Black-and-white photograph of a woman in black, a man in a long overcoat and tall fur hat, and other people on a ship's deck, with a city on the shore behind.

NB! · Archive · Monarchies · People

Empress Maria Feodorovna leaves Russia aboard the British ship Marlborough in April 1919

Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna left Russia in April 1919 aboard the British ship Marlborough. Beside her is Grand Duke Nicholas Nikolayevich

Aristocracy · Monarchies · Mores · People

Louise of Denmark despised Frederick VII, who married the actress Louise Rasmussen in 1850

The fact that Louise of Denmark openly despised Frederick VII, her husband's predecessor on the Danish throne, who had been married three times and had many love affairs, speaks eloquently of her character. One of his marriages was morganatic: in 1850 he married the actress Louise Rasmussen, for

NB! · Aristocracy · Archive · Monarchies

Queen Louise of Denmark, seated first from the left; next to her sit the future Queen Alexandra of Denmark, Empress Maria Feodorovna, Crown Princess Louise of Denmark and the Tsesarevich Nicholas

Aristocracy · Monarchies · Mores

Christian IX and Louise of Hesse-Kassel, ancestors of nearly all European monarchs

The Danish royal couple Christian IX (1818-1906) and Louise of Hesse-Kassel (1817-1898) were called the father- and mother-in-law of Europe for having contrived to marry into so many reigning houses. Today they are the direct ancestors of nearly all the monarchs of Europe. Their grandsons

NB! · Aristocracy · Monarchies

Queen Alexandra of Denmark, consort of Edward VII of England, and the Russian Empress Maria Feodorovna, consort of Alexander III, were sisters, daughters of King Christian IX of Denmark and Louise of Hesse-Kassel

Faith · Books · Observations · Education

Archbishop Gennady accused Novgorod priests of heresy over the Book Correction

Reading about intellectual life in sixteenth-century Russia, I am struck by how many of its heroes are people out of time. Archbishop Gennady, for one, can be pictured quite vividly among the public figures of today. In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries the so-called Book Correction (Knizhnaya sprava)

NB! · Observations · Humour

what is a celebration without an academic council

Faith · Society · People

Fyodor Kuritsyn subsequently espoused literally the opposite views, working actively to justify grand-ducal absolutism and giving life to many of its foundational documents

Curiously, Kuritsyn was not the only active churchman who, when necessary, went over to the opposing camp. Archbishop Gennady, for instance, at the behest of Ivan III, zealously dealt with the unruly Novgorod clergy, until matters came to the secularisation so important to the Kremlin. It was then that Gennady

Faith · Monarchies · Moscow · Society

In the Fifteenth Century, Strangely Enough, It Was the Priests Who Were Active Public Figures

In the fifteenth century, strangely enough, it was the priests who were active public figures. And after the annexation of Novgorod to Moscow in 1478, Ivan III began to persecute those Novgorod priests who held an active public position. But, understanding the importance of men of this type in the

NB! · Archive · Faith · Society · Saint Petersburg

A Te Deum in the Colonnade Hall of the Tauride Palace before the Opening of the Fourth State Duma, 15 November 1912

NB! · Archive · Faith · Monarchies · Saint Petersburg

Thanksgiving Service on the Occasion of Emperor Nicholas II's Visit to the Fourth State Duma, 9 February 1916

Archaeology · Faith · Science · Ethnography

Astronomical foundations of Maya religion and parallels with Christianity

By the time the Maya met the Europeans, the religions of Mesoamerica had been developing for three thousand years and were moving towards the idea of monotheism. The trouble is that the Spaniards came upon these religions at one particular stage, and it is that stage which they recorded in

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