Royal Babies Rule! (Well, They Will Someday)

Last week, we saw some truly horrific things happen around the world (If you don't already know what I'm talking about, good for you, ignorance really is bliss.).

But since it's almost Christmas, and I'm in a really good mood, I'm going to risk the chance of going to the darkest place in hell, and completely skim over all terrorist attacks and only talk about royal babies.

Lots and lots of royal news this month, after a relatively dry spell. To begin with, two royal babies were born - TWO.

The twin children of Prince Albert II of Monaco and his wife, Princess Charlene, were born on the 10th of December. The daughter, Princess Gabriella, was born two minutes before her younger brother, Jacques, Hereditary Prince of Monaco, but because Monaco still follows the principle of male primogeniture, poor Gabriella is only second in line to the throne. As consolation, perhaps, she was given the title of Countess of Carladès, but it's not as though she's going to appreciate that much when she's told that the reason she won't be Queen is because she's a girl.

But that's a few years in the future. For now, both Jacques and Gabriella are probably sleeping in their cradles, not really bothered about anything at all, let alone the prospect of ruling a country. The babies will be introduced to the Monegasque public on the 7th of January, which has been declared a public holiday... for some reason? Was the day Prince George was born a public holiday? Well, either way, there are some adorable pictures to look forward too.

Speaking of adorable pictures: In the spirit of Christmas, The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge released three new pictures of this charmer:

The latest photos of Prince George for you! Our little Prince is pictured sitting on the steps of Kensington Palace. pic.twitter.com/kWkj9aAtTz
— Clarence House (@ClarenceHouse) December 13, 2014

He's growing up too fast, faster than I can handle. Very soon, he won't be making grumpy faces at the camera any more, and then what?

But thankfully, I'll always have this picture of George to remember him by.

Not to be outdone, the Swedish Royal Family brought in their own cute child in a knitted jumper. And they made it into a video, just to give themselves an edge in this competition between royal babies.

I give you, Princess Estelle of Sweden.



I was introduced to Princess Estelle through Order of Splendor, and I instantly adored her, She had the most sass that I have ever seen in a child, let alone a royal baby. In fact, I'm almost sorry that George came along, because that meant I paid less attention to her. But then I'm also not sorry, because Prince George.

A similar situation is going to be created next year, when Baby Cambridge No. 2 is born, and I shift my attention from George to him/her. These royals really need to stop having children in such quick succession.

Which leads me to the last piece of royal news. Princess Madeleine of Sweden and Chris O'Neill have announced that they are expecting their second child. Their first child, Leonore, will turn 1 this coming February, so that will make it two children in two years for Madeleine and Chris. Which is only a little bit better than the Cambridges - if Prince George had been born in February, they would have been two for two too (Alliteration).

~

That's all for this post. I'll have more news on each of these royal babies as they are born/presented to the public/grow up, and until then I'll continue to type away about something or the other.

Happy Christmas, and best wishes this festive season if you don't celebrate Christmas. Don't forget to write to your favourite royal!

N

UPDATE: Literally minutes after I published this post (And I don't use the word literally lightly), I saw on Twitter that the first photos of Prince Jacques and Princess Gabriella had been released. Take a look.

First PICS of Monaco's twins! Albert & Charlene with babies Jacques & Gabriella http://t.co/UnMA25dUeJ via @Femail pic.twitter.com/I0vEZNtfH5
— British Royals (@britishroyals) December 23, 2014

Adorable!

Welcome To New York

Everyone's favourite Duke and Duchess (because, let's face it: the Duke of Edinburgh's wife is The Queen; no one knows that Prince Charles is also the Duke of Cornwall and Rothesay; the Duke of York isn't married anymore, and even though Sarah Ferguson hold the title of Duchess, no one calls them the Duke and Duchess of York anymore; and the Dukes of Gloucester and Kent are way too far down in the line of succession to be anyone's favourite) William and Catherine are in New York City!

Minus their baby boy George, which is always a disappointment.

William and Kate arrived yesterday, and they're leaving tomorrow, so it isn't a very long visit, but they've got quite a packed itinerary (see here) and I think they're meeting the Obama's at some point.

They are staying at The Carlyle Hotel. Now, I have no idea where that is, but if you live anywhere near by, or even a subway ride away, you should go and just stand in the lobby, waiting for William and Kate to pass by when they go to the pool or something. 

Unlike nearly two years ago when she was expecting George, Kate looks a lot more obviously pregnant now.

Look:

Photo: The Duke & Duchess of Cambridge arrive at The Carlyle Hotel in NYC. pic.twitter.com/rbEQQIxOIb
— ET Canada (@ETCanada) December 7, 2014 

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, William and Kate, arrive in New York City http://t.co/nTEsd62O7D #CBSEveNews pic.twitter.com/pyNZJspe9w
— CBS Evening News (@CBSEveningNews) December 8, 2014 

I have a fair bit more to write about this Royal visit to New York, but, seeing as how I'm currently quite bogged down with projects and assignments and procrastinating, I'm going to have to put it off until next week.

There will be more pictures,

N 

Random Book Review: The Captive Queen

Every time I've sat down to write this review, I've thought about how long it's been since I read The Captive Queen, and how little of the story I remember, and abandoned my post half-way. But then I realised that none of the 'book reviews' I've written in the past have been book reviews at all. I've just read a book, written down whatever I was thinking at the time, gone off onto a tangent about the Wars of the Roses, and published that for all and sundry to read.

I must confess that when I read The Captive Queen, I knew next to nothing about Eleanor of Aquitaine. A few months earlier, I had read Rainbow Rowell's Eleanor and Park, in which Eleanor Douglas admits to being named after Eleanor of Aquitaine. And, believe it or not, that was the first time I ever read Eleanor's full title. Up until that point, she had just been King Henry II's 'Queen Eleanor' to me. 

But that's the whole point of reading, isn't it? Why would anyone ever read anything if they knew everything that there was to be known? After I read The Captive Queen, I read more about Eleanor, and now I do know who she is. And she fast became one of favourite Queens, too (Which is more than I can say about Elizabeth Woodville, that conniving Lancastrian widow who managed to fulfill her dynastic ambitions even though no one liked her). Here's why.

When the story begins, Eleanor is still married to her first husband, King Louis VII of France. She had been one of the most sought after brides in Europe, which is evident by the fact that, by virtue of his marriage to her, Louis has possession of Aquitaine, one of the largest French duchies of the time. But Louis and Eleanor [I'm writing about the King and Queen of France and I can only think about Louis from One Direction and his girlfriend Eleanor] don't have any sons - and besides, Eleanor doesn't really love Louis any way. So she annuls their marriage, giving her inability to produce a male heir as the reason, and then promptly marries Henry Plantagenet. 

Henry becomes the new Duke of Aquitaine, then he becomes the King of England, and the two have a lot of sons together... And then their sons grow up. And that's when the trouble begins.

King Henry has his eldest son, also Henry, crowned the 'Young King' in Westminster, the only time in English history that an heir was crowned while the present King was still on the throne. And I think we know why it was never done again - having been crowned, the Young King wants more power and authority than his father was willing to let him have. He leads a revolt against his father, the King, supported by his younger brothers and his mother. 

When Henry gets wind of the fact that his wife is helping their sons to rebel against him, he locks her in a tower at Sarum (And you thought things like that only happened in fairy tales!) and takes a mistress, Rosamund Clifford, while Eleanor sits in the tower, regretting her life choices. 

And then, one by one, the rebellious sons start dying. When the Young King dies, Henry briefly lets Eleanor out of her prison so that they can grieve together, and then again when Geoffrey dies and then again when their daughter, Eleanor, gets married to the King of Castile. At long last, King Henry dies too, Richard becomes King and Eleanor is let out of her tower. Hurray!

Eleanor of Aquitaine lived until she was 82, a surprisingly long time when you consider the fact that there were virtually no medical facilities at the time. She died during the reign of her last son, and second to become King, John, as a nun in Fontevrault Abbey - a less than fitting end for woman who had been Queen of both England and France and ruler of Aquitaine and Poitiers in her own right.

I have a feeling her life would have turned out very differently if she had lived today. 

~

This was the first time that, after reading a historical novel, I learnt absolutely nothing about the life in court. Usually, there the protagonist is a woman who is pottering around her palace, plotting with her women of the bedchamber, going into confinement to give birth, ordering gowns for coronations. Nothing of that sort happened in The Captive Queen (or maybe it did, and I just wasn't paying attention). It was too fast paced to allow for n. Maybe Eleanor compared the English food to what she was used to having in France, but apart from that it was just historical event after historical event after historical event. The Anarchy, Thomas Beckett's murder, Princes going to war against Kings, sons going to war against their father - it's a little wonder, really, that the Angevins are said to be descended from the Devil.  

Alison Weir has also written a non-fiction account of Eleanor of Aquitaine's life, but I am never going to read that. I have a feeling that it'll be like studying.

~

The Captive Queen can be purchased on Amazon (click here), or Flipkart (here) if you live in India.

N

This Is Basically An Advertisement

It's been a boring couple of weeks, royal-ly speaking. No one has died, no one has gotten engaged (Well, no one royal anyway. I'll get back to this), the Duchess of Cambridge is pregnant, but we've known about that for a while now, so it isn't really news.

It has been confirmed, though, that the royal baby is due in April, which is the same month as I was born in, so hopefully, HOPEFULLY, Baby Cambridge No. 2 will share a birthday with me. *fingers crossed*

During this drought of royal news, I have been keeping myself otherwise occupied. You'd think that means that I actually did something useful with my life for once, like studied or cleaned up the disarray that is my desk, but no. I wrote a blog series about the lives of Georgian Queens (Also, I watched all 100 episodes of the Lizzie Bennett Diaries).

So, the wives of Georgian Kings. It's something that I'm actually quite proud of, and I'm pretty sure that's the only reason I was granted the title of Senior Reporter, so go and check that out, if you want. Links:

Sophia Dorothea of Celle, the consort (well....) of King George I.

Caroline of Ansbach, Queen to King George II.

Caroline of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, Queen to King George III. Incidentally, while I was writing this, I realised that I'd been spelling Mecklenburg-Strelitz wrong all this while. M-E-C-K-L-E-N-B-U-R-G S-T-R-E-L-I-T-Z.

Caroline of Brunswick, the mother of King George IV's daughter.

Adelaide of Saxe-Meiningen, Queen to King William IV. I still don't know how to spell Saxe-Meiningen. I have to constantly copy and paste it from Wikipedia.

~

In other news, Benedict Cumberbatch is engaged to Sophie I've-never-heard-of-her-before Hunter (Based on the time-stamp, it may seem odd that I know this, but I'm not actually writing this on the date that it says, I'm writing it much later). I was most upset about this, as my friends will testify, but not so much because he was actually engaged, but more so because I didn't even know that he had a girlfriend. I didn't think celebrities could do that - have a relationship without every single person on the Internet knowing. Because if they can, it means that Prince Harry could get engaged tomorrow, without so much as a sign.

I don't think I'd be able to survive that.

~

I really don't have anything to do until the next royal baby arrives, but I do have a stack of books that I have yet to sink my teeth into. I've completely abandoned the 100 Book Challenge - there is no way I'm going to be able to read sixty books in the next two months - but I don't see why I can't make it to at least 52 books.

And when I read books, I type some nonsense about them on my blog. So on Sunday (the next post, because you really don't know when I'm typing this), after much delay, I will post my review of The Captive Queen, and then the Red Queen after that. I've also got Wolf Hall and Bring Up The Bodies, so if I ever tear myself away from YouTube and read, I'll review those as well.

It could be a while.

N

Random Book Review : Katherine

This post is riddled with spoilers, so stop right here if you have an issue with that.

Over the past three weeks, I've been reading Katherine on the train to and from college. I used to get a lot of weird glances from middle aged women who would look at the words "love story" on the cover and immediately think of the most obscene things. Contrary to what they may think, this is not a completely salacious story (Although, it is also not entirely child appropriate either. There are some themes which may be a bit grown up, such as adultery, and the thing that adultery involves, so I would recommend that you not read this until you are older than... 13? Use your discretion). It is good, historical fiction, which I am now going to massacre in this thing that I call a book review.

Katherine is an old book, about an even older time. I'm not entirely sure if I came up with that myself or if I paraphrased it from Philippa Gregory's foreword (probably the latter), but it holds true. Set in the 14th century, during the reign of Kings Edward III and Richard II, the book revolves around Katherine Swynford, long time mistress of the Duke of Lancaster, John of Gaunt. Katherine and John's children were the Beauforts, the ancestors of King Henry VII. 

The story goes like such: Katherine meets the Duke of Lancaster while she is a part of the retinue of the Duchess of Lancaster, Blanche. When Blanche dies, the Duke's servant poisons Katherine's husband, Hugh Swynford, so that she can enter into a relationship with the Duke without it being adulterous (there is no historical evidence of this, but it seems to be the generally accepted sequence of events). Unfortunately, the Duke is already betrothed to Constanza of Castile, who he plans to use to get the thrones of Castile and Leon for himself. But the pair start a relationship anyway, and they have four children together. When Constanza dies, John and Katherine get married, their children are legitimized, and everyone is happy until John's own death some three years later. Well, as happy as they can be while tyrannical King Richard is seizing lands and killing nobles. 

~

One of the main subplots of the story revolves around Blanche Swynford, Katherine's eldest daughter from her first marriage. Blanche was in the Savoy Palace when it burned down during the Peasant's Revolt of 1381, and it was presumed by everyone that she was dead. Katherine was, obviously, mightily upset. She thought that her daughter had been killed as a punishment for her (Katherine's) adultery, and so she severed all ties with the Duke, and went off on a pilgrimage to Walsingham.

The entire time that this was happening, I kept expecting that, as a reward for her suffering and penance, Katherine would be reunited with her daughter, and go back to the Duke, and that everything would go back to the way it was. Which it didn't. And I resigned myself to the fact, because, after all, this is a story based in history, and if Blanche Swynford died in the Savoy that day, Blanche Swynford died in the Savoy that day. I even Googled her, and though there's not a lot of information about Blanche Swynford, after a lot of reading, I was able to put her death down to sometime between 1375 and 1385, which fits with the story's timeline.

So imagine my surprise when Blanche Swynford returned! Many, many years after she was presumed dead at the Savoy, after John and Katherine's wedding, she shows up their palace dressed as a nun, and the book ends with mother and daughter being reunited at last. A most satisfactory conclusion to a story that already ended happily, I must say, although I really doubt its veracity.

~

I apologise for ruining so much of the plot, if you brazenly ignored the first sentence of this post. Although, I supposed there is a tiny chance that, even though you thought you didn't want to read the book initially, you want to now. 

And I would strongly recommend that you do read Katherine. It can get a bit dry at times, especially when Katherine and the Duke of Lancaster are apart, and on a couple of occasions, the characters take it upon themselves to speak in French, so do keep some sort of translator handy.

But if you enjoy historical fiction, here is one about the Plantagenet dynasty at its finest. Anya Seton's writing is both extremely well researched, and also very true to the its historical setting. And, like every good bit of historical fiction, Katherine made me want to go online and read everything that I could about that period in history. 

From the book, I learned (1) who Alice Perrers was, (2) that Geoffrey Chaucer was married to Katherine Swynford's sister Philippa, and (3) that the Beauforts were named after Beaufort Castle (I had always wondered where they got their name from). Also some other things, that I can't think of off the top of my head. 

And I think that is the mark of good historical fiction - though it may not be completely historically accurate itself (come on, do you really think Blanche Swynford jumped into the Thames from the top floor of a flaming tower?), it intrigues you and it makes you learn. Somehow. 

~

Also, do you remember Sunaina, my friend who gave me The White Queen for my birthday? Again, big thanks to her for spotting Katherine in a pile of books and thinking that I might like it. She has a really keen eye for good reads; you can check out some of her book reviews here.

N

You're Not Normal!

Last week's royal hullabaloo was over the fact that the paparazzi have been taking unsolicited pictures of Prince George as he plays in the park with his nanny (And pairing said pictures with hilarious headlines like "Prince George has a ball". Because he's playing with a ball). Now, I'm not going to encourage you to view these pictures by posting a link, because they were taken without William and Kate's consent, but I will give you a bit of friendly advice: If you want to read funny things about Prince George, that may be slightly mean, but are written with love, Suri's Burn Book is one of my favourites. Also Buzzfeed.

Anyway, back to the photographs issue. Apparently, some photographers are stalking little George, to the extent that they know his daily routine and regular hangout spots. Now if that is really happening, then it's very wrong. He's a baby. He doesn't realise what's happening, so he's not fair game. So, if that's happening, it's perfectly normal for the Cambridges threatening to take legal action.

But if there's no actual stalking - if it's just people who happen to be in Hyde Park, taking pictures of that famous baby which they recognise from all the papers - then I personally feel that William and Kate are being a bit silly. And that's not just because I like looking at pictures of Prince George playing in the grass.

This is just an extension of Prince William's constant whinging about wanting to be normal. And though I love William and Kate just as much, or maybe more, than the next person, their constant I-just-want-to-lead-a-normal-life-ing is often quite annoying.

As Darren McGrady said: 

@MPearon They Royal Family AREN'T normal. We BOW and CURTSEY to them. They can't and DON'T have on and off buttons
— The Royal Chef (@DarrenMcGrady) October 2, 2014

If I've said it once before, I've said it a hundred times - the only reason the royals are so fascinating to us common folk is because they're part of a family that, for a thousand years, has been more privileged and more powerful than anyone else. Also because even though Kate Cambridge's clothes sometimes cost north of £1,000, she's always wearing a new outfit. Normal people can't afford to do that.

A lot of people criticise the Duke and Duchess of Camridge for being "lazy", and for not carrying out as many engagements as, say, the Earl and Countess of Wessex or the Princess Royal, and for randomly going off on holidays to Mustique. But I don't think that they are affecting the Royal Family as much by doing that as they are by going around and proclaiming themselves to be, just normal. Because if I want a normal person to look up to, I know plenty. I only know one Duchess of Cambridge.

~

All week long I've been watching behind the scenes and interviews with the cast and crew of The White Queen, for some reason, and I've grown very fond of Edward IV. This is because, and only because, of sheer brilliance on the part of the casting directors. I've always personally thought of King Edward as a bit idiotic and shortsighted, even. Great military leader and tactician he may have been, but he married a power hungry and selfish... well, you know, and his entire dynasty was in shambles within two years of his death. And yet I am willing to overlook those things, which may or may not have anything to do with the fact that Max Irons, who plays him, looks like this:

This is great news from the perspective of another Yorkist ruler....

God save Richard, England’s royal king! #TheHollowCrown pic.twitter.com/CzSaiDMOyJ
— BBC Two (@BBCTwo) October 1, 2014

RICHARD III !!!

Because you cannot hate Benedict Cumberbatch on a horse. No matter how many nephews he murders (Remember, this picture was released by the BBC ahead of the next season of The Hollow Crown. The show is based on William Shakespeare's plays, so you can be sure that Richard/Benedict had something to do with the death of the Princes in the Tower).

~

Anyway, do you remember my attempts at book reviewing a few months ago - I reviewed a few books from Philippa Gregory's The Cousins' War series? Well, it's coming back! Next week, I'm going to review Alison Weir's The Captive Queen, about Eleanor of Aquitaine, and the week after that I'm going to write about Anya Seton's Katherine, about Katherine Swynford.

If I ever finish it, that is.

N

Prince William and His iPhone

Obviously, the biggest news of last week was the Scottish Referendum. Scotland voted "NO", which means that they won't become an independent nation, and they'll still be a part of the United Kingdom, and the Union Jack will be the same, and the Queen will still be the Queen of Scotland as well, and everything will just go back to the way it was.

So what was the point of getting Bob Hale on the One Show?

Another thing that happened last week was that Prince Harry, future fifth in line to the throne, turned 30. Happy 30 years and one week birthday, Your Highness!

To mark the occasion, The Mirror put together a list of thirty of his best quotes over the years. I personally found it rather touching, especially the parts where Harry speaks about his mother's death. Click on this sentence to read it.

Speaking of Prince Harry and that particular article from The Mirror, The Invictus Games is another thing that happened. Harry was the one who spearheaded the entire event, and it was a spectacular success. I didn't watch it, of course, because I don't like to watch sports, but I did read about it and see the pictures on Twitter. Some are of the opinion that the Games are the finest thing that Harry will ever achieve. Perhaps, but I think that Harry will be able to do a lot more for his country. More than William anyway. I want to draw a comparison to erstwhile royals, but the only ones I can think of is the Black Prince (Edward, Prince of Wales, the eldest son of King Edward III) and the Duke of Lancaster (John of Gaunt, the third son of the same King), and that is just an awful comparison, because Edward died young, and his son Richard (King Richard II) was just an awful King, and the Cousins War and everything.

No. I'll just stop at saying that Prince Harry will be a good son, a good brother, a good uncle and a good Prince. (Though never a King. Sorry, Harry)

Anyway, I digress. Apart from Prince Harry, Princes Charles and William were also at the Invictus Games (but not Kate, because she's feeling poorly, and not George, because he's a baby. But here are some sweet pictures of him in the park with his nanny). This is a photograph taken of them:

Look at what Prince William is holding!

His iPhone!

If you have been a loyal reader of my blog (Haha, as if!), you might remember a post I wrote almost exactly a year ago, about the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge's first engagement since Prince George's birth, in which I commented on Prince William owning an iPhone. And here is a picture of the famed gadget. I see William hasn't stopped letting people know he has an iPhone. 

Prince William has an iPhone! (But I don't)(Well, I'm also not in line to the throne of England)

iPhone owning Prince William was also in Malta this weekend in place of wife, Catherine. I felt a little bad for him; he knew that the people were expecting a pretty Duchess, not a balding Duke, and so he kept apologising for being there. Well, better him than no one, people of Malta!

He also promised to come back with Catherine and George someday. And the new baby, I would think! Or has everyone but me forgotten about him/her?

Oh, and by the way, as far as baby gender and names go, my bet is on a boy called James. So, if you read an announcement in March or April or May saying that the Duchess of Cambridge has been safely delivered of a boy, and then another one a few days later saying something something Prince James of Cambridge, remember, you saw it here first.

N