All the roads lead to Athens, at least for the royals who are slated to pay their final respect to King Constantine II. The former king of Greece, who died on January 10, will be buried privately in Tatoi, the summer palace of the former Greek Royal Family, where his ancestors are also laid to rest. The Greek government  had earlier announced that no state funeral will be afforded to the late king, despite the fact that he was a former head of state. The only son of King Paul I and Queen Frederica of Greece, King Constantine’s reign began in 1964 and ended after he was ousted by a cou ..read more

The rich charitably giving food and drink to the poor at Christmas, from Thomas Kibble Hervey's Book of Christmas, 1837. Public Domain The German custom of Christmas trees on New Year's Eve or Day  was certainly introduced, and though now it has been so extensively adopted in England as to have  become almost an English custom, for many years it was seen in very few houses beyond the Court. Queen Victoria and her family keep the custom on New Year's Eve. A large tree covered with lights and presents, is prepared for the servants of the Royal Household, and the Queen herself ..read more

 We have learned of the passing of Pope Benedict XVI and we are greatly saddened by the news. Born Joseph Aloisius Ratzinger on 16 April 1927  he  was elected as head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 19 April 2005 until his resignation on 28 February 2013. Benedict's election as pope occurred in the 2005 papal conclave that followed the death of Pope John Paul II. Benedict chose to be known by the title "pope emeritus" upon his resignation. During his papacy, Benedict XVI advocated a return to fundamental Christian values to counter the increas ..read more

New Year's Eve 1837-38, from George Cruikshank's : Comic Almanack, January 1838  Nowhere is New Year celebrated with greater solemnity than at the courts of various rules of continental Europe. True, in some instances - as, for instance, at Berlin and at Vienna - Christmas-trees and distribution of gifts are arranged for the royal children a week earlier. But this in no sense diminishes the importance of the New Year's Day solemnities, and if Christmas has gradually become the annual festival of the family, New Year's Day continues to remain the principal feast of the year at cou ..read more

Victoria Princess Royal with the Greyhound Eos, by Sir Edwin Landseer, Royal Collection Trust. From her birth until that of her younger brother's, Albert Edward, Prince of Wales, in November 1841, Victoria, Princess Royal was the heiress presumptive to the British throne. Of her birth, Lord Clarendon told Lord Granville that despite The Queen and Prince Albert’s disappointment  “at not having a son,” “what the country cares about is to have a life more, whether male or female, interposed between the succession and the King of Hanover.” In this portrait by Edwin Landseer, th ..read more

 Lady Susan Hussey, the longstanding Lady-in-waiting of the late Queen Elizabeth II, has apologised and stepped aside from her role in the Royal Household after a British charity executive accused the royal aide of asking her where she was "really" from. According to Ngozi Fulani, a charity founder, the aristocrat questioned her background at a charity event at Buckingham palace on Tuesday. Ms Fulani, said she was "totally stunned" by the remarks made by Prince William's godmother. The palace has since commented, calling Lady Susan's behaviour as "unacceptable and deeply regrettable".&n ..read more

Source: Hapsburger.net Nowhere is Christmas celebrated with so much fervor as at the Austrian Court. A few years ago when Archduchess Marie-Valerie was a child, when Crown Prince Rudolph was alive, it used to be the most joyful day of the year for the Emperor and Empress. The "vie de famille' is to be found wherever the Hapsburgs are, for nobody is more what the Germans call "gemuhtlich" that the members of this family. When surrounded only by those she loves Empress Elizabeth's coldness and indifference vanish, her reserve breaks up, and she is transformed by what touches her sympath ..read more

Prince Albert and Queen Victoria instructing their children in the alphabet. Coloured lithograph by H.B. (John Doyle), 1843. The Queen's Diary records that on November 21, 1841, the Princess Royal's first birthday, "Albert brought in dearest little Pussy (the Princess Royal)... and placed her on my bed, seating himself next her, and she was very dear and good. And as my precious invaluable Albert sat there, and our little love between us, I felt quite moved with happiness and gratitude to God." At Christmas time in this year the Queen's entry is: "To think that we have two children n ..read more

On November 16, 1937, Georg Donatus, Hereditary Grand Duke of Hesse, his wife, the former Princess Cecilie of Greece, and their family, except an infant daughter, together with their servants, were killed during an air crash in Ostend, Belgium.  Ostend, November 16, 1937 - When 11 occupants of an airliner were incinerated today, after a crash into a chimney, the Grand Duke of Hesse and Rhine and all of his family except an infant daughter, were killed. They were flying from Munich to London to attend the wedding of the Grand Duke's brother, Prince Louis, to a daughter of Sir Auckland G ..read more

  A telegram from Lucca (says the Milan correspondent of the London Daily Telegraph on November 17) reports the death, last night, from heart disease, of Prince Robert of Bourbon, son of the Duke Charles III., of Parma, who was murdered in 1859. The Dukes of Parma were dispossessed in 1854 after the war of unification. Prince Robert, who was born in 1848, was twice married, and had 21 children, of whom 20 are living. The child who died, Princess Marie Louise, was the first wife of Prince Ferdinand of Bulgaria.  Prince Robert leaves a fortune of £8,000,000. The death of the Duke ..read more