Vicki's Royalty Trivia

Trivia about royalty

The Swedish king Charles VII was the first king with the name Charles. Charles, I, II, III, IV, V and VI never actually existed and nobody seems to know why. Three hundred years passed before there was a Charles VIII.

The King of England from 1714 to 1727 was George I and he could not speak nor write English. George I was a German prince from Hanover and when he was 54 years old, he succeeded Queen Anne. He had no interest in learning English and in the thirteen years he ruled, he just never bothered. In the late 1840’s, anaesthesia was first used to ease the pain of childbirth. Male churchmen protested because in the Bible, Eve was told, “In sorrow you shall bring forth children.” This was one of the punishments for eating the forbidden fruit. However, in 1853 Queen Victoria used chloroform when she gave birth to her seventh child and suddenly all of the disapproval ceased. None of the men were brave enough to criticise the Queen.

In 1698 Peter the Great made a law that all people (except the peasants) had to be beardless in Russia. Anyone with a beard had to pay a rather large tax and those who couldn’t afford it, had to shave off their beard. Some Russians even fled the country because they didn’t want to shave their beard.

In the middle of the 11th century AD, an Arab king by the name of Almotamid decided to plant almond trees over an entire Spanish hillside as a gesture for his favourite wife Itimad. Itimad was a Christian and had once been a slave. The idea was not for the trees to produce almonds but because the King’s wife had never seen snow. So during spring-time, the petals of the almond trees covered the ground and turned the slopes white. This is the closest the King could come to producing snow in warm southern Spain. What a romantic gesture!

In 1917 the British royal family’s surname was made up. The family’s original surnames were Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. During the first World War there was understandably some anti-German feeling and it was decided to change the family’s name. Lord Stamfordham who was George V’s private secretary thought up the name Windsor. So the British royal family actually have a surname made up by a commoner.

There have been some wise rulers in the past and one of these, was King Canute the Dane who ruled England from 1016 to 1035 AD. King Canute set his throne on the beach and commanded the tide not to rise. The tide of course did not obey and eventually lapped his feet and soon began to rise around his legs. At that moment, the King leapt up and said that “Nobody was worthy of the name king ‘save Him whose nod heaven and earth and sea obey under laws eternal’.” King Canute’s intention was show to his courtiers how limited his human powers actually were. After that time, the king refused to wear his crown again. Instead he placed the crown on a crucifix, above Christ’s head to show his respect.

Emperor Menelek II of Abyssinia in 1890 ordered three electric chairs from New York. His purpose was to initiate the modernisation of Abyssinia. After the chairs arrived, the Emperor then learned that the chairs needed an electricity supply to run them that Abyssinia lacked at that time. Two of the chairs were thrown out and the remaining one was used by the Emperor as his throne.

The Queen of Sweden from 1626 to 1689 was Queen Christina and she had an absolute loathing of fleas. She decided to personally exterminate every flea in her household and had a special miniature cannon built. The cannon was 10cm in length and was packed with tiny cannonballs. Whenever Queen Christina saw a flea, she aimed her cannon at it and fired. This minute cannon is now on exhibition in the Stockholm Arsenal.

Very few people know that Queen Victoria who is the epitome of all things English and ruled for 64 years, never spoke fluent English. Her first language was German.

In 1939 King George VI and his wife queen Elizabeth visited Canada. When they reached Winnipeg the royals were greeted by the mayor of Winnipeg and his wife, Mr and Mrs Queen and by the Canadian Prime Minister, MacKenzie King. The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation announcer had an interesting time describing the visit. His speech went something like this, “Here comes the royal family now. The automobile has now stopped, a member of the RCMP is opening the car door – oh, there’s the King – he’s stepping out, followed by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth, natilly attired in a silver coat. Mr King is now shaking hands with the King and introducing Mr Queen to the King and Queen and then Mrs Queen to the Queen and King. They are now proceeding up the steps to the well-decorated City Hall, the King and Mr King together, with the Queen being escorted by Mr Queen. The King has now stopped and said something to Mrs Queen and goes to Mrs Queen and the Queen and Mr King and the Queen laughed jovially. The King leaves Mr King and goes to Mrs Queen and the Queen and Mr King follow behind…”

When the British Queen Mother married Prince Albert on April 26 in 1923, the church authorities refused to allow a live radio broadcast on the grounds that “disrespectful people might hear it while sitting in public houses with their hats on”.

The British Queen Mother was not known by that name because she was the mother of the Queen, but to save confusion. The Queen Mother’s name was also Elizabeth and she could rightly have been called Queen Elizabeth.

You’ve probably seen some pretty fancy hood ornaments on luxury vehicles, eg jaguar has a leaping jaguar. Queen Elizabeth II has a unique sculpture on the front of her vehicle. Her hood ornament is of Saint George, the patron saint of England, slaying a dragon.

In France in the 14th century, dukes, counts, barons and their wives were forbidden by Philip the Fair to own more than 4 garments. Single women were only allowed to own one dress unless they were rich and owned a castle. Because of the restrictions on dress, shoes became a real symbol of elegance as they were not included in the law. One particular shoe with a tip as long as 62cm was worn by noblemen and princes. For rich people, 30.5cm was allowed. And the commoners were allowed to add 15cm to their shoes. Unfortunately the shoes were a very big hazard especially to the army when the soldiers had to cut off the tips if they had to run. The term “white elephant” came about because albino elephants were quite rare. In the Court of the King of Siam, it was the custom for the elephant’s owners to give the elephant the very best. If a courtier angered the King, the King would announce to the court that he was planning to give a presentation of a royal white elephant to the courtier to show him his special regard. As it was very costly to feed and tend these unique beasts, the courtier either had to refuse the King’s gift and be ruined, or be ruined financially by the upkeep of the elephant. Usually the courtier left in a bit of a hurry before having to make that choice.

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