The Dekemastate in Jelsum, Province of Friesland, has a showcase full of books of the Dutch journalist, translator and writer Havank. He published over 30 crime-novels and stories and is one of the founding fathers of Dutch crime books. What are these books doing here? Havank’s real name was Hendrikus Frederikus van der Kallen (1904-1964), […]
Updated 10 June 2022 How often these days I see articles stating that when Prince Harry of Wales married Meghan Markle in May 2018, it would be the first royal interracial marriage ever. Obviously most articles mean, the first British royal interracial marriage – as lots of media tends to forget there are other royal […]
Copyright: free of rights; KNVB Fotocollectie (via. Nationaal Archief)
The first modern Olympic Games took place in 1896 in Athens, Greece. A winter edition started being organised 1924. Every four years the games would be organized somewhere in the world. Since 1994 the winter games take place in between the summer games. The Summer Paralympic Games take place since 1960, the Winter Paralympic Games […]
Copyright: IOC
The first Olympic Summer Games were held in Athens, Greece, in 1896. The first Winter Games followed in 1924 in Chamonix, France. A year late the 2020 Olympic Summer Games of Tokyo, Japan, took place in Summer 2021. Over the years the royals haven’t only visited, there have also been quite a few royal and […]
Pixabay
Many young girls (and women) dream of becoming a real princess one day. But becoming a royal is not always the fairy-tale it sounds. The Australian Esther Blanche Murphy, better known as Jill, could tell you something about that. The frock shop proprietress from Rose Bay was a daughter of Robert Aubrey Murphy and Eleanor […]
Picture from Pixabay
During the Christmas time many people enjoy having a Christmas tree (in German: Weihnachtsbaum) – either a real or an artificial one – in the house, me included. It is strange to imagine a house at Christmas time without a tree full of the most beautiful ornaments. But where does this tradition come from and […]
Georg Donatus and his family
In November 1937 a terrible tragedy shocked the royal families throughout Europe. On 9 October 1937 Grand Duke Ernst Ludwig von Hessen und bei Rhein (of Hesse and by Rhine), who had reigned until 1918, had died at the age of 68. Despite of that the family was to gather in London for the wedding […]
My British royalty-friend Bobby Golden lately sent me a small article about a “royal” visit to my city Groningen in January 1937. A day after the wedding of Princess Juliana and Prince Bernhard in The Hague Major and Lady May Abel Smith headed for Groningen on a mission connected to another big event that year. […]
Sometimes I wonder what’s the thing with (royal) twins nowadays. So many celebrities become the parents of twins, and there are more royal twins than ever before. Almost every time a royal is pregnant, there are rumours it will be twins. Most of the time that is of course rubbish, but once in a while […]
Copryight: Dorotheum, Vienna.
On Christmas Eve 24 December 1837 at 10.43pm the fourth child of Maximilian Joseph, Duke in Bavaria and Princess Ludovika of Bavaria was born in München, Germany. The little girl was christened Elisabeth Amalie Eugenie, but was known by her family by the nickname of Sisi. In August 1853 Elisabeth became engaged to her full […]
