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Tag: british royal family

How “German” is the new king?

Because I saw this on Twitter, and it really exemplified something I’d been wanting to do, just about every time English media call the royal family German… (I’m using where the birth place is located today – since the further out we get, the more the borders of Europe changes.)

King Charles III:

Born in: 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿

Parents born in: 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿💑 🇬🇷

Grandparents born in: 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿💑🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 – 🇬🇷💑🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿

G grandparents born in: 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿💑🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿- 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿💑🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿- 🇩🇰💑🇷🇺- 🇦🇹💑🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿

G g grandparents born in: 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿💑🇩🇰- 🇭🇷💑🇩🇪- 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿💑🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿- 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿💑🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿- 🇩🇪💑🇩🇪- 🇷🇺💑🇩🇪- 🇩🇪💑🇵🇱- 🇩🇪💑🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 – First generation with people born in what is today’s Germany.

When we get to the 6th step backwards, we’re also repeating people, and we’re also getting the same people on different steps. I was originally going to go back to I got to Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, but:

One: Prince Philip’s great grandfather was Christian IX of Denmark (incidentally, born in Germany). But, because his daughter Alexandra married into the British Royal family, she and her parents are on the same step of the g g grandparents, and it would really be a mess going even further back.

Two: The first flag on the last line of flag emojis, and the last flag – the two English flags, are two of Victoria and Albert’s children – and going another step back there would also mean they would be repeated both in the start and the finish of the line. (And then my head started to hurt.)

In addition to that, once we get further and further back – the birth places of the less royal people in the line-up, become more difficult to track and verify.

Eh, it amused me enough to write the post anyway. (Which isn’t anything to scoff at since it has been a whole pandemic since the last time I posted anything here.)

January 31, 2023
Education of the British royals

Generally, it kind of feels like whenever I do a blog post in my mind about royalty now, it is usually whenever someone has said something wrong. Or… if not wrong, then just used the basic facts to imply something is wrong.

Let’s use this example: a couple of days ago, the Daily Mail posted the story about the Duke and Duchess of Sussex allegedly having chosen an American-community school in the UK for their as of yet unborn child. The headline: they might be shunning Eton.

Which, really is nothing wrong – except the wording in the article makes it sound like Eton is the preferred school for the young royals to attend. (Or the Daily Mail is just happy that they get to trash Eton? Because there was a similar story when Prince George started school.) Granted, it is just across the river from Windsor, and the aristocracy has had a tendency to send their sons there. But the British royal family haven’t.

When the Duke of Cambridge started Eton (after being in day schools in London and boarding at Ludgrove after that) in the 90s – it was not a royal tradition. It was then seen as snubbing of Gordonstoun – the school William’s father, paternal grandfather paternal uncles and cousins, Peter and Zara, attended.

(William and Harry’s maternal grandfather and uncle, on the other hand, did go to Eton.)

And before Prince Philip joined the royal family, having attended Gordonstoun – Queen Elizabeth’s father and (most of) his brothers were also educated at home, until the time came to send them off to the Naval college as cadets when they were 13.

Likewise their father and uncle before them went into the Navy as cadets.

King Edward VII attended a home school, put together by Prince Albert with the idea of what a British monarch should know.

(To be fair, Prince Henry, the Duke of Gloucester, Queen Elizabeth’s uncle did attend Eton. )

Also, the kid isn’t born, yet, and whatever school he or she will attend, is not going to be an issue for the next couple of years. Really.

February 19, 2019
Book review: The final curtsey

Prior to this release, there were a couple of articles in the Telegraph, about revelations from this book. I don’t know if it was just me, but the articles made it seem like it would be quite a substantial book in size. It isn’t. Just over 150 pages, the book is actually rather small. But, it is packed with information and stories

The Final Curtsey is the autobiography of Margaret Rhodes – she is the niece to the late Queen Mother, and cousin to the current Queen.

I am always wary when there are spelling errors as early as the family tree in the first pages of the book. True, it looks like a mere typing error, but one would have hoped that such minor trifles could have been caught prior to the book going to press. It makes me wonder how many other things I am not catching.

(more…)

August 26, 2011