The painted white face of Queen Elizabeth I: one of the most recognisable regal looks in history. But there was more to Elizabeth's makeup than meets the eye; including a tragic origin, a fragile vanity, and a poisonous irony that saw this attempt to look powerful being perhaps the very thing to rob the monarch of her strength... 

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Within the annals of royal love stories, that of King Edward the 8th and Wallis Simpson stands as maybe the greatest. After all, it was a love strong enough for Edward to give up his crown...

But some newly discovered evidence indicates perhaps this love story was not as great as we thought - evidence in the form of letters penned by Wallis herself, and addressed to the most unlikely of recipients. 

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King Charles the second ruled England for 25 years. And in that time, he focused more on chasing women than he did on politics. He paraded a succession of mistresses in front of the public, as well as his wife Queen Catherine.

He was known as the Merry Monarch and he was known to be obsessed with sensuality. In this episode, LJ Charleston takes a look at the life of the one true Party King to see if he really lived up to his name. 

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When we think of royals, we think of a life of luxury, prestige and opulence - but sustaining this existence was a workforce of hundreds, consisting of some far less enviable lives. People were employed purely to receive punishment, to throw themselves into harm's way, to leap to duty at just a moment's notice day or night, or even to do such strange things as kiss bedsheets or make the most foul fish soup you can imagine! It was all in a day's work for some of the worst jobs in royal history.

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Queen Victoria was a teenager when she made her first visit to the circus, and it spawned a lifelong obsession with "circus freaks" as they were known at the time. At age 18, she attended the circus seven times in six weeks, but what were the details of what some might call a voyeuristic obsession?

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Move over Liz, it's time for some other Royals to share the spotlight. While the Queen worries about her Jubilee, LJ Charleston is looking Beyond The Royal Throne at stories usually only heard in the privy chamber.

Why was Queen Victoria obsessed with 'circus freaks' as they were known at the time? What different jobs could you get in the castle? Why was King Henry II known as the party king? 

Subscribe now and hear stories from Beyond the Royal Throne from Thursday 2nd June, wherever you get your podcasts.

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