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    Talking about royals .. I liked this .. getting the perspective .. from MoA Archived Message

    Posted by Tomski on September 10, 2022, 12:48 am, in reply to "RIP Liz II"

    @ mnra | Sep 8 2022 18:56 utc | 43

    Actually, the British royal family and all the royal families of Europe, are basically Germans. This is because the princesses the heirs married were almost always Germans from various German states. Even the ancestries of the French and Spanish Bourbons were invaded by Germans. The so-called Greek royal family was all German; no trace of Greek ancestry (unless extremely remote). The so-called Romanovs were also almost pure Germans. Likewise the British: From the time George I the Elector of Hanover was imported in 1714 to be king and never even could speak English, all the royal marriages were with German princesses, or in the case of Victoria a German prince. This was a positive embarrassment in World War I, hence the change of the name of the dynasty from Saxe-Coburg-Gotha to Windsor. The first to marry from the English gentry was George VI; thus, Elizabeth II was half English, half German. But she went right back to the usual habit, marrying the "Greek" -- but really German Battenberg -- Philip. So Charles III is three quarters German, one quarter English. His son is three eights German and five eighths English.

    The only other thing is that it is OK, occasionally, to have some sympathy for royals, because they do not choose to be born into that, and sometimes what they do is constricted by their position. Of course, probably most of them egregiously exploit their position to enhance their wealth and status and thus really do belong to the class of oppressors, like the stupendously wealthy Liechtensteiner princely family. But some of them are virtual or actual prisoners of their situation, which can turn out most unfortunately for them. One thinks, for example, of Princess Alice, the mother of Prince Philip and grandmother of the new king, who was incarcerated and tortured for years for mental illness and then became a Greek orthodox nun, founding her own order of nuns and staying in Greece during the Nazi occupation. There are also other cases like hers. In each case, one has to ask what they could have done better.

    Posted by: Cabe | Sep 8 2022 23:10 utc | 108

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