Posted by Angelyn Schmid May 14 2012, 1:01 am in Captain Fawlkner, Elizabeth Rennie Dundas, James Erskine, Lady Grange, Lord Grange, Lord Henry Dundas, Rachel Chiesley, St. Kilda, Viscountess Melville
Banishment was best for the disposal of unwanted wives.
In the eighteenth century, divorce and separation were scandalous matters for men with ambition in the British Isles. The next best thing, for the husband who discovered something objectionable in his wife, was banishment.
Posted by Angelyn Schmid Apr 14 2012, 1:01 am in Beau Sancy, Chancellor von Bismarck, Frederick the Great, Frederick Wiliam the Soldier King, Henri IV, Hohenzollern, Marie de Medici, Prince Georg Friedrich, Prince of Orange, Prussia, Treaty of Utrecht
It was inevitable. Scarcely eight months since the Prince of Hohenzollern married and the new Princess is already cleaning out the attic. I’m teasing, of course. However, the Prince did mention that the decision to sell his family’s heirloom was “not his alone.” Hmmm. The Beau Sancy is also known as the “Little Sancy” — one of a pair of diamonds named for their procurer who brought them to Western Europe in the sixteenth century out of Constantinople, their origin presumably from the diamond mines of India. The smaller gem is not the finest of white diamonds, nor does it benefit from
Posted by Angelyn Schmid Mar 17 2012, 1:01 am in Angelica Kauffman, Antonio Zucchi, Count de Horn, Goethe, Joshua Reynolds, neoclassical painting, Royal Academy
”The whole world is Angelicamad.” The above-quote, attributed to the Danish envoy to London or an engraver (depending on who you ask) perfectly describes a superstar of Georgian England. Angelica Kauffman (1741 – 1807) was already famous on the Continent before her arrival in England. She was the daughter of an itinerant painter who early on recognized her talent and took her to Italy where she became a child prodigy famous in portraiture but also in music. Her mother taught her several languages, among them English, and this brought her to the notice of wealthy British patrons on the grand
Posted by Angelyn Schmid Feb 14 2012, 1:51 am in Agincourt, Bonne of Armagnac, Charles of Orleans, Christine de Pizan, Hundred Years War, Isabeau of Valois, Louis XII, Marie of Cleves, Mary Tudor, Valentina Visconti, Valentine, White Tower
The first Valentine written is credited to Charles, Duke of Orleans (1394 – 1465). He was captured by the English at the Battle of Agincourt during the Hundred Years War between England and France. During his twenty-four year captivity, he composed over five hundred poems, many of them he translated into English from French. Charles first married Isabeau of Valois, Richard II of England’s young widow. She died bearing him a daughter when he was only fifteen. His second wife was Bonne of Armagnac, the daughter of a count. They had been married five years when he was taken at
Posted by Angelyn Schmid Jan 14 2012, 1:00 am in Crown Princess Victoria of Prussia, Elisabeth of Austria, Empress Sisi, Hapsburg, Hofburg Palace, Kaiser Wilhelm II, Maria Theresa, Queen Victoria, Vienna, Wilhelm I
—quoted from a letter written by Victoria, Crown Princess of Prussia of Elisabeth, Empress of Austria and Queen of Hungary So much has been written about Sisi that she has been practically elevated beyond the realm of reality. Some call this phenomenon a cult of personality. When we are confronted with this circumstance, it becomes almost imperative we know something more personal, more intimate about the celebrity to bring us closer to them. We want to see the inside of their house, read their letters, touch their clothes. Then we can take away that comforting notion that we are intimate with that
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