tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33438377660285585392024-03-16T19:10:02.836-04:00Princess PalaceTo be a princess--spoiled and adored! Few real princesses have enjoyed such a life. The real princesses have been lost in our love of fairytales. Princess Palace explores their lives and loves, adventures and tragedies. Let’s celebrate and commiserate with these most (un?)fortunate of women.Cheryl Ciucevichhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00388994160381820590noreply@blogger.comBlogger707125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3343837766028558539.post-13620459613599006622024-01-31T23:30:00.003-05:002024-01-31T23:30:00.149-05:00Queens of Britain Series: Boudica<p><i>Welcome to the Queens of Britain series. In 2024, the blog will spotlight a different reigning queen from the island of Great Britain. Check back each month to learn about the women who led their nations.</i></p><p></p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVam4rFKldonAOzb60ABLylj-vMflNcJY2H7RAcke2qE7pJdaDIYvQAc7LjUW0FuFctlRATgh667Ka6UnIhQKFq9ZC7ee5e0SGlI1YXGgeFKq6rykPvRLpjb-eR0GzfjOKa6Ucf5H0kR52KnOf8el0kI0j4AJGPbwL2Vw2iZAiznnMkp09xJ38b3hX3zs/s512/Boudica%20statue%20across%20from%20Westminster%20by%20Luke%20McKernan%20via%20Wikimedia%20Commons.jpg" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="360" data-original-width="512" height="281" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVam4rFKldonAOzb60ABLylj-vMflNcJY2H7RAcke2qE7pJdaDIYvQAc7LjUW0FuFctlRATgh667Ka6UnIhQKFq9ZC7ee5e0SGlI1YXGgeFKq6rykPvRLpjb-eR0GzfjOKa6Ucf5H0kR52KnOf8el0kI0j4AJGPbwL2Vw2iZAiznnMkp09xJ38b3hX3zs/w400-h281/Boudica%20statue%20across%20from%20Westminster%20by%20Luke%20McKernan%20via%20Wikimedia%20Commons.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Boadicea and Her Daughters</span><i style="font-size: small;">, statue by Thomas Thornycraft</i></div><i><div style="text-align: left;"><i><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Image by Luke McKernan via Wikimedia Commons</span></i></div></i></td></tr></tbody></table>The Celtic queen raises her spear and commands her rearing horses toward the Palace of Westminster. Behind her, her ravaged daughters kneel on the armed chariot, urging their mother toward revenge. The trio seems to thrust out of their bronze casing still seeking justice for their people. <p></p><p><i>Boadicea and Her Daughters,</i> a sculpture by Thomas Thornycraft, has stood across the Thames facing the center of British power since 1902, but their story stretches deep into British history and folklore to a moment in time when it was Britain that was under the foot of a foreign imperial conqueror and a mere woman pushed back against the might of Rome.</p><p>Long before English was a language, the Queen of the Iceni tribe in East Anglia was a woman called Boudica or Boadicea or Buddug. However you choose to spell her name today, it is synonymous with British national pride. Every schoolchild learns her story. </p><p>Boudica ruled jointly with her husband King Prasutagus. At that time, in the first century, Britain was divided among various tribes. The Iceni controlled a large area that today is identified as Norfolk, Cambridgeshire, Suffolk, and Lincolnshire. A fierce warrior people, they trained their women as well as their men to fight with weapons.</p><p>As the Romans ran roughshod over Britons, they kept the powerful Prasutagus as an ally. This far north of Rome's power base, it was easier for the Empire to have some client-kings who would do their bidding when required in exchange for limited autonomy. During the king's lifetime the Iceni were left in peace and they were also disarmed. With only daughters to succeed him, Prastagus wanted to ensure the safety of his people after his death. He decided the best way to do this would be make Roman Emperor Nero co-heir with the girls. Nero would receive half his kingdom while his daughters kept the other half.</p><p>Whether Boudica agreed with this bright idea or bitterly discouraged her husband is lost to history. However, it was Boudica and her daughters who had to face the consequences. The Romans did not recognize female inheritance or property ownership. Once the king died, the Roman military governor Gaius Suetonius Paulinus absorbed the Iceni territories into the Roman province of Britannia and unleashed his armies to raid and plunder the villages. They also required the Iceni to repay loans they had received from previous Roman leaders. Boudica objected, believing that their service to Rome had been their repayment. </p><p>To add terror to the violence, the Romans publicly raped Boudica's virgin daughters and they flogged the queen herself.</p><p>Boudica was not terrified. She was enraged and determined to have her revenge. Taking advantage of Suetonius' absence while he was fighting the Welsh and far-ranging scattering of other Roman troops, she organized the combined forces of the Iceni, the Trinobantes, and other British tribes to rebel against the imperial overlords. The 120,000 Britons first attacked the Roman colony at Camulodunum (now Colchester), where the Britons had been forced to finance and build a temple to Emperor Claudius. Their resounding victory and slaughter of all Romans at the site caused Suetonius to rush to Londinium, the modern site of London, but he soon realized he would be unable to defend it. He abandoned the post leaving a just a detachment of the Ninth Legion to face the onslaught of Boudica and her allies. She defeated the mighty Romans and burned both Londinium and Verulamium (the modern site of St. Albans), located 25 miles away. As many as 80,000 were killed by the rebelling Britons. Roman historian Cassius Dio later reported that women's breasts were cut off and sewn to their mouths by rejoicing by the victors.</p><p>Despite being heavily outnumbered, Suetonius gathered 10,000 troops in the Midlands and prepared for the attack from a British force estimated to have grown to 230,000. Boudica drove her war chariot with her daughters around her gathered army. According to legend, she exhorted the men to "win the battle or perish." And, perish they did. Despite their massive numbers, the Britons were lightly armed and took a strategically poor position in a narrow gorge with their supply wagons blocking any retreat. They fell prey to Rome's military superiority, which included javelins and cavalry, and experience. The Romans were able to trap the rebels and brutally slaughter tens of thousands of them. Tacitus recorded that the Romans did not even spare women or the animals pulling the wagons. The Queen (and probably her daughters) died soon thereafter, perhaps from suicide by poisoning. </p><p>The ferocity and early success of the rebellion nearly led Rome to abandon Britain. Their shame was all the greater because they had been brought to their knees by a woman--in Rome, women were not permitted a public life of any kind, much less to be trained as warriors. However, Suetonius' ultimate victory guaranteed the success of the occupation, which continued another 350 years until Rome itself was falling.</p><p>Over the two millennia since she nearly drove the Romans out of Britain, Boudica has been a powerful symbol of the British people, even as the makeup of those people changed over the centuries. She has been celebrated as cultural icon across the centuries and even served as a rallying point for the suffragettes in the early 20th century. </p><p>Interestingly, Boudica (by any of its various spellings) may not have been the Queen's personal name. It may instead have been a title. According to some linguists, it likely mean "victorious". </p><p><b>Queens of Britain Series</b></p><p>Boudica, Queen of the Iceni <br /><span style="color: #cccccc;">Empress Matilda - coming in March 2024<br />Margaret Maid of Norway - coming in April 2024<br />Lady Jane - coming in May 2024<br />Queen Mary I - coming in June 2024<br />Queen Elizabeth I - coming in July 2024<br />Mary Queen of Scots - coming in August 2024<br />Queen Mary II - coming in September 2024<br />Queen Anne - coming in October 2024<br />Queen Victoria - coming in November 2024<br />Queen Elizabeth II - coming in December 2024</span></p><p><b>MORE ABOUT BOUDICA</b><br /><a href="https://www.mentalfloss.com/posts/boudica-warrior-queen-iceni-facts" target="_blank">11 Facts About Boudica, Warrior Queen of the Iceni</a> on Mental Floss<br /><a href="https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/classics/warwickclassicsnetwork/romancoventry/resources/boudica/sources/" target="_blank">The Ancient Sources for Boudica</a> on Warwick Classics Network<br /><a href="https://englishhistory.net/romans/boudica/" target="_blank">Boudica</a> on English History<br /><a href="https://www.historic-uk.com/HistoryUK/HistoryofEngland/Boudica/" target="_blank">Boudica</a> on Historic UK<br /><a href="https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/classics/warwickclassicsnetwork/romancoventry/resources/boudica/" target="_blank">Boudica</a> on Warwick Classics Network<br /><a href="https://www.pbs.org/empires/romans/empire/boudica.html" target="_blank">Boudica & Britain</a> in The Roman Empire on PBS<br /><a href="https://curiousrambler.com/boudica-queen-mother-warrior-folk-hero/" target="_blank">Boudica: A British Queen, Mother, Warrior, and Folk Hero</a> on The Curious Rambler<br /><a href="https://www.historynet.com/boudica-celtic-war-queen-who-challenged-rome/" target="_blank">Boudica: Celtic War Queen Who Challenged Rome</a> on History Net<br /><a href="https://www.rejectedprincesses.com/princesses/boudica" target="_blank">Boudica: The Headhunter Queen</a> on Rejected Princesses<br /><a href="https://www.roman-britain.co.uk/the-roman-conquest-of-britain/boudica-the-iceni-warrior-queen/" target="_blank">Boudica and the Iceni Revolt</a> on Roman Britain<br /><a href="https://medium.com/@margolestz/boudica-queen-mother-warrior-folk-hero-c5f19dc9a8f2" target="_blank">Boudica: Queen, Mother, Warrior, Folk Hero</a> on Medium<br /><a href="https://www.historyextra.com/period/roman/boudica-boudicca-boadicea-warrior-woman-celtic-who-what-fate-queen-roman-empire/" target="_blank">Boudica: scourge of the Roman empire </a>on History Extra<br /><a href="https://www.historic-uk.com/HistoryUK/HistoryofEngland/Boudica-and-the-Slaughter-at-Colchester/" target="_blank">Boudica and The Slaughter at Camulodunum </a>on Historic UK<br /><a href="http://honeygrail.com/honey/boudica_history" target="_blank">Boudica: Warrior Queen</a> on Honey Grail<br /><a href="https://aeon.co/essays/boudica-how-a-widowed-queen-became-a-rebellious-woman-warrior" target="_blank">Boudica the warrior queen</a> on aeon<br /><a href="https://www.livescience.com/37061-boudicca.html" target="_blank">Boudica: Warrior queen of the Iceni </a>on LiveScience<br /><a href="https://www.thecollector.com/bouddica-warrior-queen-iceni-revolt-rome/" target="_blank">Boudica's Revolt: When Britannia's Warrior Queen Took on Rome</a> on The Collector<br /><a href="https://www.ancient-origins.net/myths-legends/boudicca-celtic-queen-002065" target="_blank">Boudicca: The Celtic Queen Who Unleashed Fury on the Romans</a> on Ancient Origins<br /><a href="https://cupola.gettysburg.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1249&context=ghj" target="_blank">The Celtic Queen Boudica as a Historiographical Narrative</a> by Rachel L. Chenault<br /><a href="https://study.com/buy/learn/lesson/boudicca-celtic-queen-warrior-biography-facts.html?src=ppc_adwords_nonbrand&rcntxt=aws&crt=668899297596&kwd=&kwid=dsa-2173009217016&agid=149014289181&mt=&device=c&network=g&campaign={campaign}&gad_source=1&gclid=Cj0KCQiA-62tBhDSARIsAO7twbZr0MWZUyJyagUSX-xfQzE018_XypPGUUwHJ0w9SqyiLd9FinpaMn0aAlzSEALw_wcB" target="_blank">Queen Boudica </a>on Study<br /><a href="https://www.historytoday.com/miscellanies/queen-boudica-life-legend" target="_blank">Queen Boudica, A Life in Legend</a> on History Today<br /><a href="https://www.history.com/news/who-was-boudica" target="_blank">Who Was Boudica?</a> on History<br /><a href="https://www.royaltynowstudios.com/blog/boudica" target="_blank">Who was the Celtic warrior Queen Boudica, and what did she look like?</a> on Royalty Now</p>Cheryl Ciucevichhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00388994160381820590noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3343837766028558539.post-61930224248401133062024-01-21T00:00:00.022-05:002024-01-21T00:00:00.151-05:00Meet Princess Ingrid Alexandra of Norway<p></p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEie6oC3UboBlXb2c33zFzFW18U3ctPtQx4ig-Hynfg5zsphQzkhheqJ_YkknkIEKjY_viE6c1_Ugx18Un2yIRG_p7DNeI-87qX_WvkpEMgCZ0FTXK74t-pu1TgsoXZdvI5_3GyHLIFIB72DXlHd0SsnwEQFZANd9OU7ukGANji9CzKZ1Gwe1tyak2da-7E/s3000/Ingrid%20Alexandra%20of%20Norway%202022%20Photo%20Ida%20Bj%C3%B8rvik,%20The%20Royal%20Court.jpg" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3000" data-original-width="2164" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEie6oC3UboBlXb2c33zFzFW18U3ctPtQx4ig-Hynfg5zsphQzkhheqJ_YkknkIEKjY_viE6c1_Ugx18Un2yIRG_p7DNeI-87qX_WvkpEMgCZ0FTXK74t-pu1TgsoXZdvI5_3GyHLIFIB72DXlHd0SsnwEQFZANd9OU7ukGANji9CzKZ1Gwe1tyak2da-7E/s320/Ingrid%20Alexandra%20of%20Norway%202022%20Photo%20Ida%20Bj%C3%B8rvik,%20The%20Royal%20Court.jpg" width="231" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span face=""Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: #f9f9f9; text-align: start;"><i><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Photo: Ida Bjørvik, The Norwegian Royal Court</span></i></span></td></tr></tbody></table>In 1905, the Norwegian people voted in favor of having Prince Carl of Denmark to become King of the newly independent nation. Just over a century later, his great-great granddaughter is entering into adulthood and preparing to one day be the country's first Queen in the modern era. <p></p><p>Born on January 21, 2004, Princess Ingrid Alexandra is the oldest child of Crown Prince Haakon Magnus and the former Mette-Marit Tjessem Hoiby. The King of Spain, the King of Denmark, and the Crown Princess of Sweden are among her godparents. She has an older half-brother by her mother, Marius Borg Hoiby, and a younger brother, Prince Sverre Magnus. While her grandfather, King Harald V remains on the throne, Ingrid Alexandra is second in line to the throne after her father. Unlike most of the other future Queens Regnant in Europe, she is not yet in the heir's spot. This may afford her a little more breathing room as she explores her future.</p><p>Like most Norwegians, Ingrid Alexandra is friendly, sporty, and outdoorsy. Her family has taken her hiking, skiing, and surfing around the world. Like many people of her generation, she also has a keen interest in environmental issues. Some of her first official engagements have focused on this area, including christening both a sea rescue boat and sea research vessel, which was named for her father. </p><p>Having completed her secondary education in 2023 and then worked school assistant and environmental worker, Princess Ingrid Alexandra began 12 months of military training in 2024 with the Engineer Battalion of Norway's only combat brigade. If she follows in the footsteps of most modern future Kings and Queens, she will like complete an undergraduate University program and may complete more military duties before embarking on full-time royal duties. </p><p>So far, her biggest moment in the spotlight was the gala celebration for her 18th birthday. A tiaras-and-tails event, it was attended by many of the other young monarchs-in-waiting: Prince Christian of Denmark, Princess Cathrina Amalia Princess of Orange, Princess Elisabeth Duchess of Brabant, and Princess Estelle of Sweden (who, like Ingrid Alexandra) is number two in line for her throne. The princess's big present for the occasion (besides wearing a tiara for the first timer) was her own office at the Palace in Oslo. She was also awarded the Grand Cross of the Royal Norwegian Order of St. Olav and was created a Dame of the Royal Family Order of King Harald, her grandfather. Denmark marked the occasion by making her a Knight of the Order of the Elephant.</p><p>In her 18th birthday interview, Princess Ingrid Alexandra shared her love for her brothers and her cousins. She has an optimistic view for the future, but likes to keep her private life private. She will likely continue to travel and explore nature to ground herself. As she said, "It is nature that gives you peace and control. When you speed down into the woods on skiis, when you surf far out there alone, then you are fearless."</p><p><b>MORE ABOUT INGRID ALEXANDRA<br /></b><a href="https://www.lifeinnorway.net/princess-ingrid-alexandra/" target="_blank">Princess Ingrid Alexandra: Future Queen of Norway</a> on Life in Norway<br /><a href="https://rightroyalroundup.com.au/2022/01/19/princess-ingrid-alexandra-norway-celebrates-18th-birthday/" target="_blank">Princess Ingrid Alexandra Now Has Her Own Office</a> on Right Royal Roundup<br /><a href="https://royalwatcherblog.com/2018/01/21/princess-ingrid-alexandra-norway/" target="_blank">Princess Ingrid Alexandra of Norway</a> on Royal Watcher<br /><a href="https://aroyalheraldry.weebly.com/blog/hrh-princess-ingrid-alexandra-of-norways-18th-birthday" target="_blank">HRH Princess Ingrid Alexandra of Norway's 18th Birthday</a> on A Royal Heraldry<br /><a href="https://royalcentral.co.uk/europe/norway/princess-ingrid-alexandra-marks-one-dream-off-bucket-list-185920/" target="_blank">Princess Ingrid Alexandra marks one dream off bucket list</a> on Royal Central<br /><a href="https://royalwatcherblog.com/2022/01/21/princess-ingrid-alexandras-18th-birthday-1/" target="_blank">Princess Ingrid Alexandra's 18th Birthday </a>on The Royal Watcher<br /><a href="https://www.sofn.com/blog/the-royal-grad/" target="_blank">The Royal Grad</a> on Sons of Norway</p>Cheryl Ciucevichhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00388994160381820590noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3343837766028558539.post-42220250290104465882024-01-14T11:22:00.001-05:002024-01-14T11:22:12.317-05:00A New Queen Mary<p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuQEhfHkps-7pVKWQ2_-5QD7QSSvUU1Ki8pwRT71LApVHrb6luNz8jftTb9rMayLGB9vAvwrmpqWij4sjr6oUyJsW0H44SVdubiM3I8hHybXRUq4iV1iXQno9sTYz6xSBZaNgl_BGT4RMupHaiiawYKpsD73ysHOmjtQoe8x0xpg56mceGpmQyJEB26Zg/s950/Mary%20of%20Denmark%20Danish%20Royal%20House%20Hasse%20Nielsen.jpg.webp" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="950" data-original-width="750" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuQEhfHkps-7pVKWQ2_-5QD7QSSvUU1Ki8pwRT71LApVHrb6luNz8jftTb9rMayLGB9vAvwrmpqWij4sjr6oUyJsW0H44SVdubiM3I8hHybXRUq4iV1iXQno9sTYz6xSBZaNgl_BGT4RMupHaiiawYKpsD73ysHOmjtQoe8x0xpg56mceGpmQyJEB26Zg/s320/Mary%20of%20Denmark%20Danish%20Royal%20House%20Hasse%20Nielsen.jpg.webp" width="253" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: left;"><i style="font-size: small;">Queen Mary of Denmark</i></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Photo by Hasse Nielsen</span></i></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><br /></span></i></div></td></tr></tbody></table>Europe's Queens Consort gained a new soror with the accession of King Frederik X of Denmark on January 14, 2024. None of today's consorts were born into royalty. Only one, Queen Mathilde of Belgium, was even born into the nobility. Two were not born in the countries they now help to lead: Queen Silvia of Sweden was born in Germany while The Netherlands' Queen Maxima hails from Argentina. Most of them come from the workaday world of modern women: Silvia was a translator, Maxima a banker, Mathilde a speech therapist, Queen Letizia of Spain a television journalist, and Queen Sonja of Norway a designer and dressmaker.</p><p>The new queen has come farther than all the others. Today's Queen of Denmark was born more than 10,000 miles (16,000 kilometers) away from Denmark. Although her parents were of Scottish descent, she was thoroughly Australian. Her father, John Donaldson, was a math professor and her mother, the former Henrietta Horne, was an executive assistant, both working at the University of Tasmania. When they named their youngest child for her grandmothers, they gave her the very regal name of Mary Elizabeth, without having any thought of her ever becoming the latest in a long line of Queens named Mary (or Marie/Maria) across Europe. </p><p>Mary Elizabeth Donaldson was born on February 5, 1972, just three weeks after her future mother-in-law became Queen Margrethe II of Denmark. The hospital where she made her first appearance was named for her future husband's great-great-great aunt, Queen Alexandra of the United Kingdom, who had been Princess Alix of Denmark. As a very young child, Mary briefly lived with in Texas in the United States, while her dad worked at the Johnson Space Center. The family soon returned to Tasmania, where she would earn a combined Bachelor's degree in commerce and law. Before going on to a graduate program in advertising. Her career in marketing a communications took her to Melbourne, Edinburgh, and Sydney. During the Sydney Olympics in 2000, her flatmate invited her along for an evening out with her friend, Felipe. Felipe brought along his first cousins Nikolaos, Joachim, and Frederik and more distant cousin named Martha Louise. In her Cinderella moment, Mary did not know that she was meeting the future King of Spain, a Prince of Greece, two Princes of Denmark, and Princess of Norway!</p><p>Mary and "Fred" clicked immediately, as Mary described it. "It wasn't the fireworks in the sky or anything like that, but there was a since of excitement." Fred planned to stay in Australia for a little while but did not reveal his true identity until after they dated for a bit. Unfortunately, his Australian interlude was cut short by the final illness and death of his beloved grandmother, Queen Ingrid, who had been born a Swedish princess. However, Frederik could not stay parted from Mary for long. He made several secret trips to visit her before the press finally caught wind of the romance over a year later. By then, plans were already in place for Mary to move to Europe. She took a job teaching English at a business school in France. She had learned French as a second language in school but she soon needed to learn a third language. As quickly as she could, she moved to Copenhagen in Denmark, took a job with Microsoft Business Solutions, and enrolled in Danish classes. </p><p>A year later, Frederik's mother, Queen Margrethe II, gave the couple official permission to marry. Frederik presented Mary with a ruby and diamond engagement ring, representing the colors of the Danish flag. They married on May 14, 2004. Unlike other royal brides, Mary opted to have adult bridesmaids, choosing her instead to have her two older sisters, Jane and Patricia, and her best friend from back home, Amber Petty. The wedding party did include children: Mary's three nieces, Frederik's cousin's son, and his nephew Prince Nikolai (now Count Nikolai, who is now a model currently living and working in Australia).</p><p>The couple soon built a family with four children. The new Crown Prince Christian was born in 2005, Princess Isabella in 2007, and twins Prince Vincent and Princess Josephine in 2011. The names of her younger children were all surprises, with very little to no precedents in the Danish Royal Family. Christian's name, however, was a pretty sure bet. The Danish kings had alternated between Frederiks and Christians for generations. When Margrethe succeeded her father, King Frederik IX, she said she had taken the place of Christian, which is why she named her oldest son Frederik. Mary and Frederik simply followed the tradition. </p><p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6Am5YRz-kNjGBSBZKV0NO_3OVAZUHrladwsE3FKnA3R40opGgNojXClH6D2wzPHkarq_HKIuamtHfXRerepJCfW-M8gn_gKY8hLR41PDZ4KpMdt0WypqoxBFQJefrGYkrMpr1AX5vWzBnp6eA7qZ86BW2K4csUjXZVeMq1V-UQZj0r8mjyRApZ-c21V0/s900/Mary%20of%20Denmark%202018%20photo%20by%20European%20Commission.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="600" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6Am5YRz-kNjGBSBZKV0NO_3OVAZUHrladwsE3FKnA3R40opGgNojXClH6D2wzPHkarq_HKIuamtHfXRerepJCfW-M8gn_gKY8hLR41PDZ4KpMdt0WypqoxBFQJefrGYkrMpr1AX5vWzBnp6eA7qZ86BW2K4csUjXZVeMq1V-UQZj0r8mjyRApZ-c21V0/s320/Mary%20of%20Denmark%202018%20photo%20by%20European%20Commission.jpg" width="213" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: right;"><i><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Photo by European Commission via Wikimedia</span></i></td></tr></tbody></table>As Crown Princess, Mary took on a wide range of patronages in health care, sport, fashion, culture, humanitarian work, anti-bullying, and science. She serves the World Health Organization's anti-obesity program and is a Patron of the United Nations Population Fund, which is focused on maternal health across the globe. She is also an outspoken advocate for the LGBTQ community. Her own Mary Foundation launched in 2007 with money raised as wedding gifts to her and Frederik from across Denmark and Greenland. It focuses on issues like that can isolate people, including the environment or illness.<p></p><p>Mary is popular in her new homeland. Several places have been named for her there, including Mary Elizabeth's Hospital for children, teens, and expectant mothers at the national hospital in Copenhagen and Mary's Australian Garden at the Copenhagen Zoo. The Zoo had received four Tasmanian devils from Mary's native Tasmania in honor of her wedding in 2004. Their Australia collection has grown to include wallabies, kangaroos, and wombats.</p><p>Mary's ties to Australia have remained strong. She travels there for private holidays as often as she can, enabling her children with Frederik to connect with their Australian family and heritage. She and the twins even completed the Harbour Bridge climb in Sydney at the end of 2023.</p><p>With four teenagers at home and Christian heading to university in the fall, Queen Mary has a very full plate. The pride she feels for her family was apparent as they joined the newly proclaimed King Frederik X on the balcony. Then, the couple who will celebrate their 20th wedding anniversary in May, shared a loving kiss before the exuberant crowd. These two were born on opposite sides of the planet and yet they found each other. Their future together seems as bright as it ever has been. Long live the newest Queen Mary!</p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4oe7tA1rgDRHY8AxtZzm_yvzmS2iZOSzc0fFn2Tti0WlNqqVQNRwfRzF8EtFJKfZS_ugMRGvTCfmWSpReei14fFhphWgobaZI7NZ5XNxwIsikdJc-w5MarQtBe_IWOzIdl74HGb0vnCqfLi3gMrS8lv8CnwYBd9VbfSFEfe4YZMmzt3m6uIPvtbZpJZk/s3871/Mary%20of%20Denmark%202024%20Screenshot%20from%20DR1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2504" data-original-width="3871" height="414" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4oe7tA1rgDRHY8AxtZzm_yvzmS2iZOSzc0fFn2Tti0WlNqqVQNRwfRzF8EtFJKfZS_ugMRGvTCfmWSpReei14fFhphWgobaZI7NZ5XNxwIsikdJc-w5MarQtBe_IWOzIdl74HGb0vnCqfLi3gMrS8lv8CnwYBd9VbfSFEfe4YZMmzt3m6uIPvtbZpJZk/w640-h414/Mary%20of%20Denmark%202024%20Screenshot%20from%20DR1.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-size: x-small;">The new King Frederik and Queen Mary on the balcony after his proclamation</span><br /><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Screenshot of the livestream from DR1</span></i></td></tr></tbody></table><p><br /></p>Cheryl Ciucevichhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00388994160381820590noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3343837766028558539.post-15548822737790934512024-01-07T14:03:00.006-05:002024-01-07T14:20:34.387-05:00The Last Queen, for Now<p></p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjnD93hqKCzaVKWvDZC0PuQ3U5bEyj-2tPRH0XbOsmMgXMPH4OGTmBblXbDT0Ofm6bWAStZtDPWM78uluvmViVJyaX9T9x6w97vZp-0_C02cEYgWEyvSWynRAblqWUm-wFVQrjMEFKRXuSa7o_qOtYHwkhaM6JaFGY-f1IwrCSRK_F0fURNfLSYKKgq2c/s1227/Margrethe%20of%20Denmark%202024%20Photo%20Per%20Morten%20Abrahamsen.jpg" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Queen Margrethe of Denmark looks off to the upper right, wearing a pearl parure of tiara, necklance, earrings, and brooch, the sash of the order of the elephant, and two family orders." border="0" data-original-height="818" data-original-width="1227" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjnD93hqKCzaVKWvDZC0PuQ3U5bEyj-2tPRH0XbOsmMgXMPH4OGTmBblXbDT0Ofm6bWAStZtDPWM78uluvmViVJyaX9T9x6w97vZp-0_C02cEYgWEyvSWynRAblqWUm-wFVQrjMEFKRXuSa7o_qOtYHwkhaM6JaFGY-f1IwrCSRK_F0fURNfLSYKKgq2c/w320-h213/Margrethe%20of%20Denmark%202024%20Photo%20Per%20Morten%20Abrahamsen.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: left;"><i><span style="font-size: x-small;">Queen Margrethe II of Denmark</span></i></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Copyright Kongehuset | Photo by Per Morten Abrahamsen</span></i></div></td></tr></tbody></table>On New Year's Eve, Queen Margrethe II of Denmark stunned her nation and the world by announcing that she will abdicate the throne on January 14, 2024. The date will mark the 52nd anniversary of her own accession upon the death of her father King Frederik IX in 1972. Unlike some other monarchies, Denmark does not have a tradition of retiring or abdicating monarchs, making her decision unprecedented in her country.<p></p><p>For this blog, the more momentous historical fact about Margrethe's abdication is that it will leave Europe without a single Queen Regnant or Reigning Queen. (See my post <a href="https://hrhprincesspalace.blogspot.com/2017/07/abdicating-queens.html" target="_blank">Abdicating Queens</a> about other women who have left their thrones.)</p><p>[For those who counter that there will still be Queens in Europe (Silvia, Sonja, Maxima, Mathilde, Letizia, and Camilla), this is technically correct. However, these women are all Queens Consort. They hold the title only because their husband is King. If a Queen Consort dies, the King remains on the throne. In the case of a Queen Regnant, she herself is the monarch regardless of her marital state. In recent centuries, her husband, if she has one, is a Prince not a King so as not to technically outrank her. If the Queen Regnant dies, the throne passes to her heir. In this case, the throne will pass to Queen Margrethe's oldest son, who will become King Frederik X. His Australian-born wife Mary will become the seventh of Europe's current Queens Consort.]</p><p>Historically, reigning women have been rare animals. In all monarchies, traditions and laws have generally prevented women from inheriting thrones until very recently. Some countries, barred women and their offspring from being in the line of succession at all. Some allowed her male offspring, but not the woman herself. Some allowed a woman but only if she had no other living male relatives. Others allowed a woman if she were the only surviving daughter of a monarch who had no living sons. In fact, Margrethe herself was not heir to the throne of Denmark until the laws were changed to allow female succession when she was 12 years old. Until then, her father's younger brother Prince Knud was his heir.</p><p>A female monarch is unusual. Over the last thousand years, only 83 women have reigned (or ruled in earlier days) as monarchs in Europe. By comparison more men have reigned/ruled just on the island of Great Britain over the same period. Some nations, including France and Prussia, never had a Queen Regnant at all. Their scarcity is probably why so many of these women stand out in our minds: Bloody Mary, the Virgin Queen, Catherine the Great, Mary Queen of Scots, Isabella of Castile, Empress Maria Theresa, Queen Victoria.</p><p>However, since the accession of Empress Anna of Russia in 1730, there has been at least one reigning queen somewhere in Europe. Margrethe's abdication will leave us without a female monarch for the first time in 294 years. On the other hand, thanks to changes in gendered succession laws in nearly every European monarchy in the over the last 50 years, we have an unprecedented number of female direct heirs. The next monarchs in Belgium, the Netherlands, Spain, and Sweden will all be women. In Sweden, the next two monarchs will be women. Under previous succession laws, only one of these women would be a direct heir today: Spain's Princess Leonor. In fact, Leonor actually is the heir under the "old laws". Spain has not changed its laws to be gender neutral. It was briefly debated during Leonor's infancy, but once it was clear that her parents would not have son, the conversation was tabled indefinitely. </p><p><b>TAMAR TO ADELASIA: The Crusader Period</b></p><p></p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMkw8fOjCd9bLeZCyN42Mr50pxavj886IqMcx43s-_q4CT7aL9h6e63toIuWGCZrGKBx2pedX6m735K2r15WB2zGFqQ9I3Pe92iAaThRexnqPijKzp6OmUfWgIKVn1C3xSyyDLUoZT-oE2P57eV5IJrU_wsBKhVt88jq0TwHKEXjUbSHjV7k8amBldBi0/s820/Tamar_of_Georgia_(1160-1213)%20via%20Wikimedia.jpg" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="820" data-original-width="640" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMkw8fOjCd9bLeZCyN42Mr50pxavj886IqMcx43s-_q4CT7aL9h6e63toIuWGCZrGKBx2pedX6m735K2r15WB2zGFqQ9I3Pe92iAaThRexnqPijKzp6OmUfWgIKVn1C3xSyyDLUoZT-oE2P57eV5IJrU_wsBKhVt88jq0TwHKEXjUbSHjV7k8amBldBi0/s320/Tamar_of_Georgia_(1160-1213)%20via%20Wikimedia.jpg" width="250" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: left;"><i><span style="font-size: x-small;">Queen Tamar of Georgia</span></i></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i><span style="font-size: xx-small;">via Wikimedia Commons</span></i></div></td></tr></tbody></table>This is the last of four extended periods of multiple overlapping female monarchs. The first, which lasted about 75 years, started with the accession of Tamar the Great in Georgia in 1184. For 14 years before that she had served as co-ruler with her father. During this period there were 11 women on thrones. Several of these were the leaders of Crusader Kingdoms set up in the Holy Lands or along the Crusader routes. Some of them were more or less trophy wives for ambitious younger sons seeking fortune and power in an age when anything a woman had, including her kingdom, legally belonged to her husband. Four of the 11 ladies were Queens of Jerusalem. This period ended with the death of Adelasia of Torres, who succeeded her brother over the Judgeship/Kingship of Logudoro in Sardinia. When her brother died without heirs, the leaders in Logudoro chose between Adelasia and her younger sister Benedetta. Ultimately, they picked Adelasia because her powerful husband, who ruled the neighboring Gallura, could defend her kingdom and her claim. When that husband died, she made a couple more strategic marriages, with her and her third husband being declared King and Queen of a new Kingdom of Sardinia. After Husband #3 was taken prisoner on the Italian peninsula, she carried on alone. Despite all of these marriages, she had no surviving children and the Kingdom was broken up after her death in 1259.<p></p><p><b>CONSTANCE II TO MARGRETHE I: The Medieval Period</b></p><p></p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6_9BBB3WjPU9iBAp5gYuZ9eecLNhw7nmfNcM2FG1EcoWuQS4L4AfiiKd39esGeIEJtGnUAKWeJlzmAgYK__34N7Qik3Bkx-mi2jmV0lBPmC3nr9C_5CC6aBCXNTfopxeGJg6hkQiR_Aw7CjosVNPdG2hkx5b2Ahv8xqcX6tQGLH3wa9g1MKeShWt84QY/s887/Margrethe%20I%20of%20Denmark%20photo%20Jacob%20Truedson%20Demitz%20assisted%20by%20Emil%20Eikner%20for%20Ristesson%20via%20Wikimedia.jpg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="887" data-original-width="640" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6_9BBB3WjPU9iBAp5gYuZ9eecLNhw7nmfNcM2FG1EcoWuQS4L4AfiiKd39esGeIEJtGnUAKWeJlzmAgYK__34N7Qik3Bkx-mi2jmV0lBPmC3nr9C_5CC6aBCXNTfopxeGJg6hkQiR_Aw7CjosVNPdG2hkx5b2Ahv8xqcX6tQGLH3wa9g1MKeShWt84QY/s320/Margrethe%20I%20of%20Denmark%20photo%20Jacob%20Truedson%20Demitz%20assisted%20by%20Emil%20Eikner%20for%20Ristesson%20via%20Wikimedia.jpg" width="231" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: right;"><i><span style="font-size: x-small;">Effigy of Queen Margrethe I of <br />Denmark, Sweden & Norway</span></i></div><i><div style="text-align: right;"><i><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Photo by Jacob Truedson Demitz assisted by Emil Eikner<br />for Ristesson via Wikimedia Commons</span></i></div></i></td></tr></tbody></table>The second stretch of simultaneous queens started with the accession of Constance II in Sicily in 1282 and lasted 130 years. Coincidentally, it ended with the death of Margrethe I of Denmark, the only other woman to rule there. The first Margrethe created the Kalmar Union, which united Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Iceland, Greenland, Finland, and even some of the islands that today are part of Scotland under her. The laws preventing female accession were created later. In this period, military might and political power underlaid the sovereign's regnal claims. Margarethe was a Danish princess. At age six, she was engaged to marry Haakon VI, who was King of both Sweden and Norway. He was 18. After some political turmoil and other tragedies, they were finally married four years later. These child marriages and wide age ranges were common at the time. At age 17, she gave birth to their son Olaf, who became King of Denmark upon her father's death five years later. Olaf then became King of Norway before the age of 10 when Margrethe's husband died. Margrethe ruled through the young Olaf until his own mysterious death at age 16. Even today, some think Margrethe had him poisoned. Others believe that a pretender, "False Olaf," who emerged years later was the real King. Margrethe, who was busy consolidating her power within the Kalmar Union, had False Olaf executed. (If you watch the film, <i>Queen of the North,</i> you might believe she killed him even knowing he was her son. Don't fall prey to the moviemakers: the real False Olaf didn't even speak Danish.) This queen streak, which included 20 women, ended with Margrethe's death in October 1412.<p></p><p><b>ISABELLA THE CATHOLIC TO HER GREAT-GREAT GRANDDAUGHTER</b></p><p></p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQsInca2N7L1YerFYVBQBaO41R2OyyW2Y3Jsqvydi08FQUfqOtmq2CjUthi198F3CVqdrjjYm9Mf6MzlxFsONwbMABTYIn2LDckvGHfcl43rMGgSfqqwxLs_I4mn-yeul0xWdBrETiVIuLz7J7xTELEtD32H5MCSAA4YGunvaM49SCCspnF8w8C3Hq7oM/s683/Isabella%20I%20of%20Castile%20statue%20at%20El%20Palacio%20Real%20in%20Madrid%20photo%20by%20Peter%20Schmidl%20via%20Wikimedia%20Commons.jpg" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="683" data-original-width="512" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQsInca2N7L1YerFYVBQBaO41R2OyyW2Y3Jsqvydi08FQUfqOtmq2CjUthi198F3CVqdrjjYm9Mf6MzlxFsONwbMABTYIn2LDckvGHfcl43rMGgSfqqwxLs_I4mn-yeul0xWdBrETiVIuLz7J7xTELEtD32H5MCSAA4YGunvaM49SCCspnF8w8C3Hq7oM/s320/Isabella%20I%20of%20Castile%20statue%20at%20El%20Palacio%20Real%20in%20Madrid%20photo%20by%20Peter%20Schmidl%20via%20Wikimedia%20Commons.jpg" width="240" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: left;"><i><span style="font-size: x-small;">Statue at El Palacio Real in Madrid </span></i></div><i><div style="text-align: left;"><i><span style="font-size: x-small;">of Queen Isabella I of Castile</span></i></div><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><div style="text-align: left;"><i><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Photo by Peter Schmidl via Wikimedia Commons</span></i></div></span></i></td></tr></tbody></table>The third stretch of overlapping queenships began with the accession of Queen Isabella of Castile and Leon in 1474. She succeeded her older half-brother over his own daughter as part of a truce between warring camps in Castile. She married the heir of the neighboring Kingdom of Aragon. Together, Isabella and Ferdinand became known as the Catholic Kings and are most famous in New World as the couple who sponsored Columbus's voyages. In Britain, they may be as well known as the parents of King Henry VIII's very first wife, Catherine of Aragon. This period of powerful queens includes Isabella's daughter Juana, who succeeded her as Queen of Castile, but who was locked away as "La Loca" or "the crazy lady" by her father King Ferdinand and kept in gentile imprisonment by her own son. It also includes Isabella's granddaughter by Catherine, Queen Mary I of England, who is remembered by history as Bloody Mary for her execution of Protestants. Mary's half sister, the Protestant Queen Elizabeth I and their paternal cousin Mary Queen of Scots also ruled in this era. There are three Queens of Navarre in this period, too. The most famous of these may be Jeanne d'Albret, who was a thorn in the side of the French Queen Regent Catherine de Medici. (A Queen Regent is a Queen Consort, usually widowed by her King, who holds power in place of an underage or incapacitated ruler, usually her child.) This period was marked by violent battles between Catholics and the emerging Protestant faiths. In fact, it was rumored that the Catholic Catherine de Medici murdered Protestant Jeanne by sending her poisoned gloves. In England, the very thought of the succession of women to the throne itself proved pretty bloody, too. (See my post <i><a href="https://hrhprincesspalace.blogspot.com/2009/11/killing-queens-bloody-tudor-heritage.html" target="_blank">Killing Queens: A Bloody Tudor Heritage</a>.</i>) Despite this, in England's Tudor Dynasty, women ruled for 50 years, or nearly half of the dynasty's existence.<p></p><p>The woman who ruled last in this period of queens was another descendant of the woman who started it. Isabella Clara Eugenia was Isabella of Castile's great-great granddaughter. She was the first surviving daughter of King Philip II of Spain, whose Habsburg dynasty ruled over great swaths of Europe from Spain across the Netherlands to Austria and beyond. She often acted as an assistant and later as caretaker to her father. At different times in her life, she was suggested as a possible Queen Regnant in France after the Valois dynasty died out and as a successor to England's childless Elizabeth I because Isabella Clara Eugenia was also a descendant of the Lancastrian line of the English royal family. Although neither of these thrones came to her, King Philip decided to divide his vast territories and make her Sovereign of the Spanish Netherlands jointly with her husband-cousin Albert VII, Archduke of Austria. After Albert's death in 1621, she became a Franciscan nun but she continued as Governor of the Netherlands until her own death in 1633. In addition to bringing peace to the region, she is well remembered as a patron of artists, including Rubens and Brueghel the Younger.</p><p><b>THE MODERN QUEENS: 1730 TO 2024</b></p><p></p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhncX7TQrdA1gi-xz-FO2TxBafdFqJjJ0fJ7BmEqryg1fp-NGzM3mjw0QqNmgrxuQQpX9TL05YLgwLDYWiIcqU9gLNru1ptm6zL9zy2zojHgtDzBQyJoqo_HfRsS5hkMmx-BqQwbC20M94XwriThME-Pq0juhuZZgcQvS9fwp6RsX0J3QpEF5tF-5UnTmM/s647/Anna%20Ivanovna%20of%20Russia%20from%20The%20Hermitage,%20St.%20Petersburg%20via%20Wikimedia%20Commons.jpg" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="647" data-original-width="512" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhncX7TQrdA1gi-xz-FO2TxBafdFqJjJ0fJ7BmEqryg1fp-NGzM3mjw0QqNmgrxuQQpX9TL05YLgwLDYWiIcqU9gLNru1ptm6zL9zy2zojHgtDzBQyJoqo_HfRsS5hkMmx-BqQwbC20M94XwriThME-Pq0juhuZZgcQvS9fwp6RsX0J3QpEF5tF-5UnTmM/s320/Anna%20Ivanovna%20of%20Russia%20from%20The%20Hermitage,%20St.%20Petersburg%20via%20Wikimedia%20Commons.jpg" width="253" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: left;"><i><span style="font-size: x-small;">Empress Anna of Russia</span></i></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i><span style="font-size: xx-small;">from the collection of The Hermitage, St. Petersburg</span></i></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i><span style="font-size: xx-small;">via Wikimedia Commons</span></i></div></td></tr></tbody></table>For most of the 18th Century, the Russian Empire was ruled by women. The first male Tsar of the 19th Century changed the rules to ban women leaders, but that's a story for another day. The second of these women, Empress Anna, came to power in 1730 starting the current line of concurrent queens that will end this year with Queen Margrethe II's abdication. Anna was the niece of Peter the Great. Long before her accession in Russia, Uncle Peter married her to the Duke of Courland, who died on the honeymoon journey from Russia to Courland. The 17-year-old bride managed to attain and retain power for 20 years. This experience earned her the Russian crown over her sisters and female cousin when the male Romanovs died out. She was selected by a Supreme Privy Council who asked her to sign "Conditions" limiting her authority. Once she reached Russia and assumed power, it was not long before she disbanded that council, ignored the Conditions, and re-established the Tsarist Autocracy. Although capricious and cruel, she continued the westernization and other modernizations started by Uncle Peter. Anna never remarried and left the throne to her great-nephew, an infant who was soon overthrown and imprisoned by Anna's cousin Elizabeth.<p></p><p>This nearly 300 year stretch of female monarchs includes such well-known and long-reigning women as Catherine the Great in Russia and Empress Maria Theresa in Austria. It also includes two Marias in Portugal and another Isabella in Spain. All together 18 women fill this period, including Napoleon's second wife, Marie Louise of Austria, who was made reigning Duchess of Parma after Napoleon's defeat and exile. In the United Kingdom, this period includes the two longest reigning British monarchs, Queen Victoria (reigned 1837-1901) and her great-great granddaughter Queen Elizabeth II (reigned 1952-2022). These two ladies led the British Empire, later Commonwealth, for a combined 133 years. </p><p>One of the most remarkable groups of women during this period are the Queens of the Netherlands. They represent only the second time in history when three women in a row succeeded each other (see my post <a href="https://hrhprincesspalace.blogspot.com/2013/04/end-of-queen-streak.html" target="_blank">End of the Queen Streak</a>.) The first had been the brief and disputed reign of Lady Jane Grey, followed by Queen Mary I, and her sister Queen Elizabeth I in 16th Century England (see my post <a href="https://hrhprincesspalace.blogspot.com/2013/05/the-original-queen-streak.html" target="_blank">The Original Queen Streak</a>). The Dutch streak started with the accession of 10-year-old Queen Wilhelmina in 1890, whose older half brothers had died leaving her as the only heir to an elderly father. Wilhelmina led her country through World War I and, from exile, through World War II, after which she decided to abdicate in 1948 in favor of her only child, Queen Juliana. Juliana confirmed with Dutch tradition of abdication in 1980, passing the throne to the oldest of her four daughters in 1980. That daughter, Queen Beatrix, voluntarily laid down her crown in 2013 and the Dutch throne went to a man for the first time in 123 years. </p><p>In these last three centuries of continuous queenship, there were some periods where there was only one female monarch at a time. The longest of these periods was during the reign of Queen Victoria, who was the only female monarch after Isabella II was deposed in Spain in 1868 until the accession of the child Queen Wilhelmina in The Netherlands in 1890. </p><p>Interestingly, Victoria's own accession in 1837 made her the fourth woman with a throne in Europe. This was the greatest number of female monarchs at any point in European history. Her co-monarchs in petticoats were Marie Louise in Parma (whose death in 1847 brought this remarkable decade to a close), Maria I in Portugal, and Isabella II in Spain. At 18, Victoria was the newest but not the youngest in the group. Six-year-old Isabella had been on her throne since she was a toddler.</p><p>There had also been one brief period in the 18th Century when three women reigned at once. From 1777 to 1780, women monarchs spanned the breadth of Europe with Catherine the Great on the eastern edge in Russia, Maria Theresa in the middle in Austria, and Maria I in the far west in Portugal. </p><p><a class="gie-slideshow" href="http://www.gettyimages.com/detail/52112062" id="bmBjDU2PSCpHGX6zJKJKyg" style="border: none; color: #a7a7a7; display: inline-block; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Embed from Getty Images</a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'bmBjDU2PSCpHGX6zJKJKyg',sig:'zX3XvlUOTpaEPzPexiBmqL3SxWUZ8nb07yMny4oUoZg=',w:'594px',h:'395px',items:'52112062,568920571,115131710,159115308,461182153',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});</script><script async="" charset="utf-8" src="//embed-cdn.gettyimages.com/widgets.js"></script></p><p>The last period of three simultaneous reigning queens is the longest, starting with Queen Margrethe's accession in 1972 and ending with Queen Beatrix's abdication in 2013. Britain's Elizabeth II was on her throne throughout those 41 years, while Beatrix's mother and predecessor held that throne until 1980.While this may seem lot of reigning queens in an era when there are far fewer monarchs, during these last decades, women were only one-third of the monarchs in Europe.</p><p><b>The Next Queens: Five at Once?</b></p><p></p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiq4j3-29bkwgavr0J6G6gAD4g-3XzXN6vc1xmiKpN1c6eVZY947OBH17KTsuNsKD74Ukbo2MqQQyrmUkhBxxQpxI-PIgemK7oAdj8mTufhFimUA_O2d4aeTbytCQB5FmjTAQ6OrNhU2pmyOpJ996cfW1zjiTkNg0rAuZmLDQp38muBsHRhG8FO_9mtVPg/s1152/Victoria%20of%20Sweden%202022%20Copyright%20Royal%20Court%20of%20Sweden%20Photo%20by%20Linda%20Brostr%C3%B6m.jpg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="768" data-original-width="1152" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiq4j3-29bkwgavr0J6G6gAD4g-3XzXN6vc1xmiKpN1c6eVZY947OBH17KTsuNsKD74Ukbo2MqQQyrmUkhBxxQpxI-PIgemK7oAdj8mTufhFimUA_O2d4aeTbytCQB5FmjTAQ6OrNhU2pmyOpJ996cfW1zjiTkNg0rAuZmLDQp38muBsHRhG8FO_9mtVPg/s320/Victoria%20of%20Sweden%202022%20Copyright%20Royal%20Court%20of%20Sweden%20Photo%20by%20Linda%20Brostr%C3%B6m.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: right;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">The next Reigning Queen?</span></div><div style="text-align: right;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden</span></div><div style="text-align: right;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Copyright Royal Court of Sweden | Photo by Linda Broström</span></div></td></tr></tbody></table>Once Queen Margrethe relinquishes her duties, it may be several years until there is another reigning Queen in Europe, but it is possible that there will be women on five thrones at once within the next 20-30 years. The one who will likely succeed first is Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden. The succession laws there were changed to include women when she was a toddler, which caused her to jump ahead of her younger brother who had been born as Crown Prince. Her 77-year-old father King Carl XVI Gustav celebrated 50 years on the throne last year. With his cousin Margrethe laying down her scepter just two years after her 50th jubilee, perhaps he will follow the spreading trend of abdication. Otherwise, if he lives into his 90s, it could still be a long time before 46-year-old Victoria is queen. Since her oldest child, 10-year-old Princess Estelle, is a girl, Sweden is currently the only monarchy with two direct heirs who are female. <p></p><p>In Belgium, the Netherlands, and Spain, the female heirs were all born in the 2000s and their reigning fathers were all born in the 1960s, which makes it extremely likely that these women's own reigns will overlap. All of their dads acceded upon the abdication of their own reigning parents within 14 months of each other 10 years ago. Elisabeth Duchess of Brabant is the first-ever female heir in Belgium. At 22, she is eldest of these three princesses. The Netherlands' Catharina Amalia Princess of Orange just turned 20 in December. Spain's Leonor Princess of Asturias is the youngest at 18. Elisabeth and Amalia are pursuing university studies while Leonor is undertaking military duties, which Elisabeth has also done previously.</p><p>In Norway, the heir to the ailing 86-year-old King Harald V is a man, 50-year-old Crown Prince Haakon Magnus. However, after him, his daughter Princess Ingrid Alexandra will inherit the crown. She will celebrate her 20th birthday one week after Queen Margrethe's abdication, making her a contemporary of Elisabeth, Catharina Amalia, and Leonor. In 2024, she is undergoing a year of military training but will likely pursue university studies in the future. </p><p>All of these women seem very comfortable in their public roles. As the younger women emerge more into the public limelight and likely start their own families in the next decade or two, it will be interesting to watch how they develop and which areas of public activity most attracts them. As the author of a blog about princesses, I certainly am looking forward to what the future holds for them!</p><p><a class="gie-slideshow" href="http://www.gettyimages.com/detail/1737956568" id="yTdU07FIRz9K14HX9R7NAA" style="border: none; color: #a7a7a7; display: inline-block; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Embed from Getty Images</a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'yTdU07FIRz9K14HX9R7NAA',sig:'aw6PIP5uCgGARbHLmHoA_5LL0MCV4TsdFJ7Jeq-Oo4U=',w:'396px',h:'594px',items:'1737956568,1737959220,1756386299,1404385004,1241368678',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});</script><script async="" charset="utf-8" src="//embed-cdn.gettyimages.com/widgets.js"></script></p><p><br /></p>Cheryl Ciucevichhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00388994160381820590noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3343837766028558539.post-35435309133489936772022-12-30T11:59:00.000-05:002023-02-25T17:27:11.444-05:00The Lady Formerly Known As Princess<p> </p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEgmz27QSDIiHjDBRwEz0avdvtzKWNSFWa2Y1pUSHy7vCVY3KE7cTLHOVK-gYnUViNiPJez0y3y8gUPDZCZk95HCEkjGgl2uCjY94hSiAV9KaXMBSNrVuI8QCgWCClRHaTOQVDIYlVPwUCQA8GT62CpyhXmupSHM7rmvM506MZZYHBASmYNRxesoEd/s973/Princess_Patricia_of_Connaught,_1912.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="973" data-original-width="640" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEgmz27QSDIiHjDBRwEz0avdvtzKWNSFWa2Y1pUSHy7vCVY3KE7cTLHOVK-gYnUViNiPJez0y3y8gUPDZCZk95HCEkjGgl2uCjY94hSiAV9KaXMBSNrVuI8QCgWCClRHaTOQVDIYlVPwUCQA8GT62CpyhXmupSHM7rmvM506MZZYHBASmYNRxesoEd/s320/Princess_Patricia_of_Connaught,_1912.jpg" width="210"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: left;"><i><span style="font-size: x-small;">Princess Patricia of Connaught, 1912</span></i></div><i><div style="text-align: left;"><i><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Illustrated London News via Wikimedia Commons</span></i></div></i></td></tr></tbody></table><br>"It's not a good idea to give up being a princess." Thirty-plus years of a happy marriage had not made it easier for Lady Patricia Ramsay to forget that she had been born a princess. As she watched her cousin's granddaughter struggle with the decision to surrender her rank in order to marry for love. Patsy, as she was known in the family, spoke to the young Princess Margaret from what she called "bitter experience." (For Margaret's story, see my post, <a href="http://hrhprincesspalace.blogspot.com/2009/12/affair-to-remember-princess-margaret.html">An Affair to Remember.</a>)<p></p><p>Born on St. Patrick's Day in 1886, Princess Victoria Patricia Helena Elizabeth of Connaught was one of the youngest of grandchildren of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. Her father Prince Arthur Duke of Connaught was the seventh of Victoria's nine children while her mother Princess Louise Margaret was the granddaughter of a Prussian king. While other princesses of her generation tended to marry quite young, Patricia remained a spinster into her 30s. Her older sister Princess Margaret of Connaught made a love match with the imminently suitable Crown Prince Gustav Adolf of Sweden in her early 20s. Within weeks, Margaret was already pregnant with the first of six pregnancies. </p><p>As the niece of Europe's most respected bon vivant, King Edward VII, Patricia was also expected to marry a future king. Her parents traipsed the teenager around Europe. A Portuguese prince? No, thank you. The King of Spain, perhaps? No, he went to her first cousin, Princess Victoria Eugenie of Battenberg. If not a German Grand Duke, how about Tsar Nicholas II of Russia's younger brother? Whether real opportunities or imagined by well-meaning aunties, Patricia passed them all up. Instead, she spent her early adulthood traveling the globe with her parents. She followed her father, an Army officer, to a posting in India and then to Canada when he was appointed Governor General. The lively princess was a popular figure there, often accompanying her father on official duties due to her mother's illness. She criss-crossed Canada traveling thousands of miles during their time there. Her portrait appeared on a one dollar note, she was made Colonel-in-Chief of a light infantry brigade named in her honor, and a lake in the Province of Alberta was named for her. When her mother died in 1916, Patricia inherited a fortune, making her financially independent and perhaps enabling her to follow her own heart. Her mother is said to have given her daughter's romance her blessing on her deathbed.</p><p>It is perhaps not surprising that this Army officer's daughter found her true love in the arms of another military officer, Alexander Ramsay, who served as one of her father's aides-de-camp. Ramsay, who rose to the rank of Admiral and was knighted, had been nobly born. His father was the 13th Earl of Dalhousie, but he had no crowns or coronets of his own to offer the Princess when they married in February 1919, barely three months after the Great War had ended. She was not the first princess to marry outside of royal house, but she was the first modern princess to do so and her cousin, who had become King George V in 1910, was in a bit of a downsizing mood. At the height of the war, he had Anglicized the entire extended family, changing the royal house to Windsor and requiring aunts, uncles, and cousins galore to surrender any Germanic names and titles. The Battenberg princes became Mountbatten marquesses and the Tecks became Cambridges. Not only was he hoping to tamp down any hints of their Teutonic heritage, he generally wanted to present a smaller, easier to manage royal family to the British public, in hopes of hanging on to his throne as other crowns were toppled and his cousins in Russia were slaughtered.</p><p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguyf8AS7WeqTOY4gC4Ln5vPYKUKUfq4ndV7dTEdgKn4YmfJVdp7jjEhU21_Ju9xIe9Ftkw_Sk2ySr11fHrYzsjg1nNapObe9VHcPAhMY7BM-VexiLxSfPcrhaWxOEYh9X8G0R2sLrW_sNOX57M7GechpyQYHRvcbQ3TAnq00z93_YKlrgw2s7rl0ZO/s998/998px-Princess_Patricia's_Wedding_LCCN2014708674.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="998" height="289" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguyf8AS7WeqTOY4gC4Ln5vPYKUKUfq4ndV7dTEdgKn4YmfJVdp7jjEhU21_Ju9xIe9Ftkw_Sk2ySr11fHrYzsjg1nNapObe9VHcPAhMY7BM-VexiLxSfPcrhaWxOEYh9X8G0R2sLrW_sNOX57M7GechpyQYHRvcbQ3TAnq00z93_YKlrgw2s7rl0ZO/w400-h289/998px-Princess_Patricia's_Wedding_LCCN2014708674.jpg" width="400"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: right;"><i><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Bain News Service via Wikimedia Commons</span></i></td></tr></tbody></table><br>So, when Princess Patricia chose to marry "beneath" her, Cousin Georgie approved her decision to surrender her royal rank. While her sister remained Crown Princess Margaret of Sweden, she became merely Lady Patricia Ramsay at the age of 32. Despite this downgrade, Patricia kept her rank above marchionesses and she remained a beloved member of the British Royal Family. She even participated in the procession of Princes at the Coronations of King George VI in 1936 and Queen Elizabeth II in 1952.<p></p><p>The couple had known each other for over a decade and had eyes only for each other for nearly that long. The war and his lowly birth had postponed their nuptials. The two were separated as he served with distinction in the Mediterranean. Ramsay returned to Canada to propose to Patricia in Nova Scotia but they were married in the bosom of the royal family at Westminster Abbey in London. Theirs was the first royal wedding to be held there since the 14th Century, but it was certainly not the last. Much like the future Queen Elizabeth II's wedding at the Abbey in the dark days after World War II, Patricia's wedding was a welcome bright spot for the war-weary populace.</p><p>Patricia was beloved by the public at home and especially in Canada. Like many of her relatives, including the current King Charles III, she was a talented artist as well as an athlete. She was known to enjoy riding, field hockey, golf, and ice skating. After her marriage, she withdrew from royal duties, with one major exception: she remained Colonel-in-Chief of Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry, visiting with them and keeping track of them over the decades until her death in 1974, just 14 months after her husband's passing.</p><p></p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtreqj5aOevp3GPmXnG-aYkVRq_S2O7oTi-HNZBnZJQm85FEQ9B_iWUh1aDJkY4U_PmoqUs_pRHo1_07hYhmU0Px6fs9FRG89xkXZ3__g8sk3n36QwAFkH0WhT9JXL-KozZbwp6k7myOmzuN81L-A7WkXGJXvSRAxEe7x2Ix8jXCMn7bORiM9p577K/s640/Lady_Patricia_Ramsay_and_son.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="640" data-original-width="463" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtreqj5aOevp3GPmXnG-aYkVRq_S2O7oTi-HNZBnZJQm85FEQ9B_iWUh1aDJkY4U_PmoqUs_pRHo1_07hYhmU0Px6fs9FRG89xkXZ3__g8sk3n36QwAFkH0WhT9JXL-KozZbwp6k7myOmzuN81L-A7WkXGJXvSRAxEe7x2Ix8jXCMn7bORiM9p577K/s320/Lady_Patricia_Ramsay_and_son.jpg" width="232"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: left;"><i><span style="font-size: x-small;">Lady Patricia and her son,</span></i></div><i><div style="text-align: left;"><i><span style="font-size: x-small;">Alexander Ramsay of Mar</span></i></div><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><div style="text-align: left;"><i><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Bain News Service via Wikimedia Commons</span></i></div></span></i></td></tr></tbody></table><br>Ramsay had continued his naval career after the wedding, commanding one of the early aircraft carriers and eventually commanding all of the carriers in the fleet in the 1920s. In the 1930s, he served as Commander-in-Chief of the East Indies Station and then Fifth Sea Lord and Chief of Naval Air Services. He finally retired in 1942 at the age of 61.<p></p><p>While her more royal illustrious cousins were removed from their thrones in Greece, Germany, Romania, Yugoslavia, and Spain, the Ramsays lived a relatively quiet life in Surrey with their only child Alexander Ramsay of Mar, whose wife Flora Fraser, the 21st Lady Saltoun remains close to the British royals today. As beloved members of the extended royal family, Patricia and her husband are buried in the Royal Burial Grounds at Frogmore in Windsor. </p><p><b><br></b></p><p><b>More about Princess Patricia, Lady Ramsay:</b><br><a href="http://royalmusingsblogspotcom.blogspot.com/2009/02/in-princess-out-lady.html">In a Princess, Out a Lady</a> on Royal Musings<br><a href="http://royalmusingsblogspotcom.blogspot.com/2019/02/princess-patricia-of-connaught.html">Princess Patricia of Connaught</a> on Royal Musings<br><a href="https://www.westminster-abbey.org/abbey-commemorations/royals/princess-patricia-of-connaught">Princess Patricia of Connaught</a> on Westminster Abbey<br><a href="https://www.unofficialroyalty.com/march-17-daily-featured-royal-date/">Princess Patricia of Connaught, Lady Patricia Ramsay</a> on Unofficial Royalty<br><a href="https://www.macleans.ca/royalty/princess-patricia-the-first-modern-princess/">Princess Patricia: The first modern royal princess</a> on Maclean's<br><a href="https://writeroyalty.com/princess-patricia-a-royal-trendsetter/">Princess Patricia: A royal trendsetter </a>on Write Royalty</p>Cheryl Ciucevichhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00388994160381820590noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3343837766028558539.post-72255295800484962902022-09-11T00:20:00.010-04:002022-09-11T01:14:48.686-04:00Who's Royal and Who's Not<p> Across Europe, the "rules" for being royal vary widely. In most of the monarchies, there are clearly documented and followed laws and/or guidelines that define who has royal status as well as who is in the Line of Succession. You might be surprised to learn, however, that the most well-known and well-recognized monarchy is actually the one with the most confusing, broadest, and least well-followed. If you haven't been paying attention in the last few years, I'll give you a hint about which monarchy seems to be "winging" it from moment to moment: it's abbreviation is U.K. In the last 23 years, the British Royal Family has been adapting its own well-established guidelines on what, to some, seems to be a rather case-by-case basis. Before we get into the whys and wherefores of how this is actually a long-term strategic plan on the part of the brand new King Charles III, looks take a quick look at how it works in the other Kingdoms.</p><p></p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrnDhG_ZjCHLDgXz_0ErwoV0zg6dLMSG-F0nS7Xi4PwVxKEOzL7Btd5ohslUSIkwRr-66daLiPLuYM8ZcFvLwrfRAociyLbCEd519iQsbRTvh5b1l0RTgFJnrgU3GZ1CbGYyAmOVgX9xeOVq37b-HPIL6O-Bm0P6hStPeLZJbIwZKhgZpnU5KxeXaa/s2048/phlippe%20and%20elisabeth.jpg" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1365" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrnDhG_ZjCHLDgXz_0ErwoV0zg6dLMSG-F0nS7Xi4PwVxKEOzL7Btd5ohslUSIkwRr-66daLiPLuYM8ZcFvLwrfRAociyLbCEd519iQsbRTvh5b1l0RTgFJnrgU3GZ1CbGYyAmOVgX9xeOVq37b-HPIL6O-Bm0P6hStPeLZJbIwZKhgZpnU5KxeXaa/s320/phlippe%20and%20elisabeth.jpg" width="213" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: left;"><i><span style="font-size: x-small;">King Philippe and the next monarch</span></i></div><i><div style="text-align: left;"><i><span style="font-size: x-small;">Elisabeth Duchess of Brabant</span></i></div><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><div style="text-align: left;"><i><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Photo by Michel Gronemberger,</span></i></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Royal Palace, Brussels</span></i></div></span></i></td></tr></tbody></table><b>BELGIUM</b><br />The most recently formed European monarchy, the Kingdom of the Belgians was formed in 1831 and implemented agnatic primogeniture succession plan. This meant that only males and only male-line descendants of King Leopold I could become King. Historically, this has been a fairly small dynasty, but it always managed to have such an heir even if he had to skip from uncle to nephew or brother to brother. This was finally changed in 1991 when cognatic primogeniture was introduced, allowing women to be eligible and for the line of succession to follow birth order. Eligibility was applied to living dynasts, but the order of succession was not retroactive. In practice, this meant that only the legitimate descendants of King Albert II are in the line. His illegitimate daughter Delphine is barred by being born out of wedlock even though the courts granted her and her children royal status in 2021. The children of King Leopold III by his second wife, a morganatic marriage, (<a href="http://hrhprincesspalace.blogspot.com/2016/11/centennial-birthday-of-controversial.html" target="_blank">my post about that marriage</a>) are also barred from accession. Likewise the grandchildren in this line do not have royal status. Interestingly, Belgium is the only European monarchy that has an interregnum between monarchs. The new monarch does not accede until taking an oath before Parliament. In the other monarchies, accession happens immediately upon the death or abdication of the previous monarch. Royal titles are granted to all children and grandchildren of a monarch regardless of the gender of the child or the parent.<div><br /></div><div><b><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLXPkqzbyo9FXYM_V1vJN_0DqGA2Bu7zi9u5O2L5P3jJCPIfhN9-gBkZM8F8f2yvPinQ8djBmnp4Q7gJxExjEWKyv2-HELgVJJMeRrWOfaQdNIOuONPYWtOnw2KELDGp0eE5mRTSYjEHe5EaItbdLTep6KfKASnGsAz83K-jV_jLdqWiMIYd6slPM5/s859/margrethe%20and%20sisters.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="859" data-original-width="600" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLXPkqzbyo9FXYM_V1vJN_0DqGA2Bu7zi9u5O2L5P3jJCPIfhN9-gBkZM8F8f2yvPinQ8djBmnp4Q7gJxExjEWKyv2-HELgVJJMeRrWOfaQdNIOuONPYWtOnw2KELDGp0eE5mRTSYjEHe5EaItbdLTep6KfKASnGsAz83K-jV_jLdqWiMIYd6slPM5/s320/margrethe%20and%20sisters.jpg" width="224" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-size: x-small;">Queen Margrethe II of Denmark (center) <br />with her sisters, Queen Anne Marie<br />of Greece (left) and Princess Benedikte</span><br /><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Photo by Keld Navntoft, Kongehuset</span></i></td></tr></tbody></table><br />DENMARK</b></div><div>In Denmark, the oldest monarchy in Europe at 1,000 years, women were previously banned from the succession until a 1953 referendum followed by a constitutional amendment gave women succession rights, although with preference for sons over daughters. It also limited the line of succession to descendants of King Christian X, effectively removing all the Greek royals, although they continue still use the titles of Prince or Princess of Greece AND Denmark, because a Danish prince had been created King of Greece in the 19th Century. (The former Greek king, however, is married to a Danish princess, so their children are nieces and nephews of the current monarch and included in royal events in Denmark. Since the Greek king's sister married a Spanish king, his kids are also first cousins of the current Spanish monarch.) In 1953, Danish King Frederik IX was the father of three daughters. The eldest, today's Queen Margrethe II, was 13 when she became the heir instead of her uncle Prince Knud. Gender-blind accession was introduced in 2009. Children of the monarch and the heir are royal highnesses. The children of the Queen's younger son have princely titles but are just Highnesses. The official members of the royal family are children of the monarch or male-line grandchildren. Therefore, Margrethe's sisters are members, but their children are not. Likewise, Uncle Knud's daughter, Princess Elisabeth, remained an official dynast until her death in 2018. Unlike in many of the other monarchies, none of the dynasts have been granted dukedoms or principalities.<br /><br /><p></p><p><b></b></p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEs9_mDqXX7g-XN58WaKjXKFf-0eMQYjbbxDJTKRCYGRAy_aN_j_zSznLRwCVbZPYLuuvfIPjM1iyUWE1bEPlojPgJrQn9H0_82tt7vc-I0Jtcyv8m7uPpDKDQQM6TXIXAD2atSVPUDZ04-zECKx3cD-gEKrR3D8np_kAGgOkgj6I2v7qjpzsk_Cwb/s1024/Alexander%20and%20Amalia.jpg" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1024" data-original-width="707" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEs9_mDqXX7g-XN58WaKjXKFf-0eMQYjbbxDJTKRCYGRAy_aN_j_zSznLRwCVbZPYLuuvfIPjM1iyUWE1bEPlojPgJrQn9H0_82tt7vc-I0Jtcyv8m7uPpDKDQQM6TXIXAD2atSVPUDZ04-zECKx3cD-gEKrR3D8np_kAGgOkgj6I2v7qjpzsk_Cwb/s320/Alexander%20and%20Amalia.jpg" width="221" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-size: x-small;">King Willem Alexander and the next<br />monarch Amalia Princess of Orange</span><br /><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Photo by RVD - Martijn Beekman</span></i></td></tr></tbody></table><b><br />THE NETHERLANDS</b><br />In the last 125 years, The Netherlands may have introduced the most changes to it succession rules and royal family definitions, mostly by necessity. When King Willem III's adult sons died with issue, there was a crisis as he only had left an infant daughter and girls were strictly banned. So they changed it to allow girls if there were no eligible male heirs. Thus, Wilhelmina became Queen as a child. She had an only child, another girl. Then her daughter had all daughters. Finally, Queen Beatrix had a trio of sons. (Here's <a href="http://hrhprincesspalace.blogspot.com/2013/04/end-of-queen-streak.html" target="_blank">my post about the Queen streak in the Netherlands</a>.) Then, changing societal norms led the Dutch to adopt absolute primogeniture in 1983. Of course, Beatrix's oldest son, the current King Willem Alexander has a trio of daughters so no gender differentiation would have happened any way. One of the most interesting things about the Dutch monarchy is that it has severely limited who is in the Line of Succession to a very small list of people based on the proximity of blood kinship to the current monarch. Since they also have a well-established tradition of abdication, that means some people get dropped from the list every few decades. The proximity limits succession to the current monarch's children, grandchildren, siblings, nieces/nephews, and aunts/uncles. Cousins of the monarch are not included. Currently, there are only eight people in the line. His nieces by his late brother Prince Friso are not included because Floris and his wife did not receive official permission to marry. Royal titles have also changed. The grandchildren of Queen Juliana were all granted princely titles (if the parents received permission to marry) but the grandchildren of Queen Beatrix who were not in the direct line are styled as Count or Countess. It will be interesting to see what happens when King Willem Alexander's daughters start families, but that may be awhile since oldest is currently 18.<p></p><p><b><br /></b></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaByUVk0yZLLp4Z-9plDdYryoZfX1hU-JjRNEUFS3Utx8oSTu8FRzwZBs28S9lgH8AEcOuRzG1yd6Aw-JS9gSX2K20wqpHok7fRTA0kdxWvjydvgX5K__Tlb1ihQ7GewdBUO4xoEe-SttIo7GM7u6dUm2Bux23VzzMUEBitR4cYqxQmX1b1PlksM9B/s5000/Harald%20Haakon%20Ingrid.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="5000" data-original-width="3750" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaByUVk0yZLLp4Z-9plDdYryoZfX1hU-JjRNEUFS3Utx8oSTu8FRzwZBs28S9lgH8AEcOuRzG1yd6Aw-JS9gSX2K20wqpHok7fRTA0kdxWvjydvgX5K__Tlb1ihQ7GewdBUO4xoEe-SttIo7GM7u6dUm2Bux23VzzMUEBitR4cYqxQmX1b1PlksM9B/s320/Harald%20Haakon%20Ingrid.jpg" width="240" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-size: x-small;">King Harald and the next two monarchs<br />Crown Prince Haakon and <br />Princess Ingrid Alexandra</span><br /><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Photo by Kimm Saatvedt, Det kongelige hoff</span></i></td></tr></tbody></table><b><br />NORWAY</b><br />Since the modern Norwegian monarchy was launched in 1905, it has the smallest royal family. For the first 24 years, it included only three people: King Haakon VII, Queen Maud, and their only child Crown Prince Olav. Olav added a son and two daughters, but female-line grandchildren receive no titles and are not considered members of the royal family. So, when Olav died, the family had only grown to six people: Olav's three children, his daughter-in-law, and his son's two children. Agnatic primogeniture meant that female descendants were not in the line of succession. In 1971, male-preference cognatic primogeniture was adopted allowing women to accede if they had no brothers. This meant that the first child of King Harald, Princess Martha Louise, falls behind her little brother, Crown Prince Haakon. Agnatic primogeniture was adopted in 1990 but was not retroactive meaning that Haakon stays ahead of his big sister, but his first-born child Princess Ingrid Alexandra is ahead of her little brother. More recently, Norway further restricted royal status to only the heir and spouse and the heir's firstborn are styled as Royal Highnesses. The children of a monarch and the heir have princely titles, but they are styled simply has Highness. This change was retroactive impacting the current King's sister and daughter. So, Norway is now specifically planning for a very small royal family into the future. <p></p><p><b></b></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9X86FeI_i81ov6ZHGuSOXI4Ymq5M-HqZr4aM31A-sMpzOYzPHhbEvItq_QadUQWzWJHCEuscqGOtvMSRm06wZPVuzVoRJ0LFc8V0pKVyfTJq64HIiCWWB1HngPInOh3o6Q6HZLRJUUCOguRSXs_ocSH6G_5KY6LrR13f9bY_35g4cXTy8BTMod-7i/s2363/felipe%20and%20letizia.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2363" data-original-width="1772" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9X86FeI_i81ov6ZHGuSOXI4Ymq5M-HqZr4aM31A-sMpzOYzPHhbEvItq_QadUQWzWJHCEuscqGOtvMSRm06wZPVuzVoRJ0LFc8V0pKVyfTJq64HIiCWWB1HngPInOh3o6Q6HZLRJUUCOguRSXs_ocSH6G_5KY6LrR13f9bY_35g4cXTy8BTMod-7i/s320/felipe%20and%20letizia.jpg" width="240" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-size: x-small;">King Felipe & Queen Letizia</span><br /><span style="font-size: xx-small;">photo by Estela de Castro</span></i></td></tr></tbody></table><b><br />SPAIN</b><br />Spain is now the only European kingdom that continues to use male-preference cognatic primogeniture. When the current King Felipe V's first child was a girl, there was some talk about changing the law to allow her accede even if she had a brother, but there was not a lot of political will behind it. When Felipe only had one other child, another girl, the discussion faded away. (Felipe himself has two older sisters.) Spain is an ancient kingdom with different extant claimants to the throne. However, after the monarchy was restored in 1975 after the dictatorship of General Franco, the legal line of succession was limited to the descendants of King Juan Carlos: so Felipe, his two sisters, and their offspring. Despite the male-preference succession, Juan Carlos granted dukedoms to his daughters and, by extension, their husbands. Early in his reign, King Felipe stripped his sister Infanta Cristina of her title as Duchess of Palma de Mallorca because she and her husband were under investigation for fraud, for which her husband later served prison time. His oldest daughter bares the heir's title as Princess of Asturias, which has been granted to the heir regardless of gender since the 1400s. However, many Princesses of the Asturias were stripped of the title upon the birth of little brothers, sometimes getting it back when the brother died young. (Here's <a href="http://hrhprincesspalace.blogspot.com/2015/11/celebrating-princess-of-asturias.html" target="_blank">my post about Princesses of Asturias.</a>)<p></p><p><b></b></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhm075gcxZY3MgLdCFo9iCLk8cwHEFQkSgy3aJQY7whoNJU0HdZ_d2-WNo923XrY04Lh9wyoEZJhqiGtigWU66LYFfOaObkG9yBHFapAdaHeg5KGXG0dlv06NnKIms85fWEARzDx-ZG3r9drt5r-n6Pzxu317HmAqpkWkIqn-DzuyDMJLXeoHk3X1oX/s512/gustav%20victoria%20and%20estelle.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="512" data-original-width="349" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhm075gcxZY3MgLdCFo9iCLk8cwHEFQkSgy3aJQY7whoNJU0HdZ_d2-WNo923XrY04Lh9wyoEZJhqiGtigWU66LYFfOaObkG9yBHFapAdaHeg5KGXG0dlv06NnKIms85fWEARzDx-ZG3r9drt5r-n6Pzxu317HmAqpkWkIqn-DzuyDMJLXeoHk3X1oX/s320/gustav%20victoria%20and%20estelle.jpg" width="218" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-size: x-small;">King Carl XVI Gustav and the next two<br />heirs Crown Princess Victoria and <br />Princess Estelle</span><br /><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Photo by Thron Ullberg/The Royal Court of Sweden</span></i></td></tr></tbody></table><b><br />SWEDEN</b><br />In the late 19th and throughout most of the 20th Centuries, Sweden came close to ending its royal dynasty because of the strict succession rules put in place when the dynasty was established by Napoleon with his friend, Charles Jean Bernadotte as the new king. As in Norway a century later, the royal family consisted only of a King, Queen, and Crown Prince for many years. Over the decades, the family grew, but the dynasty was limited to male descendants. This created a few collateral branches of the family, but the branches sprouted mostly girls, bringing these royal lines to an end. The strict equal marriage rules also caused havoc as prince after prince refused to marry princesses and lost the right of accession for both themselves and any descendants. By 1973, when King Gustav VI Adolf was succeeded by his grandson, current King Carl XVI Gustav, there was only one person in line for the throne. His uncle Prince Bertil, who only remained eligible as a "spare" to the young king by denying himself marriage to his longtime girlfriend. The old king had also prevented the new king from marrying his lady love, another commoner. So, early in his reign Carl Gustav changed the dynastic rules. Soon both the new king and his aging Uncle Bertil were newlyweds. (Read about their wives in my post <a href="http://hrhprincesspalace.blogspot.com/2015/06/royal-brides-of-sweden.html">Royal Brides of Sweden</a>.) Carl Gustav and his Queen Silvia had a daughter and then a son. When the government decided in 1980 to introduce not just female succession but to not implement male-preference, the King tried to get them to let his infant son maintain his position as Crown Prince, as would later happen in Norway. The Swedes, however, overruled him and the firstborn Victoria became Crown Princess. All of the King's children and grandchildren have also been given dukedoms and princely titles. His sisters are princesses but their children have no royal titles. Initially, the King made all of his descendants Royal Highnesses. Under pressure, however, to reduce the quickly growing Royal House, he removed the "Royal" style from the grandchildren by his two younger children. This change had no impact on the line of succession which includes all of his descendants but only his descendants as the 1980 changes did not apply to his sisters nor to the descendants to earlier princesses nor of the princes who had previously married commoners.<p></p><p><b>THE UNITED KINGDOM</b><br />[Deep breath] Now, back to the United Kingdom, which has so many layers of rules and traditions and restrictions that I wouldn't be surprised if members of the British Royal Family fully understand them themselves. We'll take a look first at succession, which is governed by Acts of Parliament. Then, we will move on to the question of who is and is not royal, which has preoccupied so much public discourse in recent years.</p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh06YBaYxQHQdWKL8nMEBMPDfipvS3BcvH8Hxmjxq3E6DZituBl3_nuyYOZccX5gpgxb2GuAm3GFdqOS9uBz4VQgkem2wGoyHdBs8S9BZJkYIGtwqNemzspuyz4nhB-LI6UaCIyteYWEN1yfKmy5opDxBRwMLuo02cvdoL_jS6O2ooklOTsKR0rcGWr/s1412/succession.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="702" data-original-width="1412" height="199" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh06YBaYxQHQdWKL8nMEBMPDfipvS3BcvH8Hxmjxq3E6DZituBl3_nuyYOZccX5gpgxb2GuAm3GFdqOS9uBz4VQgkem2wGoyHdBs8S9BZJkYIGtwqNemzspuyz4nhB-LI6UaCIyteYWEN1yfKmy5opDxBRwMLuo02cvdoL_jS6O2ooklOTsKR0rcGWr/w400-h199/succession.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-size: x-small;"><b>The "Slimmed Down Monarchy"?</b> The Duchess of Cornwall, Prince of <br />Wales, Queen, Prince George, Duke of Cambridge, Princess Charlotte, <br />Duchess of Cambridge, Prince Louis on the palace balcony <br />during the Queen's Platinum Jubilee in 2022.</span></i></td></tr></tbody></table><p><b>UK SUCCESSION</b></p><p>The succession to the British throne is limited by several acts of Parliament. The monarch has no power to change the succession. He cannot remove anyone. He cannot add any one. He cannot skip any one. Over the years, people have asked me if I thought Charles would be the next king. The answer has always been "yes" because that is what the law says. So, for those who thought William should have succeeded Queen Elizabeth or think that either Prince Harry or Prince Andrew should be removed. Even if they wanted to (which I doubt they do), neither The Queen nor King Charles have the ability to do this.</p><p><b>The acts governing succession include:</b><br /><b><i>The Bill of Right 1689 | Scottish Claim of Rights Act 1689</i></b><br />When the Catholic King James II fled the country in 1688, he was determined to have abandoned the throne for both himself and his newborn son. The next three people in line were Mary and Anne, his Protestant daughters by a previous wife, and his late sister's only son Prince William of Orange, who happened to be Mary's husband. Parliament offered the throne to William and Mary as joint monarchs. This legislation limited the succession first to any descendants of Mary and William, then to Anne and her descendants, then to any children William might have by another wife if Mary predeceased him (which she did). As it happened, none of three of them had children who survived childhood, so very soon, there was no one left in the line of succession. Prior to this, the monarchs did select their own successors, usually following agnatic primogeniture. Part of the Wars of the Roses was based on whether the descendants of an older son's daughter should come before the descendants of a younger son's son. The Tudors were particularly noteworthy for shifting around or waiting until the last minute to choose a successor.</p><p><b><i>Act of Settlement 1701</i></b><br />With no heirs for the widowed William or his sister-in-law Anne who succeeded him, Parliament tried to re-set the succession again. This time, they skipped over even more Catholic descendants of the Stuart and settled the Succession on Princess Sophia of the Palatinate and her descendants. She was a female-line granddaughter of the Stuart King James VI and I, who had succeeded the Tudor Queen Elizabeth I 100 years earlier. In addition to her Protestantism, Sophia, who had married the Elector of Hanover, had several healthy and a few grandchildren to her credit. From this point, all Catholics and anyone who married a Catholic, and anyone who was not in communion with the Church of England (by then firmly Protestant) was barred from the Line of Succession. Succession continued to follow male-preference primogeniture, with all sons and their descendants moving ahead of any daughters and their descendants. The Hanoverians were quite prolific. Three centuries later, Electress Sophia of Hanover has about 6,000 living descendants. There is no official list of everyone but it would take quite a massacre for the person at the end of the line to make it to the throne.</p><p><b><i>Succession to the Crown Act 2013</i></b><br />In 2013, the UK and the other dominions who share the British monarch as Head of State, at last adopted gender-neutral accession. This was not applied retroactively to women who were already in the line of succession. For instance, Anne Princess Royal did not suddenly jump forward six places ahead of her younger brothers and their children. Princess Charlotte of Wales, born in 2015, is the first royal girl to not be supplanted by the birth of a younger brother. (There is a story that, as a child, Queen Elizabeth II used to pray that her parents would give her a brother so she wouldn't have to be the monarch.)</p><p><b style="font-style: italic;">So, who is in the Line of Succession, today?</b><br />Upon the accession of King Charles III, the first seven people in the line are his descendants. First his oldest son William Prince of Wales and his three children in birth order followed by his second son Prince Harry Duke of Sussex and his two children. The next 16 are the other descendants of Queen Elizabeth II. The next six are the additional descendants of King George VI via the late Princess Margaret. Then, there are 33 additional male-line descendants of King George V. In this part of the line, three people are skipped because they are confirmed Catholics but Prince Michael of Kent, whose wife is Catholic, was restored to the line by the Succession to the Crown Act 2013. After that the line moves to the descendants of Mary Princess Royal and Louise Princess Royal before shifting over to the King of Norway. Although other monarchies specifically bar the sovereign of a foreign state, the UK does not. So, if about 100 very specific people die and/or convert to Catholicism, King Harald of Norway could also become King of the United Kingdom, thanks to his British grandmother. The monarch, ex-monarchs, and claimants of Denmark, Sweden, Greece, Romania, Yugoslavia, Germany, and Russia are also in the line. The Spanish royals are descended from Electress Sophia, so they could get in line if they leave the Catholic Church. </p><p><b>Governing UK Royal Titles</b></p><p>Traditionally, children have derived their titles from their fathers. In the many centuries that monarch's daughters married kings and princes, there was no need for princesses to transmit royal status or titles to their children. The princesses married into another royal house, and their children had titles from that royal family. However, these styles and honors are given or withheld at the pleasure of the monarch. </p><p>This wasn't a particularly big deal until Queen Victoria had a particularly big family. With her plethora of children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren to marry off, Victoria decided Serene Highnesses and members of the nobility were suitable spouses. The princesses still got to be princesses and initially there weren't any offspring who weren't at least princelings. That is until her granddaughter Princess Louise of Wales married the Earl Fife, a Scottish peer. Victoria gave him a bump in status making him the 1st Duke of Fife but their children were a marquess and two ladies. No problem for Victoria. When she was succeeded by her son King Edward VIII in 1901, he did not like the fact that any of his grandchildren did not have princely titles, so he fixed it by granting Louise, his eldest daughter, the title Princess Royal and making her surviving children HH Princess Alexandra of Fife and HH Princess Louise of Fife. His son and heir King George V had an opposite point of view. He thought the British Royal House, which was under criticism for being too German in the midst of World War I, also had two many princelings and princesses hanging about. So, in addition to changing the name of the royal family to the House of Windsor, he issued the 1917 Letters Patent. He didn't deprive his nieces or any of his cousins of their titles, but he certainly didn't mind if the ladies, like Maud of Fife, relinquished them when they married men who weren't themselves royals. </p><p><b><i>1917 Letters Patent</i></b><br />In order to limit the quickly expanding number of British royals, King George V issued Letters Patent (a document issued by a monarch to grant a right) in 1917. This document says that the following people were entitled to royal status (HRH) and princely titles:<br /></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>the children of a monarch</li><li>the male-line grandchildren of monarch (so not the children of Princesses of the Blood)</li><li>the oldest son of the oldest son of the Prince of Wales </li></ul><div>Easy, peasy. Crystal clear so everyone could understand. No problem, right? Wait about a century...</div><div><br /></div><div><b><i>1990s Way Ahead Group</i></b><br />In the wake of the fire at Windsor Castle, three divorces among Queen Elizabeth's children, and questions about how to finance the Royal Family and the Monarchy, senior royals and advisers formed the Way Ahead Group to strategize how to modernize for the future. Greatly influenced by the future (now current) king Charles, the issue of titles and royal status quickly came to the forefront. Charles was (and likely still is) in agreement with his great-grandfather that too many royal princes and princesses can create a burden and provide more opportunities for public scrutiny and criticism. For some time, there even seemed to be a question of whether his brother Prince Andrew's daughters would keep their status. They did, but they were also relegated to the awkward position of being non-working royals. In the meantime, Charles' youngest brother Prince Edward, who did not marry until 1999, was satisfied to take on a kind of half-in, half-out status while he and his wife focused primarily on pursuing private careers. At the time of their wedding, three relevant items were announced:<br /><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Queen Elizabeth created him The Earl of Wessex</li><li>his children would not be styled according the 1917 Letters Patent as male-line grandchildren of a monarch but as children of an Earl</li><li>in the fullness of time (basically after the deaths of both of his parents), he would be created The Duke of Edinburgh</li></ul></div><div><br /></div><div>No royal duties for Prince Andrew's children and no duties or even royal titles for Prince Edward's offspring. However, no new Letters Patent regarding either situation was ever issued. Hence, many people (including me) have made the case that all four of these grandchildren are entitled to these titles. We even hoped fruitlessly that Edward's oldest child would start using "her" royal title when she turned 18 in 2021. She didn't and we all cried into our tea cups. </div><div><br /></div><div><b style="font-style: italic;">The Slimmed Down Monarchy</b><br />All of this ties into the so-called "Slimmed Down Monarchy" apparently favored by the new King. He sees that the entirely sober and sensible system introduced in 1917 has grown too unwieldy with royal grandchildren of King George V still carrying out royal duties today in their 70s and 80s and receiving financial support for those duties while sitting as far away from the throne as #56 in the Line of Succession. Most people don't even know these first cousins of our dearly departed Queen exist. Granting fewer royal titles and styles means in the future, there will be a small number of Royal Highnesses, positioned very near the throne, supporting the monarch. Meanwhile the people who are by no means every going to get near acceding to the Crown, won't be wondering whether to put HRH on their cubicles as they take up 9 to 5 jobs in the City to support themselves.</div><div><br /></div><div><b><i>2012 Letters Patent</i></b></div><div>In anticipation of the first child of the first son of the Prince of Wales in 2012, Queen Elizabeth issued Letters Patent to tweak that third item from her grandfather's 1917 Letters Patent. By this time, it was clear that male-preference primogeniture was going to end soon (see Accession to the Crown Act 2013 above). This would mean that if Prince William's first child was a girl, she would be the next monarch after him, even if she had a younger brother. However, under the 1917 rules, she would not have a royal title, but her younger brother (as the first son) would. To correct this situation, the Queen's Letter Patent granted royal status and titles to any children born to Prince William. It did not go further to preemptively grant equal status for any potential future children of his brother Prince Harry. Without such guidance and in the absence of any additional Letters Patent or statement, this means that Harry's children did not have a claim to royal status while they were merely great-grandchildren of the monarch, but under 1917 rules, could have it when they became the grandchildren of the monarch as they did with accession of King Charles III. Why did they leave this issue open when they could have easily clarified it in 2012 or when Harry married or even when Charles acceded. The short answer: to drive me crazy and make everyone angry. Just kidding. Kinda. Seriously, the reasons for this oversight or strategy or nefarious act of evil (depending on your point of you), could be many.</div><div><br /></div><div><i style="font-weight: bold;">In a Nutshell</i><br />Royal status and titles are entirely within the gift of the current monarch. Titles of nobility (like Duke of York or Duke of Sussex, as not-so-random examples) cannot be simply removed once granted as these are then governed by Parliament and can only be removed by Parliament. On the other hand, the monarch can grant an HRH (Philip 1947), withhold it (Wallis 1936), and take it away (Diana and Sarah 1992). The monarch can also decide who is and who is not a prince or princess. So, it is within King Charles III's authority to make all of his grandchildren (or none of them) royal. And, as much as I wish he would have Archie and Lili use royal titles, here are the reasons why I think he won't:<br /><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Prince Edward's children don't use royal titles.</li><li>Throughout their lives, Archie (currently #6) and Lili (#7) will move further and further down the line of succession, making them less and less relevant to the functioning of the Monarchy. (The current Duke of Gloucester was born at #6 and is now at #30.) </li><li>Their parents previously declined to use the courtesy titles afforded to them as the children of a Duke, by which Archie would be The Earl of Dumbarton and his sister Lady Lilibet Mountbatten-Windsor.</li><li>If Charles intended Harry's children to have royal titles, the easiest time to have made such an announcement would have been the 2012 Letters Patent, which could have extended royal status to all future grandchildren of Charles Prince Wales instead of just to the children of William Duke of Cambridge.</li><li>The Duke and Duchess of Sussex are no longer working royals and are not even living in the United Kingdom. Their children can lead far more normal lives without titles.</li></ul></div><div>I could be wrong -- it happens -- but I think the title conversation was had decades ago and, while it may have been discussed again more recently, the issue is settled. King Charles III will lead the way for William to inherit a slimmed down monarchy with far, far fewer extra princes and princesses hanging about for the public to worry about funding and the media to hound. King George V would approve.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><p></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p></div>Cheryl Ciucevichhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00388994160381820590noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3343837766028558539.post-5322949063534101122022-09-10T15:43:00.004-04:002022-09-11T00:34:04.620-04:008 Things You Don't Know About the Queen's Death<p> </p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGpgxXA4GJIX-WzP2XCT22voIu7u6KapSCd88uatuXKgmvlEwoUs59UDIlYX752uwSWuWMicdevLWDIXnQrqVJR1-GkNlOUcjIbDxoQqtbS8kUTI5UPOm6waVWIZrRT9cApjDBwEwPhYUW2HEK1Vg5AlkmKS_gmvA4BUUTuT4TmBmqXblQYG4qU_V6/s640/Elizabeth_II_portrait_2012.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="454" data-original-width="640" height="227" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGpgxXA4GJIX-WzP2XCT22voIu7u6KapSCd88uatuXKgmvlEwoUs59UDIlYX752uwSWuWMicdevLWDIXnQrqVJR1-GkNlOUcjIbDxoQqtbS8kUTI5UPOm6waVWIZrRT9cApjDBwEwPhYUW2HEK1Vg5AlkmKS_gmvA4BUUTuT4TmBmqXblQYG4qU_V6/w320-h227/Elizabeth_II_portrait_2012.jpg" title="Photo by Elli Gerra via Wikimedia Commons" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: right;"><i><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Photo by Elli Gerra via Wikimedia Commons</span></i></td></tr></tbody></table><br />On the 8th of September, Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom passed away having served as sovereign for 70 years. A fixed point in Britain, in the Commonwealth, and around the world for so long that few people remember any other British monarch, she nevertheless remains an enigma. Always unflappable, her often stoic public face belied a woman of warmth with a great sense of humor. In her later years, that warmth began to exude more and more publicly in the form of a ready smile that was absent in her younger years when she was likely seeking to be taken seriously. She was, after all, only 25 and poorly educated when she was thrust upon the world's stage. Thousands of words and hours of programming are being filled with information (often repetitive) about her during this period of official mourning. I thought we'd take a different tack and focus on some points you might not yet have heard.<p></p><p><b>1. She is the first Queen Regnant to die in 121 years.</b><br />The last reigning queen to pass away while still on the throne was her great-great grandmother Queen Victoria, who died in 1901 after a reign of 63 years that began when she was barely 18 years old. There have been two other queens who have passed away since then: Queen Wilhelmina of The Netherlands and her daughter Queen Juliana. However, both of them had abdicated their thrones and reassumed the title of Princess by the time of their deaths. Juliana's daughter Beatrix also abdicated. She is still alive today and is still beloved as Princess Beatrix. The modern Dutch royals have made abdication a tradition. One other Queen Regnant still reigns in Europe, Denmark's Queen Margrethe II, whose 50th Jubilee celebrations have been toned down in these first days after Elizabeth's passing in a sign of Margrethe's deep respect for her distant cousin. In the past, female monarchs have been rare. In the future, they will be quite common. The next monarchs in Belgium, Spain, The Netherlands, and Sweden are all female. Meanwhile the #2 monarchs-in-waiting in both Sweden and Norway are also female. The future King William and King George may be in the minority among their fellow monarchs.</p><p><a class="gie-slideshow" href="http://www.gettyimages.com/detail/1242982439" id="iuHeopsySyZ-2iA6NtBY9g" style="border: none; color: #a7a7a7; display: inline-block; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Embed from Getty Images</a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'iuHeopsySyZ-2iA6NtBY9g',sig:'6X2l0seyzvmBp0pzeZiJ3cIAbEF75VOMPxuFm4FpUng=',w:'594px',h:'396px',items:'1242982439,1242981536,1238181351,1240115153,1401932623',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});</script><script async="" charset="utf-8" src="//embed-cdn.gettyimages.com/widgets.js"></script></p><p><b>2. She is NOT the longest reigning monarch.</b><br />Though much lauded as the longest-reigning monarch in British history when she surpassed Queen Victoria in 2015, Queen Elizabeth is only the second longest-reigning monarch in history. That record is still held by King Louis XIV of France who ascended to the throne when he was only four but grew up to become Europe's most imitated monarch. The Queen was 625 days short of breaking his record. She only moved into second place a few months before her death when she surpassed Thailand's King Rama IX, who had become king at age 19 shortly after World War II. He was four and a half years younger than Elizabeth. As for the British record, she is two days short of seven years ahead of Queen Victoria. The number three spot is held by Victoria's grandfather King George III (63 years). Neither the new King Charles III nor his son the new Prince of Wales (William) are likely to come near the top three.</p><p><b>3. Her place as longest reigning current monarch is ceded to a sultan.</b><br />With Queen Elizabeth's death, the new longest reigning current monarch is the 76-year-old Sultan of Brunei. He succeeded upon his father's abdication in 1967, when he was just 21. He is two years older than King Charles III. The next longest reigning current monarch is Queen Margrethe II of Denmark, who became Queen in 1972 upon her father's death. Interestingly, like Queen Elizabeth II, she was not expected to inherit the throne when she was born. (For more about that and other similarities, check out my post, <a href="http://hrhprincesspalace.blogspot.com/2015/04/two-queens-daisy-and-lilibet.html" target="_blank">Two Queens: Daisy and Lilibet</a>.) Most of the other European monarchs are way down the list, with the sovereigns of Luxembourg, Monaco, Spain, The Netherlands, and Belgium having ascended in this century. </p><p><b>4. She is the third British monarch to die outside of England.</b><br />To be fair, one of these, the former King Edward VIII really doesn't count as he had abdicated his throne almost 36 years before his death in exile in France. He was The Queen's uncle and it was his decision to step down that brought her father King George VI, her, and ultimately her descendants to the throne. (Read my post about him and his American wife, <a href="http://hrhprincesspalace.blogspot.com/2017/06/the-wedding-no-royal-would-attend.html" target="_blank">The Wedding No Royal Would Attend</a>.) That means the last British monarch to die outside of England was her great-great-great-great-great-great-great grandfather King George I, who was born and died in his native Hanover, which is now part of Germany. He had come to the throne by an Act of Parliament when the Protestant line of the House of Stuart died out. The Catholic-phobic Brits drew up the Act of Settlement 1701, a law that skipped over all of the Catholics ahead of George's mother Sophia in the Line of Succession. The ban against Catholics on the British thrones remains in place today three centuries later. Sophia died shortly before Queen Anne and the very Germanic George was forced to move to Britain, but returned to Hanover as often as he could. The monarch can be married to a Catholic, but that 1701 ban was only reversed by the Succession to the Crown Act 2013, bringing several of the Queen's extended family members back into the Line of Succession.</p><p><b>5. She is the first monarch to die in Scotland since 1542.</b><br />The last time a sovereign died in Scotland was when King James V of Scotland died in Fife of an unknown illness after losing the Battle of Solway Moss. He was succeeded by his infant daughter Mary Queen of Scots. James' mother was the English Princess Margaret Tudor. So six decades later, when Margaret's unmarried niece Queen Elizabeth I died, it was James' grandson by Mary, King James VI of Scotland, who became King James I of England. The thrones were a personal union under one monarch for just over a century. The two countries were formerly united as the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707 and then the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland (now just Northern Ireland) in 1801.</p><p><a class="gie-slideshow" href="http://www.gettyimages.com/detail/82701684" id="ukmktaOiSn9EKHeQb3KgYw" style="border: none; color: #a7a7a7; display: inline-block; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Embed from Getty Images</a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'ukmktaOiSn9EKHeQb3KgYw',sig:'qbRyRBr8xItnnuOkAapWvKUWlJYt0aC3fbpCASaG9ZM=',w:'594px',h:'426px',items:'82701684,515279882,3303403,2636185,3303421',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});</script><script async="" charset="utf-8" src="//embed-cdn.gettyimages.com/widgets.js"></script></p><p><b>6. She was the most Scottish monarch since the House of Stuart.</b><br />Although many still call the House of Windsor a "German" dynasty because of its origins in the House of Hanover (see #3 above.), Queen Elizabeth II had significant Scottish heritage. Her mother, remembered today as The Queen Mother was born as Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, youngest daughter of the 14th Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne. As such, The Queen spent much of her early life at the Strathmore seat of Glamis Castle, where her younger sister Princess Margaret was born. Nearly every summer of her life, including the last one, she spent at Balmoral Castle, a home built by Queen Victoria and Prince Albert because the Scottish Highlands reminded them of Albert's homeland in Germany. The Queen and her family enjoyed the isolation of this Scottish estate, which is personally owned by the monarch and is not a crown property. Although there are public hiking trails and holiday rentals on the estate, the family rarely encounters strangers there. However, there is one famous story about a pair of American tourists who asked her and a companion for directions one day and asked if she lived nearby. When they asked if she had met The Queen, she replied, "I haven't, but he has!"</p><p><b>7. Her memorial plans are different because she died in Scotland.</b><br />London Bridge has been the well-known code name for The Queen's funeral plans for decades. Hence, the hashtag #LondonBridgeIsDown is about her death, not the nursery rhyme or the iconic landmark. Operation London Bridge includes all of the details and timelines for the transportation of the body, the various rites and ceremonies, the lying-in-state, public viewings, the funeral, and entombment. However, because she died in Scotland, another long-planned set of rituals, called Operation Unicorn, was triggered. Likely adopted because The Queen spends at least 25% of the year in Scotland, Unicorn runs concurrently with London Bridge. While the accession (under another plan called Operation Spring Tide) and other plans are moving forward n London and around the Kingdom, Unicorn makes special consideration for Scotland and the Scottish people. The main component called for her body to be conveyed to the Palace of Holyroodhouse, her official residence in the Scottish capitol of Edinburgh, from whence her late husband's title was derived. She will lie in repose there followed by a service in St. Giles Cathedral. Then, instead of being flown to London, as would have happened if she had died elsewhere in the world, she will be taken by train back to the capitol of the United Kingdome.</p><p><b>8. We don't know how she died.</b><br />Although speculation runs rife, we have not been provided the official cause of The Queen's death. I've seen rumors ranging from a fall to a heart attack, from a stroke to cancer. It is clear that her health had been rather fragile for the last year and especially earlier this summer when her doctors advised her to refrain from attending some of her Diamond Jubilee events. However, she continued to attend to the Royal Boxes of government business during her last week and even received the outgoing and incoming Prime Ministers just days before she passed. It is clear from the timing and language of the various announcements on the last two days of her life that something happened rather abruptly that led to relatively quick decline. Having said that, whatever the cause, it is not at all unusual for someone at the age of 96. As for me, I am grateful that she apparently did not suffer a long and terrible illness before her death. But, even that could be wrong. We may not know the actual medical cause of her death for quite some time.</p><p><br /></p>Cheryl Ciucevichhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00388994160381820590noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3343837766028558539.post-2206315691548051922022-06-15T00:30:00.002-04:002022-12-30T13:33:34.104-05:00Double Dynastic Debacle<div><span style="font-family: arial;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEin4Ao4luujYHMap60GgNxZOh-F_eUIbhNFSxFu480fmZPmelvP8fgZHWGYFKgPnmxZRbOfIurs1t3wOpkFwCOJJ5Au-Ch0zTayeUNypjKB191-mnc-ZabNKnOyLvUsVPEEu_rq-DS-av3nuHSSSvHgOViCYm5K675G83-SRND3IPAA2hy7bcrWVuxq/s877/640px-Princess_Helen_(Greece)_LCCN2014710826.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="877" data-original-width="640" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEin4Ao4luujYHMap60GgNxZOh-F_eUIbhNFSxFu480fmZPmelvP8fgZHWGYFKgPnmxZRbOfIurs1t3wOpkFwCOJJ5Au-Ch0zTayeUNypjKB191-mnc-ZabNKnOyLvUsVPEEu_rq-DS-av3nuHSSSvHgOViCYm5K675G83-SRND3IPAA2hy7bcrWVuxq/s320/640px-Princess_Helen_(Greece)_LCCN2014710826.jpg" width="234" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-family: times;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Princess Helen of Greece</span><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><br />Bain News Service via Wikimedia Commons</span></span></i></td></tr></tbody></table><br />Royal romance was sweeping through the troubled Balkans in 1921. The beautiful Princess Helen of Greece had agreed to marry the dashing Crown Prince Carol of Romania. Despite his reputation as a playboy -- he had already fathered illegitimate children and married then divorced a woman of lower status -- he seemed to offer some stability, or at least his throne did. Helen was living in Switzerland with her often exiled family when Carol, his mother Queen Marie and his sisters came to celebrate the engagement of Helen's oldest brother </span><span style="font-family: arial;">Crown Prince George to Carol's oldest sister Princess Elisabetha A longtime admirer of Elisabetha, George had often tried to woo the princess. Both families were pleased when the usually disinterested Elisabetha actually accepted his proposal. A pair of royal weddings was soon announced. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">Elisabetha and George married first in Bucharest, Romania in February. Then, the mass of interwoven royal relatives relocated to Athens, where George and Helen's father had only recently been reinstated as King. The second royal wedding of the year took place there on March between Helen and Carol. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">Elisabetha's adoption into her new husband's family did not go well. Neither they nor she made much of an effort to get along. The family often spoke Greek in front of her, which was certainly a slight. It didn't help that she was doing little to learn the language. Elisabetha did not have many sterling qualities to win them over. Even her own mother, the former Princess Marie of Edinburgh, was not a great admirer. Elisabetha had been a beautiful little girl, but she grew less and less attractive. She studied art in Paris for a short time, but she lacked social style and was not affectionate by nature. Her little sister Maria, future Queen of Yugoslavia, note, "Mamma thinks her decidedly dull." A terrible sin in comparison to her sparkling, dramatic, beautiful, and hardworking mother. Queen Marie characterized Elisabetha as narcissistic, cold, and joyless.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">Helen, on the other hand, was beloved within her family and welcomed warmly by her husband's family in Romania.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjv2f1NjZTG-khys-qfeu2ROZdX2fmYaSQugWglmLBuJ9QbJ6ll2MFOT-zF8OerUldpqQh49d0OBbrtFYSmjM5OJBbuKOdvdcyG0X8zCZrcM8XZsUxU3P9yK8mXzIKZj_fJh_tNbYzubS9LN3_fPD_Dr4P6L2y95SY8uP4kBqjk1fA2vqQLjVeV8r29/s640/640px-Elisabeta_a_Romaniei_2.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="454" data-original-width="640" height="227" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjv2f1NjZTG-khys-qfeu2ROZdX2fmYaSQugWglmLBuJ9QbJ6ll2MFOT-zF8OerUldpqQh49d0OBbrtFYSmjM5OJBbuKOdvdcyG0X8zCZrcM8XZsUxU3P9yK8mXzIKZj_fJh_tNbYzubS9LN3_fPD_Dr4P6L2y95SY8uP4kBqjk1fA2vqQLjVeV8r29/s320/640px-Elisabeta_a_Romaniei_2.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times;"><i><span style="font-size: x-small;">Princess Elisabetha of Romania</span><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><br />George Grantham Bain Collection via Wikimedia Commons</span></i></span></td></tr></tbody></table><br />Like many royal and noble young women, both Helen and Elisabetha had trained as nurses during World War I. Elisabetha, however, often was absent from her duties due to some claimed illness or another. She also suffered criticism due to her alleged weight issues. Queen Marie later wanted to send her to a sanatorium not so much for her nerves but because</span><span style="font-family: arial;"> "she WILL not understand how fat she is".</span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">By the summer of 1922, the newly married Elisabetha had fallen so physically ill that no one could think she was just being lazy. She had contracted typhoid and then pleuriscy. Her parents went to Greece to bring her back to Bucharest to recover. When her hair began to fall out, it was cut short and she dyed it red. She began applying makeup that heightened her sickly, "ghostlike</span><span style="font-family: arial;"> appearance".</span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">In September, yet another Greek military defeat led to yet another Greek military revolt and sent King Constantine back into exile. Elisabetha's husband became King George II. Although she was unprepared to be queen so young and still recovering her health, she started off well by helping resettle Greeks who were fleeing Turkey. However she really had no love for Greece, for her role, or for her husband. She had made no friends in her new country and she was still refusing to have a child. Added to that, King George was really just a military puppet. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">Fifteen months later, when the Greek throne was once again dismantled, Elisabetha and George were invited to spend their exile in Romania. Her parents set them up in a wing of the royal palace Cotroceni. After a while, they found their own residence, where he grew increasingly bored and where she spent much of her time gambling and eating cake. </span><span style="font-family: arial;">Elisabetha temporarily escaped by traveling to Yugoslavia following the birth of her younger sister's baby. Now Queen Maria of Yugoslavia, little sister was not happy to see her. Their mother sent Elisabetha away after she flirted one too many times with her brother-in-law King Alexander. </span><span style="font-family: arial;">Having been stripped of all of their properties in Greece, the couple added financial stress to their already troubled relationship. When Elisabetha started an affair with his banker, the marriage was all but over. George spent more and more time away, eventually moving to London. They finally divorced in 1935. Neither remarried. He returned to Greece as King in 1935 and remained until his death at age 56 in 1947.</span></div><div><br /></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg69mi4jqVTROFNTBQXpFjLQBtHlF9rO5juCzWYuEHfGMTLBDksuohvk1ZnmXP12-GGQ5pp1zuc0OMzgnFa0MaSSS6fmMEakhcSdHq2Dr2hSPIO8jdGoKMdprDk4dploKnq0AWgPf1YYOKEOcGoJSugLRGM9D0_zYtKuZFg2FFR1y3beVr1Nz8tg2Se/s640/Crown_Prince_and_Princess_of_Greece_and_fam._LCCN2014687613.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="469" data-original-width="640" height="235" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg69mi4jqVTROFNTBQXpFjLQBtHlF9rO5juCzWYuEHfGMTLBDksuohvk1ZnmXP12-GGQ5pp1zuc0OMzgnFa0MaSSS6fmMEakhcSdHq2Dr2hSPIO8jdGoKMdprDk4dploKnq0AWgPf1YYOKEOcGoJSugLRGM9D0_zYtKuZFg2FFR1y3beVr1Nz8tg2Se/s320/Crown_Prince_and_Princess_of_Greece_and_fam._LCCN2014687613.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-family: times;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">The Greek Royal Family with Helen in the back row.</span><br /><span style="font-size: xx-small;">By Carl Boehringer via Wikimedia Commons</span></span></i></td></tr></tbody></table><br />Nicknamed Sitta, Princess Helen was a tall brunette considered pretty and refined as expected of a princess. She grew up in a relatively tight-knit family. Even when she and three of her siblings were sent to school at Eastbourne in England, their mother Sophie, formerly a princess of Prussia, would come to stay for the summer. First she would visit her British royal cousins at Windsor and then settle in at the Grand Hotel near her children.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">Greece, however, was a turbulent country continually engaged in military conflicts during this period. Nevertheless, in the first World War, Greece remained neutral. Instead of peace, however, this stance made them a target from both sides. When Helen was 20, </span><span style="font-family: arial;">French and British troops landed in Athens. They bombarded the city, including the Royal Palace from their nearby ships. Queen Sophie, Helen, her baby sister Katherine and the women of the palace had to shelter in the cellar for three hours. The ongoing barrage prompted Helen's father, King Constantine, to write a letter to his first cousin King George V in the United Kingdom. "I entreat you," he begged, "do not push us to despair, I have never harbored any plots against you and your allies." A three-week blockade left the royal family with only days worth of food. In the streets, people were dying from starvation and disease. The French insisted that they would only relent if King Constantine left the country and the British stood by the French, even though Queen Sophie was a granddaughter of Queen Victoria. Helen remarked, "it was as though some dear, trusted friend had cold-bloodedly pushed a dagger in one's back."</span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">It was this event that led to the family's exile in Switzerland while her second brother King Alexander was placed on the throne and left alone without any of his family in Greece, where their Romanian cousins later visited them sparking the double engagements. The Greek royals were in mourning for King Alexander when Carol made his proposal to Helen. The young king had died after being bitten by a monkey. The family was being summoned back to Greece, but Helen could not bear the thought of returning to the place where they had suffered so much. Queen Sophie advised Helen to decline. Besides Carol's terrible reputation, she thought the pair were poorly suited, and she didn't want her daughter to go away from her so soon after losing her son Alexander. Helen later regretted that she had not followed her mother's advice, writing, "</span><span style="font-family: arial;">I would have been spared years of misery." Queen Sophie's cousin Queen Marie also saw that the young couple had very different personalities, but she hoped the steadfast and reliable Helen would be Carol's savior. Even she later regretted the match, telling Helen that she and Carol should have never met, comparing her son to a disaster from which Helen could never recover.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">Nevertheless, the wedding went forward in Athens in March after their siblings' wedding in Bucharest in February. By the time, Carol and Helen returned to Romania for their official welcome, Helen was already pregnant. Their son Michael was born in October on the first anniversary of King Alexander's death. Queen Marie was at her daughter-in-law's side as Helen struggled through a difficult delivery. The early birth meant that Helen's own mother was not there as both baby and new mother nearly died. Queen Sophie arrived a week later. Sophie stayed for a while as Helen recovered. Since Helen and Carol's home was being remodeled, she took her daughter and baby grandson back to Greece to continue their convalescence. The next year, King Constantine was forced to abdicate again. Helen and Michael dashed to Italy to be with them. In January 1923, Constantine suffered a cerebral hemorrhage and died. </span><span style="font-family: arial;">"Mama's state simply breaks my heart," Helen wrote to Carol. "I could not possibly leave her just now." Instead Helen brought Sophie back to Romania with her.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">This frequent togetherness with her family -- in Greece, in Italy, and in Romania -- set a pattern that Carol did not like. He called it a "crowded marriage." He added to the crowd, while Helen was away, by starting an affair with Elena "Magda" Lupescu. Sexy and vibrant (or vulgar and crude depending on your point of view), the tall redhead was the opposite of Helen. Having already married and been forced to give up an earlier "inappropriate" marriage to Zizi Lambrino, Carol was unwilling to surrender his own desires to the Crown much less to the wife from home he had grown increasingly distant. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBNOBpN0YX58NzhHhUoc_Ns891pr9pAXzQ5NfDgzyC_3qKwgo1WGrWPj6DZlGY2jIXKHJMAM0hoBvVs36VnlzXzeQsJwGYSdGehuarF0ms-j_K5fN_O8bXoAEAwq79YLZicrkPbZj3Jd6ALNxy5GPNSLZRf2NhU1wpFiE7FrE2I693vgzOsKnwZd9r/s903/Princess_Helen_of_Greece_and_her_son.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="903" data-original-width="640" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBNOBpN0YX58NzhHhUoc_Ns891pr9pAXzQ5NfDgzyC_3qKwgo1WGrWPj6DZlGY2jIXKHJMAM0hoBvVs36VnlzXzeQsJwGYSdGehuarF0ms-j_K5fN_O8bXoAEAwq79YLZicrkPbZj3Jd6ALNxy5GPNSLZRf2NhU1wpFiE7FrE2I693vgzOsKnwZd9r/s320/Princess_Helen_of_Greece_and_her_son.jpg" width="227" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times;"><i><span style="font-size: x-small;">Helen with young Michael</span><br /><span style="font-size: xx-small;">via Wikimedia Commons</span></i></span></td></tr></tbody></table><br />In 1925, barely four years after marrying Helen, Carol ran off to Italy to live with Magda. Ever dutiful, Helen offered to go to Italy and bring him back, but her father-in-law King Ferdinand prevented her. Ferdinand had had enough of his son shirking his duties and running off over the years. Carol proposed his own solution to the problem: he begged his family to just pretend he had died in an automobile accident. They declined and the government forced Carol to surrender his rights as heir to the throne in honor of his young son Michael. With King Ferdinand's death in 1927, six-year-old Michael became king with his uncle Nicholas as regent. Helen was recognized as Princess Mother of Romania. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">Carol was not done with them yet. In 1930, with changing political winds, he returned to Romania and was declared King, displacing a confused young Michael. The new prime minister encouraged Helen to take him back. Drawing on what Carol's mother called Helen's </span><span style="font-family: arial;">"quiet dignity ... golden heart [and] forgiving disposition", Helen reluctantly agreed. Carol, however, refused and blamed Helen for their divorce. Filled with spite, he placed her under surveillance, surrounded her home with police, and severely limited her access to their son. Within two years, he forced Helen out of Romania and summoned Madga to his side. Helen joined her mother in Florence, later buying her own villa there. He only permitted Michael to visit her there twice a year and allowed Helen to come to Romania for Michael's birthdays. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">This went on for nearly a decade before Carol was deposed. Having tried to play both sides against the middle in World War II, Carol finally declared Romania for the Axis powers. However, he was still making too friendly overtures to France on the Allied side for Hitler's liking. Carol, who had already been forced to cede significant territory to Russia now ceded more to Hitler in order to guarantee the safety of the rest of country. By this time, the Romanian government had had enough and Carol was forced to abdicate. The now 18-year-old Michael was restored to the throne. Helen was able to return to his side and the two of them tried to do what they could to thwart growing Nazi hegemony in the country. Helen worked to prevent the deportation of Jews and convinced the prime minister to provide food, clothing, and medical aid to the ghettos and camps. Due to her efforts she was later recognized by the nation of Israel with their honor as "Righteous Among Nations". </span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">Despite their efforts, Michael was increasingly stymied by the government and their Nazi handlers. The monarchy survived the war but the nation was soon overwhelmed by communism. He was basically a figurehead and constantly at odds with the communist leaders, frequently refusing to do their bidding. When he returned from London after attending the wedding of his cousins Princess Elizabeth (now Queen Elizabeth) and Prince Philip, he was forced to abdicate and the monarchy was abolished. He was not allowed to return for more than four decades. Since his death in 2017, the oldest of his five daughters Crown Princess Margareta has been officially recognized by the Romanian government with the title Custodian of the Crown. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">As for Carol, he married Magda in 1947 and died six years later. Michael refused to attend his funeral. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">Helen returned to her villa in Florence, welcoming family there when she wasn't traveling and pursuing her interests in Renaissance art and architecture. In her later years, suffering from failing health and financial problems, she moved to an apartment in Switzerland, not far from Michael's home with his family. She eventually moved in with them just before her death at the age of 86.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFqNdRxeNneGki5wZ4LR_jNl4mIgEEq7yJpIBRv3-nD69A3CYfrOTUIb0xxRH8XiVmbZOwD8xmH7Sg4Qvrt14MD-tEgi-d8l8iQnuLXtmDG6eYqMoD_iRhJ5v1nvex2YRMdroJxSl2l7dwhhQPZWUD9vFI_Nk5fsIiLF0jmFVjJG_iN7ztMERexwG_/s812/640px-Elisabeta,_Queen_of_the_Hellenes.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="812" data-original-width="640" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFqNdRxeNneGki5wZ4LR_jNl4mIgEEq7yJpIBRv3-nD69A3CYfrOTUIb0xxRH8XiVmbZOwD8xmH7Sg4Qvrt14MD-tEgi-d8l8iQnuLXtmDG6eYqMoD_iRhJ5v1nvex2YRMdroJxSl2l7dwhhQPZWUD9vFI_Nk5fsIiLF0jmFVjJG_iN7ztMERexwG_/s320/640px-Elisabeta,_Queen_of_the_Hellenes.jpg" width="252" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-family: times;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Elisabetha</span><br /><span style="font-size: xx-small;">By Philip de Laszlo via Wikimedia Commons</span></span></i></td></tr></tbody></table><br />And lest we forget Queen Elisabetha, whom we left happily divorced in the 1930s, she made a home and reputation for herself back in Romania. When her brother Carol was restored to the throne, she took on the role of First Lady. She was the only person in the family who accepted Magda's role in his life. Through inheritance and financial advice from her lover, she grew quite wealthy and enjoyed her life at the head of the nation. In the early years of Michael's second reign, she kept her head low. By 1944, however, she was readily conspiring with the Communists against him, earning the moniker "Red Aunt." She even consorted with Marshal Tito who had deposed another of her child-king nephews, King Peter II of Yugoslavia. To round out her grand slam of familial betrayals, she even financially supported the guerilla war against her ex-brother-in-law King Paul of Greece. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">Elisabetha's support for the Communists was not reciprocated in the end. When they abolished the monarchy in 1947, she was given three days to pack up and a train to leave on. She ultimately landed in France and fell in love with a young artist, whom she later adopted. She died in 1956.</span></div><div><br /></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="background-color: white; color: #141414;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>WORKS CONSULTED</b></span></span></div><div><span style="background-color: white; color: #141414; font-family: arial;">Gelardi, Julia. </span><i style="background-color: white; color: #141414; font-family: arial;">Born to Rule. </i><span style="background-color: white; color: #141414; font-family: arial;">St. Martin's Griffin, 2005.</span></div><div><span style="background-color: white; color: #141414; font-family: arial;">Pakula, Hannah. </span><i style="color: #141414; font-family: arial;">The Last Romantic. </i><span style="background-color: white; color: #141414; font-family: arial;">Simon & Schuster, 1985.</span></div><div><span style="background-color: white; color: #141414; font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="background-color: white; color: #141414; font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #141414; font-family: arial;"><span style="background-color: white;"><b>MORE ABOUT ELISABETHA OF ROMANIA</b></span></span></div><div><span style="color: #141414; font-family: arial;"><span style="background-color: white;"><a href="https://lostinthemythsofhistory.blogspot.com/2011/10/princess-elisabeta-of-romania.html" target="_blank">Princess Elisabeta of Romania</a> on Lost in the Myths of History</span></span></div><div><span style="color: #141414; font-family: arial;"><span style="background-color: white;"><a href="http://www.unofficialroyalty.com/princess-elisabeta-of-romania-queen-of-the-hellenes/" target="_blank">Princess Elisabeta of Romania, Queen of the Hellenes</a> on Unofficial Royalty</span></span></div><div><span style="color: #141414; font-family: arial;"><span style="background-color: white;"><a href="https://www.historyelegance.info/the-sad-life-of-princess-elisabeth-of-romania/" target="_blank">The Sad Life of Princess Elisabeth of Romania</a> on Elegance of History</span></span></div><div><span style="color: #141414; font-family: arial;"><span style="background-color: white;"> </span></span></div><div><span style="color: #141414; font-family: arial;"><span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="background-color: white; color: #141414; font-family: arial;"><b>MORE ABOUT HELEN OF GREECE</b></span></div><div><span style="color: #141414; font-family: arial;"><span style="background-color: white;"><a href="https://www.factinate.com/people/facts-princess-helen/" target="_blank">Heroic Facts About Princess Helen, The Royal Rebel</a> on Factinate</span></span></div><div><span style="background-color: white; color: #141414; font-family: arial;"><a href="https://www.express.co.uk/news/royal/1174221/prince-philip-cousin-helen-of-romania-helen-of-greece-denmark-royal-exile" target="_blank">Prince Philip cousin: The tragedy of royal who died in exile after monarchy overthrown</a> on Express.co.uk</span></div><div><span style="background-color: white; color: #141414; font-family: arial;"><a href="https://godsandfoolishgrandeur.blogspot.com/2014/04/princess-helen-of-greece-and-denmark.html " target="_blank">Princess Helen of Greece and Denmark</a> on Gods and Foolish Grandeur</span></div><div><span style="background-color: white; color: #141414; font-family: arial;"><a href="https://www.historyofroyalwomen.com/helen-of-greece-and-denmark/princess-helen-greece-queen-mother-romania-elegance-royal-destiny/" target="_blank">Princess Helen of Greece, Queen Mother of Romania</a> on History of Royal Women</span></div><div><span style="background-color: white; color: #141414; font-family: arial;"><a href="http://www.unofficialroyalty.com/princess-helen-of-greece-queen-mother-of-romania/" target="_blank">Princess Helen of Greece, Queen Mother of Romania</a> on Unofficial Royalty</span></div><div><span style="background-color: white; color: #141414; font-family: arial;"><a href="https://www.theflorentine.net/2014/07/03/queen-helen-of-romania/" target="_blank">Queen Helen of Romania </a>on The Florentine</span></div><div><span style="background-color: white; color: #141414; font-family: arial;"><a href="https://royalcentral.co.uk/uk/queen-mother-helen-of-romania-to-be-reburied-in-romania-129992/">Queen Mother Helen of Romania to be reburied in Romania</a> on History of Royal Women</span></div><div><span style="color: #141414; font-family: arial;"><span style="background-color: white;"><a href="https://www.historyofroyalwomen.com/helen-of-greece-and-denmark/righteous-among-nations-queen-mother-helen-romania/" target="_blank">Righteous Among Nations - Queen Mother Helen of Romania</a> on History of Royal Women</span></span></div><div><span style="background-color: white; color: #141414; font-family: arial;"><a href="https://www.romania-insider.com/florence-street-queen-helen-romania" target="_blank">Street in Florence to be named after Queen Helen</a> on Romania Insider</span></div><div><br /></div>Cheryl Ciucevichhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00388994160381820590noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3343837766028558539.post-86165615056775835902022-06-03T02:36:00.000-04:002022-06-03T02:36:10.599-04:00The Queen's Royal Ladies Part 2<p>In continuing celebration of Queen Elizabeth II's Platinum Jubilee, here is Part 2 of the list of royal women who have lived during her reign. Part 2 includes all of the ladies born since the death of Queen Victoria, who previously held the record as longest reigning British monarch. <a href="http://hrhprincesspalace.blogspot.com/2022/05/the-queens-royal-ladies.html">Click here to read Part 1</a>.</p><p><b><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcX7SDQvSG6hUMZaFc5RDqJWcLBC7U0jpgkahsxsNQ7ITepSa_Qumi_fDHyw8XEHiVl2aOuh9OO9Vns1VvGki3zYJZGP1NVinDploMeFMXP_CCb6V1tw6RGu2BHtvr6uvDAosnjlJfhwSGbdFtPtMDgqlZAZmkSaQNLY3lkLGTeUf5LxdFaK7i87aR/s862/640px-Princess_Alice,_Duchess_of_Gloucester.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="862" data-original-width="640" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcX7SDQvSG6hUMZaFc5RDqJWcLBC7U0jpgkahsxsNQ7ITepSa_Qumi_fDHyw8XEHiVl2aOuh9OO9Vns1VvGki3zYJZGP1NVinDploMeFMXP_CCb6V1tw6RGu2BHtvr6uvDAosnjlJfhwSGbdFtPtMDgqlZAZmkSaQNLY3lkLGTeUf5LxdFaK7i87aR/s320/640px-Princess_Alice,_Duchess_of_Gloucester.jpg" width="238" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><i>by Dorothy Wilding via Wikimedia Commons</i></span></td></tr></tbody></table><br />Lady Alice Montagu Douglas Scott </b>(1901-2004) Born on Christmas Day, she was a daughter of Scotland's largest landowner, the 7th Duke of Buccleuch. Atypical for women of her era, she traveled the world as a young woman and did not marry until her mid 30s. When she married King George V's third son Prince Henry, she became the Duchess of Gloucester. During World War II, she was Air Chief Commandant of the Women's Royal Air Force. In the middle of the war, however, the Duke was appointed Viceroy in Australia and they underwent a harrowing journey through enemy-laden waters with their two young sons to get to the post. After the Duke's death, her niece, Queen Elizabeth II, granted her the right to be called Princess Alice. She lived to be 102. Nearly 20 years later, she still holds the record for longest lived member of the British Royal Family. (Read <a href="http://hrhprincesspalace.blogspot.com/2015/01/todays-princess-alice-montagu-douglas.html" target="_blank">my post about Princess Alice</a>.)</p><p><b>Princess Marina of Greece</b> (1906-1968) was the last foreign princess to marry into the British Royal Family. As a granddaughter of King George I of Greece, she was a first cousin of Prince Philip, consort of Queen Elizabeth. She married George V's fourth, and arguably most handsome, son Prince George Duke of Kent. When he was killed in a plane crash in World War II, she was left as a young widow with three small children, including a six-week-old infant. She raised her children to be dutiful members of the British Royal Family but kept them connected to their many royal cousins on the continent. Her oldest son, Prince Edward Duke of Kent, stood beside Queen Elizabeth on the balcony during the Trooping the Color ceremony. P.S. Like her sisters-in-law Mary and Alice, she also took on one of the female military branches. In her case, it was the Women's Royal Naval Service. (Read my post, <a href="http://hrhprincesspalace.blogspot.com/2013/08/young-royal-widows.html" target="_blank">Young Royal Widows.</a>)</p><p><b>Princess Margaret</b> (1930-2002) was the Queen's younger sister. Although they were four and a half years apart, they were usually dressed alike and were almost constantly together. During World War II, the sisters were hidden at a "house in the country", which was actually Windsor Castle. They remained close throughout their lives, including during Margaret's controversial relationship with a divorced man that rocked the early years of the Queen's reign. The family rejoiced when Margaret married society photographer Antony Armstrong-Jones and was heartbroken when it ended in a divorce with both couple's caught in affairs. Margaret always continued her loyal service to her sister and to the Crown, but her later years were troubled by serious health problems. Having suffered yet another stroke, she passed away at age 71 weeks before the death of her mother. (Read <a href="http://hrhprincesspalace.blogspot.com/2015/03/todays-princess-margaret-rose.html" target="_blank">my post about Princess Margaret</a>.)</p><p><b><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYsWmOuc0XRIvfZspnx5MfELC12ITP6w8yCnn_d_A_dEA2VYGQzTQ6l2LsBNGu4DaQCSJoh7-mFOK3puAM1PfR9v_rpojKbqSXH1aRtO34gl-cxgFPgFauZUB3ajOGsjD_1CYb2jYGE3Mkfqu4gkLg33n9vj7debLK5mvxIk1kIp--cgAiyNnDopkz/s639/640px-The_Duchess_of_Kent_with_koala.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="445" data-original-width="639" height="223" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYsWmOuc0XRIvfZspnx5MfELC12ITP6w8yCnn_d_A_dEA2VYGQzTQ6l2LsBNGu4DaQCSJoh7-mFOK3puAM1PfR9v_rpojKbqSXH1aRtO34gl-cxgFPgFauZUB3ajOGsjD_1CYb2jYGE3Mkfqu4gkLg33n9vj7debLK5mvxIk1kIp--cgAiyNnDopkz/s320/640px-The_Duchess_of_Kent_with_koala.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><i>from Queensland State Archives via Wikimedia Commons</i></span></td></tr></tbody></table><br />Katharine Worsley </b>(1933- ) met Prince Edward Duke of Kent when he was a young Army officer serving near her home in Yorkshire. She was a charming addition to the family. Despite three successful pregnancy, she also endured unsuccessful ones, which led her into deep depression. She eventually found some solace by converting to the Roman Catholic Church. her greatest solace and passion, however, has always been music. Both a performer and music teacher, she eventually opted to discontinue her royal work. For the last two decades, she has preferred to be known in her daily life as Katharine Kent only being addressed as HRH Duchess of Kent when on the rare occasions when she participates in major royal occasions. (Read my post, <a href="http://hrhprincesspalace.blogspot.com/2018/02/happy-80th-to-hrh-duchess-of-kent.html" target="_blank">Meet the Duchess of Kent</a>.)</p><p><b>Princess Alexandra of Kent</b> (1936- ) is the only daughter of the King's uncle Prince George who died in a wartime plane crash when Alexandra and her brothers were young. Well-connected to Europe's royal families through her mother Princess Marina of Greece (above), Alexandra has spent a lot of time visiting other courts. Nevertheless, she began her life as a working member of the British Royal Family when she was just a teenager, initially at her mother's side. She married Sir Angus Ogilvy, a younger son of the 12th Earl of Airlie. Now widowed and in her eighties, she has had to slow down her royal work in recent years, but continues to be one of the most well-loved members of the family. (Read <a href="http://hrhprincesspalace.blogspot.com/2016/12/happy-80th-birthday-to-princess.html" target="_blank">my post about Princess Alexandra</a>.)</p><p><b>Baroness Marie Christine von Reibnitz </b>(1945- ) was born in the German-controlled Sudetenland, now part of the Czech Republic, in the waning months of World War II. After the war, the family abandoned their estates and her parents divorced. Her mother took her and her brother to grow up in Australia. She moved to London to study at Victoria and Albert Museum and married a banker. After meeting Prince Michael of Kent, she had her first marriage annulled and married the prince a month later. She was the first divorced person to marry a British royal in centuries. Her Catholicism also made him ineligible for the throne. (That rule was reversed in 2015 and he was restored to the Line of Succession.) Known as Princess Michael of Kent, she and Michael are not officially working members of the British Royal Family although they carry out occasional engagements and participate in major events. She is one of the less popular and more controversial members of the family, with accusations of plagiarism and racism to her credit. She works as an author and interior designer. (Read <a href="http://hrhprincesspalace.blogspot.com/2015/01/todays-princess-princess-michael-of-kent.html" target="_blank">my post about Princess Michael of Kent.</a>)</p><p><b><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOM8PU0dexRKpxxz3g1VA6fGCuiB42WV11q9vY6aFMXJp6w92Y15ppejVyVaQ-Qmf2DoSBPc31ypnSLylS4GtU_fos7W5ne7p-3njdAsylw6fEE2gDOd9IFLg9LZMNFuZGefmWa7Am17TwFxlnerhZM0I43tR8XvBru818wPhhq8MQTY47rWq4MNDw/s826/640px-Birgitte,_Duchess_of_Gloucester_2015.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="826" data-original-width="640" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOM8PU0dexRKpxxz3g1VA6fGCuiB42WV11q9vY6aFMXJp6w92Y15ppejVyVaQ-Qmf2DoSBPc31ypnSLylS4GtU_fos7W5ne7p-3njdAsylw6fEE2gDOd9IFLg9LZMNFuZGefmWa7Am17TwFxlnerhZM0I43tR8XvBru818wPhhq8MQTY47rWq4MNDw/s320/640px-Birgitte,_Duchess_of_Gloucester_2015.jpg" width="248" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><i>By Richard Gough by Wikimedia Commons</i></span></td></tr></tbody></table><br />Birgitte van Deurs</b> (1946- ) was working at the Danish Embassy in London when she met an aspiring young architect, who just happened to be a Prince. As the younger son of the duke of Gloucester, however, Prince Richard offered Birgitte a relatively quiet life on the very edges of the British Royal Family. within two years of their marriage, however, Richard's older brother died in stunt flying accident and his father passed away making him them the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester and full-fledged working royals. In 50 years of royal service, they are among the few members of the royal family who have never been touched by scandal or negative publicity. (Read my post, <a href="http://hrhprincesspalace.blogspot.com/2017/07/birgittes-45-royal-years.html" target="_blank">Birgitte's 45 Royal Years</a>.)</p><p><b>Camilla Shand </b>(1947- ) met Charles Prince of Wales when he was still on active duty in the Royal Navy. Their romance ended when he shipped out and she married her on-again-off-again boyfriend Andrew Parker Bowles though she remained a confidante of the Prince even after he married. As his marriage broke down, they resumed their romance and she became the world's most hated woman. After Camilla and Charles had both divorced, they quietly continued the relationship, finally marrying in 2005 when they were both in the fifties. She uses his secondary title and is known as the Duchess of Cornwall. Over the years, her cheerful attitude and and obvious support for her husband have helped her win over a much of the British public. (Read <a href="http://hrhprincesspalace.blogspot.com/2015/04/todays-princess-camilla-shand-duchess.html" target="_blank">my post about Camilla</a>.)</p><p><b>Anne Princess Royal </b>(1950- ) is the only daughter of Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip. An Olympic equestrienne, she met her first husband in the riding world. Always considered one of the hardest working royals, she regularly tops the list for most engagements. Her most prominent work includes Save the Children and the Olympic Committee. She attracted some negative attention when the media got hold of love letters between her and one of the royal equerries, Tim Laurence. She weathered the storm and married Tim. Their marriage has lasted three decades. (Read <a href="http://hrhprincesspalace.blogspot.com/2015/05/a-title-for-royal-baby.html" target="_blank">my post about all of the women titled Princess Royal</a>.)</p><p><b><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcUexuwb9cRzedkvw8itkR-tJlsJIXs0UFDf3c314KcaenjXA3Zf3K7763qbjZlCtEJAp3_PUg0qfEc01oGiWLGjjRDA4r5AxiumJ3TQ23w0GmUDJAtSDX_l8XKrSBM6t3xWQ-hHcQCSf2nOXwxPSIBRX9Bhsyr5RV5C1W1_wigBEHcQDz5qJWBpAD/s945/640px-Sarah,_Duchess_of_York_1997.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="945" data-original-width="640" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcUexuwb9cRzedkvw8itkR-tJlsJIXs0UFDf3c314KcaenjXA3Zf3K7763qbjZlCtEJAp3_PUg0qfEc01oGiWLGjjRDA4r5AxiumJ3TQ23w0GmUDJAtSDX_l8XKrSBM6t3xWQ-hHcQCSf2nOXwxPSIBRX9Bhsyr5RV5C1W1_wigBEHcQDz5qJWBpAD/s320/640px-Sarah,_Duchess_of_York_1997.jpg" width="217" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><i>By John Mathew Smith via Wikimedia Commons</i></span></td></tr></tbody></table><br />Sarah Ferguson </b>(1959- ) is the daughter of Ronald Ferguson, who was polo manager to both Prince Philip and Prince Charles, which meant she met her future husband Prince Andrew when they were just children. Their romance ignited when her friend Diana Princess of Wales played matchmaker on a royal holiday. The exuberant couple, the Duke and Duchess of York, were initially popular but Sarah soon fell victim to the tabloid press's constant attacks for her weight, clothes, and boisterousness. In the end, however, she was her own worst enemy, embarking on some questionable relationships with men while her sailor husband was away at sea. After their divorce, Sarah and Andrew remained close and even live together now 30 years later. Together and separately, they have continued to cause controversy, including accusations of trading access for cash and rape. (Read my post, <a href="http://hrhprincesspalace.blogspot.com/2016/07/the-yorks-after-30-years.html" target="_blank">The Yorks After 30 Years</a>.)</p><p><b>Lady Diana Spencer </b>(1961- ) was the youngest daughter of 8th Earl Spencer. At age 19, she was launched upon the world stage as the fiancee of Charles Prince of wales, the Queen's oldest son and heir to the throne. While the beautiful and compassionate young woman was rapturously received by an adoring public the marriage was an extreme mismatch that led to one of the most spectacular divorces in recent history, with publicly lodging complaints and accusations at each other and both admitting adultery. Devoted to big causes, Diana remained to devoted to shining a light on AIDS, homelessness, and landmines. Always pursued by the media, Diana spent her last summer in the headlines for a new romance. The whole thing came to a tragic end in a car crash in Paris leaving the world and the Royal Family devastated. (Read my post, <a href="http://hrhprincesspalace.blogspot.com/2010/05/diana-and-me.html" target="_blank">Diana and Me</a>.)</p><p><b>Sophie Rhys-Jones </b>(1965- ) met the Queen's youngest son because someone else called out of work. A PR hack, she got pulled into play a game of royal tennis with Prince Edward during one of his official engagements. With the failure of the Queen's children's marriages, Sophie nd Edward took a slow burn with full support of the royal family becoming the first royal couple to live together before marriage. When they finally married in 1999, the couple initially announced that they would continue their private work, her with her public relations firm and him with his television production company.. However, they were not able to avoid accusations of using their royal status for personal profit and they transitioned into life as full-time royals. They are now one the steadiest and most active pairs in the family. (Read <a href="http://hrhprincesspalace.blogspot.com/2015/01/todays-princess-sophie-rhys-jones.html" target="_blank">my post about Sophie</a>.)</p><p><b><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1_qcN_qOEUQf02w3VAmcFrNN4PStFsvI__us4NWVxs7Hlkva0VFyPZcki1armNpaBGbIX1HYKRJAmzvzVsMluaeyesnI08PWTnYYeQmCJVG9LEkI8WeB8-gEIiaZX_hPtYuOrVgDsJ8rlnhYwJNw9MopiaU2E8GtoKrpfKyMVWLDXZmNp3K_7mxwz/s876/Meghan_Markle_on_Christmas_Day_2017_(cropped).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="876" data-original-width="640" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1_qcN_qOEUQf02w3VAmcFrNN4PStFsvI__us4NWVxs7Hlkva0VFyPZcki1armNpaBGbIX1HYKRJAmzvzVsMluaeyesnI08PWTnYYeQmCJVG9LEkI8WeB8-gEIiaZX_hPtYuOrVgDsJ8rlnhYwJNw9MopiaU2E8GtoKrpfKyMVWLDXZmNp3K_7mxwz/s320/Meghan_Markle_on_Christmas_Day_2017_(cropped).jpg" width="234" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><i>By Mark Jones via Wikmedia Commons</i></span></td></tr></tbody></table><br />Meghan Markle </b>(1981- ) met the Queen's grandson Prince Harry of Wales on a blind date. A successful American actress, she said in their engagement interview that she was giving up her acting career. Her mixed race heritage drew a lot of racist attention from the beginning of their relationship. A short time into their marriage as Duke and Duchess of Sussex, they announced that they wanted to pursue private interests while maintaining a part-time role in the Royal Family. It was determined that they would leave their roles as working royals. They now live in California although they still have a home in Windsor. Meghan is well-known for her activism, particularly on women's issues. She even led a successful campaign that achieved national attention when she was only 10 years old. (Read my post, <a href="http://hrhprincesspalace.blogspot.com/2017/11/an-american-princess-for-harry.html" target="_blank">An American Princess for Harry</a>.)</p><p><b>Catherine Middleton</b> (1982- ) met the Queen's grandson, future king Prince William while they were both attending University of St. Andrews. They shared a house with other classmates. After graduation, they broke up briefly before moving in together, following a similar path as his uncle Edward and Sophie in developing their relationship for years before becoming engaged. Since their wedding, they are Duke and Duchess of Cambridge. She has become particularly active with organizations and issues related to early childhood development and mental health advocacy. An avid amateur photographer, she also led the Hold Still photography initiative during the Covid-19 pandemic. She also usually takes the official birthday photos of their children George, Charlotte, and Louis. (Read my post, <a href="http://hrhprincesspalace.blogspot.com/2016/04/five-years-with-cambridges.html" target="_blank">Five Years with the Cambridges.</a>)</p><p><b><br />Princess Beatrice of York </b>(1988- ) is the oldest daughter of Prince Andrew Duke of York. She was the first British princess to attend University, earning a BA from Goldsmiths, University London. She now works for a multinational data and software company. Her marriage to Edourdo Mapelli Mozzi was delayed during the Covid-19 pandemic, but she eventually opted for a small, private wedding. Their daughter Sienna was born in 2021. Although not a working royal, she occasionally carries out engagements for the Queen and she has her own charitable patronages. She is particularly noteworthy for her work with dyslexia, which she has.</p><p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5Zlw5AblYhHVW-g1HELXvsN2_RjJQDABAD7o5bno0ce17cNPW3rDXWUQZtWVB8KjhsBriHKF9RzPXG5-FC_331R0Xbz8yHYLNGc-fSzos4o4mQ2nlOXTfl8g5gXFgivsxBlF3ERAl_rCHg_dDrTSKA5Zqc4_v9qgJZ9M_oPTZ2-qC7_MEOSiCp4ma/s640/640px-Princesses_Beatrice_and_Eugenie.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="427" data-original-width="640" height="214" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5Zlw5AblYhHVW-g1HELXvsN2_RjJQDABAD7o5bno0ce17cNPW3rDXWUQZtWVB8KjhsBriHKF9RzPXG5-FC_331R0Xbz8yHYLNGc-fSzos4o4mQ2nlOXTfl8g5gXFgivsxBlF3ERAl_rCHg_dDrTSKA5Zqc4_v9qgJZ9M_oPTZ2-qC7_MEOSiCp4ma/s320/640px-Princesses_Beatrice_and_Eugenie.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-size: x-small;">Princess Eugenie (left) and Princess Beatrice</span><br /><span style="font-size: xx-small;">by Carfax2 via Wikimedia Commons</span></i></td></tr></tbody></table><b>Princess Eugenie of York </b>(1990- ) is the youngest daughter of Prince Andrew Duke of York. She graduated from Newcastle University and now works as an art gallery director. Like her sister, she is not a working royal but carries out a few engagements and has her own charitable work. Having undergone surgery for scoliosis as a child, she is now patron of Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital. She also co-founded Anti-Slavery International. She and husband Jack Brooksbank recently announced that they and their son August will be living in Portugal for a while. (Read <a href="http://hrhprincesspalace.blogspot.com/2015/03/todays-princess-eugenie-of-york.html" target="_blank">my post about Princess Eugenie</a>.)</p><p><b>Lady Louise Windsor </b>(2003- ) is the daughter of Prince Edward Earl of Wessex. As a male-line grandchild of the Queen, she and her younger brother James Viscount Severn are entitled to royal titles. However, the Queen announced that Edward's children would be styled as the children of an Earl. There has been speculation since Louise's 18th birthday that she can opt to be styled as a princess if she wishes. She as an avid competitive carriage driver. It has not yet been announced what she plans to do next with her life. </p><p><b>Princess Charlotte of Cambridge </b>(2015- ) is the daughter of Prince William. Thanks to changes to the succession laws in 2013, she is the first British princess to be born who cannot be pushed down the Line of Succession by the birth of a younger brother. After her father becomes king, she could be given the title Princess Royal, which is reserved for the oldest daughter of the monarch.</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p>Cheryl Ciucevichhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00388994160381820590noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3343837766028558539.post-12738031826032135582022-05-30T18:08:00.002-04:002022-12-30T12:56:12.893-05:00The Queen's Royal Ladies<p>In celebration of Queen Elizabeth II's 70th Jubilee, here is a quick list of all of the royal women who have lived during her long reign. This list stretches from granddaughters of Queen Victoria born in the 19th century to Her Majesty's own great granddaughters. In Part 1, we look at the British royal ladies who were born during the reign of Queen of Victoria but still alive at the beginning of the reign of her great-great granddaughter Queen Elizabeth II in 1952.</p><p><b></b></p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjqQjnh4jFfHW4nbkwnq3uGaspZdKkcQNZX_U5De6TqwWE_QffmCUrjtWXhRSWmECK1y-_H6Nk4B9IvHGn5tvLPBc8gjohaCNB9ZJeHsGZFKAaqrHdv22g7sFE6AIoPwbMmn7Rsz0e3BQu5M1HDituWQt4q7khtskI9XuaWEAtNI3_JACSUqE648_l/s871/640px-Queen_Mary_with_Princess_Elizabeth_and_Margaret.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="871" data-original-width="640" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjqQjnh4jFfHW4nbkwnq3uGaspZdKkcQNZX_U5De6TqwWE_QffmCUrjtWXhRSWmECK1y-_H6Nk4B9IvHGn5tvLPBc8gjohaCNB9ZJeHsGZFKAaqrHdv22g7sFE6AIoPwbMmn7Rsz0e3BQu5M1HDituWQt4q7khtskI9XuaWEAtNI3_JACSUqE648_l/s320/640px-Queen_Mary_with_Princess_Elizabeth_and_Margaret.jpg" width="235" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-size: x-small;">Queen Mary with a young Princess Elizabeth </span><br /><span style="font-size: x-small;">and Princess Margaret</span><br /><span style="font-size: xx-small;">via Wikimedia Commons </span></i></td></tr></tbody></table><b><br />Princess Mary of Teck</b> (1867-1953) was the only daughter of Prince Francis of Teck and the British Princess Mary Adelaide of Cambridge, who as a granddaughter of King George III, was a first cousin of Queen Victoria. The Tecks would later adopt the surname Cambridge and be granted new more British-sounding titles when all of the British royals dropped their Germanic names and titles during World War I. By that time, however, Mary had already married the future King George V and mothered six children. Her second son was Queen Elizabeth's father and Queen Mary was always just Grannie to our Queen, who bears a striking resemblance to her. (<a href="http://hrhprincesspalace.blogspot.com/2011/01/royal-love-triangle-eddy-georgie-and.html">Click for A Royal Love Triangle</a>, my post about Mary's romances with her husband and with his older brother. )<p></p><p><b>Princess Marie Louise of Schleswig-Holstein </b>(1872-1956) A daughter of Queen Victoria's third daughter Princess Helena and the foreign Prince Christian of Schleswig-Holstein, Marie Louise was considered a British princess for a couple of reasons. Firstly, Helena's children all grew up in Victoria's court. Secondly, except for a brief period when Marie Louise was married to a Germanic prince, she and her spinster sister Princess Helena Victoria lived their lives in Britain. In 1917, when the British royals dropped Germanic names and titles, the two unmarried sisters remained princesses but did not adopt an Anglicized name. While her sister had already passed away, Marie Louise was still alive to attend her fourth coronation when Queen Elizabeth was crowned.</p><p><b>Princess Alice of Albany</b> (1883-1981) was the posthumous daughter of Queen Victoria's youngest son Prince Leopold whose earlier death was due to hemophilia. Alice increased her relationship to the primary Royal Family when she married Queen Mary's brother, Francis Duke of Albany, making her King George V's sister-in-law as well as his cousin. She lost her two sons young (one due to hemophilia) while her daughter Lady May Abel-Smith (nee Cambridge) was a bridesmaid for Queen Elizabeth's parents. Until Prince Philip surpassed her, Princess Alice was the longest lived descendant of Queen Victoria. (Click for my post, <a href="https://hrhprincesspalace.blogspot.com/2021/01/a-long-lived-princess-alice-of-albany.html">A Long Lived Princess</a>.)</p><p><b></b></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBhK_dBVx-FkSkHa4YQNS8jeMSCckxLThgTwBs6rnLh_IjEx9RUUZRtgT_n2hv-ev-xB16KYST8_h2vA3OVYqwWa5_zmrDBtBf7lCS1VKGnkv1i8v0cfcFAi8XqhU7egODDL7gTbvBUNRhoUrGULR_eJBzTWL6APJS2at2V7nRfj9yET4VKqiPS5fh/s1011/Beatrice_of_Saxe-Coburg_and_Gotha,_Duchess_of_Galliera.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1011" data-original-width="640" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBhK_dBVx-FkSkHa4YQNS8jeMSCckxLThgTwBs6rnLh_IjEx9RUUZRtgT_n2hv-ev-xB16KYST8_h2vA3OVYqwWa5_zmrDBtBf7lCS1VKGnkv1i8v0cfcFAi8XqhU7egODDL7gTbvBUNRhoUrGULR_eJBzTWL6APJS2at2V7nRfj9yET4VKqiPS5fh/s320/Beatrice_of_Saxe-Coburg_and_Gotha,_Duchess_of_Galliera.jpg" width="203" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-size: x-small;">Princess Beatrice, </span><span style="font-size: x-small;">Duchess of Galliera</span><br /><span style="font-size: xx-small;">via Wikimedia Commons</span></i></td></tr></tbody></table><b><br />Princess Beatrice of Edinburgh</b> (1884-1966) was the youngest child of Queen Victoria's second son Prince Alfred Duke of Edinburgh who later became Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha through his father Prince Albert's family. He moved the family to Germany when Beatrice was a little girl. She married Infante Alfonso of Spain, a cousin of the Spanish king. Having failed to get permission to marry the Protestant princess, Infante Alfonso was stripped of his royal dignities, but was restored a few years later. After his father's death he inherited his Italian title as 5th Duke of Galliera. They lived in England during the Spanish Civil War although one of their sons died in the conflict. They later moved back to Spain.<p></p><p><b>Princess Alice of Battenberg </b>(1885-1969) was the oldest daughter of Queen Victoria's granddaughter Princess Victoria of Hesse and Prince Louis of Battenberg. The Battenbergs lived in Britain with Louis serving in the British Navy and eventually rising to First Lord Admiral. Due to his German origins, he lost the position in World War I and the family changed its surname to Mountbatten with him taken on the title Marquess of Milford Haven. Well before that, Alice had married a Greek prince. Her youngest child Prince Philip would later marry the future Queen Elizabeth II, making her the Queen's mother-in-law as well as her second cousin once removed. Born deaf, Alice also struggled with mental health and was institutionalized when Philip was a boy. Nevertheless, she was also a hero, rescuing Jewish people in World War II and later earning the Most Righteous Among Nations recognition from Israel.</p><p><b>Princess Patricia of Connaught</b> (1886-1974) was the second daughter of Queen Victoria's third son Prince Arthur. Her sister Margaret had married the Crown Prince of Sweden but had died young. Patricia gave up her royal status when she married Sir Alexander Ramsay. Today, her daughter-in-law is the chief of Clan Fraser, while her great nephew is King of Sweden and her great niece is Queen of Denmark.</p><p><b></b></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLsdoN5KVrBaSsWk9TOlMRu91gRptVlb-KA4DZi1Ot3rRFyMAucBCKsmkjQRHzABeH9dU0hvbKmdv7jiUHGpJvCnj2GbY0ZzApq_YIA00QNIncEIMUkIYtmqrKP1oGXQVcO13rwnYARhWY3XHkGXmWGY7A4iTrHZIaai94c2l2WtGgcCucUFFHXH5y/s1140/Retrato_de_Victoria_Eugenia_de_Battenberg.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1140" data-original-width="640" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLsdoN5KVrBaSsWk9TOlMRu91gRptVlb-KA4DZi1Ot3rRFyMAucBCKsmkjQRHzABeH9dU0hvbKmdv7jiUHGpJvCnj2GbY0ZzApq_YIA00QNIncEIMUkIYtmqrKP1oGXQVcO13rwnYARhWY3XHkGXmWGY7A4iTrHZIaai94c2l2WtGgcCucUFFHXH5y/s320/Retrato_de_Victoria_Eugenia_de_Battenberg.jpg" width="180" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-size: x-small;">Victoria Eugenie, Queen of Spain</span><br /><span style="font-size: xx-small;">by Jose Moreno Corbonaro <br />via Wikimedia Commons</span></i></td></tr></tbody></table><b><br />Princess Victoria Eugenie of Battenberg</b> (1886-1969) was the daughter of Queen Victoria's youngest child Princess Beatrice and Prince Henry of Battenberg. She grew up in Victoria's homes before marrying King Alfonso XIII of Spain. The hemophilia gene passed through her into the Spanish royal family. That and many other tragedies led to a very unhappy home. Additionally, the King was ousted from the throne and the family went into exile although Victoria Eugenie and her husband lives separately, with her living partly in her homeland of the United Kingdom. She returned briefly to Spain not long before her death of the christening of her great-grandson, who is now King Felipe V. (Read my post, <a href="http://hrhprincesspalace.blogspot.com/2011/01/death-to-queen-one-night-at-palacio.html">Death to the Queen</a>, about Victoria Eugenie's escape from Spain.)<p></p><p><b>Princess Louise of Battenberg</b> (1889-1965) the younger sister of Princess Alice above, Louise was created Lady Louise Mountbatten during the Germanic title/name switches of 1917 that sought to erase the German connections within the British Royal Family. It would cause some issues later when the Crown Prince of Sweden proposed to her. The Brits were required to prove that she had always been of sufficient royal rank to marry a future king. Louise had sworn never to marry a king or a widower, but she did both when she and Gustav Adolf wed in 1924. His first wife was her late cousin Princess Margaret of Connaught. Louise became Queen of Sweden in 1950 but remained down to earth, carrying a note that said, "I am the Queen of Sweden," as an I.D. card in case she got run down when crossing the street. (Read my post, <a href="http://hrhprincesspalace.blogspot.com/2015/03/todays-princess-louise-of-battenberg.html">Louise of Battenberg</a>.)</p><p><b>Princess Alexandra of Fife</b> (1891-1959) was the daughter of Louise Princess Royal and Alexander Duff, an Earl whom Queen Victoria promoted to first Duke of Fife on their wedding day. Alexandra and her younger sister Maud were merely styled as Lady during their early years. After their grandfather became King Edward VII, he raised them to the rank and style of Princess. Alexandra succeeded her father as 2nd Duchess of Fife in her own right. She married a royal cousin, Prince Arthur of Connaught, but their only son predeceased her and the Fife title passed to Maud's son. Unfortunately, in her last decade, Alexandra was crippled by rheumatoid arthritis but was able to write some autobiographical stories. Her sister Maud had passed away in 1945.</p><p><b></b></p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilzZzzv19HC4Aynk-p8ShnqDJR9ivADqAcq91OmoUrU1KL_iLEw0u39jILkRn51zz8WcGPs7xEaPX52WxCIXCLhfsfiSIV4ti9WgW3IuXUGI6u5amAfCtjiRfd85r9dWMs55mn1z_X_QzfJtrCZEsGIAxMhN77JFaismkkCnqGbJT9P6Jvo6KhisQc/s838/640px-Vincenzo_Laviosa_-_Duke_and_Duchess_of_Windsor_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="838" data-original-width="640" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilzZzzv19HC4Aynk-p8ShnqDJR9ivADqAcq91OmoUrU1KL_iLEw0u39jILkRn51zz8WcGPs7xEaPX52WxCIXCLhfsfiSIV4ti9WgW3IuXUGI6u5amAfCtjiRfd85r9dWMs55mn1z_X_QzfJtrCZEsGIAxMhN77JFaismkkCnqGbJT9P6Jvo6KhisQc/s320/640px-Vincenzo_Laviosa_-_Duke_and_Duchess_of_Windsor_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg" width="244" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-size: x-small;">The Duke and Duchess of Windsor</span><br /><span style="font-size: xx-small;">by Vincenso Laviosa via Wikimedia Commons</span></i></td></tr></tbody></table><b><br />Wallis Warfield Spencer Simpson </b>(1896-1986) Born into a merchant family in Maryland in the United States, Wallis was married to her second husband when she began a love affair with the Queen's uncle Edward Prince of Wales. After he ascended the throne as King Edward VIII, she and Ernest Simpson quietly divorced. However, a divorced royal consort was unacceptable in the 1930s. Edward chose love over the throne, abdicating after less than one year after becoming king. His brother, the new King George VI made him Duke of Windsor. When the pair married the following summer, Wallis became a Duchess but neither George nor his daughter Queen Elizabeth II granted her the right to be addressed as Her Royal Highness. The Windsors spent most of the rest of their lives living in Paris. (Read my post, <a href="http://hrhprincesspalace.blogspot.com/2016/04/the-american-queen-who-never-was.html">The American Queen That Never Was</a>).<p></p><p><b>Mary, Princess Royal</b> (1897-1965) was born during Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee and there had been some talk of naming her Diamond. (If the current Queen has any great-grandchildren this year, I hope the poor child won't be called Platinum!) The only daughter of the future King George V and Queen Mary, she married the much older Earl of Harewood. She took up many royal patronages and served as chief commandant of the Women's Royal Army Corps. An expert in cattle breeding, she enjoyed many country pursuits and oversaw the renovation of her husband's family seat of Harewood House. (Read my post, <a href="http://hrhprincesspalace.blogspot.com/2015/03/todays-princess-mary-princess-royal.html" target="_blank">Mary Princess Royal, Countess of Harewood</a>.)</p><p><b>Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon </b>(1900-2002) was the youngest daughter of the 14th Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne. When she married Queen Elizabeth's father in 1923, she became a darling of British public. She is credited with guiding her more mercurial husband through his battle with stammering and through his unexpected succession to the throne when his brother abdicated in 1936. After cementing her role at the heart of the nation as Queen Consort during World War II, she was devastated by her early widowhood at the age of 51. It took her a few years to figure out her new role as Queen Mother but she lived another 50 years as Britain's favorite grandmother. She had a close relationship with both of her daughters. (Read my post, <a href="http://hrhprincesspalace.blogspot.com/2017/03/in-memoriam-hm-queen-elizabeth.html" target="_blank">In Memoriam: HM Queen Elizabeth</a>.)</p><p><b><a href="https://hrhprincesspalace.blogspot.com/2022/06/the-queens-royal-ladies-part-2.html" target="_blank">READ PART 2</a></b></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p>Cheryl Ciucevichhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00388994160381820590noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3343837766028558539.post-21425558172597801282022-05-23T18:23:00.001-04:002022-05-23T18:23:15.612-04:00A Dutiful Royal Sister<p></p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxtf_oJDhjuPj-x5G6pSDW0hsvrCtCXFAHUNtEcXjAhFE5wBNplrYTJGcPVlLvYHcaiYl9wyuEhxznaljbprWpAhPzdk_7JrIiSvQ0_sc6ohOBPDlsYM97Uw7UI37M5TmUH_wFIH0kObaStqexNB8rkb3QJS5tZItod5_VyjQ8dFIxKCBFeyYTVJSX/s882/Archduchess_Astrid.jpg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="681" data-original-width="882" height="247" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxtf_oJDhjuPj-x5G6pSDW0hsvrCtCXFAHUNtEcXjAhFE5wBNplrYTJGcPVlLvYHcaiYl9wyuEhxznaljbprWpAhPzdk_7JrIiSvQ0_sc6ohOBPDlsYM97Uw7UI37M5TmUH_wFIH0kObaStqexNB8rkb3QJS5tZItod5_VyjQ8dFIxKCBFeyYTVJSX/s320/Archduchess_Astrid.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-size: x-small;">by Stefano Chiolo via Wikimedia Commons</span></i></td></tr></tbody></table><br />Britain has Princess Anne -- a highly capable, reliable and hardworking princess devoted to the well-being of the nation and the monarchy. Belgium has Princess Astrid, second daughter of the former King Albert II and his Italian wife Paola. Currently fourth in the line of succession, Astrid was born with no right to the throne due to her gender. It was also expected that her uncle King Baudouin would have children leaving younger brother Albert's children, especially his daughter, to fade into the background of the royal tapestry. But things changed.<p></p><p>In 1962, Albert and Paola chose to name their baby daughter after his mother, Queen Astrid, a former Swedish princess who had died in a car accident on holiday when Albert was barely a toddler. She grew up sandwiched between her older brother Prince Philippe and younger brother Prince Laurent. She went to school in Brussels before enrolling for a year to study at Leiden University in The Netherlands, then on to the Institute of European Studies, and finally to the University of Michigan in the the United States. She returned to Belgium and soon announced her engagement to a scion of the former Imperial House of Austria. </p><p>Archduke Lorenz of Austria-Este is a grandson of the last Emperor of Austria, Karl I, and is the head of his branch of the family. Seven and a half years older than Astrid, Lorenz has already established himself in a banking career with postings in several major European capitol. He was warmly welcomed into the Belgian royal family when the couple wed in 1984. Over the next 19 years, they had five children, each of whom carries princely Belgian titles and archducal Austria-Este ones. In birth order, they are Amedeo, Maria Laura, Joachim, Luisa Maria, and Laetitia Maria. Now that the older children are grown, they are also Astrid and Lorenz are also proud grandparents.</p><p><a class="gie-slideshow" href="http://www.gettyimages.com/detail/120064624" id="kXBrfVmfQwhLw2ClnpLc-Q" style="border: none; color: #a7a7a7; display: inline-block; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Embed from Getty Images</a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'kXBrfVmfQwhLw2ClnpLc-Q',sig:'ne7lUYcJsOFbEYWk8dtN2H2RF430B5AaLtitYUmp-og=',w:'594px',h:'383px',items:'120064624,627713609,174154560,1234261360,1240616876',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});</script><script async="" charset="utf-8" src="//embed-cdn.gettyimages.com/widgets.js"></script></p><p>In 1991, the succession laws were changed not only to allow female inheritance but to adopt <i>absolute primogeniture</i>, allowing birth order to dictate position. This placed Astrid at the time behind her father Albert and her older brother Philippe but ahead of her younger brother Prince Laurent. When her uncle King Baudouin died in 1993 and her father became King, Astrid moved to number two, but she only held that position until Philippe starting having children and pushing her down the line.</p><p>Nevertheless, Astrid and Lorenz have been devoted to the nation and the monarchy, which led his father-in-law to make him a Prince of Belgium in 1995. Astrid's interests lie particularly in medical areas and landmines. She served for many years as the head of the Belgian Red Cross and was a Special Envoy of the Ottawa Treaty, traveling the world to encourage nations to sign on to the agreement to ban the use of anti-personnel landmines. She also is a colonel in the Belgian military's medical branch and serves on the board of the country's Paralympics committee.</p><p>Although a broken vertebra sidelined her in 2021, she soon returned to royal duties. Pleasantly and calmly representing king and country.</p><p><b>MORE ABOUT ASTRID</b></p><p><a href="https://www.glamour.com/story/princess-astrid-daughters-style" target="_blank">Meet the Very Stylish Royal Family of Belgium </a>on Glamour<br /><a href="https://www.monarchie.be/en/royal-family/princess-astrid" target="_blank">Princess Astrid</a> on The Belgian Monarchy<br /><a href="https://royalcentral.co.uk/europe/belgium/princess-astrid-of-belgium-fractures-vertebrae-while-exercising-165073/" target="_blank">Princess Astrid of Belgium, Archduchess of Austria-Este</a> on Unofficial Royalty<br /><a href="https://royalcentral.co.uk/europe/belgium/princess-astrid-of-belgium-fractures-vertebrae-while-exercising-165073/" target="_blank">Princess Astrid of Belgium Fractures Vertebrae</a> on Royal Central</p>Cheryl Ciucevichhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00388994160381820590noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3343837766028558539.post-31285109636474549292022-04-16T18:34:00.002-04:002022-04-16T18:34:55.268-04:00Prince Leopold and His Legacy<p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUJFHQ2byOAw6gw62dEq536u4FuOM25dPifcnG8nLiL6_0uACJ0SO645fa5FZuoT3LOqA81NzOXHcFj834cnuwQCrRXcEZCZ67gwhKkvxVvTSUMhWSNjFNAt0lsVsCSjdLAxHKoHxYqJaq3e6RWWIPMKUB8_zES3dzv-ADTudZybwr_roDxcwJZfMj/s754/Queen_Victoria_and_Leopold_of_Albany.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="754" data-original-width="512" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUJFHQ2byOAw6gw62dEq536u4FuOM25dPifcnG8nLiL6_0uACJ0SO645fa5FZuoT3LOqA81NzOXHcFj834cnuwQCrRXcEZCZ67gwhKkvxVvTSUMhWSNjFNAt0lsVsCSjdLAxHKoHxYqJaq3e6RWWIPMKUB8_zES3dzv-ADTudZybwr_roDxcwJZfMj/w271-h400/Queen_Victoria_and_Leopold_of_Albany.jpg" width="271" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: left;"><i><span style="font-size: x-small;">Young Leopold and Queen Victoria</span></i></div><br /></td></tr></tbody></table>In the history of royal hemophilia, Prince Leopold was patient zero. His mother, Queen Victoria, longed to wrap in cotton wool and keep him safely near her where she could always keep an eye on him especially after his father Prince Albert died when Leopold was just eight years old. Unlike his brothers, Leopold was not permitted a military career and went instead to university at Christ Church, Oxford. After traveling in Europe, the United States and Canada, where his sister Princess Louise's husband was Governor General, Leopold longed for his own overseas appointment. Victoria would not permit it, keeping him instead as an unofficial secretary for herself, as she had done with most of his five sisters. </p><p>Leopold wanted to be independent and pushed against his mother's restraints. Although he was created Duke of Albany at age 28, tt seemed marriage might be the only true path to escaping Victoria's smothering attention. Even here, though, he was thwarted. Several British brides were rejected and he had trouble settling on a foreign princess until his matchmaking oldest sister Victoria Princess Royal suggested Princess Helena of Waldeck and Pyrmont, whose sister was married to the King of the Netherlands. Both the Queen and Leopold found the lovely and well-educated Helena to be pleasing. Perhaps more importantly, Helena was willing to marry a man whose very life could be in danger every time he banged his knee or bumped his head.</p><p>The couple married in April 1882 and were soon able to surprise the Queen with Helena's pregnancy. Although Victoria had presumed that fatherhood was not a real possibility for him, the birth of little Princess Alice of Albany nine months after the wedding proved something of a miracle. By the end of that year, they shared the news that Helena was expecting yet again. The happy couple were delighted with their growing family, but Leopold's health concerns, which also included a mild form of epilepsy, were not improving. As had happened before, his doctors advised him to seek a warmer climate as a refuge from the British winter which caused great pain in his joints. With Helena's advancing pregnancy, she stayed behind with their baby daughter while her husband traveled to Cannes.</p><p></p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8059mPn6rRf49JHJsJy-GBQPgRE_CsrCXTWrBLcgMeyifbaP5zrhcYi0DcpFG9Pflc70hHFjTie25snJyDgx8bbLDV1PjoAXKTo_OkKF7B7ksLbyBREwvw9DtAR115KIyzgugJX-4O3O8hCxxygF3_82hhSNCojZ40D_RWZPzB2FhLwLBfIMRAij1/s917/640px-Leopold_and_Helen.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="917" data-original-width="640" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8059mPn6rRf49JHJsJy-GBQPgRE_CsrCXTWrBLcgMeyifbaP5zrhcYi0DcpFG9Pflc70hHFjTie25snJyDgx8bbLDV1PjoAXKTo_OkKF7B7ksLbyBREwvw9DtAR115KIyzgugJX-4O3O8hCxxygF3_82hhSNCojZ40D_RWZPzB2FhLwLBfIMRAij1/s320/640px-Leopold_and_Helen.png" width="223" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: right;"><i><span style="font-size: x-small;">The Duke & Duchess of Albany</span><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><br />photo by John Thomson via Wikimedia Commons<br /><br /></span></i></td></tr></tbody></table><br />Leopold stayed at a private home called Villa Nevada. It seemed a safe enough place for the young man, but his hemophilia could make almost any accident deadly. His nephew, Prince Friedrich of Hesse, had died a decade earlier when the toddler suffered an accidental fall while playing with his brother. The warmth of the south of France could not protect Leopold from an accidental slip on the stairs. After banging his knee and his head, the 30-year-old prince knew the routine. Although he had no external injuries, he went immediately to lie down in hopes of thwarting any potential internal bleeding. Since hemophilia prevented his blood from clotting, his condition rapidly deteriorated. By the next morning, he had bled to death from an apparent cerebral hemorrhage.<p></p><p>Queen Victoria had tried to keep Prince Leopold close to her. She was devastated to lose him so far away. Princess Helena, a widow at 23, carried on with resiliency. Their son, Prince Charles Edward, the new Duke of Albany was born four months later. Helena earned Queen Victoria's great admiration and respect as the young woman focused not just on her own children but also on endeavors related to the arts and health care. She survived Leopold by nearly four decades, passing away after a heart attack in her early sixties.</p><p>Prince Charles Edward was selected as the heir to Saxe-Coburg, the princely inheritance of his grandfather Prince Albert's family. This separated him as a teenager from his mother and sister in England. When the first World War came, it also put him on the "wrong side". As a result the Albany title has been abeyance for over a century although he has many descendants alive today, including the King of Sweden and his sisters.</p><p></p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZ8EDA3ktyryRHrsvysELzM6z-9u0aWitH-Oeeizff8JFawkYDO0s5loCcPDymZ2e2YDep_3tQjXerSE0QTPEIDwx6ooEVu2rvJqDo6oqUkv1itbXC7QYwIg_tL8QokldICEPcffVia0cd5Du5NZ282eTTwVx30wg8Jyb5oPEL8P5aVCz5zbWJSE6D/s1013/640px-Princess_Alice,_Countess_of_Athlone_with_children.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1013" data-original-width="640" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZ8EDA3ktyryRHrsvysELzM6z-9u0aWitH-Oeeizff8JFawkYDO0s5loCcPDymZ2e2YDep_3tQjXerSE0QTPEIDwx6ooEVu2rvJqDo6oqUkv1itbXC7QYwIg_tL8QokldICEPcffVia0cd5Du5NZ282eTTwVx30wg8Jyb5oPEL8P5aVCz5zbWJSE6D/w253-h400/640px-Princess_Alice,_Countess_of_Athlone_with_children.jpg" width="253" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: left;"><i><span style="font-size: x-small;">Princess Alice of Albany with her children</span></i></div><i><div style="text-align: left;"><i><span style="font-size: x-small;">May and Rupert</span></i></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i><span style="font-size: xx-small;">photo by Bain News Service via Wikimedia Commons</span></i></div></i></td></tr></tbody></table>Hemophilia, however, did not leave the Albany family tree with Leopold's death. Since it is carried on the X gene, it always passes from a hemophiliac father to any daughter he might have. Since Princess Alice inherited a healthy X gene from her mother, she did not suffer the condition herself - women rarely do since they would have to inherit it from both parents. She married Prince Alexander of Teck, brother of Queen Mary. In the great re-titling of 1917 to rid the British royals of German names and titles, Alexander was created Earl of Athlone with the surname Cambridge. The couple and their children remained close friends of their royal relatives on the throne. Their second son, Maurice died as an infant so it is not clear whether she passed the hemophilia gene to him. Their first son, Rupert Viscount Trematon definitely inherited the condition that had caused Princess Alice to grow up without her father. <p></p><p>Just before his 21st birthday, Rupert and two friends crashed their car into a tree in France. One friend died quickly while the other survived. Rupert was rushed to hospital with a small skull fracture. It took two weeks for him to bleed to death from cerebral hemorrhage, the same kind of bleed that had killed his grandfather. </p><p>Leopold's legacy carries on in the descendants of Alice's daughter Lady May, who married Sir Henry Abel-Smith, and the Saxe-Coburg family. The boy who Queen Victoria tried so hard to keep close to home now has dozens of descendants scattered across Europe.</p><p><br /></p>Cheryl Ciucevichhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00388994160381820590noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3343837766028558539.post-56712394792794136632022-02-07T12:17:00.004-05:002022-02-07T12:19:33.948-05:00Jubilee: A Message about Monarchy<p><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">Somewhere in the wee hours of that February morning, a father breathed his last. His one remaining lung finally surrendered to the cancer that had ravaged him for years. </span></p><span id="docs-internal-guid-81c8da92-7fff-a062-8c05-8593f923e90a"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">A continent away his daughter woke amidst the sunshine of the Kenyan wilderness, well-rested from a short respite from an otherwise heavy schedule that she had agreed to undertake to give her father a break. Later that day, as her husband walked toward her with a quietness unusual for his athletic and restless spirit, she had no idea that her entire world was about to change. At 25, she was called to bear the heavy mantle of monarchy. One lone figure in a long line of men and women stretching back nearly a millennia.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjxx8umdD9JeyH2960tNL7Ie-4qcoHQ1Gr8AkTsh34eXFimW7rEaYAwyJgNy7aN1oiNaySxLOY-FoAF74YrphhaFyTdeBWuWv7rjToWtiYQ-_2A94FrFXR7ePeZRcWqNPT5-_lSuX86OHRIJOesQ8wisznkLxFhTUu7wMfCk1jGCp_y80_VIOzLJMCA=s650" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="3" data-original-height="439" data-original-width="650" height="216" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjxx8umdD9JeyH2960tNL7Ie-4qcoHQ1Gr8AkTsh34eXFimW7rEaYAwyJgNy7aN1oiNaySxLOY-FoAF74YrphhaFyTdeBWuWv7rjToWtiYQ-_2A94FrFXR7ePeZRcWqNPT5-_lSuX86OHRIJOesQ8wisznkLxFhTUu7wMfCk1jGCp_y80_VIOzLJMCA=s320" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: left;"><i style="font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">The Queen's official Jubilee photo shows her </span></i><i style="font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">commitment to
work by including the Red Box and </span></i><i style="font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">underscores her role in </span></i></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i style="font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">the continuity of the </span></i><i style="font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Monarchy by including a photo of
her father.</span></i></div><i><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><div style="text-align: left;"><i style="font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Photo by Chris Jackson/Getty Images</span></i></div></span></i></td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Seventy years on, Queen Elizabeth II thinks of her dear Papa on this day when the rest of the world thinks of her. Most of us have never known another British monarch. She has been consulted by 15 British Prime Ministers from Winston Churchill to Margaret Thatcher to Boris Johnson. She has watched 14 American Presidents come and go. And, yet she has remained as steadfast as the white cliffs of Dover as immediately recognizable as Stone Henge. Despite the heartaches that have troubled her family and broken her own heart, she has emerged now a smiling, peaceful lady whose eyes have witnessed nearly a century of turbulence and progress.</span><p></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">On the eve of her landmark 70th anniversary on the throne, she shared a message that drew a solid line connecting the dots of legacy she inherited so long ago and that she will undoubtedly pass on to the Prince of Wales within the next decade. It is a well-crafted statement underlining her sense of duty and devotion to the wide array of nations she represents and allowing us a glimpse of her most central characteristics, loyalty and service.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Let’s review this beautiful message one section at a time.</span></p><br /></span><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><span><p style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Tomorrow, 6th February, marks the 70th anniversary of my Accession in 1952. It is a day that, even after 70 years, I still remember as much for the death of my father, King George VI, as for the start of my reign.</span></p></span></blockquote><span><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Here The Queen accomplishes two things simultaneously. She links her role as monarch directly to those who have come before her by specifying her immediate predecessor. She also gently reminds us that it is a day of mourning for her. King George VI was darling Papa and trusted mentor. She was a very young woman just four years into her marriage with two toddler children. She imagined a life much more like the one her grandson Prince William has been able to live, pursuing his own interest and raising his children without daily boxes of government boxes. His family life was interrupted but not dominated by royal tours and duties as a young person. Instead her entire life was upended. She paused her family planning, leaving an entire decade between her second child and her third. She watched her husband struggle as he surrendered the ambitions he had in a career he loved to walk behind her for the rest of his life. At an age when most of us still don’t know what we want to be in life, she became the Head of State for millions, a figurehead for even more, and the matriarch of a clan that would be riddled by divorce and tragedy. It is 70 years birthed in her own personal sorrow and sacrifice. </span></p><br /></span><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><span><p style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">As we mark this anniversary, it gives me pleasure to renew to you the pledge I gave in 1947 that my life will always be devoted to your service.</span></p></span></blockquote><span><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Once again drawing attention to the deep historical threads that sustain the monarchy, the Queen references the speech she gave from South Africa on her 21st birthday via worldwide radio broadcast. In this oft-quoted speech she said, “I declare before you that my whole life, whether it be long or short, shall be devoted to your service.” Nearly 74 years later, this reminder tells us that she still has no intention of abdicating as has now become somewhat common in other monarchies. Despite much speculation today that she might step down due to her very advanced age, there are two additional facts that may indicate her mindset against the idea. Firstly, the last British abdication, that of her uncle King Edward VIII caused great turmoil in her family when she was only 10 years old. The stress of the responsibilities it placed on her beloved father might very well have shortened his life, as her mother seemed to believe. It also set her on the path to the throne that she might otherwise have avoided had that Uncle instead married a “suitable” woman and had children. Elizabeth might have been a lady in the country with her horses and dogs who showed up on the balcony as a royal cousin a few times a year, no more notable on the world stage than Princess Alexandra is today. Secondly, at the time of her coronation in 1953, Elizabeth took a lifelong vow before God. She is known to have a deep faith that would prevent her from breaking a promise to God.</span></p><br /></span><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><span><p style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">As I look ahead with a sense of hope and optimism to the year of my Platinum Jubilee, I am reminded of how much we can be thankful for. These last seven decades have seen extraordinary progress socially, technologically and culturally that have benefitted us all; and I am confident that the future will offer similar opportunities to us and especially to the younger generations in the United Kingdom and throughout the Commonwealth.</span></p></span></blockquote><span><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Here Her Majesty draws upon her role as the nation’s chief symbol of continuity and hope. Despite all the difficulties that have plagued everyone across these seven decades and particularly in the last couple of years, she is using the power of monarchy to do what Winston Churchill noted was the role of her 1947 wedding in the aftermath of World War II; she is bringing a touch of color to the gray by reminding of us all the good that has also happened. As a person of deep person faith, she almost certainly chooses to focus on “hope and optimism”. This is a very different world from that of 1952. The British Empire she inherited is now a Commonwealth of Nations. As the Head of that Commonwealth, she has used her quiet power as a means of change. Politically limited by her role, she has often been subtle but powerful nonetheless, choosing to dance with Black African leaders, driving heads of state from countries that ban women from driving. She has an inner strength and determination that enables her to achieve her own goals with a tenacity that cannot be mistaken. If you doubt this, please refer to her campaign to marry the man of her choice against her father’s better judgment</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This section of the message takes the next step forward too, once again underlining The Queen’s responsibility to provide continuity for the nation. She pays homage to the younger generations, encouraging and powering them to pick up the torches that she and others have provided and to carry them into an even bolder, even better future.</span></p><br /></span><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; white-space: pre-wrap;">I am fortunate to have had the steadfast and loving support of my family.</span> </blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"> </blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; white-space: pre-wrap;">I was blessed that in Prince Philip I had a partner willing to carry out the role of consort and unselfishly make the sacrifices that go with it. It is a role I saw my own mother perform during my father’s reign.</span> </blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"> </blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><i style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">This anniversary also affords me a time to reflect on the goodwill shown to me by people of all nationalities, faiths and ages in this country and around the world over these years. I would like to express my thanks to you all for your support. I remain eternally grateful for, and humbled by, the loyalty and affection that you continue to give me. And when, in the fullness of time, my son Charles becomes King, I know you will give him and his wife Camilla the same support that you have given me; and it is my sincere wish that, when that time comes, Camilla will be known as Queen Consort as she continues her own loyal service.</i></blockquote><span><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">These three paragraphs should be considered together as they carry the continuity theme in regards to the Royal Family from the past to present to future. She pays tribute to the support of her family without naming or omitting anyone as some may have thought she should have done. This underscores the role of the Royal Family not just in personally supporting the Monarch but also in publicly supporting the Monarchy. </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">Then, she speaks specifically about the value of the consort, naming both her own recently passed husband Prince Philip and her mother, the late Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother. Before moving into the future, she takes an aside to thank the people of all diverse backgrounds for their support as part of a broader human family and to deftly enlist their agreement to what she is about to say. It is here that we get the statement that has come to dominate coverage of this Platinum Jubilee message. For it is here that The Queen gently but unequivocally states her desire that her daughter-in-law Camilla should be called Queen Consort once Prince Charles becomes King. To be clear, there has never been a tradition of the wife of a British King being anything other than Queen Consort, although variations have existed in other countries. A British King’s wife has always been a Queen. This issue only required clarification because the tradition was stood on its head in 2005 when it was announced ahead of Charles and Camilla’s wedding that she would take the title Princess Consort upon his accession. The same announcement shared that she would forego the use of the title Princess of Wales (which is still her title). Many people have presumed the reason for this: out of deference or respect to his first wife Diana or because Camilla did not want to use the same title Diana had used. The truth is that the actual statement gave no reason. Presumably, the decisions about these titles were both made out of a motivation to placate the large segment of the population that despised Camilla for her role in the breakup of Charles and Diana’s marriage. With the passage of time (and the calming of emotion), many have come to realize that there were many issues in that marriage with plenty of “blame” to be had by everyone involved. However, The Queen’s Platinum Jubilee message spotlights the number one reason those decades-old reasons are no longer so important: Camilla’s loyalty and her demonstrated service to the Monarchy, to her husband, and to the nation. Few could argue that Camilla has been anything but an excellent addition to the Royal Family and a great helpmate to Prince Charles. She is pleasant, jolly, and hardworking. She has taken on a range of causes from dog rescues to childhood literacy to osteoporosis. She has steered clear of any controversy in the 30 years since Charles and Diana officially separated. The Queen apparently believes her loyalty and work ethic deserve recognition.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">However, many have questioned why this information was included in the Jubilee message. Some have claimed that this distracts from the theme of the celebration, that it distracts attention from The Queen herself or, more radically, that Charles forced her to include it. I think none of these things are true. The Queen has always put The Crown above herself. For her, this Jubilee is about the continuity of Monarchy, not about any achievement that she has made. Remember, for her this Jubilee is a combination of the early loss of her father and her own good fortune of having a long lifespan. By paving the way for her successor to have as smooth a transition as possible, she is ensuring the survival of The Crown, which, to her, is more important than the head that wears it. If the public can come to accept Camilla as a rightful and deserving Queen Consort </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">before</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Prince Charles becomes King, everything will be less traumatic for the Monarchy.</span></p><br /></span><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><span><p style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">And so as I look forward to continuing to serve you with all my heart, I hope this Jubilee will bring together families and friends, neighbours and communities – after some difficult times for so many of us – in order to enjoy the celebrations and to reflect on the positive developments in our day-to-day lives that have so happily coincided with my reign.</span></p></span></blockquote><span><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In this final paragraph, The Queen beautifully wraps up her overarching themes of service, unity, and hope. It is a well-crafted message. One of the most immaculately written that I have ever read. I wish Her Majesty and all of us a joyous celebration. I look forward to her remaining time as Monarch and, with the fullness of time, will likewise celebrate the passing of the Crown to Prince Charles with his Queen by his side.</span></p><div><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div></span>Cheryl Ciucevichhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00388994160381820590noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3343837766028558539.post-17525864651703218352022-01-01T00:00:00.001-05:002022-01-01T00:00:00.171-05:00No Mercy: The Story of Margaret of Anjou<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhG684y6YjVd72m2iyklwh5kZaJSerJjWuNKAVws5jsWmALOMJF1kAkZ8vWjm-kUrK7Zs7kJeJiRLFL9t0jej1TBuhWtZvTx4Bqy2DwnKKsHPJkmw4xgtWkUJjMGmVpRs4vzwAqYS-PiZC30t6RFXecV-gvQKBoMjG4XVftQWVGat3M8XT9WWMcoGlK=s726" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="726" data-original-width="640" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhG684y6YjVd72m2iyklwh5kZaJSerJjWuNKAVws5jsWmALOMJF1kAkZ8vWjm-kUrK7Zs7kJeJiRLFL9t0jej1TBuhWtZvTx4Bqy2DwnKKsHPJkmw4xgtWkUJjMGmVpRs4vzwAqYS-PiZC30t6RFXecV-gvQKBoMjG4XVftQWVGat3M8XT9WWMcoGlK=s320" width="282" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>By a Talbot Master via Wikimedia Commons</i></span></td></tr></tbody></table><br />Margaret of Anjou was seething. She had spent years literally fighting her husband's battles for him, while these two men, William Baron Bonville and Sir Thomas Kyriell, held him captive for Richard Duke of York. Well, Richard was dead now. His head had been displayed on the walls of the City of York by Margaret's forces. Now, she had led the army that had defeated his forces at the Second Battle of St. Albans and she had recaptured her husband, England's King Henry VI. <div><br /></div><div>The moment called for justice. It called for strength. This was a lesson she wanted her seven-year-old son Edward Prince of Wales to learn firsthand. He would be a strong and effective king one day, unlike his weak and sickly father. "What death shall these men die?" Queen Margaret asked Prince Edward. "Behead them," the little boy commanded. King Henry shrieked his objection. "I promised them amnesty!" </div><div><br /></div><div>But, Margaret was in no mood for amnesty. No mercy. These Yorkist had not just usurped her husband's authority; they had attempted to steal her only child's birthright. Indeed, the newly deceased Duke of York had convinced the feeble King Henry that he could keep his powerless crown as long as he made York his heir. This was a crime that Margaret would not forgive.</div><div><br /></div><div>Margaret had grown up in Lorraine, where her formidable mother was reigning duchess in her own right, and in Provence, where her father was the count. Her father Rene was also the titular King of Naples as well as Sicily and Jerusalem. But it was her mother, not her father, who fought to make those titles real. Foreshadowing Margaret's own future marriage, Rene was being held captive while his wife Isabel fought for his rights. Powerful women were a tradition in Margaret's family: the family's other territory, Anjou, was ruled over by Rene's mother, Yolanda of Aragon, in his stead.</div><div><br /></div><div>Margaret's marriage at age 15 to the young King Henry VI was meant to bring peace and stability. He was only nine months old when he inherited the English throne from his father King Henry V. Just a month later, the infant Henry inherited his maternal grandfather King Charles VI's French throne, too. Charles' son opposed Henry's claim to the French throne, which had been wrenched from Charles VI after military defeat. He had declared himself King Charles VII and succeeded in asserting his authority. By marrying his now single-throned nephew to his niece Margaret, the power struggle between France and England should have ended but it didn't. Having long since taken personal control after years of having his lands and armies led by regents, Henry was mucking everything up. Soon, Calais was England's last remaining vestige of the Angevin Empire that had been forged by his ancestors King Henry II and Queen Eleanor of Aquitaine. And, all that losing had a negative impact among his lords, too.</div><div><br /></div><div>Henry was seen as weak and ineffective. His wife seems to have agreed. Despite King Henry's promise of amnesty to the men who had held him captive, Margaret beheaded Bonville and Kyriell. Her victory was short lived. In just a few weeks' time, the Duke of York's son defeated the Lancastrian forces, deposed King Henry and declared himself King Edward IV. </div><div><br /></div><div>For Margaret, only her son's future mattered and she would do all that she could to ensure his birthright. She returned to France to seek more support against the new Duke of York, another prince named Edward. She also allied herself with Richard Earl of Warwick, known to history as the Kingmaker. Warwick had been the muscle behind the Yorkist claims, but he had fallen out with Edward IV. He eagerly cast his lot with the Lancastrian Queen Margaret, who even agreed to marry the Prince of Wales to Warwick's daughter, Anne Neville. To ensure the royal match and prove his loyalty, Warwick returned to England and restored King Henry to the throne. Margaret, Edward Prince of Wales and Anne returned to England but the struggle had not ended. Barely six months after Henry's restoration, the Lancastrians were defeated in the Battle of Tewkesbury. Margaret's son, aged just 17, died in the battle (or perhaps in its aftermath). Margaret and Henry were taken into custody separately. Within two weeks, Henry died under suspicious circumstances. As for Margaret, she was left with nothing left to fight for. She was imprisoned in the Tower of London for several years before the French king paid to free her. She survived her last few years on his charity. Even after her death, Margaret could find no peace -- her remains were ransacked by Revolutionaries three centuries later.</div><div><br /></div><div><div><br /></div><div><b>More about Margaret of Anjou</b></div><div><a href="https://www.historyhit.com/facts-about-margaret-of-anjou/" target="_blank">10 Facts about Margaret of Anjou</a> on History Hit</div><div><a href="https://gazette665.com/2018/05/25/10-things-you-should-know-about-queen-margaret-of-anjou/" target="_blank">10 Things You Should Know About Queen Margaret of Anjou</a> on Medieval English Queens</div><div><a href="https://www.thoughtco.com/margaret-of-anjou-3529625" target="_blank">Biography of Margaret of Anjou, Henry VI's Queen</a> on ThoughtCo.</div><div><a href="https://tudorblogger.wordpress.com/2016/01/16/britains-bloody-crown-part-2-14-01-2016/" target="_blank">Britain's Bloody Crown Part 2</a> on Tudor Blogger</div><div><a href="https://mattlewisauthor.wordpress.com/2014/05/04/did-the-wars-of-the-roses-end-at-tewkesbury/" target="_blank">Did the Wars of the Roses End at Tewkesbury?</a> on Matt's History Blog</div><div><a href="https://www.susanhigginbotham.com/posts/a-happy-anniversary-to-henry-vi-and-margaret-of-anjou/" target="_blank">A Happy Anniversary to Henry VI and Margaret of Anjou</a> on History Refreshed by Susan Higginbotham</div><div><a href="https://www.susanhigginbotham.com/posts/a-letter-to-margaret-of-anjou/" target="_blank">A Letter to Margaret of Anjou</a> on History Refreshed by Susan Higginbotham</div><div><a href="https://rebeccastarrbrown.com/2017/03/26/the-lost-childhood-of-marguerite-of-anjou/" target="_blank">The Lost Childhood of Marguerite of Anjou</a> on Rebecca Starr Brown</div><div><a href="https://www.historytoday.com/archive/feature/madness-king-henry-vi" target="_blank">The Madness of King Henry VI</a> on History Today</div><div><a href="http://www.englishmonarchs.co.uk/plantagenet_26.html" target="_blank">Margaret of Anjou</a> on English Monarchs</div><div><a href="https://www.queens.cam.ac.uk/visiting-the-college/history/college-facts/foundresses-and-patronesses/margaret-of-anjou" target="_blank">Margaret of Anjou</a> on Queens College Cambridge</div><div><a href="https://thefreelancehistorywriter.com/2017/01/28/margaret-of-anjou-queen-of-england/" target="_blank">Margaret of Anjou</a> on The Freelance History Writer</div><div><a href="http://richardiiicasebook.blogspot.com/2010/02/margaret-of-anjou-queen-of-england-she.html" target="_blank">Margaret of Anjou: Queen of England, She-Wolf of France</a> on Richard III: A Virtual Dramaturgical Casebook</div><div><a href="https://www.tudorsociety.com/margaret-of-anjou-the-queen-of-the-wars-by-heather-r-darsie/" target="_blank">Margaret of Anjou, the Queen of the Wars</a> on The Tudor Society</div><div><a href="http://conorbyrnex.blogspot.com/2013/03/margaret-of-anjou-she-wolf.html" target="_blank">Margaret of Anjou - "She-Wolf"?</a> on Conor Byrne</div><div><a href="https://www.susanhigginbotham.com/posts/margaret-of-anjous-coronation/" target="_blank">Margaret of Anjou's Coronation</a> on History Refreshed by Susan Higginbotham</div><div><a href="https://www.susanhigginbotham.com/posts/margaret-of-anjous-last-days-her-dogs-and-her-burial/" target="_blank">Margaret of Anjou's Last Days: Her Dogs and Her Burial</a> on History Refreshed by Susan Higginbotham</div><div><a href="https://www.susanhigginbotham.com/posts/margaret-of-anjous-supposed-lovers/" target="_blank">Margaret of Anjou's Supposed Lovers </a>on History Refreshed by Susan Higginbotham</div><div><a href="https://www.susanhigginbotham.com/posts/margaret-of-anjous-will/" target="_blank">Margaret of Anjou's Will</a> on History Refreshed by Susan Higginbotham</div><div><a href="https://www.susanhigginbotham.com/posts/margaret-the-mother-in-law-from-hell/" target="_blank">Margaret, the Mother-in-Law from Hell?</a> on History Refreshed by Susan Higginbotham</div><div><a href="https://blog.hrp.org.uk/curators/medieval-royalty-margaret-anjou/" target="_blank">Medieval Royalty -- Margaret of Anjou</a> on Historic Royal Palaces</div><div><a href="http://dangerouswomenproject.org/2016/06/11/margaret-of-anjou/" target="_blank">More sinn'd against than sinning?</a> on Dangerous Women</div><div><a href="https://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/person/mp14596/queen-margaret-of-anjou" target="_blank">Queen Margaret of Anjou</a> on National Portrait Gallery</div><div><a href="http://theshakespeareblog.com/2018/05/rehabilitating-shakespeares-she-wolf-of-france-margaret-of-anjou/" target="_blank">Rehabilitating Shakespeare's "she-wolf of France"</a> on The Shakespeare Blog</div><div><a href="https://www.susanhigginbotham.com/posts/so-what-did-margaret-of-anjou-look-like/" target="_blank">So What Did Margaret of Anjou Look Like?</a> on History Refreshed by Susan Higginbotham</div><div><a href="https://www.susanhigginbotham.com/posts/speaking-of-margaret-of-anjous-marriage/" target="_blank">Speaking of Margaret of Anjou's Marriage</a> on History Refreshed by Susan Higginbotham</div><div><a href="https://www.susanhigginbotham.com/posts/ten-rules-for-depicting-margaret-of-anjou-in-historical-fiction/" target="_blank">Ten Rules for Depicting Margaret of Anjou in Historical Fiction</a> on History Refreshed by Susan Higginbotham</div><div><a href="https://rebeccastarrbrown.com/2018/04/22/when-marguerite-of-anjou-arrived-in-england/" target="_blank">When Marguerite of Anjou Arrived in England</a> of Rebecca Starr Brown</div></div>Cheryl Ciucevichhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00388994160381820590noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3343837766028558539.post-52587257204912948122021-08-08T18:08:00.007-04:002021-08-08T22:41:29.357-04:00Review: William & Kate, A Royal 10 Years<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOAZAf5GnKfN3YLzJfm8clHcVAccHrsj35MEw_Y_8BS0-Nd1ovB1x2uibMejxZ8wg5uFS7gTlmzBT1Hg0DxvHDzQobw69lU6FqWcl4mv0_msuA6kjz3gOK5SwFfIxU6x-sArXyufIk9R4/s2048/temp+wedding_edit.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1536" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOAZAf5GnKfN3YLzJfm8clHcVAccHrsj35MEw_Y_8BS0-Nd1ovB1x2uibMejxZ8wg5uFS7gTlmzBT1Hg0DxvHDzQobw69lU6FqWcl4mv0_msuA6kjz3gOK5SwFfIxU6x-sArXyufIk9R4/s320/temp+wedding_edit.jpg" width="240" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div>When <a href="http://www.historic-newspapers.com" target="_blank">Historic Newspapers</a> asked me to review their book commemorating the 10th anniversary of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge earlier this year, I didn't really know what to expect, but it certainly wasn't the incredible book I received. <i>William & Kate: A Royal 10 Years </i>is simply a treasure trove for followers of the royal couple. Having used clipping services before, I guess I thought I would get bits and pieces of newspaper clippings jammed together in a kind of scrapbook. I definitely wasn't expecting to receive full pages from historic papers -- including the ads and other items that might have appeared next to the royal articles. Those bits of "extra" will only grow more valuable and entertaining as even more time passes. Add to that the beautiful binding and this book is a real addition for any royal watcher. (<a href="https://www.historic-newspapers.com/gifts/historical-newspaper-books/william-and-kate-book/" target="_blank">Click here for the direct link to this book.</a>)<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXUQZlqy8fp_emCcMqVUs92zIiv4wgKwv-LFb9xqs-6F5Q3oDnOJnaBgjKir8U_KCfoUInKXMMByf5PlSz6lkkikozs_LyLoxPTTtZe7czOhUpb-riMa5LFgkSt_zdMUXh2leyJQP9D_k/s2048/temp+wedding+kiss.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXUQZlqy8fp_emCcMqVUs92zIiv4wgKwv-LFb9xqs-6F5Q3oDnOJnaBgjKir8U_KCfoUInKXMMByf5PlSz6lkkikozs_LyLoxPTTtZe7czOhUpb-riMa5LFgkSt_zdMUXh2leyJQP9D_k/w400-h300/temp+wedding+kiss.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><br /> This volume documents Prince William's life with the former Catherine Middleton from their engagement -- including the her historic engagement ring -- right through the pandemic that colored the celebration of their 10th wedding anniversary. In it, you'll find coverage of their gorgeous wedding, their international tours, the births and christenings of their three children: George, Charlotte, and Louis. Unless you've been keeping your own news clippings about the couple, this is a real addition for your Cambridge Collection. Plus, you can have it embossed with your name and/or dedicated to a friend as a gift, as I did with my review copy. And, it comes in a beautiful gift box.<div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7L7rPDV8b_7NVbOp-wqmcV_tGqi1XR0RCPg5xRB32OpUGOkNfuO0GpU8fBqAvYpd9WufNmPGZxTi5H29vlr4KeAlBNYs1f8Ekwsw2_l8ysXWhrm8gn6HjcZimfT2d1JsNJcsFSgBApFI/s2048/temp+christening.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7L7rPDV8b_7NVbOp-wqmcV_tGqi1XR0RCPg5xRB32OpUGOkNfuO0GpU8fBqAvYpd9WufNmPGZxTi5H29vlr4KeAlBNYs1f8Ekwsw2_l8ysXWhrm8gn6HjcZimfT2d1JsNJcsFSgBApFI/s320/temp+christening.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p></p><p>In addition to specialized tomes with a broad appeal like <i>William & Kate</i>, Historic Newspapers offers a variety of newspaper products with headlines from historic events or from dates with personal meaning. They draw from over a century of newspapers on both sides of the pond. You can honor someone's birthday or wedding anniversary. You can also choose one of their specialized sports books for the sports fan in your life. Historic Newspapers provides a broad range of products that many of this blog's readers would enjoy and you can customize them for yourself, your friends, and your loved ones. I highly recommend both <i>William & Kate: A Royal 10 Years </i>specifically as well as Historic Newspapers' other services. </p><p><br /></p></div>Cheryl Ciucevichhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00388994160381820590noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3343837766028558539.post-53985319380745432562021-06-06T16:56:00.000-04:002021-06-06T16:56:09.244-04:00A New Lilibet<p> <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjG8KZIjbw5d6KZWoNmVcbuA61I0N_smZpDgg4Gmj_YFUUWS6qDVF86chQngYkFeIjAICsc5GKdRZ54mCjmWqL0wjOFHyhuhdK74_Ag0F4MeVs8BaavXmAEM6biZLE0Kr0aB6HaT9NXEC0/s682/Queen_Elizabeth_II_1929.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Queen Elizabeth II as a toddler, from the cover of Time Magazine in 1029" border="0" data-original-height="682" data-original-width="571" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjG8KZIjbw5d6KZWoNmVcbuA61I0N_smZpDgg4Gmj_YFUUWS6qDVF86chQngYkFeIjAICsc5GKdRZ54mCjmWqL0wjOFHyhuhdK74_Ag0F4MeVs8BaavXmAEM6biZLE0Kr0aB6HaT9NXEC0/w268-h320/Queen_Elizabeth_II_1929.jpg" width="268" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-size: x-small;">The original Lilbet: Princess Elizabeth of York on <br />the cover of Time Magazine in 1929. Today she is <br />better known as Queen Elizabeth II.</span></i></td></tr></tbody></table><br />As the original Lilibet enjoys her twilight years, it seemed the royal nickname would soon cease to exist. Indeed, when Prince Philip died earlier this year the name was already declared dead by some media outlets. Following the deaths of her mother, sister, and husband, it was incorrectly assumed that no one remained to call Queen Elizabeth II by her lifelong nickname. The authors and editors of these articles were apparently forgetting or unaware that Her Majesty has nieces, nephews, and first cousins who have always called her Lilibet and that extended members of the family have also used the name, as demonstrated by King Felipe of Spain's published condolence to "Aunt Lilibet" on the death of his "dear Uncle Philip". (Technically, Felipe is second cousin twice removed to Philip and third cousin once removed to Elizabeth.)</p><p>Just when it looked like the name would be lost to history, The Queen's grandson Prince Harry and his wife Meghan resurrected it for their baby girl, naming the infant Lilibet Diana Mountbatten-Windsor. The announcement, which came two days after the baby's June 4th birth in Santa Barbara, California, also revealed that the Duke and Duchess of Sussex plan to call their daughter Lili. The second name honoring Harry's late mother Diana Princess of Wales surprised no one, but nearly everyone was surprised by Lilibet as a first name. In fact, this may be the first time anyone anywhere has actually used it as a given name. (If you know of anyone else actually named Lilibet, I would love to know about it.)</p><p>However, no one should be surprised that they would choose to honor Harry's grandmother. Despite a recent interview in which he indicated that he thought The Queen had been a poor parent to his father, Harry and Meghan have often spoken of their admiration for Her Majesty. The use of a nickname and an untraditional name is also not surprising. After all, the couple named their first child Archie, which is also a nickname and an untraditional royal name. (See my post, <a href="http://hrhprincesspalace.blogspot.com/2019/05/strange-royal-baby-names.html" target="_blank">Strange Royal Baby Names</a>.)</p><p>The name Lilibet emerged when The Queen was first learning to speak. Like all infants, she did not emerge with perfect enunciation and was unable to properly pronounce her own name. The family started calling her Lilibet after hearing her attempts to say Elizabeth. The name quickly stuck, probably because her mother was also named Elizabeth making a nickname something of a necessity in the family. By the time her little sister Margaret was born four years later, her father was writing notes "dictated by Lilibet" back to his wife. Many published examples exist of The Queen signing personal messages as Lilibet, including her condolence card to her mother on the death of her father.</p><p>Some have criticized Meghan and Harry for their unconventional name choices but it's important to note that many of The Queen's descendants have un-royal names. Her first granddaughter is named Zara. Her 11 great-grandchildren include Savannah, Isla, Mia, Lena, and Lucas. The Queen herself shook up royal naming conventions. She was the first female descendant of Queen Victoria NOT to have Victoria among her names, which are Elizabeth Alexandra Mary. She stunned many by choosing the "Scottish" name Charles for her firstborn, a child destined to be King when the only Kings named Charles in Britain were from the Scottish House of Stuart. The first King Charles was beheaded in the English Civil War. The second, his son, restored the monarchy, knew how to have raucous good time, and left many children but had no direct heirs. More controversially, "King Charles III" or Bonnie Prince Charlie sparked a rebellion against the Hanoverians to try to regain the throne that was abandoned by (or stolen from, depending on your point of view) his grandfather King James II and VII in the Glorious Revolution. The Queen even introduced a "new" name into the British Royal Family when she named her second son Prince Andrew after her father-in-law, who had been Prince Andrew of Greece and Denmark. The name had not been used among British royals before that day in 1960. If The Queen can use surprising and untraditional names for her own children, it is not shocking that her children and grandchildren would, too.</p><p>The announcement of Lili's arrival did not include any reference to her title. Brother Archie's announcement specified that he would be known simply as "Master Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor", eschewing his right to use his father's secondary title of Earl of Dumbarton, a long-seated tradition among the Peerage. As the daughter of a Duke and as confirmed by the 1917 Letters Patent, Harry's daughter is entitled to be styled as Lady Lili. It appears, however, that she will simply be called Miss Lili Mountbatten-Windsor.</p><p>One last note: Many have incorrectly stated that it was Prince Philip who began calling his wife Lilibet as a pet name. For the record, his romantic pet name for her was Cabbage. </p><p>Long live the Lilibets! (Both Cabbage and Baby Lili!)</p><p><i>As of publication time, no photos of Lili Mountbatten-Windsor have been released.</i></p>Cheryl Ciucevichhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00388994160381820590noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3343837766028558539.post-17703863196178494262021-04-09T21:07:00.002-04:002021-04-17T14:05:49.998-04:00Prince Philip and Women He Loved<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhn7lvp5XDBWIje-g6T-5ibLq1TjZsOIrSZIbnbx1nTIGSo0kS9EV2Pi7TLjJSCj4D1nxaFGtWrBrXiSXelaDrxSpBTkie8OIjNZKCxFcdUMyfDD2vO4-MoaSBNsJjAEULeIci-HKW_Duc/s900/19+Elizabeth+and+Philip.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="681" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhn7lvp5XDBWIje-g6T-5ibLq1TjZsOIrSZIbnbx1nTIGSo0kS9EV2Pi7TLjJSCj4D1nxaFGtWrBrXiSXelaDrxSpBTkie8OIjNZKCxFcdUMyfDD2vO4-MoaSBNsJjAEULeIci-HKW_Duc/s320/19+Elizabeth+and+Philip.jpg" /></a></div><br />Just two months short of his 100th birthday, The Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh passed away on April 9, 2021 at his home at Windsor Castle. Born a Prince of Greece and Denmark, he was born Prince Philip of Greece and Denmark, the youngest child but only son of Prince Andrew of Greece and Denmark and Princess Alice of Battenberg. He was the longest-lived descendant of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom (his great-great-grandmother) and of King Christian IX of Denmark (his great-grandfather) and of Tsar Nicholas I of Russia (his great-great grandfather). He was the third longest-lived member of the British Royal Family, after his wife's aunt Princess Alice Duchess of Gloucester and his mother-in-law Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother.<p></p><p>Before he was two, in the tumult that was the Greek monarchy, his father was charged with treason and sentenced to death. His uncle, King Constantine II, was exiled (again). The British helped get Andrew's sentence commuted and sent a warship to rescue him and his family. As the story goes, an orange crate was used as an improvised cradle. After that, his parents eventually went their separate ways with his father living an essentially bachelor lifestyle and his mother undergoing psychotherapy, and for a time, being committed to an asylum. Young Philip became something like a royal foster kid, bouncing around among his much older sisters, his many royal aunts and uncles, and his maternal grandmother, Victoria Marchioness of Milford Haven, who was the older sister of the Empress Alexandra and Grand Duchess Serge of Russia, both of whom had been murdered by the Bolsheviks just a few years before Philip was born. </p><p>Philip started school in Paris then went to Germany before being enrolled at Gordonstoun in Scotland at age 12. When he was 17, he went to the British naval academy at Dartmouth, and then joined the British Royal Navy just after the start of World War II. He served with distinction, but spent much of his leave time back in England, where his long acquaintance with a distant cousin was turning into something else.</p><p>The future Queen Elizabeth II spent her adolescence at Windsor Castle, referred to as an undisclosed location in the countryside, during the war. Philip was an occasional guest. They became penpals while both she and some members of his family hoped this would prove a royal match. After the war, Philip remained in the Royal Navy while a romance blossomed. The couple were engaged in 1947 after he surrendered his Greek titles and citizenship. With no realm surname of his own, he adopted the one used by his mother's British family: Mountbatten. For a brief time before his future father-in-law King George VI created him Duke of Edinburgh and a British Royal Highness, he was known simply as Lt. Philip Mountbatten, R.N. (Read my post about their romance <a href="http://bit.ly/iN8ecQ" target="_blank">The Moonstruck Princess and Her Greek God</a>.)</p><p>Elizabeth and Philip were married at Westminster Abbey on November 20, 1947. They spent much of their early marriage in Malta where he was posted with the Navy. By the time she unexpectedly became Queen on the early death of her father, their first two children, Charles and Anne, had been born. Her accession brought his naval career to an end, and Philip struggled for a bit trying to figure out what exactly the job of the Queen's husband was supposed to be. Within a decade, he had settled into and/or created his role leading to a more stable period in his marriage, which resulted in the births of two more children, Andrew and Edward.</p><p>He remained a loyal supporter to his wife, while adding his own stamp on things -- creating the Duke of Edinburgh awards, modernizing the royal homes and the royal operations. Along the way, he received much criticism for his sometimes brash manner or insensitive remarks, but he also received much praise for his dedication to service, to the nation, and to his wife. In November 2020, they celebrated 73 years of marriage. He is survived by his wife, four children, eight grandchildren and 10 great-grandchildren.</p><p>I had been planning a series of posts in honor of his 100th birthday focused on the Women He Loved. I am now launching the series two months too soon. Please come back to read about the women who shared Prince Philip's life, including:</p><p>Princess Alice of Battenberg, mother<br />Princess Victoria of Hesse, grandmother<br />Grand Duchess Olga Constantinova of Russia, grandmother<br />Princess Margarita of Greece, sister<br />Princess Theodora of Greece, sister<br />Princess Cecile of Greece, sister<br />Princess Sophie of Greece, sister<br />Princess Marie Bonaparte, aunt<br />Countess Nadejda de Torby, aunt<br />Edwina Ashley, aunt<br />Queen Elizabeth II, wife<br />Princess Anne Princess Royal, daughter<br />Princess Beatrice of York, granddaughter<br />Princess Eugenie of York, granddaughter<br />Zara Phillips Tindall, granddaughter<br />Lady Louise Windsor, granddaughter</p>Cheryl Ciucevichhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00388994160381820590noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3343837766028558539.post-12902946772763363722021-02-28T19:34:00.001-05:002021-02-28T19:34:34.661-05:00Birthplace of a Queen<p></p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZvA90nGFyV7HHBmhY7wO6A0mCDfpWMU4eoCLM2CVyDbzWp5lSnfRYKNOltL3c9g0A4Muv-FNkXB5NZnoEkZaNkrsZ11NGy8TV7KjVVbqR7AULXQ__zb2WPPp8y36kANFEadgreMIRBBI/s480/199+Elizabeth+II+1929+Time.jpg" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="402" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZvA90nGFyV7HHBmhY7wO6A0mCDfpWMU4eoCLM2CVyDbzWp5lSnfRYKNOltL3c9g0A4Muv-FNkXB5NZnoEkZaNkrsZ11NGy8TV7KjVVbqR7AULXQ__zb2WPPp8y36kANFEadgreMIRBBI/w268-h320/199+Elizabeth+II+1929+Time.jpg" width="268" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: left;"><i><span style="font-size: x-small;">Princess Elizabeth of York</span></i></div><i><div style="text-align: left;"><i><span style="font-size: xx-small;">from Time Magazine via Wikimedia Commons</span></i></div></i></td></tr></tbody></table>Once upon a time in a rather unremarkable townhome, the future Queen of England was born in the middle of the night. Although it was indeed a royal birth -- Home Secretary Sir William Joynson-Hicks was officially in attendance to ensure no changeling was smuggled in to replace the royal baby -- but no one expected this child to inherit the throne. This was the child of the Duke of York, second son of King George V. His older brother was certainly father the heir. When the newborn turned out to be a girl, her distance from the throne seemed even further in an era when younger brothers would supersede older sisters in the Line of Succession. The royal parents even opted not to include Victoria among their daughter's names, breaking a royal tradition for all of the previous descendants of Queen Victoria. King George made note of it in his diary only to declare that it probably didn't matter. <p></p><p>But, fate has a funny way of doing what it will. And so it was that 25 years later, when this baby girl became Queen Elizabeth II, she also became the first British monarch not to be born in a palace or on a royal estate since King George came over from Hanover two centuries earlier.</p><p>Elizabeth Alexandra Mary Windsor was born at 2 a.m. by Caesarean section on the 21st of April in 1926 in her maternal grandparents home located at 17 Bruton Street in Mayfair, London. (See my post about her birth, <a href="http://hrhprincesspalace.blogspot.com/2011/04/new-princess-is-born.html" target="_blank">A Princess Is Born</a>.) Although her parents, Prince Albert The Duke of York and the former Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, were less than week from celebrating their third anniversary, the couple was still essentially homeless. They had been offered White Lodge in Richmond Park but declined it. Originally a hunting lodge built for King George II, its previous royal residents included his daughter Princess Amelia, George III's daughter Princess Mary Duchess of Gloucester, and George III's granddaughter Princess Mary Adelaide of Cambridge. Mary Adelaide raised her own family there, including her daughter Mary, who had married King George VI and was therefore Princess Elizabeth of York's paternal grandmother. Unfortunately, the house had not been updated in decades and was a bit of a wreck when the Yorks decided against living there. Instead they had bounced around from rental to rental in search of their "forever home". As the Duchess prepared for the birth of her first child, she longed to be somewhere more familiar than a temporary rental or a stodgy royal palace. She opted instead to have her baby in her parents' London home.</p><p>The Duchess of York, better known to posterity as the long-lived Queen Mother, was the youngest daughter of the 14th Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne and Nina Cavendish-Bentinck. Their ancestral home was Glamis Castle (of Macbeth fame) in Angus, Scotland. They also had an English estate at St. Paul's Walden Bury in Hertfordshire. Both of those homes had been in the Bowes-Lyon family for centuries. Number 17 Bruton Street, however, had no ancestral connections. The Earl had acquired the house less than five years earlier to serve as the family's base during the London social season. Although located in tawny Mayfair between Regent Street and Berkeley Street, the house was fairly typical of the neighborhood. A five-story 18th Century house large enough for the extensive Bowes-Lyon family (Elizabeth was one of 10 siblings) and their servants.</p><p>By the time they moved to Bruton Street from previously rented London addresses, their daughter Elizabeth had already made her society debut and had earned herself many suitors. The more serious young men were outpaced by the Prince, not because he was more handsome or more charming, and definitely not because he was royal. He had to propose three times before Elizabeth finally said yes during a weekend visit to St. Paul's Walden Bury. That Monday, he drove her to 17 Bruton Street before taking her to lunch at sister Princess Mary's London home, Chesterfield House, where they were joined by their older brother, the Prince of Wales. Prince Albert, or Bertie as he was called, returned Elizabeth to Bruton Street while he dashed off to Sandringham House to see his delighted parents. The Bowes-Lyon home was then besieged by telephone calls from "hundreds of reporters clamouring!" she wrote, "Last day of peace I suppose."</p><p><a id='rWSNcOrQQdth--9FB3mg5g' class='gie-slideshow' href='http://www.gettyimages.com/detail/3225371' target='_blank' style='color:#a7a7a7;text-decoration:none;font-weight:normal !important;border:none;display:inline-block;'>Embed from Getty Images</a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'rWSNcOrQQdth--9FB3mg5g',sig:'8g3GVsvL6X-Z1oPrDv7ho7yjqD85s3sfAIQtM9fFivs=',w:'594px',h:'466px',items:'3225371,463989663,830131284,78961145',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});</script><script src='//embed-cdn.gettyimages.com/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async></script></p><p>A few months later, the eyes of the world were on Bruton Street as the "commoner" royal bride departed for her wedding as Westminster Abbey. It was a cold rainy day in the middle of economic troubles that would soon erupt into strikes, but the tiny little Lady was a ray of sunshine for the crowd that had gathered. On her father's arm, Lady Elizabeth departed the town home at 11:12 a.m. in a state landau escorted by Metropolitan Police on horseback. </p><p>Three years later, Bertie and Elizabeth moved into 17 Bruton Street ahead of their child's arrival. Queen Mary longed to be present for the birth, but feared her arrival would draw attention from the press, writing to her son, that's "the last thing one wants is for any inkling of this to appear in the papers, so I hope you will both understand & will not think me a heartless wretch." Elizabeth own mother was ill at the time and so could not be in the room either. Queen Mary recommended that they send for Elizabeth's older sister, Rose Countess Granville, because having someone who has been through childbirth already is "such a comfort."</p><p>Elizabeth undoubtedly needed such comfort. It was a long a difficult labor. The doctors had anticipated a breech birth and knew that the petite duchess might struggle to deliver the baby. They planned ahead for the caesarean delivery, but the procedure was still considered risky. It was also thought that it could hinder future pregnancies and deliveries. The Duke and Duchess decided that it was worth the risk. If one child was all they had, they would be content. </p><p>So, while the Duke paced the entire house, the Home Secretary waited patiently, the little princess finally emerged by a "certain line of treatment", as the official bulletin stated. The King and Queen were awakened at 4 a.m. to hear the news. Later that day, they drove up from Windsor to meet their first granddaughter, whom Queen Mary "too sweet & pretty." Grandmother and granddaughter would develop a very close relationship over the years.</p><p></p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPIGDXhCw9RozDrGq6_BbztolVV6f2nb_JNJzvhwaB2V_eGlU2VNX9Zldc-PMDf3_1qmhk6G9L7EUh955mf6BF-roFGBBgWuMzdTSTfJN_9icaKv8xiW_TyPaHDho5A3ukJz-dxu1bpuA/s1067/temp.jpg" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1067" data-original-width="800" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPIGDXhCw9RozDrGq6_BbztolVV6f2nb_JNJzvhwaB2V_eGlU2VNX9Zldc-PMDf3_1qmhk6G9L7EUh955mf6BF-roFGBBgWuMzdTSTfJN_9icaKv8xiW_TyPaHDho5A3ukJz-dxu1bpuA/w240-h320/temp.jpg" width="240" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;"><i><span style="font-size: xx-small;">By Spudgun67 via Wikimedia Commons</span></i></td></tr></tbody></table>The York family remained in residence at 17 Bruton Street for several more weeks as the Duchess recovered from the birth. The future Queen didn't visit a royal palace for the first several weeks of her life, finally being taken to Buckingham Palace for her christening on May 29 by the Anglican Archbishop of York before being whisked back to Bruton Street.<p></p><p>Today, a Michelin-starred Chinese restaurant stands at 17 Bruton Street in the heart of a bustling commercial district. Although some reports say the old house was destroyed in the London Blitz other say it and the neighboring home were actually taken down in 1937. Whatever the fate of the house itself, a blue plaque at Hakkasan restaurant now reads, "On the site stood the townhouse of the Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne where Elizabeth Alexandra Mary Windsor, later to become Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, was born on 21 April 1926."</p><p><br /></p><p><b>Works Consulted</b></p><p>"A Look at 17 Bruton Street." <i>The Royal Post. </i>16 November 2014. <a href="theroyalpost.wordpress.com/2014/11/16/a-look-at-17-bruton-street/ " target="_blank">theroyalpost.wordpress.com/2014/11/16/a-look-at-17-bruton-street/ </a>Accessed 18 January 2021.</p><p>Bradford, Sarah. <i>Elizabeth. </i>Farrar, Strauss & Giroux, 1996.</p><p>Johnstone, Anna. "The Queen's SURPRISING birthplace is now a Chinese takeaway." <i>Hello! </i>26 March 2019, <a href="http://www.hellomagazine.com/cuisine/2019032671328/queen-elizabeth-birthplace-mayfair-hakkasan-chinese-restaurant/">www.hellomagazine.com/cuisine/2019032671328/queen-elizabeth-birthplace-mayfair-hakkasan-chinese-restaurant/</a>. Accessed 18 January 2021.</p><p>Murphy, Victoria. "Homes fit for a Queen: From her birthplace to her current Royal residence of Buckingham Palace," <i>The Daily Mirror, </i> 10 June 2016. <a href="https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/homes-fit-queen-birthplace-current-8145399">https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/homes-fit-queen-birthplace-current-8145399</a> Accessed 18 January 2021.</p><p>Shawcross, William. <i>The Queen Mother: The Official Biography. </i>Vintage Books, 2009.</p><p>Timms, Elizabeth Jane. "The Queen's London Birthplace: 17 Bruton St." <i>Royal Central.</i> 20 April 2017, <a href="http://royalcentral.co.uk/uk/queen/the-queens-london-birthplace-17-bruton-st-59298/">royalcentral.co.uk/uk/queen/the-queens-london-birthplace-17-bruton-st-59298/</a> Accessed 18 January 2021.</p><p>Williams, Kate. <i>Young Elizabeth: The Making of a Queen.</i> Pegasus Books, 2015.</p>Cheryl Ciucevichhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00388994160381820590noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3343837766028558539.post-38890289713292464382021-01-18T22:19:00.003-05:002022-12-30T13:11:37.424-05:00Henry VIII's Most Beloved Wife<p>Henry VIII had six wives, but did he love any of them? After I recently re-shared my 20009 post, <a href="http://hrhprincesspalace.blogspot.com/2009/10/most-neglected-princess-henry-viiis.html" target="_blank">The Most Neglected Princess</a>, in which I assert my belief that he loved Catherine of Aragon, a Twitter dialogue was sparked. While some agreed with me, others offered up different views. So, I decided to put the question to a Twitter poll, asking people to name Henry's most beloved wife. Since Twitter polls only allow up to four options, I opted not to include his fourth wife Anne of Cleves, whom he rejected upon first sight, as well as his last wife Catherine Parr. Although I told respondents they could "write in" either of these two, no one did.</p><p>Here are the results of this very unscientific survey:</p><p>Coming in fourth place is Henry's fifth wife the teenaged Catherine Howard, whose nubile youth attracted the lecherous older man. Alas, the girl's flirtatious and flighty nature proved her downfall. She (unlike her first cousin Anne Boleyn) likely was guilty of the infidelity that cost her her head. She garnered only 2.5% of the votes. </p><p>In third place is said older cousin Anne Boleyn, the woman for whom Henry changed the nation's relationship with God. His infatuation for the sophisticated young woman, who had been trained in the continental courts of France and Burgundy, burned for years as she denied him access to her person while he remained married to his first wife. Unable to secure an annulment from the Pope in Rome after trying everything he and his advisors could conceive. He broke with Rome, declared himself the head of Church of England, and (not surprisingly) agreed when his new Church decided that his first marriage was invalid. Despite his long wait and indefatigable battle to marry her, Henry quickly grew tired of Anne's screeching demands and inability to quickly manufacture a son for him and believed the very likely trumped-up charges of infidelity that were brought to him. Anne was the first of his queen's to be executed. This complex affair led 22.5% of respondents believe Henry loved Anne more than his other wives.</p><p>To Royal Bearing (@RoyalBearing), Henry's relationships seemed "More like lust with Anne B and Catherine H."</p><p>Second place, with 27.5% of the votes, went to my personal favorite Catherine of Aragon (read my post <a href="https://hrhprincesspalace.blogspot.com/2021/01/the-love-story-of-henry-viii-and.html" target="_blank">The Love Story of Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon</a>). Widowed by his older brother when Henry was just a child, Catherine lived in a kind of limbo waiting for their father's to decide her marital fate. She was engaged to Henry and then unengaged. When he inherited the throne as a teenager, he imagined himself as her knight errant and, having rescued her from genteel neglect, married her in a fit of romance. The daughter of Isabella of Castile, Catherine made a fit political partner for him. However, unlike her mother, she was unable to produce more than one living child. Over the years, Henry started to grow concerned about the fitness of that child, the Princess Mary, to succeed him because of her gender. After decades of marriage with a generally pleasant and obedient wife, he expected Catherine to agree that God was punishing him for marrying his brother's widow. She shocked the devil out of him when she didn't and went even further, using all of her political and familial connections to oppose him. By the time, he finally declared himself free of her, his once abundant love had become a seething rage.</p><p>RoyalistSupporter (@ProRoyalFamily) called Henry's relationship with Catherine of Aragon real love that wasn't colored by the kind of ulterior motives of his other marriages. "Also I felt he still cared about her after the divorce."</p><p>Royal Bearing (@RoyalBearing) wrote, "Catherine of A definitely the closest he seemed to come [to love], especially for reciprocated love."</p><p>The Royal Watcher (@saadsalman719) agrees. "I think C of A was the most compatible wife for him and he truly loved her. Had he accepted that she wasn't going to have sons and trained Mary to be a capable ruler then history would have certainly been different today!" (Indeed, imagine new Elizabethan Age.)</p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7IkRt_VnW8Zlv5wzHXq5CMfu0dpFcTdKWabHnbQCQFHM71nFojlwD_Vl89IHo1_bEQqfIUYm3UfB8vxs5yl1XvB5wMYju92bKraM8aj8wD0H4qP2zX1jBmmS5H4sqR8E4jba-1zSLPBM/s806/temp.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="806" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7IkRt_VnW8Zlv5wzHXq5CMfu0dpFcTdKWabHnbQCQFHM71nFojlwD_Vl89IHo1_bEQqfIUYm3UfB8vxs5yl1XvB5wMYju92bKraM8aj8wD0H4qP2zX1jBmmS5H4sqR8E4jba-1zSLPBM/s320/temp.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-size: x-small;">Henry VII, Elizabeth of York, Henry VIII and Jane Seymour</span><br /><span style="font-size: xx-small;">by Remigius van Leemput (after Hans Holbein the Younger)<br />from the Royal Collection via Wikimedia Commons<br /><br /></span></i></td></tr></tbody></table>Earning nearly half of the votes, Henry's third wife, the docile Jane Seymour earned the crown as his most beloved. Calmer and much more complaisant than her two predecessors, Jane did something both of them had failed to do: she gave Henry a son. Then, she promptly succumbed to childbed fever leaving Henry to grieve her loss just 18 months after he had married her. He himself seemed devoted to her sanctified memory, even painting her into a family portraits for years after she had died.<p></p><p>As Cheryl Shifflet (@cheryl_shifflet) commented, "Jane Seymour for sure. She gave Henry his much desired and needed son. I also read he mourned her quite a bit." </p><p>Royal Bearing (@RoyalBearing) sees it differently: "Jane S might have been love but giving him his heir & her early death turned her into a saint so difficult to tell his feelings beneath for her."</p><p>So, what do you think? Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments below.</p>Cheryl Ciucevichhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00388994160381820590noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3343837766028558539.post-47621512327244876902021-01-10T21:37:00.005-05:002021-01-10T21:37:57.924-05:00The Love Story of Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon<p><span style="background-color: white; color: #141414; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwHs8CzCl0HQwj4WAhHOkpfryWCWP0xrWqBkOTvxIicZsQ3ImnGl6283uzvNFgZPQm97Ru_fhw75DHLekyVVECJwXZ1wh4qvd2haMDomE2LagqU27Y2MQY_gc1sq6n47iXiVWi-l_ZkCc/s600/198+Catherine_aragon.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="457" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwHs8CzCl0HQwj4WAhHOkpfryWCWP0xrWqBkOTvxIicZsQ3ImnGl6283uzvNFgZPQm97Ru_fhw75DHLekyVVECJwXZ1wh4qvd2haMDomE2LagqU27Y2MQY_gc1sq6n47iXiVWi-l_ZkCc/s320/198+Catherine_aragon.jpg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;"><i><span style="font-family: times; font-size: xx-small;">By Joannes Corvus via Wikimedia Commons<br /><br /></span></i></td></tr></tbody></table>Few people today realize that England's King Henry VIII actually enjoyed a long marriage with his first wife. The couple had been engaged after her first husband, Henry's older brother Prince Arthur died. At the time of their engagement, Catherine was 17 and Henry was a precocious 11. Over the next several years, Catherine was a pawn in the political wrangling between her father, the King of Aragon, and Henry's father. For a brief moment, it was even possible that she might be married off to her father-in-law while other European princesses were sought for Henry. The princess was often low on funds and left alone in the country side. She struggled under the strain of her uncertain situation.</span></span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #141414; font-family: helvetica; text-align: justify;">(For more about the "courtship" of Henry and Catherine, see my earlier post, </span><a href="http://hrhprincesspalace.blogspot.com/2009/10/most-neglected-princess-henry-viiis.html" style="background-color: white; font-family: helvetica; text-align: justify;" target="_blank">The Most Neglected Princess</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #141414; font-family: helvetica; text-align: justify;">.)</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #141414; font-family: helvetica; text-align: justify;" /></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #141414; text-align: justify;">Nevertheless, Henry married Catherine within two months of ascending the throne at the age of 17. Deeply in love with each other (okay, he was probably in love with the idea of being her hero), Catherine and Henry had a happy marriage for the first several</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #141414; text-align: justify;"> years, marred only by the death of a premature daughter. Their next child was a little boy named Henry. The king threw elaborate parties and held tournaments in honor of the newborn but the baby only lived a few weeks. In the meantime, Catherine was also devastated to discover that Henry had a mistress. He is believed to have been very discreet about such matters and it was certainly normal for men to engage in such things, but Catherine was heartbroken. They had a huge fight and Catherine did not emerge the winner. It damaged their relationship, but they still continued to have a stable and happy married life.</span></span></p><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #141414; text-align: justify;">In fact, Henry had so much respect for Catherine that he left her as Regent while he traveled to fight in France. While he was gone, the Scots invaded England. At Flodden, the English thoroughly destroyed the Scots and the Scottish king (husband of Henry's sister Margaret) was killed. Catherine ordered the Scottish king's head to be sent to her and she forwarded it on to Henry in France. Henry was proud of Catherine's actions in his absence but may have been a bit jealous because he had less military success. Shortly before his return, she delivered another premature child who died shortly after birth.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #141414; text-align: justify;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #141414; text-align: justify;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #141414; text-align: justify;">Catherine finally had a healthy child, the future Queen Mary, in 1516. Henry was a doting daddy who, for a short time, began to view Mary as his heir, but later he became increasingly concerned about having a son. As Catherine neared menopause, Henry was still young and virile. As a deeply religious and philosophical person who was also receiving outside encouragement, he started to wonder whether his marriage to Catherine, his brother's widow, was invalid despite the dispensation they had received from the Pope, and that's why he had no sons.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #141414; text-align: justify;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #141414; text-align: justify;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #141414; text-align: justify;">For her part, Catherine had always been a highly obedient and untroublesome wife. When Henry informed her that he believed their marriage was against God's wishes, Henry fully expected that she would comply. He underestimated both her religious piety and her deep love for her daughter (Henry's plan would--and did--make Mary a bastard).</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #141414; text-align: justify;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #141414; text-align: justify;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #141414; text-align: justify;">The Pope, who was being held captive by Catherine's nephew, supported her. And that is why Henry VIII created the Church of England and made himself the head of it. Contrary to popular belief, he remained an ardent Catholic. Several of his future wives, particularly the last one, had to hide their Protestant beliefs from him in order to avoid the executioner.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #141414; text-align: justify;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #141414; text-align: justify;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #141414; text-align: justify;">Henry divorced Catherine and declared their marriage null, he made Mary a bastard and married Anne Boleyn, who soon gave birth to the future Queen Elizabeth. When Anne also failed to produce sons (and acted like a total pain in the arse), he had her executed, annulled their marriage and made Elizabeth a bastard, too. At about the same time, a lonely Catherine, still devoted to Henry as her true husband, passed away. With both of his first wives safely deceased, Henry felt he could finally make a valid marriage. When Wife #3, Jane Seymour gave him a son, the future Edward VI, it reaffirmed all of his beliefs.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #141414; text-align: justify;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #141414; text-align: justify;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #141414; text-align: justify;">He was sentimental about Jane, who died soon after her son was born, and thought her his best wife. Nevertheless, I think that the bride of his youth, Catherine, was his favorite. He certainly loved her for a longer time than he did any of the others. They were married nearly 20 years before he decided to end it and almost 24 years by the time of the annulment. Their marriage was longer than his other five marriages combined.</span></span>Cheryl Ciucevichhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00388994160381820590noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3343837766028558539.post-39252265189186858962021-01-03T00:00:00.017-05:002021-01-14T19:06:31.294-05:00A Long-Lived Princess: Alice of Albany<p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwuTYB5SCA-oxwngtqLdPMVQnAMXuAaH8f8na000DFAYrIsW5kyDFivZOezFlJKjIopG-WjlPt4UwgANEHy-xTWPMpDVKIxwEaDBrz4k63eLFffa04hpwWsMYDRH-7VJH3OdMliXmuotM/s580/197+Princess_Alice_of_Albany.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="580" data-original-width="459" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwuTYB5SCA-oxwngtqLdPMVQnAMXuAaH8f8na000DFAYrIsW5kyDFivZOezFlJKjIopG-WjlPt4UwgANEHy-xTWPMpDVKIxwEaDBrz4k63eLFffa04hpwWsMYDRH-7VJH3OdMliXmuotM/s320/197+Princess_Alice_of_Albany.jpeg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;"><i><span style="font-family: times; font-size: xx-small;">from Canada national Archives via Wikimedia Commons</span></i></td></tr></tbody></table>Having another grandchild was not generally an extraordinary moment for Queen Victoria, who already had 33 when a new little princess arrived at Windsor Castle on Feb. 25, 1883. Indeed a grandson had been born there just six weeks earlier, but this new little girl, named Alice after her aunt who had died in 1878, was unexpected: Queen Victoria had assumed that the baby's father could not have children due to his health. More amazingly, Victoria, who often called babies ugly and froglike, thought the new baby was beautiful.<p></p><p>Princess Alice of Albany was born just 10 months after her father Prince Leopold Duke of Albany married Princess Helena of Waldeck-Pyrmont. The youngest of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert's four sons, Leopold had grown up overprotected and on a much shorter leash than his older brothers. Victoria thought him and handsome and clever but she fretted that any activity could lead to his death. He was the first member of her family to exhibit the dreaded hemophilia that would come to haunt the Russian Imperial Family, the Spanish Royal Family and other royal families through Victoria's daughters and granddaughters. Victoria thought fathering a child would prove too rigorous for him, but Leopold and his bride proved her wrong. By the end of 1883, Helena was expecting again, but Leopold's health was troublesome. On the advice of his doctors, he decided to escape the British climate as he had done many times before. With one young infant and an advancing pregnancy, Helena opted to stay home while Leopold traveled to Cannes. In late March, the prince slipped on the stairs, banging his knee and his head. Injuries which would be mere annoyances for most people proved deadly for him: unable to stop internal bleeding he died in less than 24 hours. </p><a class="gie-single" href="http://www.gettyimages.com/detail/1125367779" id="Hrths8acQsBKywAmVYuXZw" style="border: none; color: #a7a7a7; display: inline-block; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Embed from Getty Images</a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'Hrths8acQsBKywAmVYuXZw',sig:'SrojzeEHOcS4W_ofSLravDF2ygvLHM7fV4f8hpaBnOk=',w:'371px',h:'464px',items:'1125367779',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});</script><script async="" charset="utf-8" src="//embed-cdn.gettyimages.com/widgets.js"></script><p>Baby Alice was 13 months old. Her little brother, Prince Charles Edward was born four months later and became Duke of Albany upon his birth. The widowed Helena was 23, but determined to take a strong role in her children's upbringing. (Her sister Emma was widowed a few years later and left to raise her daughter Wilhelmina, who had become Queen of the Netherlands at age 10. See my posts <a href="http://hrhprincesspalace.blogspot.com/2017/07/abdicating-queens.html" target="_blank">Abdicating Queens</a> and <a href="http://hrhprincesspalace.blogspot.com/2013/04/end-of-queen-streak.html" target="_blank">End of the Queen Streak</a>.) Helena's efforts to raise her children as "good Englishmen"--even sending Charlie to Eton--were thwarted when her son was selected as the heir to his uncle, Prince Alfred the Duke of Saxe Coburg and Gotha, who had himself inherited it from his Uncle Ernst, older brother of Prince Albert. It was heartbreaking for the family to have to uproot and move to Germany where the teenaged Charles Edward could now learn to be a "good German." The family was separated permanently when Helena and Alice returned to live in England in 1903, believing that the 19-year-old Duke was well-established. The pain of their separation grew even more during the first World War, when Charles Edward fought on the German side and had his English rights and titles revoked even after the German Revolution of November 1918 forced him to abdicate his ducal role. As Alice would later write in her 1966 memoirs, <i>For My Grandchildren</i>, the war "shattered" her brother's life as "he was denounced in Germany for being English and in England for being German." By World War II, he was nationality was clear: he was a full-fledged Nazi. Despite Alice's pleas on his behalf, his American captors would not release him. At his trial, he was exonerated of crimes against humanity (which saved his life) but was order to undergo de-nazification and fined to the point of near bankruptcy.</p><p>As for Alice, she lived a decidedly British life -- though not without further tragedies. Shortly before her 20th birthday, she married the dashing Prince Alexander of Teck, a member of a morganatic branch of the Hessian Grand Ducal Family which had been granted titles by the King of Wurttemberg. Alexander's mother was Queen Victoria's popular cousin, Princess Mary Adelaide of Cambridge, the youngest grandchild of King George III. More importantly, Alexander or Alge as he was affectionately known, was the brother of the Princess of Wales, better known to us today as Queen Mary. Therefore, Alice's children were first cousins of King Edward VIII and King George VI and Alice herself was a beloved aunt to Queen Elizabeth II.</p><a class="gie-single" href="http://www.gettyimages.com/detail/3064885" id="2-nGLqFSTYZgTkj67cTYYA" style="border: none; color: #a7a7a7; display: inline-block; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Embed from Getty Images</a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'2-nGLqFSTYZgTkj67cTYYA',sig:'XXYuJS4BYS7v_q1naq4suNUOqjJYIiAsMI5jjg70tkU=',w:'594px',h:'450px',items:'3064885',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});</script><script async="" charset="utf-8" src="//embed-cdn.gettyimages.com/widgets.js"></script><p>Alice and Alge's three children (May, Rupert and Maurice) were born as Princess and Princes of Teck in 1906, 1907, and 1910. Unfortunately, as the daughter of hemophiliac (see Unofficial Royalty's <a href="http://www.unofficialroyalty.com/royal-illnesses-and-deaths/hemophilia/" target="_blank">information about hemophilia</a>), Alice was a carrier of the gene, which she passed to her sons. Maurice died as an infant. Rupert died of otherwise survivable injuries following an auto accident in France when he was 20. He was buried at Frogmore, Windsor. Having lived with the knowledge that their son could die for any small injury at any time, Alice and Alge were nonetheless devastated even more so because they were in South Africa and unable to attend his funeral during an age when even air flight could not have brought them to England quickly enough. </p><p>In 1917, when all of the extended British Royal Family relinquished their German styles and titles, Alice as a male-line granddaughter of British monarch remained a royal highness and princess, but her husband and children no longer had princely rank and changed their surname to Cambridge. A British Army officer on active duty in the war, Alge was simply Sir Alexander Cambridge for a few months until his brother-in-law King George V created him 1st Earl of Athlone and Viscount Trematon. From then on, his wife was styled as HRH Princess Alice Countess of Athlone.</p><p>Alice traveled widely on behalf of the Crown throughout Asia, Africa, the Middle East, and North America during the early years of her marriage. Later, Alge served as Governor General of South Africa from 1924 to 1930 and Governor General of Canada from 1940 to 1946. During both appointments, Alice was a popular and active vicereine. In Canada, she was particularly busy helping the many displaced royal cousins who had fled to Canada ahead of Nazi invasions. Her three grandchildren, like many other British youngsters, also came to Canada. They and their mother stayed with Alice and Alge. So did Alice's cousin Queen Wilhelmina's daughter then-Crown Princess Juliana and her children, who had fled The Netherlands ahead of the Nazi invasion. </p><a class="gie-slideshow" href="http://www.gettyimages.com/detail/3430939" id="moci8TfjReV0komsOxfZhg" style="border: none; color: #a7a7a7; display: inline-block; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Embed from Getty Images</a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'moci8TfjReV0komsOxfZhg',sig:'vI2eWiMOChBpNwNbgv6qoscmluSY1kmU629iiWHYjz8=',w:'594px',h:'371px',items:'3430939,3279282,107758672,78966795,1078595366',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});</script><script async="" charset="utf-8" src="//embed-cdn.gettyimages.com/widgets.js"></script><p>After the war, Alice and Alge returned to Britain to take up residence again at their Kensington Palace apartment and their country home Brantridge in West Sussex. Like other British princesses, she remained actively engaged with honorary military appointments, university chancellorships, and charitably patronages at home and in the Commonwealth. Alge passed away in 1957 at Kensington Palace. His widow maintained an unofficial role in the British Royal Family as a kind of protocol advisor and participated in major public royal events including the Trooping the Color balcony appearances. Privately, she was often seen around the Kensington neighborhood to attend church and visit the shops.</p><p>When she passed away on January 3, 1981 seven weeks shy of her 98th birthday, she was not only the last surviving grandchild of Queen Victoria but the oldest surviving member of the British Royal Family. She has since been surpassed by two of her nephews' wives, The Queen Mother and Princess Alice The Duchess of Gloucester, as well as by The Duke of Edinburgh, but they all married into the family. She remains the oldest person born as a British Royal. The first person who could surpass her is Queen Elizabeth II, who will not reach the same age until April 2024.</p><p><b>For more about Princess Alice, Countess of Albany:</b><br /><a href="https://europeanroyalhistory.wordpress.com/2020/02/25/february-25-1883-birth-of-princess-alice-of-albany-countess-of-athlone/" target="_blank">Birth of Princess Alice of Albany, Countess of Athlone</a> on European Royal History<br /><a href="https://www.historyofroyalwomen.com/alice-of-albany/prince-alice-of-albany-dear-leopolds-child-part-1/" target="_blank">Dear Leopold's Child</a> on History of Royal Women<br /><a href="https://www.historyofroyalwomen.com/alice-of-albany/princess-alice-of-albany-frankness-and-candour-part-2/" target="_blank">Frankness and Candour</a> on History of Royal Women<br /><a href="http://www.unofficialroyalty.com/january-3-1981-death-of-princess-alice-of-albany-countess-of-athlone-last-surviving-grandchild-of-queen-victoria/" target="_blank">Princess Alice, Countess of Albany</a> on Unofficial Royalty</p><p><b>Books about Princess Alice, Countess of Albany:</b><br /><iframe frameborder="0" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="//ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?ServiceVersion=20070822&OneJS=1&Operation=GetAdHtml&MarketPlace=US&source=ac&ref=tf_til&ad_type=product_link&tracking_id=princpalac-20&marketplace=amazon&region=US&placement=B08HS6YNCS&asins=B08HS6YNCS&linkId=fb3c7584f4e5ac8a6c027404f78d7ccf&show_border=false&link_opens_in_new_window=false&price_color=333333&title_color=0066c0&bg_color=ffffff" style="height: 240px; width: 120px;">
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</iframe></p>Cheryl Ciucevichhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00388994160381820590noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3343837766028558539.post-67018688467681112952020-12-31T17:35:00.002-05:002020-12-31T22:46:22.339-05:00The Best of Royal 2020<p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6xDPzxxEbNNWF7VqQLORUrVEkcSF7_Qi2BIgeVAxc5xQc4Ng2w2roKQ5Yu6eDViFWrNc32TeofLeP-N4IymY752ycQ_0OgWxHBj1G8DvFxsyty1kKGKXenOrDM51EPYONa9nQexBEXq8/s640/196+meghan+and+harry.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="360" data-original-width="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6xDPzxxEbNNWF7VqQLORUrVEkcSF7_Qi2BIgeVAxc5xQc4Ng2w2roKQ5Yu6eDViFWrNc32TeofLeP-N4IymY752ycQ_0OgWxHBj1G8DvFxsyty1kKGKXenOrDM51EPYONa9nQexBEXq8/s320/196+meghan+and+harry.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">The Duke and Duchess of Sussex</span></div><span style="font-size: x-small;"><div style="text-align: left;"><i>image via Wikimedia Commons</i></div></span></td></tr></tbody></table>The year 2020 will not be well-remembered by most people. From the pandemic to the lockdowns to the economic despair to the racial and political strife, it brought suffering to many of us around the entire globe. While the year started off well enough for most, we royal watchers were already struggling with deep sorrow when 2020 dawned. The year was born just days after the Norwegian Royal Family suffered the tragic suicide of Ari Behn and in the midst of the Sussexes exit from the official British Royal Family, which was made certain on January 9. Even with that we hoped for a brighter year. As royal families, like the rest of us, found ways to cope with the challenges of 2020 -- including Covid-19 illness for the Prince of Wales, the Duke of Cambridge, the Prince of Monaco, Prince Christian of Denmark and Prince Joachim of Belgium and unrelated hospitalization for King Harald of Norway -- other brighter spots of hope and joy emerged throughout the year.<p></p><p>Indeed, we had small weddings and new babies to break up the dreary months of 2020. Here are a few of the top highlights.</p><p><b>Belgium</b></p><p>In Belgium, we gained two new princesses and a new prince although a few within the family many not view this as a "brighter spot" in the year. The development came in October when a Belgian court ruled that Delphine Bo<span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #141414; font-size: 13.2px;">ël, </span>the natural daughter of ex-King Albert II was entitled to the royal name and royal status even though she not born within a royal marriage. These royal prerogatives were also extended to her two children, Josephine and Oscar, as they are to the other grandchildren of the former king. Albert had long denied that Josephine was his daughter, even refusing court-ordered paternity tests for many weeks despite daily fines for noncompliance. Nevertheless, Princess Delphine has now been welcomed by her half-brother King Philippe and has also met privately with her other half-siblings Princess Astrid and Prince Laurent as well as other members of the family, including her father and his wife ex-Queen Paola. Despite her change in status, her life has not changed and she continues her work as an artist. (Read <a href="http://hrhprincesspalace.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">my post about Delphine</a>.)</p><a class="gie-slideshow" href="http://www.gettyimages.com/detail/1229123901" id="oIZ-uGs7Qy5yXNPBqe71jQ" style="border: none; color: #a7a7a7; display: inline-block; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Embed from Getty Images</a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'oIZ-uGs7Qy5yXNPBqe71jQ',sig:'jruIKWDYQc0EkSfN3PnybX566pcf13VlbuSej7JCxSE=',w:'594px',h:'396px',items:'1229123901,1279232788,1257587390,83937266,1059316484',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});</script><script async="" charset="utf-8" src="//embed-cdn.gettyimages.com/widgets.js"></script><p>Meanwhile, the current heir to the Belgian throne, King Philippe's eldest daughter Princess Elisabeth Duchess of Brabant completed her sixth form (like U.S. twelfth grade). When she received her international baccalaureate from United World College of the Atlantic in Wales in May, she graduated virtually like most members of the Class of 2020 in schools and universities around the globe. Now 18, she is enrolled at the Belgian Military Academy in Brussels. Military training and service is a common part of preparation for most European heirs now, regardless of gender.</p><p><b>Austria</b></p><p>The formerly Imperial House of Habsburg celebrated a lockdown wedding with the marriage of Archduchess Eleonore van Habsburg to Belgian Formula E racecar <span style="font-family: trebuchet;">driver<b> </b><span style="background-color: white; color: #202122;">Jérôme d'Ambrosio on July 20 at the civil registry in Monaco. Eleonore is the daughter of the Head of the House of Habsburg Archduke Karl by his first wife Baroness Francesca Thyssen-Bornemisza, The grandson of the last Austrian emperor, Karl is a former member of the European Parliament and current president of Blue Shield International, an international organization dedicated to protecting cultural heritage. Eleonore is a jewelry designer. In September, the happy couple took a delayed socially distanced honeymoon horseback riding in the Italian Alps.</span></span></p><p>Then, in September, her cousin Archduchess Gabriella married her longtime love Prince Henri of Bourbon Parma at Schloss Tratzberg in Jenbach, Austria. The Swiss-based bride is the daughter of Archduke Carl Christian van Habsburg and Princess Marie Astrid of Luxembourg (the older sister of the current Grand Duke Henri of Luxembourg. The Danish-born groom is a descendant of the former royal Dukes of Parma, who were scions of the French Royal House of Bourbon. The couple has reportedly been engaged since shortly before their daughter Victoria was born in 2017. Unlike the other royal weddings of the year, this one was attended by a larger crowd of family and friends, including the bride's cousins Hereditary Grand Duke Guillaume and Hereditary Grand Duchess Stephanie of Luxembourg. Covid restrictions were less severe in Austria at that time; December brought stricter guidelines to the region though I'm not sure how the new recommendations are impacting weddings there now.</p><p><b>Greece</b></p><p>Although Princess Theodora of Greece's planned May 2020 wedding on Spetses appears to be delayed until after the pandemic is over, her little brother Prince Philippos surprised us with a lockdown marriage to his longtime love Nina Flohr. The new Princess Nina and her love had a civil ceremony on Dec. 15 in a snow-covered St. Moritz with only their fathers, former King Constantine II of Greece and Thomas Flohr, in attendance. Their engagement had only been announced in September though it actually took place in Greece earlier in the year. </p><p><b>Jordan</b></p><p>Another lockdown wedding marked the union of Princess Raiyah bint Hussein and Ned Donovan on July 7 in the United Kingdom instead of the nuptials they had planned to take place in Jordan. Raiyah is the youngest of the late King Hussein's 12 children. Her mother is his fourth wife and widow, Queen Noor Al-Hussein, who was born as Lisa Halaby in Washington, D.C. The British groom is a journalist and is a grandson of the writer Roald Dahl, whose works include <i>Charlie and the Chocolate Factory </i>and, one of my favorite childhood reads, <i>James and the Giant Peach. </i>Raiyah is currently a Ph.D. candidate at the UCLA in the field of modern Japanese literature.</p><p><b>Luxembourg</b></p><p>For me, one of the most joyous royal moments of 2020 occurred on May 10 with the long-awaited birth of Prince Charles Jean Philippe Joseph Marie Guillaume, who is heir to the Grand Ducal throne of Luxembourg after his father Hereditary Grand Duke Guillaume. The baby's mother is the former Countess Stephanie de Lannoy. Guillaume and Stephanie married in 2012. The couple waited many years to be able to share this happy experience with the world while many speculated why they had not yet had a child. The pain of such public speculation (not to mention the heartache if they were having fertility issues) must have been a burden to the couple. Their pregnancy announcement late in 2019 was met with tremendous rejoicing. The fate of the throne was never in questions -- Guillaume has four siblings, several nieces and nephews, and numerous cousins -- so this was a truly personal joy that I and so many others were pleased to be able to share with them. </p><a class="gie-slideshow" href="http://www.gettyimages.com/detail/1273518333" id="yjwpJ1kMSSVtZ4kYvF3SUw" style="border: none; color: #a7a7a7; display: inline-block; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Embed from Getty Images</a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'yjwpJ1kMSSVtZ4kYvF3SUw',sig:'mukWQNf3W1-PVnXAOC0BnW5EKk8beKzHpvPscXur17c=',w:'594px',h:'396px',items:'1273518333,1210209794,1227683322,1086677110,1033985238',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});</script><script async="" charset="utf-8" src="//embed-cdn.gettyimages.com/widgets.js"></script><p>And, just today, as I finish composing this post on New Year's Eve, another happy announcement has come from the extended Royal Family of Luxembourg. Tessy Antony de Nassau has just shared news on her Instagram (@tessy_from_luxembourg) of her engagement to Swiss financier Frank Floessel. It is not clear exactly how long the couple has known each other, but he first appeared in her Insta posts with her sons by her former husband, Prince Louis of Luxembourg, over Easter during the lockdown. Although Tessy's divorce from Louis, a younger brother of Hereditary Grand Duke Guillaume was protracted, they seem to have a friendly relationship as he has also made appearances in her Insta posts with her and their boys, 12-year-old Prince Noah of Nassau and 14-year-old Prince Gabriel. Tessy is an international advocate for girls and women, widely celebrated for her humanitarian work with organizations like Professors Without Borders and Finding Butterflies, both of which she co-founded.</p><p><b>Sweden</b></p><p>Many royal ladies have been working hard throughout the pandemic to support various charities and communities, but Princess Sofia of Sweden, daughter-in-law of King Carl Gustaf has been actively working in Sweden's hospitals. Early in the global crisis, she enrolled in an online training course and started working as a volunteer as Sophiahemmet Hospital in Stockholm. Her efforts have included assisting on kitchen shifts, janitorial services, and disinfecting medical instruments. Perhaps as a consequence of her noble efforts, both she and her husband Prince Carl Philip tested positives for the coronavirus in November and experienced some mild flu-like symptoms. Early in December, they announced much better news: they are expecting their third child in the spring. Their first two children are Prince Alexander (4) and Prince Gabriel (3) </p><p><b>The United Kingdom</b></p><p>Like so many brides-to-be around the world, Princess Beatrice of York's wedding plans were scrapped with the onset of lockdowns. Her marriage to Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi was originally scheduled for May 29 at the Chapel Royal of St. James's Palace in London. When it became clear that she (and we) would not have the wedding of her (and our) dreams, it looked like we might be waiting for many months or longer before the princess became a bride. Then, suddenly on the 18th of July, we were all delighted to see new photos of our princess bride and her new husband outside of the Royal Chapel of All Saints at Royal Lodge Windsor, her divorced parents' Berkshire home. The scaled-down ceremony included two very special guests, her grandparents Queen Elizabeth II and the Duke of Edinburgh, who appeared as the only family members in any of the publicly released photos. Underscoring her closeness to her granny, Beatrice wore the Queen's diamond fringe tiara, which once belonged to her own grandmother Queen Mary. (This means that neither York princess wore the York tiara that was gifted to their mother by the Queen and Duke and worn at her own wedding in 1986. The tiara has not been seen in public in years...) Beatrice's dress was created for her by the Queen's dresser Angela Kelly from a Norman Hartnell gown the Queen wore back in the early 1960s. The hem of the dress was augmented to accommodate Beatrice's taller frame and satin-trimmed organza puff sleeves were added to the strappy dress. The effect was both ethereal and temporary; all of the additions were created to be removed so as to preserve the vintage gown in its original state.</p><p>Two months later, we got more good news from the Brits as Beatrice's little sister Princess Eugenie announced her first pregnancy. She and husband Jack Brooksbank only shared that the little one is expected "early" in 2021. Perhaps the baby will arrive in time for Eugenie's own birthday on March 23. </p><p>At the end of September, we received news of another wedding in the BRF when Flora Ogilvy shared a wedding day pic on her Instagram account (@floravesterberg). She and Swedish investment banker Timothy Vesterberg were married in a small unannounced ceremony at the Chapel Royal. Art agent Flora is a granddaughter of the Queen's cousin, Princess Alexandra and the late Sir Angus Ogilvy.</p><p>Then, at the beginning of December, Mike Tindall, son-in-law of Princess Anne the Princess Royal announced on his radio show that he and wife Zara Phillips are expecting a third child. The couple previously experienced two miscarriages and have two healthy and rambunctious daughters, Mia (nearly 7) and Lena (2). Baby Brooksbank and new Baby Tindall will be the ninth and tenth great-grandchildren for the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh.</p><p><b>Good News from Bad</b></p><p>Even in Norway, where Ari's death is still deeply grieved, his family found ways through the sorrow. His daughters by his ex-wife Princess Martha Louise of Norway emerged publicly as they never had before. Middle daughter Leah Behn, 15, grew her status as a social media influencer as her Instagram account (@leahhbeauty) gained more followers and product promotions. Meanwhile, oldest daughter Maud Angelica Behn, 17, became prominent in her work in support of mental health issues. She had bravely and movingly spoken on the topic at her father's funeral just days after losing him. In October, her efforts earned her the "Bravest Woman of the Year" Award from Tara Magazine.</p><a class="gie-single" href="http://www.gettyimages.com/detail/1191438385" id="_HYaq6FlSwVydx-QYD7NrA" style="border: none; color: #a7a7a7; display: inline-block; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Embed from Getty Images</a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'_HYaq6FlSwVydx-QYD7NrA',sig:'rsnHtveELfzZp1X5kmUi6AkiAjvx5TAUt27bzzkHCW4=',w:'594px',h:'396px',items:'1191438385',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});</script><script async="" charset="utf-8" src="//embed-cdn.gettyimages.com/widgets.js"></script><p>The Duke and Duchess of Sussex, who initially moved to Canada, settled in Los Angeles and suffered another heartbreak during the summer when Meghan miscarried her second child. She wrote honestly of the experience in a newspaper column many months later earning her both tremendous admiration for speaking on such a personal and still taboo topic suffered by so many women and families. Unfortunately, as with everything the Sussexes do, the column also earned scorn and derision from those who are determined to see evil in anything associated with Harry and Meghan. Nevertheless, they persisted in their efforts to set up their Archewell foundation, made a production deal with Netflix, and launched a new web site and a new podcast, with a special cameo on the first episode by their 19-month-old son Archie Mountbatten-Windsor cheerfully wishing us all a happy new year. </p><p>Indeed, we all ("commoners" and royals alike) are looking to 2021 to bring better things are way. And, many of us are already looking forward to May/June 2022 for the already announced 70th Jubilee for Queen Elizabeth II. Let's all plan to meet in London for an unprecedented celebration!</p>Cheryl Ciucevichhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00388994160381820590noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3343837766028558539.post-50779152936831491952020-10-01T22:24:00.001-04:002020-10-02T07:24:32.811-04:00The New Princess of Belgium<p></p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhG9X22tgcs2uGAnhBSRxEf1SINugWMZQdfSbLitPUC4m_t5EWTv9Hz-ZewlK-uI0vQAFG7XbOpcdiMsTVfqVFxeUZpVrvtCh8XUt6lpRU7T46aMWwsb5aq3oA-A8exrRVe1gmqtWurgB0/s582/195+Delphine_Bo%25C3%25ABl_crop.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="582" data-original-width="502" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhG9X22tgcs2uGAnhBSRxEf1SINugWMZQdfSbLitPUC4m_t5EWTv9Hz-ZewlK-uI0vQAFG7XbOpcdiMsTVfqVFxeUZpVrvtCh8XUt6lpRU7T46aMWwsb5aq3oA-A8exrRVe1gmqtWurgB0/s320/195+Delphine_Bo%25C3%25ABl_crop.jpg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: left;"><i>Princess Delphine of Belgium</i></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i><span style="font-size: x-small;">by Luc van Braekel via Wikimedia Commons</span></i></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></i></div></td></tr></tbody></table>Back in 2009, I wrote a post entitled <a href="http://hrhprincesspalace.blogspot.com/2009/12/how-to-become-princess.html" target="_blank">How to Become a Princess</a>. In the past, there really have been almost exclusively two ways: be born a princess or marry a prince. Today, Belgium added a new way: court order. On this day, the Belgian courts elevated 52-year-old artist Delphine Boël and both of her children, 17-year-old Josephine and 12-year-old Oscar to princely status.<p></p><p>Many readers of this blog may have dreamt of having such a conversation with your mother. On your 18th birthday, as you are celebrating becoming an adult at last, mom says there is something you need to know. Your real father is a prince. But, that rarely happens in real life. In recent decades, however, it has happened at least twice. California girl Jazmin Grace Grimaldi grew up knowing that her father was Prince Albert of Monaco, although he did not publicly acknowledge her or her younger French-born half-brother Alexandre Coste until DNA tests proved the fact. Albert acknowledged his paternity of 22-month-old Alexandre in 2005, after he became the ruling Prince Albert II. Ten months later, he finally acknowledged Jazmin, who was 14 at the time.</p><p>Born in Brussels in 1968, Delphine grew up thinking her father was her mother's husband, nobleman Jacques Boël. With him as her father, she was a <i>jonkvrouw</i> (translated "young lady"), the lowest rank in Belgian nobility. Her mother, Baroness Sybille de Selys Longchamps and <i>Jonkheer</i> Jacques Boël divorced when Delphine was 10. A few years later, Sybille married a member of the British nobility, the Honourable Michael Cayzer and moved to England. It was 1986, when Sybille finally decided to tell her only child that she was the product of an 18-year affair with Prince Albert of Belgium, the younger brother of the well-respected by childless King Baudouin. </p><p>Albert was born in 1934 as the third child of the young King Leopold III of Belgium and his wife, who had been born Princess Astrid of Sweden, a granddaughter of King Oscar II of Sweden on her mother's side and King Frederik VIII of Denmark on her mother's. When Albert was just 16 months old, his mother, pregnant with her fourth child, was killed in car accident. Leopold controversially remarried to Lilian Baels, who was given the title of Princess not Queen because their marriage was considered invalid under Belgian law. They had three children together. Although strongly disliked by the public, Lilian was loved by her stepchildren: Albert and his older siblings Prince Baudouin and Princess Josephine Charlotte. The entire family was kept under house arrest in Germany and then in Austria by the Nazis during World War II. Since Belgium is a kind of composite country of primarily Protestant Flemish speakers and traditionally Catholic French speakers, the war and its German occupation threatened to tear the delicate balance apart. Many feared that Leopold was actually a German collaborator who could no longer fill the symbolic role of national unifier. A 1950 referendum favored his return to Belgium but violent strikes soon followed. The following year, he abdicated in favor of Baudouin. Albert had just turned 16.</p><p>By the time Delphine was born in 1968, Prince Albert was married to Italian noblewoman Paola Ruffo di Calabria and had three royal children by her: Prince Philippe, Princess Astrid and Prince Laurent. His brother King Baudouin had married a Spanish noblewoman Fabiola de Mora y Aragon, but the couple struggled to have children, with Fabiola suffering several unsuccessful pregnancies. In 1968, however, it still seemed unlikely that Albert would ever be king. As the years passed, the likelihood eventually became inevitable. Upon Baudouin's death in 1993, 59-year-old Duke of Liege became King Albert II of Belgium. </p><p>In the meantime, Delphine had attended boarding schools in Switzerland and England before completing a Bachelor of Arts degree at London's Chelsea School of Art and Design and launching her art career. Her life seemed to roll along steadily, despite her mother's revelation, her "parents'" divorce and her stepfather's death in 1990. But, it all fell apart in 1999, when an unofficial biography of Queen Paola revealed that the king had had a long affair and fathered a child. It wasn't long before savvy reporters discovered that the unnamed child was Delphine. Both Delphine and her mother were pestered by the media to tell their story. The harassment became so unbearable for Sybille, that Delphine appealed directly to the king to intervene.</p><p>"You are not my daughter," he declared.</p><p><a class="gie-slideshow" href="http://www.gettyimages.com/detail/951481596" id="xGFr-0RZSStBYTrgDEy8xQ" style="border: none; color: #a7a7a7; display: inline-block; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Embed from Getty Images</a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'xGFr-0RZSStBYTrgDEy8xQ',sig:'PBbUdWFZhpuyAPoJZgbeCIyIiRMYvbinsbxq_nhSNQg=',w:'594px',h:'396px',items:'951481596,1185446853,1227939074,80571805',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});</script><script async="" charset="utf-8" src="//embed-cdn.gettyimages.com/widgets.js"></script></p><p>The following year, Delphine married James O'Hare. Once her daughter Josephine was born, motherhood prompted Delphine's desire to connect with her biological father, but he still refused her. Only then, did she finally speak to the media in 2005 to tell her story, alleging not only that the king was her father, but that he had hoped to divorce Paola and marry her mother at the time of her birth. As king, however, Albert had immunity leaving Delphine with no legal recourse except to attempt to get DNA from his other children, When that failed, she could do nothing more to prove who her father was.</p><p>But, the controversy took a toll on the monarch's reputation. Shortly after Delphine made those legal demands for DNA, Albert announced his abdication stating, "I realize that my age and my health are no longer allowing me to carry out my duties as I would like."</p><p>With his regal immunity no longer applicable, Delphine renewed her request for a paternity test. A 2017 court said she had no basis for her claim. In 2018 a different court asserted that Jacques Boël was not her father and ordered King Albert to submit a DNA test. He refused to comply. By 2019 a court began fining him 5000 euros (about $5,800) a day for noncompliance. He finally relented. The DNA results were made public in January 2020 and Albert confirmed his fatherhood by press release.</p><p>This latest ruling not only allows her and her children to claim the titles of Princesses and Prince, but also changes her surname to Saxe Cobourg. Her attorney told the media that while Delphine is delighted by the court's decision, the years of denials and court battles have been painful for her and her family. He said, "A legal victory will never replace the love a father but offers a sense of justice."</p><p>It is unclear what if any role the Princess Delphine will play in the royal family. She will almost certainly not be given any official duties, as was the case with King Albert's half-siblings, the children of Lilian Baels. Although titled as Prince Alexandre, Princess Marie-Christine and Princess Marie-Esmeralda, the three were excluded from the succession to the throne (some say without legal cause) and have led private lives only appearing with the family on some public family occasions. A businessman, Alexandre died in 2009 but his widow, Princess Lea (formerly Lea Wolman) still appears with the family. Marie-Esmeralda is a journalist, documentary filmmaker (focused on redeeming her mother's reputation) and activist for women's rights, indigenous people and the environment. Princess Marie-Christine, who lives in Washington state, has been estranged from the family (except Marie-Esmeralda) for decades. She did not even attend her parents' nor brothers' funerals.</p><p>In addition to the fact that both of these recent reluctant fathers are Albert II of their respective countries, there is one other interesting observation I'd like to make about this story. Delphine has named her children Oscar and Josephine. These were the names of the first Bernadotte king and queen of Sweden. Thanks to these court rulings in 2020, she can now legally claim descent from them through her father's mother -- but that descent has always been in her DNA. Unlike most European royals, however, she is not descended from Queen Victoria, though the family is related. They are descended from her uncle Leopold, who was the first King of Belgium.</p>Cheryl Ciucevichhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00388994160381820590noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3343837766028558539.post-8131965781210120312020-05-20T12:44:00.001-04:002020-05-20T13:07:33.879-04:00A Parcel of Old Maids<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"></table><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 2em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiw7fLEq1S0AJcFKpaRy92WWhSJq9nclW8c06mJo-nap7WPL1aZikmCdo4UIwkqBY4V5bRQTHoLYortrV0ilhOPP0DF7c2MUhCkBSZp6cRtumn7L5ioIqosuZzNKxj1Zvf4L9NIxlPuscY/" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1069" data-original-width="1500" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiw7fLEq1S0AJcFKpaRy92WWhSJq9nclW8c06mJo-nap7WPL1aZikmCdo4UIwkqBY4V5bRQTHoLYortrV0ilhOPP0DF7c2MUhCkBSZp6cRtumn7L5ioIqosuZzNKxj1Zvf4L9NIxlPuscY/s320/186+Charlotte%252C_Princess_Royal%252C_Augusta_and_Elizabeth_-_Gainsborough_1784.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: center;"><i><font face="trebuchet">Princesses Charlotte, Augusta and Elizabeth</font></i></div><i><div style="text-align: center;"><i><font face="trebuchet" size="1">By Thomas Gainsborough in the Royal Collection via Wikimedia Commons</font></i></div></i></td></tr></tbody></table>There are two things that everyone "knows" about King George III: he lost the Colonies and he went mad. While neither of these are exactly true, there are other things about him that I find fascinating. (<a href="https://www.royal.uk/ten-things-you-didnt-know-about-george-iii" target="_blank">Learn more on the official British Monarchy site</a>.) Chief of these is that, when he was lucid, he was absolutely mad about his wife, Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz. A byproduct of that devotion was a very large brood of children: 15 in total, with 13 surviving into adulthood during an age when even royal children had a high mortality rate. Six of those children were girls. George and Charlotte were extremely engaged parents, especially for royalty--playing with them in the floor, encouraging to farm little plots of land, taking them on family walks, etc. They adored their children, but the King was especially besotted by his little girls. Unlike nearly every other king you've ever heard of, he actually hoped that his wives' pregnancies would yield little girls. They were provided with a good education from a very young age and even encouraged to participate in athletic activities with their brothers, in addition to the usual ladylike pursuits of music, dancing, art and deportment. <div><br /></div><div>Wishing to form a more domestic image for the Royal Family over the scandalous and divisive nature of the generations preceding, George and Charlotte failed spectacularly. Their affection for their youngsters was a bit too smothering. They tried to manage every aspect of their offspring's lives. While the King and Queen were fabulously unsuccessful in keeping their rascally sons under control, they were able to exert much more authority over their daughters. So much so, that one of their nieces called them "a parcel of old maids." Forced to be companions to their mother and denied lives of their own, they even referred to themselves as a nunnery. Bored and lonely, the princesses longed for independence.<div><br /></div><div>Despite the nearly confined nature of their lives, many of these princesses managed to find adventure and make some mischief of their own. Meet the daughters of King George III:</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><b><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"></table><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 2em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibX9MvdArzf641e8vMz9rbm-B81ZjRLyb8qqFY7CbP7nu9R_Rxf_kzH3vjc1hj_-dqq0LiVHqv2FCVcqDQsgCBk9vFzauRDtAnLivPbdRArzO66MHjRrILV4HbCjoFAePMcWxKViC9gAo/" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="665" data-original-width="512" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibX9MvdArzf641e8vMz9rbm-B81ZjRLyb8qqFY7CbP7nu9R_Rxf_kzH3vjc1hj_-dqq0LiVHqv2FCVcqDQsgCBk9vFzauRDtAnLivPbdRArzO66MHjRrILV4HbCjoFAePMcWxKViC9gAo/s320/187+Charlotte%252C_Princess_Royal_%25281797%2529.jpg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Charlotte Princess Royal<br /><font size="1">By William Beechey in the Royal Collection<br />via Wikimedia Commons</font></i></td></tr></tbody></table>Charlotte, Princess Royal (1766-1828)</b><br />The fourth child and oldest daughter was named Charlotte after her mother. Known as Princess Royal from her infancy, she was not actually granted this traditional title of the firstborn daughter until she was in her early 20s. From the beginning, Charlotte was a favored child. Considered rather bright, she was given tutors when she was still a toddler. However, she was not a particularly pretty child and she struggled to overcome a stammer. She was, however, conscious of her position as Princess Royal, which made her a bit more pompous than the other girls. She was also the only daughter that King George III allowed to marry, but even this decision was quite delayed. In an era when princesses frequently married before they were 20, Charlotte married at age 30. Her husband, 12 years her senior, was the widowed Hereditary Prince Frederick of Wurttemberg. He succeeded his father as Duke a few months later and was raised to King of Wurttemberg by Napoleon in 1806 in recognition of the troops he had provided to Britain's most dangerous enemy. This made Charlotte the first Queen of the tiny kingdom, a monarchy that would be swept away just over a century later in the first World War. King Frederick eventually flipped sides in the Napoleonic wars and was supporting Britain when he passed away in 1816. Charlotte got pregnant quickly after her wedding but her infant was stillborn. This was her only child. However, she did serve as stepmother to Frederick's children by his first wife, who were aged 12 to 16 at the time of her wedding. Charlotte remained in Wurttemberg after Frederick's death, never returning to Britain until 1827, when her health caused her to seek treatment back home. She suffered greatly from dropsy, which today we would call edema. Not necessarily a disease itself, edema is fluid retention or swelling that can be caused by a number of illnesses of the heart, kidney or liver. (Some women will also develop edema temporarily during menstruation or pregnancy.) She returned to Wurttemberg after surgery, but died there a year later at the age of 62.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><b><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"></table><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 2em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3PxYqHYESar4EXnqArcgr0NuR_DjpmtvNIyv0EAo3TUyILoiqh8KNGhqCgAEGxPc5pRdVQdnkSzRcHB2zIf3gpHSZ6y5_Pm9yOgMYlRp22pjyIgyrAULANtntSzOhtO8LzQy2KIVoMkc/" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="721" data-original-width="538" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3PxYqHYESar4EXnqArcgr0NuR_DjpmtvNIyv0EAo3TUyILoiqh8KNGhqCgAEGxPc5pRdVQdnkSzRcHB2zIf3gpHSZ6y5_Pm9yOgMYlRp22pjyIgyrAULANtntSzOhtO8LzQy2KIVoMkc/s320/188+Princess_Augusta_in_1782.jpg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Princess Augusta</i><br /><font size="1"><i>By Thomas Gainsborough in the Royal Collection <br />via Wikimedia Commons</i></font></td></tr></tbody></table>Princess Augusta (1768-1840)</b></div><div>The sixth born child and second daughter, Princess Augusta was born just two years after her older sister. (Brother Edward, the future father of Queen Victoria, was between them.) Augusta was named after her father's mother, Augusta of Saxe-Gotha, who was better known as the Dowager Princess of Wales since her husband Frederick Prince of Wales died in 1751 before acceding the throne. Young Princess Augusta was thought prettier than her older sister, but she was shy and, like her older sister, stammered. She was well-educated along with her sisters, and was particularly devoted to her coin collection. Usually docile, she could also have a terrible temper. Potential royal marriages might have been possible. Her cousin, the future Danish King Frederick VI. would have married her, but George III was bitter over the way Frederick's mother, who was George's baby sister had been treated in that country. (Read my post, <a href="https://hrhprincesspalace.blogspot.com/2016/11/a-scandalous-marriage-story-of-teenage.html" target="_blank">A Scandalous Royal Marriage</a>.) A Swedish prince was also declined, so Augusta made due with someone who was accessible: one of her father's equerries, Army officer Sir Brent Spencer. They kept their relationship secret, though Augusta did seek permission to marry him from her brother George once he had become the Regent for their ailing father. It is not known whether they officially married, but they remained a couple until his death in 1828. She survived another 12 years, passing away at 71.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><b><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"></table><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 2em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLUVYParxS4786cwlEChabazxvDHCPA05bwhGLbENiei-v7ridXndRzaXOP_HKTCQNrstHKNNWcuOc4Npu6dtzdwmtvFyO8CrdkUy7b_lsYUl7hyphenhyphenf4u9Gbxw_o3Ctx9rP0r8Lh3cddvcQ/" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="719" data-original-width="534" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLUVYParxS4786cwlEChabazxvDHCPA05bwhGLbENiei-v7ridXndRzaXOP_HKTCQNrstHKNNWcuOc4Npu6dtzdwmtvFyO8CrdkUy7b_lsYUl7hyphenhyphenf4u9Gbxw_o3Ctx9rP0r8Lh3cddvcQ/s320/189+Princess+Elizabeth+Landgravine+of+Hesse+Homburg.jpg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Princess Elizabeth</i><br /><font size="1"><i>By Thomas Gainsborough in the Royal Collection <br />via Wikimedia Commons</i></font></td></tr></tbody></table>Princess Elizabeth (1770-1840)</b></div><div>A year and a half younger than Augusta, Elizabeth rounded out the tightly knit trio of older sisters. She was named for her maternal grandmother Elizabeth of Saxe-Hildburghausen, who had passed away nine years earlier. Young Elizabeth was the most joyful and optimistic of the cloistered girls. She enjoyed the farm work imposed by their parents and was also a good artist, often creating works to benefit her charities. Endowed with a good sense of humor and down-to-earth attitude, she may have been their mother's favorite daughter. Elizabeth is thought to have had secret romantic relationships with men of the court, one of which may have resulted in the birth of a daughter. A royal marriage for her with the Duke of Orleans was declined, allegedly due to his Catholicism, but more likely just because her mother did not want to be parted from her. Nonetheless, once her brother George had taken control as Prince Regent, a suitable marriage was accepted over Queen Charlotte's objections. Shortly before her 47th birthday, Elizabeth married Prince Frederick of Hesse-Homburg, who was just a year older, and she went to live with him in Germany, where she greatly enjoyed the less formal atmosphere, especially after he succeeded as the Landgrave and she could control the court. In Germany, she devoted herself to a school she founded for the children of working mothers. Her husband died 11 years into their marriage and was succeeded by his brother. Elizabeth remained in Germany for the rest of her life, dying at age 69 just a few months before her older sister Augusta's death.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><b><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"></table><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 2em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxd3veJiikx3sa3iZ8DC1xNnkHIHK6eZyvisyRdWj1VNoAmoVtUryMut9YBAE3ENliiidn2qs5kCEvVKqFKSCSrxe7JQHajhaIqw3eYkLmZui23EbxrmBDGHD5U4903jBfUfl351RiLdw/" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="498" data-original-width="384" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxd3veJiikx3sa3iZ8DC1xNnkHIHK6eZyvisyRdWj1VNoAmoVtUryMut9YBAE3ENliiidn2qs5kCEvVKqFKSCSrxe7JQHajhaIqw3eYkLmZui23EbxrmBDGHD5U4903jBfUfl351RiLdw/s320/190+Princess_Mary_%25281776-1857%2529.jpg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Princess Mary</i><br /><i><font size="1">By William Beechey in the Royal Collection<br />via Wikimedia Commons</font></i></td></tr></tbody></table>Princess Mary (1776-1857)</b><br />Three boys were born between Princess Elizabeth and Princess Mary. With a gap of six years between them, Mary became the eldest of the younger trio of princesses. Mary may have been the prettiest of all the sisters. As a teenager, she fell in love with Prince Frederick of Orange, who was exiled in England. King George III used the fact that her three older sisters were still unmarried as an excuse to deny the match. When the prince died a few years later, however, Mary was permitted to officially mourn him. For decades, she and her sisters were stifled -- it was she who declared that they spent their time "vegetating." She finally got her bid for freedom after her father's illness led to a permanent regency. Her brother George the Prince Regent approved her marriage to their cousin, Prince William Duke of Gloucester. Bride and groom were both 40 years old and they produced no offspring. Nevertheless, Mary had achieved freedom from her mother's control and, unlike her married sisters, she was able to stay in Britain. The Duke of Gloucester died in 1834 and she lived on until 1857. A particular favorite of her niece Queen Victoria, Mary was photographed with Victoria and two of Victoria's teenage children. She has the distinction of being the only one of George III's children to be photographed. She also was the last surviving and longest lived of his children, dying at age 81.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><b><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"></table><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 2em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdFhNeJAITFVRs2ZP0lMgbkjcWQN7mdSN54LdzbKzcmwaKVVlgu15Pek5VN1ewUNLB51XjQB0tjv154VvOvFuvjSLwY_GuF7txKl8VZQYsoXm6GVufRTSBLQ2Klh87b2uwz58eiyX0iqI/" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1500" data-original-width="1153" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdFhNeJAITFVRs2ZP0lMgbkjcWQN7mdSN54LdzbKzcmwaKVVlgu15Pek5VN1ewUNLB51XjQB0tjv154VvOvFuvjSLwY_GuF7txKl8VZQYsoXm6GVufRTSBLQ2Klh87b2uwz58eiyX0iqI/s320/191+Princess_Sophia.jpg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Princess Sophia</i><br /><i><font size="1">By William Beechey in the Royal Collection<br />via Wikimedia Commons</font></i></td></tr></tbody></table>Princess Sophia (1777-1848)</b></div><div>A year and a half younger than Mary, Sophia was their parents' twelfth child. Pretty and delightful though occasionally moody, Sophia found her life with her sisters "deadly dull", writing to their eldest brother, that their pleas for his help were so constant that she wondered why he did not "vote for putting us in a sack and drowning us in the Thames." Sophia has been more plagued by rumors than any of her sisters. One bit of unproven gossip alleges that she was raped by or had an incestuous affair with her extremely unpopular and scandalous brother Ernest Augustus, who later became King of Hanover. (He is the evil Uncle Cumberland in the Victoria television series.) A more likely fact-based rumor is attached to her romance (and perhaps secret marriage) to royal equerry and Army officer Thomas Garth, who was 33 years older than her. Their romance is said to have led to the birth of a son, also called Thomas Garth, who was raised by the Garth family. Historians are divided to this day whether Sophia ever had a child and, if so, whether the father was her brother or Garth. Sophia's child or not, the younger Thomas later attempted to blackmail the royal family over his origins, but failed. Never marrying, Sophia went to live at Kensington Palace after her mother's death. A year later, her niece Victoria was born and became her neighbor. This also placed Sophia in close proximity to Victoria's mother the Duchess of Kent. Like the Duchess, Sophia allowed Kent's comptroller to manager her financial affairs. Despite alleged misconduct with Sophia's money, Conroy may have been the one who thwarted young Thomas Garth's blackmail attempt. Like her father, Sophia grew blind and confused as she aged. Her sister Mary was with her when she died at age 71 at Kensington. Conroy's mismanagement -- or thievery -- had left her with no money in the end. </div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><b><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"></table><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 2em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXiKBTLXysHZW3McGTg7b5a6aeOxQTV7ZAJtSsW6DRhMQhSV9brWcU5gxYY8Tc5p6VKiaoACfG1PG9NZYTtppeNRG2m_-87Zl0aMkRiE-IXXeXhQAW7SbG8cPmTlELUsX_ldU78_IATbI/" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="403" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXiKBTLXysHZW3McGTg7b5a6aeOxQTV7ZAJtSsW6DRhMQhSV9brWcU5gxYY8Tc5p6VKiaoACfG1PG9NZYTtppeNRG2m_-87Zl0aMkRiE-IXXeXhQAW7SbG8cPmTlELUsX_ldU78_IATbI/s320/192+Princess_Amelia_of_the_United_Kingdom.jpg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Princess Amelia</i><br /><i><font size="1">From the Royal Collection via Wikimedia Commons</font></i></td></tr></tbody></table>Princess Amelia (1783-1810)</b></div><div>Born three years after Queen Charlotte wrote "I would be happy if I knew this [pregnancy] would be the last time", Amelia was the fifteenth and final child born to King George III. Less than a year before Amelia arrived, their two youngest sons had died. Four-year-old Octavius and nearly two-year-old Alfred died after being inoculated against small pox; the older children survived their inoculations. With the early deaths of her nearest siblings, she was very much the baby of the family: six years younger than Princess Sophia and 21 years younger than their oldest brother George. In fact, three of her siblings were named her godparents. She was amiable but shared the tempestuous nature common in the family. Nicknamed Emily by her father, Amelia is widely believed to have been his favorite child. Amelia, however, had less opportunity to be attached to her father as she was only five years old when he first started having serious bouts of illness. Her own poor health also led to separation from the family as she was sent to the seaside for periods of recovery. During one of these convalescences, 18-year-old Amelia fell in love with a young equerry, Charles Fitzroy. Though she was not allowed to marry him, she said that she considered herself married to him. Several years later, she survived a bout of measles, but her health never really recovered and her sister Mary was assigned to nurse her. At age 27, she contracted a bacterial infection called St. Anthony's fire. In an age before antibiotics, this was a death sentence despite the numerous doctors her father sent to her. The family was devastated by her death, especially Princess Mary and the King himself, who fell into another bout of "madness" from which he never again returned to lucidity. In his delusions, George III would imagine that his Emily was healthy and living in Germany. In her will, Amelia left everything to Charles Fitzroy but the family prevented him from receiving any of it. </div><div><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvV8gkNBSWOWz-lUg-87m89BykFCwnjLcNhZbkUXXjwZj-bW5D0QwXrtkh-Wgb00w_wjlQFjzCyVD1HKLOcF7OqvL08nPzDGnOB8x0ZAGOEStByu-GGPiI_nL21rhQPNKU-Nhdlt7rIx0/" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="721" data-original-width="502" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvV8gkNBSWOWz-lUg-87m89BykFCwnjLcNhZbkUXXjwZj-bW5D0QwXrtkh-Wgb00w_wjlQFjzCyVD1HKLOcF7OqvL08nPzDGnOB8x0ZAGOEStByu-GGPiI_nL21rhQPNKU-Nhdlt7rIx0/w279-h400/193+youngest+Daughters_of_King_George_III.jpg" width="279" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Princess Mary, Princess Sophia<br />and Princess Amelia</i><br /><i><font size="1">By John Singleton Copley in the Royal Collection via Wikimedia Commons<br /><br /></font></i><div style="text-align: left;"><i><font size="1"><br /></font></i></div></td></tr></tbody></table><b><br /></b></div><div><b>For more about the Daughters of King George III:</b></div><div><a href="https://www.historyofroyalwomen.com/charlotte-princess-royal/parcel-old-maids-daughters-george-iii/" target="_blank">"A parcel of old maids"</a> on History of Royal Women</div><div><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/aug/28/strangest-family-private-live-george-third-queen-charlotte-hanoverians-janice-hadlow-review" target="_blank">The Strangest Family</a> on The Guardian<br /><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><b>Books about the Daughters of King George III:</b></div><div><b><iframe frameborder="0" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="//ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?ServiceVersion=20070822&OneJS=1&Operation=GetAdHtml&MarketPlace=US&source=ac&ref=tf_til&ad_type=product_link&tracking_id=princpalac-20&marketplace=amazon&region=US&placement=147389753X&asins=147389753X&linkId=224b0e22acb2d73cb8fb81ef7d14cd5f&show_border=false&link_opens_in_new_window=false&price_color=333333&title_color=0066c0&bg_color=ffffff" style="height: 240px; width: 120px;">
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</iframe> <br /></b><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div></div>Cheryl Ciucevichhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00388994160381820590noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3343837766028558539.post-59765683721445403762020-05-16T21:47:00.003-04:002020-05-20T08:19:43.452-04:00The Popular Crown Princess<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 2em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiS0S26xcp0eglwJRZQx9kYysSk71qaPRoUK1XYZYk_Ivd4niIIeIKrSV0OkL1sbnEhLxz8jx7DsleSO9D_50UYZvqEsoDQcd-f30S35_10Xk1GGdwJ9VWWhHehsjIKSdDgEW3-KVQ9kEs/" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="721" data-original-width="399" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiS0S26xcp0eglwJRZQx9kYysSk71qaPRoUK1XYZYk_Ivd4niIIeIKrSV0OkL1sbnEhLxz8jx7DsleSO9D_50UYZvqEsoDQcd-f30S35_10Xk1GGdwJ9VWWhHehsjIKSdDgEW3-KVQ9kEs/w220-h400/184+Cecilie_of_Mecklenburg-Schwerin.jpg" width="220" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><font size="1"><i>By Caspar Ritter via Wikimedia Commons</i></font><br /></td></tr></tbody></table>Crown Princess Cecilie was nothing if not practical. All of her life, she had faced trials and heartbreak with equanimity. She had survived war and revolution. Even when her husband was forced to leave his country and was later denied the Imperial German throne for which he had been born, Cecilie remained steadfast. She stayed in the home that had been built for her, the enormous Cecilenhof in Potsdam near Berlin and she adapted as needed, sending her sons to ordinary schools. She was the daughter of a Russian grand duchess and the daughter-in-law of the last German Kaiser, but none of that mattered in 1945 as Russia's Red Army battled its way through eastern Germany toward Berlin. These were the revolutionaries who had assassinated three of her Romanov uncles and innumerable cousins. Cecilie knew it was finally time to leave her home. Perhaps she took one wistful glance back as the car whisked her away, remembering those too-brief years when her children had played in Cecilienhof's six courtyards.</div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br /></div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">The youngest child of the German Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin and Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaievna, Cecilie was born into a peripatetic existence. As her father's subjects insisted, she had been born in Mecklenburg after her older brother and sister were born abroad. Nevertheless, the family continued to spend most of their time in southern Europe, where the climate better suited her father's asthmatic lungs, and Russia, where they indulged in the imperial splendor that would be swept away.</div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br /></div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">Cecilie faced her first personal tragedy at the tender age of 13 in the beautiful city of Cannes on the French Riviera. Her father, Friedrich Francis, was found lying at the foot of wall outside of the family's home. Had his deteriorating health caused him to become dizzy and to fall over? Or, as the quickly published rumors would have it, did the despairing 46-year-old fling himself to his death? The family hastened back to Mecklenburg, where her 15-year-old brother was now the ruling Grand Duke, but they didn't stay rooted there. A year later, her older sister Alexandrine married the future King Christian IX of Denmark and moved to Copenhagen. Their mother, only 36 when she was widowed, found entertainment elsewhere, gambling and dancing in Monte Carlo and elsewhere. Five years after her husband's death, Anastasia retreated to Villa Wenden, one of the properties she had inherited from him, with a severe case of chicken pox. As it turns out, the Grand Duchess wasn't poxy, she was pregnant. Her son by her private secretary was born there. Named Alexis Louis, he was raised by his mother, and later her son-in-law, the Danish king officially granted him the surname de Wenden after the place of his birth.</div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br /></div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">Despite the scandalous nature of her mother's open secret, young Cecilie's reputation appears to have been unharmed. She was still considered a worthy bridal candidate for Crown Prince Wilhelm of Germany when he met the 17-year-old dark-eyed beauty at her brother's wedding in 1904. A year later, Cecilie and her mother were welcomed to Berlin with great fanfare for Germany's wedding of the century. Kaiser Wilhelm II and his wife Empress Augusta Viktoria were eager for their rascally oldest son to marry, hoping, perhaps that it would settle him down. It did not. So, while the New York Times speculated that Cecilie was not just his arranged bride but his true sweetheart, the teenager entered into a loveless marriage with a blackguard and braggart who took pleasure in boasting to her of his extramarital escapades.</div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br /></div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">Nevertheless, sensible and bright, Cecilie quickly adapted to her role as Crown Princess and won the love of her new family and the people, if not of her husband. Within 10 years, she had produced four healthy sons and was expecting her fifth baby. Although the country was embroiled in the Great War, she was secure. She continued her role of establishing and leading various charitable works, especially those linked to education for girls. Of course, like all royal women in war time, she also looked in on hospitals and talked with wounded men. At home, construction of Cecilienhof was nearing completion.<br /><br /></div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"></table><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"></table><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 2em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYneJl5qQy7NS9Oy2r-qu5aAzqCu1xLCoZQDICmU6ZciQzHjpYZURYKMZFdlhFDfl8RbksHDa4PVzfq_FusvRtkzksLeOiyq7rg0bsrBV2rkL_zVLfBn5KTmbEpVTYwYmIaR1ROZXrQ5g/" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="405" data-original-width="640" height="253" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYneJl5qQy7NS9Oy2r-qu5aAzqCu1xLCoZQDICmU6ZciQzHjpYZURYKMZFdlhFDfl8RbksHDa4PVzfq_FusvRtkzksLeOiyq7rg0bsrBV2rkL_zVLfBn5KTmbEpVTYwYmIaR1ROZXrQ5g/w400-h253/185+Wilhelm%252C_German_Crown_Prince_with_his_wife_and_children.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><font face="helvetica" size="1"><span style="background-color: white; text-align: start; white-space: pre-wrap;">From left to right: Prince William, Prince Hubertus, Crown Princess Cecilie,
Crown Prince William, Prince Frederick and Prince Louis Ferdinand.
Front row: Princess Alexandrine and Princess Cecilie
</span>By Wilhelm Niederastroth via Wikimedia Commons</font></i><span style="background-color: white; font-family: roboto, robotodraft, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; text-align: start; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i>
</i></span></td></tr></tbody></table>The Crown Princess was at home in Berlin at the Kronprinsenpalais when she felt the first pangs of her labor. It wasn't long until, at last, she held her very first daughter in her arms. As she stared into the baby girl's eyes, the war probably seemed very far away. She named the baby Princess Alexandrine after her sister. But, it wasn't long before something started to bother her. There was something different about her eyes. Did she seem a bit less active than her brothers? Was her face a little too flat? As those first months passed, it became clear that Alexandrine was indeed different from her siblings. She had Down syndrome. While other royal babies with health issues were sheltered or even hidden from the public, Cecilie and Wilhelm agreed that would not be the fate of their little blonde beauty. While Britain's epileptic Prince John was moved into his own home separate from his family during World War I, his cousin Alexandrine stayed at home in the loving embrace of her parents and siblings, including little sister Princess Cecilie, who was born two years later. Like all of the imperial children, her photos appeared on postcards and she was present for public events. Later, they even sent her to a school especially for girls with special needs. (Read <a href="http://hrhprincesspalace.blogspot.com/2018/02/royal-lady-flashback-alexandrine.html">my post about her daughters Alexandrine and Cecilie</a>.)</div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br /></div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">Just a year after little Cecilie's birth, Germany was clearly losing the war and a Revolution erupted. Crown Princess Cecilie's father-in-law and her husband abdicated and fled to The Netherlands in November 1918. At first, Cecilie sought to flee what might happen living so close to Berlin -- the Russian Revolution had already murdered her uncle Grand Duke Sergei Mikhailovich while two other uncles and many cousins were being held by the Bolsheviks; all of them would be dead within the next year. She took the children to her mother-in-law Empress Augusta Victoria (read <a href="https://hrhprincesspalace.blogspot.com/2020/01/family-first-augusta-victoria.html" target="_blank">my post about her</a>), but she was devoted to her husband Kaiser Wilhelm and soon made arrangements to join him in exile. After a bit, it became clear that the German Revolution would not be as bloody as the one in Russia. Also, as one of the most popular members of the Imperial Family, Cecilie was secure back home at Cecilienhof, where she sent her sons to ordinary schools.</div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br /></div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">Soon, a punitive peace agreement was reached and Germany struggled under financial reparations and economic catastrophe. Cecilie stayed in Germany, raising her children alone, while the new government deprived the family of property and income. Crown Prince Wilhelm was eventually allowed to return in 1923, and a financial settlement was finally reached which restored some property and income to the family. Cecilienhof, however, was taken by the state. Due largely to her popularity, Cecilie was granted to right to live there for her lifetime. She and the Crown Prince rarely lived in the same home at the same time, alternating mostly between Cecilienhof and Castle Oels.</div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br /></div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 2em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaf-dPX2Qh8Rw-doe-rScYwRWesgZEHP3nSa8jf7rtqHsCKAzmaB9lG8lZa_5aYEiwuqjbiHIVf-ux46A1RWFaBW9EZgq2SGXQC_mMnaaKo4tNk1Bh9dmhzeCKXbjCu2TDMORawRNrpOY/" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="796" data-original-width="560" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaf-dPX2Qh8Rw-doe-rScYwRWesgZEHP3nSa8jf7rtqHsCKAzmaB9lG8lZa_5aYEiwuqjbiHIVf-ux46A1RWFaBW9EZgq2SGXQC_mMnaaKo4tNk1Bh9dmhzeCKXbjCu2TDMORawRNrpOY/w226-h320/30+Alexandrine+and+Cecilie+of+Prussia.jpg" width="226" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;"><div style="text-align: center;"><i><font face="helvetica" size="1">Princess Alexandrine, Crown</font></i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><font face="helvetica" size="1"><i>Princess Cecilie and Princess Cecilie<br /></i><span style="background-color: white; text-align: start; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i>Bundesarchiv, Bild 183-2003-1014-505
via Wikimedia Commons</i></span></font></div><div><font face="helvetica" size="1"><span style="background-color: white; text-align: start; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i><br /></i></span></font></div></td></tr></tbody></table></div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">The extended family struggled with finding its role during the period between the two World Wars, with the Emperor and the Crown Prince both awaiting a call to return to the throne. Initially, the rise of Hitler gave them hope, mostly because Hitler led them to believe what they wanted to believe. With a new war looming, Cecilie's sons were soon in harms way. When the war started in 1939, the four princes were aged 28 to 33, prime ages for military service. The youngest, Prince Frederick, was studying in England at Cambridge. Within months he was interned as a prisoner of war in Britain before being sent to different camps in Canada. (After the war, he married Lady Brigid Guinness and was naturalized as a British citizen.) Meanwhile, 29-year-old Prince Hubertus was among the German troops that invaded Poland and launched the war. Second-born Prince Louis Ferdinand was working in the aviation industry, never having served in the military unlike most German princes from every generation. Even with the war, Hitler prevented him from joining the services. Hitler did allow the oldest son Prince Wilhelm to serve. Six years earlier, Wilhelm had renounced his succession rights in order to marry a woman of lower status, so it was Louis Ferdinand, not he, who was considered the next heir to the defunct throne that the Fuhrer was still dangling in front of the family.</div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br /></div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">Soon, young Wilhelm's fate would change to the war for the rest of the family. During the invasion of France in May 1940, he was gravely injured and died within a few days. The fake monarchist Adolph Hitler allowed his body to be returned to Germany and to be buried in family mausoleum. When tens of thousands of mourners showed up, Hitler got nervous. He realized that the family still retained extensive popularity, which could become a threat to his Reich. From that summer on, all members of the former German ruling houses, not just the Imperial Family, were barred from military service. This at least meant that Cecilie would lose no more children to the war.</div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br /></div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">Nearly five years later, as the German war effort once again fell into disaster, Cecilie had to worry more about the approaching liberators, for it was the Soviet Army that was advancing into Berlin. These were the same people who had slaughtered dozens for her maternal relatives at the end of the last war. The 59-year-old Crown Princess fled south to Bavaria to Bad Kissingen, a sanatorium run by her now deceased father-in-law's former doctor. She stayed there for seven years, with her children and her husband visiting occasionally. Her youngest daughter married an American and moved to Texas in 1949. Then, Prince Hubertus died from an attack of appendicitis in 1950. A year later, she attended her husband's funeral back at Castle Hohenzollern.</div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br /></div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">In 1952, Cecilie moved to an apartment in Stuttgart, but she traveled for family occasions, like the christenings of her growing brood of grandchildren. In May 1954, she returned to Bavaria for a visit to Bad Kissingen and passed away there. Her body was taken to Castle Hohenzollern to be buried next to the husband who had so rarely been at her side.</div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br /></div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<b>More about Crown Princess Cecilie</b><br />
<a href="http://www.unofficialroyalty.com/cecilie-of-mecklenburg-schwerin-german-crown-princess-crown-princess-of-prussia/">Cecilie of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, German Crown Princess</a> on Unofficial Royalty<br />
<a href="https://www.historyofroyalwomen.com/cecilie-of-mecklenburg-schwerin/cecilie-of-mecklenburg-schwerin-the-last-crown-princess-of-germany/">Cecilie of Mecklenburg-Schwerin - The Last Crown Princess of Germany</a> on History of Royal Women<br />
<a href="http://royalwatcherblog.com/2019/09/20/crown-princess-cecilie-of-prussia/">Crown Princess Cecilie of Prussia</a> on The Royal Watcher<br />
<a href="http://www.thecourtjeweller.com/2019/04/crown-princess-cecilies-faberge-tiara.html">Crown Princess Cecilie's Faberge Tiara</a> on The Court Jeweller<br />
<a href="http://royalmusingsblogspotcom.blogspot.com/2011/06/duchess-cecilie-has-arrived-in-berlin.html">Duchess Cecilie has arrived in Berlin</a> on Royal Musings<br />
<a href="http://theesotericcuriosa.blogspot.com/2010/01/germanys-last-crown-princess-duchess.html">The Princess & Her Palace</a> on The Esoteric Curiosa<br />
<a href="http://www.thecourtjeweller.com/2014/01/saturday-sparkler-prussian-meander-tiara.html">The Prussian Meander Tiara</a> on The Court Jeweller<br />
<a href="http://orderofsplendor.blogspot.com/2013/11/tiara-thursday-prussian-meander-tiara.html">The Prussian Meander Tiara</a> on The Royal Order of Sartorial Splendor<br />
<a href="https://www.townandcountrymag.com/style/jewelry-and-watches/a27056010/two-royal-wedding-tiaras-are-about-to-have-an-epic-face-off/">See Two Rare Faberge Tiaras</a> on Town and Country</div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br /></div>
Cheryl Ciucevichhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00388994160381820590noreply@blogger.com1