In Defense of Monarchy

Recently several of my monarchist friends on Facebook have been sharing an intriguing and worthwhile article "In Defense of Monarchy" from a website with which I had not previously been familiar, Riding the Tiger.  My only caveat would be that I think the writer is too hard on twentieth-century royalty, most of whom were far from "spineless," though some of them made poor decisions.  For example, Greece's King Constantine stood up to the politicians and the eventual result was the fall of the monarchy.  It would seem that in modern times royalty are damned if they do and damned if they don't.  But it's always reassuring to see that more and more people are questioning the myth of republican "Progress."

Come, Sing at St George's!

I was momentarily disappointed when cleaning up links on my website to discover that my old link to the video about the choir of St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle didn't work...but it turns out that's only because there's a new one, and it's even better. Check out this inspiring and enviable traditional union of music, royalty, and religion: England at its best, narrated by HRH the Countess of Wessex. Highlights include a chorister who gets to meet the Earl of Wessex on his birthday and a special visit to the school by HM the Queen herself.  I'm not sure how any musical monarchist can watch this video without wishing he had been a chorister at St George's Chapel; I certainly do!

Empress Farah: Iranian Royal Comeback?

Reaction to a new documentary on the exiled lives of the Shah and his widow since their departure from Iran in 1979 suggests that some, though not yet nearly enough, Iranians are beginning to regret the Revolution.  No reasonable person, even if not a monarchist, can deny that what has replaced the Pahlavi monarchy has been much worse, with none of the positive features of the Shah's regime.  Empress Farah remains an eloquent voice for a humane vision of Iran even as she deals with the heartbreak of having lost two of her four children.

Prince Harry

I have no desire to provide links or comment at length on the latest media-manufactured Prince Harry "scandal."  I will however simply repeat what I wrote on Facebook.  Have any of Prince Harry's pompous media critics risked their lives fighting the Taliban, started a charity to help orphans in Lesotho, and brilliantly represented their country diplomatically throughout the Caribbean to the delight of thousands? No? Well then please shut up now, thanks.  (For further discussion, please see the thread at my forum.)

The Monarchy and the Olympics

Apologies for the recent lack of blog entries (I hope this blog is still getting visitors--it has not been abandoned and hopefully never will be!).  Since returning from the monarchist conference in Chicago I have been busy with musical activities on opposite ends of the North American continent, first the International Baroque Institute at Longy (July 20-28) in Cambridge, Massachusetts (during which I also had time to explore for my first time some of Boston's historic landmarks including the unique Anglican-Unitarian King's Chapel established by James II in 1686 whose loyalist rector the Rev. Henry Caner was forced out in 1776), and currently the Britt Festival (July 31-August 19) in Jacksonville, Oregon.  However I would like to take a moment to share some thoughts on my mixed feelings about the recently concluded London 2012 Olympics as it pertains to the British Monarchy.

Many, though not all, of my British royalist friends (I don't really have any British republican friends!) have reacted positively to the Olympic Games and the hype surrounding them, particularly the highly visible involvement of the royal family, from the Queen's acting debut with James Bond (Daniel Craig) to the frequent enthusiastic and prominent presence of the Duke & Duchess of Cambridge and Prince Harry at many events.  While I cannot claim to have followed the Olympics closely, I am pleased that my British friends are pleased, and I admire the genuinely remarkable achievements of British athletes such as Tom Daley.

Yet I can't help feeling that for serious monarchists whose monarchism goes beyond liking and admiring the Queen and Royal Family as individuals, something just might be amiss.  My impression from all the commentary (positive and negative) on the London 2012 Olympics I've read, though I don't have time to assemble a comprehensive collection of links, is that there seems to be a growing consensus that this undeniably remarkable Jubilee/Olympic year of 2012 has seen the birth of a new sort of "centrist" (but actually leftist) British Patriotism, one in which the Monarchy and the Union appear popular and victorious (and thus a defeat for republicans and separatists on the Left) but only to the extent that they have been redefined and co-opted so as not to interfere with a broadly leftist and thoroughly modernist concept of what Britain is (and thus also a defeat for cultural traditionalists and critics of immigration and multiculturalism on the Right).  While I'm glad to see anti-monarchists and Scottish 'nationalists' perceived as having been rejected by the overwhelming majority of the British public in favour of the preservation of the United Kingdom, I cannot claim to be entirely comfortable with this New Britishness, especially in light of the way that Britain's distinguished classical and choral music traditions have been almost entirely marginalised in favour of what a traditionalist correspondent of mine acidly but aptly described as "the dreary din of 'Britpop'."

While some right-wing critics of the Olympics may be guilty of hyperbole, it is hard to totally dismiss the sense that we have witnessed a celebration of a sort of vaguely pagan national cult, ceaselessly accompanied by the pounding sounds of pop music, from which Christianity and virtually everything recognisably British that pre-dates the 1960s has been excised--with the notable and arguably curious exception of the Monarchy itself, which the New Britishness suddenly embraces with an enthusiasm that would have surprised the BBC and leftists in general ten years ago.  Is this really something to celebrate?  And given that part of the Queen's strength as a public figure has always been the fact that she is not a "Performer" (when she doesn't feel like smiling, she doesn't, with the result that her consistently genuine smile is all the more captivating when given), is there not a certain risk in turning Her Majesty into an actress as in the now-famous James Bond clip, no matter how brief and enjoyable?  I'm not sure.  I know that the Royal Family have to adapt--they always have.  But how much of this adaptation can those of us who value the monarchy partly because of its resonance with traditional values embrace?

French Revolution "abomination" (1985)

I was too busy in Chicago on Saturday to worry much about that horrid holiday the French insist on celebrating on my birthday, but here's an article on French monarchists from 1985, when I was seven years old.  At that time I must admit I would not have been able to correct its genealogical errors: the Count of Paris was (and is) a direct, not "indirect," descendant of Hugh Capet, while the Prince Napoleon was (and is) descended from Napoleon III's uncle Jerome, not from the last Bonaparte Emperor himself.  It's kind of depressing that not much has changed in 27 years other than the identities of the pretenders.  But the longevity of French royalism despite seemingly endless "irrelevance" just demonstrates that monarchists never give up, no matter how marginal the world tells us we are, no matter how stubbornly the French stupidly keep electing new presidents, as if that will ever solve anything.  Vive le Roi!

North American Monarchists in Chicago

Yesterday I returned from a wonderful weekend in Chicago with monarchist friends from Facebook, only one of whom I had met before.  More than 150 people had been invited to this "North American Monarchist Conference" (complete with official shirts), and quite a few wanted to come, but as it turned out only five of us were able to actually do so.  Nevertheless what we lacked in numbers we made up for in enthusiasm.  Of the five attendees, one (me) was Anglican, one was Roman Catholic, and three were Orthodox, so all three "branches" of Christendom were represented, as were three U.S. states (Illinois, Texas, New York) and Canada.  While no "manifesto" was produced (any conference would probably need to have more than five participants to be considered authoritative!), there was general agreement that some sort of collaborative book ought to be produced.  More importantly, we all had a good time conversing on a wide range of monarchical and religious topics with like-minded individuals.

The agenda for the weekend included a wide range of cultural, social, and religious activities.  We began Friday evening with a terrific concert at Ravinia by the Chicago Symphony of music by Johannes Brahms (1833-1897), a conservative loyal subject of the German monarchy.  On Saturday we visited the Art Institute of Chicago, whose vast collection includes portraits of Magdalena of Saxony (1507-1534) (wife of Elector Joachim II of Brandenburg), the young Don Juan of Austria (1547-1578) (natural son of Emperor Charles V who led Christendom to victory at Lepanto), and Marie de' Medici (1575-1642) (wife of Henri IV and mother of Louis XIII of France), as well as German armor from the time of Maximilian I and other late medieval Holy Roman Emperors.  Even pre-revolutionary European art that is not specifically monarchical reflects the general sensibilities of a vanished Christian, hierarchical, and predominantly agrarian civilisation healthier and more beautiful than our present one, a civilisation that not coincidentally accepted the rule of hereditary kings and princes as natural.  For this excursion we were a much larger group as one of the Orthodox attendees brought along his wife and seven young children--monarchists of the future!

After the Art Institute we briefly visited Queen's Landing on Lake Michigan where Queen Elizabeth II arrived for her visit in 1959.  Unfortunately there is not as far as we could tell any sort of plaque commemorating the occasion; perhaps there should be!  For dinner we met at the Red Lion British pub, complete with a British flag and portrait of Lord Nelson, where I had a unique and delicious "Colonial Chicken" entree and a free "Spotted Dick" dessert with a candle for my [34th] birthday--all in all a great way to celebrate, much better than whatever was going on in France that day!

On Sunday the Orthodox participants went to their Divine Liturgies while I attended a beautiful Solemn High Mass at the Anglo-Catholic Church of the Ascension.  We all subsequently met for a farewell lunch at Chicago's unique Bosnian Restaurant Sarajevo--perhaps ironic in light of what happened at the city of that name in 1914, but offering tasty food with an appropriate elegant "Old World" feel.  I thoroughly enjoyed getting the chance to spend time with four enthusiastic and knowledgeable fellow monarchists and hope that such gatherings become a regular event with more participants attending next time!