297 Items Tagged

Royalty

Guy Fawkes is the most notorious member of England’s 1605 Gunpowder Plot, a Catholic conspiracy to blow up Westminster Palace and assassinate Protestant King James I.

How a Threadbare 'Bag of Secrets' Led to Guy Fawkes's Gruesome Execution

The documents that convicted the infamous traitor were all kept in this unassuming leather pouch.

Kavitha Rao May 19, 2023

Coronation quiche was served at an event at Westminster Abbey in April.

Eat Like a King With the Official Coronation Quiche

Can Charles III's recipe live up to his mother's curried chicken?

Chloe Faure May 4, 2023

The Gloucester Cathedral–shaped lamprey pie for Queen Elizabeth II's Diamond Jubilee.

5 of Our Favorite Odd Traditions of English Royalty

From a coronation pie made of lampreys to someone to chat with you in the loo.

April White April 26, 2023

<em>The Vizier's Gambit</em> just doesn't have the same ring to it.

How Did the Chess Pieces Get Their Names?

One player’s pawn is another’s farmer. And at one time, the queen was the virgin, and rather powerless.

Frank Jacobs April 21, 2023

A commemorative head, part of the so-called Benin Bronzes, which were looted from the royal palace in Benin City in 1897. The image was taken in December 2022 in Nigeria's capital, Abuja, when the piece and several other objects were formally repatriated from Germany to their homeland.

Are the Benin Bronzes Made From German Brass—And Does It Matter?

The famous West African artworks, long at the center of repatriation debates, were made from materials sourced in Rhineland.

Gemma Tarlach April 5, 2023

The trove of spices was found in the stern of the ship by Brendan Foley and a team of archaeologists.

How Did a Medieval Spice Cabinet Survive 500 Years Underwater?

Exotic saffron, black pepper, ginger, cloves, and more offer a look into how Scandinavian royalty lived.

Line Sidonie Talla Mafotsing March 28, 2023

Obelisco de la Castellana

Obelisk of Arganzuela

Built to celebrate the glory of a new queen, this forgotten monument has moved around Madrid three times, reflecting 200 years of political whims and city redevelopment.

Ferdinand's VII latrine-forniture when it was exposed in the Museum of Romanticism in Madrid.

Toilet Cabinet of Ferdinand VII

The Spanish king's private bathroom embraced the idea of a porcelain throne.

San Giovanni in Persiceto, Italy

Statua di Re Gino

A bronze monument to his majesty, King Gino.

Podcast: Empress Anna’s Ice Palace

The spectacle in St. Petersburg, Russia, was the site of an incredibly strange wedding.

The Podcast Team January 25, 2023

Stationers' Hall

London, England

Stationers' Hall

This building contains a door only used by members of the royal family.

Grave of Frederick the Great

Potsdam, Germany

Grave of the Potato King

If you visit the burial place of King Frederick the Great, you'll likely find a couple of potatoes sitting on his tombstone.

objects of intrigue

Was This King Charles I’s Death Vest?

It is said the English monarch wore the sleeved waistcoat at his public execution in 1649.

April White November 17, 2022

Stone Guardian from the Tomb of King Muryeong

Gongju, South Korea

Seoksu from the Tomb of King Muryeong

A guardian spirit sculpture that once guarded the tomb of a 6th-century Korean king.

Russian painter Valery Jacobi's 1878 <em>Ice House</em> depicts the jester, Mikhail Golitsyn, and the Kalmyk woman, Avdotia Buzheninova, being paraded to their icy bed chamber.

The Time a Russian Empress Built an Ice Palace and Forced Her Jester To Get Married In It

Cruel joke, power move, or both?

Sarah Durn October 4, 2022

Ming Xiaoling Mausoleum

Ming Xiaoling Mausoleum

One of the largest, grandest imperial mausoleums was built as the founder of the Ming Dynasty's final resting place.

The Sweeney bowl is five feet tall and 225 pounds.

4 of History's Most Epic Punch Bowls

If your party doesn't feature enough alcohol to float a rowboat, you're doing it wrong.

Sam O'Brien October 3, 2022

Chertsey, England

Blanche Heriot and the Curfew Bell

A statue of the heroine who stopped time to save her betrothed.