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Saturday, March 30, 2019

#GlobalSussexBabyShower



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The title of this post refers to a hashtag on Twitter that is gaining momentum largely due to fans and admirers of HRH The Duchess of Sussex.

The former Meghan Markle - now a member of the British Royal Family - has been the recipient of racist and hate-filled posts on Twitter and Instagram largely fomented by newspaper and magazine writers who twist and embellish articles that cannot be described as authoritative or accurate.

But let's not focus on hatred.  March 31 is Mothering Sunday in the United Kingdom, which is an excellent day to have a global baby shower that celebrates the upcoming birth of a new member of the Royal Family.

Supporters of the Duchess of Sussex are tweeting and re-tweeting information on how to donate in honor of the soon-to-be new mother.

The most popular charities that are being supported are the charities that have the Duchess as Patron or charities that she has been involved with even before her marriage to the Duke of Sussex.

Here is a list of charities that one can make a donation to take part in the Global Baby Shower.

Campaign for Female Education.  https://camfed.org/

Mayhew https://themayhew.org/

WellChild https://www.wellchild.org.uk/

One 25 https://twitter.com/One25Charity

Queen's Commonwealth Trust https://www.queenscommonwealthtrust.org/

Others are supporting local charities in the USA, Canada, the UK, Europe and elsewhere.

Another person suggested that people use Amazon Smile to purchase copies of Together: Our Community Cookbook and donate the books to local libraries.  https://org.amazon.com/

Actions like this cannot completely erase or ameliorate the pain caused by the keyboards of reporters, feature writers and others who continue to fabricate or twist the true narrative.

Friday, March 29, 2019

Carol will give up the throne


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March 29, 1929


Dowager Queen Marie of Romania returned to Bucharest from Spain today and informed the Government that her eldest son, Crown Prince Carol, "fully recognizes his situation and the futility of any attempt to return to Roumania or to regain the throne," reports the Associated Press.

Marie had spent two days in France with Carol.  He made a pledge to his mother that he "would do nothing to embarrass her or the regency by unseating his young son Michael as king."

All of Roumania's political leaders had approved of Marie's meeting with her son.   Her "principal object" was to obtain Carol's promise that he would not take part in the "political and dynastic affairs" of the country."  He was also persuaded to accept a "more conventional life for the sake of his family."

The Roumanian government denied reports that Prince Stirbey and Mihail Manoilescu had traveled to Paris to arrange for Carol's return to Bucharest.

In a stern statement released earlier today, one government said: "Please make it clear once and for all that neither in the capacity as a crown prince nor as a private citizen can Carol return to Roumania.  When the disinherited Prince signed the law of renunciation to the throne in 1927, he pledged himself solemnly to remain out of the country for at least ten years.  That law is fixed and final and cannot be changed even by parliament.

"Neither can the law creating the regency and establishing Michael as king be altered to allow Carol's return.  The law is an integral part of the existing constitution and is unalterable.  Only a revolution could upset it.

"You may be sure that while Premier Maniu is in power, the prince will never be allowed to set foot on Roumanian soil."

Carol who is now back in Paris refused to "discuss reports" that Prince Stirbey and Mihail Manoilescu were coming to Paris to "escort him back" to Roumania as king.


Planning a trip to Belgrade --- do visit the royal palaces in Dedinje


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OFFICIALY OPENED JUBILEE 15TH TOURIST SEASON AT THE ROYAL COMPOUND IN DEDINJE

Belgrade, 29 March 2019 – Their Royal Highnesses Crown Prince Alexander and Crown Princess Katherine officially opened the tourist season for 2019 and invited everyone interested in visiting the Royal Palaces to join the tours during the period from 3 April to 31 October. This season, 2019, is the jubilee 15th one. Before Royal Family’s coming back to Serbia, the Royal Compound was closed for public, and opening it for the tourists was one of the first important decisions of it’s head – HRH Crown Prince Alexander.

“I am very glad to open the Royal Palaces for another tourist season, already the 15th one! It seems like yesterday when me and my family came back to Serbia, to our home where we belong. The history and memories of the Royal Compound are magnificent, so it is very important that they are conveyed to our younger generation. Unfortunately, it is often the case that our people are not fully aware about the history and important works of art which are here, and organized touristic tours are the best opportunity to see the art and learn something new”, said HRH Crown Prince Alexander.

Media representatives who joined the first tour were welcomed by traditional “pogaca“ bread and salt, they enjoyed the national dance performed by Talija folklore dance troupe, and also had the opportunity to refresh themselves with coffee from a wide range of “Bean and Leaf” products.

Mr. Miodrag Popovic, acting Director of the Tourist Organization of Belgrade, thanked Their Royal Highnesses for the cooperation and emphasized once again that the Royal Compound is one of the biggest tourist attractions in Belgrade.

During the tours, visitors will be accompanied by professional tourist guides and will have the opportunity to visit the Royal Palace, the White Palace, the Royal Chapel of St. Andrew the First-Called and the Royal Park, as well as when available to be greeted by Their Royal Highnesses.  The tour is a pleasant 1½ hour walk to get acquainted with history, art and culture of our country.

Tourist Organization of Belgrade (TOB) organizes visits to the Royal Palaces every Wednesday at 10:00 am, and on weekends – Saturday and Sunday at 10:00 am and 1:00 pm. Ticket purchased from Tourist Organization of Belgrade include organized bus transportation from Nikola Pasic Square to the Royal Palaces (meetings for transport on Wednesday 9:30 am (tour in Serbian); Saturday 9:30 am (tour in English) and 12:30 pm (tour in Serbian); Sunday 9:30 am (tour in English) and 12:30 pm (tour in Serbian). Ticket price is 650 RSD. The number of people in a group is restricted to maximum 50 visitors.

Schools, students and pensioner associations can visit the Royal Palaces in Dedinje in announced group visits every working day from 10:00 am to 2:00 pm with the mandatory notification to the Office of HRH Crown Prince Alexander, +381 11 306 4050 or via e-mail: kancelarija@dvor.rs. Each group must consist of at least 15 visitors and up to a maximum of 50 visitors. Website: www.dvor.rs

For information and reservations, tourists must visit the Tourist Information Centre in Belgrade, Knez Mihailova 56, phone: 011 26 22 798, e-mail: bginfo.knezmihailova@tob.rs, website www.tob.rs

Wednesday, March 27, 2019

Anita Rhinelander Stewart - An American Princess


Anita Stewart


Although he had an impressive lineage, Prince Miguel de Braganca would not have been described as a typical candidate to marry an American heiress. Not only was he perpetually short of funds, but he was also a prince without a country. Miguel was banned from entering Portugal because in 1826, his grandfather, King Miguel I, had usurped the throne from his young niece Queen Maria II. The child queen succeeded to the throne after the death of her grandfather, Joao V, and the renunciation of her father Pedro, the Emperor of Brazil. The condition for his renouncement was for Miguel to marry his daughter.  But Miguel, whose kingly ambitions were encouraged by his mother, was not content to be a Regent or King Consort.

 For six years, Portugal plunged into a Civil War more deadly than Spain's Carlist wars. With the support of his adoring and domineering mother, Queen Carlotta Joaquina, the army, and nobility King Miguel ruled as an absolute monarch. In 1831 many lives were lost when the king crushed two liberal uprisings. In Brazil, opposition to Dom Pedro‘s rule brought about his application in favor of his son Pedro. The former Emperor returned to Europe in a quest that would end with restoring Maria’s rights in September 1832. Dom Miguel continued to fight for the next two years but peace was finally achieved in May 1834 when Miguel agreed to live in exile. Not only was Miguel required to renounce all rights to the throne for himself and his descendants. he and his heirs were also barred from entering Portugal.

The former king settled in Germany where in 1851 he married Princess Adelheid of Löwenstein-Wertheim- Rosenberg. The couple had one son, Miguel, Duke of Braganza, and six daughters whose marriages with members of the Bavarian Austrian Parma and Luxembourg royal families brought the exiled Braganzas into closer contact with most of Europe’s royal families. The eldest daughter Maria das Neves married the Duke of San Jaime the car list for tender to the Spanish throne.

The Duke of Braganza married twice.  He had two sons, Miguel, and Francisco José, and a daughter Maria Teresa by his first wife, Princess Elisabeth of Thurn und Taxis, a niece of Empress Elisabeth of Austria.  Princess Elisabeth died several weeks after giving birth to their daughter.   The Duke of Braganza waited eleven years before he married again. His second wife was a first cousin, Princess Maria Theresa of Lowenstein-Wertheim-Rosenberg by whom he had eight more children.

For many years the family had lived at Schloss Bronnbach in Baden, Germany.  In the 1860s the duke bought Schloss Seebenstein, near Vienna, with money provided by the Dowager Duchess of Braganza's family. By 1909, the Seebenstein estate was heavily mortgaged.

In 1908 the Duke of Braganza began to campaign actively for the restoration of his family's dynastic rights. He was interviewed by several Viennese papers. Die Zeit and Die Neue Frei Presse, in which he criticized King Carlos' reign, and he declared himself ready to accept "the throne of his father's".

The duke was supported by his eldest sons.  All three were commissioned officers in the Austrian army.  the Duke of the Duke was a colonel of the Hussars. Following the murders of King Carlos and Crown Prince Luiz Filipe that October, King Edward VII wrote to Franz Josef expressing his displeasure "that the emperor should allow a Portuguese revolution to be conducted from his capital."

 It was intimated that the duke's own statements partially influenced the tragedy in Lisbon. Franz Joseph had allowed the exiled Braganzas to live in Austria. The family was also closely related to his sister-in-law, Archduchess Maria Theresa, the wife of Archduke Karl Ludwig, who was the Duke of Braganca's sister. Although the Duke was allowed to resign his commission his two sons were summarily dismissed from their posts. Francisco José went to live in Paris, while Prince Miguel "spent much of his time on the fringe of London society looking for an heiress," according to The New York Times.

Several young American heiresses collectively known as the dollar princesses had secured titled husbands among the nobility of Britain and Continental Europe, although, despite the infusion of hard American cash into the genealogically superior but cash-poor families of Europe, the marriages were far from being fairytale events. By the early 1900s, a second generation of the dollar princesses was spending the seasons in London and Paris where they or at least their mamas hope to catch the eye of a very eligible (but not always wealthy) titled me.  These young women were attractive educated but naïve and this naïveté appealed to so many young British and European aristocrats. Of course, Daddy's healthy bank balance -- and the promise of a huge dowry, did not hurt their chances to secure a titled husband.

Anita Rhinelander Stewart was one of those women.  She was born August 7, 1886, in Elberon, New Jersey 1886.  She was one of two children of William Rhinelander Stewart and Annie McKee Armstrong.  Anita descended from several of the most prominent New York Knickerbocker families.  Her mother “one of the most beautiful and admired" women in New York, was one of the city's great hostesses and it was her attention to the social calendar that led to the couple's divorce in 1906. A lawyer by profession William Rhinelander Stewart was actively involved in many philanthropic matters but was described as a "retiring man" averse to “society rather than courting it; contented with activities which do not create much noise in the world and deriving calm satisfaction from his studies and his books."

Enter James "Silent" Smith, a Wall Street financier, a taciturn man who was a member of a social coterie that was centered in Bar Harbor, Maine, and Tuxedo, New York.  Mr. and Mrs. William Rhinelander Stewart were among his closest friends.   Some years before Smith had inherited more than $30 million from an eccentric uncle who one afternoon fell asleep in the chair at his London club and did not wake up for dinner.

Friends wondered what James planned to do with his new fortune. He built a great house in Tuxedo, took a parterre box at the opera, leased a townhouse on 57th Street in New York City, and became a patron of the arts. In 1904, he bought the late William C. Whitney‘s magnificent New York townhouse. Society mavens wondered who would become the mistress of his home. Not Mrs. Stuyvesant Fish II, who was his social mentor in Tuxedo, but Mrs. William Rhinelander Stewart who had conducted a “sentimental friendship" with Smith for some years while her own marriage was foundering.

'William Rhinelander Stewart, preferred his charities and municipal reform, while Annie loved parties, the exposure, and the highlights of New York society.

The Stewarts were divorced in August 1906. Less than a month later Mrs. Stewart accompanied by her daughter Anita arrived in England on the Baltic.  On September 13, 1906, Mrs. Stewart and Mr. Smith were married in a parish church in Inverness. The couple said out on a world tour and warn Kobe, Japan, when Smith who suffered from Brights Disease and a heart ailment, collapsed, and died on March 27, 1907. The bulk of Smith’s estate was left to two nephews, but his widow received more than $3 million.  Anita was also provided for Smith to leave her $500,000 in life interest in Chicago railroad stock and other ventures.

Encouraged by her socially prominent mother Anita become one of the most eligible of the young American heiresses. It was not a surprise that her fortune would come to the attention of Dom Miguel. In London and in Paris the prince had courted several young American girls. Naturally, he was the subject of much gossip. It was averred that he had pursued Miss Beatrice Mills, but she married the count of Granard instead.

 Prince Miguel was first introduced to Anita Stewart in Paris in April 1909 where he "was at once attracted by her." It was an assiduous courtship as Dom Miguel pursued Anita to London where mutual friends arranged for the couple to see each other as often as possible.  Their engagement was announced on July 9, 1909, at a concert dance hosted by Anita’s mother.  Mrs. Smith had rented the Duchess of Somerset's Berkeley Square house for the season. The New York Times noted that a “noticeable number of Austrians were among the guests and the entertainment was a very smart affair."  Mrs. Smith received her guests in black and wearing a superb string of pearls.  Miss Stewart wore a "shimmering gown of pink chiffon over a cloth of silver."

 From his summer home in Bar Harbor, William Rhinelander Stewart told reporters he had no comment to make on his daughter's marriage   Anita Rhinelander Stewart's "dowry was $1,000,000, which Smith had given to her after his marriage to her mother.  Mrs. Smith added another million dollars to the dowry.

Dom Miguel's dynastic claims may have been a bit shaky but so were the questions concerning his marriage to an American. It was erroneously reported that to obtain his father's consent for the marriage Miguel had renounced his right to the Portuguese throne. Anita, however, was not going to settle for a morganatic marriage.  She made it quite clear that she would not marry Miguel if the marriage had been designated as unequal. The wealthy Miss Stewart also caught the eye of Emperor Franz Joseph. On September 6, it was announced that the Austrian emperor conferred on Miss Stewart the rank of Princess in her own right.

"It seems rather easier than we thought for an emperor to transform a plain American miss into a Princess when no principality goes with the title and no pecuniary endowment. Miss Stewart is buying her own principality, and is expected to endow rather than being endowed," commented the New York Times in one editorial.

The reports about Anita being created a Princess in her own right were incorrect.  Franz Josef did nothing of the sort.  What he did, however, was to recognize her status "as determined by Portuguese rules of nobility."

Indeed, the forthcoming nuptials of the American heiress and the bankrupt Portuguese Prince were preceded by “an avalanche of breathless speculation by the New York newspapers" on the couple's chances of one day reigning in Portugal.  At the time of their marriage, King Manoel II was unmarried as was his heir presumptive his uncle, the Duke of Oporto.

Several days before the wedding, Miguel gave a luncheon party at Claridge's Hotel for his bride-to-be.  The Times regaled its readers with the report “that elaborate preparations are being made in Dingwall for the wedding” and that Miss Stewart was staying at Tulloch Castle, which her mother had rented for the duration of the shooting season. “The church is to be converted into a grotto buying arrangement of evergreens and smilax, the sanctuary will be decorated with palms and white lilies and the front of the choir will be decorated with the Braganca colors, ruby, and blue."

 The wedding was nearly canceled because Anita refused to convert to Roman Catholicism. The matter was quietly settled on the eve of the marriage with Mrs. Smith agreeing to pay Miguel's massive debts.

The 31-year-old bridegroom’s gift to his bride was a feather cluster of diamonds and sapphires that belong to the Portuguese royal family for more than 200 years. King Miguel had presented the jewels to his daughter-in-law Princess Elisabeth of Thurn und Taxis when she married the Duke of Braganza. Dom Miguel inherited her jewels.  The Duke of Braganza's sister-in-law, Archduchess Maria Theresa (the widow of Archduke Karl Ludwig) gave the bride 5 écaile blonde combs; another of Miguel's aunts, the Princess of Schwartzenberg gave a parasol.   Mrs. Smith’s gift to her daughter was a diamond tiara and a row of pearls. Anita presented her husband with a gold watch set in diamonds, a gold chain, and a gold locket also set in diamonds.


The wedding took place on September 15, 1909, at St. Lawrence Roman Catholic Church in Dingwall. The New York Times noted that this was the first royal wedding in Scotland since Mary Queen of Scots.   Coincidences abounded: both marriages have been performed by Bishop Chisholm; the bride descended from the Stewart kings as did Prince Miguel, and the congregation of the little church was made up of descendants of those clans who were Catholic during the reign of Mary Queen of Scots.   The roads that lead from Tulloch Castle to the little church were decorated with American, Austrian, and Portuguese flags. Anita would have noticed a sign that read “Long life and happiness to the prince and princess" as she was driven to the church.

[Anita Stewart was a descendant of King James I of Scotland by his wife Joan Beaufort, a granddaughter of John of Gaunt and Katherine Swynford.  The details of the line of the descent can be found in  Americans of Royal Descent: A Collection of Genealogies of American Families Whose Lineage is Traced to the Legitimate Issue of Kings by Charles Henry Browning, which was published in  1891. https://books.google.com/books?id=dIUaAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA404&lpg=PA404&dq=lispenard+stewart&source=bl&ots=0k2SALr7Wv&sig=ACfU3U3AKUtFAwczbJx6WbeZ8jpnvuoKUQ&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwj2yfLR663hAhVPL6wKHYgQDjkQ6AEwDXoECAkQAQ#v=onepage&q=lispenard%20stewart&f=false]


The ceremony began at noon. To the strains of "the Wedding March" from Wagner's opera Lohengrin, the bride was escorted down the aisle by her tartan-clad brother William Rhinelander Stewart, Jr. There were no attendants.  Anita "wore a graceful dress, carrying a long train of snow-white chiffon over soft satin. The chiffon was embellished by long lines of fine embroidery in white silk heather and tiny pearls, made up of sprays of heather, Fleur de Lis, and Portuguese devices."  Her veil was of old lace worn over a wreath of orange blossoms and heather and held in place by the feather clusters given to her by Prince Miguel. The bride also wore a set of combs, a gift from Archduchess Maria Teresa.

Attired in a Maltese uniform, “a brilliant scarlet Court dress, heavily decorated with gold, Miguel was supported by his younger brother Prince Francisco José. The wedding ceremony lasted 20 minutes and was followed by a Low Mass.  Bishop Chisholm, who said mass daily for the king and queen of Spain, when they visited Scotland, pronounced the Pope‘s blessing for the couple.

The newlyweds and their guests return to Tulloch castle for the wedding breakfast. The new Duke and Duchess of Viseu as they were now officially styled, were driven to Inverness where they caught the train for the south.  They traveled to Vienna where Emperor Franz Josef presented the new princess to the Austrian Court.

Miguel and Anita lived with her mother in London until she got tired of supporting Miguel's spendthrift ways.  In June 1910 Anita gave birth to a daughter, Nada. Two years later at Pippingford in Sussex, the couple's first son John was born.  The outbreak of World War I forced the family, who were Austrian nationals, to seek refuge in Switzerland.  Their third child Miguel was born in Berlin in September 1915.

Miguel abandoned his family to join the German army.   Anita and the three children remained in Switzerland until December 1919 when they sailed to New York on the Italian liner, Pesario. The family was met at the pier by William Rhinelander Smith who had not seen his daughter in 11 years and her brother, William.  The three little Braganza children all wore sailor costumes with pilot coats and brass buttons, Seven-year-old Prince John told reporters: “Yes, we had Christmas on board but there were not many gifts."   Anita said she planned to remain in America indefinitely but added that her husband would stay in Switzerland due to his status as an “ex-territorial"   Her brother denied that his sister and her husband were estranged, adding that “they were very much attached to each other."

Eventually, Prince Miguel, who had trained as a broker in London before the war, was reunited with his wife and children in New York.  In November 1922, he started work as a salesman with John C. Paige & Co, an insurance firm where his brother-in-law was a member.   Returning to Europe to live was out of the question.  Austria was now a republic and its royal family -- Miguel's cousins --were in exile.

A revolution in 1910 ended the Portuguese monarchy. King Manoel II was living in England with his wife, Princess Augusta Victoria of Hohenzollern, whom he had married in 1913. The couple had no children. In 1917, the Duke of Oporto married an American woman, Nevada Hayes.  This marriage was also childless. If the Portuguese throne were to be restored, the Duke of Braganza's descendants could return to Portugal.  In July 1920, the Duke of Viseu waived all rights for himself and his descendants to the putative Portuguese throne. A week later his elderly father renounced his rights in favor of his third son Dom Duarte.

King Manoel II had never given his approval for marriage. By the late 1920s, after the deaths of Prince Miguel and his father, the status of Anita and her children changed.  This was noted in the Almanach de Gotha.  Until the volume was published in 1927, Anita's three children were listed with their full names and titles.  But after 1927, the Gotha included the marriage but not the details about the children, apart from the fact that the couple had two sons and one daughter.   The reason for this change was due to the relationship between King Manoel II and Dom Duarte, who was the younger half-brother of Prince Miguel.  He succeeded as Duke of Braganza on October 11, 1927, following the death of his father.  The plans were in place for the new Duke, then only 20 years old, to be recognized as Manoel II's heir.

Anita's descendants have no dynastic rights to the Portuguese throne.

[After King Manoel II died in 1932, Dom Duarte's rights were assured when Portuguese monarchists acknowledged him as King Duarte I.  In 1950, Portugal’s National Assembly lifted the ban against the descendants of King Miguel. The current head of the house is Dom Duarte's eldest son Duarte, Duke of Braganza, who lives in Lisbon with his wife and two children.]

 In February 1923, Anita and Miguel were staying at her brother's New York residence when Miguel suffered a severe attack of influenza. As Miguel was responding to treatment, Anita left for Newport, Rhode Island, to visit their summer home, the Moorings.  His condition quickly worsened when he developed double pneumonia and Anita was summarily recalled from Newport.

One of his childhood friends, Count Laszlo Széchényi Sárvár-Felsövidék,, who was Hungary's Minister to the United States, came from Washington, D.C., to see him. Anita's brother hurried back from his winter home in Palm Beach, Florida.  All three were at Miguel's bedside when he died at 2:00 a.m., on February 21.  Funeral services were held at the Stewart home. A High Mass was solemnized at the church of Saint Vincent Ferraro and, at his expressed wish Miguel was buried at Bronnbach in Baden,

Anita's mother, Annie, who had married for a third time in 1915 to Jean St. Cyr, died in California in 1925.  She left an estate worth $40 million, of which one-third was left to her younger husband.  Nearly $250,000 of the estate was given to Prince Alexander of Thurn und Taxis, a cousin of Prince Miguel.  The money he received represented a share of securities valued at $500,00, that the then Mrs. Smith had turned it over to the Girard Trust Company in 1913.  Alexander received a share of this trust as Miguel had been indebted to his cousin for the sum of $55,936.  At that time, Anita assigned to Prince Alexander an interest "amounting to about $240,000, effective upon Mrs. St. Cyr's death."    She had made the assignment to pay her husband's cousin after her mother's death.  By accepting the assignment, Alexander released Miguel from "all liability on the judgments."

Anita inherited the rest of her mother's estate.   She regained her American citizenship in March 1926 following the renouncement of her royal titles in the Superior Court in Newport.  Although her legal name became Anita de Braganca, she was still referred to as Princess Anita, especially socially.  Several years later, in an action that surprised many in her social circle, Anita opened a photography studio in New York City which she operated for many years.

Her father died in September 1929.  Anita and her brother were heirs to their father's estate and also received a percentage of the residue and two trusts from their father's older brother, Lispenard Stewart, who had died in 1927.

She maintained contact with her husband's family in Europe. In 1934, Anita made the official announcement of her half-sister-in-law, Princess Maria Antonia's engagement to Harvard graduate Ashley Chandler.

Maria Antonia had come to the United States in the summer of 1933 to be a bridesmaid at the marriage of Agnes Clark in San Mateo California.  She enjoyed her visit to the States so much that she remained with friends in Bar Harbor. She also spent time with Anita and her family at their home in Newport.  Ashley Chanler, a descendant of   John Jacob Astor had met his future wife on board the Europa.  They married on June 14, 1934, at Schloss Seebenstein, but resided in New York City.

On April 10, 1946, Anita, who was described by the New York Times as Princess de Braganca, married Lewis Gouverneur Morris, at St. Ann's Episcopal Church in the Bronx. Morris. a "member of a family long identified with society here (NYC) and in Newport, was a descendant of several colonial American families.  He was a former banker, who had served time in prison in 1921 after his brokerage firm had suffered a financial failure.  His first wife, Nathalie Lorillard Bailey, died in 1935.

The newlyweds divided their time between Malbone Castle in Newport and a residence at 1510 Park Avenue in New York City.

The joy of her marriage was soon tempered by the death of her only daughter, Nada, who had been married twice, and committed suicide, leaving behind a teenage son.  John and Miguel became American citizens.  John settled in Winston Salem North Carolina and Miguel, an airline pilot, raised his family in Bedford Hills New York. The two brothers and their families also maintained winter homes in Palm Beach, Florida. John died in 1991 and Miguel passed away at his home in Palm Beach in February 1996.

Malbone Castle

Lewis Morris died at Malbone Castle after a lengthy illness.

Anita spent her final years at her homes in Newport and Palm Beach.  She died on September 15, 1977, the 66th anniversary of her first marriage, at Malbone Castle in Newport.


Anita and Lewis are buried next to each other in the cemetery at St. Columba Episcopal Church in Middletown, Rhode Island.


[Anita was not the only member of her family to marry into foreign nobility and royalty. Her maternal first cousin, Margaretta Armstrong Drexel, the daughter of Alexander Drexel of Philadelphia and Margarita Armstrong, married Guy Finch-Hatton,14th Earl of Winchilsea and 9th Earl of Nottingham, in 1910.  Their eldest son, Christopher, the 15th Earl of Winchilsea, married Countess Gladys Széchényi Sárvár-Felsövidék, the 3rd of five daughters of Count Laszlo  Széchényi Sárvár-Felsövidék and Gladys Vanderbilt.  Laszlo was the childhood friend of Prince Miguel.]

An earlier version of this article was published in 1996 in Royalty Digest.

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Prince Welf August of Hannover?



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Bunte is reporting that the newborn son of Hereditary Prince Ernst August and Hereditary Princess Ekaterina has been named Welf August.  The family has not confirmed this and the report is based on a now deleted Instagram post, where one friend wrote "Welcome Welf August."


The little prince was born on March 14 at the Henriettenstift in Hanover.

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The tradition of naming the eldest son, Ernst August, actually began in 1914, when  Prince Ernst August of Hanover, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg, and his wife, Princess Viktoria Luise of Prussia, the only daughter of Kaiser Wilhelm II.

The Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg was the third son of the former Crown Prince Ernst August of Hanover and Princess Thyra of Denmark.  Crown Prince Ernst August was the only son of King Georg V of Hanover.   Ernst August, who adopted the use of his father's British peerage, Duke of Cumberland, after King Georg V's death in 1878, was the third son.

The eldest son, Prince Georg Wilhelm, was killed in a car accident en route to his uncle, King Frederik VIII of Denmark's funeral in May 1912.  The second son, Prince Christian, was only 16 years old when he developed appendicitis that led to peritonitis, which caused his death in September 1901.

Thus, Prince Ernst August did not become his father's heir until Georg Wilhelm's death.   He named his second son, born in 1915, for his eldest brother.

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 The former Duke of Cumberland - he lost his British titles in 1917 with the Titles Deprivation Act - died in 1923 and was succeeded as head of the house of Hanover by his youngest but only surviving son, Ernst August.

Ernst August was married in 1951 to Princess Ortrud of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg.   He succeeded his father as head of the house in January 1953.  The couple's first son (and second child) was born in February 1954 and was given the first name Ernst August. 

In 1981, Prince Ernst August married Chantal Hochuli.  They had two sons,  Ernst August (1983) and Prince Christian (1985).   It is this Prince Ernst August, who now runs the family businesses, who has chosen to break the nearly 115 year old tradition of the naming the eldest son, Ernst August.

Welcome Prince Welf August.    Welf is also a Hanover family name. The name has been used twice in the 20th century:  Prince Welf  Heinrich (1923-1997), the youngest son of  the Duke and Duchess of Brunswick and Prince Welf (1947-1981), the eldest son of  Prince Georg Wilhelm and Princess Sophie (of Greece and Denmark.)  The latter Prince Welf was a first cousin of the Prince of Wales.

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It must said that the use of Ernst August as the name for the eldest son appears to apply to legitimate children.

Baroness Maria Anna von Humboldt-Dachroeden, the first wife of Prince Hubertus of Prussia, gave birth to a son, Christian Ernst August Hubertus Freiherr von Humboldt-Dachroeden on December 27, 1943.  She had married Prince Hubertus in December 1941. The marriage was dissolved a year later and is June 1943,  Hubertus married Princess Magdalene Reuss.

It appears that Maria Anna was in love with Hubertus' first cousin, Prince Ernst August of Hanover (1914-1980) and he was the father of her son, Christian.


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http://royalmusingsblogspotcom.blogspot.com/2010/12/if-circumstances-had-been-different.html


https://www.bunte.de/royals/royals-weltweit/deutscher-adel/ernst-august-von-hannover-er-will-seinen-enkelsohn-nicht-anerkennen.html

Tuesday, March 26, 2019

So where was Skippy?


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Tatler and other sources are making hay these days with poorly researched articles.  The May issue of Tatler includes an article on the Duchess of Sussex.  Among other statements, the magazine claims that several of Harry's close friends, including Tom "Skippy" Inskip, were not invited to the evening wedding reception at Frogmore House.

Perhaps someone should tell the writer of the Tatler article that Skippy gave one of the speeches at the evening reception, at least according to several newspapers. If this information is not correct, why not issue corrections.

Daily Mail: "Its three courses were understood to have been peppered with 'naughty' speeches from Prince William and a joint effort from Tom Inskip, known as 'Skippy' and Tom Van Straubenzee. Any crude nods to Prince Harry's playboy past were held back until the older guests had departed.

Harry's closest confidante – was also under strict instructions to downplay Prince Harry's Las Vegas trips – all before he met Meghan."

Daily Express:  "Featuring risqué speeches from Prince William and Harry’s pals Tom Inskip and Tom Van Straubenzee – references to the Royal groom’s former party-going lifestyle kept under wraps until the older guests had departed."

Independent:  "and there was also said to be a "risqué" joint effort delivered by Prince Harry's friend from Eton days, Tom Inskip (a banker known as "Skippy"), and property agent Tom van Straubenzee, whom Prince Harry knows from their days at Ludgrove prep school."

Daily Express:  "Prince William was said to have joined forces with guests Tom Inskip and Tom Van Straubenzee for the cheeky speech, though details of exactly what he said to his brother remains unknown."

Tom and his wife, Lara, now live in Washington, D.C.  Lara works as a software developer and Tom is the Chief Commercial Officer for Afiniti, the firm that also employs Princess Beatrice.

https://www.afiniti.com/team/thomas-inskip


Guy Pelly and his wife and young daughter are now said to be living in Tennessee, where Guy bought a home last fall and has plans to farm in Tennesse, not-to-far from his in-laws' residence.


Friday, March 22, 2019

Day 3-4 Newport, Rhode Island

Malbone Castle.  Sadly, this house nor its gardens are open to the public,


Finally able to catch up on my brief visit to Newport.  Suffered a minor concussion a few days so now finally feeling better -- although the bump on my head is still a bump -- and able to get back to doing things.


On day 3, my friend Cassie and I drove to see Malbone Castle, once the home of Anita Rhinelander Stewart (1896-1977)  and her second husband, Lewis Morris (1882-1967).

Malbone was built in the late 1840s after a fire destroyed the original mansion, originally the home of Colonel Godfrey Malbone of Virginia and Connecticut.  George Washington visit stayed with Malbone in February 1756.  The two men were childhood friends.   The house was destroyed by fire in 1766 and remained a ruin until 1848 when it was rebuilt by Mr. and Mrs. Jonathan Prescott Hall.

The house remained in the Morris-Bedlow family for more than 130 years and was used as the summer cottage.  Malbone Cottage is the oldest mansion in Newport.  Although the Morris family bequeathed the house to the Newport Preservation Society, the house remains in private hands.   It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Anita Stewart's first marriage to  Prince Miguel, Duke of Viseu (1878–1923), a member of the exiled Portuguese royal family, took place on September 15, 1909, in Dingwell, Scotland.  Prince Miguel was the eldest son of Dom Miguel, Duke of Braganza, and a grandson of King Miguel I of Portugal.

Prince Miguel died in 1923.  Anita and her children returned to the United States to live.  She renounced her royal titles in order to regain her American citizenship.  She married Lewis Morris in 1946.

Anita died at Malbone.   She and her husband are buried in the cemetery at St. Columba Episcopalian Church in Middletown, Rhode Island, which is the town next to Newport on Aquidneck Island.

While we looked for their graves, I discovered other interesting tombstones:
Prince Serge Mdivani and Cynthia Burke Roche Cary.  Serge Mdvani, was one of the marrying Mdvanis, five siblings who had at least eleven marriages between them.

The family is a Georgian noble family that fled the Soviet Union.   Louise Astor Van Alen was Serge's third wife. She had previously been married to his brother, Alexis.

Louise grew up at Wakehurst in Newport.  She was the daughter of James Laurens Van Alen and Margaret Post.  James was the son of James John Van Alan and Emily Astor, who was the daughter of William Backhouse Astor, the owner of Beechwood.   Much her family's dismay she married Alexis Mdvani in 1931.  A year later, he divorced her to marry Woolworth heiress Barbara Hutton. In 1936, she married his brother, Serge, who had been previously wed to actress Pola Negri and opera singer Mary McCormic.    Serge died only a few months after his marriage to Louise. He suffered a fatal injury during a polo match.

The Van Alen family sold Wakehurst to Salve Regina University in Newport in 1972.

Cynthia Burke Roche (1884-1966) was the daughter of James Roche, 3rd Baron Fermoy, and the American heiress, Frances Work. Her brother, Maurice, 4th Baron Fermoy, was the maternal grandfather of the late Diana, Princess of Wales.   Cynthia, who became a naturalized American citizen in 1908. Her second husband, Guy Fairfax Cary Sr. (1879–1950).  She was a noted art collector and Newport society hostess.

The Dukes of Cambridge and Sussex have numerous American cousins, the descendants of Cynthia's two marriages.


After seeing Malbone Castle and St. Columba's Church & Cemetery, we returned to Sachuset National Wildlife Refuge for a long walk (and another glimpse at the Snowy Owl.  I got "attacked" by a sneaker wave ... my sneakers got a bit wet.  We also did the Cliff Walk from the 40 Steps to sort of near Rough Point.

Only three of the homes, The Breakers, The Elms and Marble House, were open.  More will open as the summer season approaches.  The weather was lovely and no crowds.  So much history!



























Ochre Court, once the summer home of Ogden & May Goelet & their family, 2nd largest mansion after the Breakers.  Their daughter, May, married the 8th Duke of Roxeburghe,  Their son Robert gave the mansion to Regina Salve University.







The Breakers   the Vanderbilt summer cottage

Don't know the name of this house





Beechwood .. get a nicer fence  Mr. Ellison

Marlbe House





Just walking along

Seriously, this was not the easy part

I WANT A GOOD PHOTO OF BEECHWOOD  

Rough Point






Kingscote . A Gothic revival house.  Not open when I was in Newport  https://www.newportmansions.org/explore/kingscote










Trinity Church  George Washington worshipped here










Pronounced Thaymes



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