Royalty Digest Quarterly no. 2, 2024

The latest issue of Royalty Digest Quarterly - no. 2, 2024 – arrived in my mailbox on 4 July. It has been a busy summer, so I haven't much time to write a commentary until now.

The contents:

• Olivier Defrance. A Life Without Tenderness. Princess Marie Louise of Bourbon-Parma II, pp. 1–10.
• Martijn Arts: Sigismund and Charlotte Agnes of Prussia. From Palace to Nature, pp. 11–17.
• Elisabeth Jane Timms: Losing Ludwig, pp. 18–28.
• Bearn Bilker: The Princely House zu Wied – A Family Album, pp. 29–49.
• Coryne Hall: Little-Known ROYALS. Prince Christian of Schaumburg-Lippe, pp. 50–52.
• Stephen Bunford: The Pursuit of Pleasure - the Georgian Mistresses, pp. 53–62.
• The World Wide Web of Royalty, p. 64.

The main cover photo is of Schloss Monrepos near Neuwied, one of the palaces of the Wied family, while the inserted photo is of  Princess (Fürstin) Marie, née Princess of  Nassau-Weilberg (1825–1902), who was married to Prince Hermann (1814–1836–1864). They were 4xgreat-grandparents of the current head, Prince Maximilian, b. 1999, if I have done my maths correctly.

Ted Rosvall opens his Editor's Corner this way: "The Duke of Sussex is now definitely "Persona non Grata" within the British Royal Family. This is hardly a secret and every new scandal seems to confirm it. Not to mention his easily hurt, spoiled and scheming duchess. Without being too harsh, one must probably conclude that their place in the cold is more than well deserved."

Well, we certainly agree that the ducal couple are "Persona non Grata". But I don't think it is fair to put all the  blame on them. The king, his brother and the media also have a share in my opinion, even if the couple has made the situation much worse by their TV interview, book publication etc. after moving to the States. It is all a very sad story ...

I feel that I have learned a lot about Princess Marie Louise of the Bulgarians, née Princess of Bourbon-Parma (1870–1899), wife of Prince Ferdinand (1861–1887–1918–1948) by reading Oliever Defrance's article, which was written with the collaboration of Joseph van Loon and Damien Bilteryst. What a sad marriage and what a selfish husband ...

Prince Sigismund (1896–1978), the second son of Prince Heinrich of Prussia (1862–1929) and a nephew of Emperor Wilhelm II, had an interesting life as a farmer in Guatemala and later in Costa Rica, together with his wife Princess Charlotte Agnes, née Princess of Saxe-Altenburg (1899–1989). I have read about them before, but it was a nice "return visit".

The article about king Ludwig II of Bavaria (1845–1886) by Elisabeth Jane Timms is based among others on the diary of Archduchess Marie Valerie (1868–1924), whose mother was Empress Elisabeth "Sissi" of Austria, née Duchess in Bavaria (1837–1898).

The main article of this issue is of course Bearn Bilker's Family Album of the House of Wied. The article follows the same pattern as previous family albums – a short introduction followed by a large collection of photos of various family members and then finally a genealogical table. Bilker could perhaps have mentioned Prince Wilhelm of Wied (1876–1945), who reigned as Prince (Mbret) of Albania for a short period in 1914, but at least it is mentioned in the genealogy (provided by Ted Rosvall, I gather?).

Prince Christian of Schaumburg-Lippe (1898–1974) was certainly not among the best-known members of royal Europe, and you would have to be very interested in royal history to know much about him these days. He was the son of Prince Friedrich (1868–1945), head of the Náchod branch, and Princess Louise of Denmark (1875–1906), the eldest daughter of Crown Prince, later King Frederik VIII) of Denmark (1843–1906–1912). Prince Christian, a first cousin of among others King Frederik IX of Denmark (1899–1947–1972) and King Olav V of Norway (1903–1957–1991), married his first cousin Princess Feodora of Denmark (1910–1975), eldest daughter of Prince Harald (1876–1949). Prince Christian and Princess Feodora's second son was the notorious Prince Waldemar (1940–2020), who caused so headlines of the years for the wrong reasons ...

When Stephen Bunford writes about "the Georgian Mistresses" he refers to the various Kings named George (of Hannover and the United Kingdom), but if you read the headline fast without thinking too much, you could easily wonder if the article was about mistresses from Georgia, and that would have made it more eccentric, wouldn't it?! Bunford doesn't hide the truth about King George IV: "[He] was an egotistical, romantic, dramatic, foolhardy, untruthful, narcistic, self-interested, self-absorbed sybarite." If you want to see the full list of George's over 70 known and alleged mistresses (and children) you should see Anthony Camp's website https://anthonyjcamp.com/pages/anthony-j-camp-nos-1-29.

Finally, the column The World Wide Web of Royalty this time brings you genealogical news of Hohenlohe-Öhringen, Lippe-Weissenfels, Schleswig-Holstein, Austria and Bavaria.

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. 

This article was last time updated on Tuesday 20 August 2024 at 21:20 (a link was corrected).