Tag: Scotland

Charles at Gordonstoun

On By RSBIn The House of WindsorLeave a comment

Prince Charles

Perhaps The Crown’s second season’s most memorable episode was that which showed the drama surrounding Prince Charles beginning boarding school in Scotland in 1962. The show doesn’t offer a merry depiction of Gordonstoun, instead offering Charles’s attendance there as a paternal failure stemming from Prince Philip’s own psychological wounds. The question as to whether the episode is “true” has prompted many a headline in the weeks since it aired, but strictly in regards to the issue of Prince Charles at the school, I think that’s more difficult to answer than a simple “yes” or “no.” There were inaccuracies in the episode. There was also some over-dramatization. But it did strike on something real.

Continue reading “Charles at Gordonstoun” →

The Unholy Alliance: Mary, Queen of Scots & Henry, Lord Darnley

On By RSBIn The House of Tudor4 Comments

Mary.Queen_.of_.Scots_.and_.James_.Stuard.Lord_.Darnley1.jpg

I’ve been putting off writing this post because it’s a big one, but I have a feeling November and December are going to be busy months so if not now then when? Even so, we might return to Darnley’s murder and get more into the weeds of various theories later on. Today we’re going to take a look at the marriage of Mary Stuart, Queen of Scotland and her second husband, Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley. Mary, rather famously, spent the middle of the 16th century engaged in a venomous rivalry with her cousin, Elizabeth I, which ended in her execution in 1587. Before that, however, her second marriage resulted in Darnley’s suspicious death and her forced abdication in favor of their son, James. And James, of course, would eventually succeed Elizabeth on the English throne, uniting England and Scotland under one rule.

Continue reading “The Unholy Alliance: Mary, Queen of Scots & Henry, Lord Darnley” →

The Three Proposals of George VI to the Queen Mother

On By RSBIn The House of Windsor10 Comments

20130427-051023

Fun fact: It took George VI three tries to get the Queen Mother to accept his marriage proposal. Decades before the Queen Mother became synonymous with royal duty and the House of Windsor’s matriarch, Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon was a 20-something and unsure about a life in the spotlight.

Elizabeth first met the future king when he was still Prince Albert, Duke of York in June 1920. They met at a dinner party in London also attended by Queen Mary, Princess Mary and Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucester on Derby Night, while George V hosted a lavish celebratory supper at Buckingham Palace. Later that evening, a ball was held with the same party and Albert went up to fellow attendee James Stuart and asked, “Who was that lovely girl you were talking to? Introduce me to her.”

Continue reading “The Three Proposals of George VI to the Queen Mother” →

Margaret Plantagenet, Queen of Scotland

On By RSBIn The House of Plantagenet1 Comment

Margaret_Plantagenet,_Queen_of_Scotland.JPG

Before Margaret Tudor married James IV of Scotland in 1503, there was another English Margaret who married a king of Scotland. And while this marriage didn’t bring about Great Britain, it did put the wheels in motion for what would lead to the wars between England and Scotland during the reign of Margaret’s brother, Edward I, solidifying centuries of tension between the two countries.

Continue reading “Margaret Plantagenet, Queen of Scotland” →

Charles & William at the Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo

On By RSBIn Royal NewsLeave a comment

434F1F0500000578-4796964-image-a-154_1502919820597.jpg

On Wednesday, the Prince of Wales and the Duke of Cambridge attended the Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo – or, rather, the Duke of Rothesay and the Earl of Strathearn as the two men are known in Scotland. While normally this isn’t an engagement I would write up on its own, I do like to cover off when we get more than one senior royal for a notable event and, well, it’s August – it’s going to be a slow crawl when it comes to royal news.

Continue reading “Charles & William at the Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo” →

The Union of Tudor & Stuart

On By RSBIn The House of Tudor2 Comments

Tudor,Margaret02.jpg

By the “union of Tudor and Stuart” I don’t mean that of England and Scotland, but rather the marriage that facilitated the eventual consolidation of power in James I in 1603 and the later formation of the concept of “Britain.” All of that was a long time in the making and it stemmed from the union of King James IV of Scotland and England’s Princess Margaret Tudor in 1503.

The alliance came together in the Treaty of Perpetual Peace signed on January 24, 1502 at Richmond Palace. The treaty was the first between the two countries in roughly 170 years and it ended what had become nearly two centuries of warfare – that said, it was England and Scotland, so even that two centuries needs to be put in the context of several more of bloody battles over sovereignty.

Continue reading “The Union of Tudor & Stuart” →

Mary, Queen of Scots at the French Court

On By RSBIn The House of Stuart, The House of TudorLeave a comment

YoungMaryStuart.jpg

So much of Mary, Queen of Scots’ later life was operatic that it’s easy to gloss over her formative years. Her violent death, her rivalry with Elizabeth I, her disastrous second and third marriages, the possibility she was involved in a murder – all of this tends to drown out the rest. But much like Eleanor of Aquitaine, the “less” dramatic early years actually involved being the queen of France and Mary’s long-term residency at the French court uniquely positioned her as both a Stuart and Scottish monarch.

Continue reading “Mary, Queen of Scots at the French Court” →

Holyrood Week 2017

On By RSBIn Royal NewsLeave a comment

Embed from Getty Images

Let’s segue from the Princess Royal’s tour of China to what the Queen has been up to: Holyrood Week, or as it’s known in Scotland, “Royal Week.” Each summer, the Queen spends one week in residence at Holyrood Palace in Edinburgh, the primary residence of kings and queens of Scotland since the 16th century.

Continue reading “Holyrood Week 2017” →

The Almost Saint Matilda of Scotland

On By RSBIn The House of Normandy1 Comment

Matylda_zena.jpg

Back in January we took a look at Adeliza of Louvain and her marriage to Henry I, which, had it been fruitful, may have been able to hold off the decades of civil war that ensued after Henry’s death when his daughter and nephew fought over the throne. But Adeliza was Henry’s second wife and today we’re going to take a look at his first wife, Matilda of Scotland.

Matilda was born “Edith” in around 1080 in Dunfermline, Scotland to King Malcolm III and Margaret of England. Margaret was the daughter of Edward “the Exile,” the son of the English King Edmund Ironside who was defeated by the Danish Canute the Great in 1016. She is more famously known, however, as Saint Margaret of Scotland since she was canonized in 1250 by Pope Innocent IV, a relatively rare occurrence for royalty. Margaret became renowned for both her piety and her focus on education, of which her children were beneficiaries.

Continue reading “The Almost Saint Matilda of Scotland” →

Half-Tudor: Margaret Douglas, Countess of Lennox

On By RSBIn The House of Tudor1 Comment
lady_jane_grey.jpg
A possible portrait of Margaret (Image: the Douglas archives)

We’re a bit overdue for some Tudor history, I think. Today marks the anniversary of the death of Margaret Douglas, Countess of Lennox in 1578 at the ripe old age of 62. For those that know their Tudors well, Margaret is likely well-known, but for those that don’t, or perhaps have focused in on more key figures like Henry VIII’s wives or children, Margaret’s story may be more unfamiliar. It’s an interesting one, though, and just as dramatic, if not more so, than those of her more famous aunts and cousins.

Continue reading “Half-Tudor: Margaret Douglas, Countess of Lennox” →