Unexpected Royal Hobbies

[Kalafrana]

Royal hobbies in the period we are usually discussing (1850-1950) follow a fairly standard pattern:

Riding
Hill walking
Photography
Painting
Music (piano in  particular)
Tennis

For men:
Shooting
Sailing
Golf

For ladies:
Sewing


But how many did something unexpected? Here are the ones I can think of:

Model railways
Grand Duke Dimitri Pavlovich

Designing buildings
Friedrich Wilhelm IV of Prussia

Riding a penny farthing
Arthur, Duke of Connaught

Embroidery
Duke of Windsor

Rock climbing
Albert I of Belgium

On the musical front, the Duke of Windsor played the bagpipes and Frederik IX of Denark conducted orchestras.

[RomanovsFan4Ever]

Rock climbing
Albert I of Belgium

Sadly, that passion was fatal for him, he died in a mountaineering accident. :- (

[Aglaya]

I can add something about my favourite GD Michael Romanov, brother of Nicholas II. His hobby was music, horses, cars and...boxing. He had his own American boxing coach. That coach went with him even on the war front.
As one of the commmanders of Michael's regiment (Savage Division) Colonel Polovtsov said: '... his American boxing teacher always told me that it was a pity that he was a Grand Duke, because he would have done very well as a prizefighter in the ring'.

[IrinaAlexandrovna]

Tsar Boris III 's hobbies were

1) Hunting in the woods....

2) Mechanics-like trains,cars,planes

3)Dogs

[clockworkgirl21]

Anastasia liked breeding worms, supposedly.

But I really don't know how someone can breed worms...

[Kalafrana]

I understand that Boris of Bulgaria was particularly fond of driving trains, as was his brother Kyril.

There is a nice story that when Edward VIII and Mrs Simpson visited Bulgaria on the notorious cruise on the Nahlin, Boris drove the train with Kyril as fireman, and the last the visitors saw of them was when they were arguing over who was going to drive back!

Pity that Mikhail Alexandrovich didn't get the opportunity to use his boxing skills on a few Bolsehviks.

Ann

[GrandDuchessAndrea]

How did Aurthur of Connaught ride a penny farthing?

[Kalafrana]

'How did Aurthur of Connaught ride a penny farthing?'

Not very well, according to Alice of Athlone, who said that he was rather clumsy and kept falling off.

Just in case there is any confusion, a penny farthing is the early type of bicycle with a huge front wheel and a very small back wheel.

It was also rather dangerous to be around the Duke of Connaught when out shooting. According to Alice of Athlone once more, he not only took out Christian of Schleswig-Holstein's eye, but on another occasion narrowly missed the Queen of Italy's hat.

Ann

[GrandDuchessAndrea]

Ah. So it was a type of bicycle. I was thinking how did he ride a coin? Thanks!

[Kalafrana]

I should have remembered that not everyone on this forum is accustomed to English idioms.

Riding a penny farthing bicycle was a fairly adventurous business, as the saddle was on top of the large wheel and something like 5ft from the ground. Getting on was awkward, and stopping was worse (obviously with a normal bike you put one foot on the ground when you come to a stop, but you couldn't with a penny farthing!)

A couple of others:

Bookbinding
Prince Heinrich of Prussia
Apparently, it was a Hohenzollern tradition for princes to learn a trade. Heinrich learned bookbinding, and continued as an adult (he used to make his own account books)

Heinrich was also an enthusiast for steam-powered cars. Until recently I would have described this as a technological dead-end, but somebody has just built one, and broken a speed record which had stood for over 100 years.

Decorative enamel work (it involved using a blowlamp)
Princess Marie Louise

Ann

[Janet Ashton]

Designing buildings
Friedrich Wilhelm IV of Prussia

This is not really that unusual a hobby for royalty, IMHO. How about Ludwig I and Ludwig II of Bavaria, who played at the very least an active role in what architects were designing for them (Ludwig II did a great deal more); Prince Albert; Tsar Nicholas I ( a reasonable draftsman) and many more known for their active and interested patronage of various architects. An excellent hobby, if you have the money, I feel...:-)

[abbigail]

I've heard that Olga Nikolaevna could play the piano in the dark.

[IrinaAlexandrovna]

Princess Giovanna Di Savoia loved to play the violoncello,also the piano.Other thing which she did so good was embroidering and to knit.

[Kalafrana]

Going further back, Edward II (1307-27) was an enthusiast for farriery, and even hedging and ditching. Prince Charles has appeared on TV cutting and laying hedges, but in the 14th century such a hobby was regarded as disgustingly unregal, and this contributed to Edward's downfall.

By contrast, his father Edward I concentrated on the typical royal hobbies of the day - jousting, hunting, falconry and chess.

Ann