Two museum mannequins: on the left a white coronation gown with gold eagles and lace, on the right a green uniform dress with braid.

NB! · Monarchies · Museums · People · Humour

Catherine the Great’s coronation gown and a uniform dress from different years of her reign

Catherine II's coronation gown and a uniform dress from the later years of her reign. Let me remind you that she ascended the throne at 33 and ruled for 34 years. And put on a little weight

NB! · Monarchies · Museums · Humour

Another Item from the Collection of Catherine II

Another item from the collection of Catherine II. There she is, the madcap Empress

NB! · Archive · Faith · Monarchies · Saint Petersburg

Portraits of Nicholas II and Alexandra Feodorovna in Russian-style costume at the ball marking the tercentenary of the House of Romanov, captioned “the royal martyr” and “the royal martyress”

Aristocracy · Art · Monarchies · Observations · Mores · Humour

Before you are two remarkably similar portraits

Before you are two remarkably similar portraits. The one in colour shows Charles II, King of England; the second, the English aristocrat and politician Charles Boyle. Evidently, Boyle commissioned an exact copy of the king's portrait, with his own head fitted on to it. The clothes, the pose,

NB! · Monarchies · Museums · Mores · Humour

And this is the cradle and feeding chair of the future King of Scotland and England, James VI, the only son of Mary Stuart

And this is the cradle and feeding chair of the future King of Scotland and England, James VI, the only son of Mary Stuart. James and Henry IV were contemporaries. Feel the difference

NB! · Aristocracy · Art · Monarchies · People · Humour

Here is a muscleman: Henry of Navarre as Hercules, victor over the Lernaean Hydra

Here is a muscleman: Henry of Navarre as Hercules, victor over the Lernaean Hydra. The portrait clearly flatters the figure of the founder of the Bourbon dynasty, but it recalls the comical genealogy of the House of Navarre, traced from a son of Hercules

Close-up of a bronze statue showing the back, buttocks and thigh of a nude male figure, with drapery folds on the left.

NB! · Art · Monarchies · Museums · Paris · Humour

Nude Henry IV as Jupiter in a sculpture at the Louvre

The Louvre holds a sculpture of a naked Henry IV in the guise of Jupiter. Thanks to the statue, we can learn that the monarch had a well-toned behind, while from the front there is, frankly, nothing to look at

Faith · Monarchies · Humour

In 1414, at the Council of Constance, where the verdict on Jan Hus was pronounced, Sigismund I, Holy Roman Emperor, used the word schisma in the feminine, contrary to the rules of Latin grammar, and when the error was pointed out to him, replied…

In 1414, at the Council of Constance, where the verdict on Jan Hus was pronounced, Sigismund I, Holy Roman Emperor, used the word schisma in the feminine, contrary to the rules of Latin grammar, and when the error was pointed out to him, replied: «Ego sum rex Romānus et supra

Three small children in satin outfits of red, silver and blue stand on a carpet beside a golden-brown dog.

NB! · Art · Monarchies · Observations · Mores · Humour

Children of Charles I by Van Dyck as a model for modern children's clothing

In the West, a movement is under way to do away with gender stereotypes in children's clothing. I suggest taking our bearings from the seventeenth century: van Dyck's portrait of the children of Charles I of England, Princess Mary and the future Charles II and James

NB! · Books · Monarchies · Observations

I Noticed a Rather Odd Passage in Part II of Shakespeare's Henry IV, Which Seems Even More Preposterous in the Russian Translation

I noticed a rather odd passage in Part II of Shakespeare's Henry IV, which seems even more preposterous in the Russian translation. But even this gibberish has an explanation

NB! · Aristocracy · Monarchies · Pop Culture · Humour

If the child of Jon Snow and Daenerys Targaryen marries the child of Jaime and Cersei Lannister, the result will be Charles II of Habsburg

Monarchies · Moscow · Museums · Observations

This, by the way, is no legend: the saddle really was presented to Sheremetev by Peter I

This, by the way, is no legend: the saddle really was presented to Sheremetev by Peter I. I saw it with my own eyes at the 2009 exhibition in the Kremlin, marking the 300th anniversary of the Great Northern War and the Battle of Poltava. I remember it as if