Messages

1

The Hohenzollern / Re: Victoria Louise, Duchess of Brunswick

« on: May 05, 2007, 07:53:28 AM »

Interesting. Dona always looked, as did nearly every one else during that era, a slight bit robust, but I would not consider her to have been fat; never heard of a diet causing one's hair to permanently go gray either! Maybe Jenny Craig should get in the business of hair coloring! [end quote, begin comment]

Vicky commented on Dona's weight to Queen Victoria -- she reproached Dona for not losing weight after the birth of her first child, and Dona said something to the effect of "why should I bother?", noting that Willy would have her pregnant again very quickly.

2

Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna / Re: Grand Duchess and other possible suitors - what if..

« on: May 25, 2006, 12:09:23 PM »

Perhaps I'm letting myself be influenced by Maria Pavlovna's account of Ella, but I have the sense that she had a cold side, very much enjoyed the worldly side of being married to a Grand Duke, and might well have been frustrated at the court of Baden. She was not particularly warm towards Maria and her brother, and she may not have been a very warm mother. I certainly acknowledge her holiness and her courage at the end of her life, but that is a different matter from assuming she would have been happy as the wife of Fritz of Baden, with a big family, rather than what she got with Serge.

3

Forum Announcements / Re: Atlantis Magazine -- copies available?

« on: February 05, 2006, 08:37:46 AM »

Thanks, Sarushka. I did try to contact both of them through the FOTR website, and the email addresses available on this site, but - no luck so far. So I thought I'd try here. I appreciate your response!

Regards,
CatherineNY

4

Forum Announcements / Atlantis Magazine -- copies available?

« on: February 04, 2006, 09:50:12 AM »

I've tried posing this question on other threads, and emailing various individuals who might be able to answer my question, but since I've had no luck so far, I thought I'd try Forum Announcements. I missed subscribing to Atlantis Magazine back when it was in print, and I would very much like to acquire a full set of back issues for my royal books/journals collection. Can anyone advise me if this is possible, or even if they have a set they are willing to sell? I also tried Ebay, but again, with no luch. Thanks in advance to anyone who has a suggestion for me.

CatherineNY

5

Books about the Romanovs and Imperial Russia / Re: NEW-The Intimate Life of the Last Tsarina

« on: December 26, 2005, 11:02:43 AM »

Would anyone recommend the Leda Farrand biography of Catherine Radziwill, "The Princess from St. Petersburg"? Not that I was able to find a copy for sale on any of my usual internet sources, but I wondered if it would be worth the time and effort to track it down.

6

The Hohenzollern / Re: Duke Philipp of Wuerttemberg,his family and descendants

« on: December 23, 2005, 07:07:20 PM »

Thanks to all for such interesting pictures. I have seen the wedding photo of Maria Theresia and her husband before, and I have always wondered why she has what appears to be a blanket wrapped around her hips. Does anyone have any insights into that question?

7

The Hohenzollern / Re: Schleswig-Holsteins

« on: December 23, 2005, 06:59:51 PM »

Wasn't Dona's brother Ernst Gunther the one that Queen Victoria referred to as "odious Gunther"? That always cracked me up. I see he did find a wife, however odious he may have been.

8

Books about the Romanovs and Imperial Russia / Re: Atlantis Magazine

« on: December 23, 2005, 11:21:01 AM »

I have sent an email to Greg and Penny on the "Fate of the Romanovs" website, indicating that I would like to buy all back issues of Atlantis Magazine -- I thought I'd post here as well, in case they see this and can tell me of a better way to communicate with them. Thanks in advance! And Merry Christmas to all!
CatherineNY

9

Nicholas II / Re: Nicholas II - Early Crushes - plus Mathilde and Alix

« on: November 06, 2005, 08:00:17 AM »

Princess Victoria had several suitors, according to John  Van Der Kiste in his book, "Edward VII's Children." Van Der Kiste says that Queen Victoria hoped that Prince Adolphus of Teck (Queen Mary's brother) would marry either Princess Victoria or her sister Maud. The most serious suitor for Victoria's hand seems to have been Lord Roseberry, a Liberal Prime Minister who was a widower. Edward VII (then Prince of Wales) turned down Roseberry's suit, says Van Der Kiste, either because of concern that such a marriage would put the Royal Family too close to politics, or because Alexandra wanted to keep one daughter at home. I have read somewhere (not in the Van Der Kiste book) that Victoria talked about this suit in later life and said something like "we would have been so happy", but it is possible that she was referring to some other lost love. Grand Duchess Olga once said of Victoria that "I grew very fond of Uncle Bertie and Aunt Alix, but I felt so very sorry for their daughter, Princess Victoria. Poor Toria was just a glorified maid to her mother! Many a time a talk or game would be broken off by a message from my Aunt Alix, and Toria would run like lightning, often to discover that her mother could not remember why she had sent for her." (quote taken from "The Last Grand Duchess" by Ian Vorres). Some life! At least Victoria was close to her brother, George V, although Queen Mary found her a difficult sister-in-law.

10

Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna / Re: GDss Ella and GD Sergei's childlessness

« on: June 30, 2005, 12:49:32 PM »

Didn't Alexander III make a comment to his wife in a letter to the effect that it was sad that Serge and Ella would never be able to have children? He seemed to know something that we don't know -- something that made it obvious to family members that there would be no children born to the marriage. I doubt it would be something like Serge being a homosexual, since it is hard to imagine that Alexander III would make sympathetic comments about that. I have read somewhere that Serge was impotent, which might explain the childlessness and AIII's sympathy, as well as Ella's silence on the subject. (This is all a bit personal, I realize, but then so is the whole thread. And in the case of reigning families, the personal can have profound political implications.)

11

The Imperial Family / Re: Martyrdom, Sainthood. Reburial and Commemoration of IF

« on: June 12, 2005, 09:02:28 AM »

The next comment about warriors was totally unrelated to poor old St Francis and referred to the many Catholic saints who were so called because the wars they waged and the "heretics" they slaughtered were slaughtered in the name of the cross and Holy Mother Church.

30 Dollar Princess, can you please give me four or five examples of the "many" Catholic saints who "slaughtered heretics"? If there are "many", naming four or five should not require much effort.

12

The Myth and Legends of Survivors / Re: Investigación Anastasia. Argentina

« on: June 04, 2005, 09:57:28 PM »

It is a distasteful thought, but if this woman was really a Romanov, she is more likely to have been the daughter of one of the girls than of Alexandra. However, because I do not like to believe the more lurid stories about what happened to the family in captivity, I tend to think she was a fraud (although, in the one picture we have seen, from an extremely dubious source, she does bear a resemblance to Alexandra).
This is not the only rumor about a "fifth daughter of N&A" -- there was a story in James Blair Lovell's biography of AA about a fifth daughter who was raised in the Netherlands. To both of these stories, my response is -- yeah, right.

13

Alexandra Feodorovna / Re: Alix and princess Paley

« on: June 03, 2005, 12:31:13 PM »

That is indeed a great point. Alexandra certainly absorbed her concept of how a court should function from Victoria, including the idea that it was preferable for the sovereign and his/her family to avoid associating with "fast" aristocratic society. If Alexander III had lived longer, Alexandra might have learned to run a court more on the lines of her mother-in-law's, although I doubt it. Re: Princess Paley, the whole affair must have brought back painful memories for Alexandra of her father's very, very short marriage to his mistress. Not a good start for Princess Paley!

14

Iberian Royal Families / Re: King Juan Carlos & Queen Sofia of Spain

« on: June 02, 2005, 05:52:42 PM »

I was interested in Fredericka's comment that Queen Fredericka converted to the Greek Orthodox faith, then renounced it. Did she do this when she was studying in India? I believe that Princess Irene accompanied her mother to India. Did she go willingly, or did the Queen more or less make her go? Did Irene, too, renounce Orthodoxy?

15

Scandanavian Royal Families / Re: Princess Sybilla

« on: May 30, 2005, 11:45:51 AM »

Sybilla was the granddaughter of Leopold, Duke of Albany, Queen Victoria's hemophiliac son, and the daughter of Charles Edward, Duke of Saxe-Coburg Gotha (who, as was mentioned above, became a Nazi, and was imprisoned for a while at the end of WWII). There is information on Sybilla's father and family, and on her, in Theo Aronson's "Princess Alice, Countess of Athlone". Princess Alice was Sybilla's aunt. You can also find information on the family in Marlene Eilers Koenig's "Queen Victoria and Her Descendants".