HistoryExtra
type: channel
link: https://www.historyextra.com
description: The official website for BBC History Magazine
date: 2025-10-02T09:33:50.000Z
update period: hourly
update frequency: 1
update base: 2000-01-01T12:00+00:00
items: How I uncovered Victoria's secret love: Historian Fern Riddell explains all
items: Charles and Diana: a history of their marriage
items: Pomp & power: royal ceremonies through the centuries
items: Princess Margaret’s final years
items: British royal family podcast episodes
items: In profile: Queen Consort Camilla
items: Charles and Camilla: a history of their romance
items: Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip: 8 milestones in their marriage
items: The Crown S4 E8 real history: why did Margaret Thatcher & the Queen clash over apartheid in South Africa?
items: The Crown S4 E3 real history: Diana’s struggles, the ‘G’ & ‘F’ bracelet, and a royal engagement

How I uncovered Victoria's secret love: Historian Fern Riddell explains all
type: item
date: 2025-08-01T08:00:40.000Z
subject: Membership
subject: Period
subject: Victorian
subject: British queens
subject: Historical people
subject: Royal weddings
description: There have long been whispers of a romance between the queen and her Scottish servant John Brown, but nothing concrete to support them. Now Fern Riddell, author of an explosive new book, reveals how she turned sleuth to track down evidence of their secret passion
encoded: The story that’s consumed my life for much of the past few years has it all: family dysfunction, political intrigue, royalty, the rewriting of our national history. A secret hidden for generations. These are the sort of things historians can get carried away by. When we’re undertaking historical research, it often becomes clear that the relationship between fact and fiction can be a murky one. There’s often a gap between what we want the truth to be and the reality of the lives that have been lived. So it was with my latest project. After four months of research, I couldn’t quite believe what I’d uncovered. I’d been tracing the footsteps of both historians and historical people, and I was finally convinced that what I’d found came close to representing irrefutable proof of a remarkable secret – one offering an answer to a 160-year-old question. But making the breakthrough didn’t come without risk – one faced by nearly every historian who had got so far before me, and who turned back at the final hurdle, unable to bring their research to light. WATCH | Fern Riddell on her quest to discover the secrets of Victoria's later love life View Green Video on the source website So, before I pushed ahead, I called a trusted friend and mentor to discuss what I thought I’d discovered. “I’ve found it,” I exclaimed. “I’ve found the lost archive of Queen Victoria and John Brown.” Royal inspiration Towards the end of 2021, my agent, Kirsty McLachlan, had set me a challenge. “You need a new project,” she declared. “What can you say about Queen Victoria?” “I don’t do the royals,” I retorted, instantly rejecting the suggestion. “Anyway, most royal historians face censorship the moment they find anything interesting.” My focus has always been on the stories of ordinary people – what we call ‘history from below’. These are the lives that fascinate me, not those of the wealthy and powerful. Victoria felt like a lost cause. After all, what could be left to discover about one of history’s m…

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Charles and Diana: a history of their marriage
type: item
date: 2023-11-14T12:10:09.000Z
creator: Emma Mason
subject: 20th Century
subject: Period
subject: Royal weddings
subject: The Crown
subject: The royal family
subject: TV interest
description: Their 15-year marriage began with a fairy tale wedding and saw the birth of two princes, but ended in a public and acrimonious divorce involving infidelity that threatened to rock the monarchy. But what was the real nature of Prince Charles and Diana’s relationship: how did they meet, when did cracks first appear, were they in love, and was Diana really the wronged party? We asked royal biographer Penny Junor to tell us the real story of Charles and Diana…
encoded: Who was Diana, Princess of Wales? Maiden name: Diana Frances Spencer Born: 1 July 1961 at Park House, the home that her parents rented on Queen Elizabeth II’s estate at Sandringham Died: 31 August 1997, in a car accident in Paris (aged 36) Married to: Prince Charles (m. 1981–96) Height: 1.78 m Children: Prince William (born 1982) and Prince Harry (born 1984) Grandchildren: Prince George (born 2013); Princess Charlotte (born 2015); Prince Louis (born 2018); Archie Mountbatten-Windsor (born 2019) Parents: John Spencer, 8th Earl Spencer & Frances Roche Siblings: Lady Sarah McCorquodale (1955–present); Jane Fellowes, Baroness Fellowes (1957–present); John Spencer, died within 10 hours of his birth on 12 January 1960; Charles Spencer, 9th Earl Spencer (1964–present) Educated: Silfield Private School in Gayton, Norfolk; Riddlesworth Hall School near Thetford; West Heath Girls’ School in Sevenoaks, Kent; Institut Alpin Videmanette in Rougemont, Switzerland View Green Video on the source website When did Diana Spencer meet Prince Charles? It was in the summer of 1980, at a house party hosted by Diana’s friend Philip de Pass in New Grove, near Petworth, that Prince Charles first saw Diana Spencer as a potential girlfriend. Sitting next to each other on a bale of hay at a post-polo barbecue, an 19-year-old Diana expressed her sympathy for Charles over the loss of his beloved great-uncle, Lord Mountbatten, who had been murdered by the IRA a year earlier. “My heart bled for you when I watched the funeral; I thought, ‘It’s wrong, you’re lonely – you should be with somebody to look after you’,” said Diana. This, says Penny Junor, was exactly what Charles needed to hear. “Mountbatten was a very important figure in Charles’s life and he was in a fragile state at that point,” says Junor. “Diana really touched a nerve in Charles, she said just the right thing to him, at the right moment, and he was moved by her.” This encounter was not, however, the first time Charles and Diana had m…

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Pomp & power: royal ceremonies through the centuries
type: item
date: 2023-05-02T06:45:20.000Z
creator: Ellie Cawthorne
subject: General History
subject: Membership
subject: Period
subject: Royal weddings
description: Ahead of King Charles’ coronation, Dr Alice Hunt explores how British royals have long used pomp and pageantry to reinforce their power and popularity
encoded: Later this week, royal ceremony and spectacle will be deployed in full force for the coronation of King Charles III. But this latest lavish display is nothing new – British monarchs have long used pomp and pageantry to reinforce their power and popularity. Dr Alice Hunt speaks to Ellie Cawthorne about how monarchs down the centuries have used ceremony and ritual – and how it’s gone down with the public.

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Princess Margaret’s final years
type: item
date: 2022-11-07T12:18:14.000Z
subject: 20th Century
subject: Period
subject: Royal children
subject: Royal weddings
subject: The Crown
subject: The royal family
description: Seasons 5 and 6 of The Crown, beginning in the early 1990s, depict the gradual decline of one of its most vibrant and controversial characters, charting the failing health of Princess Margaret, once a dazzling beauty and staple of the gossip columns. Anne de Courcy maps Princess Margaret’s life and final years, and considers what might have led to her early death…
encoded: In February 1999, the 68-year-old Princess Margaret was holidaying on Mustique, in her private villa Les Jolies Eaux. One morning, she went into the bathroom to wash her hair. Stepping into the bath, she inadvertently turned on the bath taps instead of those of the overhead shower. The water that gushed out of them was, thanks to a faulty thermostat, near-boiling. Janie Stevens, lady-in-waiting and friend to the princess, became alarmed by Margaret’s non-appearance and went into the bathroom, where she found the Princess sitting dazed on the edge of the bath, her feet appallingly scalded and in great pain. The incident, which left Margaret hospitalised, was a well-publicised episode in a broader period of declining health and spirit, a sorry trajectory for the Queen’s sister, once the sparkling face of the royal family. Princess Margaret’s early life <img src="https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/7/2022/11/GettyImages-1036124564-1b5671e-e1667818467197.jpg" width="619" height="412" alt="Princess Margaret, future Countess of Snowden, 1930 - 2002. Younger daughter of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth of the United Kingdom and sister of Queen Elizabeth II. From The Coronation Book of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth, published 1937.(Photo by: Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)" title="Princess Margaret, future Countess of Snowden, 1930 - 2002. Younger daughter of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth of the United Kingdom and sister of Queen Elizabeth II. From The Coronation Book of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth, published 1937.(Photo by: Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)" /> Princess Margaret was born at her mother’s home, Glamis Castle, on 21 August 1930. She was four years younger than her sister, the then Princess Elizabeth. At the time, their parents, the Duke and Duchess of York, had no idea of the future that awaited them. On the podcast | British royal family podcast episod…

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British royal family podcast episodes
type: item
subject: General Modern
subject: Period
subject: British queens
subject: Royal children
subject: Royal weddings
description: Browse our archive of podcasts, from the royal family's residences to how they survived the First World War...

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In profile: Queen Consort Camilla
type: item
date: 2022-02-06T09:55:16.000Z
creator: Emma Mason
subject: 20th Century
subject: Period
subject: Royal weddings
subject: The Crown
subject: Trends-Entertainment
subject: TV interest
description: Camilla Parker Bowles was ‘the other woman’ in the marriage of Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer and played a central role in the couple’s split, in what royal biographer Penny Junor describes as the darkest days of the modern monarchy. Here, we explore the life of Camilla, Queen Consort to King Charles III, and her portrayal in the epic royal drama The Crown…
encoded: Camilla, Queen Consort to King Charles III, was born Camilla Rosemary Shand on 17 July 1947 at King's College Hospital, London. Born into a well-to-do family, Camilla grew up on a sprawling country estate in Plumpton, Sussex. Her father, Major Bruce Shand, was Vice Lord Lieutenant of East Sussex, while her mother, Rosalind, came from the aristocratic and wealthy Cubitt family – her ancestor Thomas Cubitt made his fortune as a property developer in the 19th century. Her father’s rank meant Camilla and her family lived somewhat regally and socialised with Britain's high society. Camilla Parker Bowles: a biography Maiden name: Camilla Rosemary Shand Born: 17 July 1947, at King's College Hospital, London Married to: King Charles III (m. 2005–present); Andrew Parker Bowles (m. 1973–95) Children: Thomas Henry (born 1974) and Laura Rose (Lopes) (born 1978) Grandchildren: Eliza Lopes (born 2008); Louis Lopes (born 2009); Gus Lopes (born 2009); Lola Parker Bowles (born 2007) and Freddy Parker Bowles (born 2010) Parents: Major Bruce Middleton Hope Shand and The Hon Rosalind Maud Shand (née Cubitt) Siblings: Annabel Elliot (born 1949) and Mark Shand (1951–2014) Educated: Dumbrells School in Sussex; Queen’s Gate School in South Kensington; Mon Fertile School in Switzerland and the Institut Britannique in Paris Camilla, the eldest of three children, was first educated at Dumbrells School, a co-ed school in Sussex, and later attended the fashionable independent all-girls boarding school Queen’s Gate School in South Kensington. There she acquired the nickname ‘Milla’ and, according to the journalist and author Christopher Andersen, was known to boast about the fact her great-grandmother, Alice Keppel, was the mistress of King Edward VII. “Fellow pupils remember 10-year-old ‘Milla’ waltzing into class and grandly ordering the other children to bow before her. ‘My great-grandmother was the lover of the King,’ she proclaimed. ‘We’re practically royalty’”, writes Andersen in his 2016 …

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Charles and Camilla: a history of their romance
type: item
date: 2022-02-06T09:45:00.000Z
subject: 20th Century
subject: General Modern
subject: Period
subject: Royal children
subject: Royal weddings
subject: The Crown
subject: The royal family
subject: Trends-Entertainment
subject: TV interest
description: They met and fell in love in their early twenties, enjoying a “blissful” 18-month romance in which the young Prince Charles pursued Camilla with elaborately worded love notes and late-night telephone chats. Why, then, did he end up marrying Lady Diana Spencer instead? Royal expert Marlene Koenig explores the history of Prince Charles and Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall’s love affair...
encoded: Thirty-four years after their first meeting, the Prince of Wales and Camilla Parker Bowles were finally married on 9 April 2005. Their long-term relationship as friends and lovers was summed up in The Sunday Telegraph's headline: “Husband and wife – at last.” At the reception at Windsor Castle, Prince Charles's mother, Queen Elizabeth II, in front of 800 guests, offered a toast to the newlyweds. “They have overcome Becher's Brook and The Chair and all kinds of other terrible obstacles. They have come through and I'm very proud and wish them well. My son is home and dry with the woman he loves.” Queen Elizabeth II | 50+ surprising facts about her life and reign Not surprisingly, the Queen, a lover of horses and horse racing, used racing references as she welcomed Camilla into the family: Becher's Brook and The Chair are fences at the Aintree Racecourse, where the Grand National takes place. It was in the summer of 1971, when Prince Charles, then 22, first met Camilla Rosemary Shand, who was 24. A legend has been fostered that the couple were introduced at a polo match at Smith's Lawn in Windsor, but, according to Jonathan Dimbleby's authorised biography, The Prince of Wales (1994), the introduction was in fact made by a mutual friend, Lucia Santa Cruz, daughter of the Chilean ambassador to the United Kingdom, whom Charles had met when he was a student at Cambridge. Who is Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall? | Everything you need to know about Prince Charles’s wife “Instant attraction” It was reportedly an “instant attraction” between Charles and Camilla. During an 18-month period their friendship blossomed into a love affair. They shared a lot in common, including an appreciation for the comedy of The Goon Show, a BBC radio series devised by Spike Milligan. Charles also liked that Camilla was very much at home in “the country with horses and hunting.” Camilla had been involved in an on-and-off relationship with Andrew Parker Bowles, an officer in the Royal Horse Guard, tha…

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Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip: 8 milestones in their marriage
type: item
date: 2020-11-20T10:30:00.000Z
creator: Rachel Dinning
subject: 20th Century
subject: General Modern
subject: Period
subject: British queens
subject: Royal weddings
subject: The Crown
subject: The royal family
subject: TV interest
description: Queen Elizabeth married Prince Philip on 20 November 1947 at Westminster Abbey. Her marriage is the longest of any British sovereign. Here we bring you the facts about their relationship and look back on some of their major milestones, from their first meeting in 1934 to the Queen's ‘annus horribilis', or ‘horrible year’, in 1992 and beyond...
encoded: “He has, quite simply, been my strength and stay all these years.” These were the words of Queen Elizabeth II as she described her husband on their golden wedding anniversary in 1997. Her marriage to Prince Philip is – at more than 70 years long – the longest of any British sovereign, surpassing that of George III and Queen Charlotte by more than 13 years. But their relationship hasn’t always been straightforward, and when a young Prince Philip of Greece sought the hand of Britain’s most eligible woman, many obstacles lay ahead... Falling in love Elizabeth and Philip were first introduced to one another when the former was just eight years old, at the wedding of Princess Marina of Greece and Denmark (Philip’s cousin) and Prince George, Duke of Kent (Elizabeth’s uncle) in 1934. Five years later, when Elizabeth was 13 and Philip was 18, they met again at the Royal Naval College in Dartmouth. It was here, reportedly, that Elizabeth fell in love with her future husband, and they later began exchanging letters. In 1946, Philip asked King George VI for his daughter’s hand in marriage. The king agreed on one condition – that the formal announcement of the engagement was delayed until Elizabeth turned 21 the following April. According to reports, both the king and his wife Queen Elizabeth were reluctant to approve the marriage out of fear that their daughter was “too young”. In postwar Britain, there were also fears over how Philip – who was born in Greece, considered himself Danish and had German relations – might be accepted as a member of the royal household. Indeed, upon becoming engaged to Elizabeth, Philip dropped his Greek and Danish royal titles, becoming a naturalised British subject and taking the surname Mountbatten from his maternal grandparents. Later, on the eve of their wedding, King George conferred upon him the titles of Duke of Edinburgh, Earl of Merioneth and Baron Greenwich. Lord Mountbatten: Did Prince Philip’s uncle attempt to lead a coup against Harol…

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The Crown S4 E8 real history: why did Margaret Thatcher & the Queen clash over apartheid in South Africa?
type: item
date: 2020-11-15T08:15:47.000Z
creator: Emma Mason
subject: 20th Century
subject: General Modern
subject: Period
subject: Royal children
subject: Royal weddings
subject: The Crown
subject: TV interest
description: Episode 8 of season 4 of The Crown sees Margaret Thatcher and the Queen come to blows over apartheid in South Africa – a disagreement that culminated in an explosive front-page Sunday Times story claiming the Queen privately felt Mrs Thatcher’s approach to be “uncaring, confrontational and socially divisive”
encoded: In this episode we see Thatcher and Queen Elizabeth II clash over apartheid in South Africa, meanwhile Prince Andrew prepares to marry Sarah Ferguson but is enraged that his big day is being overshadowed by the ongoing saga between his mother and the prime minister (a situation for which his brother, Prince Charles, has no sympathy). But how accurate is The Crown’s portrayal of the apartheid clash? Why did the two women disagree and how did they repair their rift? And what was Prince Charles’s relationship really like with Prince Andrew? Let’s unpick the historical truths of episode 8… (This article contains spoilers for season 4, episode 8 of The Crown) Why did Thatcher refuse to back sanctions against the apartheid regime in South Africa? In 1986, amid a groundswell of global opposition to apartheid in South Africa – the discriminatory political and economic system of racial segregation which the white minority imposed on non-whites – Commonwealth leaders stood together ready to impose economic sanctions against the country. First implemented by the governing party, the National Party of South Africa, in 1948, the impact of apartheid on South Africa’s non-white population was horrific. Read more about the history and effects of apartheid here. But while 48 of the 49 Commonwealth nations had agreed a programme of economic sanctions – which included a ban on air travel and investments in South Africa, as well as a bar on agricultural imports and the promotion of South African tourism – Britain stood alone in its refusal to back the plans. Why? Margaret Thatcher was bitterly opposed to economic sanctions of any sort, and even to the threat of sanctions, because “she believed that they would not work and would damage Britain’s extensive economic interests,” The Times reported in 1985. Sanctions were, she felt, a crime against free trade. According to Richard Dowden, former director of the Royal African Society, Thatcher felt anything that damaged wealth creation must …

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The Crown S4 E3 real history: Diana’s struggles, the ‘G’ & ‘F’ bracelet, and a royal engagement
type: item
date: 2020-11-15T08:05:09.000Z
creator: Emma Mason
subject: 20th Century
subject: General Modern
subject: Period
subject: Royal weddings
subject: The Crown
subject: The royal family
subject: TV interest
description: At long last, the heir to the throne has chosen a bride. But, as episode 3 of season 4 of The Crown reveals, the relationship between Prince Charles and Diana is no fairy tale romance
encoded: In this episode we witness for the first time Diana’s struggle with an eating disorder and see her roaming the halls of Buckingham Palace, lonely and bored, before enduring a torturous lunch with Charles’s ex-girlfriend, Camilla. Diana also discovers the famous ‘G’ & ‘F’ bracelet and tells the Queen the royal wedding cannot go ahead. But how historically accurate is all this? Let’s unpick the historical truths of episode 3… (This article contains spoilers for season 4, episode 3 of The Crown) Charles & Diana get engaged The sense of anticipation is palpable in the opening scenes of episode 3: Prince Charles watches from a window as Diana leaves Windsor Castle, while Queen Elizabeth II, Princess Margaret, the Queen Mother and Princess Anne each sit anxiously by their respective telephones, clocks ticking fervently in the background. At last the Queen’s phone rings, she picks up immediately. “It’s done, I did it,” Prince Charles tells his mother. The heir to the throne is at long last engaged. “Did you get on one knee?” his mother asks. “No, I thought in terms of rank the Prince of Wales only ever knelt before the Sovereign.” Having returned to London, the newly engaged Diana pushes past throngs of reporters to reach her flat in Earl’s Court. There, her three girlfriends gather in the hallway, eagerly awaiting news. Cue screams of excitement as Diana confirms what they hope and suspect: she and the Prince of Wales are betrothed. What follows is a whirlwind of excitement as the four ladies speed through central London in a black cab, squealing as they pass Buckingham Palace, and dance the night away in a nightclub before drunkenly singing ‘God save the Queen’ as they head home. Diana is flushed with joy: her newfound reality looks nothing short of a fairy tale. Is this really how Charles and Diana came to be engaged? The Prince of Wales did indeed propose at Windsor Castle, on 6 February 1981. Diana “thought at first that Charles was joking but nevertheless accepted, a…

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