Monarchies · Observations · People
Do you know what was the most loathsome thing about Edward VIII? Not even his abdication, nor his total obsession with Wallis Simpson, but the fact that he called his grieving mother, the Dowager Queen Mary of Teck, and his sister-in-law Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon ice-cold bitches. Such
NB! · Monarchies
Monarchies · Observations · Mores · Humour
Selling slices of royal wedding cake is nothing new. Naturally, any guest may ask for a piece of the wedding cake to take home, and many keep this relic, some from mercenary motives, and others, presumably, wishing to bring their nearest and dearest into contact with the sacred body of
Architecture · Monarchies · Observations · Paris · Humour
I recalled Napoleon's lavatory in the Château de Rambouillet, which he rebuilt for his own needs and restored after the ravages of the Revolution. Today the palace is used for the highest affairs of state. The interiors are beautiful. And in the lavatory, with its medallion by Jean
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Art · Monarchies · Paris · Saint Petersburg
Porphyry and gilt-bronze ewers by Gouthière. Paul I acquired them in Paris in 1799 and placed them in his bedchamber in the Mikhailovsky Castle in Saint Petersburg. These vases stood in the Emperor's bedchamber on the night of his murder, between 23 and 24 March 1801. No,
Interviews · Books · London · Monarchies · Observations · People
Sarah Ferguson, Duchess of York, photographed by Holly Fernando for The Telegraph. From the interview we learn that she is now the author of 77 books (for children) and has at last written a novel for adults, Heart for a Compass, about the vicissitudes of court life in the Victorian
Geography · Maps · Books · Monarchies
Novorossiysk is, in principle, clear enough: the new name was tied to that of the whole region, Russia's southern Russian acquisitions. But Kafa and Akhtiar? The former is found as early as Afanasy Nikitin; it was what the Genoese called Feodosia, and after them the Turks who seized
Faith · Art · Monarchies · Observations · People
Did you recognise her? I could not, without a prompt. The sublimely melancholy young woman in François Flameng's portrait of 1894 is a granddaughter of Queen Victoria, aged thirty, the elder sister of the Empress Alexandra Feodorovna and the wife of Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich: Grand Duchess Elizabeth
Architecture · Monarchies · Heritage · Society
In Soviet times the coat of arms of the USSR was raised on the dome of the tower of the Nizhny Novgorod office of the State Bank, while all the imperial decor connected with the 300th anniversary of the House of Romanov, which richly adorned the whole building, including the
Faith · Monarchies · Society
On 15 July 1834 the last remnants of the Spanish Inquisition ceased to exist. On that day a decree was issued by Maria Christina, Regent of Spain, finally abolishing the Inquisition throughout the empire. On the mainland the Inquisition had already been shut down under Napoleon's Joseph Bonaparte,