Miscellaneous monarchy-related topics of interest

UnseenI very interesting.
dressed like bavaria farmers. That was the time of empress Sisi; she loved this kind of dress.

She was of course the last monarch of the house of Hanover so I guess that there was still a strong German link there, especially with her marrying a German. Most people think that she was a Saxe-Coburg Gotha, but the royal house they belong to is determined by birth, so the first Saxe-Coburg Gotha monarch was Edward VII.

I would imagine that the strong links to Germany remain with the royals today.

“That was the time of empress Sisi; she loved this kind of dress.”

Sisi visited England at the invitation of the then Earl Spencer, direct ancestor of Princess Diana. He had a red beard, so was known as ‘Rufus’ and ‘The Red Earl’.

She died from a dagger in the heart - a familiar element on here.

Very funny! I suppose that 'Bertie' got his accent from his father in his formative years.

I also remember reading that the Prince Regent unkindly mocked his parents' German accents.

Please don't get me wrong, I have no views on him either way!

He certainly liked his chips, as the saying goes. That was mentioned in the documentary that I saw (still haven't tracked it down) and that he become hideously fat. I have no prejudices about people's consensual sexual tastes as long as it doesn't involve children or animals, and the high class brothels in Belle Epoque Paris were the favourite haunts of many wealthy men. However, the thought of those poor girls with that fatty - eeewww...

The ears say everything - horses always put their ears back when they're not happy. Poor creature.

I've found the documentary title - Edward VII, Prince of Pleasure. It was shown on the BBC but not currently available on iPlayer.

Queen Elizabeth I, Sisi and Titania

If Queen Elizabeth I of England had been around to witness the miserable life of Empress Elisabeth of Austria, known as Sisi, she would probably have been grateful for her single state.

She had the highest status in the land in her own right

She also had the best residences, jewels, clothes etc. and received many presents. She had many surrogate husbands in the form of her ministers and advisers. She enjoyed playing politics. Independence was probably her best option.

Sisi had a very domineering mother-in-law and hated royal life. Elizabeth I may have failed to produce a Tudor heir, but having children is no guarantee of anything: one of Sisi’s daughters died young and her only son killed himself.

Their lives and personalities may have been very different, but although they lived centuries apart they had something in common.

Queen Elizabeth I is said to have inspired the character Titania, Queen of the Fairies in Shakespeare’s Midsummer Night’s Dream.

Sisi wrote poetry in which she referred to herself as Titania, someone she identified with. She referred to her favourite residence Hermesvilla as her ‘palace of dreams’ and ‘Titania’s magic castle’.

What a strange coincidence!

Sisi and Ludwig II of Bavaria

I had vaguely heard of the Mayerling Incident, but did not know about the connection to the Empress Sisi.

Way back, truthseeker noticed a connection between Richard III and the two little princes and Ludwig II, his brother Otto and their uncle Luitpold who became regent in Bavaria. Richard III is associated with horses too!

Sisi was Ludwig II’s cousin, and they were great friends. If only they could have married, history would be very different.

Ludwig became engaged to Sisi’s sister. He cancelled the wedding at the last minute.

Soulmates Sisi and Ludwig II:

Sisi's strange death

I found the account of Sisi's murder in Geneva very strange, and there is another Elizabeth connection too. The following is from Wikipedia.

At 1:35 p.m. on Saturday 10 September 1898, Elisabeth and Countess Irma Sztáray de Sztára et Nagymihály, her lady-in-waiting, left the hotel on the shore of Lake Geneva on foot to catch the steamship Genève for Montreux. They were walking along the promenade when the 25-year-old Italian anarchist Luigi Lucheni approached them, attempting to peer underneath the empress's parasol. According to Sztáray, as the ship's bell announced the departure, Lucheni seemed to stumble and made a movement with his hand as if he wanted to maintain his balance. In reality, he had stabbed Elisabeth with a sharpened needle file that was 4 inches long that he had inserted into a wooden handle.

After Lucheni struck her, the Empress collapsed. A coach driver helped her to her feet and alerted the Austrian concierge of the Beau-Rivage, a man named Planner, who had been watching the empress's progress toward the Genève. The two women walked roughly 100 yards to the gangway and boarded, at which point Sztáray relaxed her hold on Elisabeth's arm. The empress then lost consciousness and collapsed next to her. Sztáray called for a doctor, but only a former nurse, a fellow passenger, was available.

Three men carried Elisabeth to the top deck and laid her on a bench. Sztáray opened her gown, cut Elisabeth's corset laces so she could breathe. Elisabeth revived somewhat and Sztáray asked her if she was in pain, and she replied, "No". She then asked, "What has happened?" and lost consciousness again.

Countess Sztáray noticed a small brown stain above the empress's left breast. Alarmed that Elisabeth had not recovered consciousness, she informed the captain of her identity, and the boat turned back to Geneva. Elisabeth was carried back to the Hotel Beau-Rivage by six sailors on a stretcher improvised from a sail, cushions and two oars. Fanny Mayer, the wife of the hotel director, a visiting nurse, and the countess undressed Elisabeth and removed her shoes, when Sztáray noticed a few small drops of blood and a small wound. When they then removed her from the stretcher to the bed she was clearly dead. She was pronounced dead at 2:10 p.m.

So... for a good part of 45 minutes she was walking or close to collapse with no inkling that she had been fatally wounded. I have read before though that the mind and body can shut out severe pain in order to keep going. However - with all the suffering she had in her life, maybe she was happy to surrender to death?

The Elizabeth connection? In Alison Weir's biography, she described how Elizabeth had been on her death bed for a couple of days, and then she suddenly got up and started to move around the room, muttering things as she went on her last perambulation.

Sherlock Holmes and the Mayerling mystery

This case has still not been closed. Was it two murders or a murder-suicide? Maybe it would take Sherlock Holmes to solve this mystery.

Gerhard Tötschinger was an Austrian actor, director, and writer. He wrote some Sherlock Holmes pastiche novels, including one about the Mayerling Incident. It has been translated into English:

Fairy Queen Titania was played as Elizabeth I

Dame Judi Dench first played the part of Titania in A Midsummer’s Night’s Dream in 1968.

She returned to the role in 2010. In this production, there is a play within a play:

“The idea is that Dench is Elizabeth I, who evidently fancies moonlighting as the Queen of the Fairies in addition to her capacity as Queen of England. In a short, wordless prequel, she sweeps into a room where the Elizabethan actors are preparing, snatches up a part-script and signals that the performance proper may begin.”

news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/arts_and_culture/8518193.stm

“That's the tragedy; dreamers rarely make good kings.”

They don’t make good empresses either!

We did look at Ludwig II a while back, but as an individual. His death seems more sinister when considered again along with the deaths of Sisi and Rudolf. I wonder whether Rudolf inherited some on the Wittelsbach instability from his mother.

You are right. There are some big coincidences and correspondences in these cases.

All this jumping around from person to person, place to place and century to century is a bit confusing! I had better let it all settle and concentrate on the present day and the imminent events for now.

Queen Elizabeth I and Ludwig II and all the other long-gone royals can wait for now. It is all ancient history. We have history in the making to attend to!

The religious retreat of Richard III

William Shakespeare’s Richard III will do anything to get his hands on the crown of England.

He cultivates a public image that is very different from the reality. At one point he pretends that he is not interested in power; he says that he is pious and just wants to be left alone so he can study his holy books.

There is a very amusing scene in Sir Laurence Olivier’s film where a rent-a-crowd is orchestrated into demanding his appearance.

He comes out reading a holy book and accompanied by two priests. They didn’t have the expression ‘virtue signalling’ in those days, but that is what he is doing! He wants to manipulate the people of London into thinking that he is a good man; he wants them to beg him to abandon his solitude and force him to take the crown.

The Lord Mayor of London says, “See, where he stands between two clergymen!”

I couldn’t find any images of this scene, but in 1878 it inspired a political cartoon of Benjamin Disraeli wearing 15th century clothes. The picture has the above expression in the caption.

I wonder whether there is any relevance to the present time. Maybe the ‘on maternity leave’ Duchess of Sussex wants people to beg her to return to public life!