Those lusty, adulterous royals

 

24 Jan 2009 - National Post - BY ARAMINTA WORDSWORTH

 

After a long-running adulterous affair, a royal prince weds his mistress and touches off a storm. But the newly ennobled duchess quickly proves a hit with his family and the public.

Sound familiar? But it’s not Prince Charles and Camilla Parker-Bowles. The lovers in question are John of Gaunt, third son of Edward III, and Katherine Swynford. Their marriage in 1396 legitimized their children and made them the ancestors of all British monarchs since 1461. Katherine has also been the subject of a popular historical romance by Anya Seton, published about 50 years ago but still in print.

Remember the revolution?

A detailed drawing showing Oliver Cromwell using his troops to dissolve parliament in 1653. Photograph: Corbis

The Guardian – November 14, 2008 – By Ronan Bennett 

A nation divided, a king beheaded, a people resurgent: the civil war is one of the most exciting episodes in British history. And yet we seem almost embarrassed about it. Ronan Bennett welcomes a Channel 4 drama that is a rare celebration of that radical adventure.

Books – The Black Tower

M&C – November 10, 2008.

Vidocq. The name strikes terror in the Parisian underworld of 1818. As founder and chief of a newly created plainclothes police force, Vidocq has used his mastery of disguise and surveillance to capture some of France’s most notorious and elusive criminals. Now he is hot on the trail of a tantalizing mystery ”the fate of the young dauphin Louis-Charles”, son of Marie-Antoinette and King Louis XVI.

The enduring legacy of Emily Post: Manners still matter

USA Today – October 13, 2008 – By Craig Wilson.

Emily Post has been dead nearly half a century. Many believe good manners died right along with the woman who gave us the ultimate book on etiquette in 1922.

ETIQUETTE KEEPS UP WITH THE TIMES

My, how times have changed. Just compare some “rules” from the very first edition of Emily Post’s Etiquette (1922) to the most recent version, the 17th, published in 2004.

A Right Royal Row

Pilar Urbano with a copy of her controversial book - Photo EFE

TycicallySpanish – October 31, 2008 – By H.B.

Supposed declarations by Queen Sofía of Spain published in a new book have upset the Gay and Lesbian community, and forced the Zarzuela Palace to issue a statement. 

Queen Sofía has had to backtrack on some of the comments she is reported to have made in a new book, ‘La Reina Muy de Cerca’ which has been published to coincide with her 70th birthday on November 2.

Yanks and the royals

The end of a beautiful relationship? American fascination with the British monarchy could be on the wane

Newstatesman – October 30, 2008. 

The Eagle and the Crown
Frank Prochaska
Yale University Press, 239pp, £25

“No Cross, no Crown!” declared the rebellious American colonists. Yet, for more than two centuries, Americans have been imploring their government to defend religion and have been making sheep’s eyes across the Atlantic. Frank Prochaska deals with the latter of these irrationalities, which in the past few decades has become increasingly intense, though hardly more reverent.

Becoming Queen, By Kate Williams

The Independent – October 24, 2008 – Reviewed by Loraine Fletcher.

Princess Charlotte, only child of the Prince Regent, and her niece Victoria saved the Hanoverian dynasty from revolution, Kate Williams argues. People were sick of all George III’s unsavoury sons, “mud from a muddy spring”, as Shelley called them, and tolerated them only because Charlotte was next in line. She predeceased her father, dying in childbirth aged 21 with her baby. But Victoria’s birth preserved the hope of an attractive, sober monarch. Becoming Queen considers Charlotte’s life and Victoria’s youth in sequence.