Royalty Digest Quarterly No. 2, 2013

I received the latest issue of Royalty Digest Quarterly - no. 2, 2013 - nearly two weeks ago, but haven't had much time to look at it yet. As always it will be a great companion on my metro rides this week.

Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands abdicated on 30 April 2013 on behalf of her eldest son Willem-Alexander and she is now known as Princess Beatrix. The editiorial column is of course full of praise of the former queen and her many years of service to the the Dutch people. Her engagements will not stop, though, but she has allowed herself to reduce the number.

The magazine's historical consultant, Charlotte Zeepvat, got the first part of  her article The True Value of Home. The life of Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna the younger published in March, and the second part, subtitled Sweden, Russia and exile, came in issue 2. Zeepvat's second contribution this time is the obituary of H.R.H. Prince Moritz, Landgraf of Hesse 1926-2013, who died on 23 May.

The Brazilian Alberto Penna Rodrigues has made several contributions to the Royalty Digest Quarterly over the years, and this time the readers can enjoy the article Captives - The Duchesses of Aosta and the Nazis.

One the cover is a photo of Prince Leopold IV of Lippe (1871-1904-1918-1949) and his family. The prince returns in the photo article LIPPE - A Family Album, this time provided by Ricardo Mateos Sáinz de Medrano. The article includes as usual a short introduction to the family, a large collection of photos - 66 in all - as well as 4 pages with genealogical tables.

The year 2013 marks the 400th anniversary of the founding of the Romanov dynasty, and this is marked by Marion Wynn's article The Tercentenary of the Romanovs. Pilgrimage to Kostroma.

Elizabeth Jane Timms is the next one out with the article Engagement at Coburg, which is the second article about the Romanov dynasty, as it dwells on the engagement between Tsarevich Nicholas of Russia (later Emperor Nicholas II) and Princess Alix of Hesse in April 1894.

Then Michael Nash returns with a new article about the late Archduke Otto of Austria, titled The Centenary of Otto von Habsburg 1912-2012. An English Visit remembered. The visit in question was the one the former crown prince paid to Norwich, England in March 1994. The article goes beyond the visit, though. A rather nice portrait of "the last real representative of the lost world before 1918 ..."

Finally the magazine provides the regular column The World Wide Web of Royalty, this time with news about the royal, princely and/or mediatized houses (etc., etc.!) of Bavaria, Denmark, Hesse, Hohenlohe-Bartenstein, Hohenzollern, Murat, Ortenburg, Schaumburg-Lippe, Schwarzenberg, Solms-Braunfels, Solms-Hohensolms-Lich, Sweden and Waldburg-Zeil.

For Rosvall Royal Books' own presentation of issue no. 2, 2013 go here.

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.