Mary of Teck

She was also known to have sticky fingers if she saw something in your gracious drawing room that she wanted.

[quote] Her son Albert became King George VI .... In 1942 her son George was killed in WWII....

Sounds like George Foreman, with multiple sons named George.

Too bad she wasn't equally as obsessive about her jawline, because that shit looked like a pelican.

Should've slept flat, always.

She’s what comes to mind when I think of real-life “society”.

She was a cunt.

She had an abnormal love for bling. When the deposed Russians needed money, she agreed to buy a lot of their old jewelry for pennies on the dollar, and once in possession, conveniently forgot to pay them. Cunts gonna cunt.

Part of Czar Nicholas' fortune, deposited in New York and London banks during the war with Japan, probably amounts to billions today. It's still there. This is why no USA federal judge will ever recognise a Romanov heir.

Her face continues to haunt the Windsors

[quote]She was also known to have sticky fingers if she saw something in your gracious drawing room that she wanted.

If she wanted an item in your home, she would compliment it excessively...

if you didn't take the hint and gift it to her, she would send the footmen around to pick it up later, literally

There IS NO Romanov heir.

Under the rules of succession and inheritance, the Romanovs in the line of succession could not marry outside their class and status, and all the potential heirs of the family at this time already are out because of their parents/grandparents/great-grandparents' marital choices "beneath them," or their own spouses.

Of course, with the collapse of the European monarchical network, such "equal" marital prospects were not as prevalent as before, the potential benefits of marrying into the family waned, and other European royal families, not having such rules in place, typical started marrying commoners or lower-level nobility/gentry. As with the Queen Mother, Diana and Kate.

So unless the nation of Russia set up a new, different set of laws to govern the empty throne, the Romanovs are as far from Czarship as they were on July 17, 1918, as Nicholas' and his family's deaths that day make today the anniversary of their martyrdoms.

Mary of Teck, Queen Mary, "May," made the most of her backward, hassled upbringing under a domineering, half-crazy roar of a charitable mother (Princess Mary Adelaide of Cambridge, the Duchess of Teck, the very popular Fat Mary, Queen Victoria's first cousin) and the impoverished, increasingly demented Duke of Teck.

She was the most serious and thorough scholar of the art and "stuff" holdings of the British Royal family in history. Much of her alleged thievery and sticky-fingerness came from recognizing the provenance and place of many items she spotted, and believing that their place was with the monarchy's possession on behalf of the family.

That later in life she developed this trait into a more humdrum form of kleptomania was thought to reflect her experiences in youth, where everything came from others, where her mother and father were a wild spendthrifts and her mother often had their too-small house stuffed with donations to the soldiers and poor.

Queen Mary realized that she had been assigned to her cousin, Eddy, because Victoria thought she could keep the pleasant, loopy idiot in check. She was not intimate with Eddy, nor was the relationship to be anything but her job. Her eventual marriage to George V had the same quality of service and personal sacrifice on the road to achieving the consort's throne, but she took her job absolutely seriously. She remained an uptight, uncomfortable person who disliked sex, childbirth and motherhood but whose natural gifts for organization emerged in WWI.

When Edward VII started turning over the "red boxes" to his eventual heir, he also insisted to the future George V that he let May work with him and to hold nothing back from her.

All of the traits that Queen Elizabeth II has been honored for - her dedication, her public face and demeanor, her approach to public appearances, her consistency, her seriousness about her vow as queen - came from Queen Mary's creation of the modern Royal Family of the House of Windsor and its protocols. The Queen Mother adopted them fully and between her and Queen Mary they trained Elizabeth.

No one was available to work similarly with Charles, and his being a son left him with Philip, the monster Mountbatten, and the inappropriate Gordonstoun. Male arrogance was missing from May's, Bowes-Lyon's and Queen Elizabeth's preparation in life, and Charles's immersion in that auld crap led to the Diana disaster.

She was a thieving old bitch.

You can make it sound grand, but she grew up poor and turned into a greedy bitch. Ripping off relatives to enrich yourself is just tacky. On behalf of the monarch, my ass.

Oh, how she would have enjoyed Datalounge!

Sir Henry “Chips” Channon, (1897 – 1958), was an American-born British Conservative politician, author and diarist. He wrote about Queen Mary, that she was “above politics … magnificent, humorous, worldly, in fact nearly sublime, though cold and hard. But what a grand Queen.”

And Chips knew about grand queens.

I hard she did not like how poor the Tzsar's family made them feel when the Russians came to visit. Mary got the last laugh as she bought their jewels after their execustion.

The stuff about her taking things is true, but the stuff in OP's post is bullshit. She was absolutely not a gold-digger, nor did the British royal family ever consider her one. She was first cousin once removed of Queen Victoria, and so even though she was only born HSH, she grew up considered part of the extended BRF. Since she knew English from birth (since she was born at Kensington palace and raised in London), and she was pretty and exceptionally well-behaved, she was considered an ideal future royal princess: by the time of her late adolescence, she was the only unmarried princess in England who was not descended from Queen Victoria in the late 19th century, and so she was an ideal royal bride; also, Victoria adored her. The BRF basically arranged her marriage to Eddy (Prince Albert Victor, the heir to the throne after his father the Prince of Wales), and during her engagement she grew even clsoer with his parents, who also adored her. When Eddy died of illness in the 1890s, it was they and not may who insisted she be married to their second son, George, who now stood to inherit the throne. George and May did as they were told, even though they barely knew each other and were not naturally close when they amrried; but in time they grew to love one another.

Princess Margaret, who was born HRH, was condescending toward her grandmother, Queen Mary ,for having been born merely HSH. One more thing to love about Margaret.

R19 I heard a similar story about Margaret doing that to her mother who was born a commoner and looked it. But even if true, both women where Queens so I doubt Margaret said shit to either of them, especially cold as ice Mary of Teck who deosn't seem like the type to take to jokes at her own expense by some meir HRH princess while she sat as a Dowager Queen.

But Margaret had the higher total only because the rules changed. Mary was HSH because her ancestor married a commoner. Margaret’s own mother a was commoner, and Mary had more royal blood than Margaret. As in many things, Margaret was a hypocrite.

MARY!

r21 and Mary was a Gosh Darn Queen Consort by the time Margaret was spawned. Mary could have been born in the gutter in whore's alley and she would still be more than Margaret could ever dream of being. I just don't take these Margaret stories seriously. If she did say that, her company should have reminded her ass that she's just a princess slowly fallling down the ranks everytime Phillip is away from his whores to fuck her sister.

If Dowager Queen is a thing, why did the call the Old Bird The Queen Mother?

Margaret was a desperately insecure woman who dealt with her realization she would have no worth to the royal system once her sister spawned by being even more grotesquely snobby than her station deserved. She was a pretty unlovable woman, and that was mostly her own fault. She was too lazy to make something of her life.

R17 Tszar and execustian? What the fuck?

Bunch of critical old queens with a little 'q'. It's rather obvious that most of you aren't students of factual history.

r24, Because it was two Queens Elizabeth.

If Her Majesty's mother was named Gladys, she would have been Dowager Queen Gladys.

But she did help out with one absolutely bombshell of a dollhouse.

May was a hot mess who avoided marrying a gay future king, but her mother, Fat Mary, was a whole other cup of crazy.

And what a looker George V had for a MIL.

Both May and her mother were very proper and put great importance on appearances...

Her father the Duke of Teck's body so septic at death - his funeral his body exploded in the closed coffin with a loud report that was said to sound something like flatulence.

Her brothers were good-looking.

May was a klepto bling hungry stone cold cunt who hung us out to dry so she could pick up my rocks for a song. Rot in hell!.

[quote](at) his funeral his body exploded in the closed coffin with a loud report that was said to sound something like flatulence.

Luckily, quick thinking Queen May avoided embarrassment, by pointing an accusing finger at her mother and screaming, "She did it!"

^ People are always so quick to accuse the fat girl!

Queen Mary by James-Pope Hennessy is considered one of the great royal bios. The Quest for Queen Mary adds a lot of info unavailable to the original author.

Yes, it's just so important that one's mother-in-law be a looker!

*"cannot," not "canot". I missed the letter.

Despite all her faults Mary knew good bling when she saw it. Some of the pieces she had made are still among the most stunning in the royal collection.

Mary ridiculed both Elizabeth and Margaret for being so short...blaming the Bowes-Lyon genetics.

Her blood's on my hands.

It's kind of a shame cause I did like that dress

[quote] It's rather obvious that most of you aren't students of factual history.

Oh, we dare not aspire to your lofty level, Doris Kearns Goodwin!

LMAO R42

R19 Princess Margaret was born a Commoner, so she had nothing to be huffy about.

[quote] "She had an abnormal love for bling."

Not only did she wear the Cullinan III & IV (now the "Granny's Chips" brooch) suspended from a diamond necklace, she also wore the ENORMOUS Cullinan I & II (now located in The Sovereign’s Sceptre, & band of The Imperial State Crown, respectively) as a brooch, on several occasions. The stones can still be removed from their current settings, and worn as a brooch. But Mary was the last to do so.

R44 Margaret was born a Princess, the daughter and grand daughter of Kings.

Mary's father was a German dreamboat (see pic at link). Madly gay, and poor, which was the only reason he married her mother 'Fat Mary'. (It was considered a miracle at the time.) One of the young men he patronised was an American who posed for Prince Hal on the Shakespeare Memorial at Stratford, and whose bronze arse has been rubbed ever since. Lord Ronald Gower (another of the lad's lovers) was official sculptor. The boy later suicided. The Duke of Teck, who had no royal duties, and spent his days chasing soldiers and house decorating: a dream existence. He later went bonkers: possibly syphilitic insanity.

As for Queen Mary: as others have said: an ice-cold selfish bottomlessly greedy cunt. But oh so gracious! There's a telling bit in Vol2 of the 'A Secret Between Gentlemen' bio books (fab reads if yr into gay history) where at the height of the Depression she's demanding of a courtier photographs of her jewels so she can paste them into her bloody albums. What fun it would have been to see her steamroller Meghan.

As she once famously said while her Lady in Waiting was finding space on her outfit for yet another jewel): “Thank God I’m not the type of woman who looks vulgar in diamonds!”.

“Shooting blanks”, “lousy” - sure OP, I’m sure that Queen Mary communicated in twentieth century American vernacular.

Another thread to enable clueless Americans to display their ignorance of the British Monarchy.

R5 A manfaced cunt!

Were there or are there ANY good looking people in that family? Except for QE2's Uncle or cousin George, who died in a plane crash, they are all homely.

supposedly she saw her children for about 15 minutes on a normal day, less on other days or if she was traveling. The meetings were described as Mary sitting ramrod-straight in her chair, doing needlework, with The King usually standing by the window or fireplace fiddling with his watch. The children would be brought in, and Mary would languidly extend several fingers of her hand for them to kiss. She might inquire of their well being and of their school lessons, and behavior issues she had been apprised of, and important news in the Empire. The interview was short, and the children would then be dismissed. Neither George nor Mary were natural with children.

What is the story about how Cunard was to name its new liner Queen Victoria but had to change it to Queen Mary so as not to upset her?

The story is apocryphal and probably not true but allegedly the top suits at Cunard sought an audience and took the blueprints and paintings of their proposed grand new liner Victoria to the King and gave him an elaborate presentation. They finished by saying they sought permission to name the ship after England's greatest Queen. "My wife will be delighted" George replied.

What George V and Queen Mary did to the Romanovs in particular their jewels was criminal and callous.

From Vanity Fair..

According to The Flight of the Romanovs, in 1928, as Maria lay dying, the British sent over an agent to convince her daughter Xenia to give them the box for safekeeping. Dependent upon the British crown for support, she agreed. After Maria’s death, an emissary named Sir Peter Bark convinced Xenia that the jewels would be safest in England in the care of George V. There, the British royal family would sell the jewels on behalf of Xenia and her sister, Olga.

The box included some 76 exquisite pieces, according to Perry, which British historian William Clarke said London experts appraised at approximately 159,000 pounds. Strange events followed; the box was opened in Buckingham Palace, and no proper inventory was taken. The jewels were eventually sold, some to Queen Mary. Perry writes:

Members of the Romanov family believe that Buckingham Palace commissioned Clarke’s research. Clarke argues that Queen Mary is documented as having paid fair prices for everything she bought, but certainly the circumstances of the sale raise questions of conflict of interest. The amazing feature of all this…is that the House of Windsor allowed the whole matter to fester for so many years and never told Olga, Xenia and their heirs what precisely had happened. Therefore, we do not know for sure how much money the jewels yielded, nor do we know where all the money went. The facts we know are that Olga received nothing, Xenia sixty thousand pounds, and Queen Mary some magnificent jewels.

Grand Duchess Olga, who would live a long life as a farmer in Canada, would continue to be treated shoddily by her British relations. “Queen Mary would habitually give her a paper calendar for Christmas,” Perry says.

/quote

[quote]She remained an uptight, uncomfortable person who disliked sex, childbirth and motherhood

To be fair, you won't find many women who love childbirth.

Only a gay man could make such an ignorant statement.

For your information R56 there are plenty of women today and in past who love babies and children. Since being pregnant is how one becomes a mother they like or at least don't mind that either.

None of this touches surrogates who often routinely rent themselves out as addition to having children of their own.

Mary of Teck was from a different era where ideas about what constituted a "lady" were different than today. More so since she both her engagements were arranged. Empress Alexandra of Russia OTOH obviously liked sex and didn't mind childbirth either.

Above being said there were still women well up to 1940's who believed what Mrs. Loomis in film "Splendor in the Grass" tells her daughter; "only reason a decent woman lets her husband near her is to have children". Implication being same as with women like Queen Mary, "nice" women didn't enjoy sex, but it was an ordeal that was tolerated as part of married life.

Unfortunately for Queen Mary her husband George V confined his pleasures to the marriage bed only. Had he taken mistresses it would have taken some of the pressure off the queen. This especially after she produced a few heirs.

I'm still not entirely convinced that she wasn't MTF.

She looked fantastic in the Grand Duchess Vladimir Tiara.

Camilla has worn the Grand Duchess Vladimir Tiara, but it tends to make her look like a Barbie doll that's been left out in the sun.

R56. And only a person with a dislike of gay men could so clearly distort the post (whether or not it was made by a gay man). The post contains no statement whatsoever about women liking children or not. The statement was a specific reference to childbirth ( the process of delivering the child). Perhaps most women enjoy that, but the prevalent use of painkillers to help in the process suggest not. In any event it was a light hearted comment about a process that most people would admit has its painful aspects so I’m not sure what motivated you to post something so irrelevant, other than animosity.

[quote]Camilla has worn the Grand Duchess Vladimir Tiara

Nope. Any image of her wearing it, as per the one you linked to, is a Photoshop number.

Brenda is very thingy about hierarchy and signalling when it comes to tiaras, and has retained it given its strong identification with her.

I did see an obviously 'shopped photo of Camilla in the Grand Duchess Vladimir with emeralds, so I guess I should have checked the other photos, as well. HM looks fantastic in it, and I wondered why she would lend it out. Still, it's strange that there are at least 4 Photoshopped pictures of Camilla in that tiara. To what end? Are tiara fanatics known for pranking each other?

R51. Not many on the family who could make a career as a model, but there have been several nice-looking royals. The queen’s father, grandfather, and husband were all attractive. The queen and her duster were quite presentable as young women.

Thank you, R61. I am a straight woman, in fact, but phew! Massive Frau Alert at R57!!

She sounds like a dreadful creature — thus, she would have fit right in here. Hell, she could be a DL patron saint.

If you had something that she wanted, you forked it over. Or, she might steal it.

I was engaged in a rather heated online discussion of the late Mary of Teck when a stranger knocked at my door.

Interesting. Is this the same royal who was featured in the DA movie who had the light-fingered dressmaker while visiting the Crawley's? Did they whitewash her?

"Look, Your Majesty, get your own goddamn vase and stop pestering me for mine! You have pounds and pounds and pounds!"

R57 you are full of shit. Very few women enjoy pregnancy and childbirth except those like sow Michell Duggar. Bloating, constipation, constant urination, hands poking and prodding private parts, swelling, etc. Then let's not forget, shitting during childbirth, then having a baby sucking and chewing on nipples and leaking constantly. Stretch mark, painful recovery, etc.

Mr Fellows is an active rehabilitator of the image of Queen sticky fingers. The maid did not send footmen to collect furniture and carpets.

She must have been really good with electronics.

She a bitch!

German. What more needs to be said?

We can expect Camilla will wear the grand Duchess Vladimir tiara a lot when she becomes queen because she likes big big blingy tiaras, which suit her hairstyle. But no, she has not been allowed to wear it yet (and she would never dream of asking to do so). That tiara is marked out only for whomever is queen, because it is the blingiest of all the tiaras when the Camrbidge emeralds are dangling from it. No wonder Meghan wanted to wear it!

I knew someone would stink up this thread with their Meghan hatred.

We love a dollop of Meghan hate!

According to the article, director Jean Malek (Rami Malek any relation?) called her "the meanest person I've ever met"! Fwabulous. But given DL's high standards in this category, the only question is: is she a cunt enough?

Hopefully, it wont be too long before they are deciding what Camilla will be buried in.

Camilla will buried in the fond wishes of Brigadier Andrew Henry Parker Bowles OBE.

R78, cremated and put in a Tampax box.

[quote] She hid him away till she could arrange a solution, which in this case was his accidental death.

It's certainly a plan that has its strengths.

Bodices of Queen Mary's evening and ball gowns were reinforced with buckram, this better to support weight of the many jewels and honors that would be pinned onto same.

Queen Mary had a full sized mannequin in her various boudoirs where her ladies would dress the thing in whatever HM was going to wear. HM would then select various jewels to be pinned onto gown or otherwise placed on mannequin to decide what she was going to wear. By "select" one means HM ordered various jewel boxes brought to her, opened, instructed her ladies what to pick up and place onto dummy, etc.. All while sitting of course, HM didn't actually do anything.

Queen Mary belonged to an era when empresses and queens had many of their personal jewels displayed in cases within their boudoirs or adjacent. Imperial and royal ladies took pleasure in giving tours if you will and showing off their collection. These again would have not been state jewels, but things actually owned by their majesties.

Another thing...

Queen Mary was kept on a very short lead by her husband both as a prince then later George V. HM was not known for being intellectual, soft spoken or even particularly kind. Gruff is a word often used, along with bully and few other choice words.

Princess Mary of Teck came from a minor serene German royal family who were comparatively poor. Princess Mary won the royal marriage stakes nabbing a Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, and when she became queen consort shot up to top of many lists.

People would ask Queen Mary why she allowed her husband to bully and otherwise treat their children so badly. Her response was simple; "I must always remember my husband is also my sovereign".

Both as Prince George and later George V, HM disliked change. Princess May (Mary) couldn't change things in their various residences because her husband would simply say "you mustn't... Mama always had it there..." or something similar.

By 1910's and certainly 1920's hemlines for ladies skirts began to rise (nothing dramatic, just to ankle length...), but Queen Mary continued to dress in full Edwardian length skirts. George V didn't like the new shorter hemlines, so that was that.

Queen Mary did try; she hatched out a plot with her ladies where on a day when king and queen (along with their court) would be going out one of the ladies would wear the new fashion of shorter skirts.

On day in question their majesties, along with gentlemen and ladies who were attending were all in carriages waiting to depart. The chosen young lady in waiting emerged from royal residence dead last wearing a short skirt. As she approached the carriage to take her place George V caught sight of the young woman wearing offending garment. There was Hell to pay! HM had a fit! He ordered the lady-in-waiting back indoors and to change into skirts of proper length. While royal party waiting this was done and in lady returned dressed properly, took her place in carriage, and off royal party went. Queen Mary had her answer, and never again bothered.

Until day she died Queen Mary looked every bit of a formidable dowager. Going about in weeds or at least long skirts when most other ladies in realm (including her grand daughters and daughter in-law) had moved onto shorter skirts.

IIRC Edward VIII (later Duke of Windsor) described his mother Mary of Teck as an "ice cold bitch".

No, no one would ever accuse Mary of Teck of being a warm and cuddly mother. People who interviewed or knew her said she simply wasn't capable of sort of warmth traditionally associated with Victorian or Edwardian mothers.

Queen Mary loved her children, but in her own way.

Thought Miranda Richardson was wonderful as Queen Mary in BBC television series "The Lost Prince".

Another....

To understand Princess Mary of Teck, you have to also comprehend Prussian virtues. Pflichtbewusstsein, Geradlinigkeit, Disziplin, Ordnungssinn, Gegen sich mehr noch als gegen andere, Tapferkeit ohne Wehleidigkeit, and more are things Queen Mary had in spades. This being said Prussian virtues aren't exactly up everyone's street.

Mary's father was the product of a morganatic marriage. That explains her "grandness".

Watch this clip from "The Lost Prince" starting at about 51:30 as "Queen Mary" played by Miranda Richardson works out what changes to BRF (especially change of their German name to Windsor), along with everything else happening to monarchies all over Europe mean.

In common with many other Germans (royal or commoners) Queen Mary was quite an expert on bloodlines (royal and noble) . HM did her duty to king and country, and certainly valued service to nation both within herself and others, but Queen Mary also believed everything and person had their place (those Prussian virtues again).

When Edward VIII informed Queen Mary he was going to abdicate if not allowed to marry Wallis Simpson, HM just couldn't work it out in her mind. That a divorced woman with two husbands living had become an indispensable part of her son's life, and that the king was willing to chuck it all away for her was just not something Queen Mary could wrap her head around.

Oh, fuck Queen Mary. She was way too concerned about such matters. Face like a horse- and it runs in the family. She was descendant from a half-breed.

QM's penchant for choker necklaces was not only a way to show off additional bling, it was a nod to her mother-in-law Queen Alexandra, who started the fashion for them in the 19th century. Alexandra had a surgery scar on her neck from childhood and covered it with high collars and choker necklaces. This quickly became a fashion among upper-class women, and Queen Mary adopted it until the end of her life.

[quote]We can expect Camilla will wear the grand Duchess Vladimir tiara a lot when she becomes queen because she likes big big blingy tiaras, which suit her hairstyle.

If the photos edited with the Grand Duchess of Vladimir Tiara are any indication, Queen Camilla will look ridiculous in it. She is much better served with the flatter, taller, more ornate styles, like the Delhi Durbar.

I think Camilla would have looked terrific in Mary of Teck's Girls of Great Britain and Ireland Tiara, in coronet style, back when it still had the pearls on it.

Princess Mary of Teck signed her letters with her given name "Victoria Mary". Prince George detested this and before their majesties were crowned George V laid down the law and ordered his consort chose just one for her regnal name. It couldn't very well be "Victoria" so "Queen Mary" it was.

British society thought Princess Mary of Teck "ugly". They said she looked too "German" which was an insult. Then there was the matter of the mother, also Princess Mary (aka "Fat Mary") caused considerable scandal.

Princess Mary Adelaide, Duchess of Teck

She looks like the Spanish Infanta from Black Adder....

She wasn’t a stunning beauty but she hardly seemed ugly as a young woman. She did age frightfully, however.

Yo soy la Infanta!

Her mother looked like Queen Victoria's twin, only slightly larger and with unkempt eyebrows.

Sorry r92, I didn't mean to post the same photo you just had.

Suppose by standard of day Princess Mary of Teck wasn't a great beauty, but all and all she scrubbed up well.

“All and all”’ R97?

Our 'Milla will also be lovely in the Queen Alexandra's Kokoshnik Tiara.

R83, I've asked here a few times why older women in cartoons and movies of the 50s and 60s always wore long black dresses with white lace collars or chokers and you finally answered my question. I think.

Just how many cigarettes did Queen Mary smoke every day since she died of lung cancer.

Her husband smoked like a chimney but the two sovereigns were not in very close proximity to each other for many hours of a typical day.

And what was her brand?

Mary of Teck was born and brought up in England but despite that she had a German accent. Her father was a German prince and she could have acquired the accent from her father. Queen Victoria only spoke German the first three years of her life as her mother was German. She had a German accent but tutors her trained her and she lost it as she grew older.

Common ho like any other. Cursed like a sailor after about her 6th or 7th gin and tonic. Liked her men like her coffee - straight up black. Fun party girl when she let her hair flow free. Damn shame, but we had to point her to the wall and frisk her ass every time she left on her ride back to the palace.

Since this is DL, I know that the tabletop queens will appreciate knowing that the Paragon China factory made a set of very elaborate china — the design is pictured below — to commemorate Queen Mary of Teck’s visit to the factory in 1913. They presented her a set and then Paragon manufactured reproductions of this pattern beginning in the 1920s for decades into the 20th century.

I’m loving all these tidbits I’m learning about Queen Mary. You guys are the best queens.

Teck Castle in Germany

Vhat ein DUMP!

R102. It’s common to claim that members of the British royal family had German accents despite being raised in England. We know in Mary of Teck’s case it wasn’t true through recordings of her voice, and it would have been pretty extraordinary if it were true. Parental accents generally have no influence on a child’s accent. For Mary to have had a German accent she would have had to be deprived of contact with not only the English-speaking society around her but also her English-speaking mother.

Victoria did have a much more isolated upbringing than Mary, but it is still unlikely she would have had a German accent and there is little evidence that she did.

Doesn't matter where you're raised, if relatives and servants have an accent. Victoria had tutors. Mary worked on her British accent as well.

[Quote]Mary of Teck was born and brought up in England but despite that she had a German accent. Her father was a German prince and she could have acquired the accent from her father.

[Quote]We know in Mary of Teck’s case it wasn’t true through recordings of her voice

R102 She starts speaking here at 2:08. To me, she sounds old-fashioned proper British. If there's a German influence in it, I can't detect it. I agree with r108.

No. Parental accents really have no influence at all on a child’s accent. They would only determine the child’s accent if the child were raised in almost complete isolation from the larger society, which is a consideration I addressed and indicated was contrary to the facts. To believe Mary had an accent we would have, first, to disbelieve our own ears and, second, to assume an alternative version of Mary’s childhood that is unsupported by historical records.Even on the implausible assumption that she had no contact with the broader society it is very clear she spent considerable time with her English-speaking mother.

What is the historical evidence that she trained to eliminate her German accent?

"With an Order in Council on 1 July 1887, Queen Victoria granted Francis the style of Highness, as a gift to celebrate her Golden Jubilee.[12] Despite this, the Tecks were still seen as minor relatives, with little status or wealth. Their fortunes improved when their only daughter, Princess Victoria Mary of Teck (known as May to her family) became engaged to the second-in-line to the British throne, Prince Albert Victor, Duke of Clarence and Avondale. There was initial opposition to the match from the Duke of Clarence's parents, the Prince and Princess of Wales: Arthur Balfour wrote to Lord Salisbury in 1890 that "(t)he Teck girl they won't have because they hate Teck and because the vision of Princess Mary haunting Marlborough House makes the Prince of Wales ill."[13] "

No discussion about Queen Mary would be complete without a recounting of how she pulled rank, and beat down Ellen Constance to get back jewels her brother Prince Francis of Teck bequeathed to her.

Speaking of jewels and Duchess of Cornwall, HM gave Camilla (more like long term loan) the famous Greville Tiara.

Greville jewels were part of an inheritance to Queen Elizabeth, The Queen Mother. What causes tongues to wag is how they along with rest of late Queen Mother's estate was handled (sealing of royal wills and so forth), that may have saved a huge bundle in estate taxes.

"Much like Queen Mary, Greville had an impeccable eye and voracious appetite for jewelry. She loved Boucheron and Cartier, and picked up gems from her travels around the world. And while Mary loved buying up Russian imperial jewels, Greville might have preferred the French—she supposedly had in her trove a necklace once owned by Marie Antoinette, and another that belonged to Empress Josephine, Napoleon's first wife. Given that the Grevilles never had children of their own, the entirety of her collection (the real ones only, of course—anything under £100 was given to the maid) was left to Elizabeth, "with my loving thoughts," when Greville died in 1942."

The genes of Mary’s father certainly predominated. Mary’s mother was mind-bogglingly unattractive, but Mary and her brother were quite presentable.

[quote]She wasn’t a stunning beauty but she hardly seemed ugly as a young woman. She did age frightfully, however.

Mary carried those "muzzle" genes. The area around her mouth became more prominent and bonier as she aged. The same thing happened to Andrew, Edward, William, and Anne and Harry to a lesser extent. It seems to begin in the early to mid thirties. The Queen has her mother's soft round face that offsets it.

Yes. I’ve heard her mouth described as canine. Interestingly, that feature doesn’t seem to have been part of her mother’s overwhelming unattractiveness. It seems to have come from elsewhere.

R115 Grr, woof! Daddy!

So the bastard daughter Greville left all of her jewels to Cookie? The BRF have been grifting forever.

Mary had a hell of a figure when she was young, and maybe that's where the current queen got her hourglass figure.

Tiny waist, big boobs, blonde hair, passable face, title, Mary must have been a hit on the Victorian marriage market, even without a big dowry.

She was a neck downer

The current monarch, famous for being a lifelong frump, actually had a helluva figure when she was young!

Tiny waist, great big boobs, kept her weight down through four pregnancies, etc. She didn't get that hourglass shape from her short, chunky mother, maybe it was passed down from Mary of Teck.

The Queen Mother was never attractive, just charming for the time. Should have sprung for dentures.

Through the ages

I tell y'all what. Her one son George VI was really fucking handsome. Both of his parents were homely.

Margaret obviously took after her paternal grandmother a bit. There's a few parallels one can draw I do dare say.

I like this thread. Her life would make a good movie. Stealing, drinking, random bits of fornicating with footmen. It'd be quite something.

Is there a book or seemingly just this thread?

I never found George 6 handsome at all. Of all the sons, Edward 8 was the best looking. And poor Princess Mary really got the gamut of unfortunate genes, although she probably had the most normal life of any of them. And I doubt Queen Mary ever fornicated with footmen.

"Her life would make a good movie. Stealing, drinking, random bits of fornicating with footmen."

Maggie Smith MUST, ABSOLUTELY MUST, play the older Queen Mary! She can narrate the film, letting every word drip with snobbery and disdain.

We should write the narration for her. Hell, we should write a one-woman show for Maggie Smith as old Queen Mary, looking back on her life with savage deadpan wit...

Edna May Oliver would've made a great Queen Mary if given the opportunity during her lifetime & career in the movies. She kinda looks like her a bit.

What about Dame Edna?

R125 He really was handsome for a prince but he sounded like a tard. He also married that man-faced squat thing Cookie. He could have done much better but he had low confidence. Cookie’s homely man face must of reminded him of mum.

George the VI was extraordinarily handsome and better looking than Edward VIII, who also wasn’t bad looking. The King’s Speech was one of the rare instances where the actor (Colin Firth) was considerably less attractive than the person he was playing. I disagree that George V and Mary were unattractive. They only became so in old age.

R130 you’re skating on thin ice when you describe someone else as a “tard” while using “could of” in the next sentence.

Sixty of the posts in this thread were contributed by Miss Lisa Waller Rogers of Texas.

I've only read the OP so far and I'm already hooked! What a fucking ruthless cunt!!

Where is her Netflix series?

And why isn't she a DL icon?

R134 = Miss Lisa Waller Rogers of Texas

There's only one that could capture Mary's relentless drive, cool demeanor, vast cuntitude, and fabulousness with jewels.

Who?

Well....MARY, of course!

Was Margaret Greville so far up the arses of Queen Elisabeth or Queen Mary she couldn't think of anyone else to bequeath her jewels to besides a family that has heaps already? Why not endow a foundation or some other charitable work. Queen Elizabeth and her heirs needed more jewels like Newcastle wants more coal.

Current laws regarding gifts to members of BRF clarify difference between personal and official gifts. But there is still plenty of room for mischief, especially again if royal wills are sealed.

What did Edward VIII, George VI and the other princes get up to after lights out?

Well, I'll tell you, R138. They got on the telephone and rang each other and told dirty stories about the filthy behaviour committed by those disgusting American Dataloungers.

Nothing was off limits; miscegenation, bestiary and/or buggery.

Those Americans, they said! They know no shame!

As Prince of Wales, Edward VIII pulled any and everything he could lay hands upon, especially other gentlemen's wives. Arrival of Wallis Simpson put an end to that...

Prince Albert of York was a bit of a dark horse. Not widely discussed but the prince carried on Australian socialite Sheila, Lady Loughborough. George V hit the roof and put a stop to things by "offering" his son the dukedom of York but only if he put Lady Loughborough away and HM never heard her name mentioned again. Young Prince "Bertie" complied, and ended the liaison.

Any pictures of Queen Mary sucking on a fag?

I like her pearls.

She did buy Russian jewels for a low price but so did many people. In the years leading up to and after the Russian Revolution, the market was flooded with so many Russians jewels, they were selling for next to nothing.

[quote] Any pictures of Queen Mary sucking on a fag?

No but if we look real real hard we might be able to find one of Prince Edward!

King George V and Queen Mary speaking...

Mary was never a beauty, but she looked kind of pretty in this photo

Now just imagine her, R146, with a lit fag dangling out of the corner of her mouth.

[quote]Just how many cigarettes did Queen Mary smoke every day since she died of lung cancer.

In The Crown she smoked like a chimney. I don't know how accurate to real life that was, but back in those days people tended to be heavy smokers.

Princess Margaret sad that she used a cigarette holder at Queen Mary’s suggestion.

One of my favorite sequences in "The Crown" is when the surprise news is passed through the various palaces that George VI had died in the second episode. Queen Mary is having breakfast at Marlborough House, and one of her equerries comes to her and whispers in a controlled tone, "Pardon me, Ma'am, but I regret to inform you that the King has died." She starts shaking and crying.

Imagine having to have news like that--that your favorite son has died-- delivered in that way.

She's a brick house

She's mighty-mighty, just lettin' it all hang out

She's a brick house

That lady's stacked and that's a fact.

Those bustles were so bizarre. Society women actually found them freeing when they came into style in the 1870s because they were such a relief from the ridiculous hoop skirts of the 1860s (which made it nearly impossible to sit down, and meant women were always bumping into things), but when you think back to the effect they were trying for (a huge ass, although no one would admit it) they seem ridiculous. And they didn't fully go out of fashion until the 1890s.

[quote] Queen Mary is having breakfast at Marlborough House, and one of her equerries comes to her and whispers in a controlled tone, "Pardon me, Ma'am, but I regret to inform you that the King has died." She starts shaking and crying.

“Pardon me” is very non-U. I understand why the Queen would be upset.

Was it George V or George VI who, when near death, was given a cocktail of coke and opioids in the middle of the night to hasten his death? The point was to have his death announced in the respectable morning papers instead of the disgusting afternoon tabloids.

Those are all diamonds, R142!

V, R154.

R154 No and No.

I thought the King's doctor confirmed it in a private memoir that wasn't published until after doctor's death.

[R1]= Total lies, but almost funny. You should get a job writing for soaps.

R1-R158 = Total lies,

It is well known that the King's physician, Lotd Alchtram (or something like that) administered a lethal dose of cocaine and morphine? to hasten the death of George V. And yes, it was done so the news could be printed in the morning paper.

-R156

Third paragrapgh down. I fucked the doctors name up is all.

- R161

In the very same year, the House of Lords rejected a voluntary euthanasia bill. One standard for royalty, another for the rest of the country.

R161 It was Lord Altrincham

That's because GB has two Constitutions - one pertaining to the Monarch and the other pertaining to to Government/People.

Thank you for that, R164, but John Grigg didn't have anything to do with it. I was, therefore, wrong to cite him. He's the one who got the shit slapped out of him by a stranger for bad-mouthing QIIE when she first ascended. George V doctor was Bertram Dawson.

R164. George V was euthanised by a 12-year-old? I think you mean Lord Dawson of Penn?

I remember another DL poster mentioning in a thread a few years ago this bit about Q Mary: While watching her own baby at play, she suddenly thought to herself "I wonder what it's thinking?" Then she laughed while answering her own question by saying inwardly "Oh, nothing at all. The poor, stupid little thing." 😂

[quote] [R164]. George V was euthanised by a 12-year-old?

These things do happen...

I wonder what became of Queen Mary's jewels? I'm sure all the brooches, bracelets, tiaras, and the largest diamonds in the world are still around, but neither of her successors ever had the neck to wear massive diamond chokers. Is this massive diamond collar sitting in a vault someday, waiting for an occasion when Kate can wear it, or were the stones upcycled into new jewelry?

But without looking it up, I'm quite sure that Mary did not leave her jewels to charity.

This humanoid is channelling Princess May of Teck.

I think most of Mary's jewels went to her grand daughter Elizabeth, although I'm sure there may have been a few individual bequests.

R171 I can't vouch for this link but a lot of it seems believable.... much went to the Queen Mother and then on to the Queen. They are broke up jewels all the time so what wasn't remade is probably sitting in the vaults. I am sure as you go down the page that one of the stomachers referenced was broken up and the QM wore one piece of it as a brooch.

R172 You must be a proper Englishman.

Only Englishmen refer to Mary as 'May'.

Wow, there was no hint of this at all on The Crown, where Queen Mary was portrayed by national treasure Eileen Atkins.

Eileen Atkins has been put through the wringer too many times.

She's looking like a wet rag nowdays.

I liked her as QM but she was too thin. QM looked like the prow of a ship.

[quote] I liked her as QM

Can you tell us why?

Everyone else here is being a complete bitch towards her.

A sticky fingered bussy who Loathed and was loathed by her own children? She sounds like the love child between Joan Crawford and Datalounge.

R171 The queen wears her grandmother’s jewels all the time. Some of them have been reworked but many are still the same. She just doesn’t wear everything at once. I agree with those who recommended James Pope Hennessy bio of Queen Mary. It’s fascinating. Her parents were poor second tier royals who refused to life within their means. Their debts got so bad, they fled to Italy in an attempt to live more cheaply. Before they left, they sold many of the family heirlooms to pay off creditors. When Mary became queen, she tried to buy back as many of those items as she could track down.

R179... her take was quite energetic. Mary as a catalyst. Virtually every other portrayal (I think of miranda richardson in the lost prince) was Mary as an emotional dead zone. This Mary was an active dynast... there was also some sarcasm and world weariness. I keep coming back to energy.

Well, R182, you sound like the only Datalounger in this thread who knows what they're talking about. All the others sound like the usual Americans sozzled on their divans.

Are you also R175?

The Crown is not a documentary.

R183, no, but I know they called her May. I'm Canadian, fwiw.

All of these people sound awful. They we're white trash for sure. I don't care if they we're born wealthy & titled & noble. They we're still white trash with stolen money & material possessions that belonged to other people. The BRF serves only themselves. Are the poor in the UK any better off by having a monarchy reign over them? Fuck no! The British public are being taken for a ride, then & now. The only people who win are the British "Royals" with all of their freebies & handouts etc. And they're constantly protected by a corrupt establishment of hierarchy that's been in place for 1200 plus years.

I can't believe the brits haven't burnt the country down yet. Extreme inequality lives bluntly & proudly out in the open in not so great marry old England. That family serves no real purpose. It deserves to be banished all the way to the bottom of Hell.

These people are beyond evil & wicked. And there's some many people always so willing to suck their asses & allow the so called Royals to debase them for nothing real or tangible in return. The only people who benefit from Royalty is the BRF.

Head of state my asshole!!!!

R186, please tell us how you REALLY feel.

[quote] Head of state my asshole!!!!

R186 In which state IS your asshole?

[quote]I can't believe the brits haven't burnt the country down yet.

This does not seem a sensible solution to the problem of inequality.

R188, I think her asshole is in quite a state!

^ King Charles I was a catalyst for 'burning the country down'.

Also, you certainly don't need a Royal Family to have massive income inequality and nonsense government. America is pretty much owned and ruled by massive assholes whose only title is Chief Executive Officer.

What a cunt. She should have been in that basement with the Romanovs. Oh well.

R186 seems obsessed with white trash. R186 should look to home.

[quote] All the others sound like the usual Americans sozzled on their divans.

And wearing caftans.

And hissing abut cast albums.

Wait, Queen Mary was in a musical? Well, if they left her off the cast album, that does seem a bit rude.

Nonsense, r193. Somebody had to be around to "buy" the jewels, or well, put them in safekeeping.

George V told the Romanov princesses that he believed yet more Russian jewels hitting open market would depress prices. Thus HM's way was best, that was the king's story and he clung to it until death.

Remember it wasn't just Marie Romanov's jewels, but Russia was selling off tons of Romanov and other jewels confiscated from "Former People". Emigres like the Yusupov family were also selling off things.

More...

I wasn’t aware that extreme inequality doesn’t exist in the USA, R186 - thanks for enlightening us.

As for abolishing the monarchy - what makes you think that your opinion counts for anything? You’re just another American who thinks that the British Monarchy somehow relies on being popular in the USA. Your opinion means nothing. Why do you care?

R186 is so bizarre.

If you'll all just please excuse us for a moment, the orderlies will now escort r186 to the quiet room , where he can get the medication and the rest he needs.

Thank you.

Has her brother, Prince Francis of Teck's will ever been unsealed? Mary was the one who got that done by a court. What was the scandal? Did Frank name some illegitimate kid? She also got the Cambridge emeralds back ( part of the Teck family jewels) that he'd bequeathed to a married woman. Mary reportedly paid her £10,000 .

Um, R204. No, no and no.

Much of Prince Frank of Teck 's final will is now known via other sources.

"The Kilmorey family papers, unearthed by the BBC's Document series in 2005, included a draft of Prince Francis's will. According to the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland, the documents "throw some light on Lady Kilmorey's unspoken, but widely recognised, role as chere amie of Prince Francis of Teck, who. . . made embarrassingly generous provision for her in his will".

Prince Phillip's will is only sealed for 90 years.

it is becoming clear that part of general UK public is getting fed up with all this secrecy nonsense. It remains to be seen how long things will be kept up after HM, and or Prince of Wale's time.

Worth noting final will and testament of late Diana, Princess of Wales was not sealed. Which sort of emphasizes she was no longer part of BRF.

George V and Queen Mary were rather quite bourgeois and sympathized (to extent royals could) with plight of commoners.

Those clips from BBC production "The Lost Prince" where Queen Mary is telling royal nanny "LaLa" about her work on behalf of war effort (visiting hospitals, etc.. ) was true. Queen Mary did quite a lot where she could in aid of war effort, as did the king. Royal gardens were turned over to growing vegetables, central heating was turned down (or off) in palaces and other royal residences.

Many wealthy of GB who largely were carrying on during WWI as they did before laughed up their sleeves at George V and Queen Mary for their war work. Both king and queen pressed war office to enlarge pension given to widows of dead British military feeling it wasn't enough.

It was the overall respect and great affection British had for George V and Queen Mary that stopped rise of socialism from taking a firm hold. Things easily could have gone other way with the Saxe Coburg Gotha family joining their German and Russian cousins in being turfed off their thrones.

As to other question swirling about this thread; yes, Queen Mary smoked.

Mary was the spawn of a morganatic marriage, and it killed the old cunt. A life of grifting, and for what?

She's still dead .

Basically only two royal houses had problems with unequal marriages; nearly all German and Russia/Romanovs.

Was only upon the arrival of Hanoverians that royal blood began to seriously matter for brides and grooms to British princes and princesses. Prior to that while some heirs or monarchs married other royalty, others also equally married commoners. Only two of Henry VIII's wives were royal for instance.

Not surprisingly German royalty and nobles (and perhaps society as a whole for all I know) have (or rather had) a thing about purity of blood. Royals married other royals, nobility other nobility (within defined ranks of course), and so it went.

Post WWI when German royal and noble houses were all made commoners, many families did try to keep old ways going, but post WWII it has become almost a lost cause. Unless you start going back down road of first or second cousins marrying, there just aren't enough royal princes and princesses around.

When Queen Victoria signed off on her daughter Princess Louise marrying a commoner John Campbell, Marquess of Lorne, it ruffled many feathers, including German royal houses angling for a match.

QV didn't want Princess Louise to marry into a foreign royal court and leave England. More to the point, as she gently reminded German royals the British public were fed up with penniless German princes marrying into BRF.

I think that’s a bit simplified. Almost all the prewar European monarchies required equal marriages. I can’t think of many exceptions. Pretty much every reigning royal in the continent who married pre-war married fellow royalty. It is true there some instances of British monarchs marrying commoners before the Hanoverians, but the royal consorts still considerably outnumber the commoners. Henry VIII did marry several commoners, but he wasn’t really spoiled for choice. Early in the reformation there weren’t so many royal Protestant brides on hand.

they're all inbred gold digging whores. What else is new? The obsession with the "royals" on this forum is bizarre

And yet, R212 - here you are. Why?

R212. Yes. Discussing Madonna’s latest instagram post or whom Aaron Rogers is sleeping with are a much more productive use of time

There are a lot of trolls complaining that gossip is being posted on a gossip board, I see. It's probably just one lonely person wanting attention, again. These things come in waves.

R171, what I love about that photo, and so many others, is that you can tell she's wearing at minimum 2 chokers at once! There's one that's 4 strands of pearls, and above that, another single strand. Below all that is another short, single strand, then the 4-strand longer set below that.

Sometimes it was as if she needed a million strands of pearls to keep her head upright.

Her mother was a British princess, and she was brought up mostly in the UK. The suggestion that she had a German accent is totally wrong.

IIRC story goes George V's last words as the lethal injection took effect were " God damn you".

I thought it was Bugger Bognor.

That was what George V's response when told early on about being moved to Bangor to recover...

R216

Not all of those pearls may have been real.

Many royal ladies to augment their bling mixed fake strands of pearls with real.

Queen Alexandra would have her ladies-in-waiting pick up strands of fake pearls for her when they were on the Continent (usually France).

In terms of royal bling, the Maharajas of India could likely go head to head with any European royal or noble family, maybe even come out ahead.

More

Supposedly ladies in waiting were alarmed when one of the pearl necklaces broke during a carriage ride. They scrambled to pick up the loose pearls, but the queen told them it wasn’t worth the effort since they were all fake.

George V is very handsome.

R225 should be executed for saying such garbage towards a monarch!

I would have licked George V’s shitter!

^

He wouldn’t have thanked you. He was famously devoted to his wife, and once said when he heard that an acquaintance was gay, “ I thought men like that shot themselves”.

The BRF is so archaic & outdated. These people need to go get real lives & stop being a burden on the public. Their downfall is coming. "Royalty" is not a real thing.

These people are beyond ridiculous with this in the 21st century.

R229 the British monarchy will be on Mars you fool.

Why are their so many brits always willing to defend the BRF? Why? That family & how they live isn't normal & it's pretty much forced. Why keep defending a system that is so outdated & archaic in nature & unjust in a world where there's so much suffering and unfairness. The monarchy is one thing that really doesn't have to exist. I'm just amazed at how so many people are simply ok with keeping something like the BRF going even with the cost of them. They waste so much money & is very secretive about their business dealings investments & finances. There just doesn't seem to be any compromise with them. Everything is to their benefit and so one sided always favoring them. It's just so bizarre that so many people are ok with this family & all of their corruption & scandals carrying on the way they do. It's just unfathomable & unnecessary for them to exist in the way in which they do.

Do they secretly own the British islands or something? I just can't crack this case except for the excuse everyone uses about them being the head of state, which to me is nonsense. Just make william & Kate permanent ambassadors to the UK for life & give them a smaller residence to live in with their children & cut everything else lose. I just think their role should be more reduced & simplified in stead of this royal nonsense. We're in the 21st century for crying out loud. It's beyond ridiculous in this day in age.

Enough.

[quote] Why are their so many brits always willing to defend the BRF?

1. They bring in tourist dollars.

2. They provide fodder for gossip-lovers (as seen in this vacuous fantasy-filled thread)

And for those who ask why do Americans care so much about the BRF. We don't/ I don't care about them. But as long as they are constantly on the cover of magazines here in America & constantly talked about in the news media here in the US & I gave to see & here about them in a country they gave zero power in. I have every right to make my feelings known about them. They're being shoved down my throat in a country they don't even reign in. So therefore I can question their existence & pick at their existence all I want.

They are an outdated institution & I'm not changing from that opinion.

Enough, down with the monarchy!

I just think their roles should be reduced to something much less than what it is. The big production they are, is way to much. They should be more like a president & first lady than a King or Queen. I don't like the crowns or the things they wear across their shoulders, it all makes me really uncomfortable & I don't like it. I'd like to see the whole thing stopped & brought to an end. They are no better than anyone else. Royalty is not real. The whole thing is fake & made up. The inception of this family was built on murder genocide and blood. This entire family is wicked evil & vile!

[quote] & I don't like it

Who are you again, Mr R234?

R231, R233 and R234 - instead of being triggered by magazine covers at Costco maybe you could consider brushing up on your English spelling and grammar.

For someone who resents the BRF being shoved down their throat, you do tend to pop up in many BRF threads. It’s rather curious.

[quote]Why are their so many brits always willing to defend the BRF?

[italic]There[/italic] are so many brits always willing to defend the BRF for the same reason Americans ask so many stupid questions about other countries: it's just part of national life that everybody's used to.

Even if they were prepared to go, as Charles once said can you imagine the years it would take to unravel the finances, properties, art etc.?

The family owns so many things outright, others they don't, and then the grey areas of which there are many like George V stamp collection.

In the end, I suspect, that may be the primary reason it survives r238. Inertia. And after all the meetings and committees and inquiries and reorganizations, the end result is what? Some dreary presidency that nobody gives a flying fuck about and nobody feels the slightest attachment to? Really? Why? To save money. Cause I can tell you as an American, it just doesn't. At all. Ever. Presidencies expand, always and everywhere. And really, as we all know, well all of us that aren't completely morons, the real money never goes to financing the actual institutions of government. A ton goes to "defense" always loosely interpreted. A ton goes to so-called "entitlements," which is actually good since so much of that actually winds up in the hands of real-life people and not some vague and ridiculous institution. And a ton just gets pissed away on ridiculous nonsense that goes under the name of "government" and worthless "control," like the Drug War and whatever other bullshit legislators come up with.

And the other thing you get is the sacred "Office of the President." Even an obvious grifter and mob boss like Trump gets some halo of occupying the "Office of the President." Overall, it's more embarrassing than having a Queen. At least you never treat your Prime Ministers like sacred beings who must be honored and loved because they occupy the "office of the President."

I don't like the BRF. But I am curious about them which is why I read & post in the royal threads.

Now there's something I want to know that I can find a whole lot of information about. Who the fuck are the grey men Diana was always going on about? They seem like shadowy characters in the shadows of Buckingham palace who probably control & advise the Royals. Those are probably the same people who we're being mean to Meghan Markle & who Harry said are holding the family hostage & trapping them. They seem like evil greedy assholes to me. And dangerous. I wouldn't be surprised if they we're the ones who set Diana up in Paris.

They seem dangerous and shady as fuck.

“Were”, R231 / R233 / R234 / R240, not “we’re”.

Nobody said that it would be easy.

I wanna hear more stories about May boosting jewels and other high end shit.

I wanna hear more fantasies so I can swear.

She was big on "collecting" Faberge. More that a few pieces went missing after one of Mary's gracious visits.

"I wanna hear more stories about May boosting jewels and other high end shit."

Wasn't she the one who was supposedly reclaiming Royal property, that had been given to various Royal mistresses illegally?

Or was that just the cover story...

Mary is the one who created the concept of the working royal. She basically recreated what the BRF stood for. They were afraid of a revolution during ww1 and wanted to help mitigate any anger coming from the public. So she thought it would be a good idea to go out and start talking to the general public and allowing brits to see their royal family up close in the flush. It worked then, that probably wouldn't work today tho. Most people see the Royals as celebrities. And that's pretty much what they are at this point. They're constantly on the cover of magazines with real A list stars and covered on entertainment news outlets. They are pretty much celebrities in the 21st century.

R240. Strange.you read about the royal family, but know nothing at all? Diana being murdered? Are you Mohammed Al-Fayed? I thought he was the only person stupid enough and sufficiently free of embarrassment to talk about that.

“Most Americans see the Royals as celebrities”.

Americans have the silly institution of the First Lady, which the UK wisely. does not have. Who votes for her and why is she always in our faces? Yet, British people really don’t get worked up about it. If the Americans want her, they can keep the institution.

Professional help may be in order so that you can stop reading obsessively about an institution that irritates yet fascinates you.

R224

Event you describe is told in linked piece above. Queen Alexandra did not move until her ladies gathered up everyone of the loose pearls.

Only HM and perhaps select ladies knew which pearls were real versus fake. Can you imagine a Queen Consort of England, or any other woman for that matter allowing real pearls to just roll off and not be bothered?

News media of the time recorded event, and of course other people were in attendance as well. There would have been a scandal either way if HM had not ordered wandering pearls gathered up, or if she didn't bother and word got out they were fake.

Just as cultured pearls changed the market once dominated by real, arrival of fake or "dipped" shook things up as well. From a distance you really cannot tell good fake pearls from either cultured or real. And often without use of an X-ray cannot tell difference between the two latter either.

True expensive real or cultured pearl necklaces or chokers are most always on hand knotted strands. This in theory should prevent entire lot going if strand broke, which happened more often than many imagine. OTOH cheap fakes may not have been on knotted strands, so when something broke entire lot gave way.

Do we know if Mary ever gave a blowjob or did anal?

[quote] News media of the time recorded event

Link?

I'm sure they must have done it through a hole in a sheet otherwise separating them from body contact. Mary was a whole lot of woman for Lil Georgie. Good thing he never had to worry about satisfying her, being the King and all...

She wasn't interested in being satisfied. Mary wasn't a WHORE!

R249 our First Ladies are awesome. At least they come & go with their husband's. Besides, being FL is not a real thing. It's just an honorary role for the presidents wife.

We've had some pretty legendary & iconic women hold that position over the centuries. Way more interesting than royals. They actually get involved socially & help to effect change in society & use their voices for good, instead of the royals who have a voice and a platform and allow the whole thing to go to waste and not speaking out on injustice in the world. But I guess that would go against their position as royals, because they themselves represent everything wrong with the world today. Unearned wealth position & fame etc.

If they speak to much they end up speaking against themselves. So I guess it's best they keep their mouths firmly shut!

The royals...what a waste.

FL is not a real thing? What is it then?

I so agree, R255! The spouse of your previous President, for example! The royals…what a waste?

That is soooooo funneeeee R251!

American humour at its finest - you must be proud.

You’re right, R255, our First Ladies are awesome.

I have it on good authority that Our Mrs Woodrow Wilson taught Princess May of Teck the ins and outs of analingus after the 1919 Peace Treaty.

On the subject of their sex life though. There was a story I heard somewhere that when at York cottage they had love cushions on their bed with "May" and "George" embroidered on them. When George was in the mood he'd put them together to read "May George" and Mary would reply by arranging them to read "George May" if she didn't have a headache. Which is frankly far more romantic and respectful of his wife's wishes than I'd expect from George V.

Wasn't so much about her husband being "in the mood", but more about Princess Mary being inconvenienced by her time of month.

R250 = the chambermaid.

Mistress of the Robes, thank you very much!

Mistress of the Blood

R259 Edith taught the analingual techniques to May.

Clockwise then anti-clockwise.

The Mistresses Of The Bedchamber knew all about this secret stuff.

The American Edith Wilson passed on a 'Pillow Book' which was then handed down through the following generations.

Cynthia Spencer, Countess Spencer who waited upon Queen Elizabeth ( Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon) was grandmother to Lady Diana Spencer.

R260, great story but they had separate bedrooms.

Five out of six children born to George V and Queen Mary were during their time at York Cottage. Though small by royal standards it was large enough for Princess Mary of York to have separate bedroom from her husband.

Story about embroidered pillows has been told often enough by various sources. All Prince George of York had to do was peek into his wife's rooms and see which way cushions were ordered.

It was a different time and place, but overall we're talking about upper class British here; people that just don't say certain things.

Women were much of a mystery to men then as today. Technically perhaps only the week Redcoats had set up camp should have kept Princess Mary indisposed. But week previous could have been things that commonly plague some females before.

In any event the couple had five children in rather quick order. Thus Georgie obviously got the "may" more often than "may not".

Prince George, Duke of York, Princess Mary of York and their young family.

Contrary to popular rumor clocks at Sandringham were not set ahead (as mentioned in clip provided in R84) due to Queen Alexandra's tardiness.

Rather Edward VII in attempts to make Sandringham a show place eked out an extra hour of daylight by turning clocks ahead. Version of Daylight Savings Time if you will.

Love this scene from "The Crown" where the Dowager Queen comes in like a ghost and curtsies to the new Queen.

When Princess Elizabeth was informed she was now monarch one of her first words were that she needed to hurry home, "granny must be the first to kiss my hand".

"Granny" of course was Queen Mary.

After George V breathed his last, exhausted Queen Mary turned to her eldest son, the Prince of Wales and bowed a deep curtsey, then kissed his hand. Now widowed Queen Mary then withdrew from the room and was lead to her own apartments.

It was the complete opposite. Queen Mary said she must be the first to kiss Queen Elizabeth's hand.

Please don't contribute when you know shite

QEII would have never suggested that her grandmother kiss her hand. Ridiculous.

[quote] Why are their so many brits always willing to defend the BRF?

It's also a natural human response for a certain portion of the populace of any group to be more comfortable with 'the devil you know.'

And honestly there are good reasons for that r276. It's not that people should put up with something just because it's familiar. It's more that fantasies of, hey let's get rid of the BRF and we'll end corruption and waste in government, are rather stupid when you get right down to it. It's like all the lies that were told about Brexit and all the great things that would come when you get rid of this one source of annoyance. They rarely materialize, or something worse comes out of it.

From one of the comments at r272:

[quote] when Queen Mary greeted Queen Elizabeth II for the first time after Elizabeth became Sovereign, she gave a deep curtsy and said "let your poor Granny and subject be the first to kiss your hand". Queen Mary was also a stickler for protocol. Always having dinner in a tiara. As a princess, Elizabeth did not have to curtsy to her parents (King Geoge VI and Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother) in private, but she ALWAYS had to curtsy to Queen Mary. I also read that on her death bed, a maid turned her back on Queen Mary and forgot to curtsy, upon which Queen Mary said: "I'm not dead yet".

MARY! of Teck

R240 etc must be another account of DL's resident Meghan Markle fancunt, she's always posting the same lame diatribes regarding the British Royal Family.

Funny that it's La Markle who's clinging to that Duchess of Sussex title she got thanks to having married into the Royal Family. You know, she could persuade Harry to give up his titles, alas . . .

And funny that her obnoxious fanfish constantly post those diatribes against the Royal Family but don't mind Meghan being the Duchess of Sussex . . .

Is the Greville tiara the one Princess Eugenie wore for her wedding?

Tiara Troll to the rescue!

Yes, made by Boucheron.

Well, according to this Wikipedia site, there are two Greville tiaras, one that Eugenie got to wear (the one with the huge emerald) and another one Camilla wears a lot these days.

One of you adorable bitches created that Wikipedia site, just admit it. :-*

So the famous Cambridge Lovers Knot tiara was commissioned by Mary . . . Mary!!!

[quote] In 1913, Queen Mary asked Garrard & Co. to make a copy of a tiara owned by her grandmother, Princess Augusta of Hesse-Kassel, using Queen Mary's own diamonds and pearls. French in its neo-classical design, the tiara has 19 oriental pearls suspended from lover's knot bows each centred with a large brilliant. Mary left the tiara to Elizabeth II, who later gave it to Diana, Princess of Wales, as a wedding present. She wore it often, notably with her 'Elvis dress' on a visit to Hong Kong in 1989, but on her divorce from Prince Charles it was returned to Elizabeth. The Duchess of Cambridge has worn it to a number of state occasions since 2015.

Oh no. :-(

[quote] Queen Mary's Diamond Bandeau Tiara The tiara was made in 1932 for Queen Mary. Its centre brooch had been a wedding gift from the County of Lincoln in 1893. The tiara is a platinum band, made up of eleven sections, a detachable centre brooch with interlaced opals and diamonds. The tiara was lent to the Duchess of Sussex to use at her wedding to Prince Harry in 2018.

R283, there are multiple Greville tiaras, not just 2.

Mrs. Greville, who adored royalty, bequeathed them a motherlode.

The goods. Mrs. Ronnie should be a movie.

More on the various pieces at a hotlink at the bottom- label: origin Greville request. ... the emerald necklace could open a head wound if wielded.

[quote]Mrs. Ronnie should be a movie.

Why, thank you!

[quote]And I doubt Queen Mary ever fornicated with footmen.

Don't be too sure ....

[quote]supposedly she saw her children for about 15 minutes on a normal day, less on other days or if she was traveling. The meetings were described as Mary sitting ramrod-straight in her chair, doing needlework, with The King usually standing by the window or fireplace fiddling with his watch. The children would be brought in, and Mary would languidly extend several fingers of her hand for them to kiss. She might inquire of their well being and of their school lessons, and behavior issues she had been apprised of, and important news in the Empire. The interview was short, and the children would then be dismissed. Neither George nor Mary were natural with children.

I see nothing untoward about this behavior.

In my experience with children, fifteen minutes is all the time needed if you've got a good grip on things.

Here if any of you need something to wear with your emerald-green caftan...

Maggie Grenville was apparently frightful unless you were royal or very very rich. One society lady said that she’d rather have an open sewer running through her drawing room than Maggie Greville.

On the surface it seems that it was very foolish of Mrs. Greville to leave that much jewelry to a royal family that already had vaults full, but hey - we're still talking about her!

80 years after the bequest itself, we're still talking about her, and the name "Greville" is in the press every time one of the pieces appears. By leaving her jewels to the royals, she gained posthumous fame, and that was probably the idea.

I've been to Polesden Lacey. Nice dining room. The rest left me flat. A comfortable but not palatial country house. Not even grand, really.

Maggie’s ferocious snobbery stemmed from the fact that her parents didn’t marry until she was 21. Her mother was a cook married to a porter. Her bio father was wealthy and upper middle class and only married his mistress when her husband died.

It was largely down to incredible insecurity.

R296

Same would have happened to greater effect if Mrs. Greenville had auctioned off those jewels with proceeds going to a charitable trust.

It's true Mary would see her children only 15 minutes a day, even after they were adults. When Edward VIII wanted to ask her why she wouldn't receive Mrs. Simpson at court, he had to arrange an audience through her private secretary. Once finally face to face, he posed the question. "Because she is an adventuress" Mary famously replied, turned her back on him and left the room.

But Mary and her daughter in law were both happy to suck up to a bastard hag, and benefited with a fabulous jewel collection. Proves they've all been grifting for centuries.

You don't have to suck up to someone who's sucking up to you, crimestopper.

As status conscious as those two bags were, they never would have had a thing to do with the beer heiress if there wasn't money in it for them.

They were royalty in mid-century 1900s Britain. Status is taken for granted when everything's beneath you.

As Nancy Mitford once wrote to Evelyn Waugh about the royals’ view of their place at the apex of the social hierarchy: “the cook and the Dowager Countess of Stanley - all the same”.

Queen Mary was famous for describing people as “poor” - not because they were impecunious, but because they weren’t royal. She once described the then queen of New York society as “poor Mrs Vanderbilt”.

^ Tell me about it, and I'm her own child!

Correction - Dowager Countess of Airlie, not Stanley- but you get the picture.

R305, QM also frequently referred to herself as poor, as in "your poor granny" when communicating with her granddaughters.

"Queen" Mary sounds like she was a hard Cunt!

Why was she so nasty? She had everything & yet so nasty. Being that nasty is not lady like.

I guess having the title of "Royalty" would make you a Cunt. She was drunk with power & conceited as fuck.

I was reading about the Teck family on Wikipedia. They became Marquesses of Cambridge, but all the noble titles died out and the only descendants are regular commoners.

Speaking of the Teck family ... Was Mary's 20-year old nephew, Rupert Cambridge, Viscount Trematon aka "Prince Rupert of Teck" on his way to Le Zanzibar in Cannes when he crashed his car in April 1928?

Reports say that he and his two male traveling companions had left Gay Paree and were headed to Cannes. Witnesses said Rupert was speeding on the road between Paris and Lyon when he tried to pass another vehicle and ending up crashing into a tree. One of the other young men died from his injuries.

Rupert was taken to the hospital in Lyon, and initially it was reported that he had sustained "a slight fracture to the skull" and expected to live. Of course, there was no mention of Rupert's hemophilia, but Queen Ena of Spain (who was a cousin to Rupert's mother and had two hemophiliac sons herself) knew of Rupert's medical condition and dispatched a specialist.

Alas, poor Rupert ended up dying of a brain bleed several days later.

[quote] It's true Mary would see her children only 15 minutes a day

Most parents gave only one hour.

Between 6.30 and 7.30.

That American named Lillian Hellman called it The Children's Hour'.

It was common in upper class families of that time for children to only see their parents for a brief time each day. It was totally different back then, upper class parents didn't have much to do with their children.

[quote] upper class parents didn't have much to do with their children.

They left the parenting to the professionals; nannies, governesses and wet nurses etc etc.

Just like today's single-parent Americans leave the parenting to the professionals; school teachers, social workers, policemen, magistrates etc etc.

R311, do you think one of the passengers was giving Rupert a blow job?

r312 Bitch, please.....

- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

[quote] The royals...what a waste.

And yet here you are, reading a thread about one of them and posting on it!

LOL r316!

On top of it, Queen Mary had a crazy nanny that would pinch the children as she brought them in so they would be crying. She also underfed the future George VI, since she favored Edward.

This bitch is kind of boring g and non-fun.

Now Charles II was an interesting guy. Hell, even fat sow Victoria liked her coke, opium and reefer.