Eleanor of Woodstock had the misfortune to be born a daughter of Edward II and Isabelle of France, but the stubbornness, resourcefulness and tenacity that she may have inherited from them saw her through the dark side of a Medieval arranged marriage.
Continue reading “Isabelle’s Daughter: Eleanor of Woodstock, Duchess of Guelders”
Where to begin – the children, the dress or the Queen? I guess the Queen since she’s the one running the show here. For those unfamiliar with the ceremony, Trooping the Colour is an annual military ceremony that also officially commemorates the sovereign’s birthday. Each year the Queen and members of the Royal Family travel down the Mall and the Queen inspects her troops. Generally framed as a joyful celebration of national pride, this year’s was a bit more solemn.
Stop everything, because our favorite duchess debuted a pair of nautical-themed trousers today. This is “important,” because Kate almost exclusively sticks to dresses and skirts and when she does wear pants, they are usually for an athletic-themed engagement and are her favorite J. Brand skinnies. Once in a blue moon we’ll see some J. Crew black jeans. There was quite the furor when she was spotted wearing a trendy print a while back. But pants suitable for professional settings (i.e. her engagements) are generally not a part of the routine.
I’ll admit that I had never noticed this until it started getting called out a couple years ago and once you see it, you can’t really “unsee” it. So, here we are: Kate wore a pair of navy cropped pants from J. Crew featuring gold buttons. Oh em gee.
Continue reading “Kate is Wearing Pants, We’re on the Razor’s Edge”
Edward III and his wife, Philippa of Hainaut are best-remembered for their plethora of sons, but between them they also produced five daughters, the eldest of whom was Isabella of England. Believed to be her father’s favorite, Isabella was born at Woodstock Castle on June 16, 1332 and named for her paternal grandmother, Isabelle of France.
Continue reading “The Willful Isabella of England, Countess of Bedford”
Today, in 1870, Victoria, Crown Princess of Prussia gave birth to her sixth child, Sophie, at the New Palace in Potsdam. Victoria, or “Vicky,” was the eldest daughter of Queen Victoria and wife of Crown Prince Frederick “Fritz.” The new baby joined three older brothers and two older sisters – a fourth brother, Sigismund, had died from meningitis at the age of two.
More importantly, Sophie was born as the Franco-Prussian war broke out. Her christening was attended by Prussia’s highest-ranking men in full military dress, including her father and the political thorn in his side, Otto von Bismarck. By the next year, the war was over and Prussia reigned supreme – her grandfather, Wilhelm I, was duly anointed Emperor of a unified Germany and Europe was never the same.
Continue reading “Sophie of Prussia: The German Queen of the Hellenes”
The Duchess of Cambridge made an unannounced trip to King’s College Hospital in Denmark Hill to meet and visit the staff who treated victims of the recent terror attack in London. The hospital cared for 14 victims, most of whom were suffering from stab wounds and some of whom are still receiving round-the-clock care.
Continue reading “Kate Makes a Surprise Visit to King’s College Hospital”
In honor of King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia’s upcoming trip to the UK for an official state visit at the invitation of the Queen, we’re taking a beat to take a look at the ties between the two royal families, of which there are a few. While French and German blood have permeated the English line far and above everything else, there have been a few notable Anglo-Spanish alliances over the course of history.
The first was that of Eleanor of Castile to Edward I in 1254. Then there was the famous union of Katherine of Aragon and Henry VIII, cemented in 1509. Finally, there was the inauspicious marriage of their daughter, Mary I, to Philip II of Spain in 1554. These were supplemented by the reverse, too – English princess who became Castilian or Spanish queen consorts. Henry II’s daughter, Eleanor, married Alfonso VIII in 1177. And Edward III’s granddaughter, Katherine of Lancaster, ended a civil war by marrying Henry III in 1388.
The last of these matches worth noting was not between an “English princess,” per se, but she was an Englishwoman all the same, and one with deep-rooted familial ties to the Houses of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha and Windsor. Her name was Victoria Eugenie of Battenberg and she was the only daughter of Princess Beatrice, youngest daughter of Queen Victoria. She was born on October 24, 1887 at Balmoral Castle in Scotland, the same year her grandmother was celebrating 50 years on the throne. Victoria referred to her as “my little Jubilee grandchild.”
Continue reading “Victoria Eugenie: The English Queen of Spain”
Fun fact: Henry VIII was not the first monarch to divorce their spouse from the throne. That auspicious honor goes to none other than King John, who, upon ascending the throne in 1199, divorced his wife, Isabel of Gloucester, and married the young Isabella of Angouleme. There are a few reasons why this divorce is of less fame, though it was its own 13th century scandal at the time. For one, this would be John’s only divorce and he stopped at two wives. Secondly, there was no religious component – the annulment, for all its detractors, was approved. And finally, instead of casting aside a princess and marrying an Englishwoman, John did the reverse. Isabel of Gloucester was no Katherine of Aragon and she didn’t have the familial ties of claiming relation to the Holy Roman Emperor. For that matter, we don’t know whether Isabel had any desire to stay married to John in the first place.
Which brings us to Isabella of Angouleme, who had one notable characteristic in common with Anne Boleyn – they were both wildly detested by the public.
Continue reading “A Legacy of Destruction: King John & Isabella of Angouleme”
It was a modest affair. The bride, for her third trip down the aisle, wore blue crepe. The only note of ostentation was a large diamond and sapphire brooch. Though perhaps the other note was the groom himself, the Duke of Windsor, eldest son of King George V and Mary of Teck, the former King Edward VIII.
The couple were wed at the Chateau De Cande in Monts, France, a glamorous setting by anyone’s standards except, perhaps, their own. It was a far cry from the pomp and ceremony of Westminster Abbey, the setting they would likely have chosen were they any other royal pair. But Edward was less than six months away from having abdicated the throne, an unprecedented act to have undertaken by choice, and one to which he was driven by the simple fact that Britain would never have accepted Wallis Simpson as queen.
Continue reading “The Duke & Duchess of Windsor’s Wedding 80 Years Later”
Back in January I wrote a post about the Royal Family’s relationship with their public personas – about how the younger generation was better-positioned to use interest in their personal lives effectively. I argued that in humanizing themselves, in today’s climate, they had a better chance of effectively reaching people. At the time I pointed to Prince Harry as an example of one Royal already doing so, though it was three months before his watershed interview with The Telegraph was published. I also noted that while the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, particularly William, have flirted with private anecdotes, they had spent the first five/six years of their marriage focused on guarding their own privacy, particularly as they brought up their young children.
