Month: January 2017

The Royal Family and the Power of Disclosure

On By RSBIn The House of Windsor6 Comments

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Last week, in a post about some of the criticism the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge have been receiving, I suggested that they “say something.” I said something similar after Kate’s EACH engagement yesterday. That’s pretty vague, so I thought I would expand upon that point.

What the monarchy signifies and how they function is constantly in motion, a statement that perhaps runs counter-intuitively to how they are usually described, which is symbolic of continuity, history and heritage. They are, but how the monarchy embodies that – and carries out its agenda – changes, sometimes almost imperceptibly, with every generation. This has been particularly true for the royal family of the 20th and 21st centuries, which has had to align with and press against the constant presence of the media. Since the dawn of time, monarchies – like any political institution – have been reacting and adapting to popular opinion, but there are few other factors that have had more of an impact on the perception and behavior of a monarchy than the evolution of the modern press and how it disseminates its information.

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Kate Wears Hobbs to Visit EACH in Norfolk

On By RSBIn The House of Windsor1 Comment

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Today, the Duchess of Cambridge visited a children’s hospice in Norfolk as part of her patronage of East Anglia’s Children’s Hospices (EACH). Before walking into today’s engagement, Kate  chatted with onlookers that had lined up outside, at which point she was handed a “portrait” of her drawn by a young girl, which included the note, “Princess Kate, it’s an honour to meet you.”

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The Marriage That Could Have Stopped “The Anarchy”

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On January 24, 1121, Henry I, King of England and Adeliza of Louvain were married at Windsor Castle. At the time of the wedding, Adeliza was roughly 18 years old, while Henry I was around 53 and had been king for 21 years. The marriage was of dynastic necessity since two months before, Henry’s only son, William Adelin, had died on the sinking of the White Ship (the 12th century version of the Titanic).

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The English Duke & the Romanov Bride

On By RSBIn The House of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha1 Comment

On January 23, in 1874, Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh, second son of Queen Victoria, married Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna of Russia, daughter of Alexander II, Emperor of Russia at the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg, Russia. Queen Victoria didn’t attend the ceremony  – indeed, she had been against the match during the marriage negotiations, as was the Russian Emperor -and was instead represented by her eldest son, Albert Edward, Prince of Wales (“Bertie”) and his wife, Alexandra of Denmark, Princess of Wales.

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The Winter Palace

The couple originally met during a trip to Germany in the summer of 1868, when Alfred was visiting his older sister, Alice, married to Prince Louis of Hesse. They wouldn’t meet again until the summer of 1871, again in Germany, where Marie had accompanied her parents and Alfred had Bertie and Alexandra. There the couple had the opportunity to spend substantial time together and apparently fell in love. They were reported to share a passion for music – Marie played the piano and Alfred the violin –  and spent a remarked-upon amount of time in each other’s company.

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Marie of Russia in her youth

By the end of the visit, the couple had apparently told their families they wished to marry, but no engagement announcement would be forthcoming. Alexander II was extremely close to his daughter and was loath to lose her, while his wife, the Tsarina, formerly known as Marie of Hesse, thought the British cold and strange. Meanwhile, Queen Victoria’s sentiments weren’t any friendlier: Mutual mistrust of both cultures still existed from the Crimean War, which had ended in Russian defeat in 1856. Added on to those sensitivities was Marie’s Orthodox faith, which would be entirely foreign to the House of Hanover.

Negotiations begun in 1871 stalled in 1872, but were re-started in January 1873. Rumors circulated through Europe that Marie had “compromised herself” with one of her father’s aides-de-camp, though Alfred refused to believe the stories. Instead, he jumped through every hoop the Romanovs put before him, while both mothers worked fruitlessly to distract their children with other suitors.

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Andrew v. Charles: The Case of the York Girls

On By RSBIn The House of Windsor1 Comment

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On Friday we discussed the press release Kensington Palace issued on Prince Harry’s behalf regarding his relationship with Meghan Markle. But that was only the first part of “Strange Statements From the Royal Family in 2016.” The second part came less than a month later when Andrew, Duke of York, the second son and reportedly favorite child of Elizabeth II, took to Twitter to address press speculation that he was feuding with his elder brother, Charles, Prince of Wales over the role of his daughters, Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie.

The tweet was a simple link signed “AY,” denoting that it came from Andrew himself and not a member of his staff.

Specifically, Andrew said it was inaccurate to claim that he had ever asked that future husbands of his daughters be given titles upon marrying into the royal family, and that there was no dispute with Charles over them. The full statement can be read here.

But let’s back up and discuss these “fabrications.”

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The Death of Queen Victoria

On By RSBIn The House of Hanover1 Comment

Today, January 22, in 1901, Queen Victoria died at Osborne House on the Isle of Wight after 63 years on the throne. Victoria had been at Osborne since Christmas, as per her tradition, however by the New Year she didn’t feel well enough to leave. Within three weeks she had passed away at the age of 81.

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Three days later, her body was lifted into her coffin by her eldest son and successor, Edward VII; her eldest grandson, Kaiser Wilhelm II; and her third and favorite son, Arthur, Duke of Connaught. Per instruction written out by the Queen in 1897, the funeral was white, she was dressed in a white gown with her wedding veil, and within her coffin was placed a dressing gown that had belonged to her long-dead husband, Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha; a lock of her Scottish servant’s, John Brown, hair; a ring from the Brown family that Brown had given to her; and various other mementos. The trinkets related to Brown were placed so as to be concealed by her left hand in the hopes they couldn’t be viewed by her family, the majority of whom detested the deceased servant.

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That Time Edward VIII Watched the Proclamation of His Kingship…With Wallis Simpson

On By RSBIn The House of Windsor1 Comment

 

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On January 21, 1936, this happened. Now, I only recently found this out, having given it literally no amount of thought, but monarchs don’t watch the formal proclamation of their accession. In Edward’s case, he not only did it, but he did it publicly from a window in St. James’s Palace next to none other than his  long-time, still-married companion, Wallis Simpson. #Scandal. Well, sort of.

Edward’s father, George V, died on January 20 at Sandringham House in Norfolk after a 25-year reign. Edward was 43, unmarried, childless and had, in certain circles, a reputation for being a bit of playboy, particularly if the women in question were married.

At the time that he became king, his relationship with Wallis Simpson wasn’t well-known to the public – thus, seeing them together wouldn’t raise alarm bells for most people. But it certainly did for those who knew who Wallis was, particularly members of Edward’s government, his family and his courtiers. As Edward was about to find out, what had been tolerated for the throne’s heir, would emphatically not be for its king.

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Whatever the Opposite of “Never Complain, Never Explain” Is: Prince Harry & Meghan Markle

On By RSBIn The House of Windsor3 Comments

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In November 2016, Kensington Palace issued a press release on Prince Harry’s behalf lambasting media outlets and online forums for the “racial undertones” and “outright sexism” of comments regarding his then-rumored relationship with American actress, Meghan Markle. The press release listed out the harassment that Markle and her family had endured, “nightly legal battles” to stop “defamatory” stories, and made a direct ask to the press to “reflect before any more damage is done.”

The statement also confirmed the existence of the relationship itself.

The release reads as indignant and desperate. And I say desperate not to insult it, but as an acknowledgment that to issue a statement like this must have been seen as a last resort – the only (effective) option left.

I have written many press releases in my life, I have never begun one with, “Since he was young…”

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The English Duchess Convicted of Witchcraft

On By RSBIn The House of Lancaster2 Comments

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On January 19, 1442, Eleanor Cobham, Duchess of Gloucester was convicted of treason for conspiring against the king, Henry VI. Specifically, she was charged with witchcraft and for consorting with astrologers and fortune-tellers to predict when King Henry would die. Not at all coincidentally, Eleanor stood to benefit from Henry’s death since her husband, his uncle, was the heir apparent.

The charges, which were likely embellished by the political enemies of her husband, Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, nevertheless prompted him to swiftly divorce her when they came to light in the summer of 1441. After her conviction, Eleanor was forced to do penance by walking through the streets of London and then imprisoned.

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The “Rightful” King: Edmund Mortimer, 5th Earl of March

On By RSBIn The House of Lancaster, The House of Plantagenet5 Comments

On this day, January 18, in 1425, Edmund Mortimer, 5th Earl of March died at Trim Castle, on the south bank of the River Boyne in County Meath, Ireland. At the time of his death, Edmund was only a distant cousin of King Henry VI of England, with limited fortune and slim career prospects at court. However, he was a controversial figure in England and his death caused the royal family a certain amount of relief since some of his contemporaries maintained he, and not Henry VI, was the rightful king.

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The Old Palace of Westminster

Henry VI’s grandfather, Henry IV, was the founder of the House of Lancaster after deposing the last Plantagenet king, Richard II, in 1399. Richard II’s claim to the throne was undeniable – he had been the only surviving son of the monarch’s eldest son (Edward, the Black Prince) – and he had smoothly inherited the throne from his grandfather, Edward III, in 1377 at 10 years old. It was less clear, however, who his own heir was since he, despite two marriages, was childless.

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Richard II

While today the laws of succession are clearly defined, it was bit murkier in the 14th century and Richard II’s own choice of his many uncles and cousins would have held significant sway, even if they were not next in birth order. The most powerful of Richard’s uncles – the sons of Edward III – was John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster. He was enormously wealthy, politically savvy and had decades of governing and military experience – he also had a capable heir, Henry of Bolingbroke, Duke of Hereford. However, Gaunt wasn’t popular with his nephew the King and there were many at court that mistrusted his ambition – afraid that he would end up with too much centralized power during Richard’s minority or, worse, would attempt to seize the throne for himself.

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