#second Duke of Buckingham

[moonbreezes]

him as George Villiers posing in front of a portrait of George’s son (another) George Villiers made me feel kinda giddy ngl

*edit because in all of this excitement I forgot to add credits*

Portrait George Villiers (1628–1687), 2nd Duke of Buckingham, Governor of the Charterhouse from 1670 by Robert Wignall

[brf-rumortrackinganon]

Friends of the family were quick to caution against any over-interpretation of Harry's visit [after Charles announced his cancer diagnosis]. The fact that the conversation has remained entirely private is seen not so much as a stepping stone as a sign that all is not lost. Yet within Buckingham Palace it is accepted that the King is open to some sort of rapprochement with the Sussexes – not least because he has barely seen his US-based grandchildren Archie and Lilibet, now aged five and three. And any sort of serious medical diagnosis tends to focus the mind on the passing of time. 'He always had an iron discipline about not stirring things up with the Sussexes,' says a former member of staff. 'It can take a huge effort to do nothing when you're being criticised.'

and

Besides, among the King's team were those for whom previous dealings with the Duke of Sussex had been a reminder of the old adage that no good deed goes unpunished. Prince Harry had been witheringly critical of his father's staff in his memoir. Yet some of those very same officials had tried to give both the Duke and Duchess extra support during their brief royal existence. 'It was Clive [now Sir Clive Alderton, private secretary to the King] who said that if we could get this right for Harry, we'd be creating a blueprint for future younger sons for generations,' recalls one staffer from those days. 'And Clive said, 'These two need more staff. And we seconded people from Clarence House, very expert people, to help them, but the Duchess wouldn't trust them. Those two were offered considerable resource, and then later said that they had been offered no help. And that was completely wrong.'

[theroyalsandi]

STATE VISIT BY THE EMPEROR AND EMPRESS OF JAPAN Tuesday 25th - Thursday 27th June 2024

Their Majesties The Emperor and Empress of Japan will pay a State Visit to the United Kingdom as guests of His Majesty The King from Tuesday 25th to Thursday 27th June 2024.

Their Majesties The King and Queen will host the State Visit at Buckingham Palace.

STATE VISIT PROGRAMME:

SATURDAY 22nd JUNE • The Emperor and Empress of Japan will arrive privately in the United Kingdom on the afternoon of Saturday 22nd June at Stansted Airport. • Their Majesties will be greeted by His Excellency Mr Hajime Hayashi, Ambassador of Japan. The Viscount Brookeborough KG, Lord-in-Waiting, will greet Their Majesties on behalf of The King.

SUNDAY 23rd JUNE AND MONDAY 24TH JUNE • Before the State Visit formally commences, the Emperor will conduct a private programme of engagements, including a visit to Japan House and the Thames Barrier.

TUESDAY 25th JUNE • His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales will greet the Emperor and Empress of Japan, at their hotel, on behalf of The King on Tuesday morning. • His Royal Highness will travel with the Emperor and Empress to Horse Guards Parade, where Their Majesties will receive a Ceremonial Welcome. • The King and Queen will formally welcome the Emperor and Empress at the Royal Pavilion on Horse Guards Parade. Presentations will be made, the Guard of Honour will give a Royal Salute and the Japanese National Anthem will be played. • The King and Queen will formally welcome the Emperor and Empress at the Royal Pavilion on Horse Guards Parade. Presentations will be made, the Guard of Honour will give a Royal Salute and the Japanese National Anthem will be played. • The Emperor, accompanied by The King, will then inspect the Guard of Honour, formed of the 1st Battalion Welsh Guards with the Band of the Welsh Guards. Afterwards, the Emperor and Empress will join The King and Queen, and The Prince of Wales, in a carriage procession along The Mall to Buckingham Palace, where they will be met by a second Guard of Honour formed of the 1st Battalion Welsh Guards. • Following a lunch at Buckingham Palace, given by The King, His Majesty will invite the Emperor and Empress to view a special exhibition in the Picture Gallery of items from the Royal Collection relating to Japan. • In the afternoon, the Emperor and Empress will visit Westminster Abbey, where the Emperor will lay a wreath at the Grave of the Unknown Warrior. Their Majesties will take a tour of the Abbey, accompanied by the Dean of Westminster. • In the evening, The King, accompanied by The Queen and Members of the Royal Family, will give a State Banquet at Buckingham Palace for The Emperor and Empress of Japan. Speeches will be made by The King and the Emperor at the beginning of the banquet.

WEDNESDAY 26th JUNE • The Emperor will visit The Francis Crick Institute, the UK's flagship biomedical research centre. The Institute supports an innovative UK-Japan research partnership which covers a range of public health issues, including cancer, vaccines, and the role of genetics in infectious diseases. • That evening, The Emperor of Japan, joined by Their Royal Highnesses The Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh, will attend a Banquet at the Guildhall given by the Lord Mayor and City of London Corporation. The Lord Mayor and The Emperor will both make speeches at the end of the banquet.

THURSDAY 27th JUNE • The Emperor and Empress of Japan will formally bid farewell to The King and Queen at Buckingham Palace on the morning of the final day of the official State Visit programme. • The Emperor and Empress will travel to Young V&A, part of the V&A family of museums dedicated to the power of creativity around the world, where the museum's Japan: Myths to Manga exhibition is currently on display. • The Emperor will privately visit St. George's Chapel, Windsor Castle, to lay a wreath on the tomb of Queen Elizabeth II, in the King George VI Chapel. The Garter Banners of the current members of the Order of the Garter, including the banner belonging to • His Majesty's father, Emperor Emeritus Akihito, are displayed in the Quire of St. George's Chapel. • Later that afternoon, His Majesty the Emperor will tour the historic Temperate House at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. The Millennium Seed Bank, coordinated by Kew is the world's largest collection of over 2.4 billion wild plant seeds spanning 97 countries, preserving Japanese and international biodiversity. Bronze Bonsai sculptures by artist Marc Quinn are currently displayed in the Temperate House, surrounded by a display of Bonsai trees from Kew's collection.

FRIDAY 28th JUNE • On their final day in the UK, The Emperor and Empress of Japan will visit Oxford for a private programme of engagements including a visit to the colleges where Their Majesties studied. • At the conclusion of the visit, The Lord Chamberlain will bid farewell to the Emperor and Empress on behalf of The King, before they depart from RAF Brize Norton.

[sophsicle]

it's so weird reading king/pirate fanfiction as a history student because i keep wondering if the most autocratic of dictators and the biggest, cruelest idiots who have ever ruled monarchies had secret side flings whose love "transcended space and time.” like LOL imagine if tsar nicholas ii had a gay side boo. i wonder if his relationship would more closely resemble jegulus or wolfstar or rosekiller. hard to imagine but i cant help it. nicholas x rasputin my otp!! LMAO this is the type of stuff your writing inspires in me.

k but they literally did tho

like Elizabeth I and Robert Dudley? grew up outlaws, basically loved each other until the day they died but just couldn't be together because of timing and politics (she also fucks around with a pirate for a bit, i love her so much)

King James I / V and his lover the Duke of Buckingham who becomes a second father to James's son Charles, is there for him after his father dies and then is murdered by his political opponents???

Frederick II whose father forces him to watch as his male lover Hans Hermann von Katte is BEHEADED (jesus christ)

Alexander the Great and Hephaestion, childhood friends, who make offerings at the alters of Patroclus and Achilles, and then Hephaestion goes and dies and Alexander is destroyed and follows not too long afterwards basically from a broken heart

William of Orange was definitely also fucking around with his bffs from Holland, I'm pretty sure he builds like an addition to Hampton court for one of them but I'm too lazy to fact check that

ANYWAY i always think if you want to be a writer you should study history, cause there are so many stories right there

[thepastisalreadywritten]

In words laden with affection and warmth, Prince Philip told the then Princess Elizabeth how he had fallen in love with her 'unreservedly.'

The letter, written in 1946 — a year before their wedding — was among several revealed in Philip Eade's 2011 book Young Prince Philip: His Turbulent Early Life.

The Duke of Edinburgh, who has died aged 99, told the Princess how falling in love with her so 'completely' had made his personal troubles and even those of the world 'seem small and petty.'

He also found it difficult to put his feelings into words, describing in another message after they had spent time together how he felt incapable of 'showing you the gratitude that I feel.'

And he told the Queen Mother in the year of her daughter's wedding to him how 'Lilibet was the only thing in this world, which is absolutely real to me.'

Love letters

Philip served in the Royal Navy during the Second World War and saw active service against German, Italian, and Japanese forces.

The Greek prince's early life was also marked by upheaval — he escaped his home country as a baby by being hidden in a makeshift cot made from an orange box.

So his words were filled with meaning when he told Princess Elizabeth in 1946 how his love for her made all his past struggle — and the horrors the world had just been through — seem trivial by comparison.

He wrote:

'To have been spared in the war and seen victory, to have been given the chance to rest and to re-adjust myself, to have fallen in love completely and unreservedly, makes all one's personal and even the world's troubles seem small and petty.'

Three years earlier, Philip had spent Christmas at Windsor Castle.

Princess Elizabeth was said to be animated in a way 'none of us had ever seen before,' her governess, Marion Crawford, wrote.

Writing to her after seeing her again in July, Philip wrote of the 'simple enjoyment of family pleasures and amusements and the feeling that I am welcome to share them.'

'I am afraid I am not capable of putting all this into the right words and I am certainly incapable of showing you the gratitude that I feel.'

The same year, he apologised for the 'monumental cheek' of turning up to Buckingham Palace uninvited.

'Yet however contrite I feel, there is always a small voice that keeps saying "Nothing ventured, nothing gained,"' he wrote.

'Well did I venture, and I gained a wonderful time.'

And in a letter to the Queen Mother two weeks after his wedding to Princess Elizabeth in November 1947, Philip expressed his vision for their time together.

He said:

'Lilibet is the only thing in this world, which is absolutely real to me, and my ambition is to wield the two of us into a new combined existence that will not only be able to withstand the shocks directed at us but will also have a positive existence for the good... Cherish Lilibet?'

'I wonder if that word is enough to express what is in me. Does one cherish one's sense of humour or one's musical ear or one's eyes?

'I am not sure, but I know that I thank God for them and so, very humbly, I thank God for Lilibet and us.'

Public speeches

The pair's wedding, attended by an array of foreign kings and queens, captured the public imagination in the austere post-war days of November 1947.

The newly-weds were called the Fairy Princess and Prince Charming.

After honeymooning at Broadlands, Hampshire, home of Lord Mountbatten, and at Birkhall on the Balmoral estate in Scotland, Princess Elizabeth and the Duke of Edinburgh stayed at Buckingham Palace until renovation of their new home, nearby Clarence House, was completed in 1949.

And in the years since then, both Philip and the Queen have spoken of each other with affection in public.

In a 1997 toast during the couple's 50th wedding anniversary, he said:

'I think the main lesson that we have learned is that tolerance is the one essential ingredient of any happy marriage.

It may not be quite so important when things are going well, but it is absolutely vital when the going gets difficult.

You can take it from me that the Queen has the quality of tolerance in abundance.'

She said on the same evening that Philip had been her 'strength and stay all these years.'

'I, and his whole family, and this and many other countries, owe him a debt greater than he would ever claim, or we shall ever know,' she added.

In 2002, at her Golden Jubilee Speech, the monarch said of her consort:

'The Duke of Edinburgh has made an invaluable contribution to my life over these past fifty years, as he has to so many charities and organisations with which he has been involved.'

And, during her Diamond Jubilee address to Parliament in 2012, the Queen said to her husband:

'During these years as your Queen, the support of my family has, across the generations, been beyond measure.

Prince Philip is, I believe, well-known for declining compliments of any kind. But throughout he has been a constant strength and guide.'

Private moments

Philip was there for the Queen when her father, King George VI, died in February 1952.

Only six days before her father's death, the then Princess and Philip had embarked on their tour of Australia via Kenya.

According to Eade in his book, Philip said of the days following the King's death that 'there were plenty of people telling me what not to do.'

He added:

'I had to try to support the Queen as best I could without getting in the way. The difficulty was to find things that might be useful.'

And according to an anecdote told by Queen Alexandra of Yugoslavia, Philip is said to have told the Queen when recalling their first meeting in 1934 that — 'you were so shy. I could not get a word out of you.'

Mischievous Philip is also said to have joked to his wife on the day of her coronation in 1953 — when she was wearing the 17th-century St Edward's Crown — 'where did you get that hat.'

Elizabeth II (21 April 1926 – 8 September 2022)

Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh (10 June 1921 – 9 April 2021)

[labuenosairesfrancaise]

Nun Appleton House

Hi guys!!

I'm sharing Nun Appleton House. This is the 13th building for my English Collection.

I added aa garden, which is my own creation and not the original of the house.

History of the house: The hall itself is built of reddish-orange brick with ashlar dressings and a Welsh slate roof in three storeys to a rectangular floor plan. It is grade II listed and now stands in some 200 ha. of parkland.

The estate was acquired by The 1st Lord Fairfax of Cameron, a Yorkshireman with a Scottish peerage, following the Dissolution of the Monasteries, from whom it descended to The 3rd Lord Fairfax of Cameron, the well-known English Civil War commander, who built the present hall in the late 1600s.

In his time (1651) the estate was the inspiration for Andrew Marvell's Upon Appleton House, a significant country house poem. Marvell was tutor to Thomas Fairfax's daughter, Mary. After the death of Mary (who had married The 2nd Duke of Buckingham) in 1704 the estate was eventually sold in 1711 to Alderman William Milner of Leeds who carried out many alterations to the house.

His son William was created the 1st Milner Baronet, of Nun Appleton Hall in the County of York, in 1717 and was later Member of Parliament for York. The estate then descended in the Milner family until 1875, when the estate's owner, Sir William Mordaunt Milner, 6th Baronet, was more interested in gambling than looking after it.

By 1877 it had been leased to William Beckett-Denison, a wealthy Leeds banker. After the death of Sir William Milner in Cairo in 1881, his brother Frederick inherited the estate and in 1882 married Adeline, eldest daughter of William Beckett-Denison. After William Beckett's gruesome death in 1890, the Hall and estate were sold to Angus Holden, a sometime M.P. (later created Baron Holden), a woollen manufacturer from Bradford, whose ownership was somewhat brief as he died in 1912.

The hall was now empty and many of the tenanted farms were sold. The estate was put up for auction in 1914 and again in 1917 and eventually acquired by a private company which felled many of the trees but by 1919 had gone into liquidation. It was bought in 1920 by Sir Benjamin Dawson, 1st Baronet, another Bradford textile manufacturer, who was High Sheriff of Yorkshire for 1951–52. During the Second World War the hall was taken over by the London Maternity Hospital.

 When the stable block accidentally burnt down it was afterwards refurbished as a theatre and made available to the local community.

The property was bought from the last occupant, Sir Benjamin's daughter Joan Dawson, for £1.2 million in the 1980s by Humphrey Smith of the Samuel Smith brewing family. The house is now fenced off, empty, unused and deteriorating.

Video below check it out

For more info: https://www.facebook.com/story.php/?story_fbid=928431841986992&id=100044605540042&_rdr

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

This house fits a 50x50 lot (I think if you lose the gaden and terrace it can fit a 50x40 too)

I furnished just the principal rooms, so you get an idea. The rest is unfurnished so you create the interiors to your taste!

Hope you like it.

You will need the usual CC I use:

all Felixandre cc

all The Jim,

SYB

Anachrosims

Regal Sims

King Falcon railing

The Golden Sanctuary

Cliffou

Dndr recolors

Harrie cc

Tuds

Lili's palace cc

Please enjoy, comment if you like it and share pictures with me if you use my creations!

Free to download blueprint: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=75230453

[orionsangel86]

Mary & George

So we finally have the show we have been asking for since 2016 (I went back and checked my old posts to make sure and it was indeed 2016 where the "British King Can't Stop Promoting His Boyfriend" post did the rounds).

How did it fair in reality? Well, its hardly Tumblr friendly fanfiction - though it was certainly raunchy - at least at the start. This show was scandalous, sexy, rather filthy at times (in a good way), and absolutely stunning in terms of its production and costume design for sure. It falls very much in line with the expectations of modern period dramas in a post Game of Thrones world where we have shows like The Great, and movies like The Favourite gracing our screens far more regularly than endless fucking retellings of Henry the Eighth which are so fucking common I have even been in one of them myself (sorry - my bitter hatred for stories about Henry VIII and his bloody wives is difficult to restrain).

So FINALLY getting a show set during the reign of James I and VI of England and Scotland and his love affair with the Duke of Buckingham is definitely a breath of fresh air.

But its definitely not the beautiful queer love story tumblr might have hoped for when we all first saw that post.

Nope. If you're looking for a happy tale of queer love overcoming adversity, stick with Red, White, and Royal Blue. Mary & George is not a love story. Its a story of scheming manipulative people who will do anything to get money and power. It's a story that uses sex as a weapon and a tool for personal gain. There is no fluffy romance to be found here, no sweet queer love story and no happy ever after.

I mean, this IS the British monarchy we're talking about, during an extremely dark and horrific period of our history only a short time before the country was plunged into Civil War and a King lost his head. But you've been warned anyway. All you'll find here is brutality, betrayal and eventual death.

Regardless of that, this show was fucking brilliant. The first three episodes in particular are quick witted and hilarious and refuse to shy away from treating queer sex scenes any differently to straight ones. The full frontal male nudity that crops up was also a pleasant surprise - I'm happy that cinema has generally accepted a more balanced approach to nudity nowadays - also a surprise was the lesbian romance which was probably the only genuine romance in the entire show. It leaves you wondering throughout but by the final few episodes its clear that if any love is "true" in this show, its the love between Mary and Sandie.

I absolutely adored Julianne Moore in this as Mary Villiers, who ruthlessly claws her way into power and money through schemes, seductions, betrayals, murders, and anything else you can think of. But even with all of this, I can't help but root for her. Who doesn't want to root for a scheming lesbian and her lover as they manipulate everyone around them and ensure they always get the better of the horrible men that make up King James' court? In this house we support Womens Wrongs.

As far as George goes, Nicholas Galitzine is brilliant as a beautiful but dim mummy's boy in the first few episodes, throwing tantrums and pouting with perfection. He shines in the later episodes as the arrogant and powerful Duke who believes he is practically untouchable due to his hold over the King, whilst still showing through the vulnerability underneath where that relationship remains precarious. The underlying joke of the show is that everyone wants George, and George wants everyone. He's a slutty slutty man.

You know how tumblr has a tendency to split queer stories into one of two camps - either pure sweet romantic love stories or very bad evil messy queer stories? (a gross simplification but you get what I mean) Well Mary and George falls firmly in the second camp. I enjoyed it for what it was, but I was a bit dissapointed that the general approach and belief of the storytellers here is that George used the King for personal gain, that the King was nothing more than a hedonistic fool who let his favourites manipulate him, and that any actual love between them was shallow and fleeting. Its all extremely cynical.

Especially since we know its not true. the surviving letters we have between King James and George paint a much more romantic picture, one where love was definitely a significant factor in their affair. Yes, historians love to play down queer history as best they can, but I don't believe that George Villiers was quite the manipulative little slut this show makes him out to be.

And yeah, sure, we can laugh and dismiss any true history involved. Its just a story after all? It was a bloody good story and one I enjoyed, but was it a fair portrayal of the actual men involved? Probably not - then again, the actual men involved weren't very nice anyway, and the show glossed over a lot of King James' more infamous sins. His obsession with witches and demons leading to the horrifying witch trials throughout the country were completely left out. There was also no mention of the famous King James Bible - the one that heavily emphasised any passages alluding to homosexuality being a sin which is used so frequently even today by religious zealots to persecute gay men. The Sodomy laws during King James' reign were enforced with such brutality that they brought us the slur "f*gg*t" (which I'm not explaining here). Yet the show displays acts of sodomy as such a normal part of court life that you'd almost think it wasn't totally punishable by death.

I shouldn't complain. Especially not about the lack of homophobia. Its a great show. You should watch it. But take it with a pinch of salt. The true story of James and George was probably one with a lot more secrecy involved, a lot more sneaking about in the night (after all, why build a secret passage between their bedrooms if they weren't trying to hide it?) and therefore a lot more hypocrisy on the part of the King.

There are some very touching scenes between King James and George, and I feel the show attempted to portray the relationship between them as complex and multilayered, but I'm not sure it succeeds as well as I would have hoped. But perhaps I am just a silly tumblr romantic who likes her queer love stories to actually include genuine love within them, and I always hoped that any story about King James and George would focus on how that love grew over time. Because whilst George obviously went along with things initially for personal gain, I think the evidence we have at least gives an indication that he did love the King, and the King clearly loved George, and I am interested in a story about how they navigated that love at a period of time where it did need to be kept secret, even if it was a fairly open secret, where things such as the King James Bible and the Witch Trials would have affected them, and where George's rise to power would have caused so much conflict and anger within the court.

But regardless of all that, I still loved the show. Its still worth the watch. The gays deserve more messy sexy dramas where they get to be ruthless and powerful and slutty and murderous. Its excellent viewing for all.

Ultimately though, I may have came for the gay duke and his love affair with the King, but I stayed for the lesbians. The lesbians were awesome.

#JusticeForSandie

[aimeedaisies]

Sophie Winkleman (Lady Frederick Windsor): The Merry Wife of Windsor, Sophie Winklemans Second Act.

Tatler: February 2024 edition

Sophie reveals, she had suffered a car crash several years ago, and she had broken her foot and three bones in her back.

She was touched by the support of The King, as the then Prince of Wales, whose cook at Clarence House supplied her family with meals twice a day for months.

The Duke of Cambridge, later The Prince of Wales, asked an air ambulance colleague to ‘take good care of her’, while The Countess of Wessex, later The Duchess of Edinburgh, visited her in hospital.

Sophie's recuperation was slow and agonising, Queen Elizabeth II allowed Sophie to use her pool at Buckingham Palace.

She asked how Sophie was, and she said, “We can’t have that. You have to go in the water.” She told us that when horses had broken backs, they swam.

Sophie reveals she loves The Duchess of Edinburgh, Lady Sarah Chatto, Zara, the York girls, Sir Tim and The Princess Royal, Sarah, Duchess of York, all the Kents and Gloucesters.

She also loves The Prince and Princess of Wales, but they’re so busy and don’t live in London.

Sophie reveals, His Majesty The King is a very dear friend. She spend a bit of time with him, she saw how he works all day long, has a quick supper and then disappears until about 4am to write letters. He cares about so many things and he comes up with brilliant solutions.

This article was first published in the February 2024 issue, on sale Thursday 4 January.

[whencyclopedia]

Charles I of England

Charles I of England (r. 1625-1649) was a Stuart king who, like his father James I of England (r. 1603-1625), viewed himself as a monarch with absolute power and a divine right to rule. His lack of compromise with Parliament led to the English Civil Wars (1642-51), his execution, and the abolition of the monarchy in 1649.

King Charles grew tired of wrangles with Parliament over money and so decided to do without that institution for eleven years. Then between 1640 and 1642, Charles was obliged to call Parliament to raise cash for his campaigns against a Scottish army, which had occupied northern England, and a full-blown rebellion in Ireland, both fuelled by religious differences and the king’s high-handed policies. Parliament attempted to guarantee its own future, and when the king broke his promises of reform, war broke out. The English Civil War was largely fought between ‘Roundheads’ (Parliamentarians) and ‘Cavaliers’ (Royalists) in over 600 battles and sieges in England alone. Ultimately, the professional New Model Army won the day for Parliament and Charles I was tried and found guilty of treason to his own people and government. The king was executed on 30 January 1649. Oliver Cromwell (1599-1658) ruled the ‘commonwealth’ republic as Lord Protector, but his death was soon followed by the restoration of the monarchy in 1660. The new king was Charles’ son, Charles II of England (r. 1660–1685).

Family & Early Life

Charles was born on 19 November 1600 in Dunfermline Palace, Scotland. His father was James I of England (who was also James VI of Scotland, r. 1567-1625), and his mother was Anne of Denmark (l. 1574-1619), the daughter of Frederick II of Denmark and Norway (r. 1559-1588). Charles’ grandmother was Mary, Queen of Scots (r. 1542-1567). James I was of the royal Stuart line, and he had unified the thrones of Scotland and England after Elizabeth I of England (r. 1558-1603) left no heir. Charles was the second son of King James, but his elder brother Henry died of typhoid fever in 1612 and so he became the heir apparent. Charles’ elder sister Elizabeth (b. 1596) married the King of Bohemia, and her grandson would rule England as George I of England (r. 1714-1727), the first of the Hanoverian Dynasty.

Charles did not enjoy robust health as a child, he was shy - perhaps because of his stammer, and he always came second-best when compared to his more favoured brother Henry. Reaching maturity, Charles spent a lot of time with King James’ hated courtier George Villiers, the Duke of Buckingham. The duke was seen as a talentless social upstart who had enjoyed a meteoric rise only thanks to the king’s infatuation with him.

In 1624 it was arranged for Charles to marry Henrietta Maria (1609-1669), the young sister of Louis XIII of France (1610-1643). The French royal obviously did not mind the small stature of her betrothed - a mere 1.6 metres tall (5ft 4 in) or his reputation for being rather stubborn, dull-witted, and a complete stranger to a sense of humour. The couple went on to have nine children, the two eldest sons being Charles (b. 1630) and James (b. 1633), both of whom would one day become king.

Continue reading...

[comtessezouboff]

Paintings from Buckingham Palace: part II

A retexture by La Comtesse Zouboff — Original Mesh by @thejim07

Spread among 13 occupied and historic royal residences in the United Kingdom, the collection is owned by King Charles III and overseen by the Royal Collection Trust. The British monarch owns some of the collection in right of the Crown and some as a private individual. It is made up of over one million objects, including 7,000 paintings, over 150,000 works on paper, this including 30,000 watercolours and drawings, and about 450,000 photographs, as well as around 700,000 works of art, including tapestries, furniture, ceramics, textiles, carriages, weapons, armour, jewellery, clocks, musical instruments, tableware, plants, manuscripts, books, and sculptures.

Some of the buildings which house the collection, such as Hampton Court Palace, are open to the public and not lived in by the Royal Family, whilst others, such as Windsor Castle, Kensington Palace and the most remarkable of them, Buckingham Palace are both residences and open to the public.

About 3,000 objects are on loan to museums throughout the world, and many others are lent on a temporary basis to exhibitions.

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The second part includes paintings displayed in the Ball Supper Room, the Ballroom, the Ballroom Annexe, the Bow Room, the East Gallery, the Grand Entrance and Marble Hall, the Minister's Landing & Staircase, the Vestibule, the Chinese Dining Room and the Balcony Room.

This set contains 57 paintings and tapestries with the original frame swatches, fully recolourable. They are:

Ball Supper Room (BSR):

Portrait of King George III of the United Kingdom (Benjamin West)

Ballroom (BR):

The Story of Jason: The Battle of the Soldiers born of The Serpent's Teeth (the Gobelins)

The Story of Jason: Medea Departs for Athens after Setting Fire to Corinth (the Gobelins)

Ballroom Annexe (BAX):

The Apotheosis of Prince Octavius (Benjamin West)

Bow Room (BWR):

Portrait of Princess Mary Adelaide of Cambridge (William Corden the Younger)

Portrait of Princess Augusta of Cambridge, Grand Duchess of Mecklenburg-Strelitz (Alexander Melville)

Portrait or George, Duke of Cambridge (William Corden the Younger)

Portrait of Frederick William, Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Strelitz (Franz Xaver Winterhalter)

Portrait of Augusta of Saxe-Weimar, Princess of Prussia, later Queen of Prussia and German Empress (Franz Xaver Winterhalter)

Portrait of Prince Leopold, Later Duke of Albany (Franz Xaver Winterhalter)

Portrait of Ernest, Prince of Hohenlohe-Langeburg (Franz Xaver Winterhalter)

Portrait of Ferdinand of Savoy, Duke of Genoa (Eliseo Sala)

Portrait of Marie Alexandrina of Saxe-Altenburg, Queen Consort of Hanover (Carl Ferdinand Sohn)

Portrait of Leopold, Duke of Brabant, Later Leopold II, King of the Belgians (Nicaise de Keyser)

Portrait of Marie Henriette, Archduchess of Austria and Duchess of Brabant, Later Queen of the Belgians (Nicaise de Keyser)

East Gallery (EG):

Portrait of Leopold I, King of the Belgians (Franz Xaver Winterhalter)

Portrait of Victoria, Queen of England in Coronation Robes (Sir George Hayter)

Portrait of Louis-Philippe d'Orléans, King of the French (Franz Xaver Winterhalter)

Portrait of Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, Consort Queen of England with her Children at Windsor Castle (Benjamin West)

Portrait of Prince Adolphus, later Duke of Cambridge, With Princess Mary and Princess Sophia at Kew (Benjamin West)

The Coronation of Queen Victoria in Westminster Abbey, 28 June, 1838. (Sir George Hayter)

The Christening of Edward, Prince of Wales 25 January, 1842 (Sir George Hayter)

The Marriage of Queen Victoria, 10 February, 1840 (Sir George Hayter)

Portrait of the Royal Family in 1846 (Franz Xaver Winterhalter)

Portrait of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert as King Edward III and Queen Philippa of Hainault at the Ball Costumé of 12 May, 1842 (Sir Edwin Landseer)

Grand Entrance and Marble Hall (GEMH):

Portrait of Edward, Duke of Kent (John Hoppner)

Portrait of Ernest I, Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha (George Dawe)

Portrait of Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saafeld, Dowager Duchess of Kent (Franz Xaver Winterhalter)

Portrait of Albert, Prince Consort of the United Kingdom (Franz Xaver Winterhalter)

Portrait of Victoria, Queen Consort of the United Kingdom in State Robes (Franz Xaver Winterhalter)

Portrait of Louise d'Orléans, Consort Queen of the Belgians, with her Son Leopold, Duke of Brabant (Franz Xaver Winterhalter)

Portrait of Feodora of Leiningen, Princess of Hohenlohe-Langeburg, with her Daughter, Princess Adelheid (Sir George Hayter)

Portrait of George, Prince of Wales, Later King George IV (Mather Byles Brown)

Portrait of Victoire of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, Duchess of Nemours (Franz Xaver Winterhalter)

Portrait of Augustus, Duke of Sussex (Domenico Pellegrini)

Portrait of Leopold I, King of the Belgians (William Corden the Younger)

Minister's Landing and Staircase (MLS):

Portrait of George, Prince of Wales in Garther Robes (John Hoppner)

The Loves of the Gods: The Rape of Europa (the Gobelins)

The Loves of the Gods: The Rape of Proserpine (The Gobelins)

Vestibule (VL):

Portrait of Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, the Prince Consort (Unknown Artist from the German School)

Portrait of Princess Alice of the United Kingdom, Later Grand Duchess of Hesse (Franz Xaver Winterhalter)

Portrait of Princess Helena of the United Kingdom, Later Princess Christian of Schleswig-Holstein (Franz Xaver Winterhalter)

Portrait of Princess Louise of the United Kingdom, Later Duchess of Argyll (Franz Xaver Winterhalter)

Portrait of Princess Victoria of the United Kingdom, Later Empress Frederick of Germany (Franz Xaver Winterhalter)

Portrait of Victoria Mary of Teck, Duchess of York (Edward Hughes)

Chinese Dining Room or Pavilion Breakfast Room(CDR):

Set of Four Painted Chinoiserie Wall panels I (Robert Jones)

Set of Four Painted Chinoiserie Wall panels II (Robert Jones)

Set of Four Painted Chinoiserie Wall panels III (Robert Jones)

Set of Four Painted Chinoiserie Wall panels IV (Robert Jones)

Balcony Room or Centre Room (BR):

Chinoiserie Painted Panel I (Robert Jones)

Chinoiserie Painted Panel II (Robert Jones)

Chinoiserie Painted Panel III (Robert Jones)

Chinoiserie Painted Panel IV (Robert Jones)

EXTRAS! (E):

I decided to add the rest of the tapestries from the story of Jason (wich hangs in the Grand Reception Room at Windsor Castle) and (with Jim's permission) added the original mesh for paintings number 2,3,4 & 5 from the Vestibule (seen here and here) wich was never published. These items are:

The Story of Jason: Jason Pledges his Faith to Medea (the Gobelins)

The Story of Jason: Jason Marries Glauce, Daughter of Creon, King of Thebes (the Gobelins)

The Story of Jason: The Capture of the Golden Fleece (the Gobelins)

The Story of Jason: The Poisoning of Glauce and Creon by Medea's Magic Robe (the Gobelins)

Sea Melodies (Herbert James Draper) (made by TheJim07)

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Found under decor > paintings for:

500§ (BWR: 1,2,3,4,5,6, & 8 |VL: 1)

570§ (VL: 2,3,4 & 5 |E: 5)

1850§ (GEMH: 1 & 3)

2090§ (GEMH: 2,6,7, 9 & 11)

3560§ (GEMH: 4,5 & 10 |BSR: 1 |EG: 1,2,3,4 & 5 |MLS: 1 |BAX: 1)

3900§ (CDR: 1,2,3 & 4 |BR: 1,2,3 & 4 |EG: 10 |VL: 6 |GEMH: 8)

4470§ (MLS: 2 |E: 1)

6520§ (BR 1 & 2| MLS: 3 |EG: 6,7,8 & 9 |BR: 1 & 2 |E: 2,3 & 4)

Retextured from:

"Saint Mary Magdalene" (BWR: 1,2,3,4,5,6, & 8 |VL: 1) found here.

"Sea Melodies" (VL: 2,3,4 & 5 |E: 5)

"The virgin of the Rosary" (GEMH: 1 & 3) found here.

"Length Portrait of Mrs.D" (GEMH: 4,5 & 10 |BSR: 1 |EG: 1,2,3,4 & 5 |MLS: 1 |BAX: 1) found here

"Portrait of Maria Theresa of Austria and her Son, le Grand Dauphin" (CDR: 1,2,3 & 4 |BR: 1,2,3 & 4 |EG: 10 |VL: 6 |GEMH: 8) found here

"Sacrifice to Jupiter" (MLS: 2 |E: 1) found here

"Vulcan's Forge" (BR 1 & 2| MLS: 3 |EG: 6,7,8 & 9 |BR: 1 & 2 |E: 2,3 & 4) found here

(you can just search for "Buckingham Palace" using the catalog search mod to find the entire set much easier!)

Disclaimer!

Some paintings in the previews look blurry but in the game they're very high definition, it's just because I had to add multiple preview pictures in one picture to be able to upload them all! Also sizes shown in previews are not accurate to the objects' actual sizes in most cases.

Drive

(Sims3pack | Package)

(Useful tags below)

@joojconverts @ts3history @ts3historicalccfinds @deniisu-sims @katsujiiccfinds @gifappels-stuff

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[moonbreezes]

once again I’m thinking about the stipulation that if the York House was to be sold the streets surrounding it have to be named after Buckingham

this particular flavour of “loving oneself” truly ran in this family

[princessanneftw]

Hardest working royals of 2023 revealed

Princess Anne tops list with more than 450 engagements with the King also increasing his time spent at public events

Patrick Sawer, Senior News Reporter and Hannah Furness, Royal Editor for The Telegraph

Princess Anne was the hardest working royal this year, carrying out 457 engagements as she lent steadfast support to her brother in his role as monarch.

The King was ranked in second place, having taken part in 425 royal engagements, while his brother the Duke of Edinburgh was third, with 297 engagements.

The Queen was fourth with 233 royal engagements and the Duchess of Edinburgh fifth with 219.

An analysis by The Telegraph of public events and official meetings based on entries published in the Court Circular showed that the Princess Royal continued to be the most industrious member of the family.

Princess Anne and the King were among members of the Royal family to increase their workload over the past year, after taking on many of the duties and engagements previously conducted by the late Queen Elizabeth.

A separate analysis last year by Reboot SEO company showed that Princess Anne carried out 214 royal engagements, while the King took part in 181.

In a typical average week this year, Princess Anne undertook between 12 and 14 engagements.

Her busiest month was February, when the Princess Royal undertook 57 engagements, which included trips to Australia and New Zealand.

Richard Fitzwilliams, a royal commentator and former editor of The International Who’s Who said: “Anne is one of the best advertisements for the Royal family because she is hardworking, she is dedicated and she is popular because people look at the way she handles things and they like it.

“The public see Anne as someone who is grounded, I think the institution does need her very much.”

The King’s workload over the past 12 months included a state visit to France in September as well as his own Coronation on May 6.

Some of his busiest days have involved back-to-back meetings at Buckingham Palace with ambassadors and other dignitaries and politicians, while the King has also undertaken numerous smaller-scale engagements in the community, visiting local projects and businesses.

Typical of this was his visit to the Broke Not Broken charity in Kinross in September, where he viewed its food bank store, and vegetable garden and met volunteers and members of staff, before visiting an art exhibition and a day centre.

The Court Circular shows that over the past 12 months both the Prince of Wales and the Duke of Gloucester carried out 172 royal engagements each.

The Princess of Wales undertook 128 and the Duchess of Gloucester 111. The Duke of Kent carried out 69 engagements.

An analysis of the number and type of royal engagements raises questions about the future of the monarchy, with the Prince and Princess of Wales taking a very different approach to that of the older generation.

The majority of day-to-day engagements are now carried out by those well into or approaching retirement age, with the Duchess of Edinburgh now 58 and the Duke of Edinburgh turning 60 next year.

The Waleses have deliberately chosen to focus on fewer patronages, hoping to use their power to shine a light on issues close to their hearts to make a bigger difference.

Traditionalists have raised questions over who will pick up the numerous daily visits around the country in the newly slimmed down monarchy with the Duke and Duchess of Sussex departed and the children of the Princess Royal, Duke of York and Duke of Edinburgh not working members of the family.

Dickie Arbiter, the royal commentator who was press spokesman for Queen Elizabeth from 1988 until 2000, said Princess Anne provided invaluable support to the King.

“She just gets on with it, often carrying out multiple engagements in one day,” he said.

“Of course much of what the King does is behind the scenes, in meetings and going through his red boxes, which doesn’t warrant a mention in the Court Circular.”

Mr Arbiter added: “Anne is a tremendous support to the King. He bounces ideas off her. For an ageing monarchy they are doing pretty well.”

[artthatgivesmefeelings]

Augustus Leopold Egg (British, 1816-1863) The Life of Buckingham, ca. 1855 Yale Center for British Art Egg presents the decadent life of George Villiers, second Duke of Buckingham and friend of King Charles II. Buckingham is the toast of the court as Charles II raises a glass to him at a table crowded with admirers. In a second painting, Buckingham dies alone in a squalid inn in a scene adapted from the poet Alexander Pope's famous description of his death "in the worst inn's worst room."

[alittlefrenchtree]

I’ve finally finished reading the biography of George Villiers I’ve started months ago! I have a second one but I’m not sure where I put it or when I’ll open it to fact check the first one, so let’s pretend I only have one for the moment 

My first thought is to say: if you want to understand how much the character of George has be re-written for the show, know that the biographer, in the last pages of his book, has described George as loyal to a fault, loving, and not one to calculate or elaborate long term strategies. And even if I don’t agree with everything the writer did write, I do agree with that. I’m not saying he was good (whatever that means) but he wasn’t the ice cold creature we see at the end of the show either. Even if I didn’t end up being the biggest fan of the show, the man’s life was fascinating and it’s the main point of this post actually because that’s my favorite thing about fandoms.

I’m not a history person at all. Like, never in a lifetime I would have thought I would caught myself reading a biography of a historical figure from a few centuries ago. Never in a life time I would have thought the path to historical thirst for me would have been a little romcom movie I like ok the first time I’ve watched it. And I love that so much about fandoms. I (more or less willingly) enter something that open so many unexpected new horizons, my nerdy obsessive little brain lights up like a tree on Christmas morning. I love that it never stays only about the original thing. It’s about everything that comes with it and makes the whole journey so rich and beautiful.

So thank you, Mister Nicholas Galitzine for introducing me to George Villiers, First Duke of Buckingham. This was such an interesting arc. 

Please, feed me more 💜 (and no, I won’t study the history of One Direction)

[scotianostra]

November 19th 1600 saw the birth of King Charles I at Dunfermline Palace.

No-one knew that Charles would be the last of the Stewart king s to be born in Scotland. He had an elder brother who was destined to be king and Charles was a frail, sickly child.

Three years after the birth of Charles, his father, King James VI, became King of England also and his elder brother Henry, became Prince of Wales - an English title created by Edward I. Prince Henry died in 1612 and suddenly Charles became the heir apparent. But he was soon under the malign influence of the Duke of Buckingham, eight years older than Charles, who had been made a favourite of King James alledgedly, on the basis of his foppish good looks.

In 1623, in pursuit of King James' plan to create an alliance with Spain, Buckingham accompanied Charles to the Iberian peninsula to arrange the marriage of the King of Spain's daughter to Charles. The plan was badly bungled (Buckingam gets the blame) and war was declared between Britain and Spain shortly after their return!

As lord high admiral, Buckingham continued to mismanage various expeditions and was eventually murdered in 1628.

King James died on March 27th 1625 and Charles was crowned at Westminster Abbey on February 2md the following year, With an alliance with Spain now abandoned, a French one was pursued instead, this time with a bit more success, and King Charles married Henrietta Maria, the sister of King Louis XIII.

His wife had an even more exaggerated view than Charles of the "Divine Right of Kings" which led him into conflict with Parliament both in Westminster and Scotland. Charles fell foul of the "puritans" favouring a church more in line with Catholicism, a "high" church with richness and ceremony.

He also fell out with the English parliament over him raising taxes without their permission, so what is man who believes in that "Divine Right of Kings" do? Dissolves Parliament and rules the country himself for 11 years.

Charles eventually came to Scotland in 1633 to be crowned at Holyrood. Although the Union of the Crowns had taken place in 1603, the monarch ruled two separate countries, each with their own laws - and church. In Scotland the meddling of the king in church affairs led to the signing of the National Covenant in 1638 and a call to arms.

The English Parliament and the Scottish Presbyterians were now both at loggerheads with the king and civil war broke out in 1642. In Scotland, the Marquis of Montrose carried out a brilliant campaign on behalf of the King. But in England, the battle between the Royalists and the Roundheads (led by Oliver Cromwell) swung back and forwards. But with defeats at Marston Moor in 1644 and Naseby in June 1645, his cause was all but lost in England. Charles surrendered to a Scottish army in 1646. He tried to sew dissension between the Scots and the English Parliaments but he was eventually handed over to the English Parliament.

Charles continued to attempt to "negotiate" but following an attempt to escape to France, rebellions in Wales and the south-east of England and an invasion of England by the Scots in 1648, convinced the English Parliament that Charles should be tried for treason. Charles argued (with some justification) that the court was illegal but he was sentenced to death and beheaded on January 30th 1649.

Despite his many failings, his refusal to compromise and save himself by accepting Presbyterianism, the illegal nature of his "trial" and his dignity at his execution, have all retrospectively provided Charles with a halo of martyrdom.

If nothing more, Charles did provide us with some fantastic portraits of himself, and if he was around nowadays I am sure he would love a wee selfie to himself! I particularly like the first one by van Dyck, the large Royal coat of arms of the House of Stuart stands to the lower left of the painting it measures a massive 3.68 × 2.7 metres. The second is another van Dyck, Charles I at the Hunt the third is by Gerrit van Honthorst another Dutch painter. The National Portrait Gallery, London say, on their web site Charles is associated with 335 portraits.

[wonder-worker]

“Women's efforts to provide for their younger sons and daughters often brought them into conflict with their oldest sons. As heirs, eldest sons frequently resented provisions for their siblings that reduced or burdened their inheritances. Mothers' efforts to provide for their younger children were particularly threatening to their eldest sons when they were heiresses and had power to dispose of their own property, but men's provisions for their widows also caused trouble between women and their sons. Indeed, husbands' provisions for their widows usually represented a much heavier burden on the family's estates than their bequests to their younger children. Furthermore, widows' dowers and jointures often interfered with the heir's power over his inheritance for years... Disputes about the provision for widows and women's efforts to secure the welfare of their daughters and younger sons often became intertwined when women served as their husbands' executors.

All of these factors played a part in the bitter quarrel between Cecily, dowager marchioness of Dorset, and her eldest son Thomas, the second marquess. In 1504, Lady Cecily, who was her father, William Lord Bonville's, sole heir and the executor of her husband's estate, announced her intention of marrying Lord Henry Stafford,  the duke of Buckingham's younger brother. Stafford, who paid 2,000 to Henry VII for permission to marry her, obviously expected the match to be a profitable one. The young marquess was understandably concerned about the effect the marriage would have on his inheritance, given the legal rights his mother's new husband would acquire over her and her property. The dispute escalated until Henry VII intervened. The settlement they signed after appearing before the king's council permitted Cecily to continue as her first husband's executor despite her remarriage. Under the terms of his will, she would receive the income from the estates he wanted set aside to pay his debts. However, she would not receive her dower until the debts were paid and she had turned the property over to her son. In addition, the council severely limited Cecily's power to dispose of her own inheritance: after her death, she had to bequeath all of it to Thomas; until then she could grant only lands worth up to 1,000 marks a year, and then only for a limited period of years. The obvious intention was to prevent the marchioness from permanently endowing her new husband at the expense of her eldest son. Her rights as an heiress were severely limited in his favor and, in a larger sense, in favor of the institution of primogeniture.

  By 1522, Lady Cecily and her son were openly feuding once again, this time about provision for her younger children. As a result of Cardinal Wolsey's mediation, they signed another elaborate agreement. Each of them promised to contribute to the dowries of the marquess's four sisters, while in addition Cecily agreed to create annuities from her estates for three of her younger sons.”

- Barbara J. Harris, “Property, Power, and Personal Relations: Elite Mothers and Sons in Yorkist and Early Tudor England"