Book Review: From Splendour to Revolution

A review by Coryne Hall...

http://royalreadingcorner.blogspot.com/2012/04/fromsplendour-to-revolution.html

Book Review: Honour and Fidelity (The Russian Leuchtenbergs)

I have added to our royal book review blog one written by Coryne Hall for us. This review deals with Zoia Belyakova's Honour and Fidelity – The Russian Dukes of Leuchtenberg.

http://royalreadingcorner.blogspot.com/2012/04/honour-and-fidelity-russian-dukes-of.html 

Young Royals – Review by Coryne Hall

Yet another expert review by Eurohistory's official royal book reviewer!

http://royalreadingcorner.blogspot.com/2012/04/young-royals-on-tour-william-and-kate.html

The kind ladies who run the excellent royal news site Noblesse et Royautés have listed a page with information on my latest book: DEAR ELLEN – Royal Europe Through the Photo Albums of Grand Duchess Helen Vladimirovna of Russia.

http://www.noblesseetroyautes.com/nr01/2012/04/livre-dear-ellen-lalbum-de-photos-de-la-grande-duchesse-helena-de-russie/

Review of The Grand Dukes

On our new royal book review blog, readers can find an unbiased review of The Grand Dukes, Volume 1.

http://royalreadingcorner.blogspot.com/2012/04/grand-dukes-vol-1-review-by-phil-perry.html

New Royal Book Review Blog!

"That which does not kill us, makes us stronger!"

Today, as I awakened from a deep and restful slumber brought about by a long return from Europe, (from Brussels to LHR to San Francisco), I received several emails with troubling and upsetting contents.

Apparently, a royal reading blog insinuated that DEAR ELLEN did not fare well in sales at this year's RD Royalty Weekend. Some people questioned that assertion and emailed me about it. They and I were dealt with summarily by the blog's owner.

More than a bit shocked, as I know the sales numbers of all our venues, I contacted the excellent people of the Dutch Bookstore Hoogstraten English Bookstore. As I expected, they confirmed that the book had been their TOP seller at RD.

I replied to the owner of the message board in which the erroneous statement was made and instead of pleasantries, I was barraged with nasty emails and name calling. Of course, the owner of that blog was not interested in posting a correction to the misinformation she was lured into publishing. Sad, really.

Instead, the owner banned me from the message board. A First...I have never been banned from a board before, but feel proud to join others in cyber exile!

However, I embraced this act and while driving our son to school,  thought: "Embrace this...the Eurohistory Magazine has hundreds of book reviews, share them with people!"

So thank you...seriously thank you...my banishment from that board gave rise to a new Eurohistory-owned blog:

http://royalreadingcorner.blogspot.com/

Engagement in House Luxembourg

News that were confirmed to me last weekend by a family member of the groom, is now official!

Hereditary Grand Duke Guillaume of Luxembourg is engaged to be married to Countess Stépahnie de Lannoy.

The Grand Marshal of the Grand Ducal Court of Luxembourg officially announced that Hereditary Grand Duke Guillaume, eldest son of Grand Duke Henri and Grand Duchess Maria Teresa, is engaged to be married to Countes ßtéphanie de Lannoy, youngest daughter of Count Philippe and of Alix della Faille de Leverghem. Stéphanie was born at Renaix, Belgium in 1984. She is a cousin of Countess Katia Limburg Stirum and  Countess Christine Limburg Stirum, both daughters-in-law of Princess Hélène of France.

DEAR ELLEN Top Seller at Hoogstraten English Bookstore

Much to my absolute delight, I find that my latest book, DEAR ELLEN – Royal Europe Through the Photo Albums of Grand Duchess Helen Vladimirovna of Russia is the TOP selling book at renowed and well-respected Hoogstraten English Bookstore in The Hague!

I visited this excellent shop earlier this week and signed copies of the book, which has been selling very, very well!

Ms Bakker also told me, unlike it was posted in a royal book message board, that DEAR ELLEN was indeed to top seller at this year's RD Royalty Weekend.

Thanks everyone!

Marriage in House Liechtenstein

Prince Rudolf of Liechtenstein will be married to Ms. Tilsin Tanberk on April 20, 2012.

Rudolf is the son of Prince Philipp Erasmus of Liechtenstein and of his wife Princess Isabelle (née de l'Arbre de Malander).

Ms Tanberk is the daughter of Mr. Olgun Tanberk and of his wife Melek (née Kampulat).

The wedding is scheduled to take place in Istanbul on Friday, 20 April 2012.

Dear Ellen, Four Graces and Our OTHER Books NOW on AMAZON.co.uk

Five of our books are now available through Amazon.co.uk and are being shipped from the UK, thus reducing the shipping costs for all our European clients.

This is the link of the seller who has undertaken this enterprise and who has stock of all the books and is able to ship immediately.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aag/main?ie=UTF8&isAmazonFulfilled=0&marketplaceID=A1F83G8C2ARO7P&isCBA=&asin=098546030X&seller=AL8YJ353W9NU1

In the meantime, we are working on fixing our website to renew selling books through it.

Also, all our books are sold on Amazon.com

Through Ilana Miller:

http://www.amazon.co...=A3SHUOZBCCEYBL


And through Marlene Koenig:

http://www.amazon.co...=A2LBU87B7PQIW4


Kind regards from Paris, Arturo Beéche

Eurohistory (ERHJ) Issue LXXXV – Volume 15.1 (In Preparation)

We are hard at work on Issue LXXXV (Vol. 15.1) of Eurohistory.

IN it readers will find articles on various royal topics, among them:

1. Queen Margrethe II of Denmark

2. Emperor Karl of Austria

3. The Royal House of the Two Sicilies

4. Count Folke and Countess Estelle Bernadotte

5. The Tragedy of Prince Friso of the Netherlands

6. Royal Book Reviews

7. Royal Book News

All subscribers have received renewal notices inside Issue LXXXIV, don't delay sending them back to us to ensure that your subscription does not suffer disruption.

New subscription rates for 2012 are:

US................$48.00

Canada.........$50.00

UK...............£40.00

Europe.........$70.00

Latin America....$70.00

Australia, New Zealand and rest of the World.....$70.00

Thanks for your continued support!

New Book by Eurohistory: Dear Ellen – Selling on AMAZON now!

It is with much anticipation that we informed you that Arturo Beéche's newest contribution to the royalty book world, DEAR ELLEN – Royal Europe Through the Photo Albums of Grand Duchess Helen Vladimirovna of Russia is now listed and selling on AMAZON.com

Here is the link:

http://www.amazon.com/Dear-Ellen-Through-Duchess-Vladimirovna/dp/098546030X/ref=sr_1_fkmr1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1333458963&sr=8-1-fkmr1

Royal Palace Compound in Belgrade

Belgrade, 2 April 2012 – The Royal Palace together with the Tourist Organisation of Belgrade (TOB) announced beginning of the touristic season for 2012.

Their Royal Highnesses Crown Prince Alexander II and Crown Princess Katherine are pleased to inform all interested citizens should they wish to visit the Royal Compound, that the organization of regular tours continues in cooperation with the Tourist Organization of Belgrade every weekend from 7 April through 31 October 2012.

Visiting the Royal and White Palaces is organized that visitors with professional tour guides will get acquainted with the history, art and culture in a nice two-hour walk through the Royal Compound. The tour includes the magnificent Royal and White Palaces and the Royal Chapel dedicated to the patron Saint of the Royal Family - St. Andrew the First Called.

 

Every Saturday and Sunday from 7 April through 31 October at two regular times 11 am and 2 pm, the Royal Compound will be open to the public. The entry ticket includes a round trip transfer tourist bus starting from Nikola Pasic Square in Belgrade; the Royal Compound is only a few minutes from the city centre. There is also a possibility to organize group tours during work days by previous appointment. For all information and reservations, visitors must visit the Tourist Information Centre, Knez Mihailova 6, 11000 Beograd

 

Tel: 011 328 -18 -59; Fax: 011 262 92 53

Email: dvorskikompleks@tob.co.rs;                       www.tob.co.rs

Contact person: Andjelka Vukovic
Email: dvorski_kompleks@yahoo.com  Website: www.tob.co.rs

The limit per group is 50 people.

Schools, students and pension associations interested in visiting the Royal Compound should call the Office of HRH Crown Prince Alexander directly at 011/306-4014 and or email: kancelarija@dvor.rs.

The Royal Palace

The Royal Palace was built between 1924 and 1929 with the private funds of His Majesty King Alexander I (the grandfather of HRH Crown Prince Alexander). The architects were Zivojin Nikolic and Nikolay Krassnoff of the Royal Academy. The palace is made of white stone in the Serbian-Byzantine style. Attached to The Royal Palace there is a Royal Chapel dedicated to Saint Apostle Andrew The First-Called, the Patron Saint of The Royal Family. The Royal Palace was the home of King Alexander I and King Peter. Today The Royal Palace is the home of Crown Prince Alexander II and his family.

The White Palace

The White Palace is located within the same complex as The Royal Palace and it was commissioned by command of His Majesty King Alexander I as the residence for his three sons HRH Crown Prince Peter (the future King Peter II), Prince Tomislav and Prince Andrej. King Alexander I envisaged that his three sons would require their own private accommodation when they became of age, but his assassination in Marseille caused the destiny of his sons to take a different turn.

The young King Peter II became the new master of the Dedinje Complex and the completion of The White Palace was supervised by King Peter II great uncle HRH Prince Regent Paul. It was built from 1934 until 1936, as the project of the architect Alexander Djordjevic. When completed it became the official residence on loan to HRH Prince Regent Paul and his family, until King Peter II came of age.

The ground floor of this classicistic palace houses a large hall and a number of drawing rooms furnished in the style of Louis XV and Louis XVI with large Venetian chandeliers. There is also a library which had more than 35 000 books and a formal Chippendale dining room.

The Royal Chapel of Saint Andrew the First Called

The Palace Church is attached to the south side of The Royal Palace and linked to the main building by a colonnade of stone pillars. The Church is dedicated to St. Andrew the First Called (the Royal Family’s Patron Saint). The Church is based on the model of the monastery Church of Saint Andrew on the River Treska in Macedonia, which was built by Andrew the son of the Serbian medieval King Vukasin. The Church was designed and built at the same time as The Royal Palace.

The interior of the Church is covered with frescoes painted by a team of artists from the Belgrade Artist Association. Following King Alexander I instructions this group visited most of the Serbian medieval monasteries in order to copy their frescos. The group was led by academician Nikolai Kasnoff. After preparing the walls and cataloguing the drawings the final decision to go ahead was made by King Alexander I. The Russian painters Boris Obrascov, Nikolai Maiendorf, Vladimir Bickovski, Viktor Sevcov, and Reitlinger and Evgeny Varnu-Secret were chosen to paint the Church. All painters were requested to produce records of their previous work in medieval monasteries. The whole project for the completion of the Church took about 36 months. 

This is only a brief introduction for all interested citizens, who we invite to visit this extraordinary cultural and historical place that tens of thousands domestic and foreign tourists and guests visited during the last year. 

Today Marks the 90th Anniversary of The Emperor Karl's Death

Today 90 years ago the unexpected news came of the death of the last Emperor
and King of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.  He had been forced to spend the last part
of his earthly life in exile on the island of Madeira, far away from his homeland.

News of this event was met all around with a sense of profound shock.

Yet even in his beloved native country, only a tiny number of people were
informed of the conditions and circumstances under which the light of this world was
extinguished from the eyes of this truly great man and Austrian.

This article intends to inform everyone, particularly those peoples whom the
dearly departed monarch once called “his peoples,” of what really happened.

As a devout Catholic, Emperor Karl overcame the trials and tribulations of life
with the greatest of joy and bitterest of sorrow.  He was never greater, however, than
when he died a Christian death in an exemplary way.

His was the death “of a just man, precious in the eyes of the Lord.”

Archduke Karl of Austria was born at Persenbeug, a family estate, in 1887. At the time of his birth, Karl, who was a great-nephew of Emperor Franz Joseph, was fifth-in--line to the succession of the Austro-Hungarian throne. Ahead of him were: Crown Prince Rudolf, Archduke Karl Ludwig, Archduke Franz Ferdinand and Archduke Otto, Karl's father.

A series of untimely deaths and a renunciation would propel the young man to succeed the old Emperor. Firstly, the Crown Prince committed suicide at Mayerlling in 1889. Secondly, Archduke Karl Ludwig, Karl's grandfather, renounced his rights and died (1896). Then Archduke Franz Ferdinand married morganatically in 1900 and renounced the rights of any children he may have from his married to Countess Sophie Chotek von Chotkova. Then in 1906, the debauched Archduke Otto, Karl's father, met ann untimely death brought about by a life dedicated to dissipation. By the age of 19 Karl knew that one day the Austro-Hungarian realm would land on his shoulders. A decade later he succeeded at a time when Austria-Hungary was enmeshed in a terrible conflict, the outcome of which would cost Karl his throne, livelihood and contribute to his own early death.

Today, in Madeira, members of the Habsburg family gathered to commemorate the life of a saintly man...

After the morganatic

A New Bust of the Dowager Empress Marie Feodorovna of Russia

Our friend and reader, Larry Russell, reported to us this morning that Queen Margrethe II has unveiled a new bust of the late Dowager Empress Marie Feodorovna of Russia.

Marie, born Princess Dagmar in 1847, was once engaged to Tsarevich Nicholas Alexandrovich of Russia (1843-1865) and later married his next brother, Emperor Alexander III (1845-1894). Among her six children were Russia's two last tsars, Nicholas II and Grand Duke Michael.

Marie Feodorovna managed to get herself to the Crimea from where in 1919 she left Russia forever. Marie found refuge in Denmark, where she lived between the royal palace in Copenhagen (much to her nephew Christian X's displeasure, and her seaside villa at Hvidøre, which she had purchased jointly with her sister Queen Alexandra.

Marie Feodorovna died in 1928. She was buried at Roskilde and in 2006 her remains were transferred to St Petersburg, where they lay next to her husband's inside the SS Peter and Paul Cathedral.