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Continue reading...Category Archives: Monarchy
Joe Biden accepts King Charles’s invitation for state visit
News of invitation follows announcement that US president will visit Ireland and Northern Ireland next week
Joe Biden has accepted an invitation from King Charles III for a state visit, a White House spokesperson has said.
The invitation was made during a “friendly” 25 to 30 minute phone call in which Biden congratulated the king on his upcoming coronation, which the US president will not attend.
Continue reading...Free portraits of Charles III for all public bodies, but £8m cost branded ‘shameful’
Anti-monarchist claims the official portraits of the head of state are ‘scandalous’ at the time of spending cuts
Ministers have been accused of “losing the plot” after setting aside £8m to offer every public body a free portrait of King Charles.
In a move that drew criticism amid complaints of shrinking budgets across Whitehall and local government, Oliver Dowden, the cabinet office minister, said it was part of plans to celebrate the new reign and bring the nation together.
Continue reading...Amid the Prince Harry circus lies a court battle with the highest stakes
The Daily Mail’s owner, the prince and Elton John could be on the road to one of the biggest media trials in British history
When the Duke of Sussex unexpectedly arrived at the high court on Monday morning he became the most senior royal to appear in a courtroom since Princess Anne admitted being in charge of an English bull terrier that was dangerously out of control in a public space.
Prince Harry was there to allege that Associated Newspapers, the parent company of the Daily Mail, was similarly out of control.
Continue reading...King Charles lays wreath in Hamburg to honour second world war dead
Charles and Camilla also remembered the Kindertransport children, during a state visit to Germany
King Charles and Germany’s president have lain wreaths in remembrance of the victims of the second world war, in the ruins of a bombed-out church in Hamburg.
The monarch joined President Frank-Walter Steinmeier and the mayor of Hamburg, Peter Tschentscher, to leave floral tributes at St Nikolai memorial church, whose spire was a landmark used by bomber crews during the conflict 80 years ago and has since become a monument against war.
Continue reading...King Charles to lay wreath to German victims of wartime air raids
Planned visit to St Nikolai memorial in Hamburg contrasts with approach taken by his mother
King Charles will this week become the first British monarch to lay a wreath to the German victims of allied air raids in the second world war.
The move is a departure from his mother’s handling of the historically sensitive subject on previous royal visits to the country.
Continue reading...Biden brings forward Belfast visit, putting meeting with king in doubt
Charles and president likely to instead stage back-to-back visits to mark 25 years of Good Friday agreement
Hopes that Joe Biden’s landmark trip to Belfast next month will be rounded off by a meeting with King Charles are fading after the US president brought forward by a week his trip to celebrate 25 years of peace.
It now appears likely the king and the president will stage back-to-back visits in an echo of historic visits to Dublin by Barack Obama and the queen in 2011.
Continue reading...King Charles’s visit to France postponed amid protests
French president’s office confirms state visit off after mass strikes and demonstrations across the country
King Charles’s state visit to Paris has been postponed amid mass strikes and protests, the French president’s office has said.
The king had been scheduled to arrive in France on Sunday on his first state visit as monarch, before heading to Germany on Wednesday.
Continue reading...French strikers won’t provide red carpets for King Charles’s ill-timed visit
With uncollected rubbish lining Paris streets, critics are comparing the optics of the royal arrival to 1789
Striking workers in France are refusing to provide red carpets for King Charles’s first overseas trip as monarch amid protests over rises to the pension age.
French trade union CGT announced this week that its members at Mobilier National, the institution in charge of providing flags, red carpets and furniture for public buildings, would not help prepare a reception for the king upon his arrival in Paris on Sunday.
Continue reading...First stamps to bear King Charles’s silhouette to be released
Special set with UK’s favourite flowers including the sunflower and purple iris to feature on collection of 10 stamps
The first stamps to bear King Charles’s silhouette are to be released on a special set celebrating the nation’s favourite flowers. The image of the king’s uncrowned profile, in silver and facing to the right, features on a collection of 10 stamps with images including the sweet pea, the sunflower and the purple iris.
Continue reading...One’s old china: set of plates fit for the Queen comes up for auction
The unique service, commissioned by a French king and used only once by the British monarch in 1967, could fetch up to £442,000
A unique set of porcelain dessert dishes and plates commissioned by France’s King Louis-Philippe I, and believed to have been used only once, for a visit by Queen Elizabeth II, is to be auctioned in Paris.
The 98 pieces, embossed in gold and each painted with a picture of a different animal, were found in a dining room cupboard in the Chateau de Sassy in Normandy. They are expecteed to fetch nearly half a million pounds.
Continue reading...Prince Harry says some British soldiers did not ‘necessarily agree’ with war in Afghanistan
Duke of Sussex discusses military tours with therapist Dr Gabor Maté and says it would have been impossible for him to stay in UK
The Duke of Sussex has said some British soldiers were not “necessarily” supportive of military efforts in Afghanistan.
During a live-streamed conversation with author and therapist Gabor Maté, Prince Harry discussed his military tours to Afghanistan.
Continue reading...King Charles coronation oil is consecrated in Jerusalem
Oil has been created using olives from two groves on Mount of Olives, and a formula dating back centuries
The fragrant chrism oil that will be used to anoint King Charles during his coronation in May was made sacred in Jerusalem on Friday.
A ceremony took place in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, where the holy oil was consecrated by the Patriarch of Jerusalem, Theophilos III, and the Anglican archbishop in Jerusalem, Hosam Naoum.
Continue reading...King Charles to make first state visits to France and Germany
Monarch will become first UK sovereign to address French senate and Bundestag on six-day trip
The king will make his first state visits to France and Germany, Buckingham Palace has confirmed.
King Charles and Camilla, the queen consort, will travel to Paris and continue to Berlin during a six-day visit which begins on 26 March.
Continue reading...BBC to suspend licence fee for King Charles coronation ceremony
One-off dispensation for weekend celebrations will allow venues to screen events without a TV licence
The BBC is to suspend the licence fee as part of a one-off dispensation for the king’s coronation weekend.
The move will allow venues to screen the live coronation ceremony coverage on 6 May and the coronation concert on 7 May without needing to buy a TV licence.
Continue reading...NI protocol: Sunak criticised over ‘plans for EU chief to meet king’
Meeting between Charles and Ursula von de Leyen cancelled, reports say, as Varadkar says deal ‘inching towards conclusion’
Rishi Sunak is facing criticism after reports that a meeting between King Charles and the president of the European Commission was cancelled days before the announcement of an expected deal on the Northern Ireland protocol.
According to reports, there had been plans for an in-person meeting between the king and Ursula von der Leyen, as part of a trip to the UK to seal the deal on the Brexit trading arrangements.
Continue reading...Anne Boleyn’s reputation as ‘temptress’ to be recast in new exhibition
Henry VIII’s second wife was a deeply religious woman who resisted his advances for years, according to fresh research
Anne Boleyn was found guilty of adultery, incest and conspiracy – all, almost certainly, false charges trumped up by Henry VIII – and then executed. For centuries, her reputation was that of a scheming seducer.
Now Anne is being recast as a deeply religious woman who, far from plotting to become Henry’s second wife, bade her time for six years as a lady-in-waiting to the king’s consort, Catherine of Aragon. She deliberately never consummated her relationship with Henry until their “unofficial” marriage in November 1532 – just two months before their formal wedding.
Continue reading...Volodymyr Zelenskiy to visit UK for first time since Russian invasion
Ukraine president to meet King Charles and address parliament, as Sunak reveals training for Ukrainian jet pilots
The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, will make his first visit to the UK since the Russian invasion, with Rishi Sunak promising additional military support.
The UK prime minister announced plans to train Ukrainian pilots, paving the way for them to fly sophisticated Nato-standard jets, a request from Zelenskiy.
Continue reading...Man caught with crossbow at Windsor Castle admits trying to harm queen
Jaswant Singh Chail, 21, pleads guilty to three charges including an offence under the Treason Act
A man has admitted trying to harm the queen after being caught in the grounds of Windsor Castle with a loaded crossbow.
Jaswant Singh Chail, 21, pleaded guilty to three charges, including an offence under the Treason Act, during a hearing at the Old Bailey on Friday.
Continue reading...Ex-royal aide says trying to reopen deal with Virginia Giuffre won’t help Prince Andrew
Former courtier says the King would still keep Duke of York at arm’s length as Charles prepares for coronation
Any attempt by Prince Andrew to try to row back an out-of-court deal with a woman with whom he is accused of having sex when she was a teenager is unlikely to rehabilitate him in the royal family, a former senior royal aide has warned.
The Duke of York was at the weekend urged to challenge his legal settlement with Virginia Giuffre by Alan Dershowitz, an American lawyer who himself was previously accused by her of sexual abuse.
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