British queens

Princess Elizabeth 1939

The young Elizabeth II: life before she was Queen

c1895: Queen Victoria with her family. Standing left to right: Princess Helena Victoria of Schleswig-Holstein; Prince Henry of Battenberg; Count Arthur Mensdorff-Pouilly; Beatrice, Princess Henry of Battenberg; George, Duke of York. Seated left to right: Princess Victoria Eugenie of Battenberg; Queen Victoria; Victoria Mary, Duchess of York holding Prince Edward of York; Prince Arthur of Connaught; and Prince Alexander of Battenberg. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

Who were Queen Victoria’s children? Everything you need to know about her sons and daughters

Queen Mary I of England and Ireland. Her legend speaks merely of burning Protestants, yet her time on the throne featured many great achievements, not least establishing that a woman had the right to reign. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

Mary I: the forgotten trailblazer

Archduchess Ileana’s great grandmother, Queen Victoria, whose birth certificate Ileana desperately needed to get hold of (Getty)

Queen Victoria and the Nazis: the strange tale of the search for the royal family’s Aryan origins

The portrait of Queen Elizabeth I known as the Ditchley portrait

What did Queen Elizabeth I really look like at 60?

Mary, Queen of Scots and her ladies-in-waiting. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

Mary, Queen of Scots: what happened to her ladies-in-waiting?

Katherine Parr (also Catherine), the sixth and last wife of King Henry VIII, c1543. Engraving after a portrait by Hans Holbein the Younger. Katherine was no middle-aged frump but a clever, devout and passionate wife, says Derek Wilson. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

Katherine Parr: the truth about the wife who ‘survived’

Elizabeth is borne from Westminster Abbey in a gold coach first used for the state opening of parliament by George III in 1762. (Getty Images)

Becoming Queen: Elizabeth II’s coronation

King Edward IV, who used the surname Plantagenet. (Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

Q&A When did British kings and queens start using surnames?

Osborne House from terrace.

Inside Osborne: Queen Victoria and Prince Albert’s island residence

The food served at the wedding of Joffrey Baratheon and Margaery Tyrell may be inspired by accounts of ancient Roman excess, says Ayelet Haimson Lushkov. (© Home Box Office, Inc/Sky Atlantic)

Power plays and scheming queens: the ancient history behind Game of Thrones

Catherine Hanley tells the story of Empress Matilda, whose battle for the English throne became known as ‘the anarchy’. (Photo by Jeni Nott for BBC History Magazine)

Empress Matilda: Medieval warrior queen

Catherine Hanley talks to Ellie Cawthorne about Matilda, the legitimate daughter of Henry I. (Photographed for BBC History Magazine by Jeni Nott).

Catherine Hanley on Matilda: “Honestly, if I were her, I’d have wanted to put my fist through a wall”

Queen Victoria with her daughter Princess Beatrice at Balmoral Castle. Dogs seem to have been Victoria's favourite animal, writes Richard Sugg. (De Agostini Picture Library)

Queen Victoria’s pets and animals

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The downfall of Mary, Queen of Scots