5 Curious Facts About The British Monarchy

1. The Queen In Scotland
Here’s a strange one for you. In Scotland, Her Majesty’s official residence is the Palace Of Holyroodhouse (pictured) in Edinburgh but, she only occupies the Palace for 1 week every year. Conversely, every summer, The Queen retires to Balmoral Castle, also in Scotland for over 6 weeks yet Balmoral remains second fiddle to Holyroodhouse.

2. Some Titles Are Meant To Be…
We all know that the title of Prince Of Wales is reserved for the 1st in line to the throne. But other titles are also reserved for other members of the Royal Family, depending of their placement. The title ‘Duke Of Cornwall’ is given to the Monarch’s eldest son automatically. The title Duke Of Rothesay is also given to Monarch’s eldest son as that is what they’ll be known as in Scotland (both currently held by Prince Charles, Queen’s 1st son and heir). The title Duke Of York is reserved for the 2nd son of the Monarch (currently held by Prince Andrew, Queen’s 2nd son—above). The title ‘Princess Royal’ is given to eldest daughter of the Monarch (currently held by Princess Anne, Queen’s 1st daughter) and of course, the title of Prince Consort is reserved for the husband of a Queen Regnant (although Prince Philip is Prince Consort, he doesn’t hold the title of Prince Consort as it was decided at the time he wouldn’t have the title).

3. State Opening Of Parliament

Of all the Royal events in the calendar, the State Opening Of Parliament surely trumps them all in terms of the most grand and exuberant. Every year, Her Majesty attends the Houses of Parliament to perform an ancient ceremony where she officially opens parliament, reading a speech written by Her government with a prospectus of what’s in store for the next political year. The significance of this is… well, there isn’t much. As much as Monarchists resent it, the State Opening Of Parliament is nothing more than a piece of pageantry, it is not a requirement for it to be performed to run the Government, nor does it have its roots in anything else but asserting the Monarch’s dominance and role as supreme leader of the country.

4. Queen’s Guards

When one thinks of London or even England, the image of a tall, lonely Sentry in bearskin and red coat standing in a Sentry Box stood outside Buckingham Palace. These sentries are real soldiers from the British Army from one of the 5 regiments of Foot Guards (Grenadier Guards, Coldstream Guards, Welsh Guards, Irish Guards and Scots Guards). It just so happens that half of their job is ceremonial (guarding) and the other half is infantry. Such is the nature of their job that one week they may be stood idly outside one of The Queen’s Palaces ‘Doing Queen’s Guard’ and the next, fighting the Taliban in Afghanistan. The point of this factlet is that the sentries are not just there for decoration, they do perform real army duties and when they guard, they guard to defend, not just to decorate. If you look closely at the photo above you will see they are not carrying ceremonial swords—they are all armed with machine guns.

5. UK Has No Written Constitution

If I said the UK has no constitution, I’d be exaggerating. What I mean is it does have a constitution, but not as you’d expect! The United Kingdom has no single written document that forms its constitution. Instead, the ‘constitution’ is formed through various acts of Parliament and also through tradition. This has caused lots of controversy for its lack of clarity and difficulty in deciphering.

Interesting facts about the ancient Celts

· Proto-Celtic people arrived from the Balkans to Central Europe around 2500 BCE. Equipped with horses and superior bronze weapons, the Celts quickly conquered Western Europe, from Iberia to the British Isles. 

· Classical Celtic culture emerged in central Europe around modern Austria, Bavaria and Switzerland. The earliest major Celtic settlement, dating from 1200 BCE, was found in Hallstatt, Upper Austria. 

· The classical Hallstatt culture, and its successor the La Tène culture, spread from the Alps to most of Western and Central Europe between 600 and 400 BCE. People in those areas spoke a similar language, shared a same religion, similar traditions and beliefs, the same arts and techniques... 

· There were some minor regional differences between Celtic people. For example, houses in Britain and Ireland were typically round, while those in Gaul were rectangular. 

· The term \"Celt\" comes from Greek Keltoi or Galatae (Galatian), and Latin Celtae or Galli (Gaul). It is not known how they called themselves, but it is likely to have been a word in between those, maybe resembling the modern word \"Gael\". 

· Though the Celts did not have their own writing system, Celtic-language inscriptions in Latin or Greek alphabets have been found on Celtic sites.

· Each Galatian tribe was organised in four septs (clans), each ruled by a tetrach (chief), assisted by a judge, a general and two deputy generals. Each sept sent 25 senators to a central shrine called Drunemeton. 

· The Celts were immensely rich. We now know that Julius Caesar\'s main reason to conquer Gaul was to lay hands on Celtic gold. Over 400 Celtic gold mines were found in France alone. The Romans had little gold on their home territory, so the conquest of Gaul was a tremendous boost to their power. 

· The Celtic nobility were also known to be clean shaven with well trimmed hair following the fashion of the time. Tweezers were also found on archeological sites. 

· Ancient Celtic society gave much more freedom and power to women than the Greeks and Romans did. Greco-Roman housewives were prohibited to do business and mostly sequestrated in their home under the supervision of male family members. Celtic women could sometimes become powerful tribe leaders, and were also known to go to war.