Between 12 and 14 July 2017, King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia of Spain paid a State Visit to the United Kingdom. As part of the gift exchange they presented The Queen with a book and set of postcards. Both gifts reflect a shared history between the UK and Spain.

The book is a facsimile of a Book of Hours belonging to Philip II of Spain. Philip II married the English queen, Mary Tudor. A Book of Hours is a collection of prayers, psalms and devotional text. The postcards are facsimiles of correspondence between King Felipe VI’s great-grandparents – Alfonso XIII and his wife, Queen Victoria Eugenie ‘Ena’.

Ena was born in 1887 at Balmoral Castle in Scotland, the daughter of Queen Victoria’s youngest child, Princess Beatrice. She met her future husband at a state banquet at Buckingham Palace in 1905. They began sending postcards to each other and married the following year.

Learn more about the items that the Royal party viewed in our trail: