Search results

Diana wasn't a peeress in her own right, and posthumous creation of peerage dignity is something that is unheard of.

I think that a member of the IRA was convicted of murdering Lord Mounbatten back then, in 1979.

King Louis XV of France certainly deserves a mention. His grandfather, the Grand Dauphin, his father, the Duke of Burgundy and his elder brother, the Duke of Brittany all died in less than a year, between April 1711 and March 1712, leaving two-year-old Louis heir to the throne of his...

A chance encounter... I was sitting on a bench next to the statue of Wellington. A police motorcyclist drove through the Wellington Arch, in a minute there was another. A Rolls-Royce was next, and I noticed that the car is somehow unusual; I understood that the Rolls-Royce had an elevated roof...

Does anyone know which monarch was the last one to pay a state visit to Queen Victoria? It should've been some time in 1900.

That's a bit unclear... The widows of Edward VII and George V, AFAIK, did not style themselves as such, being referred as Queen Alexandra and Queen Mary instead.

Favourite ever? A hard one, it is a bit unfair to compare absolute and constitutional monarchs... So, all in all, Queen Victoria.

Indeed. It was not impossible--look at the Duke of Albany, Victoria's son, but highly unlikely.

Her grandfather, Sir Harry Legge-Bourke, was a long-serving Tory MP who for some time chaired the 1922 Committee of Conservative backbenchers. He is known for never making a single speech in his 28 years in the House of Commons, although he once advised Prime Minister Attlee to 'change the...

Almost everyone of the Russian monarchs of the 18th Century; the then-existing law on succession allowed monarch to appoint anyone he liked as a successor. Emperor Nicholas I of Russia--his elder brother abjured the throne. Emperor Alexander III of Russia--his elder brother died young. King...

There is a theor,y which has some adherents here, that Victoria was not the Duke of Kent's daughter, and the introduction of haemophilia into the royal family is frequently cited as a proof.

I agree with those who named Haakon and Mette-Marit--the King of Norway has had a lot of health problems. Queen Elizabeth II is the oldest European monarch, but I think that we'll see her Diamond Jubilee and the Queen opening the 2012 Olympic Games. I've noticed a strange coincidence. In the...

I saw the Prince and Camilla inside the car on that day, and she was wearing THAT. :)

Yesterday, 18 September 2005. The Prince of Wales's car passes by me, continuing down Hyde Park Corner. The Prince is waving to... well, to me--I was the only one standing there! :) Camilla is somewhere next to him--her hat was enormous, as far as I saw.

It is possible for a gynaecologist (I am one) to establish (in most cases) whether the hymen is present and whether it is intact. This is a commonly used indicator of virginity, although it obviously does not exclude the possibility of prior sexual relations. How do you test a woman for...

In theory it is possible to revive a late 17th Century precedent when William, the son of Princess Anne and Prince George of Denmark, was styled 'Duke of Gloucester' despite the fact that he had not been actually created a duke. But the press would have a field day with such an absurd and...

Why? The Prince of Wales thanks the journalist and remarks that he was not embarrassed to admit adultery to the tactful broadcaster. There is nothing about the Prince being ashamed or not ashamed of the adultery itself.

The title of 'Duke of Lancaster' has no legal standing in the United Kingdom, it is nothing more than a locally used style for the British monarch. The Lord Chancellor stated in the Buckhurst Peerage Case (1876) that 'the fountain and source of all dignities cannot hold a dignity from himself...

Charles is the Duke of Cornwall now, but he won't be the Duke of Lancaster upon his accession. This peerage title merged in the Crown long ago, and the British monarch cannot be a peer.

In the latter case Charles will have to create Camilla a duchess in her own right.

Smith served in the Welsh Guards and took part in the Falklands War.

Yes, I've forgotten about that occasion. But it is a once-a-year event when the Knights are dressed not to 'general' etiquette standards.

I don't want to hijack the thread, but the case of Paul I is far from being clear-cut. Catherine herself named one of the Saltykovs as Paul's father (privately and not for 'public consumption', of course) and she had many affairs, but Paul I bore a striking resemblance to Peter III...

James VI and I allowed his subjects to use the style of 'King of Great Britain' in 1604; however, it was not used in legal documents.

Yes, either that or a new mutation. It would have been very difficult for Viktoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld to find a haemophiliac lover in the early 19th Century.