Messages

181

The Windsors / Re: Had there been no 'Camilla' - would the Wales marriage have survived?

« on: August 17, 2007, 03:08:57 PM »

Hello,

it's a very interesting topic with a lot of interesting opinions to that question. I would like to add mine:

I think the Wales' marriage wouldn't have worked either.

From what I learnt from the newpaper articles they were very different and had very different interests. I remember having read that Charles is more interested in gardening, nature and enviroment, more interested in serious books, and in his behaviour and  thoughts formed by his "gurus" like Earl Mountbatten and  Laurens van der Post. Diana should have been more normal, watching soap operas and be more interested in lighter entertainment. I only wondered that both have many friends among stars of show business, but they do not share the same. But I also read they'd seldom shared an evening watching  TV together.

I think Charles being the elder and formed and settled would not have changed his attitudes. From my point of view Diana would have been the one who would have tried to share more of  Charles' interests. Sooner or later she would have discovered that she only distorts herself for the sake of their marriage. Both would have drift apart sooner or later.

Gabriella

182

Having Fun! / Re: Famous Habsburgs in movies/plays/cartoons

« on: August 15, 2007, 03:24:53 PM »

Hello, aor,

do you mean the austrian movie "kronprinz Rudolfs letzte Liebe" made in 1954 starring  Rudolf Prack and Christiane Hörbigger as Rudolf and Mary Vetsera?

If so, it was the german actress Lil Dagover who portrayed Sisi.

Gabriella

183

Nicholas II / Re: Nicholas II - Head of the Romanovs and Family Man

« on: August 11, 2007, 11:44:17 AM »

I know that Ernie was very fond of Nicholas II, but had this been vice-verse?

What about his relationship with his other brothers-in-law? I found that he was not very fond of Henry of Prussia but nowhere I can find an information about his relationship with Louis of Battenberg.

I also do not found any information about his relationship with Olga Alexandrovna first husband Peter of Oldenburg.

Also about his relationship with Xenia's husband I only found information from Sandro.

So I would like to know what he thought about his brothers-in-law, and what about their relationships

184

Nicholas II / Re: Nicholas II - Head of the Romanovs and Family Man

« on: August 11, 2007, 11:31:01 AM »

From what I learnt Olga has been his favourite among his daughters.

That doen not mean that he loved her more than his others daughters but spent more time with her for they share some interests.

185

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

« on: August 11, 2007, 10:51:41 AM »

Thank you, Grandduchessella,

it's very interesting to about Elena of Italy.

I wondered that she's been thought of becoming a possible wife of Nicholas II. Never read about it.

Gabriella.

186

Nicholas II / Nicholas II & Matilda Kschessinska - her love affairs with his cousins

« on: August 11, 2007, 10:27:37 AM »

Forgive me when there's already a thread about my topic, I foound none.

I already know that Nicholas II had a love-affair with the balletdancer Mathilda Kschessinska before marrying Alix. Afterwards she became the lover of two of his cousins. With Grandduke Andrei Vladimirovitch (son of Nicholas's uncle Vladimir & his aunt Miechen) she lived together andt hey had a son. I know that Miechen  was not aprroved about that relationship.

Waht about Nicholas? Was he approved of the relationship between Mathilda & Andrei?

187

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

« on: August 11, 2007, 10:16:22 AM »

Hi, it's me again for the computer was quicker than I...

So, I think that maybe Nicholas II would have allowed one of his daughters or his son to marry a first cousin. According to my opinion he  would have done everything for his children to lead a happy life. Otherwise he would have forced Olga to marry Carol of Romania.

Gabriella.

188

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

« on: August 11, 2007, 09:41:18 AM »

Since first cousins were not allowed to marry in Russia, there would have had to have been a dispensation.

I wonder if AIII would have thought it prudent to set such a precident and with the heir to throne.

may very well have, especially if MF was behind it. He shook up the Imperial Family when he limited the titles of Grand Duke/Duchess to the children and grandchildren of a Tsar--and thus the allowance members of the family were entitled to. He had the strength of personality to withstand any griping from within the family. He was very religious though and if advisers from the Orthodox Church were strongly against it, perhaps not.

Grandduchessella, forgive me, I cannot agree.

I learnt from the biographies I read about Minnie and Alix that Minnie was able to twist her husband around her fingers, but I also learnt that Alexander III
was a deeply religious man who hardly meddled in the affairs of the church.

Being her uncle and knowing her from the vacations spent together in Denmark  he would have been concurred of Toria becoming his daughter-in-law, but neither he nor Minnie made efforts to suggest her or one of her sisters, then still unmarrided sisters becoming their future daughter-in-law. When they were not approved of Alix as Nicholas's choice they only  made suggestions he should consider Margarethe of Prussia or Helene d'Orleans as future wife, but there's not one proof that they made suggestion of one of the Wales' sisters. FRom my point of view that was out of question for the Russian Orthodox Church forbbing marriage between first cousins.

Despite that there's no prove that Nicholas II made any consideration of Toria to become his wife later than that summer 1883. I think that was a teenage love or a Schwärmerei (a possible translation: being fancy of s.o.) as we say in german. He, too, was a deeply religious man and lived according the rules and rites of his church. After he met Alix when she was first time in Russia for Ella's marriage, he was not interested in marrying  someone else.
Toria was not considered by him as an alternate to Alix, when his parents were not approved of Alix.

He was the one would could have changed the rules and the forbiddance of marriage between first cousins, but  never made any efforts. From my point of view he was  one who was disapproved of the love-affair between his brother Michael and their Coburg-cousin Beatrice (Baby-Bee) as well as with the love-affair between Kyrill and his later wife Victoria-Melita. He was not only disapproved he forbade them to marry.

Psychologists may say because he was ot allowed  to marry one of  his first cousins he forbade  brother and cousin to marry a first cousins,t 'oo.  I do not believe for Nicholas was, according to what I read about him, a man who want to please everybody. So if he was unsure in his decisionthat he, that's my believe, would have agreed.

Forgive me if I'm wrong but according to Coryne Hall's biography of Minnie, Minnie was not pleased with that love-matchs, too. She was asked to interfere by Maria Alexandrovich as well as her brother-in-law Vladimir and his wife Miechen, but was not able to change Nicholas II's mind.

Perhaps, but it's only a spectactulation, he would have agreed, when one of  his daughters was in love with one of his sister's sons, for h

189

The Stuarts of Scotland / Re: Queen Anne 1665-1714

« on: August 10, 2007, 04:40:11 PM »

Hello, QueenEna1887,
there's a good book about Queen Anne and her sister Queen Mary II written by Maureen Waller, " Ungrateful Daughters - The Stuart Princesses Who Stole Their Father's Crown". It was published in 2002. It's ISBN: 0-340-79462-3.
I can recommened that book. While reading I got to know a lot about Queen Mary II as well as Queen Anne I.

Furthermore Jean Plaidy wrote a very interesting novel, "William's Wife", which also deals with the two ladies and the subject how they became Queens of Great Britain. Reading Ms. Waller's book too, I must admit that Ms. Plaidy did a good research for her novel.
 
Gabriella

190

Alexandra Feodorovna / Re: Re: Alexandra and her Health Part 2

« on: July 31, 2007, 08:38:24 AM »

I do not think that Alexandra was mentally unstable.

I think that she was stressed first by the fact that she gave birth of four daughters instead of a heir. She loved them but I think that she was disappointed by not fulfilling her dynastical duties.
Then she gave birth to a heir and must discover very soon the her son suffered of haemophilia. She knew what that meant for her son's live. Her uncle Leopold was a haemophilia's sufferer as were two of her sister Irene's sons. The youngest son of Irene died a few month before Alexei's birth. I think the fear about Alexei put her under enormous stress.
At the end I think she was physically and mentally worn out.

191

Alexandra Feodorovna / Re: Re: Empress Alexandra Photos

« on: July 31, 2007, 08:14:38 AM »

The photo shows Alexandra Feodorovna, then Alicky, with her Grandmother Queen Victoria, Prince Albert-Victor and two other ladies.

The lady behind Queen Victoria: is this her youngest daughter, Princess Beatrice? Or her third daughter Helena?
Does anybody know the other lady?

Does anybody know at which occassion the picture could me made? Alix had been often with her Grandmother in the 1880's & 1890's.
I know that in the early 1890's Queen Victoria wanted Alix to marry her Windsor cousin, Prince Albert-Victor, but Alix refused.
Before I found this one I've never seen a picture that shows the two together.

Are  there other pictures who shows them together? Are there other pictures of the early 1890's which shows Alicx with her english relatives, for example her cousin Marie-Louise of Schleswig-Holstein, they were very close, or her aunts Helena and Louise?
Plesase post in this topic. Thanks.

192

The Windsors / Re: Zara & Peter Phillips

« on: July 30, 2007, 09:49:03 AM »

There is a topic "What will the Princess Royal were to her son's wedding". So I learnt that Peter Philips eventually got married. Is that true? And if, who is he going to
marry?

193

The Windsors / Re: What will the Princess Royal wear to her son's wedding?

« on: July 30, 2007, 09:38:44 AM »

Thank you, Grandduchess Ella, for the lovely pictures of the Princess Royal. In that time this kind of clothes were very modern. She looks very nice and stylish for the time.

194

Scandanavian Royal Families / The sisters of King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden

« on: July 14, 2007, 02:38:01 PM »

As far as i know, the swedish King has four sisters,the princesses Margaretha, Birgitta, Desiree and Christina. What had happened to them?

Does anybody have pictures of them or information?

195

The Hesse-Darmstadts (Hesse and by Rhine) / Re: Palaces and Castles of the Hesses

« on: March 29, 2007, 11:50:19 AM »

This year the park of Wolfsgarten is opened 19. and 20.05.2007 and 27. and 28.05.2007. It's very nice there at this time because of the blossom of the many rhododentrons and azaleas.

The park will also be opened in September, 21. till 23.09.2007.