Royalty Digest Quarterly no. 3, 2012

I received my copy of the magazine Royalty Digest Quarterly no. 3, 2012, three weeks ago, but it is first now I have got the time to have a look at it. As always the magazine has plenty of interesting and readable articles to enjoy.

The magazine's historical consultant, Charlotte Zeepvat, has made more than one contribution also this time. The article Dear, Unforgettable Alix focuses on Grand Prince Alexei Nikolaievich, the only son of Emperor Nicholas II. Zeepvat also continues her Family Album, this time the third Habsburg article, which deals with the Grand Dukes of Tuscany. Besides a short introduction the readers can enjoy 88 images as well as as much as 6 pages with genealogical tables.

Edward W. Hanson has written about Queen Marie Amélie of Portugal's will, while Coryne Hall pays attention to the British Princess Louise (the Princess Royal) and Alexander, Duke of Fife's daughter Alexandria (1891-1959) in the article A Dedicated Royal Lady. Alexandra, The Duchess of Fife.

The freelance writer/historian Elisabeth de Guitaut has contributed with a piece on the royal country house Cumberland Lodge in Windsor Great Park, while the editior, Ted Rosvall, has made space for his own article Notre Amie, la Comtesse de Gyldensteen... A Colorful Royal Ancestor. The countess in question  was Marguerite Huguetan (1702-1766, ancestor of among others Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands, King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden and Prinse Hans Adam II of Liechtenstein.

As usual we get the more or less lated news in the section The World Wide Web of Royalty, with pieces about the Imperial/Royal/Princely houses of Austria, Hesse, Hohenlohe-Bartenstein, Liechtenstein, Neipperg, Norway, Radziwill, Reuss, Saxony, Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg and Schaumburg-Lippe. The editior managed to include the news of the death of Princess Ragnhild, Mrs. Lorentzen before the deadline. She is presented as "Princessed [sic!] Ragnhild of Norway, Mrs. Lorentzen". True enough, she kept her rank as Princess of Norway when she married Erling S. Lorentzen in 1953, but at the court she was only styled Princess Ragnhild, Mrs. Lorentzen, and as the little article was titled "Norway", so the "of Norway" part was kind of superfluous. A trifle, perhaps, but still... More important is that Rosvall has missed out on Princess Ragnhild's sixth grandchild, Elisabeth, the second daughter of Ragnhild Lorentzen Long.

The readers will certainly not be disappointed with the latest issue, as it covers many different monarchies and topics. But I would like to see even more variation. Always the Windsors, the Romanovs and the Habsburgs! What about Waldeck-Pyrmont, Ghika, Castell-Castell and Czartoryski! I know is is partly a matter of what contributions the editor receives, but how active is Rosvall in finding authors who can contribute with articles on other, "lesser known", princely families?

Information on Royalty Digest Quarterly can be found at its editor's website Royalbooks.se. See earler presentations of RDQ here.