Q: Alexandra - Scotland
I have seen pictures of The Queen during her coronation and have always admired her dress. Could you tell me who designed it?
The dress which The Queen wore for the Coronation was designed by Norman Hartnell. He served for many years as couturier to senior members of the Royal Family and made both the wedding dress and Coronation Dress for The Queen.
Considerable excitement was generated at the time concerning the designs of these dresses which are characteristic of Hartnell's style, using extensive embroidery, pearls and other lustrous forms of decoration.
Norman Hartnell went on to become the first couturier to be knighted when he received the honour at the time of the Silver Jubilee of 1977.
Q: Deborah - Kent
I recently visited The Queen's Gallery and saw some beautiful miniatures on display. Could you give me some more information about them?
The Royal collection of miniatures is one of the largest in the world (over 2000 items) and also one of the most comprehensive.
The miniatures which can be viewed in The Queen's Gallery form only a small selection of the entire collection. A considerable number of Victorian and later miniatures are housed in the private apartments at Windsor and a miscellaneous group of later miniatures, the private property of The Queen, is to be found at Sandringham; but much the greater part of the collection, and all the most important pieces, are kept in the Victoria Room at Windsor Castle.
Henry VIII and Elizabeth I were patrons of the art of miniature painting; but the first surviving account of royal miniatures is the detailed description of those kept in the Cabinet Room at Whitehall in the time of Charles I: a group of nearly eighty works carefully divided into subject pictures, portraits of the Kings family and forebears, and a number of miscellaneous portraits.
Many former monarchs were also avid collectors of miniatures, in particular, Queen Victoria. She owned a very large collection of family portraits and gave commissions to various well respected artists. Ross and Thorburn produced images of Prince Albert which the Queen especially treasured.
She also commissioned a large number of enamels, many of them copies of existing portraits, for such carefully organised displays as those standing in her dressing room at Osborne or fitted into the walls of her Audience Room at Windsor.
She and the Prince avidly collected family and ancestral portraits, and they took delight in setting their miniatures in order (in the special cabinet designed by the Prince and surviving at Windsor) and in writing catalogues of them.
From the early eighteenth century, many important works by foreign miniaturists have also been acquired; and a feature of the collection, uniquely valuable to the historian, is the series of portraits of European royal dynasties.
Miniatures painted from life since the invention of photography have been less significant; but important additions to the earlier parts of the collection were made by Queen Mary, King George VI and the present Queen, the finest being a miniature of Henry, Prince of Wales, acquired in 1949.
Q: Janey - Ontario
I was reading about Princess Anne's work with save the Children on your site. Is this her main charity or does she work with others?
The Princess Royal is associated with over 200 charities and organisations in an official capacity. These are listed on this site. Read the list.
Her Royal Highness accepted the position of President of Save the Children in 1970 on the understanding that she would become a working President acting as an ambassador for the charity.
For this reason, she spends a significant amount of time visiting Save the Children projects overseas and in the UK, as well as attending fund raising events - it is perhaps her most high profile patronage.
Q: Tom - Middlesex
I saw something on TV about Glamis Castle. I had never heard about this place before. Is it a Royal residence? And can I visit it?
Glamis Castle, the home of the Bowes-Lyon Family, the Earls of Strathmore, stands some 30 miles south-west of Montrose, in Tayside. It was The Queen Mother's childhood home , and in 1930 she gave birth to Princess Margaret there - the first birth in the immediate Royal Family in Scotland since 1602.
Bristling with towers and battlements, the castle is on lands granted to the Lyon family in 1376 by Robert II. The oldest part of the castle - the crypt and part of the central tower - dated from about a century later, however.
When Mary Queen of Scots visited Glamis in the 16th century, it already had its distinctive L-shaped keep. The banqueting hall, the most impressive room in the castle, was built in the early 17th century. The baronial-style east wing, reminiscent of Balmoral, was added in 1891.
Glamis Castle is now the private residence of The Queens cousin, Michael, 18th Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne, and is generally open to the public from Easter weekend until mid-October.
Q: Jon - London
I know that Hyde Park is a 'Royal Park' but what does this mean, as obviously members of the public can use it, so is it not a public park?
The nine royal parks in London - Hyde Park, Kensington Gardens, St Jamess Park, Green Park, Regents Park (with Primrose Hill), Greenwich Park, Richmond Park, Bushy Park and Hampton Court Park - are the hereditary property of the Sovereign.
They are managed on her behalf by the Royal Parks, an organisation which reports to the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport. Together the Parks cover more than 5,400 acres and attract millions of visitors each year, including many foreign tourists.
Except for Primrose Hill, which was purchased by the Crown in 1841, the Parks were acquired by earlier Sovereigns for private use as hunting parks or deer parks.
They were enclosed between about 350 and 450 years ago, and the public were generally excluded unless some previous rights, like collecting firewood, had not been extinguished.
During the Commonwealth the parks were sold or prepared for sale and Richmond Park was transferred to the City of London.
After the Restoration in 1660 the Parks were restored to the Sovereign and they have been under the continuous management of the Crown since then.
The public gradually acquired more rights of access, but parts of Regents Park and Richmond Park were only opened in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
Today the public has a general right of access to all parts except those needed for management purposes and some buildings in Regent's Park and Richmond Park which are in private occupation.
The Royal Parks come under the day-to-day responsibility of the Bailiff of the Royal Parks. Each Park or group of Parks is managed by a Park Superintendent who is always a trained horticulturalist.
Until the beginning of this century the corresponding post was that of Ranger and the holders were appointed by the Sovereign and were often members of the Royal Family.
Today, the Superintendents are responsible for about 350 gardeners and supporting staff. Hampton Court Park is managed by the Historic Royal Palaces (formerly an Agency).
There are many events and activities in the royal parks and a wide range of organised sport. Richmond Park, Hampton Court Park and Bushy Park are still deer parks and there is a small herd in Greenwich Park.
But the main purpose of the parks today is to provide peaceful recreation for the general public. They are places where people of all ages can walk, relax, picnic, admire the flowers, study the wildlife or just enjoy the view.
The royal parks regulations which help to ensure this air of peacefulness used to be enforced by the Royal Parks Constabulary who dealt with security and crime, but today this is the responsibility of the Metropolitan Police.
Q: Jenni - Sydney
As an Australian, I would like to know more about The Royal family's involvement with my country. Can you give me any information? Thanks
On 1st January 1901 the Commonwealth of Australia became the second self-governing Dominion, after Canada, within the British Commonwealth of Nations.
This status was confirmed at the Imperial Conference in London in 1926, and given legal recognition in the Statute of Westminster of December 1931.
The Queen's Royal style and title is Elizabeth the Second, by the Grace of God Queen of Australia and Her other Realms and Territories, Head of the Commonwealth.
The Queen and the Royal Family have always had close personal involvement in all aspects of Australian life.
Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucester, served 1945-7 as Australia's first royal Governor-General.
The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh visited Australia in the course of their Commonwealth tour from February to April 1954, in what was the first visit to Australia by a reigning monarch.
A further visit was made from 18th February to 27th March 1963, and in 1966 The Prince of Wales spent a term as an exchange student at Geelong Church of England Grammar School, Melbourne - the first member of the Royal Family to attend an overseas Commonwealth school.
The Queen and the Duke returned to Australia from 30th March to 3rd May 1970 to join in the celebrations marking Lieutenant James Cook's discovery of Australia 200 years earlier.
They were accompanied on this occasion by Princess Anne and, for part of the time, by The Prince of Wales. The Queen opened Sydney Opera House in October 1973.
The Silver Jubilee tour by The Queen and The Duke was undertaken in March 1977, and that November The Prince of Wales visited as Patron of The Queen's Australian Silver Jubilee Appeal.
Further royal tours took place in 1980 and 1981, on the latter occasion coinciding with the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Melbourne.
The Duke of Edinburgh has made numerous visits to Australia in connection with a wide variety of activities.
Commonwealth events attended by the Duke have included the third Commonwealth Study Conference in Australia in May 1968, and the Royal Agricultural Society of the Commonwealth Conference, held at Perth in September 1979.
The Duke opened the Olympic Games in Melbourne in November 1956, and the Commonwealth Games on two occasions, in Perth in November 1962 and in Brisbane in October 1982, the latter event also attended by The Queen.
The Duke of Edinburgh is a Marshal of the Royal Australian Air Force and was present at the 50th anniversary celebrations of the RAAF in March 1971.
Other visits were made in The Duke's capacity as President of the Australian Conservation Foundation in March 1973, and from October to November of the same year in connection with The Duke of Edinburgh Award scheme.
The celebrations to mark Australia's bicentenary in 1988 were shared by many members of the Royal Family. These included a tour by The Prince and Princess of Wales during January and February; in March, The Princess Royal opened the Royal Easter Show in Sydney, and during April and May The Queen and Prince Philip visited Western Australia, Tasmania, Victoria, Queensland, New South Wales and Australian Capital Territory.
The Queen's last visit to Australia was in 2002, as part of her Golden Jubilee tour. |