Thursday 1 December 2011

The Enchanted Kensington Palace (I)


On my birthday's morning, we went to the Kensington Palace to enjoy the exhibition "The Enchanted Palace", available to visitors until coming January, 3. At the door, we were given a quest to find out  each of the seven princesses in the State Apartments rooms.

These were the rooms I liked the most.

The Room of Royal Sorrows
Queen Mary II (1662-1694)

From Londres 2011

In this room, we heard Queen Mary of Modena, second wife of King James II of England, weeping because of the rumors about the birth of her only surviving son, James Francis Edward. Most people believed he was a changeling brought into the birth-chamber in a warming-pan, in order to perpetuate King James II's Catholic dinasty. It was believed the real prince was a stillborn baby.
Those rumours, in spite of the privy-council investigations proved to be false, lead to the Glorious Revolution and the expulsion of the king who was replaced by his eldest daughter Mary and her husband William of Orange, who became Queen Mary II  and King William III of England, respectively.

The Room of a Sleeping Princess
Queen Victoria (1819-1901)

From Londres 2011

Queen Victoria was born in 1819 on March, 24 in Kensington Palace. She was educated under the so called "Kensington System", an elaborate set of rules and protocols devised by her mother, the Dutchess of Kent, and her comptroller, Sir John Conroy, so she could become weak and be manipulated by them.
Constrained by day, she is free in her dreams...that's the message of this room.

The Room of Dancing Princesses
Princess Margaret (1930-2002) and Princess Diana (1961-1997)

Two symbols of fashion in this room.

In these photos, the tiara which Princess Margaret wore at her wedding to Anthony Armstrong-Jones in 1960.

From Londres 2011
From Londres 2011

This room decoration is very beautiful, don't you think? :-)

From Londres 2011

The Room of Flight
Princess Charlotte (1796-1817)

Princess Charlotte died following childbirth at the age of 21, after a year and a half of a happy marriage with Leopold Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld who became King of the Belgians in 1830. He was the uncle of the future Queen Victoria. She was the daughter of George, Prince of Wales (later King George IV). Her father had pressured her to marry the Prince of Orange, but her will to marry Leopold took the best.

From Londres 2011

Tomorrow I will show you other rooms with the beautiful light works by Chris Levine.

4 comments:

Sara said...

Esta ideia das princesas é muito apelativa :) Obrigada pela visita guiada, só me faltaram os headfones e a tua voz a narrar :))
E Londres é sempre um bom destino, há tanto a descobrir.
Beijinhos!
[e agradeço também o comentário que deixaste a propósito do post "Um mundo novo". É, com certeza, por aí :))]

Presépio no Canal said...

:-)) Quero ir la mais vezes, tipo uma vez por ano. Estadias de curta duracao para nao vir esfalfada. ;-)
Gostava mesmo muito.Ficou tanto por ver.
Vou ficando de olho nas promocoes e com o London Pass fica mais em conta.
Quanto ao comentario que deixei: sem olhar para a nossa co-responsabilidade na actual situacao, creio que nao vamos la. Neste momento, so com muito trabalho iremos conseguir alguma coisa:seja no emprego, no voluntariado, em casa, etc.
Beijinhos!!! :-))

ana said...

Adorei a história das princesas!
E quem não se maravilha?

Obrigada por esta visita.
Bjs. :)

Presépio no Canal said...

:-)) so true, Ana :-))