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).