Royal Musings: December 2025

Sunday, December 7, 2025

Is Lady Amelia about to marry?

On December 6, an unnamed Daily Mail reporter published an article, "It's wedding bells for 'most beautiful royal' Lady Amelia Windsor. The groom-to-be is a property developer, Ollie Lewis.

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Their relationship became public knowledge when Amelia was snapped "cosying up to Ollie" at Glastonbury in June 2023. They have attended Wimbledon in 2024 and 2025 and live together in "Hackers," which the socially elite call Hackney, a London neighborhood.

Lady Amelia Sophia Theodora Mary Margaret Windsor was born on August 24, 1995, in the Rosie Hospital in Cambridge. She is the youngest of three children of George, Earl of St. Andrews, and his wife, Sylvania Tomaselli. Although she and her two older siblings, Edward, Lord Downpatrick, and Lady Marina Windsor, were baptized in the Anglican Church, Edward and Marina chose to be confirmed in the Roman Catholic Church.

Her mother, the Countess of St. Andrews, is known in academia as Dr. Sylvana Tomaselli. She is a Fellow of St. John's College at Cambridge University.

https://www.joh.cam.ac.uk/research/academics/fellows/dr-sylvana-tomaselli

Lady Marina's engagement to Nico Macauley was announced in June.

https://royalmusingsblogspotcom.blogspot.com/2025/07/lady-marina-charlotte-windsors-official.html

Lord St. Andrews is the eldest son and heir to his father, HRH The Duke of Kent.

Since 2016, Lady Amelia has been represented by Storm Management, a modeling agency. She is also interested in horticulture and contributes freelance gardening articles to several magazines.

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I've spent several hours tracking down property developers named Ollie Lewis. One possible lead is Oliver Howard Lewis, born in Hillingdon, Surrey, in November 1981. He is the son of Christopher Lewis and Eva Gawlik. Christopher and Eva founded Town Estates Ltd in 1999. In April 2025, Oliver joined the firm as a director. He has spent 25 years in the real estate business.

Ollie's LinkedIn includes a photograph. I may be wrong, but I see similarities between the LinkedIn photo and the more recent images with Lady Amelia.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/oliver-lewis-14029528/?originalSubdomain=uk

Will this be an engagement announcement or going to the chapel where they will be married?

If it turns out I got the wrong Ollie, I will do a rewrite.

She's the One

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After more than ten years together, Princess Mafalda of Hesse and Rolf Sachs will soon tie the knot. This will be the fourth marriage for 60-year-old Princess, who is the daughter of the late Moritz, Landgrave of Hesse, and Princess Tatiana of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg.

German magazine Bunte was the first to report the forthcoming nuptials. Sachs, 70, is an artist and the eldest son of the late Playboy Gunter Sachs.

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Sachs confirmed the wedding to Bunte: "Simply feels good -- it feels good and everything is right between us." He also spoke to the German newspaper, Bild: "Yes, we're getting married, and we're really looking forward to it. She's the one."

The Princess is the granddaughter of the late Princess Mafalda of Savoy, daughter of King Vittorio Emanuele of Italy, who died in the Buchenwald concentration camp in 1944. In 1925, Princess Mafalda married Prince Philipp of Hesse, the son of Friedrich Karl, Landgrave of Hesse, and Princess Margarete of Prussia, the youngest child of Princess Victoria (Empress Friedrich) and Emperor Friedrich III of Germany. Victoria was the eldest child of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert.

Mafalda's first marriage to Don Enrico dei Conti Marone Cinzano ended in divorce in 1991 and was annulled in 2000. In 1991, she married Italian Carlo Galdo. The couple had two daughters, Tatiana and Polissena, before divorcing in 1999.

A year after her second divorce, Princess Mafalda married Count Ferdinando Brachetti Peretti. They had two sons, Cosmo and Briano. This marriage was also dissolved by divorce.

In 1985, Sachs married Iranian-born writer Maryam Banihashem. They had three children together: Philip, Frederik, and Roya. Rolf and Maryam were divorced in 2014.

Princess Mafalda and Rolf Sachs "share a passion for art," and, according to Bild, they "exude glamour effortlessly." The princess is a former Armani model and now designs sets and costumes.

The date and place of the wedding have not been announced.

Hereditary Count of Waldburg-Wolfegg to marry

@CDU

H Ill H Hereditary Count Ludwig von Waldburg zu Wolfegg und Waldsee is no longer single. He recently became engaged to Countess Marie von Seilern und Aspang. The 33-year-old Hereditary Count is the eldest of three children of HSH Johannes Franz Xaver Willibald Maria Josef Philipp Jeningen Leonhard Reichserbtruchsess, von Waldburg zu Wolfegg und Waldsee and Viviana dei Conti Rimbotti.

Ludwig Franz Willibald Maria Josef Leonhard, Hereditary Count von Waldburg zu Wolfegg und Waldsee was born on July 12,1990, at Ravensburg, Germany.

Countess Marie Magdalena Fatima Elisabeth Servatia Balthasara von Seilern und Aspang was born on May 13, 1989, in Vienna, Austria, the third of four children of Count Thomas von Seilern und Aspang and Baroness Sophie Marie Amelie Norberta Leonarda Henriette Florence Margaretha von Gudenus.

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Through her mother, Countess Marie is a great-great-granddaughter of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria and Countess Sophie Chotek von Chotkow und Wognin.

Franz Ferdinand - Princess Sophie of Hohenberg - Countess Sophie von Nostitz-Rieneck - Baroness Sophie von Gudenus - Countess Marie von Seilern-Aspang.

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@LinkedIn

Marie has been living in Lisbon for at least five years. She is employed at the German School in Lisbon where she works in the Human Resources Department.

Ludwig earned a Bachelor of Art degree in history from Royal Hollaway, a part of the University of London. He worked for numerous companies, including Wayfair, Google and Lazada, where he was based in Indonesia between 2013-2014.

Since January 2022, the Hereditary Count has been the Co-Managing Director with his family's business, the Fürst Waldburg-Wolfegg-Waldsee Group. He is also the chairman of the CDU's Ravensburg District Association.

https://www.waldburg-wolfegg-waldsee.de/

The Hereditary Count has an 11-year-old son, Barack, from a brief relationship with Indonesian actress, Jessica Iskandar.

Friday, December 5, 2025

Christmas decorating day

Shh!!! Harper and Fleur are sleeping. While I sort out the lights and ornaments and start decorating the tree, you can enjoy photos from earlier tonight in London with the Princess of Wales and other members of the British Royal Family at the annual Together at Christmas Concert, which will be televised on Christmas Eve on ITV.

BritBox will also have the program available starting on Christmas Eve.

Hot chocolate required for tree decorating

Tuesday, December 2, 2025

Day 11- Holkham - Blickling - Poachers Pocket

Our first full day in Norfolk! We had brought breakfast food with us - and it was lovely to sit on the balcony in the warm sunshine, savouring the coffee and greeting Mr Seagull. Since the hotel screwed up our three-night reservation, we had to check out. Last night, Alison found a B&B near the beach ... more on that later!

An old church in Norfolk

We have arrived at Holkham Hall, the home of the Earl & Countess of Leicester https://www.holkham.co.uk/

Lord Leicester wants Holkham Hall to be "the UK’s most pioneering and sustainable rural estate".

The Countess says Play the piano if you can!!!

Don't sit on the chair!

Lady Anne Osborne, who married Robert Coke in 1672, Artist: Godfrey Kneller

The photo was signed by the two princesses and the Queen.

The Earl of Leicester's art collection is breathtaking. A visit to Holkham Hall is recommended, as the house is full of history and great art. The gardens and beach are also impressive.

The couple has four children: Lady Hermione (1998), Lady Juno (2000), Edward, Viscount Coke (2003), and Lady Elizabeth (2006)

This garden is not open to the public.

Deer have the run of the estate.

Cute geese

A flotilla

and they keep coming

Michael Rhodes by the fountain

After a quick lunch at Holkham's cafe and shopping in their store, it was time to head back to the car for the drive to Blicking Hall.

The Holkham Hall guidebook is 162 pages.

https://www.holkham.co.uk/

https://archive.ph/rfUwS

The Blicking Estate is run by the National Trust. Anne Boleyn's father, Sir Thomas Boleyn, inherited Blicking in 1505. As Anne's date of birth has never been confirmed, it is not certain where she was born: at Blicking or at Hever Castle. Sir Thomas died in 1539, and the estate passed to relatives, the de Clere family. In 1616, Sir Edward de Clere's widow sold Blicking to Sir Henry Hobart, Bt.

It was the Hobart family who celebrated Blicking as Anne Boleyn's place of birth. Sir Henry had the original Tudor home demolished. A new Jacobean mansion was built. The architect was Robert Lyminge, who also designed Hatfield House.

The fifth Baronet, John Hobart, was created the Earl of Buckinghamshire. He restored the family finances, leaving his son, John, the 2nd Earl, with a large inheritance. The 2nd Earl made "extensive changes" to the house.

The estate was inherited by Lord Buckinghamshire's second daughter, Caroline, who was married to William Assheton Harbord, Lord Suffield. As he had no surviving sons, the earldom passed to his half-brother, George. When Lord Suffield died in 1821, Blickling passed to his wife's nephew, John Kerr, the 7th Marquess of Lothian. As Caroline survived the 7th Marquess by seven years, the estate was inherited by his son, William, 8th Marquess of Lothian.

Lord Lothian was only 18 when he took possession of the house and property. He was only 38 when he died, and his wife (and first cousin), Constance, ran the estate for many years. When she died, the estate passed to a nephew, Philip Kerr, 11th Marquess of Lothian.

Blicking was Lord Lothian's primary English home. He was the "driving force behind a change" to the National Trust Act of 1937. The Country House scheme was created, which allowed "historic houses to be given to the nation in lieu of taxes, with the land held as an endowment to preserve the house and contents."

The Blicking Estate was the first to benefit from the new law. Lord Lothian died in 1940, and Blicking was bequeathed to the National Trust.

We were heading down the road toward the house -- we thought --, and then I said, I think we just drove past it as it was a big house. Alison found a spot to do a U-turn - and spotted the Blicking Parking entrance.