File 01 · WIN
The House of Windsor
How a German-named dynasty became the most photographed family on earth, and what changed at every handover of the crown.
An Independent Publication
The Royal Archive
Issue 01 · MMXXVI
Issue 01 · 2026 · The Royal Archive
Three hundred years of succession, scandal and inheritance — untangled, dated and laid out on one page at a time.
The royal family is the most reported family on earth and one of the least understood. Titles change hands. Names get swapped out. Rules that stood for three centuries get rewritten in a single afternoon, and the reporting moves on before anyone explains what actually changed.
Issue 01 is the record, assembled in one place. Every date checked against published sources. Every claim separated from every opinion. No invented documents, no imagined conversations, no quotes nobody said.
A few things laid out inside
Contents
Each file takes a tangle of names, dates and titles and lays it out so it finally holds still.
File 01 · WIN
How a German-named dynasty became the most photographed family on earth, and what changed at every handover of the crown.
File 02 · SUC
The line of succession set out plainly, with the rules that decide it and the 2013 reforms that rewrote them.
File 03 · FAM
A visual guide to who is related to whom — follow a branch from Victoria to the present without losing your place.
File 04 · TML
Coronations, marriages, abdications and departures — dated, ordered and placed in context.
File 05 · RES
Buckingham, Windsor, Balmoral, Sandringham, Kensington: what each is for, who owns it, and why it matters who lives where.
File 06 · EVT
The public turning points that reshaped the family — reported as record, with commentary marked as commentary.
Preview
A sense of the layout and page design. Final pages are set in the same style.
Preview page
TML / 04
Preview page
FAM / 11
Preview page
WIN / 07
Preview page
SUC / 02
Preview page
RES / 19
Who it's for
You already know the names. What Issue 01 gives you is the scaffolding underneath them — the dates in order, the titles explained, the family tree drawn properly, the rules written down. The context that makes every new story make sense the moment it breaks.
Why it exists
Royal history, timelines, relationships and documented stories in one designed publication — built to be kept, not skimmed once.
Three centuries of tangled lineage, presented so you can actually follow it.
A magazine-style edition made to be returned to, not read once and deleted.
Set to stay readable on a phone screen as well as tablet and desktop.
No shipping, no waiting. The download link arrives the moment payment clears.
The edition
The Royal Files — Issue 01
The Royal Archive
$12.99
Launch price · rises to $19.99 after launch
Get the Royal FilesAbout
The Royal Files is an independent digital publication covering royal history, public events, timelines and commentary. Every edition is researched from published, verifiable sources, and where we offer interpretation or opinion, we say so on the page.
We do not publish invented documents, imagined private conversations or fabricated quotes. What is on record is presented as record. What is commentary is labelled as commentary.
The Royal Files is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or officially connected to the British Royal Family, the Royal Household, Buckingham Palace or the UK Government.
Questions
A downloadable PDF edition of The Royal Files — Issue 01, 40+ pages.
No. It is a digital publication. Nothing is posted to you.
Checkout is handled by Gumroad. The moment payment clears you get a download link on screen, and a copy is emailed to the address you use at checkout.
That is the launch price for Issue 01. It rises to $19.99 once the launch window closes. The price on this page is always the current price.
Yes. The pages are set to stay readable on a phone screen as well as on tablet and desktop.
Printing for your own personal use is covered by the licence supplied with the edition. Redistribution or resale is not permitted.
No. It is an independent publication with no affiliation to, or endorsement from, the Royal Family, the Royal Household, Buckingham Palace or the UK Government.
Because the edition is delivered instantly as a digital file, sales are final. Full details on our Refund Policy page. If your download fails or the file will not open, contact us and we will fix it.
Issue 01 · The Royal Archive
$12.99
rises to $19.99 after launch
Get your copy