Thanks to the Pandemic and problems with the USPS (no fault of its own), Christmas mail has been arriving in spurts. The card from Monaco arrived yesterday.
This is a selection of the cards I have received so far. I anticipate (never expect) more cards to arrive this month.
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| This was a thank you card from Vera Arrivabene & her fiance, Briano dei Conti Martinoni Caleppio |
Her Royal Highness Princess Eugenie was safely delivered of a son today, 9th February 2021, at 0855hrs at The Portland Hospital. Jack Brooksbank was present.
The baby weighs 8lbs 1oz.
The Queen, The Duke of Edinburgh, The Duke of York, Sarah, Duchess of York, and Mr and Mrs George Brooksbank have been informed and are delighted with the news.
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| HRH Princess Eugenie |
This is Princess Eugenie and Jack Brooksbank’s first child, The Duke of York and Sarah, Duchess of York’s first grandchild, and the ninth great-grandchild for The Queen and The Duke of Edinburgh. Her Royal Highness and her child are both doing well.
Princess Eugenie was born at the Portland Hospital in 1990.
https://royalmusingsblogspotcom.blogspot.com/2018/01/no-real-precedent-for-peerage.html
I recently reviewed Moniek Bloks's Hermine Empress in Exile, which I am sure my readers will enjoy. I looked through my postcard collection to find images of HSH Princess Hermine Reuss, fifth child and fourth daughter of Heinrich XXII, Prince Reuss of Greiz (1846-1902) and and Princess Ida of Schaumburg-Lippe (1852-1891), daughter of Adolf I, Prince of Schaumburg-Lippe.
Named after her maternal grandmother, Princess Hermine was born at Greiz on December 17, 1887. Her first marriage to Prince Johann George Ludwig Ferdinand August of Schönaich-Carolath (1873-1920) took place at Greiz on January 7, 1907. They had five children: Prince Hans Georg (1907-1943), Prince Georg Wilhelm (1909-1927), Princess Hermine Caroline (1910-?, perhaps 1992), Prince Ferdinand (1913-1973), and Princess Henriette (1918-1972).
https://www.nettyroyal.nl/genealogy/genealogical-mystery-the-date-of-death-of-princess-hermine/
Hermine married Kaiser Wilhelm II (1859-1941) at Doorn on November 5, 1922. She was only 59 years old when she succumbed to a heart attack on August 7, 1947 in her small apartment in Frankfurt-am-Oder, where she was being held by the Red Army.
http://royalbooknews.blogspot.com/2021/02/hermine-empress-in-exile-by-moniek-bloks.html
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| All images Marlene A Eilers Koenig Collection |
I am sure there are blogs that have a larger readership than Royal Musings but having 16 million hits since July 2008 is still remarkable by my standards. There are long-standing readers who drop in every day or every few days and there are others who might be interested in a story that I have linked on Twitter or several Facebook pages.
All are welcome and I am thrilled and honored to know that so many people enjoy Royal Musings. On behalf of my Royal Musings assistants, Sienna and Harper, thank you very much.
Apart from the Amazon links, Royal Musings does not have adverts. I tried, but when Google Ads changed a code (which I replaced successfully) that affected the advertising revenue, so I dropped the service. -
Researching and writing posts does take time, especially longer and more detailed posts. I have a decent photo and postcard archive that I use to add to posts and I am grateful that Getty images have made available a small percentage of their collection free to bloggers.
I would love for Royal Musings to be a money-spinner, so I am always grateful for that cup of coffee
Princess Margaret of Connaught's mother, Louise Margaret, was born a Princess of Prussia, the daughter of Prince Friedrich Karl of Prussia.
Crown Prince Wilhelm and Princess Margaret are third cousins through the Prussians:
Friedrich Wilhelm III - Wilhelm I - Friedrich III - Wilhelm II - Crown Prince Wilhelm
Friedrich Wilhelm III - Prince Carl - Prince Friedrich Karl - Princess Luise Margarete - Princess Margaret
and first cousins once removed through Queen Victoria:
Queen Victoria - Victoria - Wilhelm II - Crown Prince Wilhelm
Queen Victoria - Arthur - Margaret
The Sunday Pictorial also reports that the Royal Family and the Admiral are "upset by the rumors that the couple are having a good time while Prince Charles and Princess Anne are left with nursemaids."
Prince Philip has been in Malta serving as an officer of the Magpie, a Royal Naval warship, "reportedly to be groomed for naval stardom." Princess Elizabeth flew out to the island to join her husband.
It is now understood that the Admiralty has "persuaded" the Duke to leave his position and continue his "naval career in London and at the same time brush up his parental duties."
Charles and Anne are said to be staying at Sandringham with their grandparents, King George VI and Queen Elizabeth. Charles, who celebrated his second birthday in November, is "joyously shouting, 'Mummy's coming back from Malta."
Little Charles is described as "lively and intelligent," and speaks clearly although he has difficulty with his Rs. The Queen is Gannie and the King is Ganpa and Queen Mary is Gan Gan. He is also said to have "a keen and possessive interest" in his 5-month old sister, Princess Anne.
Princess Elizabeth is expected to return to Sandringham on February 12. She will find her young son to "sturdier and plumper" when she last saw him 10 weeks ago.
Both children have been cared for by royal nanny Helen Lightbody.
King Gustaf V will not place "further obstacles in the way of the marriage" of his grandson, Prince Lennart, who wants to marry Karin Nissvandt, the daughter of a Swedish industrialist, reports the Associated Press.
Prince Lennart will lose his royal titles and his succession when he marries the 20-year-old Miss Nissvandt His grandfather objected to the marriage "solely upon a desire to preserve the dynasty.
Lennart, who is the only child of Prince Wilhelm and his former wife, Grand Duchess Marie, is 21 years old. Although he will lose his royal rights, he will not be a pauper. He will receive the estate on Mainau in Lake Constance, which belonged to his late grandmother, Queen Victoria.
He plans to continue his agricultural studies and live on the island and manage the property as a "German country squire." The prince says he does "not care" what title he will have after his marriage. He does not know if he will be titled Prince Bernadotte like his great uncle, Prince Oscar, the second son of King Oscar II.
In 1888, Prince Oscar married a Swedish noblewoman Ebba Munck af Fulkila, who was a lady-in-waiting to then Crown Princess Victoria. His parents were not pleased when he told them that he was in love with Ebba and wanted to marry her. The immediate consequence of his announcement was the loss of Ebba's position as she was dismissed as a lady-in-waiting. The couple married in Bournemouth, England on March 15, 1888.
Oscar was named Prince Bernadotte on the wedding day. His uncle, Adolph, the Grand Duke of Luxembourg gave Oscar the personal title of Count of Wisbor on April 2, 1892.
Lennart could be created a count or be known as Mr. Lennart Wilhelmson. He said that as he will be living in Germany, a republic since 1919, where he acknowledged that "titles are of little value."
He is more concerned about the health of his fiancee, who is suffering from influenza. Yesterday the couple exchanged betrothal rings in the presence of Miss Nissvandt's parents.
February 2, 1921
The Washington Post is reporting that the rumored engagement of Princess Jolanda of Italy, the eldest daughter of King Vittorio Emanuele and Queen Elena, to Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria has been denied.
This dispatch piqued my interest as I tried to find out who this Archduke Franz Ferdinand was. I checked the Gotha and could not find any Archdukes with the first name Franz Ferdinand, who was in the same age group as Jolanda (1901-1986). She married Giorgio Carlo Calvi, Count of Bergolo in 1923.
February 2, 1921
The bodies of Grand Duchess Elisabeth of Russia and her maid, Varara Yakoleva, known as Sister Barbara, were privately buried earlier in a crypt in the Church of St. Mary Magdalene in Gethsemane, reports the New York Times.
The ceremony was officiated by the Greek Patriarch. The Church of St Mary Magdalene was built in 1888 by Emperor Alexander III and his brothers to honor their mother, Empress Marie Alexandrovna, who was born Princess Marie of Hesse and By Rhine.
In 1884, Alexander's brother, Grand Duke Serge married Princess Elisabeth of Hesse and By Rhine, a granddaughter of Queen Victoria. She was widowed in 1905 when her husband was assassinated by Ivan Kalyavev who tossed a bomb into Serge's carriage. The bomb exploded in the Grand Duke's lap. He was killed instantly.
After her husband's death, Grand Duchess Elisabeth, who had converted from the Lutheran faith to Russian Orthodox in 1891, found a calling in helping others. In 1909, she sold her magnificent jewel collection and used the proceeds to start a new convent of Saint Martha and St. Mary. She became the convent's abbess.
Unlike other Orthodox convents, Ell and her nuns worked with the poor and orphans in the Moscow area. She also visited slums. The Moscow-based convent also included a hospital and an orphanage.
The Grand Duchess' youngest sister, Alix, was married to Sergei's nephew, Nicholas II. On July 16/17, 1918, Nicholas and Alexandra, their five children, and several retainers were murdered by the Bolsheviks in Ekaterinburg.
In early 1918 Ella was arrested by the Cheka on the orders of Vladimir Lenin. She was sent to Perm, then Ekaterinburg, and finally to Alapayevsk in May, where she was joined by her maid and several members of the Imperial family, Grand Duke Sergei Mikhailovich, Princes Ioann, Konstantin & Igor Konstantinovich, and Prince Vladimir Paley.
During the evening of July 17, the prisoners were taken to an abandoned mine where they were beaten by the Cheka and thrown down into the pit. The Cheka then tossed hand grenades into the mine.
White Army soldiers found the bodies on October 8, 1918. It was then discovered that Ella had died of wounds from her fall into the mine. As the Red Army advanced toward the area, the White Soldiers took the remains to Peking, China, and interred into the Russian Orthodox Mission's cemetery. Arrangements were made to take the remains of Grand Duchess Elizabeth and Sister Barbara to Jerusalem for internment in the Church of St Mary Magdalene.
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| Prince Wilhelm |
It has been a difficult two weeks for Prince and Princess Wilhelm of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach. Only last week, they were indignantly denying the reported engagement of their daughter, Princess Sophie, to Baron Hans Viktor von Bleichroeder, a member of a prominent Berlin Jewish banking family. The von Bleichroeders' bank, according to the Marquise de Fontenoy, placed "its financial resources at the disposal of Prince Bismarck when he was unable to obtain the necessary supplies from the Prussian and north German Parliament."
Now comes the news by cable from Vienna that a criminal warrant has been issued for the arrest of Sophie's 26-year-old brother, Count Hermann von Ostheim. The former prince will be charged with "several charges of extremely contemptible swindles."
In August 1909, he was "compelled to surrender" his commission in the German army and his succession rights to the grand ducal throne of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach. At the time, he was the heir presumptive to the throne. These actions were in consequence "of the extremely unsavory scrapes in which he had at the time become involved."
One of the "unsavory scrapes was his marriage to Paola Lottero in London on September 5, 1909. They were divorced two years later.
The very wealthy Prince Roland Bonaparte had considered then Prince Hermann for his only child, Princess Marie. Prince Roland, whose fortune was made from his part ownership of the casinos in Monte Carlo, was not willing to sacrifice his daughter's happiness, even to become a consort of a sovereign Grand Duke, for a "man of such evil reputation." Marie married Prince George of Greece, a younger son of King George of the Hellenes in December 1907.
Hermann had borrowed a "considerable amount of money" when he believed he would marry Princess Marie. but when that arrangement fell through, he found himself in a precarious financial situation. He failed to make an appearance in court, where he was declared bankrupt.
The former prince takes after his father, Prince Wilhelm, who has been forced to live outside Weimar for some years, as in his younger days he was "involved in so many scrapes" that he was forced to serve in the French Foreign Legion and then the Dutch Foreign Legion, where he served in Sumatra. This was followed by a stint in the United States, where he was known as William Rhode, living the "life of a remittance man." He supplanted his meager allowance from his family by taking on several jobs, including riding master, cab driver, streetcar conductor, wine tout, and a waiter.
After he fell seriously ill in New York City, Wilhelm's family "took pity on him: and arranged for his return to Germany. A marriage was arranged with the "kindly, indulgent" Princess Gerda of Isenburg. She bore her husband, three children, Hermann, now a fugitive from justice, Prince Albert, 26, and 24-year-old Princess Sophie.
Prince Wilhelm and his wife and daughter live in "somewhat straitened circumstances" in Heidelberg, where he enjoys spending time at cafes, drinking beer and discussing "American affairs" and reminiscing about his life in New York with Americans attending Heidelberg University.
February 2, 1911
Queen Alexandra will not attend her son, King George V's Coronation, reports the New York Times. Rumors of "friction between the Dowager Queen and Queen Mary" first circulated in London after King Edward's funeral but have not been published in the British press. These rumors have "obtained wide currency nevertheless."
Some of Queen Alexandra's actions have tried the patience of her son and daughter-in-law. She remained in Buckingham Palace long after the "time when, according to custom," she have moved and the King and Queen moved in.
The Dowager queen also issued "statements in proclamation form," referring to "her dear people."
There are also rumors that there will be two courts as Queen Alexandra, who does not want to be styled as Queen Mother, "aspires to outshine Queen Mary.
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| with Luitpold and Albrecht |
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| In 1868 Archduchess Maria Theresa of Austria married the future King Ludwig III. They were the parents of 13 children. The postcard does not identify which of their seven surviving daughters. Crown Prince Rupprecht (1869-1955) was their eldest child. |
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| Marie Gabrielle with three sons, Luitpold (1901-1914), Albrecht (1905-1996) and Rudolf (1909-1912) |
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| Prince Luitpold (1821-1912) was the regent for King Ludwig II and King Otto. His son succeeded him as King Ludwig III. |
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| Duchess Marie Gabrielle in Bavaria (1878-1912) was the youngest daughter of Karl Theodor, Duke in Bavaria. Her sister, Elisabeth, married King Albert I of the Belgians. She died before her husband became Crown Prince of Bavaria |
These images are from my collection.
