Royal Scandals that No Amount of Money Could Cover Up

The Virgin Queen

Queen Elizabeth I never married, but whether she was actually the virgin Queen has long been in dispute. Elizabeth never married or had children; she seemed to have no interest in sharing power with a spouse. Over time, she cultivated her image as a queen married to her job and her people, earning her the nickname the “Virgin Queen.” From the moment she ascended the throne in 1558, rumors circulated of the Queen’s “secret” lovers. The most notable was Robert Dudley. Although in 1560, Dudley’s wife turned up deceased at the bottom of a staircase with her neck broken, and the question became not so much whether the Queen was a virgin as whether the Queen was a murderess. Of course, it seemed that the expectations of a woman always came around to haunt her.

Elizabeth was by then a skilled enough politician to know that her people would revolt if she married Dudley. The Queen’s relations with men were often couched in romantic terms. She maintained likely romantic friendships with Sir Christopher Hatton, Lord Chancellor from 1587 to 1591, Sir Walter Raleigh, and, in her old age, with the much younger Robert Devereux (the Earl of Essex). Parliament’s desire for Elizabeth’s marriage was originally motivated by the members’ hopes for international alliance; by 1566, however, they simply wanted an heir, and issued a statement in that year encouraging Elizabeth to marry anyone she wanted. She continued to thwart their attempts to lock her into marriage and ended up naming Mary, Queen of Scots son, James as her heir.

Queen Mary’s Tragic Life

Mary Tudor was the first queen regnant of England, reigning from 1553 until her end in 1558. She is best known for her religious persecutions of Protestants and the executions of over 300 subjects. But Mary’s life was full of many dark twists and turns that make her an almost tragic figure. She was the daughter of Catherine of Aragon, Henry VIII’s first unfortunate wife. Mary’s mother was banished from court and disgraced when Henry VIII turned his head to another bride, Anne Boleyn. Catherine’s failure to produce a male heir became an embarrassment for the mercurial king. And he even braved excommunication from the Catholic Church to achieve ending his marriage to Catherine. And Mary was spurned by her father. Which must have made for a very sad and lonely childhood.

By the time she was 38, she finally married Philip of Spain. Mary was pleased and looked devoted to Philip, intending to be a good and dutiful wife to him. Some people think that Philip was a bad husband, but it is not entirely true because he was generous and attentive to her, although he never loved her. And the pressures of producing an heir began to take their toll. By September 1554, Mary believed herself pregnant for the first time. With no way to test for pregnancy like we can today, everybody believed the queen was pregnant. She even exhibited signs: missing her period, morning sickness, and even beginning to gain weight just like you would during pregnancy… however this would not be Mary’s reality.

Queen Mary’s Hysterical Pregnancy

By June there was still no news of a royal baby and before they knew it it was July and still, no child had arrived. Mary had convinced everyone that her timing was off and that a child was near. The Queen issued a statement that God would not allow her child to be born until all the Protestant dissenters were punished, beginning another round of executions. During many false pregnancy rumors there including some that she was never pregnant at all and that the fetus had been a pet monkey or a lap dog. There were also rumors of a plot to pass along another’s baby as the queen’s own – they said that Lord North was the agent to try to procure a suitable child.

On August 13, 1555, Philip Nigri to Jehan Carette, President of the Emperor’s Court of Accounts “We still have hopes that a child will be born to England by the end of this month. We shall see what God sends us. . . .” In August, the 11th month of her false pregnancy, Mary emerged from her confinement chamber at last. It was reported that she was impossibly thin, utterly silent and completely humiliated. No word of her pregnancy was mentioned at court again, at least officially. A tragic end for the hopeful queen. In the end, it is believed that Mary suffered from pseudocyesis, which is sometimes called “phantom pregnancy”. It is still something today that is not completely understood and appears that between one and six out of every 22,000 pregnancies turn out to be phantom, or false.

The Inbreeding of Charles II of Spain

Charles II of Spain was born November 6, 1661, and became king in 1665 at the tender young age of four. His mother ruled as a regent for 10 years until Charles was a teenager. While it sounds like this guy really had it made from a young age, unfortunately, he had one big problem: He had a face even a mother could not love. The Habsburgs were so bent on keeping power, as they had for a few hundred years, that they often married their own blood relatives. After 16 generations of this, Charles II’s family was so inbred that his grandmother and his aunt were the same person. So here we have it: the Habsburg Jaw curse. Actually, this was such a prominent family trait and curse, that a whole team of scientists decided to explore the genetics behind it.

It is almost universally known that one of the most important roles of a royal marriage is producing heirs. This responsibility that monarchs must undertake determines a great portion of their lives. But unfortunately for the Habsburgs, the genetics were not in favor of Charles II when he was born. He was impotent and could not father children. It was part of his family’s legacy of inbreeding. He probably suffered from two genetic disorders. First, there was combined pituitary hormone deficiency, a disorder that made him short, impotent, infertile, weak, and have a host of digestive problems. The other disorder was distal renal tubular acidosis, a condition marked by blood in the urine, weak muscles, and having an abnormally large head compared to the rest of the body.

The Off-putting Queen Caroline

Queen Caroline was actually a rather odd bird. She was known as unattractive and tactless during her life. According to accounts, she also rarely changed her undergarments… so add stinky to the list of unattractive attributes to Queen Caroline. It was due to her wealth that George IV, Prince of Wales, decided to settle down with her. He had accumulated a steep debt and so turned to marriage to solve his issues. Specifically, marriage to a rich woman. George, also known as “Prinny” settled his sights on the undesirable Caroline. On their wedding night, he was so drunk that he collapsed into the bedroom grate and remained there until dawn. Nevertheless, their only child Princess Charlotte was conceived, so he obviously managed to do what was required of him by his country.

Prinny found Caroline so disgusting that he refused to live with her and a year after their wedding he sent her a note tactfully informing her that she could do as she liked, as he would not be having ‘relations’ with her again. Caroline took this to mean that she could do as she wished. Rejected by her husband she went to live at Blackheath, London where her behavior became more than a little extreme. In her room, she had a clockwork Chinese figure that performed for… pleasure when wound-up. She also was given to dancing around in front of her guests in a manner that was most indelicate, exposing most of her body. Obviously, not a desirable quality for a lady and wife to the Prince of Wales. After many more crazy stories in her life, when George IV was coronated, she was barred from the Abbey… After proclaiming she was “The Queen…Open” and the pages opened the door. “I am the Queen of England,” she shouted and an official roared at the pages “Do your duty… shut the door” and the door was slammed in her face. Unfortunately, the undignified lady demanded a coronation for herself the next Monday. Which was not granted. And she met her end 19 days later.

The Airing of Royal Laundry by Charles and Diana

From the start, the relationship between Prince Charles, the Prince of Wales, and Diana, Princess of Wales had been strained, but after the couple separated in 1992, Charles and Diana began to publicly trade barbs about one another’s infidelities. Diana famously told an astounding global audience that “there were three in this marriage, so it was a bit crowded.” The ugliness ended abruptly in 1997 when Diana was in a fatal car crash in Paris. Charles went on to marry Camilla Parker Bowles, the “third” in the marriage of whom Diana spoke. But how did this all start?

Diana was 19 when she got engaged to Prince Charles in 1981. Camilla was 33 at the time, and married to Andrew-Parker Bowles. The prince was 32. According to Diana, “We [Diana and Charles] always had discussions about Camilla though,” she added. “I once heard him on the telephone in his bath on his hand-held set saying: ‘Whatever happens, I will always love you.’ I told him afterward that I had listened at the door and we had a filthy row.” The affair is something Charles admitted to in 1994, saying in an interview that he had remained faithful until the relationship with Diana “became irretrievably broken down, us both having tried.”

Also Read: Little Known Facts About Diana, Princess of Wales.

The Abdication of King Edward VIII

The abdication of King Edward VIII, while scandalous, was rooted not in infidelity, but in love. In 1936, the newly crowned King announced his intention to marry Wallis Simpson, an American socialite in the midst of her second divorce. Since a King’s marriage to a divorcee with a living ex-spouse would have violated both civil and religious law at the time, a constitutional crisis ensued. Less than a year into his reign, in an unprecedented and intensely criticized move, the King chose love over power and abdicated the throne, forever changing the course of history. He went on to deliver a speech that would echo through history. A piece of the speech by King Edward VIII revealed his devotion to Wallis: “At long last, I am able to say a few words of my own. I have never wanted to withhold anything, but until now it has not been constitutionally possible for me to speak.

“A few hours ago I discharged my last duty as King and Emperor, and now that I have been succeeded by my brother, the Duke of York, my first words must be to declare my allegiance to him. This I do with all my heart. You all know the reasons which have impelled me to renounce the throne. But I want you to understand that in making up my mind I did not forget the country or the empire, which, as Prince of Wales and lately as King, I have for twenty-five years tried to serve. But you must believe me when I tell you that I have found it impossible to carry the heavy burden of responsibility and to discharge my duties as King as I would wish to do without the help and support of the woman I love. And I want you to know that the decision I have made has been mine and mine alone. This was a thing I had to judge entirely for myself. The other person most nearly concerned has tried up to the last to persuade me to take a different course. I have made this, the most serious decision of my life, only upon the single thought of what would, in the end, be best for all.”

The tumultuous love life of Princess Margaret

Princess Margaret was free to pursue her passions in a way her sister, Queen Elizabeth II, never was. And pursue them she did, starting with an affair with the married Peter Townsend. In 1952, Townsend divorced his wife and asked for Margaret’s hand. Princess Margaret didn’t need permission, because, according to a statement by Eden, the Royal Marriages Act was “out of harmony with modern conditions.” The only catch? Princess Margaret would have to give up her rights of succession, as well as the rights of succession of any possible children. But the surrounding scandal was too much for the romance to endure. In 1960, Princess Margaret married Antony Armstrong-Jones, a commoner, who was then named Lord Snowdon and Viscount Linley.

The couple ultimately divorced, in part due to infidelity of both parties. In the 1970s, Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon had a nervous breakdown and received therapy from psychiatrist Mark Collins of the Priory Clinic for depression, according to The Guardian. Following a series of strokes, by April 2001 the princess had partially lost her vision and become part-paralyzed. According to the New York Times, Princess Margaret built a house on Mustique in the 1970s and spent a great deal of time there; presumably, the Queen was off doing her royal duties at the time, so the two were often separated. But according to Vanity Fair, the sisters remained close confidants, and in 2002, when Princess Margaret passed at the age of 71.

King Frederik VII of Denmark’s Reign of Debauchery

Frederick VII (Frederik Carl Christian; 6 October 1808 – 15 November 1863) was King of Denmark from 1848 to 1863. He was the last Danish monarch of the older Royal branch of the House of Oldenburg and the last king of Denmark to rule as an absolute monarch. But… that doesn’t mean he was that dedicated to ruling. As a Crown Prince, Frederik lived a debauched life, which contributed to the discussions concerning the abolishment of the absolute monarchy. The year after his succession Denmark became a constitutional monarchy with the King’s signing of the Constitution on the 5th June 1849. His reign was marked by the national confrontation in Schleswig-Holstein, at which the King became a national symbol of unity.

Frederik VII was unstable by nature, but his unpretentious style won him many supporters. His marriage to Louise Rasmussen was the cause of great opposition in bourgeois circles, but the couple were popular with the rural population. However, it seems that the marriage would not have been terribly worth the drama. They were reported to have a very unhappy marriage. This would not be a majorly concerning issue if it were not for the fact that they also were unable to conceive a child – which royals are nuts about. Frederik’s drinking habits and affairs led to unrest in the relationship, ultimately resulting in divorce in 1837. He was the last Danish monarch of the older Royal branch of the House of Oldenburg and also the last king of Denmark to rule as an absolute monarch. During his reign, he signed a constitution that established a Danish parliament and made the country a constitutional monarchy.

William II Met His End while Hunting in the forest – Accident or Assassination?

On the 2^nd August 2, 1100, the New Forest became the grounds of a controversial event. Nearly a thousand years later, historians are still arguing about the conclusion – was it an accident or was it a planned attack on the king? The incident of course is the demise of Rufus the Red, more properly known as King William II. He passed after a hunting ‘accident’. The King shot a stag and made his way toward it. A deflected arrow, supposedly fired by Sir Walter Tirel, struck the King in the chest. Also in the hunting party was Rufus’ younger brother, Henry. On learning of his brother’s end, Henry galloped off with indecent haste to Winchester to take possession of the royal treasury and from there on to London to become crowned King Henry I. It was the speed of this decision that has given rise to speculation that the accident was in fact premeditated regicide.

King William II was confident that he was one of the most powerful rulers in Europe. He prevented the dissolution of political ties between England and Normandy. Still, Rufus the Red’s strong-armed rule earned him a reputation as a brutal, corrupt tyrant. Like many other powerful people, he had his share of enemies. William also had difficult relations with the church. He kept bishoprics vacant to make use of their revenues and had numerous arguments with Anselm, Archbishop of Canterbury from 1093. When Anselm left for Rome in 1097 to seek the advice of the pope, William seized his estates.

Queen Victoria’s Two Controversial Relationships

Queen Victoria took a strong liking to an Indian attendant named Abdul Karim. Karim was a servant who eventually was promoted into her inner circle. Queen Victoria’s unusually close friendship with her Indian servant began at the 1887 celebration and spanned 14 years, a period captured in the new movie Victoria & Abdul, starring Judi Dench as the titular queen. Karim was the queen’s beloved munshi, the teacher who gave her daily Urdu lessons, educated her on Indian affairs, and introduced her to curry. Queen Victoria in turn showered him with gifts, titles and honors, much to the resentment of the royal family. When Victoria passed in 1901, her family members deported him back to India and attempted to erase his existence from history.

But Victoria had more than one controversial relationship. Prior to Karim, she put her trust in a Scottish servant named John Brown following her husband’s demise. There is, however, no evidence that Brown and Victoria were lovers. By 1866 gossip about the relationship between the Queen and her extremely informal servant had started. Brown was the only person around Victoria prepared to “tell it like it was”, and he often proved abrasive with members of the Royal Household: even, it is said, on at least one occasion giving the Prince of Wales the rough edge of his tongue. Rumors soon spread more widely, and Brown was featured in the satirical magazine Punch on 30 June 1866, and Queen Victoria came to be referred to by some members of her household (behind her back) as “Mrs. Brown”. Meanwhile, a Swiss newspaper went as far as suggesting that the two had actually married. “Mrs. Brown” became the title of a 1997 film about the relationship, starring Dame Judi Dench as Queen Victoria and Billy Connolly as John Brown.

Henry VIII Creates the Church of England

King Henry VIII desperately wanted to annul his first marriage to Catherine of Aragon, but that was strictly forbidden by the Pope, so Henry went and created the Church of England in 1534 and appointed himself it’s head. However, this bold move came at a cost. Already infatuated with Anne Boleyn, who was known to have taken a keen interest in Luther and the Reformation, Henry had exhausted his options for remarrying within the church and decided excommunication was a fair price to pay for independence from the pope and the potential of fathering an heir. The Catholic Church, who maintained anti-divorce stances at all costs, excommunicated King Henry VIII.

Of course, the love and devotion of Henry VIII was mercurial at best. He married Anne Boleyn after divorcing and exiling his first wife, Catherine. But the romance between him and Anne was short-lived. Henry’s marriage to Anne lasted only 3 years and 3 months. Henry’s second queen is often known as ‘Anne of the Thousand Days’. She produced only a single child in their short marriage, Elizabeth I. But that was of no concern to the King. He believed scandalous rumors about Anne Boleyn and multiple men, including her own brother. So he decided to do away with Anne. She met her end at the end of a skilled swordsman. Now free to do as he pleased, he married four more times, which ended tragically for almost every woman involved.

A Man Breaks into Queen Elizabeth II’s Bedroom

In 1982, an unemployed British man named Michael Fagan climbed up a drainpipe at Buckingham Palace and snuck into Queen Elizabeth II’s bedroom, which was unguarded because a police officer left before his replacement arrived. Somehow he managed to walk around the private chambers 15 minutes before anybody noticed. He found an ash tray and smashed it to pieces. Then proceeded to the queen’s bedroom with a large shard of the ash tray. He reportedly planned to slash his wrists in front of the Queen. The Queen was sleeping, and when she woke up and found him there, they reportedly chatted for ten minutes. However, this appeared to be untrue. When he asked for a cigarette, she was able to call for help. Fagan himself has clarified the pair never actually spoke during his visit. But did they have an Fagan replied: “Nah! She went past me and ran out of the room, her little bare feet running across the floor.”

In the official report, it says while waiting for the police to arrive Her Majesty managed to attract the attention of the maid, and together they ushered Fagan into a nearby pantry on the pretext of supplying him with a cigarette. They were joined by a footman before the police arrived. The piece of glass was subsequently found on the Queen’s bed alongside a bloodstain from a cut on Fagan’s hand. Fagan was arrested and charged with burglary at the palace. Trespassing into the Queen’s bedroom was only a civil offense at that time, not criminal (it became criminal in 2007 as part of the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005). So Fagan was charged with theft (of some wine) but charges were dropped when he was committed for psychiatric evaluation.

Princess Anne’s Dog Attacks Two Children

The Princess Royal, Princess Anne, became the first member of the royal family to be convicted of a criminal offense as she pleaded guilty to a charge under the dangerous dogs’ act. One of her dogs, a three-year-old English bull terrier called Dotty, bit two children as they walked in Windsor Great Park on April 2002. Under the name Anne Elizabeth Alice Laurence, and pitted against Regina (her mother), the princess was charged with her husband, Commodore Tim Laurence, being in charge of a dog that was dangerously out of control in a public place. Princess Anne, was ordered to pay a £500 fine and provide an additional £500 in compensation to the families of two children who were bit by her unruly English bull terrier, Dotty. The boys, aged 12 and 7, were both taken to a hospital, but neither needed stitches. The incident gave Anne the notorious honor of being the first senior member of the royal family to be convicted of a criminal offense.

The court heard from dog psychologist Roger Mugford that the three-year-old should not be put down. Dr. Mugford, who also treated some of the Queen’s corgis after they bit her, said Dotty was “an utterly placid, playful dog”. The district judge, Penelope Hewitt, spared Dotty’s life but said it must undergo training and be kept on a lead in all public places. She also warned the princess that her dog would be destroyed if there were any further incidents. Passing sentence, she said the children did not suffer considerably from the incident but she regretted that it had put them off dogs. “It was a very, very unfortunate episode and I can only hope that the children, as time goes by, will become more amenable to dogs,” she said, explaining that “dogs enhance family life considerably”. The charges against Commodore Laurence were dropped when the princess admitted the offense.

The Windsor Castle Fire

An enormous fire overtook the royal home in November 1992 after beginning in the Queen’s private chapel, where a curtain was pressed against a spotlight. The fire began in the Queen’s Private Chapel at 11:15 in the morning when a curtain was ignited by a spotlight pressed up against it. Agents of the Royal Household were in the chapel at the time inspecting works of art. A fire alarm went off in the watch room of the castle fire brigade, manned by the Chief Fire Officer, Marshall Smith. The location of the fire was shown by a light on a grid map of the castle. Initially, the Brunswick Tower was lit up, but lights soon began to flash indicating that the fire had quickly spread to neighboring rooms. A major part of the State Apartments was soon ablaze. Building contractors working in a nearby room attempted to tackle the blaze using fire extinguishers.

Apart from the several hundred firemen directly involved in the fire-fight, staff and tradesmen helped the castle’s fire brigade and volunteer salvage corps move furniture and works of art from the endangered apartments, including a 150-foot (46 m) long table and a 120-foot long carpet from the Waterloo Chamber, to the safety of the castle’s riding school. It was an enormous operation. The major loss was to the fabric of the castle. The false ceiling in St George’s Hall and the void for coal trucks beneath the floor had allowed the fire to spread. It burned as far as the Chester Tower. Several ceilings collapsed. Apartments burnt included the Crimson Drawing Room (completely gutted), the Green Drawing Room (badly damaged, though only partially destroyed by smoke and water) and the Queen’s Private Chapel (including the double-sided 19th century Henry Willis organ in the gallery between St George’s Hall and Private Chapel, oak paneling, glass and the altar).

Prince Philip Compares Lockerbie Plane Crash to Water Damage at Windsor Castle

Tragedy struck Scotland in 1988 when terrorists bombed Pan Am Flight 103, ending in the demise of 259 people on board and an additional 11 in Lockerbie, where the plane landed. In 1993, Prince Philip visited the location, where he made a cringe-worthy comparison to the previous year’s Windsor Castle fire, which took no lives. “People usually say that after a fire, it is water damage that is the worst,” he said. “We are still trying to dry out Windsor Castle.” But this isn’t the first time the former Duke of Edinburgh put his foot in his mouth. He was known for being racist and problematic as well.

Philip, who passed away at 99, was the longest-serving consort in the history of the British monarchy. While he’s remembered for his work with charity organizations like the World Wide Fund for Nature, he’s repeatedly made offensive statements. In 1986, while on a visit to China, Philip described Beijing as “ghastly.” He also told British students: “If you stay here much longer you’ll all be slitty-eyed.” That same year, while speaking at a World Wildlife Fund meeting, Philip made an insensitive comment on Cantonese cuisine. “If it has four legs and is not a chair, has wings and is not an airplane, or swims and is not a submarine, the Cantonese will eat it,” he said. This doesn’t even begin to show the tip of his problematic iceberg.

Squidgygate

In 1992, The Sun revealed the existence of a recording of a 1989 phone call between Princess Diana and her friend James Gilbey. Gilbey repeatedly used “Squidgy” as a term of affection when speaking to Di, as the two discussed topics including her fear of becoming pregnant, the way the Queen looked at her, and the show EastEnders. Diana eventually denied that the relationship was romantic, saying, “He is a very affectionate person. But the implications of that conversation were that we’d had an adulterous relationship, which was not true.”

The tape was very revealing for the two, however: “Kiss me, please (sound of kisses). Do you know what I’m going to be imagining I’m doing tonight, at about 12 o’clock? Just holding you close to me. It’ll have to be delayed action, for 48 hours!” Gilbey says. During the call, Gilbey calls Diana “darling” 53 times and “Squidgy” 14 times. Later he tells her: “No, I haven’t played with myself, actually. Not for a full 48 hours.” Meanwhile, in Oxfordshire, Cyril Reenan, a 70-year-old retired bank manager was out for the night. The ham radio enthusiast claimed on January 4, four days after Gilbey and Diana’s scandalous chat, to have heard and recorded the conversation via his home set-up. Then, on January 8, he contacted The Sun, selling the tape for about $10,000.

Annus Horribilis

The year 1992 will forever go down in history as Queen Elizabeth II’s “annus horribilis” (horrible year). That year, three of the Queen’s four children (Prince Charles, Prince Andrew, and Princess Anne) took steps towards ending their respective marriages. If that wasn’t bad enough, later that same year, Anne remarried despite that her ex-husband was still alive. Perhaps even more scandalously, this episode marked the first – but not the last – time a British monarch’s child remarried after divorce.

The tension between the media and the royals came to a head several times throughout the year through events such as the publication of Princess Diana’s tell-all memoir which exposed scandals within the family and reporting of the Duchess of York’s affair with her financial advisor. Hit after hit against the royal family culminated in the Queen’s speech and her remarking, “there can be no doubt… that criticism is good for people and institutions that are part of public life… But we are all part of the same fabric of our national society and that scrutiny, by one part of another, can be just as effective if it is made with a touch of gentleness, good humor and understanding.”

When Captain Mark Phillips had a Lovechild

Hidden for almost four decades, intimate details about an affair involving Princess Anne’s former husband, Captain Mark Phillips, were revealed by New Idea. Over 30 years ago, Phillips fathered a secret love child with New Zealander Heather Tonkin. An art teacher. Her name is Felicity Tonkin. While still married to Princess Anne, Captain Mark Phillips had a one-night affair with the art teacher. She became pregnant and had the baby, who is now the half-sister of Zara Tindall and Peter Phillips. It was reported that Phillips asked the woman to end the pregnancy. However, according to royal sources, Mark has been “in denial” about his daughter since the day she was born.

Mark secretly paid his one-time lover a meager $12,000 a year in child support but refused to have anything more to do with his secret daughter. When the payments trailed off, Heather sought to secure a better deal for Felicity, however, Mark refused to be named on her birth certificate. In 1991, a court-ordered DNA test proved he was the father. Defending her decision to make the matter public and threaten Phillips with court action, Tonkin said in a previous interview, “I am doing what I am doing for my child. I hope and pray Mark will do the right thing and make a proper and legally binding settlement on her. “I wish I could wake up one morning in the knowledge that the record had been put straight and I don’t have to worry any more. Nothing can compensate for the tears I have cried while trying to plan for Bunny’s future when at any moment I could find myself penniless.”

Where do we find this stuff? Here are our sources:

Wikipedia – Mary, Queen of Scots

Encyclopedia Britannica – Philip IV

Insider – Princess Diana said she was seen as a ‘threat’ by Camilla-Parker Bowles from the moment they met

History Extra – Death in the New Forest: how King William II met his demise

BBC – William II (Rufus) (c.1056 – 1100)

The Washington Post – Princess Anne Is Fined Court for Dog Attack

The History Press – The Windsor Castle fire: 25 facts