The wedding program

Three different ways to download the official wedding program!

http://www.officialroyalwedding2011.org/blog/2011/April/28/Royal-Wedding-update--Official-programme--including-Order-of-Service--available-online-1

Royal Wedding DVDs

There will be Royal Wedding DVDs sold after the wedding.  These are the listings from Amazon.co.uk.  The cover photo will  not be the engagement photo.   The first DVD is from the BBC and the second from ITV, and will be released in early May.   These are Region 2 (Pal) DVDs.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B004WDQWF8/ref=pe_3511_24697421_snp_explore

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B004WK14HM/ref=pe_3511_24697421_snp_dp


American and Canadian readers are scratching their heads, and wondering ... what about us ... do not worry, as the same two DVDs will be made available for Region 1 (NTSC)

http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B004WDQWF8/ref=pe_3511_24697421_snp_explore

http://www.amazon.com/William-Kate-Planning-Royal-Wedding/dp/B004LFZORE/ref=sr_1_2?s=dvd&ie=UTF8&qid=1303905063&sr=1-2

The U.S. release is on May 24.

The new Handbuch des Adels is now available for order

http://www.starkeverlag.de/shopfactory/contents/de/d80.html   45 Euros

Band 149  Fürstliche Häuser XIX

2011, XLXVI + 500 Seiten, 18 Bilder davon 13 farbig, 21 Textwappen, 42 Genealogien.


Folgende Familien sind enthalten:

I. Abteilung: Anhalt, Beligien Dänemark, Griechenland, Großbritannien, Hohenzollern, Lippe, Monaco, Niederlande, Norwegen, Schweden, Souv. Malteser-Ritter-Orden


II. Abteilung: Arenberg, Auersperg, Bentheim, Colloredo-Mannsfeld, Croy, Erbach, Harrach, Hohenlohe, Isenburg/Ysenburg, Khevenhüller-Metsch, Königsegg-Aulendorf, Leiningen, Löwenstein-Wertheim, Neipperg, Orsini u. Rosenberg, Pappenheim, Quadt, Rechteren-Limpurg, Sayn-Wittgenstein, Schaesberg, Schönburg, Starhemberg, Thurn u. Taxis, Trauttmansdorff-Weinsberg, Wied, Windisch-Graetz, Wurmbrand-Stuppach


Abteilung III A: Boncompagni-Ludovisi, Clary u. Aldringen, Hohenberg

St. James's Palace A History

Order St James's Palace US


Hurrah, finally a book on St. James's Palace in London.  
All ambassadors are accredited to the Court of St. James, even though the sovereign now lives at Buckingham Palace.

St. James's Palace is one of the oldest of British palaces, and has been a royal residence since Henry VIII ordered the on construction on the site of a former leper hospital.  The palace came into its own during the reign of the Stuarts.  The magnificent State Apartments were designed by Christopher Wren for Queen Anne.

/div> The palace has been home to many royals, including the Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh, the Gleichens, Princess Mary, Countess of Harewood, the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester, and the Duke and Duchess of Kent.    The Princess Royal, Princess Alexandra and Princess Beatrice of York all have apartments at the palace, which also continues to be used for official occasions.  The palace is also home to various offices, including the Prince of Wales' charities.   Princess Alexandra now occupies the Gleichens' apartments
Kenneth Scott is the author of St. James's Palace A History (Scala: $45.00), which is the first modern study of this most fascinating residence.   Scott takes us through a rich pageantry of history as seen through the eyes of the kings and queens who used St. James's Palace as a residence or a place to receive guests.

The forward was written by the Princess Royal, who was born at Clarence House (a part of St. James's Palace), and who now has an apartment in the palace.   The histories of Clarence House,  Marlborough House and Lancaster House are intertwined with St. James's Palace.

The book features historical photographs as well as wonderful images of the State Rooms and other rooms.   St. James's Palace is a working royal residence and not open to the public, even the State Apartments.  The Royal Chapel and the Queen's Chapel are open for Sunday services.


St. James's Palace A History was published in the United Kingdom in November 2010.

Upcoming: The Final Curtsey

The Final Curtsey is the autobiograhy of the Hon. Margaret Rhodes, Queen Elizabeth IIs's first cousin, close friend, and former lady-in-waiting to Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/queen-elizabeth-II/8446396/Margaret-Rhodes-The-Queens-cousin.html

The Final Curtsey will be published in the UK on October 30.  The publisher is Calder Walker Associates.

It is available for pre-order on Amazon.co.uk:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Final-Curtsey-Margaret-Rhodes/dp/0954127560/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1302793932&sr=1-1

Nearly published - the new Handbuch des Adels

Starke's Volume 149, Fürstliche Häuser XIX is planned to be published in the end of April, according to the publisher.  The Handbuch des Adels has been published in Germany since the mid-1950s.  

UPDATE Ulwencreutz's Royal Families in Europe

Lulu has withdrawn Ulwencreutz's Royal Families in Europe, according to Paul Theroff, who filed a complaint against the publisher, citing evidence that the book was taken straight from his website, An Online Gotha.  Mr. Ulwencreutz claimed he paid researchers to do the work, and was unaware of the similiarities between his book and An Online Gotha.   

Here in the United States, ignorance is no excuse of the law.  Editors and publishers are responsible for their products, including making sure no intellectual property laws were violated.  

Since 1978, here in the USA (and other countries' laws are similar), one does not need to state that their work is copyrighted.  It is automatic.  This was further defined by the more recent Digital Millennium Copyright Act. 

The Internet and Public Domain do not mean the same thing.    

The Latest package from Amazon

Sienna loves Amazon!    She also enjoys reading all the new William & Kate magazines.   She wants all RBN readers to know that she continues to scope out all the books and share the information here.

Even more Kate & William magazines

Just back from my Saturday trip to Borders, where I found several more new magazines commemorating the marriage of Prince William of Wales and Catherine Middleton.   I did not see the three special magazines available through Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk.

These magazines are showing up in bookstores, newsstands, even in supermarkets here in the USA, and probably in Canada as well ... and, of course, an even larger selection of magazines are available for sale in the United Kingdom.

The first magazine is titled All About Kate, a 68-page glossy publication from WU Magazine, based in Paramus, New Jersey. (On Route 4, no less, in Bergen County ... and I learned how to shop in Paramus, which in Indian means shopping center.  Only kidding, but Paramus has more shopping malls per square mile than anywhere else in the States.)

This magazine is focused largely on Kate, and not Kate and William.  The writers have focused on her life, her family, why America is crazy about Kate, her style, her love of hats, where she and William will live, her charity work, Kate's love for William and why it will last, and the upcoming movie, produced by Lifetime, based on their romance.

There is nothing new in this publication -- just mix the usual froth with the familiar photographs and put together a commemorative magazine that will be on sale until June 30.

Legacy Magazines, a London-based firm, is the publishers of The Royal Wedding Exclusive Collectors' edition.  Over 100 pages, this glossy magazine includes articles  on Kate as a fairy tale princess, the romance, the engagement and engagement ring, a profile of previous wedding dresses, Diana's legacy (got to throw in a chapter on William's mother), Westminster Abbey, the route, and a guide to souvenirs sold through Legacy's website.

The price is $9.99.  I am not sure if the magazine is also available in the UK, as the website lists only the US price, but the prices for the wedding commemoratives are in sterling.  Lots of photos.  A bit more quality control would have been appreciated, as the editors could not decide whether Princess Margaret's husband was Anthony or Antony.   The same type of mistake is made with Princess Anne's first husband: It is Mark Phillips, not Mark Philips.   Sloppy! 

This volume is the first of two magazines that Legacy will publish in connection with the wedding.  The second  issue will be available after the wedding.

http://www.legacymagazines.co.uk/index.php


Another US-published magazine is William & Kate A Royal Love Story.  This is a 100-page glossy magazine that claims to include 100's of private photos (yes, that is what it says on the cover.)    FYI:  no private photos, just the usual stuff from the news agencies. 

The usual fluff -- the romance, growing up, the special bond between William and Harry, fashion, the wedding (pure speculative stuff, not based on fact), the Lifetime movie, and a chapter "Concert for Diana," about the concert William and Harry arranged for the tenth anniversary of their mother's death (and what does this have to do with William and Kate's wedding?   Absolutely nothing.

This special issue was published by Bauer Publications as a part of their Life Story series.  The price is $9.95.  The magazine will be on sale until July 4.

 http://www.legacymagazines.co.uk/

A more substantial publication is William & Kate A Royal Souvenir, published by Pitkins.  Anne Bullen wrote the text, and royal biographer Brian Hoey wrote the forward, provided editorial support.
This 64-page book was published to commemorate William and Kate's engagement.   Nicely written chapters on the romance, which began at university, to profiles of the prince and his soon-to-be princess.  No need to include chapters on the late Diana, Princess of Wales.  

This is one of the best magazine-cum-books published so far, and this is a keeper.    The newsstand price is $14.95.  The UK price is £7.99.  Well worth the price.  

http://www.amazon.com/William-Kate-Royal-Souvenir-Pitkin/dp/1841653535/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1302381101&sr=1-1


http://www.amazon.co.uk/William-Kate-Pitkin-Royal-Souvenir/dp/1841653535/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1302381243&sr=1-2

I expect Pitkins will also publish a wedding commemorative volume.

Belgium and the Monarchy

The Wall Street Journal today includes a review of a new book, Belgium and the Monarchy, written by historian  Hermann van Goethem (University Press, Antwerp:29.50 Euros)

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703806304576234490670785526.html?mod=googlenews_wsj#articleTabs%3Darticle

William & Catherine: more books

And they keep on coming - the William and Kate books. 

Dover Publications recently published William & Kate Paper Dolls designed by Tom Tierney.  The price is $9.99.   The book has been published to commemorate the marriage of Prince William of Wales and Miss Catherine Middleton.   Little girls will love this  book.  They can cut out William and Kate and their clothes (including Kate's engagement dress) and play pretend.  (After the wedding, Dover will offer a free download of the couple's wedding attire.)

Mary Boone is the author of Royal Romance, Modern Marriage The Love Story of William & Kate  (Triumph Books: $14.99).  This is 130 page soft cover that doesn't offer anything new, just lots of fluff, familiar photos and plenty of references to Diana.

The book includes chapters on William and Kate's lives before they met, on falling in love, their engagement, comparisons to Charles and Diana, and royal weddings in other countries, including Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden,  Prince Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands, Prince Nikolaos of Greece and Princess Sayako of Japan, 

Well-illustrated, simply written, and offering nothing more than another notch on the royal wedding book wagon.

William IV, Mrs. Jordan and the Family They Made

Daniel Willis, an American royal genealogist whose previous books include The Descendants of King Louis XIII, The Descendants of King George I of Great Britain and Romanovs in the 21st Century, has turned his attention to William IV and his descendants, with the publication of William IV, Mrs. Jordan and the Family They Made.

William IV, who was the Duke of Clarence before he succeeded his brother, George IV, in 1830, was the third son of George III and his consort, Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz.  As the third son,  William had not been expected to succeed to the throne.  He found his career in the Royal Navy, and found connubial bliss with an actress, Dorothy Jordan.  They met in 1790, and shortly afterward, Dorothy became the Duke of Clarence's mistress.  In 1794, she gave birth to a son, George, the first of nine children born of this relationship.

CLICK ON PHOTO OF BOOK TO ORDER

William expected that he would spend the rest of his life with Dorothy, and the nine FitzClarences.  But the death in childbirth of Princess Charlotte of Wales, heiress presumptive to the throne would change William's life forever.  Several years earlier,  William, aware that he might have to marry and produce a legitimate heir, and Dora separated.  She died in 1815.   Three years later, William found an accommodating Princess Adelheid of Saxe-Meiningen, and married her.  Unlike Dora Jordan,  Princess Adelheid's attempt at fecundity was met with failure.  One daughter lived for only a few months, several stillbirths and marriages were the result of William's marriage.  Thus, when William died in 1837, he was succeeded by his 18-year-old niece, Princess Victoria of Kent.

William IV and Dorothy Jordan have more than 900 descendants that include Prime Minister David Cameron, the late Grand Master of the Sovereign Order of Malta, Fra Andrew Bertie,  the writer Sir Rupert Hart, the Duke of Fife, the Marquess of Bute, the Earls of Erroll, Gainsborough and Portland, among other British noble families. 

The last male line descendant, Anthony FitzClarence, 7th Earl of Munster, died in 2001.  

This is a comprehensive genealogy of William and Dora's descendants complete with dates and places of births, deaths and marriages.   The genealogy is complemented by a biographical-historical text about the descendants themselves, their marriages, their families, their successes, foibles and failures.  If I have one quibble it would be that Daniel's text needs a bit of editing.  That quibble aside,  I can say that I heartily recommend William IV, Mrs. Jordan and the Family They Made (CreateSpace: $35.00).

CLICK ON PHOTO TO ORDER



William IV, Mrs. Jordan and the Family They Made

Ilana Miller: The Four Graces ... coming in May

Eurohistory brings to you Ilana Miller’s amazing story of Victoria, Elisabeth, Irene and Alix of Hesse and by Rhine, Queen Victoria’s Hessian granddaughters.

Included in this unique work are the biographies of these very tragic sisters. Ms. Miller did extensive research to bring us closer to the four sisters of Hesse. The thrilling narrative is certain to keep the reader grasped as the lives of these women unfold. Handsomely illustrated with 80 unique photos of

the Hessian sisters and their descendants, this book promises to become a “must-read” for anyone

interested in European royal history and the Russian Imperial Family. The book also includes several

family trees helping the reader place the extensive cast of characters in historical perspective.

USA price: $42.95 (£28.00) plus $8 shipping and handling. International shipping and handling: $17.00 (£11) – WE SHIP WORLDWIDE. On Sale May 10, 2011!

Ilana D. Miller is an Adjunct Professor of History at Pepperdine University in Malibu, California, and the Senior Editor of the European Royal History Journal.  Her publication credits include the non-fiction narrative Reports from America: William Howard Russell and the Civil War (Sutton Publishing: 2001), several scholarly articles in Historical magazines, as well as historical fiction.

http://www.eurohistory.com/shopping/



Courtesty: Eurohistory.com

A more detailed review on why to avoid Royal Families in Europe

"Ulwencreutz's The Royal Familes in Europe: the reigning and formerly reigning sovereign royal houses of Europe and South America" is a shocking mass copy-and paste rip-off of a somewhat dated version of Paul Theroff's long established site "An Online Gotha," which for a decade has been freely available to anyone on the internet, and which is well known to all aficionados of royal genealogy. Mr. Theroff was completely surprised to learn about this, as nobody had ever approached him for permission. There is no acknowlegment, no bibliography, nothing that recognizes that almost 100% of the content of the 700+ page tome was painstakingly compiled, carefully edited, and thoughtfully annotated by Mr. Theroff.


When I first wrote my negative review of his $80 book on Amazon.com, Mr. Ulwencreutz adamantly denied the plagiarism and claimed it all was based on the Almanach de Gotha of the year 1911 and made current by using hundreds of print resources (though not a single acknowledgement, attribution or bibliography appears in the book. I pointed out in the course of our exchanges on Amazon a few of the unique genealogical items that corresponded directly to Mr. Theroff's site. I also mentioned to Mr. Ulwencreutz that all punctuation and other text mistakes corresponded exactly to Mr. Theroff's site. I also pointed out that there was an obvious attempt to disguise the plagiarism by centering each genealogical entry instead of using left-hand margin justification. If the material in the book was reformatted to left-hand margin justification, it would look absolutely identical to a recent-cintage version of the site "An Online Gotha. It is clear that the mass cut-and-paste happened before Mr. Theroff made a few editorial changes, but Mr. Ulwencreutz's book is unmistakably identical to the Online Gotha site's material. Where Online Gotha lacks a space between words, so does Mr. Ulwencreutz's text. Where Online Gotha neglects to close a parenthesis, so does Mr. Ulwencreutz. The evidence of copy-and-pasting is overwhelming. To clinch the case of plagiarism, below are six very unique genealogical entries peculiar to Mr. Theroff's site that appear verbatim in Mr. Ulwencreutz's book, despite the fact Mr. Theroff's own personal annotations are included:

2e) Constantine, renounced his succession rights 26 Jan 1822, which renunciation became official 28 Aug 1823 (Tsarskoie-Selo 8 May 1779-Vitebsk 27 Jun 1831); m.1st St.Petersburg 26 Feb 1796 (div 1820) Juliane Pss of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, who took the name Anna Feodorovna on her Orthodox baptism (Coburg 23 Sep 1781-Elfenau 15 Aug 1860); m.2d Warsaw 24 May 1820 Css Joanna Grudzinscy, cr Pss Lowicka (Serene Highness) 1820 (d.Tsarskoie-Selo 29 Nov 1831; NOTE: l'Allemagne Dynastique does not show a birth date for Pss Lowicka, but shows that sources give four different possibilities: Warsaw 21 Sep 1799, Poznan 29 Sep 1799, 29 Nov 1791 and 29 Sep 1795)


1i) Pr Vladimir Romanovsky-Krasinsky (St.Petersburg 30 Jun 1902-Paris 23 Apr 1974); Mathilde Kchessinska had been involved with the future Emperor Nicholas II, and then with Grand Duke Serge Mikhailovich, before settling with Andrei; it is said that Prince Vladimir was wont to say that he was never sure whether Andrei or Serge was his biological father; however, Andrei recognized Vladimir as his son after the revolution

1d) Hermann Carl Bernhard Ferdinand Friedrich Wilhelm August Paul Philipp, renounced his rights and was cr Gf von Ostheim 2 Aug 1909 (Düsseldorf 14 Feb 1886-London 6 Jun 1964); m.1st London 5 Sep 1909 (div 1911) Wanda Paola Lottero (Sportono 14 Jul 1881 [though some sources say Genoa 14 Jul 1884]-Genoa 8 Jul 1963); m.2d Heidelberg 4 Aug 1918 Aagot Midling (Larvik, Norway 3 Mar 1886-Paris 16 Oct 1931); m.3d Paris 28 Nov 1932 Isabel Nielson (New York City 3 Feb 1895-London 13 Jul 1981)

1f) Maria Luisa Enriqueta Josefina de Borbón Duquesa de Sevilla (Madrid 4 Apr 1868-19__? [she was succeeded by her sister in 1919, but it is not clear that she died then; she may have surrendered the title; other sources say she almost certainly died 1945 or after; Willis states that the current Duque de Sevilla gives the date as ca 1950, but is unsure]); m.London 25 Jul 1894 Juan Monclus y Cabanellas (Barcelona 18__-Church Stretton, Salop 13 Dec 1918 [per Willis, 1918 is correct, not 1919])


10c) Carlos Maria Isidro Benito Infant of Spain, Conde de Molina; he objected to the alteration in the succession to the throne to allow his niece Isabel II to become Queen, and he and his descendants [they and their partisans were known as the Carlists] fought for the throne for decades (Aranjuez 29 Mar 1788-Trieste 10 Mar 1855); m.1st Madrid 22 Sep 1816 Maria Francisca Infanta of Portugal (Queluz 22 Apr 1800-Alverstoke Rectory, nr Gosport, Hants 4 Sep 1834); m.2d Azcoitia 20 Oct 1838 Maria Teresa Infanta of Portugal, Pss of Beira (Queluz 29 Apr 1793-Trieste 17 Jan 1874)

6b) Milosh (25 Nov 1829-20 Nov 1861); m.Bucharest 22 Apr 1851 (div 1855) Elena Maria Catargiu (1831-Jassy 28 Jun 1879); NOTE: there is some evidence that Milosh had a daughter, but her name does not appear in any sources. A correspondent has sent me the following note: "I got my information out of the August 1998 issue of Royalty Digest. The article on the Obrenovics is on pg. 48 in the "Glimpses" section, and the article itself is an excerpt from a book called "A Soldier-Diplomat," by John Murray (c. 1927). This book consists of the memoirs of Brigadier-General Sir Douglas Dawson, a British militay attache. Dawson's visit to King Milan took place in 1886, and with him went another officer, Major Wortley.
The section of the article pertinent to the sister is as follows:

"Milan is certainly a good talker and raconteur. At this first audience he gave us a detailed description of an attack which had been made on him and his sister when as children playing in the Topchida Park in Belgrade, instigated, he said, by supporters of the rival dynasty of Kara-Georgevitch...He enlarged on the bitter feud which for many years had existed between the Obrenovitch and the Kara-Georgevitch dynasties, and Wortley and I were initiated that day into much which was soon to make history.
"The King invited us to a State ball which was given that evening at the Palace, and to this day I have some favours which Queen Nathalie gave me in the cotillion. Her majesty was a striking-looking lady, very much the Eastern type of beauty. During the ball the King presented me to his sister, whom he described as "full of lead," for as a child she had been wounded in the head, body, and legs during the assault above referred to."

What is most dismaying is that Mr. Ulwencreutz, evenwhen confronted with such overwhelming evidence of rampant plagiarism, remains defiant and has declared he will go forward with selling this book, as well as two subsequent volumes in preparation which he also has learned are ripped from Paul Theroff's online site: one on the mediatized houses (Part 2 of the old Gotha) and the non-reigning princely and ducal houses of Europe (Part 3 of the old Gotha). His justification: he has invested so much money in this profoundly ill-conceived venture. Sadly, Mr. Ulwencreutz cares more about the loss of some money than he does about the loss of his reputation, integrity and his credibility as a soi-disant editor. Instead, he proposes to continue to sell --without permission of the text's true owner-- an $80 printing of a dated version of a well established online site that can be enjoyed by anybody for free.

Steven Lavallee
Providence, Rhode Island

Read More About it: Agnes Princess zu Salm-Salm

http://royalmusingsblogspotcom.blogspot.com/2012/12/princess-salm-salm-has-died.html

For more information on Agnes Elisabeth Winona Leclerq Joy, the American-born wife of a penurious German soldier of fortune, Prince Felix zu Salm-Salm, please see the following books

My Diary in Mexico in 1867, including the last days of the Emperor Maximilian; with leaves from the diary of the Princess Salm-Salm by Prince Felix zu Salm-Salm (British Library: 2010)

Soldier Princess The Life and Legend of Agnes Salm-Salm in North America, 1861-1867

  The Prince and the Yankee: Tale of a Country Girl who Became a Princess by Robert N. White (Tauris: 2003)

Ten Years of My Life by Princess Agnes zu Salm-Salm