Royalty Digest Quarterly no. 4, 2017

The fourth and last issue of Royalty Digest Quarterly this year arrived just in time for Christmas, and I had the pleasure of reading it on the train on my way back to Oslo last night. There is nothing like having five hours for yourself on the train where you can do nothing but to read and relax ...

While the editorial is dedicated to Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip of the United Kingdom, who celebrated their platinum wedding earlier this year, the front page is dedicated to Denmark and Queen Alexandrine, here sitting together with her grandchildren (from left to right)  Princesses Benedikte, Margrethe, Anne-Marie and Elizabeth and Princes Christian and Ingolf. The cover photo tells that inside the magazine the readers are treated with the third and last part of Charlotte Zeepwat's The Royal House of Denmark – A Family Album. Besides the introduction the article offers as many as 92 illustrations as well as two pages with genealogical tables. And if this is not enough, there is yet another Danish-connected article further back in the issue, as Princess Thyra (1880–1945), the younger sister of King Christian X of Denmark and King Haakon VII of Norway, appears in the series Little-Known Royals, with Coryne Hall as the author.

My favourite article of this issue, however, is written by Joseph van Loon and Oliver Defrance and titled The Last Kohary. The life of  Prince Phillipp Josias of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. I learnt a lot about the Coburg-Kohary Trust and the prince in particular. More of this, please!

The documents the late John Wimbles collected from the Romanian National Archives and other sources seem to have no end, fortunately, and in the latest issue of RDQ the readers can enjoy the 6th part of the series Half a Century of Royal Letters; 1899–1947.

Susan Symons has now written four books on German palaces – Schloss: The Fascinating Royal History of 25 German Castles (2014), Schloss II: More Fascinating Royal History of German Castles (2015), Schloss III: The Fascinating Royal History of 25 Castles in Central Germany (2016) and finally Schloss in Bavaria: The Fascinating Royal History of German Castles (2017). I own the two first volumes, so not only do I need to get hold of the last two books, but I realize that there are so many interesting palaces in Germany I need to visit! In the article My favourite 'Schlösser', Symons lists her top ten facourites. I have only been to two of her favourites – Hohenschwangau and Berchtesgaden. I don't think I was ever inside the palace in Berchtesgaden, so I guess it shouldn't been counted. Symons is, by the way, also the author of three books on the life of Queen Victoria: Young Victoria (2016), Victoria & Albert (2016) and Victoria the Widowed Queen (2017). Quite a production during such a short period of time!

After the German palaces, Charlotte Zeepvat returns with her second article, this time a review of Edward Hansons book The Wandering Princess. Princess Hélène of France, Duchess of Aosta (1871–1951), Stroud: Fonthill Media, 2017. ISBN 978-1781555927.

In the final column The World Wide Web of Royalty, the readers can find genealogical news from the Imperial, Royal and/or Princely houses of Bourbon-Orléans, Brazil, Erbach-Fürstenau, Hannover, Leiningen/Prussia, Liechtenstein, Romania and Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. Concerning Romania, we learn that the editior will return with the obituary of King Michael in the next issue of Royalty Digest Quarterly. Trond Norén Isaksen has also written an obituary which was printed in the January 2018 issue of Majesty, which now should be available both in print and in electronic form.

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.