Tuesday, January 31, 2012

The Cambridges… "Its a boy ... the new royal pooch!"

Nope...they have no son, but the next thing close to one...a new puppy!





The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge are the proud parents of a months-old pooch, and rumors they adopted a chocolate Labrador retriever are false, the palace confirmed to TODAY.com: It's a cocker spaniel.

Featurepics stock

Nah, this isn't their actual pooch. But Will and Kate's dog looks a lot like this English cocker spaniel puppy
.
Though they won't release the name (or discuss why the couple chose a cocker, though the U.K.'s Express reports the breed is a Middleton family favorite), the royals' spokeswoman said the male pup came from a litter through a "family connection."

http://animaltracks.today.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/01/31/10278893-will-and-kates-new-puppy-breed-revealed

Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Tiaras Gather in Denmark

While the Queen may own a vast collection of diamond tiaras, her European counterparts can certainly give her a run for her money.

To celebrate Queen Margrethe II of Denmark's 40 years on the throne, the Royals of Europe gathered in Copenhagen for a gala dinner - and to show off some very important jewels.

Of the younger Royals, Princess Mary of Denmark, not surprisingly, wore the most sparkling tiara and necklace set,including diamonds and rubies.


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2088395/Tiaras-dawn-Europes-Royals-gather-celebrate-Queen-Denmarks-40-years-throne-theres-lot-bling-show.html#ixzz1kUZbddYf


Royal House of Romania: Romanians have lost their faith

Pro-monarchy messages were on display during the tenth day of protests in Bucharest, when several hundred Romanians gathered downtown in the Romanian capital, marking entry into the second week of street protests. The Royal House of Romania used the momentum to issue its first statement since the start of protests in the country.
“Romanians have lost their faith. […] The entire Royal House have their hearts close to those who need encouragement and solidarity during these moments. […] The King and the Successor Princess follow the events with deep concern and are determined to do everything in their power to protect and promote Romania’s interests, without favoring any political party,” reads a statement from the Royal House of Romania.
King Michael of Romania, 90 years old, last year decided that the Royal House in Romania will no longer be called The House of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen, but the Royal House of Romania. The members of the Royal Family will also give up all their titles given by the heads of the Hohenzollern royal family.
Continue reading:
Crown Princess Margarita and King Michael I of Romania.


Tuesday, January 24, 2012

It's a Girl, It's a Girl in Denmark!

Princess Marie and Prince Joachim of Denmark welcomed their second child together, his fourth. The birth took place today in Copenhagen. The newborn princess, whose name will be revealed on her baptism, is tenth in the Danish line of succession!

http://www.b.dk/nationalt/prinsesse-marie-har-faaet-en-pige





Photo: Marie Hald

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/denmarks-french-born-princess-marie-gives-birth-to-her-second-child-a-daughter/2012/01/24/gIQAnb2tMQ_story.html

Sunday, January 22, 2012

Birth Inminent in House France

The Duke and Duchess de Vendôme, Jean and Philomena, are expecting the birth of their second child ant any moment.

The due date was said to be January 25.

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

French President Becomes a Knight of the Golden Fleece

French president Nicolas Sarkozy received the Golden Fleece from HM King don Juan Carlos I
of Spain.

Present to end their support were other Golden Fleece Knights, among them: The Prince of Asturias, King Simeon of Bulgaria, King Constantine II of the Hellenes, and the Duke of Calabria. Also present: Queen Sofía of Spain, the Princess of Asturias and the Duchess of Calabria.





The Royals Who Rescued the Monarchy – Part 3

Part 3....Queen Mary, the pillar of the monarchy...


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wAJ-FJIbTi8&feature=related

The Royals Who Rescued the Monarchy – Part 2

Part 2...also very interesting...


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1qqMwZLSDyI&feature=related

Monday, January 16, 2012

The Royals Who Rescued the Monarchy – Part 1

A interesting program...I have some reservations, but it was worth watching nonetheless.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7UVygkLyOKM&feature=related

Interview With Queen Margrethe II of Denmark

Much liked this interview with HM Queen Margrethe II. May she continue enjoying good health and many more years doing such a wonderful job as Denmark's longest ruling Queen!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ttsOOKu5sSo

Sunday, January 15, 2012

Queen Margerethe II and her sisters remember their parents – Video

Queen Margrethe II of Denmark, supported by her husband, was joined by her sisters Benedikte and Anne Marie (with their husbands Fürst Richard zu Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg and King Constantine II of the Hellenes) in a tribute to her parents.

The royals visited King Frederik IX and Queen Ingrid's grave at Roskilde Cathedral, mausoleum of the Danish royal family.

Enjoy:

http://nyhederne.tv2.dk/article.php/id-47436016:lagde-tre-kranse-ved-gravmonument.html?rss

Saturday, January 14, 2012

HM Queen Margethe II's Ruby Anniversary on the Throne

Here is part of the agenda for Queen Margrethe II's celebration of forty years as Denmark's monarch:






SATURDAY, 14 JANUARY 2012

WREATH LAYING CEREMONY
9:50 a.m.
Special train with the Royal Carrriage carrying the royal family arrives at Roskilde Station


10 a.m.
Wreath laying ceremony at King Frederik IX’s and Queen Ingrid’s graves, Roskilde Cathedral


COACH RIDE
12:40 p.m.
Coach ride from Amalienborg through the pedestrian street with escort by the the Royal Danish Hussar Guard Regiment to Copenhagen’s City Hall. The route

RECEPTION AT COPENHAGEN’S CITY HALL
1 p.m.
Official reception at Copenhagen’s City Hall
Entertainment in the ceremonial hall, HM The Queen and HRH The Prince Consort enter the balcony


GALA PERFORMANCE IN DANMARKS RADIO’S CONCERT HALL
8 p.m.
Gala performance
During the intermission, HM The Queen and HRH The Prince Consort will greet guests

 


 

Friday, January 13, 2012

Norwegian Royal Christmas


The King and Queen and the Crown Prince and Crown Princess and their family gathered at the Palace for Christmas photos (Photo: Lise Åserud, Scanpix)

Tuesday, January 10, 2012

ERHJ Issue LXXXI!

Dear Readers,

As I complete the first week of full work at Eurohistory (so much to get caught up with...Lord Have Mercy!), I just finished piecing together the ERHJ's Issue LXXXI. It will go to print this weekend.

In this issue readers will find the following articles:

1. Aunt Sanny – Grand Duchess Alexandra Iosifovna of Russia, by Coryne Hall.

2. A Princess in Africa, by HRH Princess Elizabeth of Yugoslavia.

3. Obituary: Princess Maria of Brazil (1914-2011), by David McIntosh.

4. Book Reviews.

5. Obituary: Princess Teresa d'Orléans-Bragança (1919-2011).

6. Reminiscing About Victoria, Marchioness of Milford Haven, by Ilana D. Miller.

7. "So Happy. Woolly – Toto" Princess Elisabeth of Greece and Count Carl Theodor zu Toerring-Jettenbach, by Arturo Beéche.

8. Royal News.

US subscribers should expect this issue in about two weeks. European and Rest of the World subscribers should be receiving it in about 3 weeks.

Enjoy and wish me luck as I start piecing together Issue LXXXII!

PS: Much appreciate all the emails, calls and notes wishing me continued good health...I am humbled by your kindness!

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge attend the UK premiere of War Horse

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge attended the UK premiere of War Horse this evening in aid of The Foundation of Prince William and Prince Harry.
Her Royal Highness is Patron of The Foundation, which was set up by The Duke and Prince Harry in 2009 and supports the Armed Forces as one of its key areas of focus.

The premiere was attended by 600 serving and ex-serving military personnel and their families as well as beneficiaries of military charities.

The Duke and Duchess met servicemen and women as well as the cast and crew and chatted animatedly with director Steven Spielberg, Sherlock actor Benedict Cumberbatch, Emily Watson and Tom Hiddleston, who plays Captain Nicholls and went to school with The Duke.


Source:

http://www.princeofwales.gov.uk/newsandgallery/news/the_duke_and_duchess_of_cambridge_attend_the_uk_premiere_of__1477092457.html

Blic Magazine's interview with Serbian Princes

Blic

Princes Alexander and Philip, twins, talk with “Blic”

By Milka Radovic

Crown Prince Alexander II, Crown Princess Katherine, Princes Peter, Philip and Alexander together celebrated the Christmas holidays in Serbia. Last time the Princes were here was in August, and now they came to take a break, spend time with their family and to see friends. The twins Alexander and Philip, who live on their own for the last 12 years, revealed in their interview for “Blic” how much they like coming to Serbia, did they have any privileges in life for being princes… Prince Philip, who came to Belgrade this time without his longtime girlfriend Lucy Attwood claims there will be no wedding soon, before he realizes himself professionally.

What are your feelings about Belgrade?

Philip: I love this city, and my family is here. I come here pretty often, as often as I could. The atmosphere here is great.

Alexander: I love to come to Belgrade because people here are very interesting, and Serbs are very warm people, I would have loved to come more often if I only could.

Did the title of Prince help you in your career, and did you have any benefits in life because of that?

Philip: There are great expectations when someone is born with the title, and people usually believe that such persons are born with a “silver spoon”. It is much better not to show off the title, which is what I usually do in my professional and private circles, because I want to be just a regular person, which I really am.

Alexander: I agree with my brother, I like to show my professional and private talents, and 
that is something I can do without a title.

 Prince Philip.

 Prince Alexander.

Continue reading...

http://www.royalfamily.org/press/press-det/intevju_blic_10012012_eng.html

Monday, January 9, 2012

Engagement in House Parma

Princess Irene of the Netherlands announced today the engagement of her youngest daughter Princess Maria Carolina of Bourbon-Parma (b. 1974) to Albert Brenninkmeijer (b. 1974).


The groom studied at the University of Edinburgh and obtained an MBA from Oxford University. He was born in Paris. Albert works for the department store chain C&A, which is owned by his family.

Princess Maria Carolina was born in Nijmegen. she studied political science at Amsterdam University. Later on, Maria Carolina attended Harvard University, where her father taught for many years. She also attended Oxford University and studied Forced Migration. She now works for the UN in Geneva.

No date for the wedding was given yet.


Princess Irene of the Netherlands and Princess Maria Carolina
of Bourbon-Parma

Sunday, January 8, 2012

+ Cobina Wright (1921-2011) – Royal Girlfriend

In 1938 Prince Philip of Greece visited his Aunt Aspasia and Cousin Alexandra at their home in Venice. While there he had a fleeting love-affair with an American youngster by the name of Cobina Wright.

She later on went to become a Hollywood actress, as was her mother.



She was born on August 14 1921 in New York City, where her father, William May Wright, was a successful stockbroker. Her mother, also Cobina Wright, was an opera singer and actress notorious for her social ambition: Hardy Amies quipped that she took her alpenstock with her to parties.

By the mid-1930s Cobina Snr’s hopes were firmly pinned on her beautiful young daughter, whom she frantically set about grooming for a film career capped by a spectacular marriage. When Mr Wright complained about what he saw as the “prostitution” of their daughter, his wife promptly divorced him.

By 1938 Cobina Jnr, pushed along by her mother, was already under contract with 20th Century Fox, while also modelling and singing in nightclubs. That summer her mother took her to Venice, and at Harry’s Bar she met Prince Philip of Greece. She later recalled that, on seeing the handsome young prince, her mother had “shoved” her into his arms.

The period before their meeting had been a particularly traumatic one for Prince Philip, who was still mourning his 26-year-old sister Cecile and her family, who had died in a plane crash the previous November, and also his much-loved uncle and guardian George Milford Haven (Louis Mountbatten’s less flashy elder brother), who had died that spring aged 44.

From left: Gloria Vanderbilt, George Montgomery and Cobina Wright.



Continue reading...

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/royalty-obituaries/8861002/Cobina-Wright.html

+ King Leka of the Albanians (1939-2011)

Although his death was last November, since I was ill then, I would like to remind you all and have this obituary be part of our archive...


Zogu's father, King Zog, had been Albania's first and (as it turned out) last royal ruler having, in 1924, as plain Ahmet Muhtar Zogolli, a wealthy Muslim landowner, led a coup d'etat that toppled the government. Four years later, in 1928, Zogolli crowned himself King Zog of the Albanians.

Although his court was compared with the camper flights of fancy seen in Ruritanian operettas, Zog is now considered something of a moderniser who introduced education and language reforms and freedom of worship. But his reign was cut short in April 1939 when Mussolini's troops marched in and the royal family – recently enlarged by the arrival of baby Leka – fled to London, where they occupied most of the third floor of the Ritz Hotel.

The family remained in exile after the war and throughout the 1950s. Following Zog's death in 1961, Albanian monarchists and some sections of the media routinely referred to the defunct king's son as King Leka I, even though Albania's post-war communist rulers had abolished the monarchy in 1946.

Leka I Zogu was born on April 5 1939, the only son of King Zog of Albania and his half-American queen, Géraldine Apponyi de Nagyappony. He was named Crown Prince Skander and his birth was celebrated with a 101-gun salute, but within 48 hours Mussolini's men had invaded.

The Duke of Edinburgh Gets a Much-needed Break

Since the Queen acceded to the throne 60 years ago, the Duke of Edinburgh has walked one step behind his wife at almost every public engagement. Prince Philip’s heart operation has, however, caused courtiers to carry out a radical rethink of the couple’s working partnership.
Mandrake can disclose that the Duke, who turns 91 later this year, will carry out just one public engagement this month and one in February, the anniversary of his wife’s accession.
After that, the couple’s four children are expected to take turns accompanying their mother on many of the diamond jubilee engagements that were due to be attended by the Duke.
“The Prince of Wales, the Princess Royal, the Duke of York and the Earl of Wessex are all happy to adjust their schedules so that they can accompany the Queen whenever possible,” says a courtier. “The problem is that Her Majesty is reluctant to attend events without the Duke of Edinburgh. She sees their role very much as a partnership.”


Continue reading...

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/theroyalfamily/8999808/The-Queens-children-are-to-stand-in-for-resting-Duke-of-Edinburgh.html


The BBC Continues Idiotic Insinuations About the Roayl Family's Germanic Ancestry

One must wonder why an otherwise excellent  TV company continues to churn the same old tired story about the German roots of the English Royal Family....


The BBC documentary on George V and Queen Mary was in many ways a suitable prelude to this year’s Diamond Jubilee. Its argument that George V, however unlikely a moderniser, set the monarchy on the path it has successfully followed since, was sound. As the Prince of Wales (the future Edward VIII, later Duke of Windsor) wrote to his father on November 5, 1918, the British monarchy could survive what he described as “the regular epidemic of revolutions and abdications” on the Continent “only by keeping in the closest possible touch with the people” – advice which George V may not have needed, but certainly followed.
 
In one respect, however, the BBC programme was misleading, and annoyingly so. It placed great emphasis on the Royal family’s German roots. Now, it is true that in 1917, in response to what the historian Roger Fulford called “a very silly outcry – largely engineered from Fleet Street”, George V changed the dynasty’s name from Saxe-Coburg-Gotha to Windsor, and also that on one occasion his eldest son said he was “three-quarters German”. Nevertheless, in saying this he was mistaken, and the Royal family’s Germanness has been much exaggerated. A recent example comes in Norman Davies’s book Vanished Kingdoms. Davies states that the family were essentially German, but “honed their upper-class English accents, threw themselves into patriotic and charitable activities, spoke no German in public, deflected awkward questions, avoided their German relatives, and, in a sustained campaign of genealogical legerdemain, massaged the family tree beyond recognition”. Professor Davies is a distinguished historian; yet even distinguished historians sometimes write what is no better than rot.

Cecil Beaton and the Restoring of the Windsors

When Cecil Beaton received a call from Buckingham Palace in July 1939, nobody was more surprised than Beaton himself. A celebrated fashion photographer with a stellar career at Vogue, and a sought after portrait photographer on both sides of the Atlantic (with the likes of Pablo Picasso, Katharine Hepburn and Marlene Dietrich among his sitters), Beaton was by then more fashion and Hollywood royalty than the House of Windsor.
A prolific diarist, Beaton recorded his first palace call: “The telephone rang, ‘This is the lady-in-waiting speaking. The Queen wants to know if you will photograph her tomorrow afternoon.’ At first, I thought it might be a practical joke… but it was no joke.” Among his most famous work for Vogue in the Thirties was his coverage of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor’s wedding in France in 1937. Though Wallis Simpson and the late Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother famously loathed each other, the photographs had caught the latter’s eye. The abdication crisis had rocked the nation and the monarchy, and while much of the public regarded Mrs Simpson as a manipulative woman who had ensnared the King, Beaton’s photographs of her wafting around the Château de Candé gardens wearing billowing dresses and a wistful expression created a softer image.

The Royal Yacht Britannia Nearly Sunk

Two days ago the Britannia, now a floating museum in Scotland, began taking water and nearly sunk. Rescue operations began in earnest and saved the ship from sinking!



Read more:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/theroyalfamily/8997653/Royal-Yacht-Britannia-takes-on-water-after-door-leak.html

Wednesday, January 4, 2012

Charlotte Zeepvat reviews THE FOUR GRACES

THE FOUR GRACES; Queen Victoria’s Hessian Granddaughters, by Ilana D. Miller [Kensington House Books, Eurohistory.com, California 2011] 256 pages, 80 black and white illustrations, family trees.


Opening with a description of Kensington Palace and the surrounding park, Ilana Miller’s long-awaited group biography, The Four Graces, takes the story of one of the Palace’s latter-day residents – Victoria Mountbatten, Dowager Marchioness of Milford Haven – and recounts it both for its own sake and as context for the lives of the more prominent Hesse sisters, Ella, Grand Duchess Sergei Alexandrovich of Russia, and Alix, the last Russian Empress, and of the fourth ‘Grace’, Irène, Princess Henry of Prussia. The author makes the point at the outset that in choosing to marry a prince regarded as ‘unequal’ by most of her royal relatives Victoria opted out of the dynastic rat-race at the start of her adult life. And yet, two generations on and with most of the European thrones consigned to history, we are taken into the story with an imagined vignette of an elderly Victoria opening the invitation to her grandson Philip’s wedding to the heir to the British throne – the dynastic triumph of the Mountbattens. This sets the book’s underlying theme (of which more later!)

The text proper begins with Victoria’s birth before slipping back in time to her parents’ wedding, then in location to Darmstadt, the family home, and to the Hesse relatives. Then back to Victoria, her christening and infancy and the coming of Ella and Irène, completing the circle of the original ‘three Graces’.

The story of their mother’s married life and the upbringing of her growing family is well-known and has often been told from a variety of perspectives. Here the emphasis is definitely on Victoria with the other sisters – and brothers – making their appearance and fading from view up to the moment we know must come: the diphtheria epidemic of 1878 which claimed their mother Princess Alice and her youngest child, leaving Victoria at 15 with a heavy burden of responsibility for the whole family.

And so the story proceeds into the 1880s, with the younger sisters coming forward more clearly as they grow but never challenging the central focus on Victoria. She emerges as very much the older sister, watching over the others, discussing them with Queen Victoria, occasionally telling them what to do. Her own unconventional character traits become apparent and as the first part of the book ends we see her on the eve of her marriage.

Part two takes us through the 1880s and 90s, from Victoria’s marriage to the death of her grandmother Queen Victoria, with all the incidents in between: her father’s unfortunate and hastily-annulled second marriage, Ella’s removal to Russia and to a life so unlike her sister’s, the arrival of Victoria’s elder children and her continued management of the lives of her younger siblings. We see Princess Beatrice’s marriage to Victoria’s brother-in-law Henry of Battenberg, her other brother-in-law Alexander’s misadventure in Bulgaria, her father’s death and the marriages of the younger sisters. Through quotations from letters we hear the characters’ own reactions to events, adding life to the account and colour to the descriptions of them. The amount of attention paid to the siblings varies: Ernst Ludwig, the brother, receives as much attention as the two younger sisters if not more, perhaps because his position was more important at this time and Victoria was more concerned for him.

Now the account moves on to the aftermath of the Queen’s death, its impact on the wider family, and all the upheavals and dramas of the first two decades of the new century. Through family letters we see the breakdown of Grand Duke Ernst Ludwig’s marriage and his concerns for his child, the engagement of Victoria’s eldest child Alice and her marriage – the occasion for a grand family reunion. The letters capture the deaths of little Elisabeth of Hesse and Heinrich of Prussia, the Grand Duke’s happy second marriage, the assassination of Ella’s husband Grand Duke Sergei and the years leading up to the First World War. Through the eyes of the family we see the four years of conflict, which two of the sisters would not survive. This third section of book also covers the years immediately following the war, the discovery and removal to Jerusalem of Ella’s body and the death of Victoria’s husband Louis.
And finally come the last three decades, the 1920s, 30s and 40s, when only two ‘Graces’, Victoria and Irène remain, together with their brother, and all three watch as the next generation moves forward into the spotlight. For me this is the most appealing part of the book, perhaps because it is also the least familiar. It describes Victoria’s friendship with Queen Mary: ‘ever since I knew you better as a girl when I stopped at White Lodge with your parents & later when we took a walk together soon after your marriage, I have felt more warmly towards you than just as one does to a relation because of the relationship,’ Victoria tells the Queen. It shows the pairings-off of the children and the arrival of grandchildren – great-grandchildren too. We see the many troubles faced by relatives in exile, and the family’s reaction to everything from purely family events to the rise of the Nazis in Germany. The Second War follows and its aftermath, and we come full circle to the wedding of Victoria’s grandson Philip and Princess Elizabeth, and the birth of their eldest child, with Victoria’s death in 1950 as the closing act. A brief epilogue describes her funeral and the final years and death of the last ‘Grace’, Princess Irène. The last paragraphs of the book draw the moral implied at the start: that Alix and Ella, ‘the wives of autocratic men of a fallen empire’ both ‘grounded in the traditions of absolute monarchy. Lavish pageantry, the mysteries of religion, and the prescribed roles of a divinely appointed Imperial Family’ were ‘very much nineteenth century women’. Irène was ‘the royal princess to the end as her family quietly slipped into obscurity’ and ‘in some ways self-deluding’. Victoria, on the other hand, ‘fell squarely into the twentieth century’ as the matriarch of ‘a most successful and modern family.’ All four, we are told, ‘fashioned their lives. . . and consequently met their inevitable fates.’

It is probably fair to say that the Hesse children are the most popular and the most intriguing family group among Queen Victoria’s many grandchildren, and The Four Graces has received a rapturous reception. For anyone interested in the family it is a thoroughly enjoyable read, based on years of original research and full of new details and insights and unfamiliar quotations. To a great extent it is a book written around the family’s letters and this is its strength. Everything that happens happens through their eyes. We see their reactions to events, their explanations to one another, and we only glimpse the broader canvas against which their lives were set. Family biography represents a challenge to a writer. Most opt for the easy ‘first I’ll talk about this person, now I’ll move on to that person’ approach, which works reasonably well but never allows for consideration of the family as a family. The emphasis on correspondence in The Four Graces has allowed Ilana Miller to look at the relationships between the siblings and I like that very much in this book. A little more weight given to the younger sisters would have been interesting, but the unexpected compensation for this is the focus on the relationship between Victoria and her brother.

For me the only drawbacks of the book are technical ones. It has the feel of a large text squeezed into a small format, with tiny print and small margins. The pictures are excellent and many of them extremely unusual, but again one longs to give them room to breathe. More careful proof-reading would also have helped. But really these are niggling details. No one would forego the chance to read a new perspective on a subject of interest because the proof-reading could be improved, and in The Four Graces Ilana Miller has collected some fascinating new material on a compelling subject. Her sympathy for Victoria Milford Haven shines through the text. She traces her way thoughtfully through the story and has also drawn a thought-provoking moral on the lives of the sisters (seen from a republican standpoint, perhaps?) which is sure to provoke some fascinating discussion.

by Charlotte Zeepvat

Monday, January 2, 2012

Danish Royal New Year!

Lest you think that royals these days just wear casual duds like jumpsuits and jeans, Princess Mary and Prince Frederik are holding down the tradition of velvet, medals and glittering crowns.
The Denmark royals attended a New Year's banquet at Christian VII's Palace at Amalienborg, the Royal Couple's winter residence. For the event, Mary ditched her typical print dresses for a long-sleeve velvet gown in a deep red wine hue.
Continue reading...

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/01/princess-mary-new-years_n_1178739.html?ref=style

Photo: Getty Pictures

Mark Your Agendas...The Royals Are Coming!

For those of you living on one of the many countries and territories listed in this article, get ready for some royal watching!

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/the_queens_diamond_jubilee/8955326/Royal-family-global-tour-to-mark-Diamond-Jubilee.html

The Approaching Jubilee!

An interesting article from The Telegraph concerning The Queen's approaching Diamond Jubilee and its correlation to Queen Victoria's in 1897.


http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/the_queens_diamond_jubilee/8987156/In-Queen-Victorias-glorious-footsteps.html

Sunday, January 1, 2012

A Note from the Publisher...

Dear Readers.

I hope all is well with you.

Let me share with you what has been going on with me...

In May 2010, while in Paris, I was taken ill during a work lunch meeting with the editors of Point de Vue. I ended in the Emergency Room of the nearest hospital, the Hôpital Lariboisierre. While there the doctors found that I had a tumor on my upper jaw and it was growing at an amazing speed. Just a week earlier it had been only a bother. By the time the French doctors took a look at it, the left side of my face was swollen enough to prevent the eye from opening. They relieved some of the pressure with surgery to prevent damage to the brain. Once they got me stabilized, I flew to the USA for further medical attention, including a major surgery. I spent most of May and June convalescing and too weak to do much.

Then in July 2010, much to my utter devastation, I was diagnosed with malignant melanoma. The oncologist who saw me found 15 rumors spread around the body, mainly face and neck.  More would be found later.

The treatment was initiated immediately and in the process 12 more cancer sites were found. I still have to have surgery in the jaw to repair the damage caused by the largest tumor. It was awful, just awful. A year later, July 2011, when almost nearly finished with radiation therapy and surgeries to remove these awful things, I suffered three small cardiac episodes in a week. Back to the hospital for more tests and now I take nitroglycerine to prevent any further heart trouble!

In the process I became deeply depressed and developed chronic fatigue. Once Dave and the boys left for their daily chores, I spent most of the day in our bedroom unable to even deal with leaving the house. It was, well, a nightmare. Had it not been for my husband and sons, and the psychologist whom our hospital put me under, I cannot even begin to think where I would be today. I am convinced that had this not been dealt with, it is quite likely that I would not be around.

As if all this was not enough, in November I began having extreme pain in the stomach and had to return to he emergency room. My immune system was compromised by all the radiation I was exposed to fighting the cancers. Luckily, this was dealt with and I am again on the med.

Eurohistory is me, just me. I have people who send their articles and help with editing. Everything else, since our assistant, David Mcintosh, returned to Scotland, is done by me. Consequently, the last year became a wash out, a complete loss, a devastating one...but from the ashes rises the Phoenix!

I am back working now five hours a day. I am making sure that Eurohistory starts again. It would be sad to see it disappear as many of us have invests fifteen years' worth of effort in it. It is our passion.

So here's where we stand.

ERHJ LXXIX is on its way to distribution in the Uk. ERHJ LXXX is finishing printing. ERHJ LXXXI is nearly complete and ready to print. These two will mail together.

ERHJ LXXXII & ERHJ LXXXIII will go next and mail together in mid January, to be follow by LXXXIV. Before the end of January, when we traditionally send renewals.

I ask of you, not to give up on me and my work. It is a promise to myself and all our supporters in 70+ countries to get back on track!

Best wishes for the New Year, Arturo
Here are our nine top news, by reader/viewer, for 2011!