Royalty Digest Quarterly no. 3, 2017

I received my copy of  Royalty Digest Quarterly no. 3, 2017 at the end of September. It is on due time to give some of my impressions.

The photo on the front cover shows Queen Louise of Denmark (1817–1898) and her granddaughters Princesses Victoria, Maud and Louise of Wales. The photo was taken at Wiesbaden in 1882 according to the editor's photo caption on page 2. In his Editor's Corner Ted Rosvall is this time commenting on the names of Prince Carl Philip and Princess Sofia's second son Gabriel Carl Walther. Rosvall gives examples of other members of the Royal European Family who have the name Gabriel. He wrongly refers to Prince Louis of Luxembourg's son Gabriel, born 2006, as a Count of Nassau (and not Prince of Nassau, as he really is), but that is of course a trifle.

There are many interesting articles in the present issue. The first one is titled The End of Swedish Coronations which is written by the historian Trond Norén Isaksen. He gives a detailed and well-sourced account for why the coronation ceremony was dropped after Gustaf V became King.

The second article is written by the freelance journalist and historian Elizabeth Jane Timms and is titled Birth in Darmstadt – Princess Alix of Hesse. Princes Alix was the sixth child and fourth daughter of Prince Ludwig, later Grand Duke Ludwig IV (1837–1892), by his wife Princess Alice of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland (1843–1878). Princess Alix was of course later better known as Alexandra Feodorovna, Empress of Russia, spouse of Emperor Nicholas II.

Everyone who has followed my blog which includes many articles about graves and cemeteries will not be surprised by how much I enjoyed Lucas Szkopinski's article The Final Resting Places of the Members of the Albanian Royal Family 1934–2012. Besides the historical outline of the short-lived Albanian monarchy and the members of the Albanian Royal Family, one will find photos of King Zog's original tomb at the Thiais cemetery outside Paris and the burial places in Tirana and Istanbul. Knowing that the remains of King Zog were about to be moved from France to Albania, I hurried to visit the Thiais cemetery in October 2009. I hope to visit Tirana some time later.

Issue no. 3, 2017 brings the second part of The Royal House of Denmark – A Family Album by the periodical's historical consultant Charlotte Zeepvat. Besides the introduction, the readers are treated with 96 images and two pages with family tables. I suppose that the next issue will bring the third and final part of the family album covering Denmark.  And wonder when it will be Norway's turn?

Following the family album comes the obituary of Patricia Knatchbull, 2nd Countess Mountbatten of Burma (1924–2017), who died on 13 June this year. The obituary is written by Marlene A. Eilers Koenig, author of among others Queen Victoria's Descendants (1st edition, 1987; 2nd edition,1998; companion volume, 2004).

Another ongoing serial in the RDQ is called Little-Known Royals. One can always discuss how little-known some of these royals are, but I guess I am not the right person to ask.  Anyway, Coryne Hall has written a nice piece about Princess Katharina of Greece (1913–2007), later known as Lady Katherine Brandram.

I have always enjoyed the serial Half a Century of Royal Letters; 1899–1946, collected by John Wimbles from the Romanian National Archives (among others) and compiled by David Horbury. Part 5 brings many interesting letters. The following extract, taken from a letter from Princess Alexandra of Hohenlohe-Langenburg (1878–1942), née Princess of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, to Queen Marie of Romania (1875–1938), written on 1 March 1924 at Coburg, makes me shudder:

The father was born before the war in one of the German colonies and does not seem to have had quite a clear reputation in some business affairs. The mother is of a good (half French, half Luxembourg family, the best part of the family it seems) but the worst of all that could be, the mother of  the father was a jewess. And that, of course, is a thing we could not get over.

The said people were parents of a «Frl Essen», once the girl-friend of Princess Alexandra of Hohenlohe-Langenburg's son Prince Gottfried (1897–1960), who later married Princess Margarita of Greece (1905–1981).

The present issue is concluded by the column The World Wide Web of Royalty, which brings genealogical news from the Royal, Princely and/or Ducal houses of Beaufort, Hannover, Oldenburg, Richmond, Ruffo and Sweden.

Information on Royalty Digest Quarterly can be found at its editor's website Royalbooks.se. See earlier presentation of RDQ here. See also its Facebook page.  

Updated on 23 October 2017 at 10 a.m. (typo corrected).