Art · Monarchies · Ethnography
Queen Matilda Working on the Bayeux Tapestry, Alfred Guillard, 1848. The painting draws on the legend that attributes the making of the Bayeux Tapestry, which depicts the conquest of England, to Matilda, Duchess of Normandy and Queen of England, wife of William the Conqueror. Such romantic vignettes belong to the
Faith · London · Monarchies · Observations · Society
At the end of June Buckingham Palace published an annual financial report of little interest to the general public. But here is what is interesting: in the description of the monarch's duties a new line has appeared, to the effect that the King "protects the space for
Art · London · Monarchies · Museums · Humour
The sinister portrait of Charles III by Jonathan Yeo, unveiled in 2024, in which the king's figure drowned in the crimson haze of the underworld, has made it into Buckingham Palace after all. The Royal Collection has accepted as a gift a large preparatory study for that portrait,
Archaeology · Monarchies · Museums · Heritage
This small leather ball was found during the restoration of Stirling Castle in Scotland in the late 1970s and is considered the oldest surviving football in the world. It is almost 500 years old. The find is dated to the period between the 1540s and 1570s. The ball is stitched
Architecture · Art · London · Monarchies
A model of the memorial to Elizabeth II in St James's Park. The three-metre bronze figure will be based on a portrait of the Queen in her youth. In the background one can see a small sculpture of the Duke of Edinburgh, Prince Philip. The memorial complex
Aristocracy · Monarchies · Mores · Ethnography
The Queen Mother's dolls' house from Glamis Castle in Scotland, the ancestral seat of the Earls of Strathmore, where Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, the future wife of George VI and mother of Elizabeth II, spent her childhood. Inside the future Queen Mother's house there are two
Coming Up · Art · London · Monarchies
The appraisers expect £100,000 to £150,000. Yet last November an anonymous collector bought this pendant at auction in Edinburgh for £5,588, as a mere old article of amber. After careful attribution, the inconspicuous trinket was recognised as a Renaissance jewel bearing a portrait of Elizabeth, which added
Archive · London · Monarchies · Society
I cannot find a good-quality photograph of this act, but the document is very famous. And it begins with the following words: Le Roy le Veult soit baillé aux Seigneurs. A cette Bille avecque des amendemens les Seigneurs sont assentuz. A ces Amendemens les Communes sont assentuz. And no,
Faith · Madrid · Monarchies · Society
Leo XIV has flown into Madrid at the start of a six-day visit to Spain, to be held under the motto "raise your gaze". The country is passing through difficult times, especially as regards the unity of its people: society is quite literally split over migration, abortion
Archaeology · Art · Books · Monarchies · Museums · Observations · Heritage · Science · Society
“What is our life? A tale we shall not recall twice, once it has been told,” runs the thought from Byron’s “Don Juan”, and so at the end of every month we reassemble the key publications that can be reread and kept in memory. Archaeology and the origins of
The East · Monarchies · Observations · Heritage · Society · Humour
The Fund for the Royal Private Collections commissioned an appraisal of roughly a thousand objects. Under suspicion are a golden amulet necklace and historical weapons from Indonesia, acquired in the colonial era. I can just picture how the Dutch East India Company would have laughed at so modest a discovery.
Aristocracy · Art · Monarchies · Museums
Interestingly, the painting "Allegory of Hearing", executed in 1617–1618 by the Flemish artists Jan Brueghel the Elder and Peter Paul Rubens, captures not merely the collection of curiosities and luxuries belonging to the rulers of the Netherlands, Archduke Albert VII and his wife Isabella, but also music