Tag: Royalty

  • Sisters & Queens

    In 13th century Provence there lived four sisters. Daughters of Count Raymond Berengar V of Provence and his wife Beatrice of Savoy, all would rise to greatness becoming Queens of France, England, Germany and Sicily respectively. These sisters had a huge impact on Western Christendom, and this month we’ll explore how the personal affected the…

  • Royal Hostages

    When Robert the Bruce and his wife Elizabeth de Burgh were crowned King and Queen of the Scots on the 25th March 1306, she reportedly said “Alas, we are but king and queen of the May”. Robert had taken the crown against the might of the English, and their position was definitely an uncertain one.…

  • Royal Portraits and Power (Guest post by Elizabeth Hill-Scott from Smart History Blogging)

    Throughout history, royal portraits have been about more than just decorative pictures for Great Halls and bed chambers. They were the advertising signs or political propaganda mechanisms of their day. Here, I explore how English royal portraits have been used to forge alliances, marriages, scare off enemies, display power and wealth and combat insecurities whilst…

  • Eleanor of Aquitaine: An Icon

    Eleanor of Aquitaine was iconic and one blog post cannot do justice to the many interesting facets of her life, so today we’re going to focus on her later life during the reign of her sons Richard and John. When her husband Henry II died in 1189, Eleanor had been imprisoned for around 16 years…

  • The Mother of France & her Daughters

    Catherine de Medici waited a long time to become a mother, having her first child after 11 years of marriage to Henri II of France. They went on to have another 9 children with 3 of their sons becoming Kings of France: Francis II, Charles IX and Henri III. Despite being from the powerful Medici…

  • Daughters of Castile

    A contemporary of Anne of France, who we explored last week, was Queen Isabella of Castile. She was one of the most powerful women of her era, and along with Anne dominated European politics and “set a precedent for the female rulers of the sixteenth century”. Isabella’s rise to Queenship wasn’t easy (there was literally…

  • The Scottish Queen

    Mary Queen of Scots. What new is there to say? She is one of the most well known historical figures in British history, and her dramatic life of passion and intrigue has enthralled people for centuries. Yet today I want to focus on a very specific moment in her early life, one that often gets…

  • Heir and Spare

    What did it mean to be the heir to a royal house and know your future was to be King? Well Prince Arthur had some experience in this area. He was the firstborn son of King Henry VII of England and his Queen Elizabeth of York. Born in 1486, only a year after his father’s…

  • The Accursed Kings

     “Accursed! Accursed! You shall be accursed to the thirteenth generation!” This was the curse roared from the flames of Jacques de Molay’s pyre in Maurice Druon’s classic novel The Iron King. In 1314 the death of Molay, last Grand Master of the Knights Templar, symbolized the end of this powerful organisation of “holy soldiers”. This…

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