26 October 2016

Eurohistory. The European Royal History Journal, Vol. 19.2, Summer 2016

The front cover of Eurohistory. The European Royal History Journal, Issue CX, Volume 19.2, Summer 2016, has the portrait of Prince Alexander of Yugoslavia, who died on 12 May 2016, 91 years old. The editor and publisher of the magazine, Arturo E. Beéche, has written a rather personal and well-written obituary.

The opening article has the subject title Claremont and Britain's Most Important Room and is written by Katrina Warne. Claremont is the residence where Princess Charlotte of Wales died, a sad event that of course changed the course of royal history of the United Kingdom. Many royals have spent shorter or longer time at Claremont, and Warne gives a good summary of the residence, which today houses a school.

The next one out is the article Crown of Tears by Shelby F. Morrison. The article gives an outline Queen Marie Antoinette of France and Empress Alexandra Feodorovna of Russia, whose lives ended in tragedy.

Ilana D. Miller then continues her Who Is in the Photograph series, this time the focus is on Three Greek Beauties: The Daughters of Prince Nicholas of Greece, i.e. Princess Marina, later Duchess of Kent, Princess Elizabeth, later Countess of Toerring-Jettenbach and Princess Olga, who married Prince Paul of Yugoslavia and became the mother of among others Prince Alexander mentioned above. Marina and Olga are both fairly well-known, while less has been written about Countess Elizabeth. Maybe someone could take the task of writing more about both the countess and the family she married into?

The third and last part of the article Princess Augusta of Cambridge, Grand Duchess of Mecklenburg-Strelitz by Marlene Eilers Koenig tells the story of the last years of the British-born princess. Despite being British through and through, her annuity was suspended in September 1914 as she was a German subject by marriage. A «politically correct» decision, perhaps, but perhaps a bit harsh.

Much has written about Queen Marie of Romania, née Princess of the United Kingdom and styled Princess of Edinburgh. Coryne Hall tells her story in the article Europe's Most Flamboyant Queen. The article is well-written, but as the the story of Queen Marie, her life and different roles and the royal house she married into is rather complex, one could perhaps wish for more pages to get more details. It is for instance claimed that Queen Marie's «finest hour came [...] when her political and diplomatic efforts at the Paris Peace Conference [after WW1] gained considerable territory for Romania», but I am left with wondering exactly how she influenced such an outcome. There are of course books about Queen Maria as well as about Romania's political history one could read ...

Besides the obituary of Prince Alexander of Yugoslavia, Arturo E. Beéche has also written the obituary of Prince Johann Georg of Hohenzollern, who died in Munich, Germany on 2 March 2016, 83 years old.

There are three book reviews in the current issue. Martijn Arts presents the Eurohistory book From Tyranny to Freedom ... Memoirs of My Life by Countess Viktoria Luise of Solms-Baruth, who first was married to Prince Friedrich Josias of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha and secondly to Richard C.B. Whitten.

Coryne Hall has reviwed the following two books:
  • Schloss II. More Fascinating Royal History of German Castles by Susan Symons (Roseland Books, Cornwall, 2015, ISBN 9780992801410. I bought a signed copy in connection with the Royal Gatherings conference in the Hague last year, by the way. The third volume was published earlier in 2016.
  • Maria Pia. Queen of Portugal by Sabrina Pollock (Eurohistory.com, 2016, ISBN 9780985460372).
Finally the readers are treated by Royal News, this time covering the Imperial, Royal, Princely or noble houses of Austria, Spain, France, Hohenzollern, Luxembourg, Liechtenstein, Colloredo-Mansfield, Fugger von Babenhausen, Hohenlohe-Bartenstein, Alba and Ligne.

The publisher of The European Royal History Royal can be reached at erhj [at] eurohistory.com.

For earlier articles on the magazine, please go here, while the ERHJ blog can be read here.

No comments:

Post a Comment