Royalty
Queen Victoria
Queen Victoria ruled the British Empire for nearly 64 years, after ascending the throne just weeks after turning 18. She was the second-longest-reigning English royal in history, topped only by her great-great-granddaughter Queen Elizabeth II. While short in stature–she was ...read more
Naked Cooks, Excrement, Rats: The Secretly Disgusting History of Royal Palaces
In July of 1535, King Henry VIII and his court of over 700 people embarked on an epic official tour. Over the next four months the massive entourage would visit around 30 different royal palaces, aristocratic residences and religious institutions. While these stops were important ...read more
6 Things You Might Not Know About Emperor Akihito and Japan’s Monarchy
1. Japan is the oldest continuous monarchy in the world. Though it’s a liberal democracy, Japan is also the oldest continuous monarchy in the world. According to widely accepted (though somewhat legendary) genealogy, Akihito’s family has ruled for some 2,700 years. Though we know ...read more
Edward VIII abdicates
After ruling for less than one year, Edward VIII becomes the first English monarch to voluntarily abdicate the throne. He chose to abdicate after the British government, public, and the Church of England condemned his decision to marry the American divorcée Wallis Warfield ...read more
7 Surprising Facts about Royal Births
Five months after Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, married at Windsor Castle, royal watchers around the world were thrilled with the announcement that the couple was expecting a child in the spring of 2019. On May 6, 2019, Meghan gave birth to a ...read more
History’s Oldest-Known Valentine Was Written in Prison
Valentine’s Day is the one holiday made for showing love and affection. But the history behind the oldest-known valentine involves a tale of royal in-fighting, warfare and imprisonment in a medieval tower. The “valentine” itself was actually a few lines in a poem, written by ...read more
Anne Boleyn, second wife of King Henry VIII, is executed
On May 19, 1536, Anne Boleyn, the infamous second wife of King Henry VIII, is executed on charges including adultery, incest and conspiracy against the king. READ MORE: Who Were the Six Wives of Henry VIII? Catherine of Aragon King Henry had become enamored of Anne Boleyn in the ...read more
The Governess Who Spilled the Queen’s Secrets
She was one of the Royal Family’s most trusted confidantes. She helped bring up a future Queen. Her loyalty and loving care were rewarded with royal favor and even a rent-free home for life. But in 1950, Marion “Crawfie” Crawford, beloved Scottish governess of Princesses ...read more
The Delusion That Made Nobles Think Their Bodies Were Made of Glass
One day in the late 1840s, Princess Alexandra Amelie, the 23-year-old daughter of the recently abdicated King Ludwig I of Bavaria, was making her way through the corridors of the family palace. Her relatives noticed that the obsessive, highly intelligent young woman—who only wore ...read more
6 Spurned Royal Women Who Triumphed Over Their Husbands
For many women over the centuries, marriage to a royal consort has not been the fairytale we believe it to be. They battled drunk husbands, loveless marriages, led coups, killed off husbands, or sometimes quietly waited for good fortune to come their way. These women took fate ...read more
10 Fashion Trends You Didn’t Know Were Started by World Leaders
Fashion has always played a role in politics. Monarchs and heads of state have used clothing to cultivate an image, and in some cases their styles became so iconic that they filtered into the mainstream. From Julius Caesar to Nelson Mandela, check out 10 of history’s most ...read more
The Hidden Dark Side of Charles and Diana’s Relationship
The trouble started even before Charles and Diana's storybook spectacle of a wedding, according to reporter and biographer Sally Bedell Smith. Prince Charles, it seems, had stumbled into the marriage. Press speculation of their affair had reached a fever pitch, prompting his ...read more
Why is purple considered the color of royalty?
The color purple’s ties to kings and queens date back to ancient world, where it was prized for its bold hues and often reserved for the upper crust. The Persian king Cyrus adopted a purple tunic as his royal uniform, and some Roman emperors forbid their citizens from wearing ...read more
9 Things You Should Know About the Wars of the Roses
1. The Yorks and Lancasters were descended from the same family. The Houses of York and Lancaster both traced their lineage to the sons of Edward III of the House of Plantagenet, who ruled as England’s king from 1327 until 1377. The Yorks were descended from the female relatives ...read more
10 (Allegedly) Mad Monarchs
1. Nebuchadnezzar II of Babylon (604-562 B.C.) The granddaddy of all mad kings is King Nebuchadnezzar, the Babylonian ruler whose first-person account of a seven-year descent into animal-like insanity is one of the most fascinating sections of the Old Testament book of Daniel. ...read more
6 Infamous Impostors
1. Christian Gerhartsreiter: A murderer who pretended to be a Rockefeller Born Christian Karl Gerhartsreiter in 1961 in Germany, this faux Rockefeller arrived in the United States on a tourist visa as a teen and by the early 1980s was living in San Marino, California. There, he ...read more
Why do British monarchs have two birthdays?
There are many advantages and responsibilities that come with being the reigning monarch of England, but one surprising perk is getting two birthdays each year. This year Saturday, June 11 marks the Queen’s official birthday, and will be celebrated around the Commonwealth. ...read more
5 Things You May Not Know About Queen Victoria
1. She was barely five feet tall. Queen Victoria’s outspoken nature and imposing reputation belied her tiny stature–the monarch was no more than five feet tall. In her later years, she also grew to an impressive girth. Some accounts claim she had a 50-inch waist by the end of ...read more
7 People Who Pretended to be Royals
1. Anna Anderson as Anastasia Romanov In 1918, Bolshevik revolutionaries murdered the Russian princess Anastasia, along with the rest of her family. However, rumors persisted of her alleged survival for decades and, over the years, several different impostors claimed to be ...read more
Guy Fawkes Day: A Brief History
Observed in the United Kingdom every year on November 5, Guy Fawkes Day—also called Bonfire Night or Fireworks Night—commemorates a failed assassination attempt from over 400 years ago. On November 5, 1605, Guy Fawkes and a group of radical English Catholics tried to assassinate ...read more
6 Child Monarchs Who Changed History
1. Ptolemy XIII Theos Philopator The 13th ruler of Egypt’s Ptolemaic dynasty, Ptolemy XIII rubbed elbows with some of ancient history’s most towering figures during his short life. The young pharaoh first came to power in 51 B.C. at the age of 11 or 12. He soon found himself ...read more
8 Things You May Not Know About Queen Elizabeth II
1. She didn’t have a passport. Despite being history’s most widely traveled head of state—she reportedly visited 116 countries during her reign—Elizabeth did not hold a passport. Since all British passports are issued in the queen’s name, she herself didn’t need one. She also ...read more
Britain’s Prince William weds Kate Middleton
On April 29, 2011, Great Britain’s Prince William marries his longtime girlfriend Catherine Elizabeth “Kate” Middleton at Westminster Abbey in London. Some 1,900 guests attended the ceremony, while another 1 million spectators lined the streets of London and an estimated 2 ...read more
Duke of Windsor weds American socialite
In France, the duke of Windsor—formerly King Edward VIII of Great Britain and Northern Ireland—marries Wallis Warfield, a divorced American socialite for whom he abdicated the British throne in December 1936. Edward, born in 1896, was the eldest son of King George V, who became ...read more