Wednesday, August 27, 2008

Bulgarians in Spain pray for Kardam

Bulgarians living in Spain gathered to pray for the recovery of Crown Prince Kardam, who remains hospitalized, as does his wife.

Archbishop of Canterbury?

I was amused and flattered this morning to discover that the proprietor of the excellent blog "The Monarchist," apparently in agreement with some comments I'd made on a previous entry about what changes I'd like to see in Anglicanism, had nominated me for Archbishop of Canterbury...a bit of a stretch for an unbaptized 30-year-old American. (Though on the other hand, perhaps it would be a logical progression for the Church of England to finally overcome these last frontiers of "discrimination.") I'm pretty sure that "Beaverbrook"'s tongue was planted firmly in cheek--but thanks anyway!

Thursday, August 21, 2008

Wealthy Asian Monarchs Outrank QEII

Forbes released its list of the world's richest royals, with Queen Elizabeth II (whose personal wealth has often been greatly exaggerated) ranked 12th.

Georgian Crisis

Gerald Warner has a solution unfortunately not likely to be echoed by many other Western pundits: restore the monarchy!

Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Bulgarian Crown Prince Injured

Crown Prince Kardam of Bulgaria is being kept in an artificial coma after being severely injured in a car crash in Madrid on Friday. Messages of support from Bulgarians have poured in; I too hope he will recover as swiftly as possible.

Sunday, August 17, 2008

Ekaterinburg

I was discussing the Romanovs with a royalist friend online and he recommended Ekaterinburg by Helen Rappaport as a great read more sympathetic to the family than Greg King and Penny Wilson's revisionist The Fate of the Romanovs. Here is a review by John Crossland.

Saturday, August 16, 2008

Campaign against Oath to Queen continues

Republican traitors hope to use perverse modern interpretations of "human rights" to legally challenge the oath of allegiance MPs must take to the Queen. This is a good example of why I am weary of the contemporary obsession with constantly expanding "human rights" (which for some reason rarely seem to protect those humans who dissent from fashionable opinion). People today are entirely too preoccupied with their "rights," a word that has been so frequently and disastrously abused since the 18th century that it has lost any useful meaning and ought to be abandoned in serious political discourse. Instead of endlessly bleating about their "rights," people should be more concerned about their duties--like, in the United Kingdom and Commonwealth Realms, their duty to their Sovereign.

Again, in countries where the republicans have had their way, would "human rights" allow public officials to formally swear allegiance to the head of the deposed royal family? I don't think so. For leftist "human rights" advocates, those who agree with them apparently have "rights"--like reaping the benefits of political office without acknowledging that office's legal foundation--that would never be extended to those who do not.

Wednesday, August 13, 2008

Danish royal holiday

Queen Margrethe II spoke to reporters at her summer home in France about the Danish economy.

Tuesday, August 12, 2008

The Prince Speaks Out

Fulfilling his ancient royal role as steward of the land, the Prince of Wales warns against the possibly disastrous consequences of genetically modified crops. Gerald Warner defends him against indignant supporters of GM "progress."

Thursday, August 7, 2008

Republican MPs fuss about oath to Queen

A small group of republican MPs are objecting to being obliged to swear [or affirm] allegiance to the Queen--who last time I checked remains at the legal center of Britain's constitution, whether these sniveling petulant traitors like it or not. What worries me is not so much this republican minority, but the potentially greater number of spineless moderates like former "Conservative" Transport Minister Peter Bottomley who are not exactly republicans themselves but would cater to the tender sensibilities of such scum by making the oath optional. Far more truly Conservative is the attitude of Tory MP Geoffrey Cox, who has no tolerance for what he rightly denounces as "constitutional vandalism." The oath must remain mandatory--if leftists don't like it, no one is forcing them to serve in Parliament.

Controversies like this always make me wonder if there is a single republican legislature in the world that would even tolerate the presence of monarchist members openly contemptuous of the constitutional foundation of the government they purport to serve, let alone actually consider changing parliamentary procedure to accommodate them. I don't think so. So which system is it that is more conducive to permitting the "freedom," "tolerance," and "diversity" republicans claim to love so much: republicanism or constitutional monarchy?

Wednesday, August 6, 2008

Prince Philip pursues privacy

The Telegraph reports that the Duke of Edinburgh hopes that the Max Mosley privacy ruling will be applied to the royal family in the future. Under these standards many well-known royal stories of the past three decades would never have been published. Frankly, I wish him success; while in general few people are more interested in reading about the royal family than I am, there were certain aspects of the endless Windsor scandals of the 1990s about which I wished I hadn't read.

Tuesday, August 5, 2008

Warner on Garibaldi vs. the Bourbons

Garibaldi and the Risorgimento paved the way for Fascism and the EU, says Gerald Warner, defending the Italian Bourbons and Habsburgs in the process.

I never cease to be amazed and delighted by this great journalist, and by the fact that he is able to express such counterrevolutionary sentiments at the website of a mainstream newspaper. Is there any heroic "lost cause" he will not champion? Can you imagine an American media organ publishing commentary praising the Kings of the Two Sicilies and the Grand Dukes of Tuscany?

Monday, August 4, 2008

Alexander Solzhenitsyn (1918-2008)

Quoting from the famous 1978 Harvard address, Andrew Cusack eulogizes Alexander Solzhenitsyn, the heroic foe of Communism who puzzled many in the West by refusing to uncritically embrace secular democratic capitalism either.

I'm not sure whether Solzhenitsyn would have accepted the designation of "monarchist," and indeed he was perhaps too complex a figure to be adequately summed up by any one label, but he seemed to have leanings in that direction. Certainly he was perceived that way, all too often by those for whom "monarchist" is apparently a self-evidently sinister or pathetic thing to be, like New Yorker editor David Remnick, quoted in the New York Times obituary: “In terms of the effect he has had on history, Solzhenitsyn is the dominant writer of the 20th century. Who else compares? Orwell? Koestler? And yet when his name comes up now, it is more often than not as a freak, a monarchist, an anti-Semite, a crank, a has been.”

Idiotic statements like that, which imply that monarchism (or even a hint of nostalgia for Tsarist Russia) deserves to be grouped with such epithets, remind those of us who know better how outnumbered we are. But on the other hand, if an acknowledged giant can be called such names, monarchists--who at the very least share with Solzhenitsyn a refusal to accept the lie that modern liberal democracy is the only alternative to totalitarianism--can be proud to have kept such company.

Sunday, August 3, 2008

Wilhelm vs W

Paul Gottfried points out that the last German Kaiser's legendary arrogance and bellicosity pale in comparison to the current American president's.

Saturday, August 2, 2008

King and Country

In spite of past discontent, most Tongans are proud to express their loyalty to their King in his coronation week, reports the New Zealand Herald.

Friday, August 1, 2008

Tonga Coronation

The BBC reports (with pictures) on the coronation of King George Tupou V.