The choice of cover photo signals which family has been rewarded with A Family Album article by the magazine's returning contributor and historical consultant, Charlotte Zeepvat. The readers are treated with the traditional introductory piece about The House of Bourbon-Parma and a large selection of photos and other illustrations – 99 in all, if I have got it right – a number which includes a map and a photo of the Ducal Palace (Palazzo del Giardino) in Parma. The family is large, so you will also find four pages with family tables as well.
The first article in this issue, Duchess Marie of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, is written by Marlene A. Eilers Koenig. The duchess, b. 1878, d. 1948, who was the daughter Grand Duke Adolf Friedrich (1848–1914) and Grand Duchess Elizabeth, née Princess of Anhalt (1857–1933), had quite a challenging life, having among others an illegitimate child with a footman named Hecht and a rather sad marriage to a Count George Jamatel. Koenig gives a good account of it all. The baby was adopted, and naturally I keep wondering if he or she has ever been identified.
100 years ago this summer, Emperor Nicholas II of the Russias and his family as well as many other members of the Romanov dynasty were murdered. Coryne Hall has contributed with the excellent article Caught in Revolution – Miss White and the Paley Family. Annie Mary White (1873–1940s) was in 1914 employed by Grand Duke Paul Alexandrovich (1860–1919) and Olga Countess of Hohenfelsen, née Karnovitz (1866–1929), later created Princess Paley. Miss White played the role as a companion to their daughters. If you only have time for one article in the current issue, this is the one! The genealogist in me of course wonders if it is possible to find the exact date of death for Miss White. A common name, yes, but her death is of course registered somewhere. I had no immediate success when searching for it on Ancestry.com and Findmypast.co.uk, though. I guess I will leave it to someone else ...
The next one out, the article Double Wedding. Two Princesses and Their Different Destinies by Alberto Penna Rodrigues, covers the weddings in 1802 of Princess Maria Antonia of Bourbon-Two Sicilies (1784–1806) to the then Prince of Asturias, later Fernando VII (1784–1833) and Infanta Maria Isabel (1789–1848) to the then Duke of Calabria, later King Francis I (Francesco I) of Bourbon Two-Sicilies (1777–1830). An interesting read, but a bit heavy, packed with details and with so many names that a little family table of the two most important families had been in place.
In the series Little-Known Royals Coryne Hall pays attention to Princess Eugenie of Greece and Denmark (1910–1989), daughter of Prince George (1869–1957) and Princess Marie Bonaparte (1882–1962), and a first cousin to Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. She made two marriages, the first to Prince Dominic Radziwill, the second to Prince Raymundo della Torre e Tasso, Duke of Castel Duino, and divorced both of them. She is described as a talented writer, but did she ever publish anything?
Finally, The column The World-Wide Web of Royalty brings news from the royal or princely families of Isenburg, United Kingdom, Denmark, Mecklenburg-Strelitz, Saxony, Saxony-Weimar, Sweden, Waldeck and Pyrmont and Württemberg.
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.
I am sorry if my article was heavy. I meant it to be tragicomic...
ReplyDeleteMy comment was more about the writing style than contents. It was very detailed. A genealogical table and maybe even more illustrations could have "loosened" it up a bit.
ReplyDeleteI have not seen the magazine yet and I abdicated the task of choosing illustrations. Mea culpa mea maxima culpa. I wrote the article long ago and I was and still am writing other articles. As for too many names I could not possibly leave out the failed marriage projects as it is my passion in every article by me. Maybe I could have left out the Bourbon Parmes from this article, but I thought the public would like to meet Carlo Ludovico again.
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