A potted history of Greenwich's royal past
Greenwich became a Royal Borough in 2012. Here are some of our borough's royal births, deaths, marriages, establishments and connections in a timeline through the ages.
Royal Patronage
- Cutty Sark - Duke of Edinburgh
- National Maritime Museum - Duke of Edinburgh/Duke of York
- Firepower - The Queen
- Trinity College - Duke of Kent
Royal Charters
- 918 Elfridce (Elstrudis) gives Lewisham with Greenwich, Woolwich, Mottingham and Coomb to the Abbey of St Peter at Ghent
- 964 Confirmed by Edgar
- 1044 Charter of Edward the Confessor reaffirming grant to Ghent
- 1081 Charter of William the Conqueror reaffirming grant to Ghent
- c.1120 Charter of Henry I reaffirming grant to Ghent
- c.1165 Charter of Henry II reaffirming grant to Ghent
- 1209 Charter of King John reaffirming grant to Ghent.
Knighthoods awarded in Greenwich
- 1581 Elizabeth I knighted Sir Francis Drake on board the Golden Hind at Deptford Dockyard
- 1967 Elizabeth II used same sword to knight Sir Francis Chichester at Greenwich
- 1714 George I knighted Sir John Vanbrugh, surveyor to the Royal Hospital, and Sir William Sanderson, Captain of the Peregrine.