Monday, July 22, 2019
Grand Duke George of Russia Visits San Francisco
Emanuele Filiberto and Clotilde of Savoy: Victims of a Paris Robbery
For further news and articles about Europe's Gotha families, join Eurohistory!
Prince Felix Of Denmark Turns 17
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| HH Prince Felix of Denmark Photograph (c) Steen Brogaard |
Felix was born at Copenhagen on 22 July 2002 as the second son of Prince Joachim of Denmark and his first wife Princess Alexandra (née Manley), who had married in 1995. Prince Felix joined an elder brother, Prince Nikolai (b.1999). Felix's parents divorced in 2005; both Felix and his brother were then raised cooperatively by their father and mother, who received joint custody of the children.
Prince Felix is currently eighth in the line of succession to the Danish throne. He began attending the Gammel Hellerup Gymnasium in August 2018.
For further news and articles about Europe's Gotha families, join Eurohistory!
Sunday, July 21, 2019
Genevieve Arnault: The Last Queen of Iraq?
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| Genevieve Arnault in 1962. |
On 22 June 1937, Genevieve Arnault was born at Paris as the only child of Henri Arnault (1902-?), a chemist, and his wife Leonie Ness (1915-1990), an actress turned businesswoman. The family did not fare particularly well during World War II. When the Germans overtook France, Mr Arnault was eventually arrested by the Nazis because he had a gun permit. After this, young Genevieve was imprisoned at Auschwitz for a period. Genevieve's mother joined the French Resistance. When the war ended, her parents (both of whom survived) sent their daughter to a Swiss educational institution whose aim was to help young persons who had experienced severe traumatised during the conflict.
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| Genevieve and Faisal. Photo from LIFE Magazine. |
Based on news reports, Genevieve Arnault first met King Faisal II of Iraq (b.Baghdad 2 May 1935), two years her senior, in 1948 at Switzerland. By now living in Paris again, Genevieve was vacationing in the country. Faisal was enjoying a break from his studies at the Harrow School in London by taking advantage of the Swiss Alps to indulge in his fondness for skiing. The thirteen year-old Iraqi king and the ten year-old French girl met at a party. Whether it was love at first sight is impossible to know, but the bond between the two children lasted for the rest of their lives.
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| King Faisal II of Iraq in 1944. |
In 1948, Mr. and Mrs. Arnault were living at 1 rue Deleau, Neuilly-sur-Seine. Henry Arnault was a chemical engineer, and Lony Arnault worked as an administrator for the French Red Cross. Having attended the Louvre in 1937, Lony later became an architect and engineer who went on to forge a successful career in France, Iraq, and the United States. The Arnaults frequently traveled to America for business purposes, and they often brought their daughter along for the journey. Records exist of Genevieve traveling from France to New York in both 1948 and 1949. In Autumn 1952, the seventeen year-old King Faisal II of Iraq made a trip to the United States, where he met with President Harry Truman and Hollywood actors. It was also during this voyage that the king became reacquainted with Mademoiselle Arnault at a garden party in Greenwich, Connecticut. Feelings of a more romantic nature were kindled between the pair during this encounter.
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| Mrs. Lony Arnault greeting U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Henry Cabot Lodge with Iraqi diplomat Abdulkarim Al-Gailani in the background, 1957. |
In 1956, Lony Arnault and Genevieve moved to Baghdad. They retained their residence on East 70th Street, New York City. Mrs. Arnault had been given permission by King Faisal II to direct the construction of a government housing project in his capital. During an interview in January 1957, Lony Arnault remarked: "It is natural that youth should prevail in a country that has a 21 year-old king." Questioned about an existing romance between her daughter and the Iraqi monarch, Mrs. Arnault stated: "The king and my daughter played tennis and rode horseback together before his coronation in 1953. Now, their meetings are rarer; he's pretty busy." Despite Mrs. Arnault's claims to the reporter, it is difficult to deny that there was in fact a close relationship blossoming between King Faisal and Genevieve Arnault.
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| King Faisal II of Iraq and Genevieve Arnault. |
Per subsequent press reports, shortly before midnight on 22 June 1957, King Faisal II of Iraq and Mlle. Genevieve Arnault were married in a Muslim ceremony at Baghdad. The bride had turned twenty on the day of her wedding, which was not announced to the public. They honeymooned at a royal residence in Iraq. Genevieve would recall: "I liked best those private moments when he would forget he was the king." The couple were not to enjoy a fairy-tale ending. On 14 July 1958, Iraqi revolutionaries assassinated a fair number of the members of the country's royal family at the Rihab Palace: King Faisal II, his uncle Crown Prince 'Abd al-Ilah (1913-1958), his great-aunt Princess Nafeesa (1886-1958), his aunt Princess Abadiya (1907-1958), and several servants were among the individuals who were gunned down in the courtyard of the royal palace. On 15 April 1965, the United States District Court S. D. New York wrote the following in its ruling on the case Republic of Iraq v. First National City Bank:
On April 23, 1964, the Surrogate's Court entered an intermediate decree on the final accounting of defendant as administrator. Citation in this proceeding had been served upon plaintiff, but plaintiff failed to appear or participate in it. This intermediate decree determined that Al Malika Genevieve Al Iraq (also known as Genevieve Arnault), was duly married to King Faisal II on June 22, 1957, and was his lawful surviving spouse, that Prince Zeid Ibn Hussein, the great-uncle of King Faisal II, was his nearest living male heir, and that pursuant to a certain stipulation of settlement, the net estate of King Faisal II should be distributed, two-thirds to Al Malika Genevieve Al Iraq, and one-third to Prince Zeid.
On December 14, 1964, the Surrogate's Court entered its final decree in the accounting proceeding. It charged defendant as administrator with $134,950.65 in the first instance, and credited it with the payment of administrative expenses and various miscellaneous items aggregating $18,249.08, leaving a balance on hand of $116,701.57. The decree settled and allowed the administrator's account and directed the administrator to pay various additional fees and commissions and to distribute the final net balance, amounting to $110,562.47 to Al Malika Genevieve Al Iraq and Prince Zeid Ibn Hussein, $73,708.31 to the former, and $36,854.16 to the latter. Defendant has not as yet made this distribution.
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| Genevieve al-Malika al-Iraq. |
On 7 May 1971, Genevieve Arnault married Walter H. Jackson at Galveston, Texas. The couple had two sons and subsequently divorced.
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| Genevieve Arnault Al-Iraq Jackson (1937-2010) |
In 1984, Genevieve moved to Port Jervis, New York. She taught herself how to paint and took classes at the Arts Student League in Manhattan. Two days before her seventy-third birthday, she died at Port Jervis on 20 June 2010 after a long battle with pancreatic cancer.
Sources:
Milford gathering recalls former queen of Iraq (briefly) who later graced the area
Friday, July 19, 2019
Emanuele Filiberto di Savoia: The Prince and His Pasta
When in Los Angeles, give the Prince of Venice's food truck a try: Prince of Venice Food Truck
For further news and articles about Europe's Gotha families, join Eurohistory!
Operation London Bridge: The Plans In Place For What Will Happen When The Queen Dies
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| "London Bridge Is Down" |
For further news and articles about Europe's Gotha families, join Eurohistory!
Wednesday, July 17, 2019
From Tyranny To Freedom: The Sometimes Stranger than Fiction Life of a Noble and Notable Lady
From Tyranny To Freedom:
The Sometimes Stranger than Fiction Life of a Noble and Notable Lady
Countess Viktoria-Luise of Solms-Baruth (1921-2003) led one of the most extraordinary lives imaginable.
Born to an extremely well-connected German noble family, her godmother and namesake was Viktoria-Luise’s maternal great-aunt, Auguste Viktoria of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Augustenburg, the last German Empress and first wife of Wilhelm II. Viktoria-Luise was raised in a Germany reeling from the aftermath of defeat in World War I and she grew into adulthood during the dark days of the Third Reich. Her family was firmly against the Nazi regime, and eventually her father (and some other family members) was jailed because of his opposition to the insanely horrific policies of Adolf Hitler.
On the cusp of her 21st birthday, Viktoria-Luise wed her first cousin (their mothers were sisters) Prince Friedrich Josias of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. This union was of short duration due to the total incompatibility of their characters, but before divorcing the couple did have one child, Andreas, who his mother referred to as “my little prince.” Today Prince Andreas is the Head of the Ducal House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. Now in his golden years, the Prince recently released his own compilation of memoirs (I did it my way). From what this reviewer has read and heard, Andreas seems to be much loved by the people of Coburg, the town of his ancestors which he has called home since he returned to Germany in the 1960s.
Not long after the defeat of the Axis Powers, a charming American army officer named Richard Whitten entered the scene. He and Viktoria-Luise fell in love and eventually married. This marriage brought much happiness and much change into Viktoria-Luise’s life. After living for a few years in Europe, the couple and their small children (Andreas and the couple’s young daughter, Victoria) moved to America.
The last chapters of this collection of reminiscences unfold as Viktoria-Luise (at times, quite hilariously) tells the reader of her adaption to life as a “normal” housewife in the United States. In addition to the different culture, she was faced with so many new responsibilities and situations, but she certainly learned how to “fit in” with the way of life in this country—all the while remaining conscious of her heritage and retaining close ties to all of her numerous royal and noble relatives in Europe. The book comes to a close in the 1950s; perhaps the author intended to share more, but simply ran out of earthly time.
If I recall correctly, these memoirs were written when Viktoria-Luise was an elderly lady living in Louisiana. Her personality jumps off the pages as when one reads her book. She is candid, funny (her sense of humor and self-deprecation made me burst into laughter several times), honest and “sharp as a tack.” It is almost as though you are sitting with her in her living room listening to her speak.
From Tyranny to Freedom—Memoirs of My Life is truly a top favorite on my shelf.
Read Viktoria-Luise's story and you will not fail to be charmed by this amazing woman.
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| Countess Viktoria-Luise of Solms-Baruth |
One can purchase From Tyranny to Freedom—Memoirs of My Life by either ordering directly from Eurohistory or by visiting Amazon:
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