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
Sunday, January 8, 2012
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
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
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
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
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
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
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