Tuesday, November 30, 2010

An Aristocratic Wedding

From the Daily Mail:

Snow and Duke’s girl wed in secret

Just four months after I revealed their clandestine romance, TV historian Dan Snow and glamorous heiress Lady Edwina Grosvenor have secretly married.

The couple — he is the son of former Newsnight presenter Peter Snow, she is the daughter of Britain’s richest landowner, the Duke of Westminster — began dating just over a year ago. They were married in Liverpool, close to Edwina’s family home.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1334208/Cameron-s-aide-husband-split.html

English landed aristocrats

More than a third of Britain's land is still in the hands of a tiny group of aristocrats, according to the most extensive ownership survey in nearly 140 years.

In a shock to those who believed the landed gentry were a dying breed, blue-blooded owners still control vast swathes of the country within their inherited estates.

A group of 36,000 individuals "only 0.6 per cent of the population" own 50 per cent of rural land.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1328270/A-Britain-STILL-belongs-aristocracy.html

The Making of a Modern Prince

Christopher Wilson says:

If there seemed to be more than a hint of déjà vu over last week’s royal wedding announcement, it was intentional. The re-emergence of Princess Diana’s engagement ring, the toe-curling television interview, the pink-cheeked hint of babies to come – it was all so spookily redolent of events 30 years ago.

Prince William will have been cool with that. A huge dollop of royalty’s appeal is its ability to re-fashion old habits, old ceremonials, and make them look almost (but not quite) new, and for a man who prefers his chinos, he seemed willing enough to scrub up nicely for the day, if looking perhaps a little too like his father and mother all those years ago.

For more click on the link below!

©PA

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/royal-wedding/8147339/Royal-wedding-the-making-of-a-modern-prince.html

Palace Visits Raise Money for Charity

Palace visits raise money for charity

As every year, guided visits to the Duke's palace raised money this summer season to the tune of € 23,848.75 for charity.

http://www.station.lu/edito-14443-palace-visits-raise-money-for-charity.html

The Middleton Fortune

Kate Middleton's journey from ordinary middle class girl to future princess has all the elements of a romantic fairytale. Kate's great great grandfather, Francis Martineau Lupton built a huge fortune which he left to his family when he died in 1921.

By Jason Lewis, Investigations Editor 8:30PM GMT 27 Nov 2010

But Ms Middleton's rise to the ranks of the aristocracy would not have been possible without the hard-headed foresight of a Victorian industrialist and philanthropist.

©PA

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/royal-wedding/8164731/How-a-Victorian-industrialist-helped-Kate-Middletons-parents.html

Monday, November 29, 2010

Some find him tough...I honestly find him endearing even though he called me "peculiar!"

Several years ago when I met the Duke of Edinburgh at a private event in Germany, he thought that a Costa Rican who wrote books about European royalty and was an expert on the Gotha, was "most peculiar!"

To that statement, I replied, "Indeed Sir..."

I know I'm peculiar...The Duke of Edinburgh was not telling me anything I did not know and in fact gave an anecdote I will forever share with my readers and friends!

I happen to be a big fan of Prince Philip's...

Anyone who at nearly ninety-years of age does as much as His Royal Highness deserves our admiration!