Random royal stories or facts

[JustAnotherWhinger]

A random fact about King Harald of Norway got me think about all the random/interesting/bizarre stories and facts about royals and thought a thread of them could be interesting.

Harald, who died today, was the first monarch to be born in Norway for over 600 years.
His grandfather, Prince Carl of Denmark, was selected to be the new King of Norway in 1905 (he became King Haakon VII.

Another Danish prince, George, was selected to be the King of Greece in 1863 and reigned until he was assassinated in 1914. He was Prince Philip’s grandfather.

Todos los Santos goes in there as well. Good choice by Leonor and Sofia's parents to just give them one forename.

I think AN Wilson claimed that in the first edition of his book on the Victorians, but he's since reversed his opinion.

Has he? My sister is a geneticist and thought it answered the question, but there could have been a particular kind of mutation. Victoria certainly spread that gene anyway.

As this is a Random Royal stories thread . . . . .

The Queen & Prince Philip spent the first part of their honeymoon at Broadlands, Lord Mountbatten's stately home in Romsey, Hampshire in 1947. They attended the Morning Service at Romsey Abbey on the first Sunday they were married and so many people flocked into Romsey to see them that there were significant security issues

It was decided that Charles & Diana would also spend the first few days of their honeymoon at Broadlands but there was concern that attending Romsey Abbey on a Sunday would again cause issues so they left on Saturday to board the Royal Yacht Brittania for a honeymoon cruise (This was in the days when it would have been unthinkable for Royals NOT to attend church on a Sunday, even if they were on their honeymoon!)

If you watch the footage on YouTube of Charles & Diana being driven from Romsey Station to Broadlands on their wedding day, you can understand what the concerns were all about ~ the crowds were unbelievable!!!

Victoria father was over 50 - so higher risk of de novo - spontaneous genetic mutation. This type of random mutation accounts for roughly 30% of all modern hemophilia cases.

Queen Victoria carried hemophilia B, a relatively rare form of the blood-clotting disorder - factor IX deficiency.

While other people in the world have hemophilia B, this exact genetic type was a signature unique to Victoria and the descendants who inherited it from her. This exact genetic variant is now considered completely extinct apparently as it stopped being passed down generations. The final known descendant to have hemophilia was Infante Gonzalo, who was born in 1914.

Basically new genetic testing over time given more information and greater understanding of risks of older fathers offspring having copying errors in sperm.

Plus man Victoria mother was close to and often rumours point to affair partner- John Conroy - had no history in his family of hemophilia either.

Prince Edward is arrogant and treats his staff very badly. The real Edward is very different from his public image

A famous anecdote is a well-known historical illustration used to contrast the unshakable, lifelong security of a born monarch with the anxiety of a newly elevated "commoner" sovereign. When Empress Eugénie visited Queen Victoria in London they attended the opera. The empress, who was not born royal, checked to see that her chair was correctly placed by the servant before taking her place. Queen Victorian simply sat down. She did not need to check that her chair was correctly placed because it had always been there. Queen Victoria represented the ultimate symbol of traditional, inherited monarchy. Having been a princess from birth and queen since age 18, she possessed absolute, unthinking confidence in her environment and her servants. Empress Eugénie, though a Spanish noblewoman (the Countess of Teba) by birth, was considered a "commoner" by the strict standards of European royalty. Because Napoleon III's second French Empire was relatively new and politically unstable, Eugénie was often hyper-aware of her posture, etiquette, and surroundings to prove she belonged.

Eugénie was the fashion icon of her day, though. She patronized Charles Worth, so that he became the most prestigious couturier of the time.

Is that an interesting royal fact, or just gossip?
Not really the tone of the thread.

I know someone whose brother works at one of the Royal Residences and he says the exact opposite about Edward and Sophie. In fact, I have never heard him say a bad word about them!

There are lots of comments that are gossip. I understand you don't know me, but this is a fact.

You may well regard it as a fact. I have no idea.
The point is that this is an enjoyable and interesting thread about royals past and present. Someone being rude, verifiable or not, doesn't seem to fit, but whatever.

Yes, it's one of those things, isn't it? Different people's experiences.

I haven't been at all rude.
Sorry I didn't know only positive comments were allowed. I am new here.

I think you've well & truly got the wrong idea of this thread.

People have been sharing interesting stories and facts about the Royal family and there have been some interesting discussions such as how haemophilia was passed from Queen Victoria to other European Royal Families

For you to suddenly post a rude comment about a member of the current Royal Family is astonishing in light of the nature of this thread and I think you've really misjudged it

I never said you were rude, I said "someone being rude, verifiable or not" was about your post regarding Prince Edward.
You claim he's rude. Someone else says he isn't.

Whilst watching the coverage of the death of King Harald of Norway during the weekend I discovered the Norwegians have a National Anthem and a Royal Anthem. The Royal Anthem is sung to the tune of 'God save the Queen/King'

I would imagine this is connected to Queen Maud in some way but would be interested if anyone knows the story of how this occurred . . . .

Interesting, I wonder if it goes back to Queen Maud?

Thank you @JudgeJ 💐
I shall seek it out.

Having a quick look online it seems the Norwegian lyrics to it were written in 1841 and it was officially adopted in 1905. So linked with Queen Maud but not completely directly.

I think the melody of GSTK seems to have been a bit viral in its time as Lichtenstein use it for their national anthem and I’m sure there’s one other as well, but I can’t remember where.

There’s been a couple of version of the royal anthem (to the same melody). The first was dedicated to King Carl Johan of Norway and Sweden.

The current version was written/tweaked for the Coronation of Haakon VII and Queen Maud.

Yes, the Americans sing "My Country tis of thee, sweet land of liberty" to the tune of God Save the Queen/King

I had forgotten that Leichtenstein also use the same tune as us for their National Anthem

It's really interesting to discover how these things happen . . . .

I've always found Vicky and Louise to be the most interesting of her daughters. Vicky was something of a child prodigy - she ran rings, academically, around the future Edward VII and would've probably made an excellent queen, though she didn't outlive her mother by long.

Louise was a talented artist and actually went to art school, unheard of for a princess at that time. The sculpture of Queen Victoria in Kensington gardens was done by her.

I originally posted this elsewhere but thought it might fit in here too. Although we think of royal families having long pedigrees and impeccable genealogical qualifications, it's a bit more fluid than that and could be quite random.

Queen Alexandra's father was chosen to be the next king of Denmark by "the powers of Europe" after his second cousin the King died. And her brother William was elected, aged 17, by the Greek National Assembly to be King there, taking the name George. IIRC, he found out he was King by reading a bit of newspaper that his packed lunch had been wrapped in! And the Swedish royal family is descended from one of Napoleon's generals, Bernadotte, just in case you ever wondered why their name is French.

The Tudor claim to English throne was poor strengthened by Henry VII marriage but I've always wondered about hanoverian claim.

The usual reason given is Sophia, Electress of Hanover was closest proestant relative - skipping 50 catholics but she was actually second yougest of a larger sibling group and several older siblings remained protestant.

Out of her 11 older siblings, six lived to adulthood and remained Protestant. It turns out it was a combination of being alive when UK was looking, having several prostant kids and grandchildren so they got a whole line though some of her siblings had children married to catholics some converted and some were still protestant. She also grew up in netherlands and had strong links with proestants there - so William III - prince of Orange after Mary died - backed her as a candiated with UK parliment not wanting England to fall into catholic hands later on.

I've seen some intrested stuff looking down the female lines