britishmonarchy

[britishmonarchy]

King Henry VII

Artist: Anonymous, Netherlandish

Date: 1505

Medium: Oil on panel

Collection: National Portrait Gallery, London, United Kingdom

Henry VII of England

Henry VII (28 January 1457 – 21 April 1509), also known as Henry Tudor, was King of England and Lord of Ireland from his seizure of the crown on 22 August 1485 until his death in 1509. He was the first monarch of the House of Tudor.

[britishmonarchy]

King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra, when Prince and Princess of Wales, in their Wedding Clothes

Artist: John Jabez Edwin Mayall (English, 1813-1901)

Date: 1863

Medium: Hand coloured albumen print

Collection: Royal Collection Trust, London, United Kingdom

Description

Princess Alexandra's wedding dress was of completely British manufacture. The white satin skirt was adorned with flounces of Honiton lace and swags of artificial orange blossom. The Prince of Wales wore the robes of the Order of the Garter.

[britishmonarchy]

King Edward VII

Artist: Luke Fildes (British, 1844–1927)

Date: 1902-1912

Medium: Oil on canvas

Collection: National Portrait Gallery, London, United Kingdom

Edward VII

Edward VII (Albert Edward; 9 November 1841 – 6 May 1910) was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Emperor of India, from 22 January 1901 until his death in 1910.

The second child and eldest son of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, Edward, nicknamed "Bertie", was related to royalty throughout Europe. He was Prince of Wales and heir apparent to the British throne for almost 60 years. During his mother's reign, he was largely excluded from political influence and came to personify the fashionable, leisured elite. He married Princess Alexandra of Denmark in 1863, and the couple had six children. As Prince of Wales, Edward travelled throughout Britain performing ceremonial public duties and represented Britain on visits abroad. His tours of North America in 1860 and of the Indian subcontinent in 1875 proved popular successes. Despite the approval of the public, his reputation as a playboy prince soured his relationship with his mother.

Edward inherited the throne upon his mother's death in 1901. He played a role in the modernization of the British Home Fleet and the reorganisation of the British Army after the Second Boer War of 1899–1902. He re-instituted traditional ceremonies as public displays and broadened the range of people with whom royalty socialized. He fostered good relations between Britain and other European countries, especially France, for which he was popularly called "Peacemaker", but his relationship with his nephew, German Emperor Wilhelm II, was poor.

The Edwardian era, which covered Edward's reign and was named after him, coincided with the start of a new century and heralded significant changes in technology and society, including steam turbine propulsion and the rise of socialism. Edward died in the midst of a constitutional crisis that was resolved by the Parliament Act 1911, which restricted the power of the unelected House of Lords. Edward was succeeded by his only surviving son, George V.

[britishmonarchy]

The Landing of HRH The Princess Alexandra at Gravesend, 7th March 1863

Artist: Henry Nelson O'Neil (English, 1817–1880)

Date: 1864

Medium: Oil on canvas

Collection: National Portrait Gallery, London, United Kingdom

Description

This group of over fifty figures commemorates the arrival in England of Princess Alexandra of Denmark for her marriage to the then Prince of Wales, later Edward VII. It shows the Prince leading his fiancee along the Terrace Pier at Gravesend, after her disembarkation from the royal yacht Victoria and Albert. The Prince and Princess are accompanied by her parents, the future King and Queen of Denmark (who stand immediately behind them) and other members of the Danish royal family, officials and dignitaries, and, as the Illustrated London News reported, a 'bevy of pretty maids, who, ranged on each side of the pier, awaited, with dainty little baskets filled with spring flowers, the arrival of the Princess, to scatter these, Nature's jewels, at the feet of the Royal lady'.

[britishmonarchy]

Queen Alexandra (1844-1925)

Artist: François Flameng (French, 1856-1923)

Date: 1908

Medium: Oil on canvas

Collection: Royal Collection Trust, London, United Kingdom

Alexandra of Denmark

Alexandra of Denmark (Alexandra Caroline Marie Charlotte Louise Julia; 1 December 1844 – 20 November 1925) was Queen of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Empress of India, from 22 January 1901 to 6 May 1910 as the wife of Edward VII.

[britishmonarchy]

The Garden Party at Buckingham Palace, 28 June 1897

Artist: Laurits Regner Tuxen (Danish, 1853-1927)

Date: 1897-1900

Medium: Oil on canvas

Collection: Royal Collection Trust, London, United Kingdom

Description

An oil painting of a garden party at Buckingham Palace. Queen Victoria and Alexandra, Princess of Wales are returning to the Palace in an open carriage pulled by two grey horses; in the garden, on the left, the Prince of Wales is conversing to a couple in the midst of dense crowds.

[britishmonarchy]

Caroline of Brunswick (1768-1821) when Princess of Wales

Artist: Gainsborough Dupont (British, 1754-1797)

Date: 1795-1796

Medium: Oil on canvas

Collection: Royal Collection Trust, London, United Kingdom

Description

Caroline of Brunswick married her first cousin, George, Prince of Wales on 8 April 1795. Later in the month the Prince told John Hoppner that the King (George III) wished for a portrait of the bride. In August 1795 Hoppner somehow offended George III and the commission was given to Gainsborough Dupont, who had kept up his uncle's studio in Schomberg House.

The Princess sat for Dupont in June 1795; by March 1796 the portrait was finished, though the frame was not ready for the Royal Academy exhibition of that year and the painting was rejected as a consequence.

The Princess is shown in her wedding dress wearing a miniature of her husband on her breast.

[britishmonarchy]

The Marriage of George IV (1762-1830) when Prince of Wales

Artist: Henry Singleton (English, 1766-1839)

Date: 1795

Medium: Oil on canvas

Collection: Royal Collection Trust, London, United Kingdom

Description

The marriage of Princess Caroline of Brunswick and her first cousin, the Prince of Wales, who had met three days before for the first time, took place on the evening of 8 April 1795. The Prince is depicted wearing the star and collar of the Order of the Garter and stands before the altar in the Chapel Royal in St James’s Palace, about to place the ring on the finger of his bride. Behind the Prince are the Archbishop of Canterbury, John Moore, and the Bishop of London, Beilby Porteous. On the left, George III sits under a canopy, with behind him, possibly the Dukes of Kent and Gloucester and definitely, the Duke of York. Queen Charlotte is seated on the right.

[britishmonarchy]

George IV (1762-1830), when Prince of Wales

Artist: Henry Bone (English, 1755-1834)

Date: 1805

Medium: Enamel

Collection: Royal Collection Trust, London, United Kingdom

George IV

George IV (George Augustus Frederick; 12 August 1762 – 26 June 1830) was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and King of Hanover from 29 January 1820 until his death in 1830. At the time of his accession to the throne, he was acting as prince regent for his father, King George III, having done so since 5 February 1811 during his father's final mental illness.

George IV was the eldest child of King George III and Queen Charlotte. He led an extravagant lifestyle that contributed to the fashions of the Regency era. He was a patron of new forms of leisure, style and taste. He commissioned John Nash to build the Royal Pavilion in Brighton and remodel Buckingham Palace, and commissioned Jeffry Wyatville to rebuild Windsor Castle. George's charm and culture earned him the title "the first gentleman of England", but his dissolute way of life and poor relationships with his parents and his wife, Caroline of Brunswick, earned him the contempt of the people and dimmed the prestige of the monarchy. He excluded Caroline from his coronation and asked the government to introduce the unpopular Pains and Penalties Bill in an unsuccessful attempt to divorce her.

George's rule was tarnished by scandal and financial extravagance. His ministers found his behavior selfish, unreliable and irresponsible, and he was strongly influenced by favorites. During most of George's regency and reign, Lord Liverpool controlled the government as prime minister of the United Kingdom. Liverpool's government presided over Britain's ultimate victory over Napoleon and negotiated a peace settlement with the French. After Liverpool's retirement, George was forced to accept Catholic emancipation despite opposing it. His only legitimate child, Princess Charlotte, predeceased him in 1817, as did his childless younger brother Prince Frederick in 1827, so he was succeeded by another younger brother, William IV.

[britishmonarchy]

Anne of Denmark, 1574–1619

Artist: John de Critz (Flemish, 1551–1642

Date: c. 1605

Medium: Oil on panel

Collection: Royal Museums Greenwich, London, United Kingdom

Anne of Denmark

Anne of Denmark (Danish: Anna; 12 December 1574 – 2 March 1619) was the wife of King James VI and I. She was Queen of Scotland from their marriage on 20 August 1589 and Queen of England and Ireland from the union of the Scottish and English crowns on 24 March 1603 until her death in 1619.

The second daughter of King Frederick II of Denmark and Sophie of Mecklenburg-Güstrow, Anne married James at age 14. They had three children who survived infancy: Henry Frederick, Prince of Wales, who predeceased his parents; Princess Elizabeth, who became Queen of Bohemia; and James's future successor, Charles I. Anne demonstrated an independent streak and a willingness to use factional Scottish politics in her conflicts with James over the custody of Prince Henry and his treatment of her friend Beatrix Ruthven. Anne appears to have loved James at first, but the couple gradually drifted and eventually lived apart, though mutual respect and a degree of affection survived.

[britishmonarchy]

King James I of England

Artist: Attributed to John de Critz (Flemish, 1551–1642)

Date: ca. 1605

Medium: Oil on canvas

Collection: Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid, Spain

James VI and I

James VI and I (James Charles Stuart; 19 June 1566 – 27 March 1625) was King of Scotland as James VI from 24 July 1567 and King of England and Ireland as James I from the union of the Scottish and English crowns on 24 March 1603 until his death in 1625. Although he long tried to get both countries to adopt a closer political union, the kingdoms of Scotland and England remained sovereign states, with their own parliaments, judiciaries, and laws, ruled by James in personal union.