Royalty and the Monarchy

The Yeomen Warders of the Tower of London: ceremonial guards in Tudor red-and-gold who live inside the fortress and act as its…

The London home and administrative headquarters of the British monarch, with 775 rooms and a balcony that appears on television at every…

The ceremony in which one detachment of the King's Guard hands duty to another outside Buckingham Palace, with a military band, and…

The short-legged Welsh herding dogs inseparably associated with Elizabeth II, who owned more than thirty over her seventy-year reign.

Britain's system of aristocratic titles — duke, marquess, earl, viscount and baron — mostly hereditary, largely stripped of power, and still socially…

The King of the United Kingdom since September 2022, and at 73 the oldest person ever to succeed to the British throne.

The line of English and later British monarchs from 1066 to the present — around forty sovereigns across nine royal houses.

The British system of state awards — knighthoods, damehoods, OBEs and MBEs — announced twice a year and presented by the King…

Queen from 1952 to 2022 — the longest-reigning monarch in British history, and for most people alive the only one they had…

The rules determining who becomes monarch — reformed in 2013 to end male preference, but still barring Catholics from the throne.

Britain's system of constitutional monarchy, in which a hereditary sovereign is head of state but political power rests entirely with an elected…

The religious ceremony in Westminster Abbey at which a new British monarch is crowned and anointed, using regalia and a liturgy over…

The royal regalia kept at the Tower of London: crowns, sceptres, orbs and swords used at coronations, and still in active ceremonial…

The soldiers in scarlet tunics and bearskin caps who guard the royal palaces — serving infantry on operational duty, not ceremonial actors.

The oldest and most senior order of chivalry in Britain, founded around 1348, limited to the monarch and 24 companions, and in…

The reigning House of Windsor: King Charles III, his heirs and their close relatives, who carry out ceremonial and charitable duties as…

The military parade held each June to mark the monarch's official birthday — 1,400 soldiers, 200 horses and a flypast, on Horse…

The oldest and largest inhabited castle in the world, 20 miles west of London, used as a royal residence continuously for nearly…