Archive · Mores · Society · People
Robert Stewart, Viscount Castlereagh and from 1821 Marquess of Londonderry, had been British Foreign Secretary since 1812 and in 1822 was to have represented his country at the Congress of Verona, had it not been for an unfortunate incident. One of the minister's ill-wishers learned of his
NB! · Faith · Museums · Society · Humour
People online are asking why Kirill is wearing a mantle in the colours of the Chechen flag. For comparison, here is a photograph of the mantle of Patriarch Adrian, from the 17th century, also green and with three stripes symbolising the Old and New Testaments
London · Society
In 1793 England found herself drawn into the French Revolutionary Wars. Meanwhile, the country had been saddled ever since the previous great war, the Seven Years' War, with a colossal debt of 200 million. For the past several decades the state of the nation's finances had been
Aristocracy · London · Society · People · Humour
In 1807 the Duke of Portland was appointed First Lord of the Treasury for the second time, thereby becoming, to all intents and purposes, head of the British government. The 69-year-old premier was, by all accounts, an exceedingly worthy man and a model aristocrat. But he was also
London · Observations · Society
Until 1917 there was, strictly speaking, no such office as Prime Minister in Great Britain; moreover, Parliament at various times expressed doubt that a first and sole minister could exist in Britain at all, going so far as to call the office of prime minister dangerous to the liberty of
Mores · Society · People
Constantin and César Faucher, known as the Twins of La Réole, were brigadier generals of the French army and took an active part in the revolutionary movement. They came from a well-to-do family, studied under Voltaire and were friends with Mirabeau. The brothers were inseparable, and their lives
Archive · Faith · Society · People · Rome
"We know well from the Catholic Mass that Abraham is our patriarch and forefather. Antisemitism is incompatible with the lofty ideals of Christianity. It is a movement in which we Christians can have no part whatever. No, no, I tell you that it is impossible and impermissible for a
Aristocracy · The East · Mores · Society
A love drama comes to mind. The Catherinian grandee Count Osip Igelstrom, packed off to live out his days on a pension for his Warsaw failures, was appointed by Paul I, after the Empress's death, military governor of Orenburg. In Orenburg the 60-year-old Igelstrom made the
Art · Heritage · New York · Society
In 2014 it was reported that Dmitry Rybolovlev, the former owner of Uralkali, had sold his last major Russian asset, Voentorg. But, as it turned out three years later, the billionaire still had something worth having left in Russia. In 2017 he began selling off his famous collection of European
NB! · Observations · Heritage · Society · Ethnography
On love for one's native ashes and the graves of one's fathers. In Kazakhstan, memorial events are being held for the heroes of 1723! Not as part of patriotic strategies or state programmes, but on the initiative of their descendants
Archive · Monarchies · Observations · Society · Paris · People
The French intellectual of the late nineteenth century Henri Vaugeois, known as one of the founders of the monarchist organisation Action Française, was an advocate, as he put it himself, of an “anti-Semitic, anti-Masonic, anti-parliamentary and anti-democratic” nationalism. In short, the full set of an obscurantist
Faith · Books · Observations · Mores · Society
The Theodosian Code, which appeared in the early 4th century, exerted a serious influence on the life of Europe, including on relations between Christians and Jews. The words of one of its laws, “it is perfectly clear that the sect of the Jews is forbidden by no law”, for instance,