tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22846882741780838072024-03-13T13:33:18.820+00:00Royalty SavvyRoyalty and Nobility past and present.Lucas Diehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03952852213344027979noreply@blogger.comBlogger64125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2284688274178083807.post-15077990525125352752014-04-04T16:34:00.002+01:002020-10-04T03:41:30.053+01:00How Times Change: Queen Elizabeth at the Vatican<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;">Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom finally got round to visit Italy, her first foreign visit since 2011. The trip had been planned for 2013 but was subsequently cancelled. Her visit in Rome enabled her to stop over for a chat with Pope Francis whom she hadn't met before. </span></span><br />
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<a name='more'></a><span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;">As is usual, the meeting had been declared informal beforehand to avoid calling it a meeting of religious leaders or a summit of heads of state. The mind boggles, if you ad the Son of God (that's Prince Philip in case you didn't know) into that equation. Does the living god of a religion count as a religious leader? Working in the department for protocols must be hell sometimes.</span></span><br />
<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />Pope Francis is meanwhile well-known for breaking with protocol. Queen Elizabeth took a leaf out of his book appearing for the visit in a blue dress with hat. Protocol would have had her dressed in black and sporting a black mantilla. The dress code applies to visits in the Vatican only; when receiving Popes for return visits, the protocol of the receiving head of state takes over.</span></span><br />
<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />During the 62-year reign of Queen Elizabeth, Pope Francis is the fifth Pope with whom she met either in the Vatican or in the United Kingdom. Pope John Paul II met Queen Elizabeth several times; once in 1982, when he was the first Pope to visit the United Kingdom. She received Pope Benedict XVI in 2010 in Edinburgh when he visited the United Kingdom in turn.</span></span><br />
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<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;">Before she became queen, Princess Elizabeth visited Pope Pius XII. The visit was heavily criticized by the insular press (and I don't mean insular as a geographical term). Behind world development and still stuck in the times of the Indian Empire (I am talking about today's press, not of 1951), they still try to keep up appearances of a world power. Everyone needs a hobby, I suppose.</span></span><br />
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<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;">Pope Francis also handed Queen Elizabeth a gift for her grandson Prince George: An orb made of lapis lazuli with a silver cross attached to it. the symbolism of the orb to represent power over the world was used by the Romans, the cross was an afterthought of one of the religious sects active in the Imperial capital. As baby rattles go, this might be one of the more expensive we will see this century.</span></span><br />
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<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;">How much things have changed in over 60 years, see the pictures at the end of the article.</span></span><br />
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<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;">Further reading</span></span><br />
<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://stutenzeehistoryblog.blogspot.com/2013/07/how-many-monarchies-exist-in-europe.html" target="_blank">How Many Monarchies Exist in Europe?</a></span></span><br />
<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://stutenzeehistoryblog.blogspot.com/2012/10/the-elect-circle-of-elected-monarchs-on.html" target="_blank">The Elect Circle of Elected Monarchs on Europe's Thrones</a></span></span><br />
<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://stutenzeebooks.blogspot.co.uk/2013/12/son-of-mountain-god.html" target="_blank">Son of the Mountain God</a></span></span><br />
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<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span>Lucas Diehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03952852213344027979noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2284688274178083807.post-21937468256071106512014-03-19T20:32:00.002+00:002020-10-04T03:40:42.017+01:00Aristocrats and No Noblesse<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;">There are aristocrats, and then there are people with titles. Marcus Scriven piles it on thickly in his collection of the less than sublime. He recounts tales of aristocrats who fell on hard times. He jumbles the unpleasant on top of the unlucky, narrates the eccentric with the plain weird, and lists the madmen with the bad apples. All of this adds up to a colourful book with an appeal to the Schadenfreude crowd. It also caters to the readers who enjoy real life story that are hard to believe but true.</span></span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">John Hervey and Francesca Fisher</td></tr>
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<a name='more'></a><span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;">Splendour & Squalor by Marcus Scriven was published by Atlantic
Books. The book offers a kaleidoscope of British aristocrats who behaved badly, were badly behaved, or just had the devil's own luck. It’s a treasure trove for lovers of stories weird,
wacky, and wonderfully eccentric. If noblesse oblige implies aristocratic belief in doing good, then this little collection will show the other leaf in the book. Criminal lords, notorious gamblers, and sexually depraved sons live cheek to jowl in this story collection. </span></span><br />
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<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;">Edward FitzGerald, 7th Duke of Leinster, spent his life on the run from his creditors. Born a younger son without money and without a foreseeable future of becoming Duke one day, he developed an eccentric streak early on. At Eton, he kept snakes as pets, and over the years the pets would become more numerous and more exotic. He managed to amass debts of £67,000 by 1920 aged 27 (in today’s money about £16 millions). <br /> </span></span><br />
<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;">To his relief, Edward FitzGerald contracted a deal with a loan shark who paid off his debts and guaranteed him a fixed income of £1,000 a year for live. In return, the shark would receive all the income from the estates should Edward FitzGerald become Duke of Leinster one day. 17 months later, his older brother died and he became the 7th Duke, living on £1,000 a year until 1976.<br /> </span></span><br />
<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;">A really unpleasant specimen was the 7th Marquess of Bristol. He died in 1999 aged 44. A predatory homosexual, he boasted of Rupert Everett as one among his many lovers. He married hours before his 30th birthday to get more funds out of his trust fund. The marriage was made in hell, and his wife soon left him.<br /> </span></span><br />
<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;">I do remember him as an unpleasant and imposing individual. In 1980, I was sitting in a cafe on a Central European motorway reading the local newspaper. Somebody sat down at my table without even asking leave to do so. The guy pushed his business card over the table to me and said: ‘I am the future Marquess of Bath. Are you ever coming to England on holidays?’ I said that I do from time to time. ‘Good. I like your looks. Call me when you are there. I want to adopt you.’ Then he left to rejoin his companion. I was so impressed; I forgot his card on the table. My mother had a fit when I told and recounted the career of his esteemed father.<br /><br />His father, the 6th Marquess, was a creep, too. He enjoyed setting fire to his room at Eton and would set door handles under electricity. As a young man, he drove his car into a row of waiting cabs to see if they would fold up like a concertina. He loathed his son and placed an ad into The Times before his son’s marriage to announce that he was unable to attend due to a prior engagement. <br /> </span></span><br />
<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;">I would have enjoyed the book more if the writing style had been a bit drier. Marcus Scriven uses a rich style that appears a bit too flowery. The book is a tremendous read all the same. The stories told by Marcus Scriven are highly entertaining and will keep you amused from cover to cover.</span></span><br />
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<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;">Further reading</span></span><br />
<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://stutenzeehistoryblog.blogspot.com/2012/10/money-married-title.html" target="_blank">Money Married Title</a></span></span><br />
<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://stutenzeehistoryblog.blogspot.com/2012/11/digging-for-gold-in-europe.html" target="_blank">Digging for Gold in Europe</a></span></span><br />
<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://stutenzeehistoryblog.blogspot.com/2012/10/princes-not-all-that-glitters.html" target="_blank">Princes: Not All That Glitters</a></span></span>Lucas Diehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03952852213344027979noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2284688274178083807.post-72719891092641311202014-03-06T20:58:00.002+00:002020-10-04T03:40:09.057+01:00Emperor Frederick II: Diplomacy by Power<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;">Arab chroniclers converted him to Islam; and his family became related to that of Saladin. Christian history writers made him a philosopher, a consummate diplomat, and an icon of tolerance and multiculturalism. Emperor Frederick II would have been wondering about whom they were writing. He was none of that. If anything, he was the epitome of what Germans mean when talking of Realpolitik.</span></span><br />
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<a name='more'></a><span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;">Most legends about Emperor Frederick II were contributed by a chronicler who lived half a century after him. A native of Cairo, Ibn al-Furat (1334 to 1405) was the first to say that the Emperor was secretly a Muslim. And as if this would not be eye-popping enough, he claimed that Frederick was a maternal uncle of Sultan Al-Kamil of Egypt. This was the most blatant attempt to incorporate the Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire and Christian King of Jerusalem into religious affiliation and kinship with Islamic ecumenism. He was made a naturalized citizen of Allah's by hindsight.</span></span><br />
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<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;">The legend that Frederick was at least a friend of the Muslim world was conceived to help the Arab world understand and cope with the loss of Jerusalem. The lame handover of the holy city no longer seemed like a defeat. After all, the new ruler was no enemy, but a comrade in faith and relative of the Sultan of Egypt and by extension of all Muslim rulers. The agreement on Jerusalem could now be shown as just another change of ownership within a family.</span></span><br />
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<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;">The question is as to whether Emperor Frederick II had planned to make Jerusalem his by negotiation. The answer is no. Even before it came to the treaty of 1229, this possibility was offered to him. In 1221, Sultan Al-Kamil of Egypt had offered the return of almost all the conquests of Saladin's; he had been under great duress because of the Crusader army encamped at his borders. In return, he demanded that the Crusaders would return the recently conquered and strategically important city of Damietta in the Nile Delta. The Knights Templar and the Knights Hospitaller wanted to accept the offer, but the emperor's representatives refused. They were under instruction to await Emperor Frederick II's arrival and a planned and expected military victory.</span></span><br />
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<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;">Emperor Frederick II had hoped for a military triumph when he started his crusade in 1228 to boost his military credentials at home. The contractual agreement with the Sultan was a stop-gap for a crisis. It came into existence only on his learning of an attack by the Pope on his Kingdom of Sicily. The crisis in Europe called for an immediate return home.</span></span><br />
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<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;">There remains one question: Would the diplomatic way have been possible without the emperor’s considerable military might? Probably not. Someone marching his army to Jaffa with the full intention of moving inland to go to Jerusalem meant business. The message was duly received in Cairo. Sultan Al-Kamil knew that any renewed defeat by the Crusaders, whether in Palestine or in the Nile Delta, would have shaken his supremacy in the Middle East considerably. The compromise reached was therefore a beneficial minimum for both parties but by far not what they really wanted.</span></span><br />
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<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;">The Treaty of Jaffa of 1229 was drawn up for pragmatic reasons and represented the minimum consensus for both sides. And both hoped to be able to change the matter later under altered circumstances. To assume that Sultan Al-Kamil made a gift of Jerusalem to Emperor Frederick II because he did so well in mathematics and liked falcons has no basis in reality. Even historians daydream at times.</span></span><br />
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<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;">Ultimately, it was the emperor's power by land and sea that appeared as an incalculable risk and a major threat to the sultan. Traditional stories telling of the emperor arriving with only a small force in the Holy Land are fabrications. They have contributed to the modern image of Emperor Frederick II as an exemplary diplomat. They also disguised what he really was: a ruler negotiating out of necessity where it made sense but who would have drawn the sword without hesitation if the situation would have been more to his advantage.</span></span><br />
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<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;">Historians made a lot of the highly acclaimed peaceful intentions of the emperor. They were nothing more than pragmatism. This sense for Realpolitik is still amazing for a ruler of the Middle Ages. Rational balancing of political realities was not necessarily the forte of the often honour bound princes of the time. Unlike other famous Crusaders like Richard the Lionheart or Saint Louis, (the latter died on his second crusade) Frederick was not traveling the Orient to bash enemy brains and study the interior of their bodies. He also harboured no ambition to sacrifice himself on the altar of Christian martyrdom. All he wanted was reclaiming his (or rather his wife's) Kingdom of Jerusalem which he saw as rightfully belonging to them. Let the Pope do the praying, as long as they could count the taxes.</span></span><br />
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<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;">Anyone citing Frederick II as an example for modern multiculturalism is therefore betting on the wrong horse. The Emperor’s actions were as little guided by modern ideas of tolerance and diplomacy as the Arab chroniclers portraying him as a friend of the Muslims. Both sides pursued in a skillful way their respective interests while looking forward to some more constructive brain bashing.</span></span><br />
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<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;">Further reading</span></span><br />
<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://stutenzeehistoryblog.blogspot.com/2013/04/bulla-aurea-golden-bull.html" target="_blank">Bulla Aurea: Golden Bull</a></span></span><br />
<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://stutenzeehistoryblog.blogspot.com/2012/10/imperial-wedding-document-for-princess.html" target="_blank">Imperial Wedding Document for Princess Theophanu of Byzantium </a></span></span><br />
<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://stutenzeehistoryblog.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/queen-edith-of-eastern-franks.html" target="_blank">Queen Edith of the Eastern Franks</a></span></span>Lucas Diehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03952852213344027979noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2284688274178083807.post-22369231891274599522014-02-07T00:17:00.002+00:002020-10-04T03:39:42.192+01:00When Monarchs Abdicate<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;">When Monarchs abdicate, then there usually is title conundrum. The exception can be found in the Netherlands due to its unique constitution and in Andorra with its foreign princes. But all other European monarchies are basically unprepared for such an event. This leads to some curious situations. And some questions are never quite officially answered because there is no answer (yet).</span></span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Queen Maxima, Princess Beatrix, King Willem-Alexander</td></tr>
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<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;">The Netherlands is in the privileged situation of having a title system that takes care of abdicating monarchs without having thought about the possibility. When Queen Wilhelmina abdicated, she returned to her former title of princess, as did Juliana and Beatrix after her. This easy transition was explained in connection with the title of Queen Maxima. When Willem-Alexander became king, she was automatically addressed as queen. Dutch parliament confirmed that this was correct as an honorary title in keeping with international use, but that under Dutch law she remained Princess Maxima. Only the ruling monarch becomes or is king or queen. Problem solved.</span></span><br />
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<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;">That explains the marked difference to its neighbour Belgium, where there are currently two kings and three queens. Belgium has the system that the ruling king's consort becomes queen. It is only logical, then, that Queen Fabiola retained her title after the death of King Baudouin; and the situation is a well known one anyhow if we remember Elizabeth the Queen Mother (though that title was a creation by decree of Queen Elizabeth II). It was the abdication of King Albert II that made things awkward. He probably wouldn't have given a fig if he had become prince again, or been handed a duchy. But Queen Paola would suddenly have been outranked by Fabiola. Now that would have made life awkward at home. Belgium therefore has currently Queen Fabiola (HM Queen Fabiola), Paola (HM Queen Paola), and Mathilda (HM Queen of the Belgians). There are also two kings; the system applies there, too, with King Albert (HM King Albert) and Philippe (HM King of the Belgians). You might also strive to remember that when place names are necessary in piling up royalty, the ruling king and his consort are never 'of Belgium' but always 'of the Belgians'. Everyone else is 'of Belgium'.</span></span><br />
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<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;">Andorra is in the comfortable position that its princes retire automatically without having to abdicate explicitly. As one prince of the country is the Bishop of Seu d'Urgell in Spain, he ceases to be Prince of Andorra as soon as he retires as bishop. The other prince is the president of France, and they get changed every few years. Happy Andorra doesn't even have to worry about pensions for them. The two remaining hereditary principalities of Monaco and Liechtenstein could deal with the problem easily as the title prince can be used before, during, and after ruling the country. </span></span><br />
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<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;">The quandary the abdication of Pope Benedict XVI caused gives you an indication of how unprecedented it was and how ill prepared monarchies usually are for when it really happens. Having two popes is a bit unusual, but then there were times when we had five popes at the same time gallivanting across Europe. While Pope Emeritus took care of the main title problem, the matter of address hasn't been really solved. Popes usually are addressed as Your Holiness (in writing HH); is Benedict now Your Emeritedness (HE), of maybe Your Former Holiness (HFH)?</span></span><br />
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<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;">The United Kingdom showed one way of dealing with the problem when they dumped a duchy on the head of King Edward VIII upon his abdication. But as the Belgians showed, it doesn't always work. Anyone with clever solutions will probably receive a duchy in any of these countries for solving a very vexing and more and more pressing problem. Even monarchs, after all, are entitled to some retirement.</span></span><br />
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<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;">Further reading</span></span><br />
<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://stutenzeehistoryblog.blogspot.com/2013/07/how-many-monarchies-exist-in-europe.html" target="_blank">How Many Monarchies Exist in Europe? </a></span></span><br />
<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://stutenzeehistoryblog.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/the-prince-princess-and-perfect-murder.html" target="_blank">The Prince, The Princess, and The Perfect Murder</a></span></span><br />
<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://stutenzeehistoryblog.blogspot.com/2012/10/the-elect-circle-of-elected-monarchs-on.html" target="_blank">The Elect Circle of Elected Monarchs on Europe's Thrones</a></span></span><span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span>Lucas Diehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03952852213344027979noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2284688274178083807.post-90405588495583692932014-01-15T22:15:00.001+00:002020-10-04T03:39:14.136+01:00New Law for Queen Maxima of the Netherlands<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;">What is the role of the Queen in the Netherlands? (Hint: The Netherlands currently has no queen.) Who succeeds King Willem-Alexander in case of his death? And how to go about it if that successor is only 10 years old? Should she be taken out of school to be bored by the likes of Barack Obama and Vladimir Putin? The Netherlands obviously have a constitutional crisis.</span></span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-NTn2AHoCU-M/UtcHTJf-TTI/AAAAAAAACzU/jk4HX5Jf7cs/s1600/king-willem-alexander-queen-maxima-netherlands-dutch-orange-nassau-monarchy-amsberg.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="179" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-NTn2AHoCU-M/UtcHTJf-TTI/AAAAAAAACzU/jk4HX5Jf7cs/s1600/king-willem-alexander-queen-maxima-netherlands-dutch-orange-nassau-monarchy-amsberg.JPG" width="320" /></a></span></span></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">King Willem-Alexander and Queen Maxima of the Netherlands</span></span></span></td></tr>
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<a name='more'></a><span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;">With the death of Prince Johan Friso of the Netherlands in August 2013, Dutch MPs had become acutely aware that even Royals can die young. The successor to King Willem-Alexander is his daughter Princess Catharina-Amalia, the Princess of Orange. She is currently ten years old and no well meaning parent would wish her the role of Queen of the Netherlands at that age. But the constitution has no proviso for a regency. If you're alive, you reign. </span></span><br />
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<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;">In December 2013, the parliament of the Netherlands passed a law naming Queen Maxima as regent for the Princess of Orange in case something happened to King Willem-Alexander. The regency would be limited by Catharina-Amalia's coming of age at 18. That seems to solve the problem, but only sort of. Because it actually opens a can of worms they will have to deal with when the unlikely case becomes a reality. Lets get back to the statement that the Netherlands has no queen.</span></span><br />
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<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;">Kings and queens in the Netherlands aren't crowned; they are enthroned and take an oath on the constitution. On April 30, 2013, King Willem Alexander was enthroned; Princess Maxima wasn't. That makes Willem-Alexander king, but the necessary laws to make Maxima queen are missing. After ofter 120 years of reigning queens, such a minor oversight can be understood. In Dutch law, Maxima is Princess of the Netherlands, Princess of Orange-Nassau. Dutch parliament issued a statement that she would be known under the honorary title of Queen Maxima following international usage, but it is not a title by law.</span></span><br />
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<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;">That brings us to the point where her regency becomes necessary. By law, she would still not be queen. But as regent she would become head of state. As head of state, she would have to take the oath on the constitution. Would she also receive the title of queen by law to give her an equal standing with other monarchs? It isn't as if a total commoner was crowned, she is a descendant of King Afonso III of Portugal, after all. We may assume that the guys in the protocol section of the Royal Court in the Hague have a solution ready in their drawers somewhere.</span></span><br />
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<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;">Further reading</span></span><br />
<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://stutenzeehistoryblog.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/prime-minister-for-dinner-anyone.html" target="_blank">Prime Minister for Dinner Anyone?</a></span></span><br />
<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://stutenzeehistoryblog.blogspot.co.uk/2013/07/how-many-monarchies-exist-in-europe.html" target="_blank">How Many Monarchies Exist in Europe?</a></span></span><br />
<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://stutenzeehistoryblog.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/the-elect-circle-of-elected-monarchs-on.html" target="_blank">The Elect Circle of Elected Monarch on Europe's Thrones</a></span></span>Lucas Diehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03952852213344027979noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2284688274178083807.post-80562870214855445282014-01-08T17:41:00.002+00:002020-10-04T03:38:50.707+01:00Popes’ List With Basic Information in Book Form<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;">If you have a desire for (almost) complete lists, then there is a book that will being you the Popes in chronological order. As there were quite a few of them, the information on each of them is limited and sometimes anecdotal. But it is enough if you have to keep up with some Catholic small talk at the next reception in the Vatican.</span></span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-lXRz-azU0UA/Us2NgTvqkyI/AAAAAAAAB_M/vXcI5hljwrE/s1600/vatican-pope-francis-emeritus-benedict-first-picture-two-living-heads-catholic-church.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="112" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-lXRz-azU0UA/Us2NgTvqkyI/AAAAAAAAB_M/vXcI5hljwrE/s1600/vatican-pope-francis-emeritus-benedict-first-picture-two-living-heads-catholic-church.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Pope Francis and Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI</td></tr>
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<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;">Chatto & Windus published a book called The Popes by John Julius Norwich. The Popes: That means about 300 historical figures for a single book. You will guess that the result is less than impressive if you are expecting more than just the names and the dates. Too much to say, too little space to say it in, and an author with some weird ideas add up to a entirely strange book.<br /> </span></span><br />
<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;">John Julius Norwich claims to write about history with The Popes. The first trap he falls straight into is using 19th century historical prejudice to name and number his popes. That makes even something as easy as a list controversial if not outright wrong. By following these historical prejudices, he took the easy way out of a quandary. This book is all about easy writing. It has nothing to do with research or finding facts.<br /> </span></span><br />
<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;">19th century historical convention divided popes (and kings and emperors, too) into ‘real’ popes and into ‘counter’ or ‘anti’ popes. The line drawn by historians was subjective and completely arbitrary. The classification was based on things like which one lost or won a battle, or which one survived for longer, or just by wishful thinking of the author. When things were happening, though, reality tended to be much murkier. Lines of succession don’t do anyone the favour of becoming straight just by wishful thinking; they certainly don’t straighten out for Norwich.<br /> </span></span><br />
<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;">Trampling the worn paths of accepted history writing further, plunges the author into the trap of parroting slanderous books and pamphlets commissioned by successors and survivors. Instead of offering originality, the book trudges tamely on roads travelled too often already. Reading along lines you already know mustn’t always the worst thing, especially if a few gems are hidden among the usual suspects. That is the only redeeming aspect of this book, but the gems are rarer than gold.<br /> </span></span><br />
<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;">Squeezing a chapter about each of the popes and ‘counter-‘popes into a book leaves little space for each of them. In that little space, the author includes a summary of that pope’s live. It is just unfortunate that the little remaining space leaves no room for him to give the facts upon which he based his summary. Meaning that even if you have the book, you start from scratch if you want to do some research yourself.<br /> </span></span><br />
<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;">The book isn't a total loss: If you are amused by a collection of anecdotes (and sometimes even historically proven anecdotes) about popes across the centuries, it offers some amusing reading. Don’t read it front to back in one go, though (my mistake), it just becomes tedious and repetitious reading after a few chapters. It is not that the popes were a tedious lot, quite the contrary. The amount of slaughter, rape, and murderous succession is just a bit much if taken all in one go.<br /> </span></span><br />
<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;">John Julius Norwich states in his book that he left out any musings on religion from his writing. I still wonder how he thought he had done that. How do you propose to write about the leaders of one of the most important Christian sects without writing about their religion? Try describing the conquest of the Americas without referring to geography! Just by acknowledging their existence, the author admits to using religion in his writing.<br /><br />What you get is a something that is too long for a list; the information contained is too general to be used as a reference book; and for history it is too anecdotal. John Julius Norwich has not only managed to write a book about the Popes without religion, but also without purpose. If you are not desperate, don't buy it.<br /><br />Further reading</span></span><br />
<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://stutenzeehistoryblog.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/for-times-immemorial-humans-have-prayed.html" target="_blank">And God Granted Their Wishes</a></span></span><br />
<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://stutenzeehistoryblog.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/the-elect-circle-of-elected-monarchs-on.html" target="_blank">The Elect Circle of Elected Monarchs in Europe</a></span></span><br />
<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://stutenzeehistoryblog.blogspot.co.uk/2013/07/how-many-monarchies-exist-in-europe.html" target="_blank">How Many Monarchies Exist in Europe?</a></span></span>Lucas Diehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03952852213344027979noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2284688274178083807.post-48601723486340956562013-12-21T13:27:00.002+00:002020-10-04T03:38:11.691+01:00The Queen Silvia of Sweden Rap<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;">HM Queen Silvia of Sweden is going to be 70 on 23 December. Celebrations have been sprinkled all over advent in December as the queen intends to spend the birthday proper with the family in preparation for Christmas. One such event was held at the Oscar Theatre in Stockholm, and the show contained an extra surprise for her.</span></span><br />
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<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;">Queen Silvia of Sweden is the longest serving queen consort of Sweden. Born a commoner as Silvia Sommerlath, the former air hostess met King Carl XVI Gustav (then still crown prince) of Sweden at the Olympic Games in 1972 where she acted as a game hostess. They were married in 1976 and have three children, Crown Princess Victoria, Prince Carl-Philip, and Princess Madeleine.</span></span><br />
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<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;">When Silvia became Queen of Sweden, she was the lone commoner among the ruling Royals, though Norway already had a commoner Crown Princess Sonja. Meanwhile she has got company of Queen Maxima of the Netherlands, too. Cuban born Grand Duchess Maria Teresa of Luxembourg might be considered as part of the club, though she descends from King Ferdinand I of Leon and Castile.</span></span><br />
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<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;">The outing to the Oscar Theatre in Stockholm for an evening of variety show was a family outing for the Swedish Royals together with Crown Princess Victoria and Prince Daniel.The show included a surprise act for Queen Silvia with a singer in red robe and tiara rapping as the queen (I got the power). The reaction by the members of the Royal family and the rap can be seen <a href="http://www.srf.ch/player/tv/videoembed?id=589667e0-c5de-48e6-b385-5bda3e5f2883&width=624&height=351&mode=inline&autoplay=true" target="_blank">on this video</a>.</span></span><br />
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<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;">The unorthodox birthday song seems to have gone down much better with the queen than the gift she received from parliament a few days earlier. A standing in an awful modern design will look just dapper in the carefully pruned historical setting of the Royal palace. It shows that taste is not a democratic forte.</span></span><br />
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<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;">Having bad taste is one thing. Having bad manners is a completely different pair of shoes. Parliamentary speaker Per Westerberg refused to shake hands with Queen Silvia. Being a millionaire now fleecing taxpayers for not working (members of parliament in Sweden are as grossly overpaid as in any other country) is no excuse for being a lout.</span></span><br />
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<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;">Further reading</span></span><br />
<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://stutenzeehistoryblog.blogspot.co.uk/2013/07/how-many-monarchies-exist-in-europe.html" target="_blank">How Many Monarchies Exist in Europe?</a></span></span><br />
<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://stutenzeehistoryblog.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/the-elect-circle-of-elected-monarchs-on.html" target="_blank">The Elect Circle of Elected Monarchs on Europe's Thrones</a></span></span><br />
<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://stutenzeehistoryblog.blogspot.co.uk/2013/05/christina-female-king-of-sweden.html" target="_blank">Christina, Female King on Sweden's Throne</a></span></span>Lucas Diehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03952852213344027979noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2284688274178083807.post-77642330888183461062013-12-13T22:53:00.001+00:002020-10-04T03:37:32.190+01:00Royal Christmas Traditions<div style="color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;">Many Royal Christmas traditions we can think of are actually much younger than expected. But some are older than we were told, too. In
his book A Royal Christmas published by Elliott & Thompson, Jeremy
Archer traces the influence the British Royal family had on the way
Christmas is celebrated in the United Kingdom. And in other countries other Royal families are leading in defining Christmas traditions.</span></span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-aavHr6O6lZA/UquO9PtEmFI/AAAAAAAABt0/ArvMwQJ6tWE/s1600/princess-estelle-sweden-victoria-daniel-cookie-baking.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="133" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-aavHr6O6lZA/UquO9PtEmFI/AAAAAAAABt0/ArvMwQJ6tWE/s1600/princess-estelle-sweden-victoria-daniel-cookie-baking.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Crown Princess Victoria, Princess Estelle, Prince Daniel</td></tr>
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<a name='more'></a><span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;">Jeremy Archers book contains no big revelations, but it
collects all the snippets of information found in various books and
biographies into a coherent Royal Christmas narrative. Christmas traditions in Britain look quite German as they do in other countries outside Germany.
The reason lies with the Royal families mostly being German (United Kingdom, Denmark, Norway, Belgium, The Netherlands, and Luxembourg) and importing German
Princesses in marriages and with them all kinds of tradition. </span></span></div>
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<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;">Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha is credited with
introducing German Christmas traditions to England on his marriage to
Queen Victoria. That is wrong. He should be credited with being the
first professional public relations manager for the Firm. He
didn't bring these traditions with him, they were already in place. He made them public, though, to bring the monarchy into everyone's home. </span></span></div>
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<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;">Queen Charlotte, Queen Consort to King George III, spent every December
cutting out paper Christmas decorations.The Royal family, by the way, does things properly German since before Queen Victoria's birth: Gifts are given and opened on Christmas Eve, not Christmas Day. This is also the tradition in the other Royal families listed above.</span></span><br />
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<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;">Royal families are also allowed to bake cookies. If you go to the page of the <a href="http://www.kungahuset.se/kungafamiljen/aktuellahandelser/aktuellt2013oktoberdecember/julhalsningfranhagasefilmhar.5.4ea495e313c19c119aad920.html" target="_blank">Swedish Royal family</a>, you'll find a charming video showing Princess Estelle at work in the kitchen with some help from Crown Princess Victoria and Prince Daniel. The recipe is German, I have been told, coming from (German) Queen Silvia. Princess Estelle also took part in Saint Lucia's Day celebrations dressed up as Santa Claus.</span></span><br />
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<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;">The Norwegian Royal family retires over Christmas into a private cocoon. But prior to that, Crown Prince Haakon and Crown Princess Mette-Marit will take part in the unveiling of the Oslo Christmas tree on Trafalgar square. The gifted conifer from Norway is a tradition that started after World War II as a sign of friendship and thanks from Norway to the United Kingdom.</span></span><br />
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<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;">The British Royal family will spend Christmas at Sandringham in Norfolk. This year will see the start of a new tradition (or the breach with tradition, depending on which way you want to look at it). Carole and Michael Middleton will be in the party of illustrious guests gathering there. Punters and bookies expect Prince Harry to pop the question to his latest flame Cressida Bonas. I doubt it, though. Cressida Bonas has not (yet) been confirmed as a guest on one hand and one just doesn't propose on Christmas on the other hand. On top of all that, Prince Harry has yet to walk back from the South-pole while a yes from Cressida Bonas is far from certain.</span></span><br />
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<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;">Further reading</span></span></div>
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<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://stutenzeehistoryblog.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/christmas-trees-through-history.html" target="_blank">Christmas Trees Through History</a></span></span></div>
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<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://stutenzeehistoryblog.blogspot.co.uk/2013/11/the-origins-of-santa-claus.html" target="_blank">The Origins of Santa Claus</a></span></span></div>
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<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://stutenzeecandyblog.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/santa-claus-family-album.html" target="_blank">Santa Claus Family Album</a></span></span>
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Lucas Diehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03952852213344027979noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2284688274178083807.post-40318887254324626622013-12-10T21:05:00.001+00:002020-10-04T03:36:48.529+01:00Emperor Frederick II: Expert Falconer<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;">German historians in the 19th century promoted Emperor Frederick II of the Holy Roman Empire to diplomatic wonder worker. They showed him as a mild monarch and philosopher of enlightened tolerance. This contrasted starkly with his treatment of Muslims in Sicily. His reading habits were not those of a philosopher, either.</span></span><br />
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<a name='more'></a><span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;">If you believe German historians, Frederick II was an avid reader of Arab science tracks. In reality, he was mainly interested in one particular subject treated in the Arab philosophy of science, that was hawking and falconry. For centuries, the Arab world had their findings in falconry and in the process produced a voluminous literature on the topic. To expand his knowledge of hunting with birds, the emperor collected Arab texts and had them translated into Latin. Into this context falls a treatise known as the Moamin which includes the medical treatment for dogs on top of falconry. The text is not an original but a compilation of two older Arab sources. At Frederick II's court, and with his participation, a number of versions of this treatise were compiled. The corpus includes at least 70 manuscripts in over a dozen languages and stretches over 800 years.<br /> </span></span><br />
<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;">The versions of the Moamin coming from the imperial court at Palermo were prime examples of the oriental-occidental knowledge transfer in Christian Europe during the crusades. They are evidence of Arab literature lost in the original but preserved in Christian, European translations. Based on these tracts, and annotated with the emperor’s own observation of birds, the famous treatise De Arte Venandi Cum Avibus (The Art of Hunting with Birds) was written. The text is infallibly linked to the name of Frederick II.<br /> </span></span><br />
<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;">That a ruler was interested in a different culture underlined his thirst for knowledge. Perhaps it reflects an understanding that other cultures have gathered knowledge, too. This way of thinking is remarkable not only for the Middle Ages. As a proof of friendship or even affection of the emperor towards Islam, it is worthless. Frederick II’s study of Arab literature wasn't a case of inclination, but the benefits of obtainable scientific information caught the ruler’s full attention.<br /> </span></span><br />
<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;">Frederick II was also pursuing a pragmatic policy while in the Holy Land. In June 1228, the emperor cast off the lines at the port of Brindisi to launch his fleet in another crusade. Embarked on a galley, he went on a nearly year-long military expedition to the Holy Land. As early as 1215, he had taken his crusading vow. It was 13 years later that the Emperor finally set foot on oriental soil.<br /> </span></span><br />
<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;">Soon after arrival at his camp south of Acre, Frederick II started negotiations with the Egyptian Sultan Al-Malik al-Kamil (1218 to 1238), a nephew of the great Saladin. The sultan had fought his family for years over inheritance rights in the Middle East. One area in which the interests of the various family members embroiled in the inheritance discussion overlapped was Palestine. Having a crusader army encamped exactly there didn't fit into the plans of the sultan.<br /> </span></span><br />
<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;">The negotiations began with the deployment of two messengers to the sultan’s camp in Nablus. They proceeded at snail’s space despite the protestations of mutual esteem and the exchange of precious gifts. Until November 1228, Frederick II's army remained camped at Acre. He then moved them south to Jaffa, now part of Tel Aviv, to spend winter there. In 2011, an inscription in Latin and Arabic was discovered there. It is so far the only known inscription in Arab made by Crusaders. It bears witness to the presence of the emperor in the city.</span></span><br />
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<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;">Further reading</span></span><br />
<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://stutenzeehistoryblog.blogspot.co.uk/2013/04/bulla-aurea-golden-bull.html" target="_blank">Bulla Aurea: The Golden Bull </a></span></span><br />
<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://stutenzeehistoryblog.blogspot.co.uk/2013/11/1000-years-of-fun-at-fair.html" target="_blank">1,000 Years of Fun at The Fair</a></span></span><br />
<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://stutenzeehistoryblog.blogspot.co.uk/2013/08/according-to-swiss-history-writing.html" target="_blank">The Knights Templar in Switzerland</a></span></span><br />
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Lucas Diehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03952852213344027979noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2284688274178083807.post-47810413288926255742013-12-07T22:09:00.001+00:002020-10-04T03:33:19.150+01:00Empress Helena of Rome<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;">Roman Empress Flavia Iulia Helena is one of the few early church saints whose existence is a historical certainty. She must have been an energetic lady even in high age. She shared the Roman Emperors penchant for putting up representative buildings and went on a spending spree to erect numerous churches. According to legend, she was one of the first archaeologists as well as an avid collector of bric-a-brac.</span></span><br />
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<a name='more'></a><span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;">Helena was born around 250 in Drepanon in Turkey. She was the daughter of a tavern owner and joined the family business. In the line of work, she met and married a minor Roman officer named Constantius Chlorus with whom she had a son by the name of Constantine. Her husband later divorced her to marry the stepdaughter of Emperor Maximian to advance his career in the army. Constantius Chlorus was adopted by Emperor Maximian and made Caesar as one of the tetrarchs (in the four emperor system) of the realm in line for succession to become Augustus.<br /> </span></span><br />
<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;">After Constantius Chlorus’ untimely death, Constantine took over from his father as Caesar. He was proclaimed Augustus by his troops in 306 in York. Returning to his residence city of Trier in Germany he invited his mother to Trier and proclaimed her Augusta. From tavern wench to empress, the Roman dream had come true.<br /> </span></span><br />
<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;">At some point in her life, Helena had converted to Christianity. On becoming an empress (if only in form of an honorary title), she embarked on a major building program. Unlike any member of the imperial family before her, she planned and built Christian churches. The most famous ones we see on television every Christmas are the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem and the Basilica of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. But she planned, built, donated, or instigated churches as far as the empire reached.<br /> </span></span><br />
<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;">Saint Eusebius was Bishop of Caesarea and a contemporary of Helena's. He told in his writings that she travelled from Trier to Palestine at the age of 76. She died in Nicomedia in Turkey probably in 329 as no coins with her image are known to have been coined after that date. If you think that her real life was colourful enough already, then you’ll enjoy the legend that much more.<br /> </span></span><br />
<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;">On her progress through Palestine, legend had her doing excavating work under the temple of Aphrodite erected by Emperor Hadrian over Golgotha and the Holy Sepulchre. She was credited with finding the Holy Sepulchre and the wood of the true cross. By the time she was leaving Palestine by ship, she had mysteriously acquired the nails as well. The mummified bodies of the three Magi were loaded as an incentive or discount onto her ship as well.<br /> </span></span><br />
<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;">For unknown reasons, she then went for a hike or a swim on Cyprus before landing in Italy. From Italy, her cavalcade went northwards by land, all the while dropping bits and pieces of the true cross at various churches as well as nails, spears, and bones. By the time her household arrived in Basel, she had also gathered up 11,000 virgins. Gallivanting on northwards while shedding more bric-a-brac, she reached Cologne (without the virgins which had somehow disappeared into thin air), but still in possession of the three Magi which she dropped off there.<br /> </span></span><br />
<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;">Church history puts the remains of the Magi into the hoard of the Imperial family until donated to Bishop Eustorgius and placed in the cathedral at Milan. Emperor Barbarossa had them conveyed to the cathedral in Cologne in the 12th century where they remain to this day. Saint Helena, again according to church history, is buried in Rome in the church of Santa Maria In Ara Coeli.</span></span><br />
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<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;">Further reading</span></span><br />
<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://stutenzeehistoryblog.blogspot.co.uk/2013/08/cologne-cathedral-shrine-of-magi.html" target="_blank">Cologne Cathedral: Shrine of The Three Magi</a></span></span><br />
<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://stutenzeehistoryblog.blogspot.co.uk/2013/09/livia-first-empress-of-rome.html" target="_blank">Livia, First Empress of Rome</a></span></span><br />
<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://stutenzeehistoryblog.blogspot.co.uk/2013/12/saint-befanas-day-gifts-from-witch.html" target="_blank">Saint Befana's Day: Gifts From The Witch</a></span></span>Lucas Diehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03952852213344027979noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2284688274178083807.post-49774024914250354282013-12-04T21:16:00.001+00:002020-10-04T03:32:03.541+01:00The Prince, The Princess, And The Perfect Murder<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;">If you think that marrying serial divorcee Wallis Simpson was the only blunder of the hapless Duke of Windsor, then here is a book to set you straight. It is also a book for all conspiracy theorists to enjoy. This conspiracy theory is well enough documented to hold water. It was a conspiracy to keep the promiscuous and rather stupid Prince David Prince of Wales out of a sordid murder trial. The price to pay was freedom of a murderess and princess. The Prince, The Princess, And The Perfect Murder by Andrew Rose was published by Coronet.</span></span><br />
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<a name='more'></a><span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;">Appearances and titles can be deceiving. The princess in question is just such a case. Princess Marguerite Fahmy had come by her title through marriage. She had started out as plain Marie-Marguerite Laurient when she was born into the gutters of Paris. She became a well-known dominatrix catering to rich men in Paris. During World War I, she looked after English soldiers of substantial means, among them the Prince of Wales, better known to us as King Edward VIII of the United Kingdom. The latter was young, impressionable, and foolish enough to send her letters signed with his real name.<br /> </span></span><br />
<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;">After Prince David broke off their entanglement at a substantial financial loss to her, she initially threatened disclosure. She stopped short of full blackmail, though, and just let him know that she had his letters in a safe place. After the Great War, she managed to land her fish from among her rich and famous clients in the person of Prince Ali Kamel Fahmy Bey. The Prince was ten years her junior and she converted to Islam prior to their marriage. The wedding took place in Cairo in 1922. In 1923, the couple visited London and stayed at the Savoy. There, Marguerite shot Ali in their suite.<br /> </span></span><br />
<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;">She was apprehended at the scene. Police had was no doubt that she would be charged with murder with a very high probability to hang. Ten weeks after her arrest, a jury acquitted her unanimously of all charges. The book of Andrew Rose reconstructs the events under the premise that a conspiracy by friends of the Prince of Wales engineered the sensational outcome of the trial. Author and barrister Andrew Rose knows how to build an excellent case for the prosecution and for his own conspiracy theory presented in full in the book.<br /> </span></span><br />
<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;">The intervention of the friends Prince David’s reeled in the Director of Public Prosecution from the very beginning. Consequently, the dice were loaded in favour of the defense when the murder case came to trial. The scene was carefully set with a junior prosecutor, an inexperienced judge, and ‘The Great Defender’ Sir Edward Marshall Hall hired for Marguerite's defense. Meanwhile, Marguerite rehearsed her role as an abused victim of a cruel eastern prince. <br /> </span></span><br />
<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;">Marguerite had been offered a deal: Freedom for the return of Prince David's letters and her promise to keep the Prince of Wales out of trial proceedings. She duly instructed her French lawyers to send the letters to London, most of them. And the Great Defender was let loose on the person, life, and memory of the victim, Prince Ali. After Sir Edward had had his run in court, the young prince, probably more bisexual than anything else, had officially become a figure from hell, an abuser, wife beater, slaver, and sexual pervert. All this was accomplished by using every racial and religious prejudice ripe at the time.<br /> </span></span><br />
<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;">As performances go, both he and Marguerite were magnificent. They were so good, in fact, that minor quibbles were graciously overlooked by the jury. Sir Edward was claiming self-defense for Marguerite. No one ventured to ask why she had to shoot three times, for instance. One of those shots went into the prince’s back. But as Andrew Rose builds his story, the outcome seems inevitable: Freedom for Marguerite and her return to Paris. She cheekily tried to claim her inheritance as a widow, too, but that ploy was foiled by the courts in Cairo.<br /> </span></span><br />
<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;">This is a book that ticks many boxes. History, period drama, conspiracy theory, gossip, Royalty, and murder mystery are all rolled into one. As it is also well written, this for once is no waste of money. Go for it.<br /> </span></span><br />
<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;">Related Articles:</span></span> <span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://stutenzeehistoryblog.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/wallis-simpson-bored-duchess-of-windsor.html"><br />Boredom Never Dies: The Duchess of Windsor</a></span></span> <span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://stutenzeehistoryblog.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/the-duchess-of-windsor-conspiracy.html"><br />The Duchess of Windsor by Conspiracy Theorist</a></span></span> <span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://stutenzeehistoryblog.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/how-royal-succession-works-in-united.html"><br />Royal Succession in The United Kingdom</a></span></span>
Lucas Diehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03952852213344027979noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2284688274178083807.post-5351596304454781362013-12-01T21:28:00.001+00:002020-10-04T03:30:52.464+01:00Emperor Frederick II and His Muslim Subjects<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;">19th century historians stylized Emperor Frederick II of the Holy Roman Empire into an epitome of tolerance and diplomacy. This was just the end of centuries of history writing and myth building around his person. They were based on the assumption that he had been on friendly terms with Muslim rulers in the East, an avid scholar of all things Arab, and accepting Islam as a religion equal to Christianity.</span></span><br />
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<a name='more'></a><span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;">But to gain a perspective on Emperor Frederick II and his relationship with Islam, three questions need answers: How did he deal with Muslim subjects living on the island of Sicily where he was king? What was his relationship to Arab science? And finally, what policies did he pursue in the Holy Land? This article will deal with his Muslim subjects and their fate under Frederick II.<br /><br />In the 9th century, Arabs had conquered Sicily and settled there. In the 11th century, the Normans took the island. The growing influence of the Roman Catholic Church under the new Norman kings pushed Islamic culture back little by little. A small portion of Muslims converted to Christianity while many others left Sicily for southern Spain, North Africa, or the Middle East.<br /> </span></span><br />
<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;">The remaining Muslims adhering to their traditional ways of life retreated into the mountains around Palermo at the end of the 12th and the beginning of the 13th century. The area had long been settled mainly by Arabs. They settled there to live and fight in permanent opposition to their Christian conquerors. Somewhere after 1220, Frederick II started to fight the insurgents to secure his rule and the commercial routes running out of Palermo. It heralded the beginning of a guerrilla war that lasted for almost his entire reign.<br /><br />It was a war Frederick II finally won. The Muslims were forced to leave the mountain regions of Sicily. Some may have fled to the Muslim dominions in Spain or North Africa. A significant part was resettled on the orders of the emperor to hinder any future insurrections. Depending on your point of view, one could also speak of deportation or of an ethnic-religious cleansing. The Muslims were given new lands on the Italian mainland in Puglia. It is estimated that between 15000 and 60000 people suffered this fate, the last of them after 1240. With the deportations ended the coexistence of Christians and Muslims on the island of Sicily.<br /><br />We spell tolerance differently today. Yet for its time, Frederick II’s relation to the displaced Muslims in Puglia was quite unusual. It was not that of a caring ruler over his people, but he granted the Muslims a generous autonomy law regarding the practice of religion, self-government and jurisdiction. The very fact that they had survived the resettlement and had not been killed was an act of grace uncommon to contemporary politics. </span></span><br />
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<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;">This single act transformed Muslim enmity into devotion and loyalty towards the emperor. From the ethnic group of Muslims settled in and around Lucera, the emperor was able to recruit a loyal band of mercenaries. He thereby took advantage of them being impervious to the whispers, insinuations and religious bulls of Pope and Curia with which Frederick II was in an ongoing dispute. His Saracen archers were famous, and the prestige that they brought with them carried on over his death to benefit his son Manfred and his grandson Conradin.</span></span><br />
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<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;">Further reading</span></span><span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://stutenzeehistoryblog.blogspot.co.uk/2013/09/the-town-of-baden-in-baden.html" target="_blank">The Town of Baden in Baden</a></span></span><br />
<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://stutenzeehistoryblog.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/count-welf-and-his-descendents.html" target="_blank">Count Welf and His Descendants</a></span></span><br />
<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://stutenzeehistoryblog.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/a-desert-country-by-sea-bohemia.html" target="_blank">A Desert Country By the Sea</a></span></span><br />
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Lucas Diehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03952852213344027979noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2284688274178083807.post-85302898416564179912013-11-28T22:46:00.001+00:002020-10-04T03:29:53.948+01:00The Man Who Didn’t Want to be King (Part Two)<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;">Prince Valdemar of Denmark was three times nominated for the crowns of two European countries. Instead of becoming a ruling Prince or King, he remained with the Danish navy. What had happened?</span></span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Prince Valdemar and Princess Marie of Denmark</td></tr>
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<a name='more'></a><span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;">Prince Valdemar of Denmark had not been chosen as prince for the new Principality of Bulgaria, a satellite state to the Sultan of Oman. Tsar Alexander II of Russia had spared no expense to ensure the presence of Russian troops inside the Bulgarian parliament when he pushed through his nephew Prince Alexander of Battenberg as the ruler of the new country.<br /><br />In 1886, Tsar Alexander III instigated a coup in Bulgaria and put pressure on Prince Alexander to abdicate. Alexander had been a complete disappointment to the Tsar and the other major powers in Europe. He had effectively organised and structured a state from zero in no time. He had really ruled Bulgaria instead of spending his time hunting and making holidays. Worst of all, he had had the gall to listen to the Bulgarian people and represent their interests instead of those of the European powers who had put him on his throne.<br /> </span></span><br />
<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;">The Sobranje was asked in no uncertain terms to elect a new prince again. With Russian troops standing by, parliament didn’t have a lot of choice but to do so. They did one thing they could to embarrass the Tsar: They chose Prince Valdemar of Denmark as their new prince by acclamation. In 1878, his excellent connections into the ruling houses of leading European powers had made him a desirable candidate for all concerned. In 1886, the same connections made him ineligible. The major powers didn’t want the ruling house of Bulgaria to be too well connected; at this point, they were trying to cut Bulgaria down to size. Prince Alexander's manoeuvering had been showing too much political muscle.<br /> </span></span><br />
<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;">According to Reuters, Prince Valdemar was in Cannes when the news of his election reached him. He thanked the Sobranje for the honour but deferred the decision to King Christian IX of Denmark. He added as a rider that he doubted his present duties would allow him to become Prince of Bulgaria. Two days later, King Christian declined to sanction Prince Valdemar’s acceptance of the Bulgarian throne.<br /> </span></span><br />
<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;">Did Valdemar decline the Bulgarian throne? No, he left that to King Christian. If the king had decided he had to go, he would have gone. But he probably was not unhappy about the king’s decision. Bulgaria was embroiled in a three way tug of war with Serbia and Greece over Macedonia which would have brought him to loggerheads with his brother King George of Greece.<br /> </span></span><br />
<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;">Prince Valdemar and Princess Marie had five children together. According to their marriage contract, their sons were raised in the Lutheran faith, while their daughter was raised as a Catholic.<br /> </span></span><br />
<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;">In 1905, Norway decided to end the personal union which had made the kings of Sweden also kings of Norway. Norway now needed a king, and the European powers scrambled into position to place their candidates on the northern throne. King Edward VII of England was so intent on placing one of his relatives on that throne he developed his own foreign policy; that policy just happened to be the opposite of what the British government wanted. British diplomacy at that point descended into farce, and Britain had no influence on the election of the future king of Norway.<br /> </span></span><br />
<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;">German Emperor Wilhelm II wanted Valdemar on the throne, but his government didn’t. Instead of fighting in Norway, they decided to do some infighting in Berlin. The Germans had no influence on the Norwegian choice, either.<br /> </span></span><br />
<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;">The Norwegians were left to do as they pleased, and they looked in the direction they had looked for several hundred years: To Denmark. The union with Sweden had only endured for 91 years, the union with Denmark before that dated back to the 14th century. A Danish prince was therefore the obvious choice.<br /> </span></span><br />
<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;">The Storting did not bother with a shortlist like the Sobranje; there was only one candidate: Prince Carl of Denmark, Valdemar's nephew. He would ascend the throne of Norway as King Hakon VII after a popular vote had accepted him as well.<br /> </span></span><br />
<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;">Did Valdemar decline the Norwegian throne? No, because he was never in the running for it. Wikipedia in just about any language cites him as refusing two royal crowns; apart from the inconsistency (Bulgaria wasn’t a kingdom), it shows how negligently information is disseminated by Wikipedia.<br /> </span></span><br />
<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;">Did he want to be a ruling prince or king? Who really knows but him? His retiring and rather complicated private life would suggest that he wouldn’t have relished the job; his lifelong service for the Danish navy would suggest he would have done it if he had been asked to.</span></span><br />
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<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;">Further reading</span></span><br />
<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://stutenzeehistoryblog.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/evacuation-from-yalta-1919.html" target="_blank">Evacuation From Yalta 1919</a></span></span><br />
<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://stutenzeehistoryblog.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/the-elect-circle-of-elected-monarchs-on.html" target="_blank">The Elect Circle of Elected Monarchs on Europe's Thrones</a></span></span><br />
<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://stutenzeehistoryblog.blogspot.co.uk/2013/07/how-many-monarchies-exist-in-europe.html" target="_blank">How Many Monarchies Exist in Europe?</a></span></span>
Lucas Diehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03952852213344027979noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2284688274178083807.post-44549488735885029242013-11-24T17:04:00.001+00:002020-10-04T03:29:06.499+01:00Queen Mum: The Official Biography<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;">Bad news first: You have to get through 1,000 pages from cover to
cover. The meticulous retelling a life spanning more than a century takes up space. So many words, yet the author managed to skip everything relevant. If you belong to circles where you are expected to have this book lying
around, you might want to put four legs on it and use it as a coffee table. Or is that a gin table?</span></span><br />
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</p><span><a name='more'></a></span><p></p><p><span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;">Macmillan published Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother by William Shawcross. The book suffers from the usual bug all authorized biographies and autobiographies suffer from: It shows the life of the subject as the writer wants it to be remembered, not as it was. Or maybe the author was just told to stick to safe topics.<br /> </span></span><br />
<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;">William Shawcross is the guy who exposed the secret bombing of Cambodia by the United States. If you are expecting journalism from, you will be disappointed. The book is frivolously empty and devoid of any news items. It is crammed to the rafters with everything already known. It manages in a spectacular way to leave out anything that might even resemble a revelation. Even old news is left out or glossed over if it could so much as scratch the glossy surface aimed for in the presentation.<br /><br />Obviously, as Queen Consort of the United Kingdom (plus some other countries) and Empress of India, she had to be a top notch performer on the world stage. The book covers everything about the performance and completely forgets the performer. If you want to believe the book, the Queen Mum was all sugar and oh so sweet. You never get to see the ruthless politician with an iron core that was the real her. Margaret Thatcher looked like a cuddly toy when compared to the Queen Mother. Her political views are never mentioned; they would make Prince Philip look like a model in political correctness.<br /><br />The book completely fails to show up how the woman who didn’t want to become a Queen Consort was such a success at it. Sugar and charm were not ingredients in that success, only its icing. It also doesn’t show her as the driving force behind the complete exile of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor (the former King Edward VIII), and why she was so right in doing so to get rid of two prominent Nazi sympathizers.<br /><br />Is there anybody who should read this book? Maybe there are some few people who might glean something from it, apart from the undiscerning fan crowd, obviously. It contains pages upon pages of description of each and every piece of fashion ever made for the Queen Mother. As a historical compilation of fashion over a century, the book might just serve a purpose. But be warned, the writing is as bad as any coming from Dame Barbara Cartland’s pen.<br /><br />I can’t recommend the book as a good read. The repetitions were boring and tedious, and when the author used the words ‘delightful’ and ‘thrilled’ for the thousandth time (about page 30), I could happily have throttled him. What is exciting about the book is the fact that it shows an Empress of India who never quite came to grips with the fact that she had become an ex-Empress after the war. She never understood that she was not a prime player in world politics anymore, but queen consort on a small island on the very edge of Europe. Even more fascinating: As the book progresses, the author loses his perspective more and more and regresses into that warped world view himself.<br /> </span></span><br />
<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;">It is, in that sense, a perfect representation of the United Kingdom of today. Britain is a country lost in a dream of grandeur long past. Its government is laboring under the delusion that Europe needs it. People hardly able to write and read when leaving school, thanks to the shambles the government calls education. Yes, mass delusions are a reality. Americans know how it works, too.</span></span><br />
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<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;">Further reading</span></span><br />
<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://stutenzeebooks.blogspot.co.uk/2013/11/christmas-royal-way.html" target="_blank">Christmas The Royal Way</a></span></span><br />
<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://stutenzeehistoryblog.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/queens-consort-of-england.html" target="_blank">Queens Consort of England</a></span></span><br />
<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://stutenzeehistoryblog.blogspot.co.uk/2013/07/how-many-monarchies-exist-in-europe.html" target="_blank">How Many Monarchies Exist in Europe?</a></span></span></p><span><!--more--></span><span><!--more--></span>Lucas Diehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03952852213344027979noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2284688274178083807.post-220024946004371482013-11-21T23:07:00.002+00:002020-10-04T03:27:39.296+01:00The Man Who Didn’t Want to be King (Part One)<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;">Prince Valdemar of Denmark was three times shortlisted for the crowns of two European countries. Instead of becoming a ruling monarch, he remained with the Danish navy. What had happened?</span></span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Prince Valdemar of Denmark</td></tr>
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<a name='more'></a><span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;">Prince Valdemar was born in 1858 as the youngest son of King Christian IX of Denmark. At the time of Valdemar’s birth, though, Christian was still only a younger son of the Ducal House of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg. His mother was Princess Louise of Hesse-Cassel, niece of King Christian VIII of Denmark through her mother Princess Charlotte of Denmark.<br /> </span></span><br />
<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;">Prince Valdemar stood in no immediate danger of being called upon taking over the Danish crown or any other either. He had two older brothers, Frederick (later King Frederick VIII of Denmark), and William. At the age of 17, William was elected by the Greek Vouli (parliament) in Athens as King of all Hellenes. He accepted with the blessing from King Frederick VII of Denmark (Christian IX's predecessor) and ascended the Greek throne as George I.<br /><br />Valdemar’s three older sisters made exceptionally good marriages; Alexandra married Prince Bertie (the later King Edward VII of the United Kingdom), Dagmar married Prince Alexander Alexandrovitch (the later Tsar Alexander III of Russia) and changed her name to Maria Feodorovna, and Thyra married Ernst August, Duke of Cumberland Teviotdale, titular King of Hanover and Duke of Brunswick and Lüneburg. Valdemar took on the usual career of younger Danish princes and went into the navy.<br /> </span></span><br />
<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;">In 1878, the war between Russia and the Ottoman Empire ended with Russia dictating the terms. The price for peace for the Sultan was the building of a Principality of Bulgaria covering almost 172’000 square kilometres of formerly Ottoman territory. It was obvious that the principality would be nothing but a Russian satellite. But Tsar Alexander II had presumed too much.<br /> </span></span><br />
<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;">The other major European powers were extremely unhappy about the new country. The proposed size of Bulgaria would make it virtually the doormat of Constantinople; one step more would bring Russia into possession of the Dardanelles and the Bosporus. The British navy drew up in Ottoman waters, and their guns were not aimed at the Ottomans, but on the Russian army occupying Ottoman territory.<br /> </span></span><br />
<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;">The Tsar backed down; a new agreement was reached and a pint sized principality was established which nominally still belonged to the Ottoman Empire. But any principality, no matter how small or unimportant needs a prince. There was a job opportunity for younger sons from ruling families, and the nominations from all over Europe started to pour into the Sobranje (parliament) of Bulgaria. The Sobranje had to convene a special commission to whittle down the deluge of hopefuls to manageable size.<br /><br />In the end, the commission proposed three candidates to the Sobranje: Prince Valdemar of Denmark, Prince Henry of Reuss, and Prince Alexander of Battenberg. The European powers initially insisted on a choice with no Russian connection (which would have pointed to the Prince of Reuss), but the Sobranje decided to elect Prince Alexander of Battenberg.<br /><br />The Battenberg choice had many advantages for Bulgaria; Alexander was a nephew of the Tsar, but related to many of the other European ruling houses, too. He had the added advantage of coming from a younger branch of the house of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha which was also morganatic and therefore out of the line of succession to any other principality or kingdom. This would ensure that he wouldn’t be called back in an emergency to take up a more important job when needed.<br /><br />In 1885, Valdemar married Princess Marie of Orleans. The Vatican issued a special dispensation for the marriage between the Catholic Princess from France and the Lutheran Prince. French sources insist it was a political marriage, but if so, the politics were only on the French side; for Denmark, there was no gain in an alliance with the deposed Royal House of France. And Valdemar was still free for the next throne needing an occupant.</span></span><br />
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<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;">Further reading</span></span><br />
<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://stutenzeehistoryblog.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/evacuation-from-yalta-1919.html" target="_blank">Evacuation From Yalta 1919</a></span></span><br />
<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://stutenzeehistoryblog.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/the-elect-circle-of-elected-monarchs-on.html" target="_blank">The Elect Circle of Elected Monarchs on Europe's Thrones</a></span></span><br />
<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://stutenzeehistoryblog.blogspot.co.uk/2013/07/how-many-monarchies-exist-in-europe.html" target="_blank">How Many Monarchies Exist in Europe?</a></span></span>Lucas Diehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03952852213344027979noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2284688274178083807.post-36464839993326366952013-11-18T13:19:00.001+00:002020-10-04T03:26:41.711+01:00The Royal Horror Picture Show<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;">Denmark has its latest scandal in form of a picture. The press has dubbed it the Royal Horror Picture Show. Artist Thomas Kluge is proud of it. he Royal family is reputed to have given a positive verdict on it. But what do you think of it?</span></span><br />
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<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;">Artist Thomas Kluge has worked for four years to produce the portrait of the Danish Royal family. The result is not fortuitous. Online comments have ranged from 'advert for a horror film' to 'the artist seems not to like the Royal family.' Thomas Kluge is the painting Marmite of Denmark. You either hate him or love him.</span></span><br />
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<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;">He claims that he depicted the Royal family realistically as what they really are. I always had this phobia of doll houses; and if it would be filled with a family of obviously evil dolls, it would be a real nightmare. I propose that Stephen King might use the picture for his next book. </span></span><br />
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<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;">Thomas Kluge had to contend with the further problem that while he was painting, Princess Mary got pregnant again. When it became clear that it would be the birth of twins the country was looking forward to, the artist really got troubled. He already was running out of space without any last minute additions. His system of adding on members of the family might explain while everything looks superimposed instead of a unit.</span></span><br />
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<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;">The picture shows at the back from left Crown Prince Frederick with Prince Vincent, Crown Princess Mary with Princess Josephine, Princess Marie with Princess Athena, and Prince Joachim; in the centre we find Queen Margaret II and Prince Consort Henrik; at the front we see Princess Isabella (now that definitely is the evil doll), Prince Christian, Prince Nikolai, Prince Felix, and Prince Henrik.</span></span><br />
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<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;">I might have made it clear that I would acquire this picture as part of running a fright show. But what do you think? Is this art or just a catastrophe?</span></span><br />
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<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;">Further reading</span></span><br />
<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://stutenzeehistoryblog.blogspot.co.uk/2013/07/how-many-monarchies-exist-in-europe.html" target="_blank">How Many Monarchies Exist in Europe?</a></span></span><br />
<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://stutenzeehistoryblog.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/prince-valdemar-of-denmark-and-too-many.html" target="_blank">Prince Valdemar of Denmark and Too Many Thrones </a></span></span><br />
<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://stutenzeecandyblog.blogspot.co.uk/2012/02/princes-with-gay-warrant.html" target="_blank">Princes With a Gay Warrant</a></span></span><span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span>Lucas Diehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03952852213344027979noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2284688274178083807.post-48610097233808798252013-11-15T10:34:00.001+00:002020-10-04T03:25:42.830+01:00The Wonder of The World: Emperor Frederick II<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;">Hohenstaufen Frederick II Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire and King of Sicily was and still is regarded as a medieval thinker and philosopher. Many believe that he was breaking a lance for enlightenment and tolerance. Proof thereof is his supposed friendship with Muslim leaders. Question is: Is there any viable proof for this claimed friendship?</span></span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Emperor Frederick II</td></tr>
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<a name='more'></a><span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;">If you believe admirers of Emperor Frederick II, then his relationship with Islam was a story of mutual respect and affection. After the crusade of 1228/29, contemporary writers reported that the medieval ruler was offering Muslims a devoted friendship. Indeed, they went so far as to claim he was behaving almost like a Muslim. </span></span><br />
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<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;">How else, they asked their readers, was he able to reconquer the coveted holy city of Jerusalem without a fight? How could he have done a feat singlehandedly that Richard I the Lionheart and Philip II Augustus, the mighty kings of England and France, had not managed by the sword in unison? Frederick was obviously in cahoots with the Muslims.<br /> </span></span><br />
<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;">Much of what was written seemed to indicate that as King of Sicily he had many Muslim subjects which he cherished. Due to his upbringing, he spoke several languages including Arabic. He had a devoted private guard of Saracen warriors. The cardinals of the Curia were convinced of him having a harem of concubines. </span></span><br />
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<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;">He was a collector and avid reader of Arab hunting tracts and philosophical writings. And he was rumored to be in contact with the Arab sect of the Hashashim (where our words for hashish and assassin come from), an internationally notorious group which executed political assassinations under the influence of dope.<br /> </span></span><br />
<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;">Much of what was rumored was at least partly true. But to see him as a special friend of the Muslim world is misreading the facts. Historians tend to judge rulers and their behavior too often by the standards of their own time or even worse by their own wishful thinking. A ruler should be judged against the backdrop of contemporary practice and not by hindsight. And it is important to separate historical facts from later additions. It was later writing that made Frederick the first European, a rational thinker and a friend of Islam. </span></span><br />
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<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;">The English Benedictine Matthew Paris (c. 1200 to 1259) called Frederick in his Chronica Maiora "stupor mundi et quoque immutator mirabilis" - a wonder of the world and its wonderful transformer. This admiration, which at that time included a considerable amount of fear, continued to shine down the centuries. Thus appeared an image of a multicultural emperor of wonders and miracles.<br /> </span></span><br />
<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;">Germany in the 19th century was desperately in need of great Germans with no connection to the (Swiss-Austrian) Habsburg Emperors. They built their case on the historical judgment of eminent Swiss historian Jacob Burckhardt at the University of Basel. He described the Emperor Frederick II as the "first modern man on the throne." </span></span><br />
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<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;">German historians graciously overlooked that Jacob Burckhardt - contrary to popular opinion and the press in Germany – did not see the ruler as a positive figure. Quite unlike Friedrich Nietzsche who commented in The Antichrist, his polemical work on Christianity: "’War with Rome to the death! Peace and friendship with Islam': so felt, so did that great free spirit, this genius among German emperors, Frederick II." This errant assessment has been quoted over and over until today it is seen as truth.</span></span><br />
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<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;">As a consequence, the circle of artists around Stefan George, and especially Emperor Frederick II biographer Ernst Kantorowicz, modeled and promoted an inflated and modernized image of the ruler.</span></span><br />
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<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;">Further reading</span></span><br />
<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://stutenzeehistoryblog.blogspot.co.uk/2013/09/the-town-of-baden-in-baden.html" target="_blank">The Town of Baden in Baden</a></span></span><br />
<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://stutenzeehistoryblog.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/count-welf-and-his-descendents.html" target="_blank">Count Welf and His Descendants</a></span></span><br />
<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://stutenzeehistoryblog.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/a-desert-country-by-sea-bohemia.html" target="_blank">A Desert Country By the Sea</a></span></span><span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span>
Lucas Diehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03952852213344027979noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2284688274178083807.post-48912303184304296542013-11-11T20:00:00.002+00:002020-10-04T03:24:37.691+01:00King Albert II of The Belgians Feels The Pension Pinch<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;">Are you retired and have to live on a state pension without subsidy by private pension schemes? If so, you will understand the predicament of King Albert of the Belgians after he retired in July 2013. It is quite obvious that the meager handouts from the government are leaving him and his wife Queen Paola destitute and freezing in a hovel.</span></span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">King Albert II of the Belgians</td></tr>
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<a name='more'></a><span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;">While King Albert II of the Belgians was the reigning monarch and the head of state, he received an annual payment of £10 million to pay for everything in connection with his job. But how do you calculate the pension for a king in retirement? That was the unprecedented problem Belgian parliament faced when dealing with the abdication of their monarch. Belgium, until now, had no tradition of abdication, unlike the Netherlands. </span></span><br />
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<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;">Parliament decided that if they give him a place to live without rent, namely Palace Belvedere, he wouldn't need a lot of money. They spoke a rent of £680,000 per year, of which they take 25 per cent back as taxes. A palace still needs people to look after it, and all the wages for the staff has to come out of the pension. It is already clear that it doesn't work, and changes will have to be made.</span></span><br />
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<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;">King Albert II had reigned for 20 years in Belgium, taking over after the death of his brother King Baudouin. If it had gone according to the wishes of Queen Fabiola, she and Baudouin should have adopted Prince Philippe (now King of the Belgians) to cut Albert from the succession. Quite frankly, King Albert did a tremendously good job keeping a country together flying apart at the edges, something a young Philippe would have been hard pressed to achieve.</span></span><br />
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<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;">If King Albert and Queen Paola were not their sister-in-law's first choice, they did the country proud. While Albert was not always using the most refined tactics in bringing Belgian politicians to reason, he did it very successfully. Banging on the table in public or dressing them down like errant schoolboys was needed to bring them back to reality. Albert used a tone with politicians he would never address to his employees. But then, unlike employees, politicians are workshy, shady individuals scrounging from state and people, so his treatment of them was entirely appropriate. </span></span><br />
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<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;">King Albert took the unprecedented step of abdicating in favour of his son Philippe. The hand over took place in July 2013 and had to get around a few more snags to be made real. The Netherlands have a tradition of monarchs retiring and abdicating; Queen Wilhelmina started the trend when she abdicated in 1948 in favour of her daughter Juliana. She chose to revert to the title HRH Princess Wilhelmina, rather than having two Queens in the country. This system has persisted in the Netherlands.</span></span><br />
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<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;">In Belgium, the abdication of King Albert didn't change his title; this had to do with the fact that Queen Fabiola is still alive and nobody considered making her a Princess again, or ask Queen Paola to revert to the address princess while her predecessor retained the title of Queen. Complicated. Right now, Belgium has two kings and three queens including Queen Mathilde. Try not to mix them all up. </span></span><br />
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<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;">I have seen that Belgian Royal titles are always written wrong. My beloved Wikipedia is taking the lead in not having a clue, as usual. There is no King of Belgium, nor is there such a Queen. Philippe is King of the Belgians, and Mathilde is Queen of the Belgians. I hold little hope that the idiots writing for Wikipedia will ever straighten that out, its too complicated for them. Note, never trust anything Wikipedia tells you without checking it somewhere reliable first.</span></span><br />
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<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;">Further reading</span></span><br />
<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://stutenzeehistoryblog.blogspot.co.uk/2013/07/the-queen-astrid-chapel.html" target="_blank">The Queen Astrid Chapel</a></span></span><br />
<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://stutenzeehistoryblog.blogspot.co.uk/2013/07/how-many-monarchies-exist-in-europe.html" target="_blank">How Many Monarchies Exist in Europe?</a></span></span><br />
<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://stutenzeehistoryblog.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/the-elect-circle-of-elected-monarchs-on.html" target="_blank">The Elect Circle of Elected Monarchs on Europe's Thrones</a></span></span> Lucas Diehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03952852213344027979noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2284688274178083807.post-66340191249234838842013-11-05T21:09:00.001+00:002020-10-04T03:23:41.497+01:00Celia Countess von Bismarck (1971 to 2010)<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;">Celia Countess von Bismarck was born as Celia Demaurex in Geneva in 1971. She married and got divorced from Carl-Eduard Count von Bismarck, but kept the family name after the divorce. She died in Geneva of cancer at the age of 39.</span></span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Celia Countess von Bismarck</td></tr>
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<a name='more'></a><span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;">Celia Demaurex was born in Geneva in 1971. She studied in Boston, Paris, and Berlin with a major in International Relations. In 1990, she met Carl-Eduard Count von Bismarck at the Grand Prix of Monte Carlo; they got married in 1997 and moved into the ancestral home of the Bismarck family of Castle Friedrichsruh in Germany. In 2004, they divorced, and Celia decided to keep the family name Countess von Bismarck rather than revert to the prenuptial Demaurex. The title of Countess was accorded her out of courtesy when talking to her as it is actually part of her family name.<br /> </span></span><br />
<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;">Carl-Eduard Count von Bismarck is the great-great-grandson of Prince Otto von Bismarck, the iron chancellor of German Emperor Willhelm I; Prince Otto von Bismarck had been given various noble titles including a duchy by the emperor to get him on par with the grandees of the Empire. With the dissolution of the German Empire in 1918, all noble titles were abolished and became part of the family name. German Dukes, Grand Dukes, Kings, and the Emperor were completely stripped of their latest ruling titles and reverted to titles held before 1806 or retained the 'Prince' as part of their Royal descent. The von Bismarck family thereby inserted Count or Countess into their family name.<br /> </span></span><br />
<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;">From 2003 to 2005, Celia Countess von Bismarck was engaged at the Geneva Centre for Security Policy (GCSP). For this body, she took part in several international conferences on the Kosovo and Serbia. In 2005, she accepted the post as Chief of Protocol at the Hamburg Film Festival. Since 2006 she worked also for the non-profit organisation Dropping Knowledge in Berlin; the same year, she was appointed an ambassador for the Swiss Committee of the Red Cross. She took personal interest in projects in Rumania, Swaziland, Honduras, and Cambodia all of which she visited in person. In 2007, she was appointed Editor at Large for Park Avenue Magazine. Since 2009, she was engaged for the Prince Aga Khan Development Network.<br /> </span></span><br />
<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;">Various other engagements included her being a member of the jury of German media prize Quadriga, and a nominal head of the organisation for the VISA Swap Shop in cooperation with Oxfam.<br /> </span></span><br />
<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;">Celia Countess of Bismarck died of melanoma skin cancer which had sent metastases into internal organs only eight weeks after her having received the diagnosis. It seems, though, that she had suffered an earlier onset of melanoma in her childhood.<br /> </span></span><br />
<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;">Celia Countess von Bismarck routinely published on her charity work and travels, but most of her writings are available in either German or French only and usually have not been translated. Instead of becoming a society hostess (which she could have done owing to her name and fortune), she decided early on to be a hands on charity lady. Her primary interests were politics and international relations, and the arts. In both areas she got engaged on a professional and charitable level and wasn’t too unhappy when arts and politics were piled on top of each other; a prime example is her work as a curator for Cinema For Peace.</span></span><br />
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<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;">Further reading</span></span><br />
<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://stutenzeehistoryblog.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/the-life-of-irmingard-princess-of.html" target="_blank">The Life of Irmingard, Princess of Bavaria </a></span></span><br />
<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://stutenzeehistoryblog.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/count-welf-and-his-descendents.html" target="_blank">Count Welf and His Descendants</a></span></span><br />
<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://stutenzeehistoryblog.blogspot.co.uk/2013/07/united-nations-world-capital-geneva.html" target="_blank">United Nations World Capital Geneva</a></span></span>Lucas Diehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03952852213344027979noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2284688274178083807.post-90247848065600223952013-10-31T21:32:00.001+00:002020-10-04T03:22:34.897+01:00King Solomon's Alchemy<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;">Archaeologists are constantly digging deeper in Jordan. As they do so, more light is shed on the historical time when King Solomon reigned over the Kingdom of Israel. A copper mine found 40 years ago was proven to date back to the 10th century B.C. It provides a probable solution to Solomon’s filled treasuries on grounds of a well-known alchemy formula called commerce. </span></span><br />
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<a name='more'></a><span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;">Treasure hunters have been looking for King Solomon’s famous gold mines and reputed treasures for centuries. They never found them. In a place called Khirbat en-Nahas which translates to ruins of copper, archaeological excavations had started in the 1970s. So far, the site had been dated to the seventh century B.C., but new finds have shown that the mines had been used a long time before that and definitely in the 10th century B.C. </span></span><br />
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<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;">The archaeologists used carbon dating methods and finds of Egyptian art from the 10th century to date human presence in the times of King Solomon. The site is situated in the modern Kingdom of Jordan and in the ancient kingdom of Edom which was a subject vassal state to Israel under the expansionist politics pursued by King Solomon. Copper was a highly valued trade good and as much worth to any tyrant who controlled it then as to a modern Chinese dictator. </span></span><br />
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<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;">The treasure hunters have been misled by the myths of gold surrounding that ancient king who governed the united kingdom of Israel and Judea which he had previously reunited by brute force. But more such mines should be situated nearer to the heartland of the kingdom of King Solomon because a single mine would make him rich but wouldn't account for the fabulous wealth with which he commonly is attributed. </span></span><br />
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<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;">Very little is known of the historical King Solomon. All that is known derives from a single story in the Bible. It is probable that he was mentioned in dispatches during his lifetime in the libraries of other kingdoms. So far, nobody has figured out what his name in other languages would have been. He must have been a great and powerful king, as later storytellers invented myth upon myth attached to his name. </span></span><br />
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<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;">A later collection of common sayings and quotes was given his name to make it more important. Poetry was assigned to him as well for the same reason. He is reputed to have had 700 wives and 300 concubines, add the mythical queen of Sheba to arrive at 1001, the magical number for never ending. All these anecdotal tales were later collected and hodgepodged into one story which found place in a story book collection of fairy-tales called the Bible. </span></span><br />
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<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;">He must have been very rich, as he rebuilt Jerusalem after the war he started and fought; he erected the legendary first temple containing the mythical arch of the covenant. Such riches could not have come from a single copper mine alone. King Solomon kept busy annexing neighbouring kingdoms and more metal mines should be found in the surrounding countries as he didn't go to the expense for the scenery. If one would take the Bible by its word, a plan of expansion could probably be extracted, giving an order of preference by which the Kingdom of Israel followed its imperialistic designs and how it acquired strategic resources. </span></span><br />
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<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;">But no matter how much archaeological evidence there is or will be, the Bible will remain a pretty collection of stories contributed to by many writers and collected by humans over centuries; edited and re-edited by many editors, it always served their political aims. </span></span><br />
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<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;">Further reading</span></span><br />
<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://stutenzeehistoryblog.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/the-star-puzzle-of-bethlehem.html" target="_blank">The Star Puzzle of Bethlehem </a></span></span><br />
<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://stutenzeehistoryblog.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/palimpsest-ancient-recycling-method.html" target="_blank">Palimpsest: Ancient Recycling Method</a></span></span><br />
<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://stutenzeehistoryblog.blogspot.co.uk/2013/08/cologne-cathedral-shrine-of-magi.html" target="_blank">Cologne Cathedral: Shrine of The Magi</a></span></span>Lucas Diehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03952852213344027979noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2284688274178083807.post-49712552144190826452013-10-24T13:45:00.001+01:002020-10-04T03:21:42.381+01:00Riches Are The Problem in Europe's Youngest Monarchy<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;">Pope Francis announced a first decision in the scandal surrounding the controversial Bishop of Limburg Franz-Peter Tebartz-van Elst: The German bishop will remain in office for the time being but may no longer exercise his office. Is this the end to a much-discussed church scandal? It should be the start of some soul searching for a very rich church pledged to help the poor and the needy.</span></span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Franz-Peter Tebartz-van Elst</td></tr>
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<a name='more'></a><span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;">A bishop on leave without portfolio. It's something not happening too often in the Roman Catholic Church. In the case of the Bishop of Limburg, though, it was a fast and wise decision taken by Pope Francis. With this move, he withdrew the scandal-prone figure of the 53-year-old Franz-Peter Tebartz-van Elst from public view while taking him out of the firing line of public opinion. At the same time, he condemned a publicity hungry man to public silence while limiting the damage he could do to the church's image.<br /><br />The magnificent renovation of the historic bishop's see of Limburg with the addition the famous bathtub for 15,000 euros and an indoors swimming pool for 200,000 euros aren't the bone of contention. They are the tip of an iceberg; they show the double morals of a very rich church preaching water and drinking wine. The Catholic Church is Germany's largest landowner with a conservatively estimated net worth of over 250 billion euros. It owns awe-inspiring cathedrals, world-famous art and acclaimed vineyards. Bishops are on salaries the equivalent of a Secretary of State and drive company cars like German ministers.<br /><br />All this is not really news, things have been that way for centuries. But the whole scandal surfacing in Limburg was a timely reminder for taxpayers and media alike and played out in great detail. Bishop Tebartz-van Elst is one of the humble servants of God flying to India first class to visit the poor. In addition to ostentation, the bishop distinguished himself by his ruthlessness: He dismissed a dean because the co-conducted a blessing ceremony for a same-sex couple. He also suppressed all advisory services for women having problems with pregnancy.<br /> </span></span><br />
<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;">Limburg's pomp loving Bishop Franz-Peter Tebartz-van Elst is not a cardinal of the church, he may therefore be excused for having missed the appointment of a new man at the helm of the Catholic Church. Since March, Pope Francis gave his theologians two new sets of priorities: He wants to provide for more compassion in dealing with minorities, and he wants to lead a poor church working for the poor.<br /><br />It is only fair that Pope Francis didn't demote the Bishop of Limburg immediately. Last week, he set up a commission of inquiry to investigate all allegations of waste implicating the bishop. That report with any possible findings must be waited on as much as a decision on prosecution by the public prosecutor of Hamburg concerning allegations made against the bishop.<br /><br />The break forced on Bishop Franz-Peter Tebartz-van Elst offers the Catholic Church the chance to take the eyes from the scandalous person and ask fundamental questions about itself. These questions need asking and answering not only in Germany but also in the United States: How do your officials treat the situation of water and wine? Are you prepared to disclose your financial situation? But above all, are you prepare to follow the Pope's order to be a poor church for the poor?</span></span><br />
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<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;">Further reading</span></span><br />
<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://stutenzeehistoryblog.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/a-list-of-popes-in-book-form.html" target="_blank">A Pope's List in Book Form </a></span></span><br />
<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://stutenzeehistoryblog.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/the-elect-circle-of-elected-monarchs-on.html" target="_blank">The Elect Circle of Elected Monarchs in Europe</a></span></span><br />
<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://stutenzeehistoryblog.blogspot.co.uk/2013/07/how-many-monarchies-exist-in-europe.html" target="_blank">How Many Monarchies Exist in Europe</a></span></span>Lucas Diehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03952852213344027979noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2284688274178083807.post-90280272539686350792013-10-22T00:34:00.002+01:002020-10-04T03:20:36.073+01:00Royal In-laws: Prince Philip's Mother<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;">For most of us, the Duke of Edinburgh has been around for a lifetime. If asked, no one could be more British than he; and his unique sense of humor has become an epitome of what it means to be British. Like consorts before him, his family history is not always straight forward; and his mother was an original of rare quality: Princess Alice of Battenberg.</span></span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Princess Alice of Battenberg and family</td></tr>
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<a name='more'></a><span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;">Modern journalists (and this includes the BBC) try to make it appear as if the Royal Family had been wondering about who Prince Philip was when he asked for the hand of Princess Elizabeth. The only one wondering was Queen Mum as the odd one out in the family; everyone else had Royal connections all over the continent and were related to Philip in one way or another. And they had followed all the scandals in the family very closely.</span></span><br />
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<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;">Princess Alice of Battenberg was born 1885 in Windsor the daughter of Prince Louis of Battenberg and his wife Princess Victoria of Hesse and by Rhine. No scandals there, those had been played out a generation earlier, or maybe two. Prince Louis had started life as Count Louis of Battenberg, a title he had inherited from his mother the former Countess Julia Hauke (a Polish title conferred on Julia's father by the tzar of Russia in his guise as king of Poland). She had married Prince Alexander of Hesse and by Rhine after an elopement and against the wishes of the Hesse Royal family as well as the Russian Imperial family.</span></span><br />
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<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;">As Countess Julia Hauke was not descended from a ruing family, the marriage was declared morganatic; this meant that the descendents of this union could not inherit the titles of their father and were excluded from the succession in Hesse. Grand Duke Louis III of Hesse conferred the mediated title of Countess of Battenberg on her (in her own right) after the marriage; mediated meant that she was addressed like a ruling countess as Most Illustrious Highness. He conferred the the title Princess of Battenberg on her and the accolade of Most Serene Highness.</span></span><br />
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<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;">As to Louis' father, his birth to Princess Wilhelmina of Baden, consort to Grand Duke Louis II of Hesse, was rumoured to be extramarital. It was said at the time (and is believed by many today) that the Grand Duchess was in a relationship with Swiss born Baron Auguste de Senarclens de Grancy and that Alexander and his younger sister Marie (later Empress Maria Alexandrovna of Russia) were the result of certain civilities exchanged between the Grand Duchess and the Baron.</span></span><br />
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<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;">As a final clincher, Princess Victoria of Hesse and by Rhine was the granddaughter of Queen Victoria. And now someone try to tell me that the family was not aware of all this. Highly unlikely, except if you were not part of the club like Queen Mum.</span></span><br />
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<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;">Princess Alice was born with congenital deafness. Despite not hearing anything, she learned to lip-read and speak in several languages. Before her marriage to Prince Andrew of Greece and Denmark she was fluent in German, English, and French. After her marriage in 1903 she added Greek as a matter of course. Their wedding was the last general gathering of descendents of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom (grandmother of Europe) and King Christian IX of Denmark (grandfather of Europe) before the Great War.</span></span><br />
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<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;">The couple had four daughters between 1905 and 1914. During the Balkan War of 1912/13, she organized field hospitals and nursing stations for the troops spending most of the war at the front. In 1917, the her family had to leave Greece for exile in Switzerland after the abdication of King Constantine I. They returned after the death of her brother-in-law King Alexander I when King Constantine was reinstated.</span></span><br />
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<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;">In 1921, the couple's only son Philip was born. In 1922, Prince Andrew was convicted at a court-martial and sentenced to exile in France by the republican government installed after the war between Greece and Turkey of 1919 to 1921. The family moved to Paris but Prince Andrew soon withdrew to Monaco to live with his mistress Countess Andreé de la Bigne.</span></span><br />
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<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;">In 1928, she converted to the Greek Orthodox Faith which led her family to the conclusion that she was going mad. In 1930, on the instigation of her brother Louis (Battenberg meanwhile had become Mountbatten) and with the connivance of her mother, she was interned first in a German and then in a Swiss sanatorium and subjected to the sick cures of psychopaths - sorry psychiatrists (wrong synonym; my bad).</span></span><br />
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<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;">Her mother married off her daughters in quick succession in 1930 and 1931, all of them to German Princes; that left only Prince Philip as an annoying left-over. The boy would be left at boarding schools for as long as possible and during holidays he would be shunted from one relative to another. Princess Victoria was very efficient in the way she managed not to be troubled by the family she had disbanded.</span></span><br />
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<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;">Finally released in 1932, Princess Alice had no family or home to return to, thanks to the efficiency of her mother. She drifted through Europe incognito and only picked up the family lines in 1937 when her daughter Cecilia and her husband Georg Hereditary Grand Duke of Hesse died in an airplane crash near Ostende.</span></span><br />
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<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;">The monarchy in Greece had been reinstated again in 1935. Princess Alice moved to Athens in 1938 and did charitable work for the poor there. She refused to leave Athens when the Germans invaded and continued to care for the poor of the city and running a soup kitchen. In 1943, she took in a family of Jew fugitives from Thessaloniki and hid them successfully from the Germans until the end of the war.</span></span><br />
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<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;">The German military commander assumed her to be an ally in the occupation; being German herself and having three daughters married there made this self evident. She is reputed to have had a visit by him and asked if he could do her any favors, she replied: "You can take your troops out of my country."</span></span><br />
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<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;">After liberation, war between government forces and communist terrorists waged all over Athens where British troops tried to instill a curfew to get control of the situation. Princess Alice disregarded the curfew to distribute food to the poor and crossed and recrossed the fighting lines at will. When reprimanded by the British commander to take care, she is said to have told him: "They tell me that you don't hear the shot that kills you and in any case I'm deaf. So, why worry about that?"</span></span><br />
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<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;">In 1949, she founded her own religious order of the Christian Sisterhood of Martha and Mary to which he devoted most of the rest of her life. She was forced to abandon her project in 1967 when the monarchy was again abolished. She went into exile in London where she spent her last two years living in Buckingham Palace. She died in 1969 without a penny to her name as she had given away everything to the poor of Athens.</span></span><br />
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<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;">After long negotiations involving such diverse bodies as the Church of England, the Greek Orthodox Church, the Russian Orthodox Church, the State of Israel, the governments and Royal families of the United Kingdom and Denmark, she found her final rest in a crypt of the Convent of Saint Mary Magdalen in Gethsemane on the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem in 1988. In 2010, the state of Israel named her among the Righteous Among the Nations.</span></span><br />
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<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;">Further reading</span></span><br />
<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://royaltysavvy.blogspot.co.uk/2011/01/royal-in-laws-arent-always-what-they.html" target="_blank">Royal In-laws Aren't Always What They Seem, Either</a></span></span><br />
<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://stutenzeehistoryblog.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/prince-george-of-hanover-duke-of.html" target="_blank">Prince George of Hanover, Duke of Cambridge</a></span></span><br />
<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://stutenzeehistoryblog.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/evacuation-from-yalta-1919.html" target="_blank">Evacuation From Yalta 1919</a></span></span>Lucas Diehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03952852213344027979noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2284688274178083807.post-46129422836035437252013-10-15T11:24:00.001+01:002020-10-04T03:18:31.851+01:00Rent a Kent<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="color: black;">How are the old woman and her even older man earning the money for their
£120,000 rent? Already, these old age pensioners are facing severe deprivations. Princess Pushy and
her Prince Michael of Kent have to cope with unfair businessmen and a critical Royal family, not to mention the bloodthirsty media and unfavourable public opinion.</span></span></span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-_tk55zOiB_0/Ul0XMkrmXqI/AAAAAAAABCU/vUxHr_jmsgI/s1600/prince-michael-princess-pushy-kent-london-christmas.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="125" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-_tk55zOiB_0/Ul0XMkrmXqI/AAAAAAAABCU/vUxHr_jmsgI/s200/prince-michael-princess-pushy-kent-london-christmas.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Prince and Princess Michael of Kent</td></tr>
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<a name='more'></a><span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;">Indignantly,
friends of the penniless Prince and Princess Michael of Kent keep on giving
statements that Michael is still the grandson of a king-emperor and has been
reared accordingly. Agreed, he never did an hour’s honest work in his life. It is just
ghastly to treat him like a common tenant at his pauper’s abode in Kensington
Palace. I mean, really, a tenant would be working for his money. How could a
real parasite ever sink so low?</span></span><br />
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<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;"><span lang="EN-GB">Prince
Michael of Kent had led the royal soldier’s laid back life, but at 41 even that became
too strenuous for him and he quit. The Queen, knowing the Prince for what he
was, tried to foist him off on business by granting him the unique right to go
into business. The Queen’s business sense was astute as ever when she made the
move, but the object of her largesse was too incompetent. Soon though, companies were
queuing up to add the royal name to their letterheads. </span></span></span></div>
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<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;"><span lang="EN-GB">These
businesses paid ridiculous sums just to have his name on the list of directors.
Prince Michael of Kent cashed in on his title and his Royal connection; this distinction is usually and unfairly reserved for the Middleton family. At the peak of this career, he earned
around $500,000 without doing any work at all just by renting out his title. For the businessmen it was well
worth the money, being upstarts from the Great Unwashed it added certain
panache to their usual names dropping to include my friend Michael in it.</span></span></span></div>
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<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;"><span lang="EN-GB">Being by
nature greedy and none too intelligent, he accepted a series of television
appearances in US TV to market off substandard goods under the name House of Windsor. These
ranged from crockery through trinkets to toilet brushes. Prince Michael's name was
consequently mud and this not only with the Queen. The income from letterheads
dropped drastically down to zero. And like every other failure before him he set
himself up as a consultant. He was an expert on letterheads, so there certainly
was a job opening somewhere. And he was an accomplished TV salesman as well.</span></span></span></div>
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<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;"><span lang="EN-GB">But Princess
Pushy was at her wits’ end. Being used to spending lots of money, not earning it, she
started to plagiarize historical novels without great success. That’s when the
Rent-a-Kent business came into being. For £25,000, the Princess would attend any
venue, from opening a villa in Sri Lanka to showing herself at the Formula 1
Grand Prix. Nowadays these appearances are called lectures to make them more
palatable to the untitled that have to work for their money. That Austrian just
sells off her title.</span></span></span></div>
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<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;"><span lang="EN-GB">Prince
Michael had his looks worked over to make him look like the late tzar Nicholas II.
This has given him an opening to expand the rental service to Russian
oligarchs. He has come full circle; again he is giving his name to people
having come from the Great Unwashed. Already the Russian connection is bringing
him new troubles. We may expect his counterfeit to appear on vodka bottles any
day now.</span></span></span></div>
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<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;"><span lang="EN-GB">In
between all this, Princess Pushy insists on pushing her royal-ness down
everybody’s throat. Having grown up a hairdresser’s daughter in the backstreets
of Sidney, this pushiness sits ill with most people. As to her royal connection
in Central Europe, who doesn’t have them? There were so many kinglets at one time or another;
it would be surprising if one wasn’t related to them as they produced children
like rabbits.</span></span></span></div>
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now the poor dears are living in strictest economy. They were seen in Rome
strolling through town. Obviously it was a financial strain to take along the
car and the driver as well. I pity them for having come to such dire straits in
their dotage.</span></span></span></div>
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<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;"><span lang="EN-GB"></span><span lang="EN-GB">Further reading</span></span></span></div>
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<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;"><span lang="EN-GB"><a href="http://stutenzeehistoryblog.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/william-and-kate-title-history.html" target="_blank">William and Kate: Title History</a></span></span></span></div>
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<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;"><span lang="EN-GB"><a href="http://stutenzeehistoryblog.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/princes-not-all-that-glitters.html" target="_blank">Princes: Not All That Glitters</a></span></span></span></div>
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<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;"><span lang="EN-GB"><a href="http://royaltysavvy.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/princess-pushy-also-known-as-that.html" target="_blank">Princess Pushy and a Matter of Rent</a></span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing">
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Lucas Diehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03952852213344027979noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2284688274178083807.post-91053688553850773052013-10-08T20:18:00.002+01:002020-10-04T03:17:41.414+01:00Princess Irmingard of Bavaria (1923 to 2010)<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;">Princess Irmingard of Bavaria was a granddaughter of Bavaria’s last king Ludwig III. In 2000, she published her memoirs about her childhood and the Second World War. She received the Price for World Peace from the Brücke 7 Foundation for her engagement in keeping the memory about the Holocaust alive. </span></span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Irmingard Princess of Bavaria</td></tr>
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<a name='more'></a><span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;">Princess Irmingard was born on May 19, 1923, at the Royal Residence in Berchtesgaden. Her father was Crown Prince Rupprecht of Bavaria, Duke of Bavaria, of Franken, and in Swabia, Count Palatine by the Rhine; her mother Princess Antonia of Luxembourg and of Nassau was the second wife of Rupprecht. Irmingard was baptized by the Papal Nuncio in Bavaria, Cardinal Pacelli, who later became Pope Pius XII. <br /><br />The family spent the summer every year in Berchtesgaden until Hitler was made Chancellor and started spending time at his Berghof Residence in Berchtesgaden. The family henceforth spent the summer in the Royal Castle Hohenschwangau in the Bavarian Alps. Hitler almost immediately confiscated their Munich residence Wittelsbach Palace and turned it into the headquarters for the Gestapo. In 1934, he also confiscated Castle Leutstetten. <br /><br />In 1936, Irmingard and her sister Editha were sent to a boarding school in Roehampton, Greater London. She joined her Luxembourg cousins there; a year later, two more of her sisters joined her. She continued her education in Belgium before joining her family in exile in Italy. Her father had refused to vote for Hitler in the Reichstag of 1936; he equally refused to hoist Nazi flags on his remaining Royal Residences. <br /><br />In 1939, King Vittorio Emmanuele of Italy sent his personal train to Munich to collect the Bavarian Royal Family and convey them into exile in Italy. The family members were caught behind German battle lines in Italy in 1944. Prince Rupprecht escaped capture by the Gestapo in hiding in Florence while his wife and some of his daughters were apprehended and brought into the concentration camp Sachsenhausen in Berlin. <br /><br />Irmingard managed to flee from the Gestapo making her way towards Switzerland. She contracted typhoid fever during this flight and was caught by the Gestapo near Lake Garda. She was brought to the hospital at Innsbruck where she survived the bombing of the town by allied forces. She was then joined with her family at Sachsenhausen. When Soviet troops had almost enclosed Berlin, the family was moved to the concentration camp Flossenbürg near Regensburg, and from there to Dachau where the family was freed by the Third American Army. <br /><br />In 1950, Irmingard married her cousin Prince Ludwig of Bavaria at Nymphenburg Palace in Munich. Ludwig had spent the war in Hungary looking after the Royal Stable at Sàrvàr. When Hungary was overrun by Soviet troops he packed up the retainers and the horses in a trek to Germany. He managed the impossible and passed undetected through the Soviet front lines into Bavaria. <br /><br />Irmingard became an active member of foundations aimed at keeping the memory of the Holocaust alive. In 2000, she published her Memoirs of My Youth 1923 – 1950. Her book gives a very realistic and shocking view of the concentration camp Flossenbürg: “We were housed in a separated barrack; every day, dead bodies would be stacked in front of our window like wood.” Unhappily, the book is only available in German. <br /><br />In 2008, Irmingard received the Price for World Peace from Brücke 7 Foundation in Munich. She died on October 23, 2010, at Castle Leutstetten. </span></span><br />
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<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;">Further reading</span></span><br />
<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://stutenzeehistoryblog.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/count-welf-and-his-descendents.html" target="_blank">Count Welf and His Descendants</a></span></span><br />
<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://stutenzeehistoryblog.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/cheating-hermann-goering.html" target="_blank">Cheating Hermann Goering</a></span></span><br />
<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://stutenzeehistoryblog.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/prophet-of-great-war.html" target="_blank">Prophet of The Great War</a></span></span>Lucas Diehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03952852213344027979noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2284688274178083807.post-2535315104356425272013-10-01T20:56:00.001+01:002020-10-04T03:14:50.260+01:00Princess Pushy and a Matter of Rent<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;">Princess Pushy, also known as That Austrian, and her husband, Prince Michael of Kent, have finally agreed to pay a paltry £120,000 rent for their apartment in Kensington Palace. And to pay it themselves, not have it paid by the Queen as hitherto. It has to be noted, though, that this rent is still heavily subsidized by the tax payer. </span></span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-gp2ELyTuLpQ/Uksle5rSJHI/AAAAAAAAA-M/ZJW_NvkUBp4/s1600/princess-and-prince-michael-of-kent-england-united-kingdom.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="124" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-gp2ELyTuLpQ/Uksle5rSJHI/AAAAAAAAA-M/ZJW_NvkUBp4/s200/princess-and-prince-michael-of-kent-england-united-kingdom.jpg" width="200" /></a></span></span></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span face="Verdana,sans-serif" style="font-size: xx-small;">Princess and Prince Michael of Kent</span><br />
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</tbody></table><p><span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span></span></span></p><a name='more'></a><span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;">Up to now and further into 2009, the Queen has footed the bill for the royal paupers, who have to live upon a pittance. They are neither working nor carrying out any official royal duties, and MPs had asked many times that they should pay a rent at commercial rate. Obviously, fixing such a value on a priceless apartment is beyond everybody’s imagination. But a five bedroom plus five reception room flat in one of the historic buildings of London should pay more than a lousy £10,000 per month.</span></span><br />
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<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;">Probably the flat should be auctioned off for rent to determine the real commercial value. </span><span style="font-size: large;"> Until 2002, the Kents had paid only a nominal rent, rumour has it at £69 per week, and it is surprising that the couple didn’t take their landlord to court over the new rent.</span></span><br />
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<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;">Obviously, a rise to over 400 times the previous rent would enable one to take court action? What are other destitute pensioners to do, once a precedent like this has been set? And it has been set for people who really are poor. Pushy said herself, that for a hot meal she will go anywhere. Honi soit, qui mal y pense. </span><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></span><br />
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<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;">The rent will be paid specifically into a grant-in-aid by the government for royal palaces, earmarked Kensington Palace. It will probably be spent on refurbishing the apartment of the Kents, as it is most likely not good enough for her Pushiness. </span><span style="font-size: large;"> It is questionable if the bit of money they got from the sale of their cottage Nether Lypiatt, a mere £5,000,000, will allow them to remain in their flat for overlong. </span></span><br />
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<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;">Funnily enough, no picketers have so far gone to the street clamouring for the rights of aged paupers. One wonders if this could not be a case of racism against Austrians. An inquiry panel probably will soon be set up by the government to look into that case, costing the taxpayer money he has so far not received from the Prince or the Princess, either in cash or in kind.</span></span><br />
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<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;">What it comes down to is that not doing anything for your country, or even against your country like marrying a roman catholic to lose your rights to succession, is paying off handsomely, again. If they ever did something at all is debatable, but they certainly learned from politicians how to line their pockets. Maybe Prince Michael should run for Prime Minister, as his title is virtually worthless anyhow, he can’t be worse than Brown or more damaging than Blair. </span></span><br />
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<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;">The original of this article was published on 20/12/2008.</span></span><br />
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<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;">Further reading</span></span><br />
<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://stutenzeehistoryblog.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/princes-not-all-that-glitters.html" target="_blank">Princes: Not All That Glitters</a></span></span><br />
<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://stutenzeehistoryblog.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/william-and-kate-title-history.html" target="_blank">William and Kate: Title History</a></span></span><br />
<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://stutenzeehistoryblog.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/the-prince-princess-and-perfect-murder.html" target="_blank">The Prince, The Princess, And The Perfect Murder</a></span></span><p></p>Lucas Diehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03952852213344027979noreply@blogger.com0