WEDDING FLOWERS: Royal History
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Showing posts with label Royal History. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Royal History. Show all posts

Royal Baby Name Focus: Alexandra


It's the royal name that just won't go away. Every time the Duchess of Cambridge announces she's pregnant, the name Alexandra crops up on the list of favourites for a girl. It was the top pick for punters in 2013 who placed bets before the first Cambridge royal baby turned out to be a boy and it more than held its own in 2015 in the flurry of excitement around Alice and eventual princess pick, Charlotte. This time round it's one of the top five names with the bookies again for a new princess so here's the low down on the reasons that  make Alexandra such a firm favourite as a potential royal baby name.



The House of Windsor loves an Alexandra and that's all because of a queen consort with the name who was actually part of the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. Alexandra of Denmark married Albert Edward, Prince of Wales in March 1863 and immediately showed a real knack for the popular touch. During her 38 years as Princess of Wales, she was a much loved figure, known for her love of fashion and style as well as her charitable works and devotion to her children. By the time she and her husband became King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra in 1901, she was all but a national treasure. She saw her son, George V, change the name of the royal dynasty to Windsor in 1917 when she was queen dowager when her popularity was still sky high. Her death, in 1925, caused widespread mourning. 


Like all good royal women, Alexandra left a whole trail of princesses in her wake bearing her name. Two of her three daughters had it as a middle name - her eldest girl was Louise Victoria Alexandra Dagmar while her second little princess was Victoria Alexandra Olga Mary. Her children were all keen to honour their mother when they named their own children. Princess Louise's first daughter was called Alexandra Victoria Alberta Edwina Louise while her youngest girl was Maud Alexandra Victoria Georgina Bertha. George V's only daughter was Victoria Alexandra Alice Mary. Mummy certainly made her mark.



That carried on into the next generation with several of her grandchildren choosing the name for their own daughters. The future George VI was still Albert, Duke of York when he and his wife, Elizabeth, welcomed a little girl on April 21st 1926. The woman known to history as Elizabeth II, longest reigning monarch Britain has ever known began life as Elizabeth Alexandra Mary. Ten years later, just days after George VI had taken the throne, his younger brother George, Duke of Kent and his wife, Marina, gave their new born daughter the names Alexandra Helen Elizabeth Olga Christabel. Princess Alexandra, as we know her, is probably the most well known royal with it as a first name right now. Her daughter, Marina, has it as a middle name as does her younger granddaughter, Flora Ogilvy. 



Elsewhere in Europe, the name still has plenty of royal links. Norway's future queen is Ingrid Alexandra and can partly thank that Danish princess turned royal legend for her name, too. The eldest child of Crown Prince Haakon Magnus and Crown Princess Mette-Marit was called Alexander as a nod to her grandfather, King Olav V. He was born Alexander Edward Christian Frederik in 1903 but that was changed to Olav when his father and mother accepted the offer to become King and Queen of Norway in 1905. Mum was Princess Maud of Wales, youngest daughter of Queen Alexandra.



There are another couple of princesses called Alexandra to tick off the list before we're done. The only daughter of the Grand Duke and Duchess of Luxembourg is Alexandra Josephine Teresa Charlotte Marie Wilhelmine. Born on February 16th 1991, Princess Alexandra is fifth in line to her country's throne after finally being included in the succession in 2011. Hanover also has a princess with the name. The only child of Prince Ernst August and Princess Caroline is Alexandra Charlotte Ulrike Maryam Virginia, born on July 20th 1999.

So what are the chances of a Princess Alexandra of Cambridge if Kate's baby is a girl? It's popular with the bookies right now and the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge have so far picked names that have been favourites from the start. But William and Kate used the male version of the name for George Alexander Louis  so it might just be a bit too close for them to go back to for a third child. But if they do, they will be continuing a Windsor tradition that has seen a name brought from Denmark turned into a corner stone of this modern British dynasty.

Photo credits: Wiki Commons and Province of British Colombia Flickr.

Diana, Princess of Wales 1961 - 1997


Diana, Princess of Wales
1961 - 1997

Diana, Princess of Wales died twenty years ago today. Fatally injured in a car accident in the Pont de l'Alma tunnel in Paris just after 12.20am on August 31st 1997, she died in Pitie-Salpetriere Hospital around 4am. Twenty years on, many tributes have been paid and many memories shared. The princess continues to fascinate and will for many years to come. An integral part of the House of Windsor, her life and her death changed it forever. Twenty years on, the world still remembers Diana, Princess of Wales.



There are several articles on the blog about Diana and the events marking her anniversary this year. Among them are the tributes paid to her by her sons, William and Harry, who visited the White Garden planted in her honour on August 30th 2017.



The garden was planted earlier this year and is one of many tributes to the princess. It's at her London home, Kensington Palace, which is also hosting an exhibition of her dresses to mark her life in fashion. Buckingham Palace also has a special display celebrating the life of the princess.



William and Harry have also been speaking about their mum this year in several TV programmes and interviews. Their tributes are the most moving and poignant as they remember Diana, twenty years on.

Photo credit: Wiki Commons 

Diana, 20 years on: tributes at Kensington Palace


Diana has dominated the royal summer and with just a day to go until the 20th anniversary of her death, flowers and tributes are already being laid at Kensington Palace. The gates of her London home were the focal point for national grief in 1997. Today, they are filled again with fond memories of a princess gone but not forgotten.


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The posters and banners have been hanging there for several days now with a steady stream of flowers joining them as people start to make their way to Kensington.





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Already, room on the main gates is running out and tributes are appearing on the smaller side fences that flank them.




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Kensington Palace has again been the focal point for remembering Diana. The exhibition of her dresses that tells her story through her love of fashion has been running since early this year while the White Garden planted in her memory is in full bloom.




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Later today, Prince William and Prince Harry will visit the garden in a public tribute to their mother. It's the only time we will see them during the actual 20th anniversary - understandably, the day itself will be spent privately. But the flowers will keep on coming as Kensington Palace, which was carpeted in flowers in the days after Diana's death, once again becomes a place to remember. Twenty years on, Diana remains a beloved royal.









The Battle of Bosworth anniversary: a rainbow of stories



Richard of York gave battle in vain. That's the rhyme for a rainbow that generations of British schoolchildren have learned but today it has particular resonance. For on this day, in 1485, Richard really did give battle and lost his crown in the process. On the anniversary of the battle that ended the rule of the might Plantagenets and gave us the Tudors, below is a collection of links to some of the posts on the blog in the past few years about Richard, the king who conquered him, Henry VII, and the princess who should really have been the first regnant Queen of England, Elizabeth of York.



The story of Richard III has been revisited many times in the past few years following the discovery of his remains beneath a car park in Leicester in 2012. His reburial at Leicester Cathedral saw thousands take to the streets and millions watch at home on TV.

He got a fairly sympathetic telling in BBC One's The White Queen in 2013 but historians still debate whether the youngest son who snatched the crown on the death of his brother, Edward IV, was hero or villain. His name will forever be associated with the fate of his nephews, Edward V and Richard, who were taken into the Tower of London on his orders and never emerged again. Shakespeare's great villain is being debated all over again. On the anniversary of his death, expect more discussion.



The victor of Bosworth established perhaps the most famous royal dynasty in British history but he ended his reign as a skinny old man with a reputation for being a miser. That was all a long way in the future on this day, in 1485, when Henry Tudor became a hero of history and grabbed a crown on a muddy field in Leicestershire. 

Henry VII was in many ways the product of his mother's ambitions. Margaret Beaufort, convinced of her own right to the crown, fought tooth and nail to put her son on the throne and proved his greatest support when he did finally become a king. Henry VII laid the foundations for a dynasty that would influence England and history like no other.




The woman who linked them both is often an afterthought in their story but Elizabeth of York was so important that both men realised her central role in the consolidation of power.  The first born child of Edward IV and Elizabeth of York, the deaths of her surviving brothers, Edward and Richard, in the Tower of London in 1483 made her queen but by then uncle Richard III had declared the whole brood illegitimate. There were rumours she would marry Richard but her husband ended up being Henry VII who wed the woman who should have been queen regnant to unite the Houses of Lancaster and York after his victory at Bosworth on August 22nd 1485.  Elizabeth was finally crowned queen consort of England on November 25th 1487.

Their stories intertwined forever on this day when medieval England finally began to melt away in a brand new world as Henry VII took the crown and Richard III battled in vain at Bosworth.


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