British Royalty - So messed up!

If you know me, actually know me, you know that I have a weird, almost fanatical obsession with the British royal family. This is not just present day royals (as past posts may allude to) but all of British royal history. I havn't yet figured out if this unhealthy preoccupation stems from the romantic notion of 'royalty', 'palaces', 'crowns' etc or from their lives that play out like soap operas but most likely can have begun with Princess Diana. I watch period movies constantly, infact some of them are in my list of go-to comfort movies. I follow numerous blogs on the monarchy, even the newer ones that only follow the present Duchess of Cambridge's fashion (I generally love what she wears, but I cringe when I see just how 'commonly' she's dressed as compared to her husband's ancestors. Definitely unlike a Duchess). I've watched most of the BBC series, read the books, even the fictional crass ones by Catherine Coultier and not so crass ones by Victoria Holt. And as a rule I google stuff when i'm watching/reading period anything to see how much is fictionalized.

Today, I spent the day feeding my obsession. I watched 5 films (Young Victoria, King's Speech, Her Majesty, Mrs. Brown, The Countess and The Duchess), then googled/wiki-ed them all and now I sit down to write this. Not the perfect way for a 24 year old to spend a Saturday! I now know most of what went down since before Victoria became Queen down to  Prince Harry. Infact, I know everything about the cousin's, the Duke's and Duchesses and Lady's and Earl's and Countesses. I can rattle off who married whom and why someone like Louise (all of 7) is not fashioned HRH Princess Louise but just as Lady Louise Windsor. Hell, i might even be able to tell you who her godparents are! 

Obviously I need a new hobby!

But while i'm still on this - Almost everything the royal family owns still and did before Cromwell decided the monarchy is redundant, is stolen from someone. I mean even the 'coronation chair' on which almost every king/queen we can think of ascended the throne was made by King Edward with the stolen Stone of Scone. The Kohinoor they took from us, a million other stones from Africa as well as the crown jewels of the Scottish, Irish and the Welsh! 

What irks me the most however is the British Queen is actually German! Google it! It comes in the drop down suggestions (how german is the queen). Victoria's mother was German (House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha), incidentally the same house as her husband Prince Albert which makes her entire line of descendants German. Even her father's ancestors were from a mixed ancestry from Denmark, Prussia and God alone knows where else. King George V changed the name to Windsor during the war because it was too Germanic! The reigning Queen has an ancestry of madness, hemophilia, pedophilia, unnatural longevity, beheading, looting, raiding and a number of other horrific things. (I'm beginning to wonder if Kate made a wise albeit suitably informed decision to marry into this family!)

So her husband, His Royal Highness Prince William Arthur Philip Louis, Duke of Cambridge, Earl of Strathearn, Baron Carrickfergus, Royal Knight Companion of the Most Noble Order of the Garter, Knight of the Most Ancient and Most Noble Order of the Thistle, the balding Prince we know simply as Wills is basically German and Greek from his father's side (Prince Philip is Greek and Danish I think). Incidentally, the most amount of British blood this future King of England has is from his mother Diana, Princess of Wales nee The Lady Diana Frances Spencer whose father's and now brother's title, Earl Spencer, was created in 1765, along with the title Viscount Althorp, by King George III. 

It is believed that when Prince Philip told Diana that if she did not behave herself her title would be taken away. She retorted saying her title was older than his. You have to give it to Diana to have the last word.