The Crown has become a little less discriminatory with changes to the rules of succession – and descendants of George II who failed to get permission to wed need no longer fear their marriage is void.
The British Library has just staged an exclusive one-day exhibition. The four earliest surviving copies of the original Magna Carta were brought together for an audience of 1,215 people, selected by public…
This summer in June, the Queen will retrace King John’s steps along the three-and-a-half miles from Windsor Castle to Runnymede to commemorate the 800th anniversary of the revered document that came to…
Late last Friday the King of Thailand was rushed from his seaside palace in Hua Hin to Siriraj hospital in Bangkok. The Palace issued an announcement that the King was suffering from a fever and a rapid…
Let’s talk of graves, of worms, and epitaphs … And tell sad stories of the death of kings These melancholic words, uttered by Shakespeare’s Richard II, tell us of a preoccupation with death and mortality…
Monarchs, it seems, are holding their ground in the modern world. If the amor regis displayed in New Zealand and Australia toward Prince William and family in April is anything to go by, one might conclude…
The Spanish monarchy has been thrown into crisis after the king, Juan Carlos I, announced his decision to abdicate the throne after 39 years in favour of his son Felipe. The news was conveyed via the royal…
Philip Murphy, School of Advanced Study, University of London
A matter concerning Prince Charles, letters written to government ministers and a bid by the Guardian to make them public has been playing out in British courts and the media for the past few years. It…
Philip Murphy, School of Advanced Study, University of London
Royal finances have come under close scrutiny in recent days after the Public Accounts Committee told the royal household it must earn more and spend less – a bit like the rest of the country in an era…
Not for the first time in our long lives, Prince Charles and I find ourselves on parallel tracks, our first grandchildren born within weeks of each other. I offer him my congratulations, and hope that…
April 30, 2013 - the annual Queen’s Day holiday - is an important date for the Dutch monarchy. Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands will formally abdicate her throne in favour of her son and heir, Willem-Alexander…
The following is based on a speech delivered at the launching of Labor for a Republic in Sydney last night. Let me begin my address this evening with a seemingly obvious point – there is nothing inevitable…
The story is almost unbelievable: a king buried for five centuries under what is now a car park, identified through mtDNA analysis with the last surviving matrilineal descendants of his sister. But it…
This weekend, Britain will celebrate the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II. Bunting and cream cakes will turn neighbourhood roads into street parties and a flotilla of 1,000 boats will sail down the…
Nicola Roxon, sworn in last week as the first law officer of the Australian Crown, reportedly plans to reignite the debate on Australia becoming a republic. Former prime minister, Paul Keating has also…
UPDATE: Commonwealth leaders have now agreed that laws will be changed to allow sons and daughters of any future British monarch to have equal right to the throne. The ban on the head of state marrying…