Aristocracy · Moscow · Mores · People · Humour
One of the directors of the Assembly of the Nobility, Pavel Afanasyevich Afrosimov, a retired major general, a fearfully important and dreadfully rich Moscow grandee, whom some call the prototype of Griboyedov's Famusov, was dying at the age of 64. His contemporaries left some amusing recollections of the
Aristocracy · London · Monarchies · Mores · People
Catherine, younger sister of the nine-day queen Jane Grey, paid with her liberty for marrying without Elizabeth's leave: the Virgin Queen took the marriage of a maiden of the Tudor line for an attempted coup. All the more so since Catherine Grey had, in Elizabeth's
Aristocracy · Archive · Observations · Mores
"A man prematurely aged provokes surprise, if not fear" Countess Lydia Andreyevna Rostopchina applied this conclusion to the memory of her father, Andrey Fyodorovich. Not very flattering words, but the fact is that the younger son of the all-powerful Governor-General of Moscow really did look considerably
Aristocracy · Archive · Mores · People
Baroness Natalya Mikhailovna Stroganova, known for her rich collection of books and the vast fortune she received from her husband Nikolai, was widowed at forty and left with one son. Her nephew, Prince Ivan Mikhailovich Dolgorukov, left a most amusing account of his relations with his aunt. Chance joined the
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Aristocracy · Archive · Moscow · Mores
The boy's upbringing was taken in hand by the Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna, while as guardians of the young Sheremetev's person and of his fortune she appointed the State Secretary Dmitry Petrovich Troshchinsky and the Privy Councillor and Senator Mikhail Ivanovich Danaurov, whose family settled at
Aristocracy · Archive · Moscow · Mores · People
Ekaterina Khovanskaya, like many mothers, suffered terribly when no news came from her son, especially during the main and bloodiest battles, which only aggravated her already extremely frail condition. The son was a noted carouser and simply forgot to write home, for which his father devised a stratagem: he asked
Aristocracy · Books · London · People
In the autobiography of Baroness Trumpington, Jean Alys Barker, a prominent English political figure who sat in the House of Lords for 37 years and in her day held ministerial office, there is the sweetest episode in the whole history of memoirs:. “A few months ago I was doing my
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Aristocracy · Monarchies · Observations · Mores
Prince Nikolay Borisovich Yusupov, favourite of Catherine II and son of a governor of Moscow and Saint Petersburg, was so rich that he could not remember all his estates, which lay in almost every province of Russia. And when he was asked whether he owned land in such-and-such
Aristocracy · Monarchies · People
Marie of Edinburgh, granddaughter of Queen Victoria and Alexander II, the last Queen of Romania. In furs. She wrote ardent letters to George V and Nicholas II and was a genuine celebrity of her day. To this woman the Entente owed Romania's abandonment of neutrality and its entry
NB! · Aristocracy · Moscow · Observations · Paris · Humour
Suddenly, on the Diletant website, Moscow's culture chief Kibovsky and Venediktov call Viscount Olivier d'Archiac, Dantès's second in the duel with Pushkin, ARISHAK. The cooks are baking cakes for one another.