June 23 – After her death, her sister, niece, and great-niece, all royal princesses and two of them widowed queens, followed her as abbesses of Ely

June 20, 2013

St. Etheldreda Queen of Northumbria; born (probably) about 630; died at Ely, 23 June, 679. While still very young she was given in marriage by her father, Anna, King of East Anglia, to a certain Tonbert, a subordinate prince, from whom she received as morning gift a tract of land locally known as the Isle […]

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Queen Visits Prince Philip After Trooping The Colour – Sky News

June 17, 2013

According to Sky News: The Queen has visited the Duke of Edinburgh in hospital after she earlier attended the annual Trooping the Colour parade without him. Prince Philip is recovering from exploratory abdominal surgery It was thought to be only the third time that Philip has missed the event after not attending in 1962 and […]

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Diamond Jubilee portrait defaced – Royal News Blog

June 17, 2013

According to the Royal News Blog: A man…will appear at Westminster magistrates’ court charged with criminal damage over £5,000. The 3.3m by 2.7m (9ft by 11ft) oil painting…had been on display…since last month. In a statement on Thursday the abbey said: “In an incident at lunchtime today, a visitor to the abbey sprayed paint on […]

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Video: Royals visit Order of Fishers on Horseback – Flanders News

June 17, 2013

According to Flanders News: Oostduinkerke is the only place in the world where fishers on horseback catch shrimps. On Thursday King Albert and Queen Paola visited the town at the invitation of the Order of Fishers on Horseback. King Albert was clearly fascinated by the phenomenon. Video link is here:

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A lesson from a Polish princess: to be faithful, we must ever be vigilant

June 17, 2013

When her marriage with Louis XV was being negotiated—a sacred bond that would bring her the French crown—the Polish princess Marie Leszczyńska confided to an aunt: —“I fear greatly that this crown I am being offered may yet deprive me of my heavenly one.”   Jacques Necker, Galerie de l’ancienne cour (Maestricht: J. E. Dufour, […]

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June 17 – Saint Brother Albert Chmielowski

June 17, 2013

Saint Brother Albert Chmielowski In Igołomia, on the outskirts of Cracow (Poland), the noble family of Adalbert Chmielowski and Josephine Borzysławska announced on August 20, 1845, the birth of their son Adam (Brother Albert). Mr Chmielowski together with his wife, raised their children in an atmosphere of patriotic ideals, strong faith in God and a […]

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June 19 – Love Accepts No Limitations

June 17, 2013

St. Juliana Falconieri Born in 1270; died 12 June, 1341. Juliana belonged to the noble Florentine family of Falconieri. Her uncle, St. Alexis Falconieri, was one of the seven founders of the Servite Order. Through his influence she also consecrated herself from her earliest youth to the religious life and the practices of Christian perfection. […]

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June 19 – Execution of second group of those who believed in the religious exemption, but only at first

June 17, 2013

Carthusian Martyrs – the Second Group After little more than a month after the first group, it was the turn of three leading monks of the London house: Doms Humphrey Middlemore, William Exmew and Sebastian Newdigate, who were to die at Tyburn, London on the 19 June. Newdigate was a personal friend of Henry VIII, […]

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June 19 – The murderer’s saintly son

June 17, 2013

St. Romuald Born at Ravenna, probably about 950; died at Val-di-Castro, 19 June, 1027. St. Peter Damian, his first biographer, and almost all the Camaldolese writers assert that St. Romuald’s age at his death was one hundred and twenty, and that therefore he was born about 907. This is disputed by most modern writers. Such […]

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June 13 – He Died Aged 36, But the Whole World Knows Him

June 13, 2013

St. Anthony of Padua Franciscan Thaumaturgist, born at Lisbon, 1195; died at Vercelli, 13 June, 1231. He received in baptism the name of Ferdinand. Later writers of the fifteenth century asserted that his father was Martin Bouillon, descendant of the renowned Godfrey de Bouillon, commander of the First Crusade, and his mother, Theresa Tavejra, descendant […]

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Video: Debate on Succession rules – BBC News

June 13, 2013

According to BBC News: A bid to allow aristocratic daughters to inherit a country estate over their younger brothers was “bogusly egalitarian” said the former editor in chief of Burke’s Peerage. Charles Mosley said it would lead to age discrimination which he reckoned was “just as evil, just as wicked” as sexual discrimination, and he […]

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Canada’s bid to block Duchess of Cambridge’s daughter from becoming Queen – The Daily Express

June 13, 2013

According to the Daily Express: Prince William and Kate’s first child may be unable to inherit the throne because of a legal challenge in Canada. …constitutional experts at Laval University in Quebec City, lodged a case in Quebec Superior Court on Friday. They allege that the ­Canadian government acted unconstitutionally by failing to seek the […]

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Prince Charles on why he doesn’t think monarchs should retire – The Observer

June 13, 2013

From the Observer archive, 9 June 1974 interview with Prince Charles: …I certainly don’t think monarchs should retire and be pensioned off, say at 60, as some professions and businesses stipulate. The nature of being a monarch is different. Take Queen Victoria. In her 80s, she was more loved, more revered than she had ever […]

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How King Abdullah has kept his crown amid the Arab uprisings – The Star

June 13, 2013

According to The Star: As revolutions sweep the Middle East, toppling a cast of cruel and corrupt presidents-for-life and strongmen, King Abdullah, 51, has managed to keep his crown — and his head. “The Jordanian tribal system is the protector of this country and if the tribes left this role it would be the end […]

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Prince Philip Kiril of Prussia: “Germany needs moral guidance of a monarchy” – The Local: Germany’s News in English

June 13, 2013

According to The Local: Germans…desperately need the moral guidance of a re-instated royal family, the great-great grandson of the last Kaiser, Prince Philip Kiril of Prussia… For the prince, a country guided by politicians and a ceremonial president means not only is there no strong family to look up to, nor is there anyone to […]

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Sir Winston Churchill is moved at America’s sublime disinterestedness

June 13, 2013

We had hardly taken our seats when [Sir Winston Churchill] said without warning: “What other nation in history, when it became supremely powerful, has had no thought of territorial aggrandizement, no ambition but to use its resources for the good of the world? I marvel at America’s altruism, her sublime disinterestedness.” All at once I […]

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To Fulfill the Hopes Placed in It, the Nobility Should Shine in the Gifts Specific to It

June 13, 2013

After emphasizing once again the importance of the nobility’s fidelity to Catholic morals, Pius XII outlines a fascinating picture of the qualities that the nobility should manifest in order to correspond to the hopes he places in it. It especially interests the present study to note that these qualities should shine in the nobility as […]

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June 15 – The Northern Crusades

June 13, 2013

The Battle of Lyndanisse was a battle which helped King Valdemar II of Denmark establish the territory of Danish Estonia during the Northern Crusades. Valdemar II defeated the Estonians at Lyndanisse (Estonian: Lindanise), during the Northern Crusades, by orders from the Pope. The Battle Valdemar II, along with Archbishop Anders Sunesen of Lund, Bishop Theoderik […]

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June 15 – St. Bernard dogs carry his name

June 13, 2013

St. Bernard of Menthon Born in 923, probably in the castle Menthon near Annecy, in Savoy; died at Novara, 1008. He was descended from a rich, noble family and received a thorough education. He refused to enter an honorable marriage proposed by his father and decided to devote himself to the service of the Church. […]

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June 15 – Magna Carta

June 13, 2013

Magna Carta The charter of liberties granted by King John of England in 1215 and confirmed with modifications by Henry III in 1216, 1217, and 1225. The Magna Carta has long been considered by the English-speaking peoples as the earliest of the great constitutional documents which give the history of England so unique a character; […]

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June 16 – The Saint for Father’s Day: death threats meant nothing to him

June 13, 2013

Saint John Francis Regis Born 31 January, 1597, in the village of Fontcouverte (department of Aude); died at la Louvesc, 30 Dec., 1640. His father Jean, a rich merchant, had been recently ennobled in recognition of the prominent part he had taken in the Wars of the League; his mother, Marguerite de Cugunhan, belonged by […]

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Afternoon tea: a custom that helped bond an empire ― Diamond Jubilee scone recipe

June 10, 2013

Tea was first introduced to Europe by the Portuguese Jesuit, Father Jasper de Cruz, in 1560, and it was a Portuguese princess, Catherine of Braganza, the wife of Charles II, who introduced it to Britain. In fact, part of her dowry was a chest of tea from China. A lover of tea since her childhood, Queen […]

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Ferdinand the Catholic conquers the impregnable Ronda from the Moslems

June 10, 2013

The culminating moment of the campaign was the capture of Ronda in May, 1485. This town, believed by its defenders impregnable, stood on the summit of a precipice six hundred feet high…. To this stronghold Hamet “El Zegri” had retired after his crushing defeat at Lopera; but, being informed that the Christians were meditating a […]

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Through a Judicious Adaptation to the Modern World, the Nobility Does Not Disappear in the General Leveling

June 10, 2013

In accordance with these observations, an adaptation to the modern world—so much more egalitarian than pre-World War II Europe—does not mean that the nobility should renounce its traditions and disappear in the general leveling. Rather, it means that it should courageously continue a past inspired by perennial principles. The Pontiff emphasizes the highest among these, […]

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February 1 – She and Saint Patrick were “one heart and one mind”

June 10, 2013

Saint Brigid of Ireland (Incorrectly known as BRIDGET). Born in 451 or 452 of princely ancestors at Faughart, near Dundalk, County Louth; d. 1 February, 525, at Kildare. Refusing many good offers of marriage, she became a nun and received the veil from St. Macaille. With seven other virgins she settled for a time at […]

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June 12 – He Crowned Charlemagne

June 10, 2013

Pope St. Leo III Date of birth unknown; died 816. He was elected on the very day his predecessor was buried (26 Dec., 795), and consecrated on the following day. It is quite possible that this haste may have been due to a desire on the part of the Romans to anticipate any interference of […]

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Video – Queen’s Coronation: guns mark 60th anniversary with 62-round royal salute

June 6, 2013

At the Tower of London the Honourable Artillery Company fired a 62-round royal salute from the Tower’s Gun Wharf across the River Thames. The Queen, who was crowned on June 2, 1953 when she was just 27 years old, reached the milestone anniversary this week. But as the anniversary fell on a Sunday, a day […]

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Elites We Will Always Have: Are Yours Good or Bad? – The Washington Post

June 6, 2013

According to The Washington Post: The role — and riches — of China’s princelings has become a particularly touchy issue in the run-up to a party congress this fall… Resentment toward the families of party elite has bubbled for years in China, stirred by a widespread belief that they are arrogant, flout rules with impunity and […]

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Patton on keeping a family spirit in the Staff

June 6, 2013

“Staff officers of inharmonious disposition, irrespective of their ability, must be removed.  A staff cannot function properly unless it is a united family.” Alan Axelrod, Patton on Leadership: Strategic Lessons for Corporate Warfare (Paramus, N.J.: Prentince Hall Press, 1999), 157. Short Stories on Honor, Chivalry, and the World of Nobility—no. 288

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The fruit of long family traditions

June 6, 2013

“First of all, you must maintain an irreproachable religious and moral conduct, especially within the family, and practice a healthy austerity in life. Let the other classes be aware of the patrimony of virtues and gifts that are your own, the fruit of long family traditions.” (Pius XII, 1958 allocution to the Roman Patriciate and […]

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June 7 – The Crusaders reach the walls of Jerusalem

June 6, 2013

In June of 1099 [the First Crusade] arrived before the walls of Jerusalem, which was then held by the Fatimid Arabs of Egypt. With their usual religious zeal and grim determination, the Christians prepared to attack the walls. Their fighting force had been reduced to 1,200 knights and 10,000 foot soldiers, with a similar number […]

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June 8 – Accused of theft and other misconduct

June 6, 2013

St. William of York (WILLIAM FITZHERBERT, also called WILLIAM OF THWAYT). Archbishop of York. Tradition represents him as nephew of King Stephen, whose sister Emma was believed to have married Herbert of Winchester, treasurer to Henry I. William became a priest, and about 1130 he was canon and treasurer of York. In 1142 he was […]

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The Coronation: A ceremony for a sublime-starved world

June 3, 2013

According to Express: The Coronation of the beautiful 27-year-old Queen Elizabeth on June 2, 1953, was consequently to be a glittering affair, a day to remember and one to boost the morale of the entire population. Having been meticulously planned, taking more than a year to organise, the grand spectacle did not disappoint. The ancient […]

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June 2, 1953: The Medieval Coronation Ceremony that Fascinated the World

June 3, 2013

According to The Telegraph: It was the 1953 Coronation, planned by the Earl Marshal, the Duke of Norfolk, that provided the Queen with a formal initiation rite and an investiture with her official regalia. It was a public display, too, of the Queen’s spiritual and constitutional role, stamping her place in a 900-year-long chain of […]

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60 Years: World Celebrates Diamond Jubilee of Queen’s Coronation

June 3, 2013

According to BBC News: It was a dazzling spectacle with solemn pledges and soaring music. It brought together a cast of characters, the like of which had not been seen since the days of Britain’s imperial glory. Yet for all its splendor and pageantry, the coronation of a British monarch is really a rather curious […]

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New Book – The Coronation: A Royal History

June 3, 2013

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1459717600

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Muley Abul Hacen refuses tribute to the Catholic Kings Ferdinand and Isabel

June 3, 2013

In 1476,Aben Ismail died; and his successor, Muley Abul Hacen, a chieftain already famous in his own land for various daring raids into Christian territory, ceased to send the required tribute to Castile. When the ambassadors of Ferdinand and Isabel came before him to remonstrate, he replied haughtily: “Go, tell your sovereigns that the kings […]

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The Nobility Should Remain a Leading Class in Today’s Greatly Changed Social Context

June 3, 2013

According to Pius XII, “one may think as one wishes” about the new lifestyles. One is not at all obliged to applaud them, but one must accept that they constitute the palpable reality in which we are obliged to live. Just what, then, is the objective and manly acknowledgment of these lifestyles? Have the nobility […]

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June 3 – She eventually won her husband’s heart to the faith, but then had to witness her children kill each other.

June 3, 2013

St. Clotilda, Queen of the Franks (French: CLOTILDE; German: CHLOTHILDE). Queen of the Franks, born probably at Lyons, c. 474; died at Tours, 3 June, 545. Her feast is celebrated 3 June. Clotilda was the wife of Clovis I, and the daughter of Chilperic, King of Burgundians of Lyons, and Caretena. After the death of […]

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June 5 – My God Stands Stronger Than Yours

June 3, 2013

St. Boniface (WINFRID, WYNFRITH). Apostle of Germany, date of birth unknown; martyred 5 June, 755 (754); emblems: the oak, axe, book, fox, scourge, fountain, raven, sword. He was a native of England, though some authorities have claimed him for Ireland or Scotland. The place of his birth is not known, though it was probably the […]

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June 5 – It is in adversity that we test friendship

June 3, 2013

Blessed Ferdinand of Portugal Prince of Portugal, b. in Portugal, 29 September, 1402; d. at Fez, in Morocco, 5 June, 1443. He was one of five sons, his mother being Philippa, daughter of John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, and his father King John I, known in history for his victories over the Moors and […]

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The leftist paper The Guardian rages against Sunday’s diamond jubilee of the Queen’s coronation

May 30, 2013

According to the The Guardian: It is the 60th anniversary of Elizabeth II’s coronation on Sunday…. These are bad times for republicans. The last three years have been full of royal pageantry…. It is not so much what monarchy does that offends me, but what it does not do. It does not tell us that we are free […]

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Islamists desire to topple the Jordanian monarchy

May 30, 2013

According to JNS.org: Jordan was established by Great Britain post-World War I from the original Mandate of Palestine. In return for the support of Ali bin Hussein, the leader of the Hashemite tribe from the holy cities of Mecca and Medina, during the British-led Arab Revolt against the Ottoman Empire in World War I, the […]

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Prince Harry told to watch out after Islamist Woolwich terrorist attack

May 30, 2013

According to Mirror: Prince Harry has been warned to be extra vigilant in public after the murder of Lee Rigby. A Royal source said: “He is the Taliban’s number one target.” To read the full article in Mirror, please click here.  

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An anxious moment for Marie Antoinette in the Temple prison

May 30, 2013

While the royal family was imprisoned and closely guarded in the Temple, the revolutionaries discovered an iron coffer in one of the rooms, a fact they considered highly suspect, giving rise to endless rumors and inquiries. One day, while the prisoners were dining under their guards’ watchful eyes, the Dauphin saw a biscuit on the […]

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The Deterioration of the Medieval Order in Modern Times

May 30, 2013

As explained… the feudal organization of society—at once political, social, and economic—deteriorated in modern times (from the fifteenth to the eighteenth centuries). From then on, the successive political and socioeconomic transformations have tended to meld all the classes and entirely, or almost entirely, deny a special juridical status to the clergy and nobility. This is […]

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May 30 – Most Valiant King

May 30, 2013

Saint Ferdinand III of Castile King of Leon and Castile, member of the Third Order of St. Francis, born in 1198 near Salamanca; died at Seville, 30 May, 1252. He was the son of Alfonso IX, King of Leon, and of Berengeria, the daughter of Alfonso III, King of Castile, and sister of Blanche, the […]

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May 30 – Maid of Orleans

May 30, 2013

St. Joan of Arc In French Jeanne d’Arc; by her contemporaries commonly known as la Pucelle (the Maid). Born at Domremy in Champagne, probably on 6 January, 1412; died at Rouen, 30 May, 1431. The village of Domremy lay upon the confines of territory which recognized the suzerainty of the Duke of Burgundy, but in […]

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June 1 – Kidnapped for Christ

May 30, 2013

Bl. John Story (Or Storey.) Martyr; born 1504; died at Tyburn, 1 June, 1571. He was educated at Oxford, and was president of Broadgates Hall, now Pembroke College, from 1537 to 1539. He entered Parliament as member for Hindon, Wilts, in 1547, and was imprisoned for opposing the Bill of Uniformity, 24 Jan.-2 March, 1548-9. […]

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June 1 – This Aristocrat Gave His Life for the Poor

May 30, 2013

Saint Hannibal Mary Di Francia (1851-1927)  (sometimes written as Annibale Maria Di Francia) Hannibal Mary Di Francia was born in Messina, Italy, on July 5, 1851. His father Francis was a knight, the Marquises of St. Catherine of Jonio, Papal Vice-Consul and Honorary Captain of the Navy. His mother, Anna Toscano, also belonged to an […]

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Terrorism will not stop Queen’s visit to Woolwich barracks

May 27, 2013

According to Hello Magazine: “It was a shocking and appalling act of violence that has left the nation stunned. In a move of defiance against the two men suspected of committing the atrocity on the streets of Woolwich on Wednesday, the Queen has vowed that her visit to the Woolwich barracks will go ahead as planned. The monarch, 87, […]

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Queen Elizabeth: On Sunday it will have been 60 years since her coronation

May 27, 2013

According to The Telegraph: At her Coronation 60 years ago, the most important moment for Elizabeth II was not the crowning but swearing to God to serve her people all her life. Only the weather seems the same. Sixty years ago next Sunday, on June 2 1953, the day of the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth […]

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Isabella the Catholic confronts a riotous mob and restores order to Segovia

May 27, 2013

At the beginning of August, 1476, what threatened to be a serious rebellion broke out in Segovia, during the absence of the governor, Andres de Cabrera, now Marquis of Moya. The malcontents, whose disaffection had been roused  by his appointment of certain officials, succeeded by a ruse in gaining entrance to the citadel and seized […]

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Revolutionary principles subvert the medieval organic social order

May 27, 2013

Clergy, nobility, and people. This trilogy naturally brings to mind the representative assemblies that characterized many monarchies of the Middle Ages and the Ancien Régime: the Cortes of Portugal and Spain, the Estates General of France, the Parliament of England, and so forth. In these assemblies, there was an authentic national representation that faithfully mirrored […]

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May 27 – St. Augustine of Canterbury

May 27, 2013

St. Augustine of Canterbury First Archbishop of Canterbury, Apostle of the English; date of birth unknown; died 26 May, 604. Symbols: cope, pallium, and mitre as Bishop of Canterbury, and pastoral staff and gospels as missionary. Nothing is known of his youth except that he was probably a Roman of the better class, and that […]

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May 28 – Whether She Was Upstairs Or Downstairs, She Was Ever Steady

May 27, 2013

Blessed Margaret Pole Countess of Salisbury, martyr; born at Castle Farley, near Bath, 14 August, 1473; martyred at East Smithfield Green, 28 May, 1541. She was the daughter of George Plantagenet, Duke of Clarence, and Isabel, elder daughter of the Earl of Warwick (the king-maker), and the sister of Edmund of Warwick who, under Henry […]

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May 28 – After Defeating the Saracens, He Joined the Benedictines

May 27, 2013

St. William of Gellone Born 755; died 28 May, c. 812; was the second count of Toulouse, having attained that dignity in 790. He is by some writers also given the title of Duke of Aquitaine. This saint is the hero of the ninth-century “Roman de Guillame au court nez”, but the story of his […]

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Death of HRH Prince Moritz, Landgrave of Hesse

May 23, 2013

The House of Hesse has confirmed the news that HRH Prince Moritz, Landgrave of Hesse, passed away earlier today, May 23, 2013. Born in Italy, on August 6, 1926, Prince Moritz was 86 years old. He had been head of the House of Hesse since October 25, 1980, at the death of his father, Prince Philipp.

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St. Edmund, King and Martyr for his faith and people

May 23, 2013

The next year (870)  is one full of sorrow, and of glory, for Christian England. It witnesses the utter destruction of another Saxon kingdom, adds one worthy English name to the calendar of the saints, several to the roll of our heroes still remembered, and a whole people to the glorious list of those who […]

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Clergy, Nobility, and People

May 23, 2013

In the Middle Ages, society consisted of three classes, the clergy, the nobility, and the people, each of which had special duties, privileges, and honors. Besides this tripartite division, a clear distinction existed between rulers and those ruled, a distinction inherent to every social group and principally to a country. Not only the king, however, […]

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