Royal Gossip

[poliphilo]

Ailz tells me the Queen has rewritten the rules on royal precedence so that Princess Anne isn't required to curtsey to her older brother's wife- something she refuses to do.  She refused to curtsey to her older brother's first wife too. It's not that she finds curtseying offensive in itself, only curtseying to a "commoner". Apparently the Windsors are at it all the time, bobbing up and down to one another. You'd think, in private, they might drop the charade, but they don't. 

There was a sale of the Duchess of Windsors jewels at Sotheby's yesterday. They realised nearly £8 million. The duchess liked her bling. And she liked it blingy. If you saw these items in a pawn shop window you'd go, "My God, who on earth would want to wear that?" But they're good fun- especially the diamond and onyx panther. 

My cultural inheritance includes a propensity to bristle at the word "Prussian" but last night's TV biography of Frederick the Great suggested I might want to adjust my programming. Frederick was a great general, an enlightened and liberal statesman, a philosopher and patron of philosophers, a composer of some stature and a musician of genuine accomplishment. Ruling houses are often founded by persons of genius but its enormously rare for a genius to spring from an established bloodline.  In fact I can think of only two examples in the history of Western Europe. The other is Alexander the Great.

Comments

[veronica-milvus.livejournal.com]

That is a sort of spell, surely? By saying it with the right level of belief, you could make it true.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Yes indeed.

We don't know about the Queen (we know so little about her) but Princess Margaret went though life demanding to be treated as "special"- and I don't believe it made her happy.

[ooxc.livejournal.com]

Errmmm - I thought that she grew up having to take second place, then being denied the man she loved, and then having to watch the younger generation doing whatever they felt like doing in that department

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

That's part of the story- the part that shows her in a good light. It was a life full of disappointment and, from what I've read, it soured her.