In 1567, a tempestuous, unhappy queen picked up her pen and wrote a passionate sonnet to her lover. “My love for him is not an empty show,” she wrote, “But purest tenderness and constancy.” Or did she? The sonnet was one of 12. And those documents were part of a larger hoard ...read more
Queen Elizabeth I of England and Mary, Queen of Scots were two of the greatest, most legendary rivals in recorded history—although they never even met. In one castle was Elizabeth, the childless “virgin” queen: bawdy, brilliant, tactical and cynical. In the other, Mary: ...read more
Royal watchers around the world were thrilled with the announcement that Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, are expecting a child in the spring of 2019. The news, issued by Kensington Palace, came five months after the royal pair's wedding at Windsor ...read more
She’s one of the most iconic figures in world history: a queen whose reign has outlasted all other British monarchs and most other world leaders, too. But though she stands for the continuity and tradition of the English monarchy, Elizabeth II’s reign has been anything but ...read more
Queen Elizabeth II has since 1952 served as reigning monarch of the United Kingdom (England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland) and numerous other realms and territories, as well as head of the Commonwealth, the group of 53 sovereign nations that includes many former British ...read more
From the royal bride walking herself down the aisle to the African-American choir singing “Stand By Me” at the ceremony, the royal wedding between Prince Harry and Meghan Markle will go down in history as a multicultural moment. Topping the list of royal wedding firsts was a ...read more
When Jennie Jerome and Lord Randolph Churchill announced their engagement in 1874, his parents were horrified. The couple had only known one another for three days, and Jerome—thetattooed daughter of a philandering financier and a social climber—was an American socialite, not a ...read more
How much planning and work goes into a picture-perfect royal event? From creating a balanced guest list that won’t offend any allies to enlisting local law enforcement to control the crowds and hiring a battalion of designers and decorators, there is much to be organized. Queen ...read more
Wedding days can make the British royal family’s world look like fairy-tale bliss. But a harsh reality confronts outsiders marrying into the House of Windsor. No, they no longer face losing their head if they fall out of favor, as some distant ancestors once did. Still, Meghan ...read more
If you were a royal in the late part of the 19th century, there’s a good chance you were related to Queen Victoria—and if Victoria was your grandmother, you were pretty much guaranteed a glamorous royal wedding to a prince or princess of her choosing. “Victoria’s descendants ...read more
For much of their courtship, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s romance spanned an ocean. Although they are from different countries and radically different backgrounds—one a British royal, the other an American actress—modern travel and technology made their trans-Atlantic romance ...read more
When Prince Harry announced his engagement to actress Meghan Markle, the world rejoiced—and immediately began to analyze what it will mean for a biracial woman to take a prominent place as a British royal. Markle, whose mother is African-American and whose father is white, was ...read more
When Prince Harry weds Meghan Markle, he won’t just be breaking the mold by marrying an American actress. Markle is also divorced—her two-year-long marriage to producer Trevor Engelson ended in 2013. That’s a big deal: Marrying a divorced person was taboo among the British ...read more
Who’s in Elizabeth II’s family tree? Various European kings and queens may come to mind, but the Prophet Muhammad may not. Unless you open up a British tabloid these days, that is—publications like The Daily Mail and The Daily Express have recently run breathless pieces claiming ...read more
During World War II, the British royal family’s most precious gems were buried underground at Windsor Castle to protect them from discovery by the Nazis, a new documentary reveals. With Britain under air attack from the mighty German Luftwaffe, King George VI ordered palace staff ...read more
Netflix’s hit TV series The Crown, which goes deep inside the private world of Queen Elizabeth II and Britain’s royal family, chronicles their lives within the sweep of global events during and after World War II—from the Suez Crisis to John F. Kennedy’s assassination. Below, our ...read more
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
At Elizabeth II’s coronation at Westminster Abbey in 1953, all eyes should have been on the new monarch. But someone elsestole the show that afternoon: Princess Margaret. At the televised event, the queen’s sister picked a piece of lint from the lapel of Peter Townsend, a war ...read more
With the joyful announcement that Prince Harry is engaged to his American girlfriend, Meghan Markle, the world saw a refreshingly modern side to the British royal family. After all, Markle is not only American and an actress. She’s also bi-racial and divorced—not exactly the ...read more
The United States woke up on November 27, 2017, to some exciting news: American actress and humanitarian Meghan Markle is engaged to Prince Harry of Wales. Yet not everyone is so pleased. When Kensington Palace announced their engagement, the conservative U.K. magazine The ...read more
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
Abdication is the legal and formal act of giving up authority as the ruling monarch of a sovereign nation. Generally, kingdoms institute a process for managing the abdication of ruling monarch to foster a smooth transition. However, the controversy surrounding the 1936 ...read more
Princess Diana—who married into British royalty, only to later be divorced from it—devoted herself to charitable causes and became a global icon before dying in a car accident in Paris in 1997. When she married Prince Charles in 1981, Lady Diana Spencer became the first ...read more
Succession, or the transition of power from one ruler to the next, hasn’t always been smooth in Great Britain or other monarchies, but it has served as a template for governments around the world. In the United States, the line of presidential succession was established by the ...read more