Queen Elizabeth II's Golden Jubilee 2012

Of course, there will be a plethora of new books about Queen Elizabeth II, her reign, her family in honor of her 60th anniversary on the throne.  Here are several of the new and upcoming titles:

The Archduke's Secret Family by Daniel A.Willis

In 1996, Dan Willis published The House of Habsburg: The Descendants of Maria Theresia of Austria.  As with many royal genealogies, the book was incomplete as Dan could not contact some of the living descendants.

He was also stumped by one branch, the descendants of Archduke Ernst (1824-1899), a son of Archduke Rainer, who represented one of the many junior lines of the Habsburg dynasty.

Ernst has provided a challenge to royal genealogists.  Dan decided to take up the challenge to answer so many questions.  Did Ernst marry Laura Skublics, and what happened to their children?  Are there descendants living descendants?

The Archduke's Secret Family

The answers to these questions are in Dan's newest book, the superbly terrific The Archduke's Secret Family. 

Ernst and Laura met in a park in Budapest. It was love at first sight for the archduke,  and he was determined to be with Laura.  But Ernst's kinsman, Austrian Emperor Franz Joseph, tossed a few obstacles in the archduke's way to keep the lovers separated.  

Laura, who had two children by her first husband, gave Ernst two daughters and two sons.   Tragically, for Ernst and for the children,  Laura died young.   Archduke Ernst could not publicly acknowledge his four children.  In an instant, he became a friend, and the children were raised in a foster family financially supported by Ernst's brother, Rainer.

So did the children ever find out their true roots?  To learn the answer to this question, and see how a dogged, determined royal genealogist managed to overcome several language barriers (Hungarian is not an easy language to learn), make his way through dusty archives and poorly maintained cemeteries,  order The Archduke's Secret Family.  


A little hint:  the book includes family photos and biographical and genealogical details.   Ninety-four pages. 

Another hint:  this book is not sold in bookstores. Dan has made the book available through Amazon.  You can click on the link or the photograph to order the book.


Update: February 5, 2024   The book is now out of print.  Mr, Willis is deceased so no new copies will be published. 

Our Queen by Robert Hardman

Robert Hardman, the Daily Mail's Royal correspondent, is the author of Our Queen, scheduled for publication on October 6.
The publisher is Hutchinson and the price is £20.00.   The book does not have an American publisher at this time.  Americans (and others outside the UK) can order from Amazon.co.uk.   Your US account information works with Amazon.co.uk - and you can be billed in U.S. dollars.    So if you want to order the book, click on the link at the top of this post.   I will earn a few cents (and  mean a few cents) from Amazon products ordered through my links, my stores and my search portals!!!!   

Hardman's earlier book,  A Year with the Queen, is available on Amazon

Honour and Fidelity by Zoia Belyakova

Honour and Fidelity is the first book about the Dukes of Leuchtenberg, one of the junior branches of the Russian Inperial Family. The author of this excellent book is Zoia Belykova, the Russian historian who specializes in the Romanovs.

Maximilian Beauharnais, 3rd Duke of Leuchtenberg, was selected to be the husband of Grand Duchess Maria Nicolaievna, daughter of Emperor Nicholas I. It was a marriage encouraged by Maximilian's mother, Princess Augusta of Bavaria.

The marriage took place on July 2, 1839. Maximilian was given the style of Imperial Highness. Although he remained Roman Catholic, he agreed that their children would be raised in the Orthodox church.

The well-educated Duke of Leuchtenberg undertook numerous in Russia, but he was not happy in Russia. His private life was fodder for gossip. Both the Duke and the Grand Duchess had affairs.. Marie's relationship with Count Grigory Stroganov probably before the premature death of her husband, and he, not Maximilian, may have been the natural father of the younger Leuchtenberg children.

Maria and Maximilian were the parents of seven children: Alexandra, Maria, Nikolai, Eugenie, Yevgeny, Sergei and Georgy.

Alexandra died as a child. Maria married Prince Ludwig of Baden. Their son, Max, was the last Chancellor of Imperial Germany. Eugenie was the wife of Prince Alexander of Oldenburg. It was their son, Peter, who married Grand Duchess Olga of Russia, a marriage that was never consummated, and eventually dissolved by divorce.
It was Maria and Maximilian's eldest son, Nikolai, caused great consternation in spite of his "exceptional abilities." He was a favorite of Alexander, and showed great promise, but it all fell apart when he contracted a morganatic marriage.

Although Maria was married morganatically to Count Stroganov (a marriage in secret), she could not bear the thought that her eldest son had married unequally.

For most of the rest of his life, Nikolai lived a largely nomadic existence with his wife and two sons. Thanks to family connections, Nikolai settled in Bavaria at Castle Seeon. He also owned several other properties in Bavaria.

Duke Nikolai continued to write to his mother-- the letters are included in the book -- but he never received her blessing for his marriage.

Belyakova is an expert historian, and a very good storyteller. She focuses on each of Maria and Maximilian's children in one chapter. The life stories of several grandchildren, Duke Nikolai of Leuchtenberg, Duke Georgy, Prince Peter of Oldenburg, and Daria Yegenia of Leuchtenberg, the daughter of Yevgeny, 5th Duke of Leuchtenberg and his morganatic wife. In 1893, young Dolly, a free spirit of sorts, married Prince Leo Kochubei, and became the mother of two sons.

Dolly was at the center of St. Petersburg society, but she may have been banished to France in 1905, following comments about Nicholas II and his wife. She eventually returned, divorced Prince Leo. Her second husband, a battleship commander, Baron Vladimir Gravenitz, kidnapped Dolly and the married her. Nicholas II decided not to punish Gravenitz, after learning who he had married.

Dolly was no longer welcome at court, She was too eccentric. This marriage soon collapsed, and the good baron may have committed suicide. She resumed her maiden title Countess Beauharnais, but soon evolved into Daria Leuchtenberg.

She went to Bavaria, where she became a citizen, but by 1918, she was back in Russia, ready to be a good Communist. She married for a third time to Viktor Markezetti. They became good Soviet workers and were executed in 1938.

By the 1930s, the Leuchtenberg descendants were scattered across the globe, in Germany, the US and Canada, far from the Soviet Union, but remaining essentially Russian.

The book also includes the previously privately published memoirs of Duke Georg Nicolaievitch.

This book is further enhanced by the publication of many previously unseen photographs, provided by several descendants. Belyakova was also able to draw on correspondence, diaries and other documents.

Inspiration for the book's title was provided by the Dukes of Leuchtenberg's motto, Honour and Fidelity.

The book, published by Logos in St. Petersburg, is a very limited edition: 500 copies in English and 500 copies in Russian. The English translation was done by P.R. Williams.

This book is not available from Amazon. I believe the only bookstore that still has copies is Van Hoogtraten in the Hague. The price is 43.90 Euros.

http://www.hoogstraten.nl/theshop/product_info.php?products_id=454&osCsid=22756fada5c3bb965724704aff0b8478

It is definitely worth the effort to add this book to your library.  One can fault some of the translations, what cannot be faulted is the brilliant scholarship.

New book - Our Insane Family

Well,  not exactly new ---
From Dynasty Press' website

Our Insane Family, by Frederick the Great's sister Princess Wilhelmine of Prussia

Translated from German by Queen Victoria's daughter, HRH Princess Helena ( HRH Princess Christian) now edited
and updated by HRH Princess Katarina of Serbia, Lady de Silva


Wilhelmine of Prussia's no-holds-barred memoirs give a penetrating insight into the bizarre upbringing she and her brother Frederick the Great suffered at the hands of an insane father and a callous mother. Almost unbelievably, the family was forced to go hungry and to dress in tatters, while their father ploughed the considerable resources of the state into creating the Prussian Militaristic Machine which would cause several European wars in the future, including the Franco-Prussian War and the First and Second World Wars.

(Click here to order for the US:  Our Insane Family )


These memoirs were translated by Queen Victoria's daughter Helena, with the approval of her sister Crown Princess Victoria and brother-in-law Crown Prince Frederick of Germany (the parents of Kaiser Wilhelm 11) as a covert warning to Europe of the dangerous direction in which Bismarck and Emperor Wilhelm 1 were steering the German Empire.

[Click to order for the UK:    Our Insane Family  ]


This edition includes an illuminating and unique Foreword and updated Introduction by HRH Princess Katarina, Lady de Silva, a descendant of these historical figures, explaining the objectives of the author, Wilhemine, in penning such witheringly frank memoirs, and the translator, Helena, in translating into English for widespread dissemination a tale which was by then unknown even in Germany, and which, under more ordinary circumstances, they would have suppressed. However, these supporters of constitutional monarchy and liberal government were intent on warning the world of the dangers of absolute monarchy and unchecked militarism, and hoped that by disseminating these memoirs throughout the English-speaking world, they could bring pressure to bear upon the direction the German State was taking.

Credit: Dynasty Press

As a historical document of rare prescience, this edition, with the updated Foreword and Introduction, is unsurpassable.

Jewels of the Romanovs Family and Court

First the good news.  Stefano Papi's Jewels of the Romanovs Family & Court is a stunner.  This is the kind of book you would like to have on the cocktail table.  Luscious, superb photography, where the jewels jump right off the pages,  a true visual treat. 

Interest in the Romanovs continues to fascinate historians and others who have been captivated by the great wealth, the internecine family squabbles, the palaces, and revolutions that led to the collapse of the 300 years of Romanov reign and the assassination of Nicholas II and the murders of his wife, children and other members of the Imperial family.  


Don't forget the jewels!   Magnificent jewels, diamonds, emeralds, sapphires, pearls.  Some lost forever.

Stefano Papi is an internationally respected European jewelry specialist, who has worked for Christie's and Sotheby's.  He knows a lot about jewels.  He doesn't know a lot about the Romanovs,  which means there are a number of glaring errors in the text.   He states that Grand Duchess Olga accompanied Nicholas and Alexandra to Tobolsk, but in fact it was Grand Duchess. 

The book is broken down into six chapters that focus on Nicholas and his family,  the Romanov relations, the Jewelled stars (Marie of Romania, Princess Marthe Bibesco, Nancy Leeds, the downfall of the Tsar, and what happened after the revolution: dispersal and survival.  

The chapter on the Romanov relations is the most fascinating.   Empress Alexandra's smalls box was certainly filled with amazing jewels from massive strands of pearls to stomachers to tiaras.  Many of Alexandra's jewels were lost at Ekaterinburg or broken up after the Soviets began making inventories of the jewels they found.

But the glitz and glamour was not confined to Alexandra or her mother-in-law.  Other  members of the family also owned amazing jewels, especially several distaff members, Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna, the wife of the Duke of Edinburgh,  Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna, wife of Grand Duke Vladimir,  Grand Duke Serge, and Grand Duke Paul,  both of whom showered jewels on their wives.

Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna was particularly blessed with jewels.  She owned a dazzling array of tiaras, including a waterfall tiara made by Chaumet and  the spectacular kokoshnik tiara.  Maria received it as a wedding gift in 1874.   This tiara was inherited by her daughter, Helen, who married Prince Nicholas of Greece. and Helen sold it to Queen Mary.   Queen Elizabeth II often wears this tiara.

Many of Maria Pavlovna's jewels survived the revolution, and were divided among her three sons and her daughter.   Some of the jewels have gone to auction.  Others are in the possession of the descendants of Helen's three daughters, Olga, Marina and Elisabeth.    Maria Pavlovna's eldest son, Kirill, married Princess Victoria Melita of Edinburgh,  who was the daughter of Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna.  

Ducky and her older sister, Queen Marie of Roumania, were often seen in wearing amazing pieces of jewels.many

Princess Paley, the morganatic wife of Grand Duke Paul, received many jewels from her husband.   Other Romanov relations/friends with absolutely fab jewels include Princess Zenaide Yusupov, whose son, Felix, married Princess of Russia, daughter of Grand Duchess Xenia Alexandrovna, and the Duchess of Leuchtenberg, the wife of Prince Eugene Romanovsky, 5th Duke of Leuchtenberg, son of Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaievna, eldest daughter of Nicholas I.

So what happened to the jewels.  Some disappeared, others were plundered, but the Soviets did provide an inventory of the jewels that they found, including many of Empress Marie's jewels.  The Soviets sold some pieces at auctions in the late 1920s, and they destroyed the jewels from the time of the last Tsar because they "considered them to be modern and not of historic importance."

Grand Duchess Ella gave her jewels to Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna, the younger, who, in turn, sold them to King Alexander of Yugoslavia. His wife, Marie, a granddaughter of Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna, often wore the pieces that were once given by her maternal great-uncle to her mother's first cousin.


Jewels of the Romanovs Family & Court was published by Thames & Hudson ($75.00/£42.00).  Visually stunning, but the text could have been a lot better.

You will also enjoy William Clarke's book, Hidden Treasures of the Romanovs.

Just Published - The Archduke's Secret Family

From the jacket blurb " He defied an Emperor to be with her. She found the love she had been seeking in his arms. Their passion would ignite the imagination of an Empire.

It sounds like a promotion for the latest romance novel, but this story is no work of fiction. Archduke Ernst of Austria, cousin of Emperor Franz Joseph, fell in love and started a family with Laura Skublics. However, she was not born into the right family to be considered a suitable bride for an Archduke. Some say they married anyway. But did they? The Archduke’s Secret Family seeks to answer that very question as well as learn the fate of their children and their descendants."

I will have a review of this book in the next few weeks.