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Written by The Laird o'Thistle
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Monday, 09 August 2010 11:48 |
HRH Princess Anne, the Princess Royal, KG, KT, etc., turns 60 on August 15, in a typically low-key manner. Reports indicate that no huge parties are planned. She plans to go sailing with her husband, having just recently completed the family cruise in Scotland with the Queen and members of the royal family.
As I was thinking back about Princess Anne over the years I remembered a photo taken by Norman Parkinson to mark her 21st birthday in 1971 portraying the princess by the lake at Buckingham Palace with upswept hair, a white “boater” hat with a broad pink ribbon, and a not-quite-“granny” dress typical of the era. It was one of the most truly beautiful portraits of Princess Anne ever done.
Oddly enough, these days one is more...
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Last Updated on Sunday, 15 August 2010 07:40 |
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Yolande of Aragon: CEO of France |
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Written by Emily
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Wednesday, 14 July 2010 03:26 |
What can be said of the fifteenth century woman who almost single-handedly saved France from English dominance? The sainted Joan of Arc comes to mind as the teenaged peasant whose religious visions convinced her to lead France to victory against the English during the second phase of the Hundred Years’ War. Charles VII indeed owed his crown, his entire kingdom to this woman.
Or did he?
Charles indeed had a woman to thank for his lands, his legacy, and even his life. Joan of Arc certainly did her part to inspire and lead a beleaguered France to defeat the English in the Battle of Patay. But it was another woman who used her political connections, her considerable finances, and her political savvy to enable to House of...
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Last Updated on Wednesday, 14 July 2010 06:07 |
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What to Do with my "Sarah's Garden" Vase? |
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Written by The Laird o'Thistle
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Friday, 18 June 2010 04:23 |
Several years ago a dear friend gave me a wonderful gift. It was a large Wedgewood vase in the “Sarah’s Garden” pattern, signed by the Duchess of York who was promoting the pattern at the time. It’s been the “crown” of my own royal collection ever since, the only piece I have that has been handled and personally signed by someone who was once an HRH. But I have to admit that of late I’ve been wondering….
Up until this last month I’d always managed to make excuses for Sarah Ferguson’s doings, and held out the slim hope that eventually she might be allowed to reunite with the man who still apparently loves her. (Not only did I like her earthy spirit, I also fall quite easily for redheads.) Even the notorious...
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Last Updated on Sunday, 20 June 2010 09:05 |
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The Arcane Mysteries of Royal Finances |
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Written by The Laird o'Thistle
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Friday, 16 July 2010 18:39 |
The stories this last week about the “Queen” selling her shares in Regent Street bring up, yet again, the widespread gross misunderstandings about royal finances in the U.K. Her Majesty does not own, nor is “she” selling, any of Regent Street. The “Crown Estate,” which is actually a government entity, is selling its portion of Regent Street properties to reinvest those monies elsewhere.
The Crown Estate consists of the wealth accrued over time from Crown properties that King George III turned over in 1760 to the British government in return for the ongoing grants for expenses known as the Civil List, which has also been much in the news of late. The Civil List grant is renewed every ten years, and has been frozen at the...
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Last Updated on Sunday, 18 July 2010 07:42 |
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Propaganda, Patriarchy, and Putrid Portraiture: The Story of Margaret of Tyrol |
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Written by Emily
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Sunday, 20 June 2010 23:22 |
Most of us are aware that the Habsburg Dynasty acquired a great deal of their vast territory through two marriages that took place in 1477 and 1496 between Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor and Mary of Burgundy, and between their son Phillip and Juana of Spain. The German-Italian county of Tyrol, however, came to the Habsburgs a century earlier and under far more colorful circumstances. The story of Margaret of Tyrol is one of bigamy, Church propaganda, and misogyny that had an unexpected echo in visual art and literature of the 17th and 19th centuries.
Margaret was born in 1318, the only surviving child of Henry of Gorizia-Tyrol and Adelaide of Brunswick-Grubenhagen. Henry appeared to be aware that leaving a single daughter as an heir...
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Last Updated on Monday, 21 June 2010 03:09 |
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Marital bliss? The complicated matrimonial history of Phillip II Augustus of France |
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Written by Emily
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Friday, 04 June 2010 19:30 |
Marriage has long been serious business to royals, as unions and bloodlines led to territory, money, prestige, and power – or the lack thereof. For Phillip II Augustus, King of France from 1180-1223, his multiple unions led to several political, religious, and personal nightmares. Phillip’s marital adventures tied him to princesses from Denmark to Geneva to Bavaria, two popes, and accusations of bigamy and kidnapping.
Phillip’s father, Louis VII, had his own complicated marital history. Louis’s first wife was Eleanor of Aquitaine, a wealthy heiress whose considerable inheritance made her a highly desirable bride. However, Eleanor’s fiery personality was not compatible with Louis’s more pious, placid nature. A trip...
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Last Updated on Saturday, 05 June 2010 06:11 |
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