Royalty Digest Quarterly no. 4, 2023

I have written on the envelope which included the latest issue of Royalty Digest Quarterly (no. 4, 2023) that it arrived on 9 January 2024. So this time I am not too late with my commentary article, as compared to RDQ no. 3, 2023. The list of planned blog articles about various genealogy and history periodicals has fortunately become shorter, and I have managed to update my blog quite often so far this year as compared to last fall. Life is less hectic now, so I am able to focus more on my blog activities than earlier. Another reason is that Slektshistoriewiki, the Norwegian genealogy wiki which I am the editor of, has been taken down since 1 January due to program updating, and that work, which I am not involved with, has taken more time than expected. But this also means that I have not been able to update and write new articles on the wiki for a while. I look forward to returning to my editor responibilities and other contributions to Slektshistoriewiki, but I enjoy updating the blog as well. I have also started on a genealogy book project this year, but it is something that I plan to work on and off for quite some time. I might not get the book out before 2027 or 2028 because there is so much work to be done on it, and I have to work on other projects as well, and of course my family and work have to come first.

Anyway, here are the contents of the latest issue of RDQ:

• Charlotte Zeepvat: The Prince House of Hohenlohe-Langenburg. A Family Album, pp. 1-22.
• Susan Symons. Feodora of Hohenlohe-Langenburg and her sister, pp. 23–29.
• Datiu Salvia Ocaña: The Spanish Hohenlohe-Langenburgs, pp. 30–36.
• Elizabeth Jane Timms: Imperial Governess: Miss Throckmorton and Marie Valerie [, Part] II, pp. 37–46.
• Stephen Bunford: Claims and counter-claims. Those who would be kings/queens, or think they should, pp. 47–53.
• Katrina Warne: A Surfeit of Sophias, pp. 54–58.
• Bearn Bilker: Christian, Fürst zu Bentheim und Steinfurt 1923–2023, pp. 59–62
• The World Wide Web of Royalty. Births, marriages, deaths and other events in the Royal Families of Europe, p. 64.

On page 63 you will find information on the planned Royal Weekend conference in Leeuwarden, the Netherlands, which will take place on 11 October (evening) to 13 October  (afternoon) 2024. I very much plan to attend the conference and hope to see you all there! I have never been to that part of the Netherlands before, so it all looks interesting.

Charlotte Zeepvat, the former historical consultant to Royalty Digest Quarterly, has returned with a contribution titled The Princely House of Hohenlohe-Langenburg. A Family Album. As usual the readers get a short introduction to the dynasty, then follows a large number of illustrations (of palaces and members of the dynasty, 70 in all if I have counted correctly) and finally the readers can enjoy 5 pages with genealogy tables. The genealogy surveys become handy when reading the next two articles, which also cover members of the Hohenlohe-Langenburg. Susan Symons, who is known for her book series on German castles and palaces, has written a nice article about Princess Feodora of Leiningen (1807–1872), who in 1828 married Ernst I of Hohenlohe-Langenburg (1794–1860). Feodora was elder the half-sister of the British Queen Victoria (1819–1901).

To be honest, I didn't know too much about the Spanish Hohenlohe-Langenburgs, so the article was very useful to me. The already mentioned genealogy tables helped when reading the article, because the author lists lots of names! There is no list of sources at the end of the article, which I hope was a one-time mistake.

I wrote about Elizabeth Jane Timms' articles on Imperial Governess last month. I really enjoyed the two-part article.

The list of people with a claim to the present and former thrones of Europe is long. I think Stephen Bunford has made a good effort of presenting them all. Visited are United Kingdom (the Stuarts), Portugal, France, Austria, Russia, Spain, Romania, Italy, Saxony, Monaco and Bourbon-Two Sicilies. I don't understand why the author writes that «Does a monarch have the right to change succession rules? This was done in Denmark (disinheriting Prince Knud and allowing female succession), [...]», though. The question was settled by constitutional changes supported by a majority of the Danes in a referendum. It was not King Frederik IX's unilateral decision. 

There have been many royals named Sophia over the years. Katrina Warne tells the story of  seven of them. I take the opportunity to quote from the article's introduction: «In May 2007 Point de Vue published a royal family tree highlighting numerous royals named Sophia or Sophie or a regional variation of the name. The publication was prompted by the birth of Infanta Sofia of Spain, the younger daughter of King Felipe VI. A couple of years later my niece Sophie was born and as I was very pleased that she had been given a royal name I looked at the family tree again. I noticed that in one line of descent that there was a surfeit of royals named Sophia and that it included some interesting personalities.» The line begins with the Electress Sophia of Hannover (1630–1714) and ends with Sophie Dorothea of Württemberg (1759–1828), who took the name Maria Feodorovna when she married Emperor Paul I of Russia in 1776.  The above-mentioned Infanta Sofia of Spain is of course one of many descendants of the couple. 

Prince Christian of Bentheim and Steinfurt celebrated his 100th birthday on 9 December 2023. He died 3 days later. The article by Bearn Bilker was written prior to his death, so information about his death has probably been added by the editor, Ted Rosvall. The new head of the House of Bentheim and Steinfurt is Prince Christian's nephew and adopted son Prince Carl Ferdinand, b. 1977.

The genealogy column The World- Wide Web of Royalty then brings news from Austria, Liechtenstein, Russia, Saxony-Coburg and Gotha, Schleswig-Holstein, Schwarzenberg, Serbia, Bourbon-Two Sicilies and Hohenlohe-Öhringen.

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.