroline_of_Ansbach_-_Highmore_c__1735.jpg" width="268" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><em>A later portrait of Caroline of Ansbach, queen of England, by Joseph Higmore</em></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">But her reign was far from plain sailing. She became queen consort in 1727 at the age of 44. By then her eldest son, Frederick, was 20 years old but had been kept in Hanover by his grandfather, George I, as a future rule of that state while his parents had lived in England as heirs to that throne. But Caroline's husband became ruler of both Hanover and England on George I's death and when they brought Frederick to London they found him head of a large opposing court. George II didn't trust his son and made his wife regent whenever he needed to leave England.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">But Caroline was queen consort for only a decade. In 1737 she became seriously ill with complications from the birth of her last child over thirteen years earlier. Her womb ruptured leading to massive internal complications and she endured operations without anaesthetic over the next two weeks before dying of a ruptured bowel. There was widespread mourning at her death - she had proved to be a popular queen through her reign for her sensible nature, education and desire to integrate into the life of her adopted country.</div><div><br /></div>Lydia Starbuckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11110810160077804306noreply@blogger.com0London, UK51.5073509 -0.127758323.197117063821153 -35.284008299999996 79.817584736178844 35.028491700000004tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2110742080828793426.post-25541174786108998522021-02-24T10:00:00.003+00:002021-02-24T10:00:03.057+00:00The wedding dress of Wallis, so close to being Queen<p> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiI8B4EB8yIAXnDbVITGSncPpcB-ph4ZzHw9QLgeMpMbDReZSmJLK0s0crL0t-rDmYXDgaC5lDfnajujb5D8DqtFEdA2i9D22mUfq0TjHIQMhVQ2SYmC98RahlTnwTlMvnkx7Qi1uJzQRJZ/s1600/tmp_5219-Wallis_and_Edward1679039437.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="320" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiI8B4EB8yIAXnDbVITGSncPpcB-ph4ZzHw9QLgeMpMbDReZSmJLK0s0crL0t-rDmYXDgaC5lDfnajujb5D8DqtFEdA2i9D22mUfq0TjHIQMhVQ2SYmC98RahlTnwTlMvnkx7Qi1uJzQRJZ/w426-h640/tmp_5219-Wallis_and_Edward1679039437.jpg" width="426" /> </a><span style="text-align: center;"> </span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">It's one of the most famous blue wedding dresses in the world even it's usually seen in black and white. It's about as well known as a royal wedding gown gets even though it was worn to a ceremony that took place behind closed doors and which was recorded for posterity in a brief photo session in the hot French sun later on. Yet the dress worn by Wallis Warfield Simpson at her wedding to Edward, Duke of Windsor has a place in royal history all of its own. This is the gown worn to the wedding that changed the House of Windsor, and royalty, forever.</div><a name='more'></a><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"></div><center><div class="getty embed image" style="background-color: white; color: #a7a7a7; display: inline-block; font-family: "helvetica neue", helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; max-width: 432px; width: 432px;"><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><a href="http://www.gettyimages.co.uk/detail/3303621" style="border: none; color: #a7a7a7; display: inline-block; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Embed from Getty Images</a></div><div style="height: 0px; overflow: hidden; padding: 594px 0px 0px; position: relative; width: 432px;"><iframe frameborder="0" height="594" scrolling="no" src="//embed.gettyimages.com/embed/3303621?et=bfc6p4gMQeh3dXiVvJw6kg&tld=co.uk&viewMoreLink=on&sig=6Oar9mC6CDcCZdb3w2FRBpf6fyw7ZfCdyTMh2sIhEOc=&caption=true" style="display: inline-block; height: 100%; left: 0; margin: 0; position: absolute; top: 0; width: 100%;" width="432"></iframe></div><div style="margin: 0px;"></div></div></center><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">It was first seen eighty years ago today. The new Duchess of Windsor, minus the HRH denied to her on her marriage, walked down the steps of the Chateau de Cande, near Tours, to worldwide interest. This was the bride for whom a kingdom and an empire had been renounced. Wallis, never knowingly outdressed at any moment of her life, was ready for her close up.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"></div><center><div class="getty embed image" style="background-color: white; color: #a7a7a7; display: inline-block; font-family: "helvetica neue", helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; max-width: 594px; width: 594px;"><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><a href="http://www.gettyimages.co.uk/detail/78974168" style="border: none; color: #a7a7a7; display: inline-block; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Embed from Getty Images</a></div><div style="height: 0px; overflow: hidden; padding: 542px 0px 0px; position: relative; width: 594px;"><iframe frameborder="0" height="542" scrolling="no" src="//embed.gettyimages.com/embed/78974168?et=VDv7sxzbR15Ymkg9pBdyeQ&tld=co.uk&viewMoreLink=on&sig=wiRTgqSExul2js0J068UtetSoMVLJYnbzCR6rEl8-Vc=&caption=true" style="display: inline-block; height: 100%; left: 0; margin: 0; position: absolute; top: 0; width: 100%;" width="594"></iframe></div><div style="margin: 0px;"></div></div></center><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">The bride chose a fitted gown by Mainbocher for her wedding day. Fitted, from the ruched neck to the slimline skirt, it was the epitome of thirties elegance. Made of silk crepe, it featured a nipped in waist with button details and long sleeves with high neck. It was modest and demure and still the height of fashion. Wallis dressed for the moment, the image of a discreet bride but with all the elements of style and mode for which she had become known.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><center><div class="getty embed image" style="background-color: white; color: #a7a7a7; display: inline-block; font-family: "helvetica neue", helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; max-width: 428px; width: 428px;"><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><a href="http://www.gettyimages.co.uk/detail/78974161" style="border: none; color: #a7a7a7; display: inline-block; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Embed from Getty Images</a></div><div style="height: 0px; overflow: hidden; padding: 593.987px 0px 0px; position: relative; width: 428px;"><iframe frameborder="0" height="594" scrolling="no" src="//embed.gettyimages.com/embed/78974161?et=HHQCBUfBT_9pv2RvbsLEBg&tld=co.uk&viewMoreLink=on&sig=_TFZkANEOWQVfTPrTtM-e_Lv_yyOZZkvkABBS09eyDg=&caption=true" style="display: inline-block; height: 100%; left: 0; margin: 0; position: absolute; top: 0; width: 100%;" width="428"></iframe></div><div style="margin: 0px;"></div></div></center><center><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Perhaps the most surprising thing about this dress is that is it blue. Wallis blue. The colour was said to have matched her eyes exactly. Of course, it went around the world to the huge audience hungry for news of the match in black and white. That perhaps made the photos even more iconic. Edward, just months before a king and emperor in all his regalia, was now a royal duke in morning suit. Wallis, the woman for whom he had given up the legacy of Queen Victoria, all Parisian elegance without an ostentatious jewel in sight to spoil the show. There they stood, blinking in the almost too bright sun, against the bleached out stone of their fairytale wedding castle. In reality, it was a bright and breezy moment. For history, a monochrome moment that verges on the uncomfortable. Even the photos taken later inside, the official record of this momentous royal romance at its pinnacle, carry an air of uncertainty.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"></div><center><div class="getty embed image" style="background-color: white; color: #a7a7a7; display: inline-block; font-family: "helvetica neue", helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; max-width: 387px; width: 387px;"><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><a href="http://www.gettyimages.co.uk/detail/3312795" style="border: none; color: #a7a7a7; display: inline-block; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Embed from Getty Images</a></div><div style="height: 0px; overflow: hidden; padding: 593.987px 0px 0px; position: relative; width: 387px;"><iframe frameborder="0" height="594" scrolling="no" src="//embed.gettyimages.com/embed/3312795?et=efOGJy_ISSd0QR-2Amz_PQ&tld=co.uk&viewMoreLink=on&sig=ZyUKUm3obZCOgQYTCGSJwd6v7IZRehdMp4zVINKFu70=&caption=true" style="display: inline-block; height: 100%; left: 0; margin: 0; position: absolute; top: 0; width: 100%;" width="387"></iframe></div><div style="margin: 0px;"></div></div></center></center><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Wallis' wedding dress remains one of the most famous royal gowns of all time. The Duchess of Windsor would later donate it to the Metropolitan Museum, handing over an iconic piece not just of royal fashion but of royal history. It is a dress that will be viewed for centuries to come, as the story of Edward and Wallis continues to fascinate. And it all began on this day, eighty years ago.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div>Lydia Starbuckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11110810160077804306noreply@blogger.com0London, UK51.5073509 -0.127758323.197117063821153 -35.284008299999996 79.817584736178844 35.028491700000004tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2110742080828793426.post-44116135220118940852021-02-23T10:01:00.002+00:002021-02-23T10:01:30.983+00:00Kateryne The Quene<p> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8n_8wom4mouV9nlCVKou6Zquz47ZuEdbIRpAmfKPx_kKTW7e84IA39EJOx6Me5pyYeeetQtn22gHJgEd_Km6Z-W5JEFzyYbgmiy_RtTYHR0Q9TIvHa2i81idqUKwJ1mAQRYp-gP0rye8s/s1600/800px-Catherine_Parr%252C_attributed_to_Master_John.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="888" data-original-width="800" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8n_8wom4mouV9nlCVKou6Zquz47ZuEdbIRpAmfKPx_kKTW7e84IA39EJOx6Me5pyYeeetQtn22gHJgEd_Km6Z-W5JEFzyYbgmiy_RtTYHR0Q9TIvHa2i81idqUKwJ1mAQRYp-gP0rye8s/s640/800px-Catherine_Parr%252C_attributed_to_Master_John.jpg" width="576" /></a></p><br /><br />So how should we spell Katherine's name? You can see from that sentence that I'm a 'K' girl when it comes to my favourite queen. Yet, many history books, articles and references use the 'C'. So what is the right way and does it really matter?<br /><a name='more'></a><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFmIBD7plsMWGHQiYZrWis832oCgPVdE9KNPml51TIqXsFX24JSyFmYm2VqPDwU3byCmX0BwGhNQkCzoTFMrCP0h3LqeRzAPR7PvYdHwTYRcB1Wo7oln0wzlqnaKkWURfaqZQvnYx7B6XY/s1600/Queen_Catherine_Parr.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="730" data-original-width="500" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFmIBD7plsMWGHQiYZrWis832oCgPVdE9KNPml51TIqXsFX24JSyFmYm2VqPDwU3byCmX0BwGhNQkCzoTFMrCP0h3LqeRzAPR7PvYdHwTYRcB1Wo7oln0wzlqnaKkWURfaqZQvnYx7B6XY/s640/Queen_Catherine_Parr.jpg" width="438" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><i>Katherine or Catherine? The sixth queen of Henry VIII</i></div><br />In answer to the second part, I'd say it doesn't really. The name comes from the Latin version of the Greek name 'Aikaterina' and means pure. From its very earliest use in western Europe, it's been found in all kinds of spellings and the C and the K are interchangeable. The earliest versions used 'K' but as language evolved and the name gained in popularity, the 'C' version became popular too. Trusted historians of names, including Miss Withycombe, lump the different spellings in together. The root of the name is the same so its variants don't matter.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBlKVBaQr_wazu7hM8iyng1QVrw7weu6Z5Py-ujeSkS3p3cmhOh-bA-kYgtOEukc-dNOlZYHNV3i2BWV2DBMLbVD0nBVunzkLEaS_shflHf5GvanTbl2O_9U9PaKBvdEvoH4yD0aJFI0Hb/s1600/Catherine_of_aragon_1525.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="872" data-original-width="635" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBlKVBaQr_wazu7hM8iyng1QVrw7weu6Z5Py-ujeSkS3p3cmhOh-bA-kYgtOEukc-dNOlZYHNV3i2BWV2DBMLbVD0nBVunzkLEaS_shflHf5GvanTbl2O_9U9PaKBvdEvoH4yD0aJFI0Hb/s640/Catherine_of_aragon_1525.jpg" width="466" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><i>Catherine with a C - the Infanta from Aragon gave her name to two women that would follow her as queen consort to Henry VIII</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><br /></i></div>But then we come to custom. It's generally assumed that Katherine Parr was named after her godmother, Catherine of Aragon, who at the time was still married to Henry VIII. That first Queen Catherine had been christened 'Catalina' and her name anglicised when she arrived in her new country. Her spelling of Catherine inspired many loyal subjects to add the name in that form to the family tree. But with the lack of surviving written records from the time, it's impossible to know firstly whether parents were using the C or the K at baptism and, secondly, whether their choice was continued through life by the baby they bestowed it on.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglpiBbrb6tPmBx22srqolEtT9uHXJRz2g-RCIiFdpTe9_oe2toLEU2SAtP5d8bT098-VL4piW-6MbMHfI_cR441kkm7hcqhjXN8QKjgBIBl5_zr70hwy9aIrTZfBX4t5Jle0Q_zpAQu2Jf/s1600/Catherine_Parr_from_NPG.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1263" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglpiBbrb6tPmBx22srqolEtT9uHXJRz2g-RCIiFdpTe9_oe2toLEU2SAtP5d8bT098-VL4piW-6MbMHfI_cR441kkm7hcqhjXN8QKjgBIBl5_zr70hwy9aIrTZfBX4t5Jle0Q_zpAQu2Jf/s640/Catherine_Parr_from_NPG.jpg" width="504" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><i>Katherine with a K was the usual spelling of the sixth queen's name for centuries</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><br /></i></div>However, unlike many other women of the time, Katherine Parr left written records. She was a prolific letter composer and even published her own books. If we look at the documents left by her, we see that she herself spelled her name with a 'K'. But she also wrote it in different forms - she liked to sign off a 'KP' but also wrote her name as 'Kateryne', again showing the way that language evolves. So for me she is most definitely a Katherine with a K - for I have seen it written in her own hand and that seals the deal.Lydia Starbuckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11110810160077804306noreply@blogger.com0London, UK51.5073509 -0.127758323.197117063821153 -35.284008299999996 79.817584736178844 35.028491700000004tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2110742080828793426.post-78441599599309469022021-02-22T09:54:00.006+00:002021-02-23T09:57:53.692+00:00Edith, England's first modern royal bride<p style="text-align: right;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQiklrp0L-tngTdFWEH7AEP9ju_S07oOyE7MOt8KdBnjX6sFV6SCE4Y4hhOstUTG91KinZK6XByKiKQfWjxVy2wcJ227_xwf5p8xXurR_2wiMIqfQIJve1Us2LjhXlljUqBSq-OyH0-ZoF/s1600/Matilda_sk.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQiklrp0L-tngTdFWEH7AEP9ju_S07oOyE7MOt8KdBnjX6sFV6SCE4Y4hhOstUTG91KinZK6XByKiKQfWjxVy2wcJ227_xwf5p8xXurR_2wiMIqfQIJve1Us2LjhXlljUqBSq-OyH0-ZoF/w630-h640/Matilda_sk.jpg" width="630" /></a></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p>Edith Dunkeld isn't exactly the most romantic name a royal bride has ever had but this Scottish princess who said 'I do' in Westminster Abbey in 1100 hadn't turned up for love. She was a practical and rather ambitious young woman who was well aware, as she became that famous church's first royal bride, that her union with Henry, King of England, would do both of their dynasties quite a lot of favours.<span></span></p><a name='more'></a><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div>The wedding took place on November 11th 1100, three short months after Henry had taken the crown of England. He was an unexpected king. Born in England about two years after his father, William, had conquered the country he was a youngest son with a bevy of big brothers ahead of him in the race for a crown. However, by the start of 1100 the sibling who now ruled England was hugely unpopular with nobles and population alike and when this king, William II, went hunting one August morning he had an unexplained accident just as Henry was in the perfect position to snatch the empty throne. And almost as soon as he had become king, Henry realised he needed a bride to shore up his power.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0N9VKsL3KZOWSbVgkYWc6r-N8yjOs30Usv9izI7KgogZHifA3nq_k7uXlGLKMyYe91Kg0tpRnDlB8zMi9XW8N0AU9cEGahmKpJzZKqsjg3TXLzhqMH2XcmOSvoOypAFf6bRqyZi9sV2oY/s1600/Edith_Matilda_of_Scots.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0N9VKsL3KZOWSbVgkYWc6r-N8yjOs30Usv9izI7KgogZHifA3nq_k7uXlGLKMyYe91Kg0tpRnDlB8zMi9XW8N0AU9cEGahmKpJzZKqsjg3TXLzhqMH2XcmOSvoOypAFf6bRqyZi9sV2oY/s320/Edith_Matilda_of_Scots.JPG" width="224" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><i> A later, romanticized imagining of Edith Matilda</i></div><br />Step forward Edith Dunkeld. She was the daughter of King Malcolm III of Scotland and his queen, Margaret. Her parents were both dead and her brother, Edgar, was now Scottish king. But it was her maternal lineage that was really the most useful thing to Henry. For Queen Margaret was descended from the House of Wessex who had helped unify England and who had lost their power in the Norman Conquest. By marrying a member of that dynasty, Henry could help pacify parts of the population who were still far from happy with the House of Norman which was less than thirty five years into its rule of England. Furthermore, Margaret had been praised for her holiness and devotion throughout her life and would eventually be made a saint. Edith was a very useful bride indeed.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpC36PUgLJtgPxFzumhryN-YV1zviPwyacHlOEa6COFDV_5inVAZVJwMmtzrEDH3mUrrqtzWni5nbZhBHdSp_0aw9obAWKh_rMGZyljErV59XjqapXsbMibymekukrc1_lxdJQX1xljirq/s1600/Henry+I.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpC36PUgLJtgPxFzumhryN-YV1zviPwyacHlOEa6COFDV_5inVAZVJwMmtzrEDH3mUrrqtzWni5nbZhBHdSp_0aw9obAWKh_rMGZyljErV59XjqapXsbMibymekukrc1_lxdJQX1xljirq/s320/Henry+I.jpg" width="195" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><i>Henry I, King of England, needed a popular bride to shore up his rule and he found one in Edith of Scotland who became his consort on November 11th 1100</i></div><br />Marriage in this part of the Middle Ages was as much about joining families and properties as it was about a union between two individuals and while Edith brought little land with her she did bring a family tree that was worth its weight in gold. And if any sign were needed that this was a marriage of ambition, the bride's first action as queen showed how determined the couple were that their union would bolster the monarchy. Edith took the Norman name, Matilda, thus giving Henry a bride with Wessex blood and a dynastic name from his own family.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWlbNjRJ5eCIUW42tW-TcUDP3e4fzY6tRLKTlUWdu3IaaToxQmAzwoNhvqJJl-mBqpXe2RNGC6Mz-frCGDJqGRHx7Atnj-fOXvKrQatcYh6_zzWQGHxwTJAcq8TkrXsMwCWdkO8gbABg3W/s1600/Matilda_Scotland.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWlbNjRJ5eCIUW42tW-TcUDP3e4fzY6tRLKTlUWdu3IaaToxQmAzwoNhvqJJl-mBqpXe2RNGC6Mz-frCGDJqGRHx7Atnj-fOXvKrQatcYh6_zzWQGHxwTJAcq8TkrXsMwCWdkO8gbABg3W/s1600/Matilda_Scotland.jpg" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><i>Edith changed her name to Matilda once she was Queen of England</i></div><br />It wasn't all plain sailing. Edith Matilda had spent some time before her marriage in the convent headed by her maternal aunt, Christina, and before being accepted as a royal bride she had to prove she had never been a nun. Christina swore that Edith had only been in the convent to be educated and that she had been veiled to keep her safe from Norman lords. And while Edith's Anglo-Saxon heritage was handy, some of the more arch members of high society mocked her for it and nicknamed her and her husband 'Godfric and Godiva' in reference to their public promotion of a more 'English' way of life.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjh-BCHjeLUOmOPAaDGi0UUUqd93zXVu5VXZ5Obe_fz6hXZyzRwCHEhGVZsHFnGIJUuQJ4xnKG9EPBBVqr8EmTQcFEw7NL5Qp3YNGoCMZIURAzn6Y28ebv0Xr1F0E6CTmOUEtIsnrxaeg4Z/s1600/Westminster_abbey_west.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjh-BCHjeLUOmOPAaDGi0UUUqd93zXVu5VXZ5Obe_fz6hXZyzRwCHEhGVZsHFnGIJUuQJ4xnKG9EPBBVqr8EmTQcFEw7NL5Qp3YNGoCMZIURAzn6Y28ebv0Xr1F0E6CTmOUEtIsnrxaeg4Z/s320/Westminster_abbey_west.jpg" width="240" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><i>Westminster Abbey was the setting for the first Royal Wedding of the post Conquest monarchy</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-size: xx-small;">(photo credit "<a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Westminster_abbey_west.jpg#/media/File:Westminster_abbey_west.jpg">Westminster abbey west</a>" by Image by ChrisO. - english Wiki -. Licensed under <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/" title="Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0<p></p>">CC BY-SA 3.0</a> via <a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/">Wikimedia Commons</a>.) </span></i></div><br />It didn't matter to these two. Henry started building up an administration that would turn him from a younger brother with his eye on the big prize into a widely admired king. Edith would provide an heir, William, and a spare, Matilda, who would go on to be one of the most famous women in medieval Europe. The new queen loved art and religion and followed, in fact redefined, the pattern of a Middle Ages consort and when she died, in 1118, she was mourned by her husband and her people.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSMk87uIP67VnYJjhHQ2kWVl8FtETmp9Lm_u0PX6xfu9G0mmEAqmqeW8XkKBRnigl0RJP3_D32gQ7T80N_-LfqQh7jF97yLV2oHgbMmI-nphVHrVfWNIwDTk2M0M-7w0hXmr8wgAU7M3me/s1600/Matilda+of+Scotland%252C+Edith+Dunkeld.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSMk87uIP67VnYJjhHQ2kWVl8FtETmp9Lm_u0PX6xfu9G0mmEAqmqeW8XkKBRnigl0RJP3_D32gQ7T80N_-LfqQh7jF97yLV2oHgbMmI-nphVHrVfWNIwDTk2M0M-7w0hXmr8wgAU7M3me/s320/Matilda+of+Scotland%252C+Edith+Dunkeld.jpg" width="312" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><i>Edith Matilda, Queen of England</i></div><br />The first royal bride of Westminster Abbey could have taught modern royals a thing or two about public image and the fact that her own reputation remains so good so many centuries after her life shows how successful she was at this. Lydia Starbuckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11110810160077804306noreply@blogger.com0London, UK51.5073509 -0.127758323.197117063821153 -35.284008299999996 79.817584736178844 35.028491700000004tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2110742080828793426.post-72847123711697025612021-02-21T10:00:00.003+00:002021-02-21T10:00:03.399+00:00The widowhood of Isabella of France<p style="text-align: center;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEienh_z9leYhldNgPOHzB2BMVjMw06-MZccdTmQsFJclkkGi_vdKbog3wbh1-gDi1F4_0Dwa3mGkzXnywol4NuC8Q2GrAZnRHuF-IgbSubTaJic6Td_T_RwJLXvHcO2-jgTznlbZrw2qyA/s2048/Violet+Paris+Travel+Blog+Banner+%252875%2529.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1152" data-original-width="2048" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEienh_z9leYhldNgPOHzB2BMVjMw06-MZccdTmQsFJclkkGi_vdKbog3wbh1-gDi1F4_0Dwa3mGkzXnywol4NuC8Q2GrAZnRHuF-IgbSubTaJic6Td_T_RwJLXvHcO2-jgTznlbZrw2qyA/w640-h360/Violet+Paris+Travel+Blog+Banner+%252875%2529.png" width="640" /></a></div><br /> <p></p>But did she do it? Isabella, Queen of England was widowed on September 21st 1327. But there were no widows weeds for this consort. Isabella had already helped usurp her husband in a coup months before his timely death in Berkeley Castle. But the question that's remained ever since is - did this Queen of England help finish off her husband?<br /><a name='more'></a><br /><br />I doubt we'll ever know the truth. Isabella, like many a royal before and since, left no written record of her actions at this crucial time in her royal life. There's little doubt that the death of Edward II, at Berkeley Castle, was a boost to the newly formed powerbase she'd made with her lover, Roger Mortimer, after they'd claimed the throne for her eldest son. But its very convenience, just months after Edward had been toppled from the throne, also helped to hasten the demise of Isabella and Mortimer. Edward had been hated by many during his greedy and gutless time as king. But the suspicion that he had been murdered to consolidate the power of the new regime cast those who claimed to bring peace and stability to be viewed with a fresh suspicion.<br /><br />Isabella herself had been a main driving force in the battle to bring Edward II's tyrannical regime to an end. She had masterminded and carried out the plot which saw her vain and foolish husband relinquish control of his heir and open the door to his rivals seizing power. Isabella's canny machinations to bring the couple's first born child, the future Edward III, to France had given her the upper hand in the battle for the throne of England. She had used it wisely. She soon came back to her husband's realm but with an invading force and her hand in the military as well as PR moves that followed played a large part in the deposition of Edward II and the installation of her son as Edward III, puppet king.<br /><br />But did she help to kill her former husband? Edward II had been sent to Berkeley Castle on the orders of Roger Mortimer when it became clear that opponents of the new regime were seeking to free the fallen king. Given that Mortimer would have been nothing without Isabella and that the Queen of England had plenty of reason to despise her husband, she was at least complicit in the decision to move him to the secure isolation of Berkeley.<br /><br />However, Edward's death remains shrouded in mystery. There are even those who still doubt whether he did die on September 21st 1327. All that is known is that Edward III was told that his father had passed away on that September day and that several of those involved in keeping Edward II prisoner later fled. The body of the one time monarch was shown to local leaders and dignitaries but by the time he was taken to Gloucester for burial, three months later, his remains were beginning to deteriorate despite embalming. Edward III attended his father's funeral on December 20th 1327 but Isabella stayed away.<br /><br />She was now queen dowager of England, mother to the monarch and lover of the man who actually ruled England. Within three years, Edward III had deposed Mortimer and had him executed for treason. Isabella was spared and lived until 1358, enjoying a generous income and a very regal lifestyle though no doubt always closely watched by the son who had seen her political ambitions and abilities close up. She died a nun having developed a close interest in religion towards the end of her life. Whether that involved any confessions around the death of her husband will never be known. Isabella, Queen of England, is one of the guardians of the secrets of what really happened on September 21st 1327.Lydia Starbuckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11110810160077804306noreply@blogger.com0London, UK51.5073509 -0.127758323.197117063821153 -35.284008299999996 79.817584736178844 35.028491700000004tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2110742080828793426.post-37575340667974653042021-02-20T10:00:00.000+00:002021-02-20T10:00:03.519+00:00Queen of Scotland, Queen of England<div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmamRMRD8vuxXD5rxsUhCpAZE72GA1i78SgBRpC4LsHvWnYFc7Je3Q_eoxxzMlNiqpXovINKuu_lgNrxCuOqtMszIwnsXrJcsgZavsJq4YxVY2gmC3-F9EgbtMPz260Iqk6olL8kZC4UC6/s500/Anne_of_Denmark.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmamRMRD8vuxXD5rxsUhCpAZE72GA1i78SgBRpC4LsHvWnYFc7Je3Q_eoxxzMlNiqpXovINKuu_lgNrxCuOqtMszIwnsXrJcsgZavsJq4YxVY2gmC3-F9EgbtMPz260Iqk6olL8kZC4UC6/w512-h640/Anne_of_Denmark.jpg" width="512" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div>Anne of Denmark is where the title of Queen of England meets a changeover. For Anne was Queen of England but she was already Queen of Scotland and her tenure marks the start of the period of unification. So, by rights, this first consort of the English House of Stuart should be really rather well known. Instead, like many of the royal wives of her time, she has fallen into something of an historical shadow. <span></span>She is a pretty much forgotten queen, dismissed by some as frivolous and passed over in the history books. But Anne's story holds plenty of intrigue.<span><a name='more'></a></span></div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8-q1lzSflljeftpmEZoGDpCFZOpEs4D687F4mWUlsys6eTMq8hH5rQL9z6EmZ7AMlEkhgDFu_iPFVxlgJ8hb6txTdBhfg877Sws1oM5RoncZJL92u1TeZvaIpcWhG-59smNx3qNt9Xac/s2048/John_De_Critz_Anne_of_Denmark_1605.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1581" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8-q1lzSflljeftpmEZoGDpCFZOpEs4D687F4mWUlsys6eTMq8hH5rQL9z6EmZ7AMlEkhgDFu_iPFVxlgJ8hb6txTdBhfg877Sws1oM5RoncZJL92u1TeZvaIpcWhG-59smNx3qNt9Xac/w494-h640/John_De_Critz_Anne_of_Denmark_1605.jpg" width="494" /></a></div><br /><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>Plenty of that curiosity comes from the state of her relationship with her royal spouse. James VI had been King of Scotland since the age of 1 and, twenty years into his reign, decided he needed a wife. Denmark appealed to him for political, religious and economic reasons and also had a handy stash of princesses of marriageable age. So far, so very royal. Anne was the daughter of King Frederik II of Denmark and his wife, Sophie of Mecklenberg-Gustow, and grew up in a happy family. She was apparently thrilled by the prospect of marrying James when the wedding was proposed in 1589. That was despite the rumours that James had male lovers - something the then fourteen year old Anne was not aware of. She is said to have embroidered shirts for her future husband as a token of love. On her marriage she became Queen of Scotland and fifteen years later, Queen of England, when the childless Elizabeth I named James as her successor.</div><div> </div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFshFvUSo5JOZXOuyrQKD44ITMNzUx0X-2JlBZNZPjMUpCblFfywmr3wsjCX490PneX3eGqy7ec5IRLtt99h-w9iY2oXLcZ4ft09q3ytGFdFf_LSOYU-v7uR6rlcaGWQfm2KEYXxlhn_I/s1498/Anne_of_Denmark_by_John_de_Critz_the_Elder.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1498" data-original-width="924" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFshFvUSo5JOZXOuyrQKD44ITMNzUx0X-2JlBZNZPjMUpCblFfywmr3wsjCX490PneX3eGqy7ec5IRLtt99h-w9iY2oXLcZ4ft09q3ytGFdFf_LSOYU-v7uR6rlcaGWQfm2KEYXxlhn_I/w394-h640/Anne_of_Denmark_by_John_de_Critz_the_Elder.jpg" width="394" /></a></div><br /><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>As a queen Anne was a great patron of the arts and commissioned plays as well as expanding the royal art collection. She also liked to throw her weight about at home, once refusing to get out of bed for two days after her husband dismissed some favourite ladies in waiting and writing to a French envoy that the king was a bit too partial to a drink or three for her liking. For although James had been a paragon of romance in the early years of their marriage, his attentions had waned.</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbv4fb7_oLUzdCsB10OfEsItgmx_TgstU1ZkM3hOK2fMpGSTQcSrVr212u3JSB1U_xmcIFfj8m9yol3ScZfWARv2umyyQkZgbqnVnhau-2uTHAJc3Bng6-C6DSvWgwg5li8w5zk5BzSZM/s1650/Paul_van_Somer_%2528c._1576-1621%2529_-_Anne_of_Denmark_%25281574-1619%2529_-_RCIN_405887_-_Royal_Collection.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1650" data-original-width="1295" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbv4fb7_oLUzdCsB10OfEsItgmx_TgstU1ZkM3hOK2fMpGSTQcSrVr212u3JSB1U_xmcIFfj8m9yol3ScZfWARv2umyyQkZgbqnVnhau-2uTHAJc3Bng6-C6DSvWgwg5li8w5zk5BzSZM/w502-h640/Paul_van_Somer_%2528c._1576-1621%2529_-_Anne_of_Denmark_%25281574-1619%2529_-_RCIN_405887_-_Royal_Collection.jpg" width="502" /></a></div><br /><div> </div><div>Her legacy is largely over shadowed by the sad story of the House of Stuart and the execution of her son, Charles I, in 1649. By then, Anne was dead. But through her daughter, Elizabeth, she secured the British throne once more when a lack of heirs threatened it. Elizabeth's descendants were the Hanoverian kings of England.</div><div> </div>Lydia Starbuckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11110810160077804306noreply@blogger.com0London, UK51.5073509 -0.127758323.197117063821153 -35.284008299999996 79.817584736178844 35.028491700000004tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2110742080828793426.post-67939817215053589032021-02-19T10:00:00.001+00:002021-02-19T10:00:09.510+00:00Joanna, Queen of Dowagers<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVxcWWf8ZmxHj3fLMGdjtmt5emn3n-soJkRYRK9gvUpcYYHnyzWyGSsNUnT8XllHhbg9BiKIlCGuDbD3rn7bSoP__39vagYc7FoLXZJJZ787CSkCrY5W4HxRtsPpCMXOELUP_9Sh-u8WM/s1600/Joanna+of+Navarre.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVxcWWf8ZmxHj3fLMGdjtmt5emn3n-soJkRYRK9gvUpcYYHnyzWyGSsNUnT8XllHhbg9BiKIlCGuDbD3rn7bSoP__39vagYc7FoLXZJJZ787CSkCrY5W4HxRtsPpCMXOELUP_9Sh-u8WM/w270-h400/Joanna+of+Navarre.jpg" width="270" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><i>A later imagining of Joanna of Navarre who became Queen of England in 1403 but whose role as dowager put her very life in danger</i></div><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div>No one did as good a turn as a dowager in the 15th century than Joanna of Navarre. The queen of Henry IV had already been duchess of one of the most powerful areas of France before she decided that middle age would be quite nice spent as a consort. She was the only queen England had in 1414 as her husband had died the year before and his son and successor, Henry V, wouldn't marry for another six years as he established his rule. But while the dowager queen was left to mourn and get used to her new role in 1414, her future in England would be much more dramatic.<p></p><span><a name='more'></a></span><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Because in 1419, Joanna was accused of witchcraft and imprisoned. Deprived of her freedom and her lands and rights as queen dowager of England, she spent three years hidden away from public view - at times, in fear of her life. For the punishment for anyone convicted of witchcraft was death and for a while it wasn't certain whether the wilful woman who had married Henry IV in 1403 when both had been widowed for several years would escape trial and conviction. She did, but emerged to a very different England. By the time she was released in 1422, England had a new queen as Henry V had chosen <a href="http://queensconsortofengland.blogspot.co.uk/2014/01/englands-first-queen-catherine.html" target="_blank">Katherine of Valois</a> as his consort and the couple had a young son, Henry. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJnqcyvkYtMxmePLkY5aW0ycNntg_IcD5tpv9uVvxklNQoOMHt2EnhRjPlf142yauD07SoPh1ITHNr7ZzQ3_-9xacBJpX2J5vdpAMho_SqACLZFpIakJ8ZTM4VoksnxfjcAjpumn49Nes/s1600/Henry+and+Joanna.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="189" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJnqcyvkYtMxmePLkY5aW0ycNntg_IcD5tpv9uVvxklNQoOMHt2EnhRjPlf142yauD07SoPh1ITHNr7ZzQ3_-9xacBJpX2J5vdpAMho_SqACLZFpIakJ8ZTM4VoksnxfjcAjpumn49Nes/s1600/Henry+and+Joanna.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><i>A portrayal of Henry IV and his consort, Joanna</i></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><i><br /></i></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">But in 1414, Joanna was enjoying the calm before the storm. She was the first adult dowager queen England had known since the 1330s but her time as the elder stateswoman of the court began far more peacefully than that of <a href="http://queensconsortofengland.blogspot.co.uk/2014/01/the-most-notorious-queen.html" target="_blank">Isabella of France</a> who had taken the dowager's role in 1327 after helping usurp her husband, Edward II, from the throne. Joanna was said to get on well with her stepson, new king Henry V, and she also had years of experience as a dowager as her first husband had been John, Duke of Brittay who had died after thirteen years of marriage leaving her a widow at the age of 29 with a teenage son in charge of this powerful area of modern day France. She was his protector and the dowager duchess for four years before swapping her title for an even better one, that of queen. So when Henry IV died in 1413, Joanna knew all about retiring to the sidelines. The later drama of her life has been attributed by some historian to anti French bias at court and in the country at large. In 1414, that was just a distant cloud on the horizon.</div><div><br /></div>Lydia Starbuckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11110810160077804306noreply@blogger.com0London, UK51.5073509 -0.127758323.197117063821153 -35.284008299999996 79.817584736178844 35.028491700000004tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2110742080828793426.post-78705228790677337952021-02-18T14:00:00.003+00:002021-02-18T14:00:01.072+00:00The (second most) famous royal Charlotte<p> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmvIznp3n8BtQDBCnrPVQJiv8mr98pAo7rFtWu81bGkznSCw09GnnsLhG97nWAC7H-3YqkrR92GaKxpLR_sF6STq66jgjVpI3Loq0ZhfgAO_9OKt_EIaIOmH9AmBMX94xAvBuBXuS5RerG/s1600/389px-CharlotteOfMecklenburg-StrelitzRamsay1765.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmvIznp3n8BtQDBCnrPVQJiv8mr98pAo7rFtWu81bGkznSCw09GnnsLhG97nWAC7H-3YqkrR92GaKxpLR_sF6STq66jgjVpI3Loq0ZhfgAO_9OKt_EIaIOmH9AmBMX94xAvBuBXuS5RerG/s640/389px-CharlotteOfMecklenburg-StrelitzRamsay1765.jpg" width="412" /></a></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div></div><div style="text-align: center;"><em>Queen Charlotte with two of her fifteen children</em><br /><em><br /></em><div style="text-align: start;">To be fair to her, she managed to be the most famous royal with the name for over 250 years but Queen Charlotte has now had to take a back seat on the global celebrity front as her seven times great granddaughter made the name her very own. Until May 2nd 2015, this German princess turned Queen of England was perhaps the most famous royal Charlotte of all.</div><a name='more'></a><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1QgCg3425zHD-4FcA2IGE8fH-VXYVJwVj11pg2EO1NYvKGKR80mcBqoNHxJZfwS_0J81t_x3-iB977hQrpvahpBwPUTbjySM3g1ZDf9ETqnbkm2nal0ARTkxvuYOifoZhUgKl6LpS0bek/s1600/K%25C3%25B6nigin_Sophie_Charlotte_von_Mecklenburg-Strelitz.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1QgCg3425zHD-4FcA2IGE8fH-VXYVJwVj11pg2EO1NYvKGKR80mcBqoNHxJZfwS_0J81t_x3-iB977hQrpvahpBwPUTbjySM3g1ZDf9ETqnbkm2nal0ARTkxvuYOifoZhUgKl6LpS0bek/s640/K%25C3%25B6nigin_Sophie_Charlotte_von_Mecklenburg-Strelitz.jpg" width="428" /></a></div><div style="text-align: start;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: start;">Sophia Charlotte of Mecklenberg Strelitz was born on May 19th 1744 and by the age of 18 she was a queen, a role she would hold for 57 years through some very happy and also very turbulent times. Until recently, she was the longest serving consort in British history, being overtaken in April 2009 by the Duke of Edinburgh. Her long tenure saw her produce fifteen children including eight sons who lived to adulthood but when she died in 1818 the succession was in crisis as at that point she had no legitimate grandchildren eligible to wear the crown. Just six months after her death, her fourth son became the father of Princess Victoria and Charlotte's family was safe on the throne once more.</div></div><div><br /></div><div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhh-LXX914nGngwPity6tBitHlPCUXwcB-23e74YZTcc6Z6TRKDnB7qGf1SMUYzCLB_m9raqW1R7MeRBde5ONwV55_3g_FKBhGeLiXaituaOqcfLcsJjvKRnrwiWyV0N7vfPwl6ykiBOoIh/s1600/Queen_charlotte_when_princess.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhh-LXX914nGngwPity6tBitHlPCUXwcB-23e74YZTcc6Z6TRKDnB7qGf1SMUYzCLB_m9raqW1R7MeRBde5ONwV55_3g_FKBhGeLiXaituaOqcfLcsJjvKRnrwiWyV0N7vfPwl6ykiBOoIh/s640/Queen_charlotte_when_princess.jpg" width="450" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><em>Queen Charlotte as a young woman. She began life as an obscure German princess but through her granddaughter, Victoria, she became an ancestress of many of Europe's modern royal families</em></div><div style="text-align: center;"><em><br /></em></div><div style="text-align: center;"></div><div>And Queen Charlotte was very aware of the problems monarchies at that time faced in ensuring their surivival. She was a penpal of Marie Antoinette and had rooms prepared for the French Queen and her family to stay in as they prepared to flee the revolution. She is said to have been shocked by the execution of the French royals in 1793 and by the assassination of the King of Sweden the year before. </div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMglnnOsWQGuRy3Nyn6bH2TrC-bm37EohCbttVAflTNaZ9PD-KG86GgnpgxHdJU_1NVyOG9SkYXOTK0EuUqvtMgpGwe1cs7kMgisrBneZzrwSUnLSp_ix3Z6KHEDnWKRi9CYM5B5MvbvXG/s1600/381PX-~1.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMglnnOsWQGuRy3Nyn6bH2TrC-bm37EohCbttVAflTNaZ9PD-KG86GgnpgxHdJU_1NVyOG9SkYXOTK0EuUqvtMgpGwe1cs7kMgisrBneZzrwSUnLSp_ix3Z6KHEDnWKRi9CYM5B5MvbvXG/s640/381PX-~1.JPG" width="406" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><em>Marie Antoinette's execution in 1793 shocked Queen Charlotte who had been willing to offer refuge to the French royal family</em><br /><em><br /></em></div><div style="text-align: center;"></div><div align="left" style="text-align: center;"></div><div>Little baby Sophia Charlotte was born the daughter of Duke Charles of Mecklenburg-Strelitz and his wife, Elizabeth. Their duchy was small and wielded comparatively little power and the choice of the teenage Charlotte as the wife of Britain's brand new king, George III, in 1761 is said to have been influenced by the fact that she had virtually no experience of court politics and wouldn't get involved in affairs of state. George III had watched his own mother, Augusta, wrestle with power when he became heir to the throne aged just fourteen. Her relationship with one of the royal advisers, Lord Bute, was the subject of widespread gossip and led to a massive drop in her popularity. Charlotte was advised to be a more submissive wife and she seems to have agreed.<br /><br /></div><div></div><div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjs4yOU4bKI-uQ2TiT9SYtiR__Guqu2e2J2E-qDtEPxMacZUespROTRorKLy0MBloqk8LiiKO-Pca6XxckAL4Jxb7gbEwm4RHKvtmEdhgnGcWkWVGyG_AWOf6_uujrJMMg_6j0H4XPZM1mI/s1600/518px-George_III_(by_Allan_Ramsay).jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjs4yOU4bKI-uQ2TiT9SYtiR__Guqu2e2J2E-qDtEPxMacZUespROTRorKLy0MBloqk8LiiKO-Pca6XxckAL4Jxb7gbEwm4RHKvtmEdhgnGcWkWVGyG_AWOf6_uujrJMMg_6j0H4XPZM1mI/s640/518px-George_III_(by_Allan_Ramsay).jpg" width="550" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><em>George III, King of England from 1760 to 1820, and husband of Queen Consort Charlotte</em></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Charlotte became known as a patron of the arts and music and was known for her love of plants and botany. She was also a devoted mother and she and George enjoyed a happy marriage. But his ill health affected her badly. After his first bout of porphyria - characterized then as madness - she was said to have noticeably aged, Like many wives and husbands now who find their spouses altered by conditions affecting their brains, emotions and psychology she worried about violent outbursts and the king's behaviour towards her. But she remained devoted to him and from 1811 she was his legal guardian as his illness became unstoppable. The kingdom was ruled by their eldest son as Prince Regent but the king himself remained in his queen's care. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjh40J_xEMYZrc3s2TUPnWZMEQgL1VVqmuKv4ysAHTfweyVwYCbuaemoX8FFr8j7ydXAGbKvaBKJYX4VQuya0CpeFnrxfFxQmxzaLIbxcJ1tqUNkMdJHu-fpwGz8UP7mmRZCI9vTUIossoH/s1600/363px-Sir_Thomas_Lawrence_003.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjh40J_xEMYZrc3s2TUPnWZMEQgL1VVqmuKv4ysAHTfweyVwYCbuaemoX8FFr8j7ydXAGbKvaBKJYX4VQuya0CpeFnrxfFxQmxzaLIbxcJ1tqUNkMdJHu-fpwGz8UP7mmRZCI9vTUIossoH/s640/363px-Sir_Thomas_Lawrence_003.jpg" width="386" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><em>Queen Charlotte in later years in a portrait by Sir Thomas Lawrence</em></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Queen Charlotte died in 1818 - perhaps the saddest part of the story is that the husband who had made her queen and remained faithful to her through almost sixty years of marriage didn't know she was dead. George III was too ill to understand his wife had died. But Charlotte's life and reign as queen as overall a happy one and her legacy as a grandmother of royalty was cemented by Victoria's success in marrying her descendants into many of the European royal families that Charlotte had worried would wobble and fall in her own lifetime. And now, two and a half centuries after she arrived in London to wed a new king in need of a queen, her name is back in royal favour as another princess with great expectations in front of her gets everyone talking about Charlotte.</div>Lydia Starbuckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11110810160077804306noreply@blogger.com0London, UK51.5073509 -0.127758323.197117063821153 -35.284008299999996 79.817584736178844 35.028491700000004tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2110742080828793426.post-26834865793029798912021-02-18T10:44:00.005+00:002021-02-18T10:44:55.412+00:00The birth of England's first Queen Regnant<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2npvDDyF2pUmwEa8dlUYe50FK1RvzNRXqeEfuaKRADDYPI39-6WSLJ35esZIaLHDU4Xu_wwcUT-wpudy1Lqbk-yrms-H5Z2BEP53Ll2J9gmUBsh_nCWzSzKHPbrN_2qlt4CHWGeDma8I/s2048/Mary_I_by_Master_John.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1549" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2npvDDyF2pUmwEa8dlUYe50FK1RvzNRXqeEfuaKRADDYPI39-6WSLJ35esZIaLHDU4Xu_wwcUT-wpudy1Lqbk-yrms-H5Z2BEP53Ll2J9gmUBsh_nCWzSzKHPbrN_2qlt4CHWGeDma8I/w484-h640/Mary_I_by_Master_John.jpg" width="484" /></a></div><br /><p style="text-align: center;"><i>Mary I, Queen of England, born February 18th 1516</i></p><p style="text-align: center;"><br /></p><p>The little girl born at the Palace of Pleasance in London on this day in 1516 had, quite literally, a whole world at her feet. And yet this same baby princess would grow up into a sad, lonely woman who could not get happiness to stick at her side however hard she tried. Mary, princess of the House of Tudor and descendant of some of Europe's greatest monarchs, would make history by becoming England's first queen regnant. But despite claiming that historic crown - as much through her own determination and charm as through birthright - Mary I, Queen of England is remembered by history as Bloody Mary, as a shadow that had to pass before the brightness of the reign of her half-sister, Elizabeth I. And much of the blame for that can be laid at the feet of the man who celebrated her birth so fervently on this day in 1516, her father - Henry VIII.<span></span></p><a name='more'></a><p></p><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsADZornAHJEeZx6wQ7wWfM6M2CGHchNcKnv0IVI8MXhrlxGADjZB2znoIWVi1X0-IWWRHxDgzCjRmaPdfFa1Ib7SAK8JIbgxvjK04lA5Yu5TjaWszG8bY9WiKoUou-4-3RE85aSX8ydc/s1600/Mary+I.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsADZornAHJEeZx6wQ7wWfM6M2CGHchNcKnv0IVI8MXhrlxGADjZB2znoIWVi1X0-IWWRHxDgzCjRmaPdfFa1Ib7SAK8JIbgxvjK04lA5Yu5TjaWszG8bY9WiKoUou-4-3RE85aSX8ydc/s1600/Mary+I.jpg" width="241" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><i>The grim faced, ridiculed woman left to history began life as a much adored daughter and the hope of her father's dynasty. Mary I, Queen of England, made history but lost many friends along the way.</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><br /></i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: left;">Mary's arrival at the Palace of Placentia (translated by some as Pleasance) was celebrated as the birth of a royal child and proof that boys would yet arrive for a king who had now ruled England for seven years and his wife, Catherine. But Mary would be their only child and just one more pregnancy would follow. By the time Mary was ten, her father was trying to work out who to move her mother aside and replace her with the woman who already fascinated him, Anne Boleyn. Henry treated his daughter harshly, removing her from the succession when he removed her mother as his queen, and then banning Catherine and Mary from seeing one another even when the latter was dying. Mary had his strong will but the more she showed it, the more he tried to repress it. But perhaps the saddest part of this father/ daughter dynamic is Henry's refusal to find a husband for his daughter who quite clearly yearned to be married and to be a mother herself. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0b1nnMktySVx4_35_tdeLaWjjzFH5qK1o2s1eigj1oBoublQnTgA0l1zfeApxz-5ULVXEnTM8pW-15mM6YbEVayHNT14zAPHsMUU7ijyOZCZo7qQRUZUaZufQsNXiV_iYOlkyKq_gLNk/s1600/Henry+VIII.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0b1nnMktySVx4_35_tdeLaWjjzFH5qK1o2s1eigj1oBoublQnTgA0l1zfeApxz-5ULVXEnTM8pW-15mM6YbEVayHNT14zAPHsMUU7ijyOZCZo7qQRUZUaZufQsNXiV_iYOlkyKq_gLNk/s1600/Henry+VIII.jpg" width="262" /></a></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div><i>Henry VIII kept his daughter on a tight leash and left her a lonely woman with little hope of personal happiness </i></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">By the time the king died, in 1547, Mary was almost 31 years old and hardly the most marriageable princess in Europe. When she became queen, in 1553, and could command more attention as a royal wife she chose a cousin, Philip II, to whom she was devoted but who showed little inclination to even spend time with her. As he rejected her, and her chances of motherhood disappeared, Mary became an increasingly sad figure. Her religious fervour lost her the love of her people which had been plain for all to see when she rode to London to claim the throne after the declaration of Lady Jane Grey as queen on the death of Edward VI. By taking the throne in 1553 she made history by becoming England's first queen regnant and changing the very concept of monarchy in one brave move. In her youth, Mary showed every sign of sharing the brilliance and intelligence of her much feted half sister, Elizabeth I. But while Elizabeth became Gloriana, the first female regnant became Bloody Mary whose short reign came nowhere near to delivering the spectacle its very existence promised. </div></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><br /></i></div>Lydia Starbuckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11110810160077804306noreply@blogger.com0London, UK51.5073509 -0.127758323.197117063821153 -35.284008299999996 79.817584736178844 35.028491700000004tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2110742080828793426.post-70586850048985844342021-02-17T10:00:00.003+00:002021-02-17T10:00:03.345+00:00The House of Windsor: queens and consorts<p> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivUYsLV75b_b-lPuEFGDRAyCmmh55d-IWxV39UN7gmMhCClVbzEz0gmBYFrWCDiES-ZRlZSTAs_5ffL6iNAwvA19tAimVD7L9ev4ZvK5YTvxJ09OIsm2izX66ZzEmvNhHCsOrpUNxAEHo/s1600/CONSORTS+MONTAGE.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivUYsLV75b_b-lPuEFGDRAyCmmh55d-IWxV39UN7gmMhCClVbzEz0gmBYFrWCDiES-ZRlZSTAs_5ffL6iNAwvA19tAimVD7L9ev4ZvK5YTvxJ09OIsm2izX66ZzEmvNhHCsOrpUNxAEHo/s640/CONSORTS+MONTAGE.jpg" width="640" /></a></p><br />The House of Windsor came into being on July 17th 1917 when George V issued a royal proclamation changing the name of his family and his house from Saxe-Coburg-Gotha due to growing anti German sentiment in World War One. From that moment onwards, the dynasty was known as Windsor. In the following 103 years, there have been just three consorts but but what a trio they are. Two queens, one prince, three royal stories that take some telling. Welcome to the consorts of the House of Windsor.<br /><br /><a name='more'></a><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcTf54srk_YANFry4vOijDRk6JBl2TluVCY9hWFIOM57kGg50HdW87Y3pbDb9ucyan-d9newfCBRrBrQjR6lBRf6op9nVQ2sBnG5qn_XijD0Ah21IrSDFo-JlE9dHAKsy3h_K3_d5aQrk/s1600/Queen+Mary+formal+portrait.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="599" data-original-width="430" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcTf54srk_YANFry4vOijDRk6JBl2TluVCY9hWFIOM57kGg50HdW87Y3pbDb9ucyan-d9newfCBRrBrQjR6lBRf6op9nVQ2sBnG5qn_XijD0Ah21IrSDFo-JlE9dHAKsy3h_K3_d5aQrk/s640/Queen+Mary+formal+portrait.jpg" width="458" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">Queen Mary</span></b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">First consort of the House of Windsor</span></b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><br /></i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>Consort to </i>George V <i>between </i>May 6th 1910 - January 20th 1936</div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>Born </i>Victoria Mary Augusta Louise Olga Pauline Claudine Agnes </div><div style="text-align: center;">on May 26th 1867 at Kensington Palace</div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>Daughter of </i>Francis, Duke of Teck and Princess Mary Adelaide of Cambridge</div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>Married </i>George, Duke of York <i>later </i>George V on July 6th 1893</div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>Crowned </i>June 22nd 1911</div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>Died </i>March 24th 1953</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0bMaXGpeHiYQDJcIaoACZQEpu8M2DHhNy9fdCymzRCmR6_9lsQzl60ogPAFJRzcXB0yk0LCTCVLtdfyGQQsJREs4lDCNBtnBLRBfIYALbHeXM5gn22-WHZwuT7ZSgYo8xbLjI3NBtyn8/s1600/Queen_Elizabeth_the_Queen_Mother_portrait.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="599" data-original-width="472" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0bMaXGpeHiYQDJcIaoACZQEpu8M2DHhNy9fdCymzRCmR6_9lsQzl60ogPAFJRzcXB0yk0LCTCVLtdfyGQQsJREs4lDCNBtnBLRBfIYALbHeXM5gn22-WHZwuT7ZSgYo8xbLjI3NBtyn8/s640/Queen_Elizabeth_the_Queen_Mother_portrait.jpg" width="504" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">Queen Elizabeth</span></b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">Second consort of the House of Windsor</span></b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>Consort to </i>George VI <i>between </i>December 11th 1936 - February 6th 1952</div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>Born </i>Elizabeth Angela Marguerite on August 4th 1900, p</div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>Daughter of </i>Claude Bowes-Lyon, later Earl of Strathmore and Kinghearn</div><div style="text-align: center;">and Cecilia Cavendish-Bentinck</div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>Married </i>Albert, Duke of York <i>later </i>George VI on April 26th 1923</div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>Crowned </i>May 12th 1937</div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>Died </i>March 30th 2002</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3N5bMOQm9DuKxkoO17Mf2bszL15bkwAqVz7GKpHlwNDCF_HLfDQkyQeDZOyww4ku-n7ZXo-lMaiBNp57ZcwTWZBxhchoSVgWjRKnzMbgVMr6EMVyIelegl75DocrCtsTUPGhZORZoVv4/s1600/Prince_Philip_by_Allan_Warren_1992.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1113" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3N5bMOQm9DuKxkoO17Mf2bszL15bkwAqVz7GKpHlwNDCF_HLfDQkyQeDZOyww4ku-n7ZXo-lMaiBNp57ZcwTWZBxhchoSVgWjRKnzMbgVMr6EMVyIelegl75DocrCtsTUPGhZORZoVv4/s640/Prince_Philip_by_Allan_Warren_1992.jpg" width="444" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh</span></b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">Third Consort of the House of Windsor</span></b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>Consort to </i>Elizabeth II <i>since </i>February 6th 1952</div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>Born </i>Prince Philip of Greece and Denmark on June 10th 1921 at Mon Repos, Corfu</div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>Son of </i>Prince Andrew of Greece and Denmark <i>and </i>Princess Alice of Battenberg</div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>Married </i>Princess Elizabeth <i>later </i>Elizabeth II on November 20th 1947</div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>Became </i>the longest serving consort in British history on April 18th 2009</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div>Photo credit: Wiki Commons</div><div><br /></div>Lydia Starbuckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11110810160077804306noreply@blogger.com0London, UK51.5073509 -0.127758323.197117063821153 -35.284008299999996 79.817584736178844 35.028491700000004tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2110742080828793426.post-48996747057729571942021-02-16T10:00:00.003+00:002021-02-16T10:00:06.536+00:00Being Anne Boleyn<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLrmOoBaZyaE0I512hoR1YmcT5oX3PGpuTcBzV_lrVYTEAnJoSnW6amhjL2sTD2aiPRkkg5DSvMaHMMREB961WV3N8mX53_lCFpIfRdxJSQ8zrEu1Igd2BBoh1leF0UnZqReHQB9VxjbXW/s1600/Anneboleyn2.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLrmOoBaZyaE0I512hoR1YmcT5oX3PGpuTcBzV_lrVYTEAnJoSnW6amhjL2sTD2aiPRkkg5DSvMaHMMREB961WV3N8mX53_lCFpIfRdxJSQ8zrEu1Igd2BBoh1leF0UnZqReHQB9VxjbXW/s1600/Anneboleyn2.jpg" width="237" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><em>The ultimate marmite queen - from the day she became noticed at court to the present day, Anne always gets people talking</em></div><br />She's about to get a whole new interpretation of her tumultuous reign so now is perhaps the right time to ask - has history really got Anne Boleyn that wrong? That's a difficult question to address because history presents us with several different Annes. There's the sexy, sultry, super clever seductress who wound one of England's most powerful kings around her little finger and got him to change his known world to make her queen. There's the woman killed by her husband after a show trial, a martyr. There's a clever political adviser who was as integral a part of Henry's council as any man but who got too powerful for her enemies. There's the social climber who bit off more than she could chew. Or how about the over ambitious girl who thought her king loved her so much she could do whatever she wanted - and who got things fatally wrong?<span><a name='more'></a></span><div><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwrNG5gzh_jTsw-LzKsoQg3KVvvC5QpJe-8I2Tt1nMjm74FVYxmgNWpeXvIRrYzXRqt3Jo7Ftp2qWjxj-DrskvO2bvNbD4U4l49oLvFrJfs9lV1rPo7jbBkCsGw1MmBL71gHQiVSAkRTlh/s1600/513px-Henry's_reconciliation_with_Anne_Boleyn_cph_3g08965.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwrNG5gzh_jTsw-LzKsoQg3KVvvC5QpJe-8I2Tt1nMjm74FVYxmgNWpeXvIRrYzXRqt3Jo7Ftp2qWjxj-DrskvO2bvNbD4U4l49oLvFrJfs9lV1rPo7jbBkCsGw1MmBL71gHQiVSAkRTlh/s1600/513px-Henry's_reconciliation_with_Anne_Boleyn_cph_3g08965.jpg" width="274" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><em>A 19th century etching showing Henry and Anne reconciling. Their tempestuous relationship still puzzles historians, five hundred years after they first met</em></div><em></em><br />Ambition, determination and self belief all shine through however you tell Anne's story. As does the idea that the divorce from Catherine of Aragon was all down to her. And yet didn't Henry gain far more from dispensing with his first wife that Anne did? <br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-KECPriiPBcdZPQA7U_VQVTS8UpkkXZhTUZZ3TzdVlogTN82ykK0LsCIH7m8cxeTCpCnaa08CzrPyfBQztjK4NCEWVGwk0Qhgm-k-mxIPhUCG1mJOLVu5RxvGEbQEQAUC56iZUzg4YQT1/s1600/491px-Henry_VIII_Art_Gallery_of_Ontario.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-KECPriiPBcdZPQA7U_VQVTS8UpkkXZhTUZZ3TzdVlogTN82ykK0LsCIH7m8cxeTCpCnaa08CzrPyfBQztjK4NCEWVGwk0Qhgm-k-mxIPhUCG1mJOLVu5RxvGEbQEQAUC56iZUzg4YQT1/s1600/491px-Henry_VIII_Art_Gallery_of_Ontario.jpg" width="262" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><em>Did dumping a royal wife and marrying a commoner make Henry more powerful?</em></div><div style="text-align: center;"><em></em> </div>Sometimes it's forgotten how clever Anne really was. She would have known better than anyone that if Henry could get rid of one wife, he could get rid of another. She may have thought she was a match for anyone that tried to undermine her and she may have thought Henry would stick to divorce rather than the shocking events that led to her death in May 1536. But she knew that marriage to the king was just one step on the way rather than the end of the story and a chance to put her feet up.<br /><br />But Henry, ultimately, got a lot more from the marriage. I've always been really interested in Henry's devotion to his maternal grandfather, Edward IV. He put him on a pedestal early on in his life and kept him there to the very end. And Henry's marriage to Anne bears all the hallmarks of Edward's marriage. But did Henry find that copying history was harder than he imagined?<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_FAKyWvNCGAsE9FmvmwXPi9PV5L2frDRGhihZPe6Ae_wcZnPYmngWkB0U3WiMUUEIAQiSbSB86xPIw9rPsYg91IWFPeP8MtD7bOlsrhtRSkeDjTKqNKblfMXPiNc2EUOrJUsNr2vw19-K/s1600/408px-Edward4.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_FAKyWvNCGAsE9FmvmwXPi9PV5L2frDRGhihZPe6Ae_wcZnPYmngWkB0U3WiMUUEIAQiSbSB86xPIw9rPsYg91IWFPeP8MtD7bOlsrhtRSkeDjTKqNKblfMXPiNc2EUOrJUsNr2vw19-K/s1600/408px-Edward4.jpg" width="217" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><em>Edward IV, King of England and grandfather of Henry VIII - did a desire to be like granddad have as much influence on his decision to divorce and marry again as his attraction to Anne Boleyn?</em></div><em></em><br />Edward was born the son of one of the most powerful men in England but one who never wore the crown despite a strong claim to it and despite managing the kingdom for many years. Edward himself became king thanks to the support of Warwick the Kingmaker but within a few years of taking power he defied his greatest adviser by marrying a commoner - despite Warwick being about to seal a deal for a union with a French princess. Romantic tellings of the story show love conquering all but by marrying Elizabeth Woodville, Edward clipped Warwick's wings and made one of his first big stands as a king who was independent of his council. And as previous councils and advisers had been instrumental in creating the turmoil that had swirled through England for decades in the War of the Roses, ruling without them sometimes was one way of trying to bring peace and establish kingly authority.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmikKZYGuNx76db406SWXpxY2Gm8GA5N_NjY6UQcGGGuhKPKLvQT5CEh5pH8cJJ66xWuAZaUyq_6vNzobPay483m9OyBQx77O2Pzk8DQYoa9WDSXrCmXlx3nmGFelkr8HDXMT6r8Kg_4Ch/s1600/Choosing_the_Red_and_White_Roses.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmikKZYGuNx76db406SWXpxY2Gm8GA5N_NjY6UQcGGGuhKPKLvQT5CEh5pH8cJJ66xWuAZaUyq_6vNzobPay483m9OyBQx77O2Pzk8DQYoa9WDSXrCmXlx3nmGFelkr8HDXMT6r8Kg_4Ch/s1600/Choosing_the_Red_and_White_Roses.jpg" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><em>Henry Arthur Payne's famous painting of the Houses of York and Lancaster choosing the white and red roses that would become their symbols. Edward IV's father, Richard of York, is in the forefront of the painting holding the white rose of York.</em></div><br />Edward's choice of bride also provided a great opportunity for some serious divide and rule. His Queen Consort had a gaggle of brothers and sisters who could be married off to every wealthy heir and heiress going - and while some historians argue this was all Elizabeth's doing to further her family, Edward gained a great deal by making sure that great chunks of cash and land didn't fall into the hands of anyone who might be able to get big enough to challenge for the throne. It also stopped Warwick making any more potential kings through strategic marriages among the myriad of people who could lay claim to the throne because of descent from Edward III. <br /><br />And by marrying Anne, Henry did pretty much the same. Firstly, he showed his council that he could pick a bride for himself. Any question of replacing Katherine of Aragon would need the king to provide an answer. In fact of all six wives of Henry VIII, his advisers picked just one. Thomas Cromwell was instrumental in the choice of Anne of Cleves - Henry hated her on first sight, refused to sleep with her, let it be known publicly he wouldn't consummate the marriage and had Cromwell executed within weeks of divorcing her. A pretty strident rejection of courtly matchmaking.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnbJSAWGoVo-lJ-HEatRll0VyR5trvmgafrsAj8K489ua-IAI3kATjywGzxil-rm3W7_TdFdgCmt5Za6V2g_dBHCQ_M1WvAgxC2eXcyC2LlTW0GUufgVst8qu9JERFkPCXnTk8MDR8jH31/s1600/AnneCleves.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnbJSAWGoVo-lJ-HEatRll0VyR5trvmgafrsAj8K489ua-IAI3kATjywGzxil-rm3W7_TdFdgCmt5Za6V2g_dBHCQ_M1WvAgxC2eXcyC2LlTW0GUufgVst8qu9JERFkPCXnTk8MDR8jH31/s1600/AnneCleves.jpg" width="239" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><em>Anne of Cleves endured one of the worst blind dates in history</em></div><div align="left" class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><em></em> </div><div align="left" class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">But back to Anne. She was Henry's choice and a very public one at that. So he had established who chose the queen. And just like Edward again, he was confident enough in his stature as king to select someone who needed him to make her royal as his bride. Kings had always married royalty or nobility, partly for the alliances and allegiances the weddings brought with them and partly because it enhanced their prestige. Because if you weren't sure of your throne, if others could question your role as a divinely appointed monarch, then a royal wife helped answer some of those doubts. But Edward and Henry had no doubt they should be king and no doubt that if anyone disagreed, they could deal with it.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">And lastly, just like granddad, marrying Anne allowed Henry to shake up his advisers and keep his court on their toes. Anne came with an ambitious father and brother who wanted to go further and she was part of the Howard family which was used to royal favour but who needed to keep it. Like Edward, Henry chose a wife whose relations needed him but whose kith and kin would fall if he chose to let them. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5BtTHdkgh7f6zA6tIuFIgCinxM-4fAojhGuFLs-gqZLCIcLh6djYY_hXtGntjso1B8-yvKMrvXIK5zxirO0vFNb3ANYHy99bRlJ7lY23C2yMx_QASR6UjJ9v48cS3_qOKmZRhyphenhyphenW4M3dVU/s1600/458px-Thomas_Howard,_third_Duke_of_Norfolk_by_Hans_Holbein_the_Younger.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5BtTHdkgh7f6zA6tIuFIgCinxM-4fAojhGuFLs-gqZLCIcLh6djYY_hXtGntjso1B8-yvKMrvXIK5zxirO0vFNb3ANYHy99bRlJ7lY23C2yMx_QASR6UjJ9v48cS3_qOKmZRhyphenhyphenW4M3dVU/s1600/458px-Thomas_Howard,_third_Duke_of_Norfolk_by_Hans_Holbein_the_Younger.jpg" width="244" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><em>Thomas Howard, third Duke of Norfolk, was uncle to both Anne Boleyn and Catherine Howard</em></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Henry's grandfather had relied on his wife's relatives for advice and counsel and Anne's brother also had a prominent role at court. But while the Woodville brothers arrogance was tolerated, George Boleyn's attitude started to win him enemies. Unlike Edward, Henry didn't wait to see if time would be a great healer. But perhaps most tellingly, Henry chose a wife who didn't provide nearly enough blood relatives to marry off to the fortunes that needed to be kept close to the crown. And less than three years after making her Anne his queen, Henry found a family that was a bit more useful in that regard. Enter the Seymours.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">So with all the benefits that their marriage brought to Henry - was Anne really the schemer that history portrays or a willing participant in a political act that she could never have imagined would end in the way it did?</div><div align="left" class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div></div>Lydia Starbuckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11110810160077804306noreply@blogger.com0London, UK51.5073509 -0.127758323.197117063821153 -35.284008299999996 79.817584736178844 35.028491700000004