New official website for the Serbian Royal Family

The Office of Crown Prince Alexander of Yugoslavia (Serbia) launched its "new" (upgraded) official website today:

http://www.rsroyalfamily.net/

The website can also be reached by its old URL, http://www.royalfamily.org.

In a press release yesterday, 12 February 2013, the court writes that "HRH Crown Prince Alexander supports the development of new technologies and therefore made an effort to present news, information and historical background of the Serbian Royal Family, it’s past and present, in the most user friendly technological way. The new website was developed using the latest HTML5 platform, is designed to allow users to interact in real time. The completely re-designed website is much faster and features many multimedia contents."

The text of the Constitution of Yugoslavia (1931), which I originally provided, can now be found here.

Updated program for the Royalty Weekend 2013 (III)

The organisers behind the annual Royalty Weekend, which in 2013 will take place on 6-7 April at Ticehurst and Flimwell Church of England Primary School, Steellands Rise, Ticehurst in East Sussex, England, have added two more speakers to the conference program.

As of now the speakers will include:

• Coryne Hall on Princesses on the Wards: Links between royal women and nursing
• Margreeth Pop-Jansen on Princess Marianne of the Netherlands 
• Neil Rees on The Reburial of King Zog 
• Ted Rosvall on The Lesser Known and Hidden Away Royals 
• Ian Shapiro on The Hidden Archive of Princess Irene of Prussia 
• Christophe Vachaudez on More Belgian Royal Jewels 
• John Wimbles on Marie Coburg’s Last Visit to England 
• Charlotte Zeepvat with one of her magnificent slide lectures on the Nassau family
• Helen Rappaport on her forthcoming book on OTMA, Four Sisters (Emperor Nicholas II's daughters)
• And Richard Thornton who is planning a fiendish quiz

There will also be other royal authors present, including Janet Ashton, Robert Golden and Ilana Miller.

Booksellers van Hoogstraten of the Hague, the Netherlands, will be in attendance, and there will be a bring and buy Royal Ephemera sale.

Cost: for all lectures, tea, coffee and snacks, two buffet lunches & one evening meal with wine:
£110 for those paying in sterling before 28 February 2013.
£115 for those paying with Paypal; or sterling later than 28 February 2013.

Please contact Sue Woolmans at royalweekend[at]gmail.com for more details.

Go here for my article about the 2011 conference.

Reaganseminaret 2013 (The Reagan Conference 2013)

The annual Reagan Conference (Reagan-seminaret) hosted by the Monticello Society will this year take place tomorrow, Sunday 10 february 2013, at Litteraturhuset in Oslo.

As usual the program reveals many interesting topics about US American politics and society in general:

• Amerikanske krimserier: Hva forteller de oss om USA? (American crime series: What to they tell us about the USA?) by the music and film journalist Asbjørn Slettemark
• Fairness-doktrinen, Rush Limbaugh og fremveksten av konservativ talkradio (The Fairness Doctrine, Rush Limbaugh and the growth of conservative talk radio) by Helene Megaard
• Valgkampen 2012 "backstage" (The Election 2012 backstage) by Are Flaten, editor of Amerikanskpolitikk.no.
• Videoinnslag: Reagans "Big Tent"-parti (Video Hour: Reagan's "Big Tent" party) by Dag Inge Fjeld, Monticello Society
• Er Republikanerne dømt til å tape? Den demografiske utviklingen i USA med vekt på latin-amerikanere (Are the Republicans destined to lose? The demographic developments in the USA with emphasis on the Hispanics) by Jan Arild Snoen, Minerva og Monticello Society
• Panel: Hva skal og må Republikanerne gjøre for å være konkurransedyktige fremover? (inkludert spørsmål fra salen) Hilde Restad (USA-forsker og førsteamanuensis, Bjørknes), Jan Arild Snoen, George Gooding, Jørn Ødegaard (Monticello Society); ordstyrer: Christopher Rødsten, Monticello Society (Debate: What will and what have the Republicans to do in order to become competitive in the years to come? Participants: Hilde Restad, Jan Arild Snoen, George Gooding (President, Monticello Society), Jørn Ødegaard (Monticello Society). Moderator: Christopher Rødsten, Monticello Society).

Go here for an article about last year's conference.

State funeral for King Peter II of Yugoslavia set for 26 May 2013

The Office of Crown Prince Alexander of Yugoslavia (Serbia) informed in a press release today that the state funeral for King Peter II (1923-1934-1945-1970), Queen Alexandra (1921-1993) and Queen Marie (1900-1961) is to take place at Oplenac, Serbia on Sunday 26 May 2013:

Belgrade, 7 February 2013 - His Royal Highness Crown Prince Alexander and the Royal Family are pleased to announce that the State Funeral for His Majesty King Peter II, Her Majesty Queen Alexandra and Her Majesty Queen Maria will take place on Sunday 26 May at St George's Church Oplenac where the Royal Family's Mausoleum is located.

The remains of Their Majesties Queen Alexandra and Queen Maria will be arriving in the near future to Serbia and will be placed in the Royal Chapel of the Royal Palace at Dedinje where His Majesty Kind Peter II is already located.

Following his death at Denver, Colorado, USA in 1970, King Peter was buried at the St. Sava Monastery Church in Libertyville north of Chicago, Illinois. His remains of King Peter II were returned to Belgrade on 22 January 2013.

It will really be interesting to see how many royal houses will be represented at the state funeral. I am sure that members of most of the former Balkan monarchies will be present, but will the reigning courts send representatives as well?

Church and Cemetery of St. Etheldreda, Norwich, Norfolk, United Kingdom

I have been to Norwich in Norfolk, England 18 times so far, first of all to watch my favourite football team Norwich City FC play, but on several occasions I have also taken the time to do some sightseeing. I have passed the now redundant Church of St. Etheldreda, which is situated between Rouen Road and King Street, several times on my way from the football stadium Carrow Road to the city centre, but I have never stopped to have a look. When I visited Norwich in early November 2012, I decided to do something about it.

It is now an overgrown and not too well kept place, and many of the photos I took didn't turn out too well due to the limited light (that is at least the excuse I will use!). The church, dated from 1723, is today in the care of the Norwich Historic Churches Trust and used as a studio.

For more details and photos, plase check out the website Norfolkchurches.co.uk, Jammo's Photostream (Flickr.com) and the blog God's Acre.

Skeleton found in car park is that of Richard III (1452-1485)

Normally I focus on post-Napoleon royal history in my blog, but I cannot let the news that the skeleton found beneath a car park in Leicester last year now has been identified as that of King Richard III of England (1452-1485) pass me by.

The reinterment of the remains of King Richard will take place in Leicester Cathedral, which is situated close to where his skeleton was found, early next year, it was revealed at a press conference today. See Guardian.co.uk and Telegraph.co.uk for more details on the findings. The University of Leicester also maintains a website dedicated to the search for the last Plantagenet king.

King Richard has had a memorial in Leicester Cathedral since 1980 (as of today the website has not been updated to reflect the news from the press conference).