London · Monarchies · Mores · People

Grand Duchess Xenia Alexandrovna and the Romanovs at Frogmore House under George V

There is a story about Grand Duchess Xenia Alexandrovna and her life in emigration. After the death of her own aunt, Maria Feodorovna, George V installed her daughter, his first cousin Princess Xenia, at Frogmore House, together with her numerous family and retinue, twenty-two persons in all. At that

NB! · Cinema · Monarchies · Pop Culture

Gillian Anderson shares photos from costume fittings on the set of the second series of "The Great", a free-spirited take on the life of Catherine II

Gillian Anderson has shared photos from costume fittings on the set of the second series of "The Great", a free-spirited take on the life of Catherine II. The incomparable Gillian plays Johanna of Holstein-Gottorp, mother of the Russian Empress

NB! · Monarchies · Observations · Humour

Ever noticed how much Louis XV in profile resembles Catherine the Great?

Ever noticed how much Louis XV in profile resembles Catherine the Great? In their later years, that is. Had they met in person, they would surely have found each other rather agreeable

Art · Cinema · Books · London · Monarchies

Edward V and brother Richard, who vanished in the Tower, in Shakespeare and art

John Everett Millais, The Princes in the Tower, 1878. The two princes who vanished without trace from their confinement in the Tower made an impression even on Shakespeare. He told the story of Edward V and his younger brother Richard in the history play "Richard III". Edward V

NB! · Architecture · Faith · Monarchies · Moscow

The Convent of Saints Martha and Mary, founded by Grand Duchess Elizaveta Feodorovna, was built to a design by the architect Shchusev, the very man who authored Lenin's Mausoleum and, somewhat earlier, Kazan Station

NB! · Monarchies · People · Pop Culture

Yves Saint Laurent, 1980

Yves Saint Laurent, 1980. Photograph by Lord Snowdon, brother-in-law of Queen Elizabeth II and husband of her younger sister Princess Margaret, Antony Armstrong-Jones

NB! · Monarchies · Observations · Humour

Queen Silvia of Sweden and Queen Letizia of Spain: quite simply my last two nerve cells this week

Aristocracy · Monarchies · Mores · Humour

pov: all the Instagram girls look alike, strike the same poses and wear the same outfits

Princess Maria Annunciata of Liechtenstein and Princess Maria Astrid of Liechtenstein at their weddings, three weeks apart, in the very same pearl and diamond earrings from their mother's wedding:

Monarchies · Observations · Mores · Paris

Remember the Man in the Iron Mask?

Remember the Man in the Iron Mask? Today is the anniversary of the death of the mysterious prisoner who for more than thirty years was hidden in French prisons under various names, in almost complete isolation from human company and constantly masked, on pain of instant death should his face

NB! · London · Monarchies · Observations

They write that we may not see the Queen until February 😢 But so long as she is alive and well

Octagonal brooch with a large blue stone at the centre, set in an openwork gold frame with diamonds, on a display stand.

Art · London · Monarchies · Museums

Brooch with a large blue stone at the Fabergé exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum

This striking aquamarine brooch was given by Nicholas II, then still Tsesarevich Nikolai Alexandrovich, to Alix of Hesse-Darmstadt, the future Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, on their betrothal. The brooch is on show at the Victoria and Albert Museum in the Fabergé exhibition

London · Monarchies · Mores

Spurs in the British colonel's dress uniform and their absence from the women's version

Spurs are part of the full-dress uniform of a colonel in the British Army. At his wedding Prince William wore the ceremonial uniform of a colonel of the Irish Guards and likewise jingled his spurs. The female colonel's uniform, however, does not include spurs: women are supposed