Archive for the ‘The ‘other’ Royal Weddings (April 2011)’ Category
If you can't find what you are looking for, try searching for it below:
Did you know that the first wedding cake to have a model of the bride and groom on top was that of Victoria and Albert? Or that Queen Elizabeth II’s wedding cake was nine-feet tall? Here, Marc Meltonville, food historian and project leader of our historic kitchens team, tells us about the fascinating history of [...]
Before the mid-19th century, love was seldom even a consideration in royal marriages. Matches were dynastic ones, arranged to strengthen or secure political allegiances with other nations, or bring funds to the country through the bride’s dowry. However, even with these precedents, the marriage between George, Prince of Wales (later King George IV) and Caroline [...]
What can history teach us about Kate Middleton’s choice of wedding dress? In this video, our senior curator Dr Joanna Marschner reveals the style and symbolism of two centuries of royal wedding dresses. Each of these dresses, part of the Royal Ceremonial Dress Collection looked after by us at Kensington Palace, say something fascinating [...]
This silk and gilt cone of rice confetti, with the initials ‘VE’ adorning the side, belonged to a bridesmaid of Princess Victoria Eugenie of Battenberg (known as Princess Ena) when she married King Alfonso XIII of Spain on 31 May 1906 in Madrid. The confetti is still inside, as tragedy struck the wedding procession [...]
What on earth have Battenberg Cake and Marie Biscuits got to do with royal weddings? The Marie biscuit was created by an English bakery Peek Freans in London in 1874 to commemorate the marriage of the Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna of Russia to the Duke of Edinburgh, Queen Victoria’s son. It is believed that Battenberg [...]
Who’s looking at who? The positions of the royal couples on British coins tell an interesting story about their reigns… The first married couple to feature on English coins were Queen Mary I and Philip of Spain (above, top left). In view of their equal status to the throne they are shown facing each other. [...]
The savage depictions of Georgian royal weddings in the caricatures of the period are still shocking by today’s standards. Prints of the weddings of the overweight, aging daughters of George III to their ludicrously corpulent German husbands provided amusement for the general public when they appeared in the print shop windows. And whilst the love [...]