AFP: Kuwait must choose between law and chaos, says Emir

November 8, 2012

According to AFP: Kuwait’s emir called on Tuesday for his people to choose between a state of law or chaos after the oil-rich Gulf state witnessed unprecedented unrest over the disputed electoral legislation. “We are required today to choose between the state of law and constitution… or the path to chaos and undermining constitutional authority,” […]

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November 10 – First Pope to Be Called “Great”

November 8, 2012

Pope St. Leo I (the Great) Place and date of birth unknown; died 10 November, 461. (Reigned 440-61). Leo’s pontificate, next to that of St. Gregory I, is the most significant and important in Christian antiquity. At a time when the Church was experiencing the greatest obstacles to her progress in consequence of the hastening […]

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D-Day – General Patton’s advice to his son on what it takes to win in war

November 5, 2012

Dear George: At 07:00 this morning the BBC announced…the landing of Allied paratroopers…. This group of unconquerable heroes, whom I command, are not yet in, but we will be soon…. I have no immediate idea of being killed, but one can never tell and none of us can live forever. So if I should go […]

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News: Prince Carl Philip visits Afghanistan

November 5, 2012

According to the Swedish Royal Court: On 22-24 October, Prince Carl Philip visited the Swedish FS 23 troops in Afghanistan. The Prince visited the Swedish troops together with newly appointed army inspector Major General Anders Brännström. The Prince had the opportunity to meet soldiers from the Swedish Romeo Lima rifle company which, at the beginning […]

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The equality-inequality struggle in the years following Independence (1781-1787)

November 5, 2012

When hostilities ended in October of 1781, the thirteen newly independent colonies formed a loose central power regulated by the Articles of Confederation, which had been drafted by the Continental Congress. The Articles provided for a limited central power, especially regarding foreign policy, declaration of war, foreign commerce, and so on. However, it had little […]

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November 7 – He Went on Crusade to Atone for His Sins

November 5, 2012

Saint Engelbert of Cologne Archbishop of that city (1216-1225); born at Berg, about 1185; died near Schwelm, 7 November 1225. His father was Engelbert, Count of Berg, his mother, Margaret, daughter of the Count of Gelderland. He studied at the cathedral school of Cologne and while still a boy was, according to an abuse of […]

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November 6 – Duchess d’Alençon

November 5, 2012

Blessed Margaret of Lorraine Duchess d’Alencon, religious of the order of Poor Clares, born in 1463 at the castle of Vaudémont (Lorraine); died at Argentan (Brittany) 2 November, 1521. The daughter of Ferri de Vaudimont and of Yolande d’Anjou, little Margaret became an orphan at an early age and was brought up at Aix-en-Provençe, by […]

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Learn about the “Kate Effect” on French brides

November 1, 2012

According to the World of Royalty Blog: From “Kate”-inspired lace dresses to towering wedding cakes — and even British celebrants — French brides-to-be are looking across the Channel, and the Atlantic, to make their day that bit more special. Hoping to tap into this new appetite, a group of upmarket British wedding designers crossed the […]

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Prince Eugen of Savoy crushes the Turks at Zenta

November 1, 2012

Although his men had already done a forced march of over ten hours that day, Eugen gave the order to advance and then galloped ahead to see the scene at first hand. He spotted how, just above the bridge on the near side of the river, the water was shallow with a sandbank leading up […]

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Royal Forums: The Duchess of Braganza Presents the Order of St. Isabel to European Royals

November 1, 2012

According to the Royal Forums: On October 27, the Duchess of Braganza conferred the Order of Saint Isabel upon several European royal ladies in recognition of their philanthropic work. The ceremony was held at the Portuguese Catholic Cathedral of Rome, Italy. It was followed by a luncheon hosted in the Portuguese Embassy. Also present for […]

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All Saint’s Day: Is Being Noble and Leading a Noble’s Life Incompatible with Sanctity?

November 1, 2012

The current misunderstanding of nobility and the analogous traditional elites results largely from the adroit but biased propaganda spread against them by the French Revolution. Such propaganda, continuously disseminated throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries by ideological and political currents spawned by the French Revolution, has been challenged by serious historiography with growing efficacy. This […]

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November 3 – The patron of the hunt

November 1, 2012

St. Hubert Confessor, thirty-first Bishop of Maastricht, first Bishop of Liège, and Apostle of the Ardennes, born about 656; died at Fura (the modern Tervueren), Brabant, 30 May, 727 or 728. He was honored in the Middle Ages as the patron of huntsmen, and the healer of hydrophobia (rabies). He was the eldest son of […]

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November 3 – The Battle of Mentana

November 1, 2012

It was a dark and gloomy morning, pouring rain, when this little army of some five thousand men filed out of the Porta Pia in a colorful parade, Pius IX’s Swiss General Rafael de Courten’s papal troops leading and the French contingent bringing up the rear…. Famous since classical times as a suburban retreat some […]

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November 1 – She judged Israel

November 1, 2012

Deborah the Prophetess (also known as Debbora the Judge, Deborah the Matriarch) Prophetess and judge: she was the wife of Lapidoth and was endowed by God with prophetic gifts which secured for her the veneration of the divided Israelitic tribes and gave her great authority over them. Her wisdom was first displayed in settling litigious […]

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October 31 – He forced the devil to build a church

October 29, 2012

St. Wolfgang Bishop of Ratisbon (972-994), born about 934; died at the village of Pupping in upper Austria, 31 October, 994. The name Wolfgang is of early German origin. St. Wolfgang was one of the three brilliant stars of the tenth century, St. Ulrich, St. Conrad, and St. Wolfgang, which illuminated the early medieval period […]

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General Patton stuns Marshall Zhukov into silence

October 29, 2012

Pat Merle-Smith has told me of what took place during a second Berlin visit in the first week of September 1945. “The Russians were putting on a military review for all four occupying powers. [General Patton] was seated next to Marshal Zhukov and I, naturally, was with the standees a few rows below. I heard […]

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The American Revolution: The work of elites

October 29, 2012

The American Revolution was definitely a phenomenon of the elites. The march toward independence was possible due to a solidarity within sectors of the upper classes from all the colonies. It was the aristocrats who masterminded it from their mansions on the banks of the Potomac, the James, the Hudson, and elsewhere. “Some of them […]

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October 28 – Col. John W. Ripley: Uncommon Valor

October 29, 2012

Col. John W. Ripley: Uncommon Valor By Jeremias Wells An American Knight When a society no longer respects and honors the fighting men willing to shed their blood for its principles, the fault lies not with the fighting men but with society itself. Ingratitude is a subtle vice, but a vice nevertheless. Saint Thomas Aquinas […]

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A Saintly King Pardons a Rebellious Noble

October 25, 2012

A short time later, while the court was in Burgos, the Royal Ensign Diego López de Haro began to succumb to temptations of ambition with a face full of resentment and dissatisfaction. One day, the unhappy Don Diego, who had inherited his position and title from his father three years before, disappeared from the court. […]

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A nobleman was expected to be a symbol for his troops

October 25, 2012

In the period of the Renaissance it was the gentleman who set not only the pattern of personal bravery but also maintained an element of decorum in the operations of the armies…. In [Charles de Cossé, count of] Brissac’s general orders for his campaign in Northern Italy in 1551…. Punishment was promised for those men […]

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October 25 – Crispin Crispian shall ne’er go by, but we in it shall be remember’d

October 25, 2012

Martyrs of the Early Church who were beheaded during the reign of Diocletian; the date of their execution is given as 25 October, 285 or 286. It is stated that they were brothers, but the fact has not been positively proved. The legend relates that they were Romans of distinguished descent who went as missionaries […]

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October 27 – This Christian King Invaded Arabia

October 25, 2012

St. Elesbaan, King of Ethiopia, Confessor The Axumite Ethiopians, whose dominions were extended from the western coast of the Red Sea, very far on the continent, were in the sixth century a powerful and flourishing nation. St. Elesbaan their king, during the reign of Justin the Elder, in all his actions and designs had no […]

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American Canonized: St. Kateri Tekakwitha, Lily of the Mohawks

October 22, 2012

Kateri Tekakwitha was daughter of Kenneronkwa, a Mohawk chief, and Tagaskouita, a devout Roman Catholic Algonquian woman. She was born in the Mohawk fortress of Ossernenon near present-day Auriesville, New York, in 1656. Kateri’s mother was baptized and educated by French missionaries in Trois-Rivières, like many of Abenaki converts. Her chieftain father, Algonquian mother and […]

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Fabulous Luxembourg Royal Wedding

October 22, 2012

Luxembourg is celebrating the marriage of its Crown Prince Guillaume to Belgian Countess Stephanie de Lannoy. Hello! Magazine described the ceremony as “full of pomp and grandeur” and continues: In the morning sunshine the cathedral looked picturesque and crowds of people lined the streets to catch a glimpse of their new hereditary Grand Duchess. Royal […]

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Queen Margrethe of Denmark criticizes “global warming” hysteria

October 22, 2012

In times when many scientists refrain from denouncing the environmentalist “global warming” hysteria for fear of jeopardizing their professional careers, it is most comforting to see that Queen Margrethe II of Denmark was unafraid to do so. During a July 2011 visit to Greenland—a self-ruling autonomous region under the Danish crown—Queen Margrethe took hysterical warmers […]

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A dethroned Queen’s dignity amidst defeat

October 22, 2012

Queen Marie Caroline’s last days were profoundly sad. After a perilous journey of more than seven months she reached Vienna, where she had asked an asylum from the Emperor Francis, who had been her son-in-law. One of her daughters, Princess Marie Thérèse (born June 6, 1772; married September 19, 1790; died April 13, 1807), was […]

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Ludwig von Mises: The dedication of elites built our civilization

October 22, 2012

Mankind would never have reached the present state of civilization without heroism and self-sacrifice on the part of an elite. Every step forward on the way toward an improvement of moral conditions has been an achievement of men who were ready to sacrifice their own well-being, their health, and their lives for the sake of […]

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October 23 – Knight, Lawyer, Governor, Ambassador, Friar, Prisoner, Reformer, Crusader General, Renaissance Saint

October 22, 2012

St. John of Capistrano Born at Capistrano, in the Diocese of Sulmona, Italy, 1385; died 23 October, 1456. His father had come to Naples in the train of Louis of Anjou, hence is supposed to have been of French blood, though some say he was of German origin. His father dying early, John owed his […]

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October 21 – Charles “The Hammer”

October 18, 2012

Charles Martel Born about 688; died at Quierzy on the Oise, 21 October, 741. He was the natural son of Pepin of Herstal and a woman named Alpaïde or Chalpaïde. Pepin, who died in 714, had outlived his two legitimate sons, Drogon and Grimoald, and to Theodoald, a son of the latter and then only […]

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NPR: Your Status May Depend On Your Last Name

October 18, 2012

According to NPR: [E]conomic historian Gregory Clark of the University of California, Davis claims your success in life may actually be determined by ancestors who lived hundreds of years ago. …the numbers were the same in the Middle Ages as they are today. “…as much as 60 percent of the outcome is determined at the […]

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This saint walked barefoot from Spain to Rome

October 18, 2012

St. Peter of Alcántara Born at Alcántara, Spain, 1499; died 18 Oct., 1562. His father, Peter Garavita, was the governor of the place, and his mother was of the noble family of Sanabia. After a course of grammar and philosophy in his native town, he was sent, at the age of fourteen, to the University […]

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October 21 – Blessed Karl, Emperor of Austria

October 18, 2012

(Also known as Carlo d’Austria, Charles of Austria) Born August 17, 1887, in the Castle of Persenbeug in the region of Lower Austria, his parents were the Archduke Otto and Princess Maria Josephine of Saxony, daughter of the last King of Saxony. Emperor Francis Joseph I was Charles’ Great Uncle. Charles was given an expressly […]

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Isabella the Catholic: majestic and saintly even in death

October 18, 2012

The health of Isabella had long been undermined by the shocks of repeated domestic calamities. The death of her only son, the Prince Juan; of her beloved daughter and bosom friend, the Princess Isabella; and of her grandson and prospective heir, the Prince Miguel, had been three cruel wounds to a heart full of the […]

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St. John Bosco taught his boys to love social inequalities

October 18, 2012

While the festive oratory was a very effective training ground for the clerics and benefited the boys in many other ways that have already been mentioned, it also helped rid their minds of certain prejudices harmful to civil society. It broke down their deep-rooted antagonism for the upper classes which rabble-rousers, books, newspapers, and stage […]

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October 19 – Prayer was his crime

October 18, 2012

 Saint Philip Howard Martyr, Earl of Arundel; born at Arundel House, London, 28 June 1557, died in the Tower of London, 19 October, 1595. He was the grandson of Henry, Earl of Surrey, the poet, executed by Henry VIII in 1547, and son of Thomas, Duke of Norfolk executed by Elizabeth 1572. Philip II of […]

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October 18 – A date which will live in infamy

October 18, 2012

Destruction of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre On October 18, 1009, under Fatimid caliph Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah, orders for the complete destruction of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, also called the Church of the Resurrection, were carried out. The measures against the church were part of a more general campaign against Christian places […]

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How Marie Antoinette gave prestige to the potato – and a potato recipe from the French royal court

October 15, 2012

As already noted in a previous post, the potato was one of the plants brought to the Old World after Christopher Columbus’s discovery of the Americas. While the potato is used extensively throughout Europe today–German average potato consumption is 150 lbs per person per year–in its first years, the potato struggled for acceptance. In France, wheat […]

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Queen Shrugs Off Bad Back to Visit Eton

October 15, 2012

According to the Daily Express: The Queen smiled through the pain of a sore back to attend a dinner at Eton College last night after earlier cancelling an appearance at TV cook Mary Berry’s investiture ceremony. Palace aides feared the investiture would be too much for the Queen, having to stand for an hour presenting […]

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Bayard’s honor under siege

October 15, 2012

In 1521, Bayard and his troops were besieged in Mezières by those of Charles V. When an enemy officer approached to demand his surrender, the French commander replied: —    “Tell him who sent you that before surrendering a city entrusted by the king to my honor, I will build with the enemy’s dead the only […]

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Social Revolution Following the Civil War

October 15, 2012

The Civil War was a turning point in American life. The North’s victory definitively shaped what would be the profile of the national elite. The war accelerated the process of industrialization and profoundly transformed the face of the nation. The war was a social revolution, a collision of two ways of life, of two frames […]

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October 16 – Duchess and saint

October 15, 2012

St. Hedwig Duchess of Silesia, born about 1174, at the castle of Andechs; died at Trebnitz, 12 or 15 October, 1243. She was one of eight children born to Berthold IV, Count of Andechs and Duke of Croatia and Dalmatia. Of her four brothers, two became bishops, Ekbert of Bamberg, and Berthold of Aquileia; Otto […]

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Hedwig beakers – the medieval treasure named after a princess saint

October 15, 2012

Known as Hedwigsgläser (Hedwig glasses) or Hedwigsbecher (Hedwig beakers) these priceless medieval treasures are named after the Silesian princess Saint Hedwig (1174-1245) who is said to have owned three of them. They were symbols of lofty social rank and were greatly prized in the Middle Ages. Only fourteen of them have survived. Scholars debate the […]

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Queen Sofia visits areas hit by Spanish floods

October 11, 2012

According to The Royal Forums: Queen Sofia paid a visit to some of the areas affected by the recent terrible flash flooding in Andalusia and Murcia. The devastating late September floods left eleven people dead. On October 5th, Queen Sofia arrived by helicopter to the town of Puerto Lumbreras and Her Majesty later went on […]

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The Salve Regina is sung aboard the Santa Maria on the eve of the discovery of the New World

October 11, 2012

Columbus was now at open defiance with his crew, and his situation became desperate. Fortunately the manifestations of the vicinity of land were such on the following day as no longer to admit a doubt. Besides a quantity of fresh weeds, such as grow in rivers, they saw a green fish of a king which […]

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Family trusts and foundations

October 11, 2012

Many of the old families protected their patrimonies from disintegration through a system of trusts whereby the family’s wealth was preserved intact and administered to benefit the family members. Such trusts, first used by the traditional elite of Boston in the 1820s, were fully developed by the 1880s. They became an important instrument for providing […]

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October 11 – Model Archduke, both spiritual and temporal

October 11, 2012

St. Bruno the Great, Archbishop of Cologne Bruno the Great (or Bruno I) (925–965) was Archbishop of Cologne, Germany, from 953 until his death, and Duke of Lotharingia from 954. He was the brother of Otto I, king of Germany and later Holy Roman Emperor. Bruno was the youngest son of Henry the Fowler and […]

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October 11 – He dared step into the gap during the crisis

October 11, 2012

Pope Boniface VIII (BENEDETTO GAETANO) Born at Anagni about 1235; died at Rome, 11 October, 1303. He was the son of Loffred, a descendant of a noble family originally Spanish, but long established in Italy—first at Gaeta and later at Anagni. Through his mother he was connected with the house of Segni, which had already […]

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October 13 – King Confessor

October 11, 2012

St. Edward the Confessor Saint, King of England, born in 1003; died January 5, 1066. He was the son of Ethelred II and Emma, daughter of Duke Richard of Normandy, being thus half-brother to King Edmund Ironside, Ethelred’s son by his first wife, and to King Hardicanute, Emma’s son by her second marriage with Canute. […]

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Pedro de Vargas, Alcayde of Gibraltar, Attacks Muley Abul Hassan, King of Granada

October 8, 2012

Muley Abul Hassan sallied out of Malaga with fifteen hundred horse and six thousand foot, and took the way by the sea-coast, marching through Estiponia, and entering the Christian country between Gibraltar and Castellar. The only person that was likely to molest him on this route was one Pedro de Vargas, a shrewd, hardy, and […]

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Lifting our Gaze Toward the Alienated Elites

October 8, 2012

Purely ideological debates on the issues of equality and inequality—and especially on the subject of monarchy-aristocracy-democracy—have not customarily occupied center stage in the United States. Only in the years immediately following independence did a debate of this nature have some import in American political life. An example of this was the controversy between Jefferson and […]

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Why celebrate Columbus Day?

October 8, 2012

Columbus and Divine Providence by Jeremias Wells Christopher Columbus certainly ranks as one of the greatest men of achievement the world has ever known, and also justly one of the most renowned, for the entire history of Europeans in America originated from his vision, religious sense and adventurous spirit. As can be expected in a […]

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October 9 – Royal penitent

October 8, 2012

Bl. Gunther A hermit in Bohemia in the eleventh century; born about 955; died at Hartmanitz, Bohemia, 9 Oct., 1045. The son of a noble family, he was a cousin of St. Stephen, the King of Hungary, and is numbered among the ancestors of the princely house of Schwarzburg. He passed the earlier of his […]

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October 10 – This man is proof that God can take good out of evil

October 8, 2012

St. Francis Borgia (also known as Francisco de Borja y Aragon), born 28 October, 1510, was the son of Juan Borgia, third Duke of Gandia, and of Juana of Aragon; died 30 September, 1572. The future saint was unhappy in his ancestry. His grandfather, Juan Borgia, the second son of Alexander VI, was assassinated in Rome […]

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Lepanto: Turkish might buckles in the grandest naval battle of History

October 4, 2012

The Turkish fleet came on imposing and terrible, all sails set, impelled by a fair wind, and it was only half a mile from the line of galliasses and another mile from the line of the Christian ships. D. John waited no longer; he humbly crossed himself, and ordered that the cannon of challenge should […]

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News and Views from Norway: Labour MPs mull end to monarchy

October 4, 2012

According to News and Views from Norway: For the first time in Norwegian history, four Members of Parliament from the Labour Party say they plan to propose a thorough review of how Norway is ruled and how much power the head of state, currently King Harald, should have. The proposal could ultimately convert Norway from […]

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Traditional Associations of Other Ethnic Groups

October 4, 2012

The traditional elites in American society are largely made up of the old families, which, in ethnic terms, signifies families of European, predominantly Anglo-Saxon, origin. As might be expected, families of a more recent immigration and of different ethnic origins adopted American customs and styles through the generations and gradually became integral elements of the […]

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October 6 – Princes and popes coveted the advice of this silent man

October 4, 2012

St. Bruno Confessor, ecclesiastical writer, and founder of the Carthusian Order. He was born at Cologne about the year 1030; died 6 October, 1101. He is usually represented with a death’s head in his hands, a book and a cross, or crowned with seven stars; or with a roll bearing the device O Bonitas. His […]

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October 4 – Chivalry at its highest

October 4, 2012

St. Francis of Assisi Founder of the Franciscan Order, born at Assisi in Umbria, in 1181 or 1182 — the exact year is uncertain; died there, 3 October, 1226. His father, Pietro Bernardone, was a wealthy Assisian cloth merchant. Of his mother, Pica, little is known, but she is said to have belonged to a […]

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Columbus as a man of faith and devotion

October 1, 2012

[Columbus] was devoutly pious: religion mingled with the whole course of his thoughts and actions, and shone forth in his most private and unstudied writings. Whenever he made any great discovery, he celebrated it by solemn thanks to God. The voice of prayer and melody of praise rose from his ships when they first beheld […]

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Debutante Balls and Other Social Pageantry

October 1, 2012

Notable in the social life of America’s upper class is the series of events that lead to the annual debutante balls, a custom with roots in Old Regime pageantry. The debut ritual involves a long and arduous process that prepares new generations for the social exigencies of the traditional upper-class lifestyle. The debut itself is […]

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