Royalty Digest Quarterly no. 4, 2010

I received the latest issue of Royalty Digest Quarterly (no. 4, 2010) yesterday. As I have also done earlier this year, I will give a short presentation of the contents of the present issue.

In his Editor's Corner, Ted Rosvall believes that the year 2010 could be described as an "Annus Horribilis" for the Swedish Royal Family, pointing at Princess Madeleine's broken engagement, all the headlines caused by the biography Carl XVI Gustaf. Den motvillige monarken as well as the new details revealed about Walther Sommerlath's membership in the NSDAP. I don't think the label "Annus Horribilis" is very fitting, considering the wonderful royal wedding in June and the Bernadotte bicentenary celebrations in the fall.

RDQ's historical consultant Charlotte Zeepvat has made two contributions to the present issue. The first is The Other Grandmother. Elisabeth of Prussia, Princess Carl of Hesse-Darmstadt and deals with Princess Elisabeth of Prussia (1815-1885), daughter of Prince Wilhelm of Prussia and Marie Anne of Hesse-Homburg. Princess Elisabeth married in 1836 Prince Karl of Hesse and by Rhine (Darmstadt).

Zeepvat's other contribution is The Royal Line of Bavaria - A Family Album: Part 2. It includes 75 photos as well as 3 pages with family tables.

The historian Trond Norén Isaksen has had a rather productive year, and his contribution this time is titled Prince of Peace. Prince Carl of Sweden and the Nobel prize. Prince Carl of Sweden, grandfather to King Harald V of Norway, was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize seventeen times and shortlisted three times, but never got the award. Isaksen has also written a review of Jörg-Peter Findeisen's book Jean Baptiste Bernadotte. Revolutionsgeneral, Marchall Napoleons, König von Schweden und Norwegen (2010).

Lucas Szkopinski has a great knowledge of the history of the Albanian royal family and has written an interesting article about The Zogu Princesses, the sisters of King Zog I of the Albanians (1895-1961). 3 of the sisters, Princesses Senije, Myzejen and Maxhide are laid to rest in their brother's tomb at Cimetière de Thiais in Paris, while Princess Adile is buried in a grave next to her brother's. I visited the cemetery in October 2009.

The Brazilian Alberto Penna Rodrigues has contributed with the article "Queen" Adelaide and the Courts of Europe about Princess Adelheid of Löwenstein-Wertheim-Rosenberg (1831-1909), who married Infant Miguel of Portugal (1802-1866, de facto King of Portugal 1828-1834) in 1851. She professed as a nun in 1897. One of her great-grandsons, Dom Duarte, Duke of Braganza, is today regarded by most people as the head of the Royal Family of Portugal. A great-grand grandson is Grand Duke Henri of Luxembourg.

Diana and Valentin Mandache have interviewed Nicholas de Roumanie-Medforth-Mills, who in accordance with the new house (fundamental) rules instituted by King Michael in 2007 became Prince of Romania with the style Royal Highness on his 25th birthday on 1 April 2010.

As usual the Quarterly also brings the section "The World Wide Web of Royalty" with news on births, marriages, deaths and other events in the extended European Royal families.

Royalty Digest Quarterly is published by Roosvall Royal Books, which can be contacted by e-mail royalbooks[at]telia.com. Subscriptions for 2011 are SEK 440 within Europe and SEK 480 outside Europe.

For earlier presentations of Royalty Digest Quarterly, go here.

Updated on Wednesday 25 January 2011 at 22:30 (mix-up of King Zog's sisters).

UK: Peter and Autumn Phillips parents to a baby girl

Autumn Phillips, wife of Peter Phillips, who is the son of the Princess Royal (Princess Anne), gave birth to a baby girl on 29 December 2010, Buckingham Palace has announced:

Mrs Peter Phillips was yesterday safely delivered of a baby girl at Gloucestershire Royal Hospital. The weight of the baby was 8lbs 8oz. Mr Peter Phillips was present at the birth.

The Queen, The Duke of Edinburgh, The Princess Royal, Captain Mark Phillips and Autumn’s family have been informed and are delighted with the news. The baby’s name will be confirmed in due course.

This baby is the first child for Peter and Autumn, the first grandchild for The Princess Royal and the first great-grandchild for The Queen and The Duke of Edinburgh, and is twelfth in line to the Throne.

(If anyone wonders, the weight 8 lbs 8 oz should correspond to appr. 3850 grams.)

Autumn Patricia Phillips, née Kelly, was born at Mississauga, Ontario, Canada, on 3 May 1978, as the daughter of Brian Kelly and Kathleen "Kitty" Magas, née McCarthy. She married Peter Phillips, b. 15 November 1977, at St. George's Chapel, Windsor Castle, on 17 May 2008.

It will be interesting to see what name(s) the baby girl will get. I am not sure what to expect - the baby girl is so far down in the line of succession to the British throne that her parents don't need to feel obligated to find a name with British royal traditions. But what goes well with the surname Phillips? Patricia? Paula? Phyllis Phillips is surely ruled out... :-) I guess Winter Phillips is out of the question as well. Time will tell!

(Some of the information above is taken from Nobiliana Forum, including details given by Marlene Koenig on 30 January 2008 (original source the Princess Royal's private secretary).)

Updated on Friday 31 December 2010 at 09.15 (more accurate reference given).

Merry Christmas!

Good Christian men rejoice
With heart and soul and voice!

Give ye heed to what we say

News! News!

Jesus Christ is born today!

Ox and ass before Him bow

And He is in the manger now

Christ is born today!

Christ is born today!

---

I wish you all a Merry Christmas!

UK: Zara Phillips and Mike Tindall engaged to be married

Buckingham Palace tweeted today that "The Princess Royal and Captain Mark Phillips are pleased to announce the engagement of their daughter Zara Phillips to Mr. Mike Tindall."

According to The Daily Telegraph, the engagement took place yesterday evening, Monday 20 December 2010, at the couple's home in Gloucestershire. Although the wedding date has not been set yet, the news of the engagement means that there could be two royal/royalty-related weddings in the United Kingdom in 2011. Prince William of Wales' engagement to Kate Middleton was made public on 16 November 2010, and their wedding is to take place at Westminster Abbey on Friday 29 April 2011.

Miss Zara Phillips, the only daughter of the Princess Royal (Princess Anne) and her first husband Mark Phillips, and of course a granddaughter of Queen Elizabeth II, was born at St. Mary's Hospital, London on 15 May 1981. She is 12th in line of succession to the British throne and hopes to represent Great Britain as an equestrian at the 2012 Olympics in London.

Michael James Tindall was born on 18 October 1978 at Otley, Leeds as the son of Phillip Tindall and Linda Tindall, née Shepherd. He is well-known as a rugby union player representing Gloucester Rugby and England.

I gather that British genealogists are already working on the ancestry of Mike Tindall, and look forward to reading more details soon. As of today I have only found that Mike's grandmother Margaret Shepherd died in March 2006.

See also Thisisgloucester.co.uk's news article of today, Queen's granddaughter gets engaged to Gloucester Rugby skipper Mike Tindall.

Updated on Wednesday 22 December 2010 at 11.15 (link added to Gloucester Rugby's official website).

UK: Two Proclamations at Privy Council meeting

At the Privy Council meeting held at Buckingham Palace on 15 December 2010. Two proclamations were given (see pp. 14-15):

1. appointing Friday 29th April 2011 as a bank holiday in England, Wales and Northern Ireland;

2. appointing Friday 29th April 2011 as a bank holiday in Scotland;

and two Orders directing th Lord Chancellor to affix the Great Seal to the Proclamations.

It has of course been known for some time that the royal wedding on Friday 29 April 2010 was to become a Bank Holiday, but now it has at least been formalised.

Drawings of Norwegian Seals from 1591 and 1610

Photo: © 2010 Carsten Berg Høgenhoff, NSF.

The publication Segltegninger fra hyllingene i Norge 1591 og 1610 ("Drawings of Norwegian Seals from 1591 and 1610") finally came on the market this week. The long-awaited book is published by Slektshistorisk Forlag AS, which is owned by Norsk Slektshistorisk Forening (NSF; The Norwegian Genealogical Society). The editor of the work is Anders Bjønnes, while the other members of the editorial committee are Svein Becken and Håvard Blom, all active members of the NSF. Contributions by Halvard Bjørkvik, Reidar Kjellberg, Anders Bjønnes, Hans Cappelen and Terje Gudbrandson. ISBN: 978-82-998428-0-8, price NOK 499 + P&P. 449 p., + name and place register.
On the back of the cover the following is written in English about the book:

At Akershus Castle Christian IV was sworn allegiance to as King of Norway in 1591. His oldest son, "the chosen prince" Christian, was honored with the same ceremony in 1610. Representatives from the cathedral chapters, local clergymen, burghers in the towns and peasantry brought with them sealed authorisation letters. The nobility attended in person and issued their own documents of allegiance - the one from 1591 is preserved.
The seals on these documents, published in this book, are an interesting source of material in many respects. Several articles on relevant themes are also included. This publication by The Norwegian Genealogical Society should therefore be of great interest also to researchers outside Norway.

As stated in the foreword of the book, the seals are "an interesting source of historical material seen from a genealogical point of view and they are primary sources of information relating to the history of personal names, art history and heraldry." The book is written in Norwegian, but there is an English summary at the end of each chapter.
The work on this publication was commenced in connection with the 75th anniversary of The Norwegian Genealogical Society in 2001, but obviously the task of completing it has been demanding. An inheritance from the late Margit Louise and Svein Holger Syvertsen has helped to fund the completion of the publication, and "Drawings of Norwegian Seals from 1591 and 1610" is therefore dedicated to their memory.
I have been a deputy member of the committee of The Norwegian Genealogical Society since May 2009, but I have not been involved in this project at all, except for giving a hand in the packing and distribution of the book after it arrived from the printers (see photos from the packing last weekend here). As I am first of all an "post-Napoleon historian" and certainly not an expert on heraldry, I am not going to review the book, so I will limit myself to the short presentation above.
The book looks great, though, and I am looking forward to studying it more closely.
If you are interested in the book (only the hardback is now for sale), please see NSF's website for more information. A subpage entirely dedicated to the publication - http://www.genealogi.no/segl - will soon be available.

Updated on Thursday 3 January 2013 at 10:20 (typo corrected).

Strömstad Church and Cemetery, Sweden (Part II)

I have been many times to Strömstad in Sweden, which is only a ferry away from my hometown Sandefjord and is also close to the Norwegian boarder if I should decide to take the E6 instead. In october 2006 I paid Strömstad Church and Cemetery a short visit, but took only one photo of the cemetery and not of the church. During a visit in August 2010, I thought it was on time to pay another visit to take more photos.

You can also see the church from an another angle at Liv Ofsdal's blog. The cemetery is an interesting place to visit, as most of the graves are protected by law.

I didn't spend that much time at the cemetery, but obviously long enough to get a parking ticket! Included in the "parkeringsanmärkning" was also the message "Även PU 35!". I still haven't figured what the code means, and I am not so sure if I really want to know it either. I might have to introduce ads on the blog to cover my expenses... :-) I survived the SEK 400 ticket, though.

John Lennon (1940-1980) Remembered

The Strawberry Fields Memorial in Central Park, New York (photo taken in July 2006).

The text at the bottom says: "The restoration of this part of Central Park as a Garden of Peace, endorsed by the above nations, was made possible through the generosity of Yoko Ono Lennon."

Today, 8 December 2010, it is 30 years since the pop artist and former Beatles member John Lennon was shot down and killed outside his home at Manhattan, New York.

The magazine Rolling Stone marks the sad anniversary by publishing the complete interview made only 3 days before John Lennon was killed. The popular cartoon magazine Pondus suggests at its Facebook page today that one instead of one minute of silence should enjoy 4 minutes of Lennon's famous song Imagine. A great way of remembering John Lennon and his music!

Ebba Lindqvists Plats, Grebbestad, Tanum, Sweden

After I had visited Grebbestad Church and Cemetery during my visit to Tanum in June 2010, I passed Ebba Lindqvists Plats (a translation is surely not needed). The place was raised in memory of the poet Ebba Lindqvist (1908-1995), who grew up in Grebbestad. Engraved in the granite are four of her many poems - Samhället ("The Society"), Vi som är födda vid havet ("We who are born at the sea"), Sommar och vinter ("Summer and winter") and Djupt, djupt i mitt hjärta ("Deep, deep in my heart"). The portrait bust is made by the artist Per Agelii.

The official website of Sällskapet Ebba Lindqvists Vänner ("The Society of Ebba Lindqvist's Friends") can be found here. Lindqvist is buried at the Grebbestad Cemetery. If I had noticed the memorial before I visited the cemetery, I might have looked for her grave. Maybe another time...

Grebbestad Church and Cemetery, Tanum, Sweden

If one could only be able to read the signature...

The Runehäll family grave.

I visited Tanum municipality and the idyllic localities Fjällbacka and Grebbestad in the middle of June this year, but the last couple of blog articles from this visit have been put on hold for some time.

Grebbestads kyrka (church), built from the Bohuslän red granite, was finished in 1892 and had the same architect as Fjällbacka Church, Adrian C. Peterson. The church has a rather large cemetery with many interesting monuments, but unfortunately - as can be seen from the photos above - not all the graves have been taken well care of.