Music and the Church

Tonight I was honored to be invited to give a talk at St Mary the Virgin, the Anglican Use Roman Catholic parish in Arlington, Texas. St Mary's rector, British-born Fr Allan Hawkins, is a monarchist (he founded the Cambridge Royalists in the 1950s) and the church has a shrine to Bl Emperor Karl. Afterwards I met a couple other monarchists who attend the parish. Fr Hawkins wants to start a local monarchist group which will get together for dinner occasionally (and maybe even help launch the Counterrevolution!). Much to my delight, my presentation was well received and I had a lovely evening there. Here is the text of what I said, slightly edited and with links added for the web:

http://www.royaltymonarchy.com/opinion/smvmusic.html

Austria and the Habsburg Crypt

Der Spiegel reports on the struggle to maintain the Capuchin crypt beneath Vienna where the Habsburg emperors are buried. Austria's republican government is worried enough about the Habsburgs to specifically exclude them from EU human rights laws, but apparently not concerned enough about national heritage to adequately fund the preservation of the tomb. As the article points out, Austrian republicans are happy to profit from the tourism generated by their country's glorious and fascinating Imperial past with which no republic could possibly compare, while maintaining a curious mixture of indifference and hostility towards the Habsburgs--living and dead--themselves. May the Austrian people someday reject this dreary artificial republic and restore the Habsburgs to their rightful throne!

Chavez vs. the Queen

Back in November 2007, King Juan Carlos of Spain made headlines when he told Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez to shut up, immortalizing the phrase "Por qué no te callas?" Now it looks like Chavez needs to hear that sort of message again, what with his bizarre attack on another monarch, Britain's Queen Elizabeth II, demanding that she return the Falkland Islands to Argentina (as if that were any of his business). It's unlikely that Her Majesty will respond in the manner of her Spanish counterpart, but fortunately even more unlikely that the ravings of an uncouth dictator will ever sever the Falklands from the British Crown to which they belong.

Young Monarchist in Danger

In a grim follow-up to its recent executions of two other Iranian monarchists, the Islamic Republic of Iran has arrested 26-year-old Omid Dana, an admirer of the late Shah. Dana is reportedly now in danger of execution. A friend of Dana's eloquently pleads for his life, mentioning how Dana wore a symbol associated with the Iranian monarchy despite having been warned it might get him in trouble. I wonder how many monarchists comfortably ensconced in the West, myself included, would have the courage to do something so simple yet so absurdly dangerous. I hope the international community will do everything in its power to prevent yet another unjustified execution.

Brown confuses dynasties

British Labour Prime Minister Gordon Brown, ex-boyfriend of Princess Margarita of Romania (whose mother is a Bourbon), apparently confused the Habsburgs with the Bourbons when attempting to score rhetorical points against the Conservatives. Brown should be embarrassed especially as he reportedly prides himself on his knowledge of history. It is however perhaps typical for leftists to know little of the history of the old Europe they have destroyed.

Christian Nation?

The New York Times reports that "Christian Conservatives" in Texas, where I live, are all excited about making sure that schoolchildren are taught that the United States was founded as a "Christian Nation." As I mischievously posted at my Facebook page, no, it wasn't. The American Founders were a bunch of mostly Deist/Masonic/Unitarian traitors who rebelled (in violation of Romans 13 and 1 Peter 2:13-17) against their lawful Christian King and hated the Old Order (Altar & Throne) of Christendom.

It doesn't seem that either side in this debate is interested in including the Loyalist perspective, the neglect of which is one of my historical pet peeves. If American educators were really interested in the full picture, something like James H. Stark's The Loyalists of Massachusetts and the Other Side of the American Revolution (1910) would be required reading.

Unlike my secular liberal friends, as an Anglican I actually like the idea of a "Christian Nation." I just have a rather different concept of it than Americanists do. It's European monarchies before the French Revolution, and to a lesser extent into the 20th century, that were a lot closer to my idea of what a "Christian Nation" would be like.

Louis XVI

Bess Twiston Davies describes her visit to a memorial mass for Louis XVI last month. Videos of another mass and procession are also available. Vive le Roi!

Prince Alexis of Windisch-Grätz (1991-2010)

It is with sadness that I report the death of HSH Prince Alexis Ferdinando of Windisch-Grätz, 18, in Caserta, Italy as a result of injuries sustained in a car accident there several days ago. Prince Alexis was the son of Mariano Hugo Prince of Windisch-Grätz (b 1955) and Archduchess Sophie of Austria (b 1959). He is survived by his parents, his siblings Prince Maximilian and Princess Larissa, and his grandmother Archduchess Helene of Austria (née Toerring-Jettenbach; b 1937). Needless to say this is an unimaginably horrible experience for any family to go through and I express my condolences.

Through his mother Archduchess Sophie, Prince Alexis was related to all the royal families of Europe, descended not only from the Habsburgs (his great-grandfather Archduke Maximilian was the younger brother of Emperor Bl Karl) but also from the dynasties of Greece, Denmark, and Russia, an unusual mix of the often distinct Protestant/Orthodox and Roman Catholic royal genealogies. His father's family was an ancient noble house of the Habsburg Empire, taking its name from a town in what is now Slovenia.

George III Defended

Taking on some of the myths behind the "Tea Party" movement, Jonathan M. Kolkey questions whether King George III's government was as bad as the American revolutionaries made it out to be. I disagree with the inclusion of Kaiser Wilhelm II in his list of genuine tyrants, but otherwise his article is a valuable and interesting contribution to revisionist analysis of a Revolution too often uncritically celebrated by "conservatives," even those across the Atlantic who ought to know better.

(H/T: Roman Christendom)

Empress Regina (1925-2010)

HI&RH Crown Princess Regina of Austria, Hungary, & Bohemia (born a Princess of Saxe-Meiningen at Würzburg on January 6, 1925), wife since 1951 of HI&RH Crown Prince Otto (head of the House of Habsburg since 1922), died this morning at her home in Pöcking, Bavaria [Telegraph obituary]. I am sorry to learn of her passing, which leaves Archduke Otto a widower at the age of 97 (something no man who married a woman 12 years his junior would ever expect), and also regret that Europe cannot officially mourn her as the consort of the reigning Emperor as she ought to have been. May she rest in peace.

(At other blogs: Mad Monarchist, Wilson Revolution Unplugged, Lew Rockwell, Cross of Laeken)