Today’s pictures are from my airboat ride out of Black Hammock (Oveido) which was great fun (lunch at the restaurant was great too).. http://www.blackhammockairboatrides.com/ try it you might like it.
‘The time has come,’ the walrus said, ‘to talk of many things: of shoes and ships – and sealing wax – of cabbages and kings.’ Lewis Carroll
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How well does the cast know the book–Stars of Outlander plays stump the stars
https://www.yahoo.com/tv/outlander-stump-the-star-comic-con-how-well-does-123937758775.html
and the hot scenes recommended for what snow days there might be left
http://mashable.com/2015/01/27/blizzard-of-2015-tv-binge/#PgVLIbiGb5qq
ONLY ONE MORE MONTH—-OF DROUGHTLANDER
I do not want a husband who honours me as a queen, if he does not love me as a woman.
Elizabeth I
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As I continue on queens today thought I’d start with Victoria…I doubt if anyone ever dreamed this girl child would rule Britain, but her father’s 3 elder brothers died childless leaving her father as the heir and when his father and he both died in 1820 she took the throne. “Victoria’s links with Europe’s royal families earned her the nickname “the grandmother of Europe”. Victoria and Albert had 42 grandchildren, of whom 34 survived to adulthood. Their descendants include Elizabeth II, Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, Harald V of Norway, Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden, Margrethe II of Denmark, and Felipe VI of Spain.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queen_Victoria
In fact one of her descendents: Czar Nicholas’ of Russia son Alexi’s hemophilia can be traced (her youngest son had it as did several other royal sons) directly back to Victoria and many feel helped contribute to the downfall of the Romanovs, because of their efforts to hid the condition of the crown prince as well as their involvement with Rasputin (who reportedly was able to stop the child’s bleeding) all played a part in their eventual doom.
The small (barely 5′), but plump monarch herself , who supposedly proposed to her husband Alfred and may well have had a Socttish lover (after Alfred’s death), was the object of at least 6 serious assassination attempts, most of which took place when she was riding in her coach. Needless to say she was not particularly popular with the people.
Queen Victoria, was queen of Great Britain for 63 years—to date, the second longest than any other British monarch. Victoria’s reign saw great cultural expansion; advances in industry, science, and communications; and the building of railways and the London Underground. She died in England in 1901. http://www.biography.com/people/queen-victoria-9518355
The Queen is most anxious to enlist everyone in checking this mad, wicked folly of ‘Women’s Rights’. It is a subject which makes the Queen so furious that she cannot contain herself.
Queen Victoria
This lovely lady is Elisabeth (called Sisi), Empress of Austria…she “enjoyed one of the longest reigns in Austrian history. As the wife of Emperor Franz Joseph I, Elisabeth held the position of Empress of Austria and Queen of Hungary for 44 years.” http://listverse.com/2014/08/26/10-of-the-weirdest-ways-kings-and-queens-died/ In addition to long reign she was suppose to have had a very happy marriage but in her book The Reluctant Empress: A Biography of Empress Elisabeth of Austria, she was in fact: “bitter at her marriage, seeking independence, and struggling against the powerful influence of her mother-in-law, the Archduchess Sophie. ” In fact an example of how beauty and a handsome, rich husband isn’t everything.
Also unlike Victoria she was assassinated: This was on September 10, 1898, when she was stabbed in the heart by Luigi Lucheni. He later admitted he had nothing personally against her, except that he (an Italian anarchist) didn’t like royalty and wealthy people in general. “”His intended target was Prince Philippe, Duke of Orleans. “Unfortunately for everyone involved (except the duke), Lucheni arrived too late in Geneva, and he missed his opportunity. He then grabbed a newspaper and looked for the next best target in town, who just happened to be Elisabeth. http://listverse.com/2014/08/26/10-of-the-weirdest-ways-kings-and-queens-died/ After he was apprehended he asked to be sent back to Italy for trial but was refused and hung himself in his cell.
“Destinations are only desirable because a journey lies in between. If I arrived somewhere and knew that I would never leave again, even a sojourn in paradise would turn into hell for me.”
~ Empress Elisabeth of Austria (1837-1898)
This isn’t the real Isabella of France but it is the one you might remember—the wife of the king’s (EDWARD I) gay son (Edward II). She is the one (which is all fictional but then Mel Gibson is reportedly way, way smaller than Wallace so…) goes to William Wallace and eventually has a tryst with him etc. In reality: “Isabella of France (1295 – 22 August 1358), sometimes described as the She-Wolf of France, was Queen of England as the wife of Edward II. She was the youngest surviving child and only surviving daughter of Philip IV of France and Joan I of Navarre.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isabella_of_France
She eventually had a son (as well as two other children) and the fact that her husband preferred his male companions to her could not have escaped her: “She secretly gathered round her a group of conspirators including Roger Mortimer of Wigmore, who became her lover. Sent to Paris in 1325 on a mission to her brother, Charles IV of France, she craftily succeeded in getting her eldest son , Prince Edward (soon to be Edward III), sent to join her in France and the stage was set for a successful coup in 1327 in which Edward II was deposed and replaced by his son who was 14 when he was crowned, but due to Edward’s age
England was really ruled by Isabella and Mortimer. – http://www.historytoday.com/richard-cavendish/edward-ii-marries-isabella-france#sthash.xXAGHjMG.dpuf
Not happy to have just taken the throne, Isabella had her husband killed with a hot poker in a method of murder that was apparently a comment on his sexual preferences as well.
Eventually Edward at age 17 decided he wanted the kingdom and caught up with his mother at Nottingham where he took her under his care and then through a series (or one?) passages in the rock succeeded in taking the castle and with it Mortimer and gaining control of his kingdom. Despite his mother’s protest he executed Mortimer (though I do not think so horribly as was done to his father.)
Isabella and Mortimer ruled together for four years, with Isabella’s period as regent marked by the acquisition of huge sums of money and land. When their political alliance with the Lancastrians began to disintegrate, Isabella continued to support Mortimer, her lover. Isabella fell from power when her son, deposed Mortimer in a coup, taking back royal authority for himself. Unlike Mortimer, Isabella survived the transition of power, however, remaining a wealthy and influential member of the English court, albeit never returning directly to active politics. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isabella_of_France
Isabell actually became a nun prior to her death in 1358 and on her death her body was buried in a Franciscan church at Newgate (London) with the Archbishop presiding. She was buried in the mantle in which she was married and accompanied by the heart of her late husband Edward, which had been embalmed and sent to her after his murder and which she had obviously hung on to for all those years. Her Daughter Joan had been married to the King of Scotland and her great grandson would become Richard II (on the drowning of his father at sea–when Richard was only a very small baby )and would also be murdered as was his grandfather (this time involving a wine cask) to begin a bizarre little affair which was to be called the War of the Roses.
Had it not been for her unfaithfulness, history may have immortalised her as a liberator – the saviour who unshackled England from a weak and vicious monarch and helped put a strong king on the throne. Allison Weir’s Book Isabella
| “No more tears now; I will think upon revenge.” | |
 Mary Stuart
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