The Heir and the Spare

Posted on March 10, 2015 by barbara

Next month will mark the arrival of Prince William and Kate’s second child; their oldest child Prince George was born in July 2013. Since Prince George is currently third in the line of succession to the British throne that would make him the eventual “heir” and his new sibling would be the “spare”.

The history of England has frequently been affected by the rules of the line of succession and there have been many spares that have gone on to inherit the throne. One example from long ago is King Henry VIII; he was the second son of King Henry VII and Elizabeth of York and when his older brother, Arthur, died the crown passed to the younger Henry. A more recent example is George VI, the second son of King George VI and Queen Mary. His older brother, Edward, famously abdicated the throne for “the woman that he loved”, the American divorcee Wallis Simpson and the crown passed to the younger brother George. (more on these two brothers later in the post)

Currently the most recent “spares” have lived for many years in the shadows of their elder brothers but have still been able to have a life of their own within the confines of the Royal family and have occasionally stolen the spotlight from their older brother with mischievous and scandalous behavior. Prince Andrew, the Duke of York and the second son of Queen Elizabeth II will continue to move farther down the line of succession with each additional royal birth and the popular Prince Harry, the second son of Prince Charles and the grandson of the Queen, who will also move further down the line of succession as his brother, Prince William, has more children.

Now, let discuss some of Britain most famous “heirs and spares” …

Prince Albert Victor and Prince George

Prince Albert Victor and Prince George were the sons of Prince Albert Edward, the Prince of Wales, and Alexandra of Denmark. Prince Albert Victor (then known as the Duke of Clarence) died suddenly in 1892 from a brief illness. His brother, Prince George, assumed the role as second in the line of succession to the British throne. Through their shared grief over the death Prince Albert Victor, Prince George and his brother’s former fiancée, Princess Mary of Teck, grew very close and they quickly fell in love. Queen Victoria, the Prince’s grandmother, was very fond of Princess Mary and encourage their union, the royal couple married in 1893. Then, after the long reign of Queen Victoria came to an end with her death in 1901, Prince Albert Edward became King Edward VII (until recently he had held the record as the longest serving Prince of Wales and heir to the British throne). King Edward VII only reigned for a short time, almost nine years, and he died in 1910. His son, Prince George, became King George V and he reigned from 1910 to 1936. King George V and Queen Mary were married for forty-four years and had six children.

Prince Edward and Prince Albert

Prince Edward and Prince Albert were the sons of King George V and Queen Mary. The elder one, Prince Edward the Prince of Wales, grew into a charismatic man who was a perpetual bachelor that enjoyed socializing with married women while the younger one, Prince Albert the Duke of York, was shy and introverted with a nervous stutter and he was married to Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon since 1923. Prince Edward ultimately met an American woman named Wallis Simpson and became seriously involved. Then, King George V died and Prince Edward ascended to the throne as King Edward VIII. During the next 12 months, before his official coronation, Wallis divorced her husband and King Edward planned to marry her. This caused a constitutional crisis because the Church of England did not recognize divorce and Parliament eventually forced King Edward to abdicate and as a result his brother, Prince Albert, became King George VI. It has been said that the stress of being the monarchy along with the onset of World War II, not to mention lung cancer caused by a life-long habit of smoking, caused his early death at the age of 56. With the death of King George in 1952, his eldest daughter ascended to the throne, this was because King George had no sons and only two daughters, so the crown went to Queen Elizabeth II and she is only the sixth women in the history of England to become the ruling monarch.

Princess Elizabeth and Princess Margaret

Princess Elizabeth and Princess Margaret are/were the daughters of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth and they were only 10 and 6 when their father ascended to the throne of England. The girls enjoyed a special closeness with their parents and had a relatively quiet childhood living in a house on Burton Street in Mayfair section of London and later at Buckingham Palace and Windsor Castle when their father became King. Princess Elizabeth, the eldest daughter, was very serious, studious and orderly almost to the point of obsession but she also had a wonderful sense of humor. Princess Elizabeth married Prince Philip (now known as the Duke of Edinburgh) in 1947. Princess Margaret, the younger daughter was said to be the more beautiful and glamorous one and as a child she was very mischievous which was a trait that was carried over when she got older. Princess Margaret had a scandalous affair with Peter Townsend and after her father’s death in 1952 Townsend divorced his wife with the intention of marrying Princess Margaret. By this time, Princess Elizabeth was now Queen Elizabeth II, and despite the fact that Princess Margaret was truly happy, the Queen could not grant her permission for them to marry because the Church of England and Parliament strongly advised against marriage to a divorced man. Princess Margaret later married Antony Armstrong-Jones (now known as the Earl of Snowdon) in 1960, they had two children but eventually divorced in 1978 and Princess Margaret died in 2002. Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip have been married for over 68 years and they have four children. In September 2015, the Queen will surpass the record set by Queen Victoria thereby making her the longest serving English monarch.

Prince Charles and Prince Andrew

Prince Charles and Prince Andrew are the sons of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh. Much has been written about the older brother Prince Charles (known as the Prince of Wales) especially in the last twenty years, but growing up he tended to be serious and always the dutiful son who did as he was told. The younger brother Prince Andrew (known as the Duke of York) was quite the playboy dating several beautiful women until he eventually married in Sarah Ferguson in 1986. They were married for ten years, had two daughters and divorced in 1996. Prince Charles married Lady Diana Spencer in a grand royal wedding in 1981 and they had two sons. The royal couple scandalously divorced in 1996 after accusations of infidelity made the headline of newspapers and tabloids. Tragically, Princess Diana died in 1997 in a car accident in Paris, France. Several years later, Prince Charles married Camilla Parker Bowles in 2005, she is now known as the Duchess of Cornwall. Currently Prince Charles has become the longest serving heir apparent in the history of Britain, 59 years and counting from 1952 to the present. (The previous record was set by Prince Charles’ great-great-grandfather, King Edward VII who was the son of Queen Victoria)

Royal Note: Princess Anne was the second child and only daughter of Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip. At the time there was a century old English law that strictly determined the line of succession to inherit the throne. The Act of Settlement 1701 gave preference to male heirs over female members of the family, meaning that a male would take the place of older female siblings in the order of succession. In this case, en Princess Anne fell farther down the line of succession when her younger brothers, Prince Andrew and Prince Edward, were born. Princess Anne has been married twice, her first marriage was to Mark Phillips in 1973, they had two children but divorced in 1992. Her second marriage was to Timothy Laurence in 1992.

Prince William and Prince Harry

Prince William and Prince Harry are the sons of Prince Charles and Princess Diana. Much like their predecessors, the “heir” tended to be more aware of their destiny and was expected to behave in the manner of a future monarch while the “spare” had a less restrictions and a more carefree life with less pressure. Princess Diana made a concerted effort to also exposure her children to life outside the palace walls and she took them on casual and fun trips to McDonald’s and Walt Disney World but also more serious places such as homeless shelters and AIDS clinics.

The younger brother, Prince Henry but better known as Harry, went to the same secondary schools as his older brother but then decided not to go to university but to serve his honorable duty in the British military same as the generations before him. Prince Harry enrolled at the Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst and received his commission as a second lieutenant. In 2007, he went to Afghanistan and served there for 77 days with no publicity until after his return. In 2012, he returned to Afghanistan for a 20 week deployment with the British Army Air Corps. Currently Prince Harry is not married and enjoying his life as a bachelor on the London social scene.

The oldest brother, Prince William, went on to study at Eton and later the University of St. Andrews located in Scotland where he met his future wife Kate Middleton. Then he completed officer training at Sandhurst and receiving his commission as a lieutenant and then trained as a military pilot eventually working with the RAF Search and Rescue Forces as a helicopter ambulance pilot. Prince William married Kate Middleton in 2011, had a son named Prince George in 2013 and are expecting their second child in 2015.

Currently Prince Charles is heir to the British throne. His son, Prince William, is currently second in the line of succession followed by his son, Prince George.

Royal Note: Recently in October of 2011 at the Commonwealth Meeting held in Perth, Australia the heads of the sixteen Commonwealth countries, with Queen Elizabeth II as their head of state, announced changes to the Act of Settlement. The Perth Agreement is the provision made to the original act of succession which proposed an end to the first born male preference. This was a much debated issue since it would change the centuries old rule and set precedence that would directly affect the children of Prince William and Kate, those members of the royal family born before 2011 would keep their place in the line of succession. To put this new ruling into perspective, Prince William and Kate had been recently married but it was before they were expecting their first child. So, if they had a girl it would become the next in line to the throne and remain at that position even if a brother were to follow her. Of course this point was moot because Prince William and Kate’s first child was a boy!

For information about British Royal Wedding, please check out the four part series and click on the link to Part One. For information about the tradition of the British Royal Births & Christenings, please click on the link.

Norman Rockwell’s Birthday

Posted on February 3, 2015 by barbara

I have enjoyed the art of Norman Rockwell (February 3, 1894 – November 8, 1978) for a long time; his whimsical depiction of life in America always brought a smile. His works also included subjects of more serious matters, such as the Four Freedom series. So, in honor of his birthday, I will discuss the life of Rockwell, his many paintings and illustrations for the Saturday Evening Post and Boy’s Life magazines and at the end I will give some information on the Norman Rockwell Museum located in Stockbridge, MA.

The life of Norman Rockwell

Norman Rockwell was born on February 3, 1894 in New York City, his parents were Jarvis and Anne (Hill) Rockwell and he had an older brother who was also named Jarvis. His father was the manager of a Philadelphia-based textile company and he worked at the office located in New York. Rockwell showed an interest as a young boy for drawing and painting so at the age of 14 he left high school to attend the Chase Art School and later the National Academy of Design.

In 1912, Rockwell’s first full time paying job was as a staff artist for Boy’s Life magazine which was a publication for the Boy Scouts of America, a new organization that had recently formed in 1910. Within a year of going to work for Boy’s Life magazine he became the art editor and held the position for the next three years. Shown below is his first cover for Boy’s Life published in September 1913 called “Scout at Ship’s Wheel”.

In 1915, the Rockwell family moved from the city to the town of New Rochelle, New York. It was there that he shared a studio with Clyde Forsythe, a cartoonist for the Saturday Evening Post magazine. With Forsythe’s connections, Rockwell was able to get one of his paintings used for the May 1916 cover of Saturday Evening Post called “Mother’s Day Off” and it is shown below. Rockwell went on to have eight more covers within the next twelve months – I would say that for a young man of only 22 years old Rockwell was doing very well!

In regards to Rockwell’s personal life, at this time Rockwell met Irene O’Connor when she moved into the same boardinghouse he was living at in New York City. (Irene is shown on the Literary Digest cover, “Mother Tucking Children into Bed” in January 1921) The couple married on July 1, 1916 and they did not have any children before divorcing in 1930.

In regards to Rockwell profession life, his association with the Saturday Evening Post continued to prove to be a very productive partnership and over a span of 47 years Rockwell created 323 original covers for the magazine. Rockwell featured boy scouts in occasional covers and in 1926 he resumed work for the Boy Scouts of America by creating original illustrations for their annual calendars.

After Rockwell’s divorce from his first wife, he escaped the East Coast and went to California for a short time and that is where he met and married Mary Barstow on March 27, 1930. The couple returned to New York to live in New Rochelle and had three sons; Jarvis born in 1932 (a visual artist), Thomas born in 1933 (author of children’s books) and Peter born in 1936 (a sculptor).

Rockwell was inspired by President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s 1941 State of the Union address which spoke about the four principals of freedom that were the universal rights of the people of the world, and as a result he painted the famous Four Freedoms series. It took him seven months to create the four paintings, “Freedom of Speech”, “Freedom of Worship”, “Freedom from Want” and “Freedom from Fear” and they were published in February and March 1943 in the Saturday Evening Post accompanied by a magazine article written about each of the freedoms. Afterwards, the Four Freedom paintings were sent on a nationwide tour to raise money for war bonds sales, $130,000 was raised to help the war efforts. In addition, the Four Freedoms were reproduced into United States postage stamps and issued in 1943 and 1946.

Rockwell continued painting for the next twenty years and he also worked with his son, Thomas, to write an autobiography called “My Adventures as an Illustrator” which was published in 1960. One of his most famous paintings featured in the book and also on the February 13, 1960 Saturday Evening Post cover called the “Triple Self-Portrait”.

By this time the Rockwell family had moved from New York to Stockbridge, Massachusetts in 1953 because Rockwell’s wife, Mary, was being treated at a psychiatric hospital in Stockbridge for mental health issues. Then in 1959, Mary died suddenly of a heart attack. Later Rockwell married his third wife, Mary “Molly” Punderson, a retired schoolteacher, on October 25, 1961. Rockwell’s third marriage was to bring him great happiness and they enjoyed their lives together in Stockbridge.

Rockwell’s last Saturday Evening Post cover was published in 1963 and then he went to work creating covers for Look magazine for the following ten years. During this period, Rockwell paintings became more serious in nature with such topics as civil rights and space exploration. (shown below are the 1964 “The Problem We Live With” featuring Ruby Bridges and the 1965 “Suiting Up” featuring astronauts Gus Grissom and John Young – a copy of this one hangs in my husband’s home office) Rockwell was also privately commissioned to paint the portraits of four United States President; they were Dwight Eisenhower, John Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon. At the age of eighty-two years old, Rockwell received his final commission from the Boy Scouts of America for their annual calendar, during his sixty-four year association with the organization and he created four hundred and seventy-one illustrations which were used in calendars, periodicals, guidebooks as well as other promotional items.

Norman Rockwell - The Problem We Live With

In 1977, Rockwell received the United States highest civilian honor of the Presidential Medal of Freedom for his “vivid and affectionate portraits of our country”. Sadly, Rockwell died on November 8, 1978 from emphysema and he is buried in the Stockbridge Cemetery in Stockbridge, MA.

The Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, MA

In 1969, Norman and Molly Rockwell founded the Norman Rockwell Museum and its original location was at the Old Corner House in Stockbridge, MA. In 1994, the museum moved to its current location on a 36 acre site overlooking the Housatonic River Valley. The museum has the largest collection of almost 575 original Norman Rockwell art, including his many preliminary sketches and completed paintings for his many magazine covers. The Norman Rockwell Museum archives contain more than 100,000 items which includes photographs, letters pertaining to his business, personal, and fan correspondence and personal mementos. Visitors will also see Rockwell’s studio which was bequeathed to the museum in 1976 and features his original art materials, equipment, furnishings and his 500 volume art library.

For more information on planning a trip to visit the Norman Rockwell Museum, please see their website at www.nrm.org.

Queen Alexandra – the Fashion Icon

Posted on January 22, 2015 by barbara

The Princess of Wales was a fashion icon in her day … but wait, I’m not talking about Diana but Princess Alexandra. Princess Alexandra of Denmark married Prince Albert Edward, the son of Queen Victoria, at St George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle on March 1863. Princess Alexandra was barely 18 years old at the time of the wedding and she was very beautiful and tall in stature with a slim figure which was in sharp contrast to the women of the time who had much fuller figures. (Queen Victoria was barely five feet tall and rather plump!)

Princess Alexandra’s wedding dress was created by Charles Worth, an English fashion designer working in France, who dominated Parisian fashion at the end of nineteenth century. Following the tradition started by Queen Victoria, Princess Alexandra’s ivory gown, with a separate bodice top and full skirt, was made of English silk with a Honiton lace overlay featuring elaborate embroidered symbols of an English rose, an Irish shamrock and a Scottish thistle. The silver moiré train was 21 feet in length and the gown was further embellished with orange blossoms and myrtle garlands and she wore a veil of Honiton lace with a wreath of even more orange blossoms and myrtle. Her bridal bouquet was made of white rosebuds, lilies of the valley, rare orchids, orange blossoms and of course the traditional sprigs of myrtle said to have been grown from a planting taken from Queen Victoria’s wedding bouquet 23 years earlier. Prince Albert Edward gave her a wedding present of a pearl necklace, earrings and brooch which she wore along with an opal and diamond bracelet that was a gift from Queen Victoria. (For more information about the wedding of Prince Albert Edward and Princess Alexandra, please click on the link British Royal Weddings – Part Two)

At the time that Alexandra came to England to marry the heir to the throne it had been a few years since the death of the Queen Victoria’s husband, her beloved Prince Albert, and the Queen had withdrawn from society stifled by her grief and she went into a self-imposed period of prolonged mourning. Prince Albert Edward was heir to the throne and as the Prince of Wales he was put into service as the Queen’s representative for official functions and together the royal couple proved to be extremely popular with the public. Prince Albert Edward soon became obsessed with royal protocol and dressing in proper clothes for every occasion and it was not unusual for him to completely change his clothing a dozen times a day. Taking on her new role as Princess of Wales, Alexandra was always acutely aware of her royal duty to dress appropriately for official functions and whenever she was seen in public she was always elegantly dressed in fashions that flattered her body type that would made with the finest fabrics.

Princess Alexandra was also very creative in adapting her style of clothing to mask several physical impediments. It was said that she had a scar on her neck, possibly from surgery when she was a child, and she took to wearing day dresses with high collars and in the evening she wore multiple layers of pearls or diamond necklaces that would cover her neck, these were known as collier de chein meaning collar necklace. This style of jewelry became very popular with society ladies and a fashion trend was soon started.

Princess Alexandra also developed a curvature of the spine which was a complication from rheumatic fever that she contracted in 1867. As a result, she walked with a distinct limp for several years and very cleverly adapted her clothing to distract from the physical disability thereby minimizing attention to the problem, or so she thought! The public noticed anyway, calling it the “Alexandra Limp”, and in a strange way it caused another fashion trend. Ladies so admired everything about Princess Alexandra that they were soon emulating the limp by wearing special pairs of shoes in different heel heights or walking with canes. The strange trend did not last long because women fashions were soon changing from dresses with full skirts to more tapered ones causing women to walk with smaller steps and thus eliminating the “need” to limp.

In 1901, Queen Victoria died and Prince Albert Edward became King Edward VII. As Queen Alexandra prepared for the coronation she knew she wanted a very special gown and she called upon her friend, Lady Curzon, to help her. The Coronation Day was set for June when the weather in London would be hot and since the Queen would already be wearing a heavy velvet robe as part of her coronation regalia the material for the dress was made of lightweight net with metallic embroidery. Lady Curzon oversaw the making of the beautiful material which was created in India and the fabric was embroidered with the symbols of England (rose), Ireland (shamrock) and Scotland (thistle) that would represent the countries that King Edward would rule.

Part of Queen Alexandra’s coronation regalia included a Queen Consort crown that was especially made for her to wear. In 1849, the East India Company had acquired the large 186 carat diamond, known as the Kohinoor Diamond, which was given to Queen Victoria. The Kohinoor diamond was said to be cursed and if any male wore it he would surely lose the throne. Queen Victoria, being female, did not fear the curse and the Kohinoor diamond was cut into a smaller 105 carat diamond which Queen Victoria wore set in a brooch. After the death of Queen Victoria, the Kohinoor Diamond was set into the Queen Consort’s crown instead of King’s crown to avoid the possibility of the validity of the curse. Queen Alexandra’s crown had a platinum frame designed as circlet accented with four large crosses (the center cross was set with the Kohinoor Diamond and the other crosses set with “smaller” diamonds) and four large fluer-de-lis for a base. Four arches set with three rows of diamonds each gently curved to join together and topped with a diamond encrusted orb and cross at the center., approximately 3688 diamonds were used. An inner lining of purple velvet was used under the arches and ermine lined the base so that it would set comfortably on the Queen’s head.

(Special Royal Note: The custom continued afterwards with the Kohinoor Diamond always worn in the Queen Consort’s crown, this was done for Queen Mary at the coronation of George V and Queen Elizabeth at the coronation of George VI but for their daughter’s coronation, Queen Elizabeth II wore the St. Edward’s Crown that has been used to crown every sovereign since 1661. For more information, click on the link Crown Jewels of England – Part Two)

To complete her coronation ensemble, Queen Alexandra wore Queen Victoria’s diamond bracelet and earrings. Then she layered even more jewels across the front her coronation gown and they were stitched onto the fabric. At her waist she wore the Dagmar necklace (a reminder of her Danish heritage) as a stomacher and several diamond earrings were added to the necklace as pendants. She also wore a set of Queen Victoria’s diamond bow brooches pinned down the front of the gown with additional emerald earrings suspended from the bows as pendants. Around her neck Queen Alexandra wore Queen Victoria’s large diamond necklace and her customary strands of several pearl necklaces. Needless to say, the bodice of her coronation dress sparkled beautifully!

During the reign of King Edward and Queen Alexandra, which became known as the Edwardian Age (1901-1910), women fashions changed from dresses with full skirts worn with several layers of undergarments to dresses with tapered skirts, tight laced corsets and bustled trains accented with layers of lace and beaded appliques. Queen Alexandra continued to influence fashion and King Edward spent lavishly on a large wardrobe of dresses and countless pieces of jewelry including necklaces, bracelets, brooches and tiaras. The King was very interested in what the Queen wore and he was always aware of royal protocol and correct dress, in fact the King once reprimanded the Queen for wearing her Garter sash incorrectly and had her change it immediately before leaving the palace!

Shown below are two dress examples, the one on the left is a Victorian style dress and the one on the right is a Edwardian style dress.

After the death of King Edward VII in 1910, Queen Alexandra took on a smaller role as Queen Mother and she quietly retired to her country home of Sandringham to allow her son, King George V to begin his reign. The youthful appearance that had remained with her throughout the years had begun to fade and she took to wearing heavy make-up and veils to shield her aging face. She slowly removed herself from public as her hearing and eyesight began to fail and she spent an increasing amount of time with her children, grandchildren and her beloved dogs.

The life of Alexandra of Denmark, later Princess of Wales and Queen Alexandra

Alexandra of Denmark was born on December 1, 1844 in Copenhagen, Denmark. Her father was Prince Christian of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glucksburg and her mother was Princess Louise of Hesse-Kassel. Alexandra was the oldest of their five children, her brothers and sisters were George (later George I of Greece, Dragmar (later Empress of Russis, Thyra (Crown Princess of Hanover) and Prince Valdemar of Denmark.

In 1863, Prince Christian succeeded his distant cousin, King Frederick VII, to the Danish throne. Prior to that time, Alexandra (“Alix”) and her family had been living a very quiet and modest life in a “grace and favour” townhouse adjacent to the palace in Copenhagen. It was a very normal childhood with one exception, the famous author, Hans Christian Anderson, was an occasional visitor to their home and he would tell the children his stories before bedtime!

The same year that her father became King Christian IX of Denmark, Alexandra left for England to marry the heir to the British throne. At the age of sixteen years old she became engaged to Prince Albert Edward, the Prince of Wales and the son of Queen Victoria. On the recommendation of her eldest daughter, Princess Victoria, Queen Victoria had personally picked Alexandra to marry “Bertie”, as he was known in the family. Prince Albert Edward was something of a wild playboy and the Queen wanted him to settle down and become more responsible. At the time of the wedding it had been a few years since the death of the Queen’s beloved husband, Prince Albert, and the Queen had blamed Prince Edward for his involvement in his father’s death. The story goes that Prince Albert had traveled down to Cambridge to have a serious discussion with Prince Albert Edward about his indiscreet affair with an actress that could possible bring shame to the royal family. Father and son had taken a long walk in the rain to discuss the issue and shortly after returning home Prince Albert became seriously ill and died a few weeks later. At the time it was believed that he died from typhoid fever but later medical research by historians showed that in reality he had been suffering from long term stomach problems for several years and his cause of death was possibly abdominal cancer.

The wedding of Prince Albert Edward and Princess Alexandra took place on March 10, 1863 at the St. George Chapel, Windsor Castle. Because the Royal Court was still in mourning following the death of Prince Albert the wedding was a solemn occasion. Queen Victoria refused to take part in the ceremony and watched from a secluded area in the St. George Chapel. (For more information about the wedding ensemble of Princess Alexandra, please see the detailed description previously mentioned in this post)

After the wedding, the Queen continued her self-imposed period of prolonged mourning and withdrew from society and was rarely being seen in public for royal functions. The public was outraged and felt that their Queen had selfishly abandoned her royal duties to crown and country. Prince Albert Edward was heir to the throne and he was put into service as the Queen’s representative for official functions and together the royal couple proved to be extremely popular with the public. Princess Alexandra was to hold the title of Princess of Wales the longest in British history, from 1863 to 1901. Until very recently her husband, Prince Albert Edward held the title of Prince of Wales the longest, just over 59 years from 1842 to 1901. (His great-great-grandson, Prince Charles, broke that record of the longest serving heir apparent in 2011; he has been Prince of Wales since 1952 to the present which makes it currently 63 years and still counting!)

As Princess of Wales, Alexandra became a fashion icon influencing the British clothing industry with her elegant style of dress that was copied for the society women who were demanding to emulate her style of clothes and jewelry. In political matters, she failed miserably in her attempts to influence her husband and the British ministers to favor Danish and Greek interests over those of Germany and Prussia. The reasoning behind this was that her father was King of Denmark and she also had a brother that later became King of Greece. Furthermore she despised her husband’s nephew, Wilhelm II, who was the German Emperor and King of Prussia. As a result of her interference, Alexandra was restricted to uncontroversial public duties involving charitable organizations.

Princess Alexandra was known to be gracious and charming in her public life but in private she was often affectionate and carefree. Despite a limp she developed as a result of rheumatic fever complications shortly after the birth of her third child, she enjoyed many physically challenging activities, such as dancing and ice skating, and she was also an excellent horsewomen. One activity that Queen Victoria, her extremely strict and proper mother-in-law, did not approve of was Alexandra’s participation in hunting which the Queen felt was unbecoming of a lady of her royal stature.

One aspect of the Prince and Princess of Wales marriage that drew severe criticism and disapproval from Queen Victoria was the royal couple’s almost constant entertaining and the Prince’s gambling and drinking. Most troublesome to both Princess Alexandra and the Queen was the Prince’s roving eye for beautiful women and his numerous affairs. Princess Alexandra handled her husband’s infidelities with dignity and silence but eventually the two began to live separate lives with her living most of the time at Sandringham and Prince Albert Edward staying at Marlborough House in London to perform his royal duties and allowing him freedom to carry on numerous relationships with his mistresses. Despite this fact, Prince Albert Edward and Princess Alexandra had six children; they were Prince Albert Victor born in 1864, George (the future King George V) born in 1865, Louise born in 1867, Victoria born in 1868, Maud born in 1869 and John born in 1871 who sadly died shortly after his birth. (For more information about the Sandringham estate , please click on the link)

Prince Edward and Princess Alexandra with their children

Throughout the years, there were two separate events that would have a direct effect on the lives of Prince Albert Edward and Princess Alexandra. The first event occurred in 1871 when Prince Albert contracted typhoid, the same disease that supposedly brought about his father death which the Queen still earnestly believed Prince Albert Edward indirectly caused. The mother and son were never close in childhood and even more so after the death of her beloved husband but upon hearing the new about her son’s illness she quickly traveled to Sandringham to keep a vigil over her son’s sick bed. Luckily Prince Albert Edward recovered and Princess Alexandra, Queen Victoria and in fact the entire nation joyfully celebrated his recovery. Afterward, the relationship of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert Edward improved slightly and they developed a better understanding of one another.

The second event that was to directly affect the lives of Prince Albert Edward and Princess Alexandra happened in 1892. While participating in a few days of hunting at the Sandringham estate Prince Albert Victor, the royal couple’s oldest son, developed pneumonia and died a short time later. It was a great shock to the Royal Family since Prince Albert had always been in robust health and he had recently become engaged to Mary of Teck and preparations were underway for their upcoming wedding. After the death of Prince Albert Victor their second son, George, became closer with his brother’s former fiancée through their shared sadness and mourning. George and Mary soon fell in love and were married a year later in 1893. It was said that the ever meddling Queen Victoria, who had always had a deep fondness for Mary, encouraged the romance and approved of the marriage. (As a result of the death of his brother, George, took his place in the line of succession and later became King George V)

In 1901, Queen Victoria died and the Prince of Wales became King Edward VII with Alexandra as his Queen Consort, it was almost a year and a half between King Edward’s accession to the throne to his official coronation day in June of 1902. This long period of time was due to the fact that just days before the scheduled coronation, King Edward had appendicitis and the event was postponed to allow the King to have an operation and recuperate. (For more information about the coronation regalia worn by Queen Alexandra, please see the detailed description previously mentioned in this post)

Very little changed in the daily life of Queen Alexandra and she continued her charitable work and spending time with her numerous grandchild. After the death of her father, King Christian IX of Denmark, the Queen purchase a house near Copenhagen in 1907 which she used as a private retreat for her and her sister Dragmar, now the Dowager Empress of Russia. In early 1910, she was visiting her brother, King George I of Greece, when she was called back to England when King Edward became seriously ill. She arrived at Sandringham one day before her husband died. Being the gracious person that she was and fully understanding her husband’s needs she allowed his mistress, Alice Keppel, to visit King Edward’s bedside to say their goodbyes.

Dowager Queen Alexandra and her sister Dowager Empress Dagmar

After waiting for so long, King Edward VII’s reign was a relatively short 10 years. Alexandra was now the Dowager Queen and her second son had ascended to the throne as King George V. Being the ever dutiful son and sensitive to his mother’s feelings and comfort, the new King allowed her to remain living in Sandringham and when he visited the estate he took up residence in a smaller home located on the property. Over the following years, Alexandra health slowly declined and she developed severe rheumatism in her legs and her eyesight began to fail as well as her hearing due to a hereditary condition inherited from her mother, she was almost completely deaf. On November 20, 1925 the Dowager Queen Alexandra died at Sandringham after suffering a heart attack. She is buried next to her husband in St. George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle.

Miscellaneous – Edwin Hubble’s Birthday

Posted on November 20, 2014 by jeff0006

It’s Jeff again, here as a guest writer about another “science guy”! This time it is about one of the greatest astronomers of the 20th century, Edwin Hubble. Before researching Edwin I didn’t know much about him other than he was an astronomer and had the Hubble Space Telescope named after him. The Hubble Space Telescope is one of my favorite satellites so while Hubble didn’t have much to do with it other than lending his name to it and I will talk about it later in this post. But first …

Edwin Hubble was born on November 20, 1889 in Marshfield, Missouri to Virginia Lee James and John Powell Hubble. His father was an insurance executive who had very specific thoughts as to how his son should live his life. Edwin was interested in astronomy from an early age. His grandfather had built a telescope and on his 8th birthday Edwin was allowed to stay up all night to gaze at the sky. Edwin was a local sports hero, playing just about every kind of sport and setting state records in Illinois. Edwin also did well in school and his father insisted that his son should become a lawyer. I think that the discipline he gained learning to become the best in his sports endeavors carried him through the rest of his life. When he went to the University of Chicago in 1906 he had a couple of goals. First, he took enough law classes to satisfy his father. Second, he set his sights on the Rhodes scholarship, something that had never been awarded to a University of Chicago student, and finally one of his last goals was to focuse a fair amount of time on the sciences; mathematics, astronomy, physics and other scientific classes. Edwin studied the guidelines of the Rhodes scholarship and started taking classes in the classics, Greek, Latin, French, Politics and economics. He knew these classes would give him an edge. He ran unopposed for vice president of his senior class so he could add it to his resume and continued to play basketball as the Rhodes committees not only looked at academics, but character, “the instincts to lead and take an interest in his schoolmates” and a “fondness for and success in manly outdoor sports such as cricket, football and the like.” His work paid off and he was awarded the 1910 Rhodes scholarship for Illinois. In the fall of 1910 he went to Oxford to study law. Edwin earned a law degree from Oxford in 1913 just before returning home to his family in Kentucky after his father died. His heart wasn’t into law so he became a teacher and taught in the local high school for a bit until he finally decided at age 25 to go back to school to become an astronomer. He received his PhD in 1917 from the University of Chicago after rushing to finish his dissertation to enlist in the Army. He went to Europe, but never saw combat. After the war he spent about a year at Cambridge until he was offered a job at the Mount Wilson observatory in California. He accepted the job and worked there for the remainder of his life.

So what did Edwin Hubble do that got one of the coolest satellites ever named after him? His first big discovery was that the fuzzy nebulae dotted throughout the sky were not gas clouds, but other galaxies. Second, he determined the rate of expansion of the universe, a value now called the Hubble Constant. He did a considerable amount of work on Redshifts (how the spectrum of an object changes with respect to the direction it is traveling) and he discovered a comet. Despite all of his amazing discoveries, Hubble never won a Nobel Prize. Up until the time of his death on September 28, 1953 (he died of a stroke) astronomers were not eligible for the Nobel Prize. Subsequently the Nobel committee has changed its rules, but they never award the prize posthumously.

Edwin was by all accounts a very interesting person. He was extremely handsome and well spoken. He was quite taken by his time in England and the rest of his life he spoke with a British accent. He was a famous astronomer and rubbed elbows with movie stars, politicians and other famous scientists. After marrying into money he never let his wife meet his family and it seems he had a tendency to exaggerate his history to fit what the current audience would like to hear. All in all, was an extremely interesting, driven and brilliant person who I think would have been interesting to meet.

Hubble Space Telescope

Now that you know why the Hubble Space Telescope was named after Edwin, why do I find it so interesting? Well first of all, I’m amazed at the images it has produced. While some huge ground based telescopes are now rivaling Hubble’s quality, it was the best telescope around for the longest time. Here is a collage of some of its images:

Secondly, the telescope is HUGE! It is the size of a school bus. I spent countless hours watching the last servicing mission live. There were points when two fully suited astronauts were INSIDE the telescope working on it. It was awesome!

An then of course there are the IMAGES. Yes, I know that was my first point, but the pictures from the Hubble are truly amazing. If you are interested in astronomy at all, check out the Astronomy Picture of the Day web site. It has been around since June of 1995 and frequently features Hubble pictures.

Mickey Mouse’s Birthday

Posted on November 18, 2014 by barbara

In honor of Mickey Mouse’s birthday (November 18, 1928), in this post I will discuss the history of the most famous of the Disney characters. At the time that Mickey Mouse was created, Walt Disney’s fledgling company was at a critical low point in its development. Walt had been in New York trying to negotiate higher fees with Universal Picture the distributor of their animated short films and he ended up losing not only the contract but also the rights to the character of Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. Walt was devastated about this business setback but Lillian, his always supportive wife, encouraged him to keep trying and not be discouraged. So, on the long train ride back to California Walt started to sketch ideas for a new mouse character and Lillian suggested the name of Mickey Mouse. Mickey went on star in a series of successful animated shorts and this would be a turning point for the newly formed Walt Disney Studios. As a result the company would eventually be able to finance their first full-length animated film, “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs”. Let me quote a famous line frequently used by the Disney Studios that sums it up perfectly, “… and it all started with a mouse”.

The character of Mickey Mouse was first drawn by animator Ub Iwerks for a silent animated short film called “Plane Crazy” but the Disney Studios had failed to find a distributor. Meanwhile the always optimistic Disney continued production on three additional animated short films featuring Mickey. Ultimately, “Steamboat Willie” was the first of those four black and white animated short films to be released and premiered on November 18, 1928 (and for this reason the date is officially used for Mickey Mouse’s birthday). Not only was it the debut of Mickey Mouse but it was also the first Disney animated film to use synchronized sound. Eventually, Mickey went on to appear in hundreds of animated films; most notably the 1929 short film “The Barn Dance” which is the first time Mickey speaks, the 1935 short film “The Band Concert” where Mickey appears for the first time in color and the 1940 full length animated film where he appears as the Sorcerer’s Apprentice. Originally Walt Disney provided the high falsetto voice of Mickey Mouse until 1946, but later Walt returned as the voice of Mickey for the original “Mickey Mouse Club” television series which was shown on ABC from 1955 to 1959.

As mentioned previously, Ub Iwerks was the first animator to draw the character of Mickey and he designed the figure simply by using several circles so that it would be easy to animate which was very important given the fact that literally hundreds of drawings are required to make an animated film. The most noticeable feature of the circular design was Mickey’s head and ears and this would prove to make the character instantly recognizable and eventually lead to the character’s trademark silhouette.

Later, with the approval of Walt, animator Fred Moore redesigned Mickey’s body and also changed his eyes from small black dots to small white eyes with black pupils and Mickey has generally been drawn the same way ever since then. This new Mickey redesign first appeared in the 1939 “The Pointer” animated short film. Also, Mickey’s hands originally were drawn with three fingers and a thumb but later in the 1929 “The Opry House” animated film Mickey was drawn wearing white gloves to provide contrast against his black body and this change in design was made permanent. Typically Mickey always drawn wearing red shorts with two large buttons and large yellow shoes but sometimes, depending on the animated short or full length film theme, Mickey can also be drawn wearing a different costume, such as the sorcerer’s robe in the 1940 “Fantasia” animated film or the 1983 “Mickey’s Christmas Carol” where he wears Victorian-style clothing for the character of Bob Cratchit in an animated film adaption of the Charles Dickens classic “A Christmas Carol”.

After the release of Fantasia, Mickey appeared in fewer Disney studio films and his popularity started to decline with the emergence of other Disney characters. Then, in 1955 Mickey was featured in the Disney television series, “The Mickey Mouse Club”, and Walt took the opportunity to re-release several of the Mickey Mouse animated shorts which allowed an entirely new generation of kids fell in love with the mouse!! (The idea of re-releasing “old” Disney films every decade has proven to be a very lucrative marketing tool for the Disney Studios because the initial cost was usually covered by the initial release and anything after that is usually pure profit. Another example of this idea was the re-release of Disney films on VHS and then later DVD)

Throughout the following years Mickey also appeared in several new Disney animated films, the 1983 “Mickey’s Christmas Carol” and the 1990 “The Prince and the Pauper”. One notable Mickey appearance was in the 1988 “Who Framed Roger Rabbit” directed by Robert Zemeckis and this Disney/Amblin film uniquely featured animated characters appearing with live-action characters. (This concept of mixed media was not new to Disney and in the 1920s Laugh-O-Grams had made a series of “Alice” animated cartoons featuring a live-action Alice having adventures in an animated world) What makes “Roger Rabbit” interesting is that, in additional to numerous animated Disney characters, the film also includes several Warner Bros. animated characters. Warner Bros. had long been a direct competitor in animated films to the Disney Studios and an agreement was reached that in the scene in which Mickey Mouse and Bugs Bunny appear together that each of them would have the same amount of screen time including the exact number of frames used for each character in the final cut.

After the loss of the Oswald character in the late 1920s, Walt learned any important business lesson and that was to keep control of the rights of his animated characters. This control included the marketing and merchandising of all the Disney characters starting with Mickey Mouse in 1928. After the success of “Steamboat Willie”, Mickey became very popular and Walt wanted to take advantage of the situation by developing a line of Mickey merchandise. In 1933 the first Mickey Mouse watch was manufactured by the Ingersoll Watch Company and sold for $3.75. The watch featured an image of Mickey with his hands used to mark the hour and minutes. Throughout the years hundreds of different kinds of merchandise items were also produced and sold with the image of Mickey Mouse, such as plush toys, figurines, games and other toys. (The Disney marketing of their animated character images on a large variety of merchandise items proved to be very lucrative and they contracted several outside manufactures and companies to distribute these items, such as the Milton Bradley and Fisher-Price companies. Later a separate division within the company was eventually created specifically for merchandise sales that were exclusively sold in the Disney theme parks, then Disney retail stores and their website, disney.com) Please click on the link to see my Disney Memorabilia Collection.

Mickey Mouse also appeared in other forms of Disney-related print media. After the appearance of Mickey in the popular animated shorts of the late 1920s and 1930s, Walt entered into an agreement with the King Features Syndicate and a comic strip featuring Mickey and friends was created and first one appeared on January 13, 1930. So, throughout the following years the character of Mickey Mouse would be featured in other comic strips, later several comic book series and children books.

After Walt built Disneyland in 1955, Mickey Mouse became the mascot for all the Disney theme parks. His image appears in advertisement for the parks and, as previously mentioned, all types of Mickey merchandise is sold within the parks. Of course, one of the most exciting things for children (adults, too!) when visiting one the parks is seeing Mickey Mouse and long lines of guests form to have their photos taken with him. (Travel Note: In Disneyland park guests can step into Mickey’s House in ToonTown which opened in 1993. Guests will feel like they stepped into one of Disney’s animated cartoons as they walk through the house to meet Mickey who sometimes appears as Steamboat Willie or the Sorcerer’s Apprentice)

(Special Note: “Hidden Mickeys” can be found throughout the Disney theme parks. They are generally the combination of the three circles representing the head and ears of Mickey Mouse. On a personal note, looking for the “Hidden Mickeys” in Disneyland is one of our favorite things to do when we visit the park and it can be a lot of fun! There are entire websites and books dedicated to identifying these “Hidden Mickeys”, so check it out and next time you are in Disneyland or one of the other Disney theme parks and you can make a game of finding them!)

Over the years, Mickey Mouse has received ten Academy Award nominations for Best Animated Short film and has won only one for the 1941 “Lend a Paw”. In 1932 Walt Disney received an honorary Academy Award for his creation of Mickey Mouse and its contribution to the Hollywood movie industry. In 1978, to honor Mickey Mouse’s 50^th birthday, he received a star on the famous Hollywood Walk of Fame making him the first cartoon character to receive this distinctive honor. Mickey’s star is located near the El Capitan Theater on Hollywood Blvd which is now owned by the Disney Company. Walt Disney’s star is also located nearby. In 2005 Mickey was the Grand Marshal of the Tournament of Roses Parade and once again he was the first cartoon character to receive the honor and only the second fictional character after Kermit the Frog in 1996. Walt Disney had previously been Grand Marshal of the Rose Parade in 1966.

Mickey Mouse's star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame

Special Blog Note: Finally, as many of readers of this blog know from previous posts, I grew up in Southern California. My family loved Disney and we made annual visits to Disneyland and always went to the movie theaters to see the latest Disney animated films. Throughout the years I became fascinated by Walt Disney who was the creative genius behind those wonderful animated films, television programs and Disneyland. One of my favorite books about Walt is the Bob Thomas book, “Walt Disney: An American Original”. The book covers the life of Walt from his birth in Chicago, IL to his early childhood in Marceline, MO and then follows him to Kansas City as he starts the Laugh-O-Gram Company and then finally to California as he created the Walt Disney Company and later built Disneyland. (I highly recommend the book!) Recently, after we had moved to the Midwest, I finally got a chance to visit Walt’s boyhood home in Marceline, MO and later on a road trip back to California we took a side trip to see the Walt Disney Family Museum located in the historic Presidio in San Francisco, CA. (For more information and travel reports about those two destinations, please click on the links. Also, for more detailed information about the Disneyland Park in Anaheim CA, please check out the five part series on this blog by clicking on the link)

The Enchanted Manor

a lifestyle blog by Barbara Jones

Category Archives: Miscellaneous

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