Toppled Throne of the Week
Nepal votes to abolish monarchy
Royal Wedding of the Week
Wedding of Denmark’s Prince Joachim & Marie Cavallier
Royal Puddle-Jumper of the Week
Sonja shows herself a ‘jumping queen’
Almost-Royal Renaming of the Week
Wills’ girl wants to revert to formal moniker
Dead Sexy Royal of the Week
Queen Victoria’s sex life exposed
For more royal news and gossip, visit the Royalty.nu News page!
I have the basics of the new blog set up, so maybe I can resume blogging about something other than my blog! I’ll try to post a Royal Week in Review soon.
But first I want to say that I haven’t forgotten my blogroll. I’ll add it to the sidebar as soon as I have time. I hope I can figure out how to add my New Royal Books list, too. I enjoy updating that every week.
For anyone considering a switch to WordPress from Typepad or some other blogging platform: WordPress isn’t entirely easy. You probably won’t be able to customize your theme if you don’t know HTML and CSS. But the more I use WordPress, the more I’m enjoying it. It’s fast and clean and seems logical. In the end, I think, I might not be sorry I switched.
It turns out I did have permalinks already (duh!) I didn’t like the default format, so I changed it, and now the comments on my earlier blog posts can’t be accessed (duh duh!)
So I’m checking to see if the comments will work correctly for this post…
Maybe I should change the name of this blog to “Confessions of a WordPress Newbie.”
I’ve installed a free WordPress theme called NotePad that I found on the Infocreek Blog. (And they have some other very nice themes available, so check them out.)
This theme isn’t exactly royal, but it’s one of the best-looking WordPress templates I’ve seen so far. It’s hard to find pretty themes with some sort of historical flavor, or that are at least a bit feminine, like this one.
One of the few things I don’t like about it is that it doesn’t show the year something was posted, at least not on the blog’s main page. So, if you’re wondering (perhaps you’re a confused time traveler), I’m typing this in 2008.
For now at least, I’ll stop my theme-quest and use this one unless something goes wrong with it. Next I need to figure out this permalink thing…
I’m going to try out some Wordpress colors and themes, so this blog may look varying degrees of horrible and/or bizarre for a while! I’ll try to find something acceptable, figure out how to add permalinks and RSS, and get back to my regularly scheduled royal blogging as soon as possible.
Well, as you can see, I have a domain registered and I’m getting started with Wordpress. I’m beginning to like it, but it’s been a struggle to figure everything out. It was especially difficult to choose the theme because nothing was quite what I wanted. What I settled on* isn’t very fancy, but so far it actually works so I’m sticking with it. (I do miss my beautiful red Typepad template, however!)
This blog doesn’t seem to have permalinks so I’ll have to tackle that next. I hope to resume real blogging soon. Thank you for bearing with me, and if you have any comments on the new blog, or any Wordpress advice to share, I’d be happy to hear it!
*Note: When I first posted this, the blog was plain white with a purple header and not much else. Hopefully you’ll agree that it looks better now.
Here’s a look at some of the new royalty books currently scheduled to be published next month! (Publication dates are subject to change.)
Royal Affairs by Leslie Carroll. The extramarital adventures that rocked the British monarchy.
The Romanovs: Ruling Russia 1613-1917 by Lindsey Hughes. How the Romanov dynasty shaped Russia for three centuries.
Conquistador by Buddy Levy. Hernán Cortés, King Montezuma, and the last stand of the Aztecs.
Power, Piety, and Patronage in Late Medieval Queenship: Maria de Luna by Nuria Silleras-Fernandez. Biography of María de Luna, wife of King Martin I of Aragon.
China’s First Emperor and His Terracotta Warriors by Frances Wood. The life and times of one of the most important men in Chinese history.
The Woman Who Discovered Printing by T. H. Barrett. Why China’s Empress Wu (AD 625-705) was interested in printing, and why its introduction had less impact in China than it did in Europe later.
Mistress of the Sun by Sandra Gulland. Novel about Louise de la Vallière, mistress of France’s Louis XIV, the Sun King.
I’ll publish a full list of new royalty books on the Royalty.nu Royal Books page on June 1.
All of these books appeal to me, but if I could only read one of them it would be “Mistress of the Sun” because I love historical fiction and Louis XIV is always interesting. Which book would you choose?
Mandy of Mandy’s British Royalty is now doing book reviews in video form! Here’s her review of Someday My Prince Will Come by Jerramy Fine.
This looks interesting! The documentary Living Goddess, directed by Ishbel Whitaker, “follows the lives of three young girls who are worshipped as deities in Nepal. Their lives collide with the modern world when an out-of-touch king wrests power for himself as civil war rages.
“During the 2005 and 2006 shoots, the focus was largely on 8-year-old goddess Sajani Shakya, who announced in March she was retiring early from her status as a goddess.”
Thank you to Libby for sending this info! If you’re interested in buying this DVD, it’s available from Alive Mind (formatted for US and Canada). Use coupon code LGQMB315 to receive a 15% discount.
US residents can also rent the movie from Netflix.
MAY 24 UPDATE: I have now seen this documentary. It has no narration, only subtitles, so you have to pay close attention and some questions go unanswered, but it’s a fascinating look into the lives of these girls. (Warning: It contains scenes of animal sacrifice.)
My main website, The World of Royalty at Royalty.nu, celebrated its tenth anniversary last month. And as it happens, two other royalty sites are also turning 10 this year:
and
Congratulations to Netty and Mandy!
Mandy, Netty, and I are all members of the World of Royalty Network, a social network for royal watchers. If you’re interested in royalty, past or present, please join us! Registration is required, but it’s free, and a lot of fun.
Royal Olympian of the Week
Zara Phillips named for Olympic Games
Royal Debt of the Week
Nepal king owes $1 mn in utility bills
Royal Crime Report
Spain’s royal family cycles into trouble
Who’s Insulting Royalty This Week?
Malaysian opposition leader faces sedition probe
Royal Blooper of the Week
Photo: Prince William sneezes
For more royal news, photos, and video, visit the Royalty.nu News page!
This portrait, painted by Hans Holbein the Younger, may be Henry VIII’s fifth wife, Catherine Howard, although the identification is controversial. It does strongly resemble a miniature portrait also identified as Catherine Howard (see the second image below).
Source: Wikimedia Commons. According to the Wikimedia site, this image is in the public domain.
And here’s the miniature that also may (or may not) be Katherine Howard, painted by the same artist:
Source: Wikimedia Commons. According to the Wikimedia site, this image is also in the public domain.
From the Princely Family of Monaco blog, here’s an interesting look back at some old magazine covers featuring Monaco’s Princess Caroline and Princess Stephanie.
Update: Here are some current photos of Caroline and Stephanie:
