Royalty Digest Quarterly no. 4, 2021

I received the latest issue of Royalty Digest Quarterly – no. 4, 2021 – about a month ago, so obviously it is on time to write a few words. The red color of the front cover seems darker in print than in the photo published at the RDQ Facebook group. The image is of the Swedish Royal Family in 1905, showing (standing) Prince Eugén, Prince Oscar and Princess Ebba Bernadotte, Prince Wilhelm, Princess Margaretha, Prince Gustaf (VI) Adolf,  Crown Princess Victoria, Prince Erik, Crown Prince Gustaf (V) and Prince Carl and in front (sitting) Princess Therese,  Queen Sophie, King Oscar II and Princess Ingeborg with her daughters Princess Märtha and Princess Margaretha. The front cover image tells the readers that Sweden is the topic of the traditional Family Album, this time written by the editor Ted Rosvall himself instead of the magazine's historical consultant Charlottge Zeepvat. As always the readers are treated with a short introduction in addition to a large selection of images of royals and palaces as well as genealogical tables. Rosvall has already mentioned a few mistakes in the genealogical table on page 33. It is a bit ironic that such (minor) mistakes have been made by the world's Bernadotte genealogy expert no. 1, but as they say, it can happen to the best of us!

In his Editor's Corner Ted Rosvall gives a warm thank you note to alle the contributions Charlotte Zeepvat has made to the magazine both as an editorial consultant and as a writer of numerous articles. The way the column is worded one starts to wonder whether this means that Zeepvat has stepped down as historical consultant, but I can't find any explicit mentioning of this.

Datiu Salvia Ocaña has this tine written an interesting piece titled The Demidoffs and the Royals. The Russian noble family has interesting connections to the imperial and royal houses of France-Bonaparte and Serbia-Karadjordjevic. I learn a lot from this article, but there are quite a lot of names, so I wonder if the article would be easier to read with the help of a genealogical survey.

Another interesting article in this issue is The Very Short Reign of Boris I, which gives the story of Boris Skosyrev, who in 1934 proclaimed himself King of Andorra! The author is Michael Nash, who has made numerous contributions to RDQ before.

Charlotte Zeepvat then returns with A Long Chain of Persecutions. Princess Luise Sophie of Schleswig-Holstein and Prince Friedrich Leopold of Prussia. Part 2: The Children's Story. I commented on the first part in January. As I wrote then, the couple in question is Princess Luise Sophie (1866–1952), the sixth child of Duke Friedrich of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Augustenburg (1829–1880), by his wife Princess Adelheid of Hohenlohe-Langenburg (1835–1900). Luise Sophie married in 1889 Prince Friedrich Leopold of Prussia (1865–1931). One of Princess Luise Sophie's brothers-in-law was Emperor Wilhelm II, who caused so much misery in the family. Luise Sophie and Friedrich Leopold had four children –Viktoria Margarete «Agra»  (1890–1923, who married (and later divorced) Prince Heinrich XXXIII Reuss (1879–1942), Friedrich Sigismund (1891-1927),who married Princess Marie Luise of Schaumburg-Lippe (1897–1938), Friedrich Karl (1893–1917) and Friedrich Leopold (1895–1959). Viktoria Margarete and Friedrich Sigismund gave Luise Sophie and Friedrich Leopold four grandchildren. I guess there were great-grandchildren as well, but it might take some time to figure out the number. Many tragedies in this family. And the article is so well written and researched.

Eric Lowe has contributed with the article Elegant Royals – Some favorites from my collection. Lowe has a large collection of photos of royalty and is also a photographer himself. He is also the administrator of the Facebook group Elegant Royals, which has more than 2700 members.

The series Little-Known Royals is continued in this issue as well, and Coryne Hall has this time written about Princess Josephine Caroline of Belgium (1872–1952), who married Prince Karl Anton of Hohenzollern(-Sigmaringen) (1868–1919) in 1894. There were four children in this marriage and many grandchildren. There is an interesting article (no date given) about this family in Deutsches Adelsblatt titled Ein Konzert rettet die Burg.

The column The World Wide Web of Royalty this time gives us genealogical news about the non-royal part of the Bernadotte family, Bourbon-Parma, Hohenlohe-Langenburg, Russia, Schaumburg-Lippe and Schleswig-Holstein (Glücksburg).

Information about Royalty Digest Quarterly can be found at its editor's website Royalbooks.se. See earlier presentations of RDQ here. See also its Facebook page.