The Entry of Bolingbroke

The Entry of Bolingbroke

Princess Victoria (1840-1901)

What has Shakespeare done for the royal family, and what has the royal family done for Shakespeare? This is the central research question of ‘Shakespeare in the Royal Collection’, a three-year AHRC funded project (begun in September 2018), which focuses on the Shakespeare-related holdings in the Royal Collection and Royal Archives and the stories they have to tell, primarily during the period 1714-1945.

This website includes a searchable database of the Shakespeare-related objects in the Royal Collection, an online exhibition and an explanatory timeline. Educational resources for teachers and stories from the collection will be coming soon.





David Garrick Reciting his Ode, at Drury Lane Theatre, on dedicating a Building & erecting a Statue, to Shakespeare, Etching and engraving

Search the Database

How many photographs on the theme of The Winter’s Tale were acquired by Queen Victoria between 1848 and 1880? The Search page offers various ways to discover the Shakespeare-related holdings in the Royal Collection and Royal Archives, by search and by filter.

rince Arthur and Prince Leopold in the costume of the sons of King Henry IVth, Albumen print hand-coloured with watercolour

Exhibition

‘Making History: Shakespeare and the Royal Family’ brings together objects from the Royal Collection and Royal Archives with prints, paintings and decorative art objects in collections elsewhere. It explores the tangible effect of royal patronage on the afterlives of Shakespeare’s plays.

Herne's Oak, Windsor Park, Etching with hand colouring

Stories

Coming soon: Object stories, a way to explore some of the Royal Collection’s most compelling Shakespeare-related stories, including flurries of collecting around notable performances and close relationships between royals and particular actors and curators.

Fan depicting 'The Three Eldest Sons of King George III, Ivory brisé fan; the guards (identical) with two blue Wedgwood jasper-ware plaques, strung cut-steel beads and applied marquisites, backed with gold leaf

Timeline

The timeline gives a sense of the history of Shakespeare in the Royal Collection. It spans the seventeenth century to the present day, placing the objects in our database in context.