The Cost of the Monarchy

Generally speaking, I dislike the "penny pinching" attitude towards the monarchy in this country - or any government, in fact. In this case, it's not monarchy-specific. Realistically, unless it's some bloated Mugabe-esque dictatorship, it's almost impossible for the office of the Head of State and its expenditure to "cripple" a nation's finances. Lurid and inaccurate historical fantasies of the cost of running Versailles in the days before the French Revolution have convinced subsequent generations that monarchies are not just financially wasteful, but ruinously so. (That Versailles and the entire mechanism of the monarchy throughout the federalist structure of France accounted for less than 6% of the national budget in 1788 - admittedly grossly high by the standards of any other contemporary or subsequent monarchy - is a fact either unknown or wilfully overlooked.)

Frankly, I don't really care how much the monarchy costs and if the country ever gets to the stage where it can't afford the Royal Household, then we'll probably have much bigger problems than some squabble over hereditary succession. No-one suggests the United States does away with Presidential inaugurations, the expense of four year presidential elections, the enormous White House security budget or Air Force One because they're too "expensive" and I've never understood the insistence of the British republican movement about fixating on the cost of the monarchy, all of which seems to me to reflect a desire to want to run the Office of the Head of State in this country like a regional branch of the Civil Service - namely as drab, colourless and cheap as possible.

As ever, it turns out it's the "cheap" things that cost the most - modern republics are often far more expensive to run, bizarrely, than most modern monarchies. And the Royal Family's accounts for this year reveal that the Household is costing the average British taxpayer just under 67p per year.

Anne Boleyn: A Talent for Obsession

Claire at The Anne Boleyn Files runs a very interesting article, based on the recent opinion piece by British playwright, Howard Brenton, discussing Anne Boleyn's curious ability to inspire obsession in people, even five hundred years after her terrible death.

"Today there is a fast-growing Anne Boleyn cult. She appeals both to adolescents and to ageing romantics. Her story has a Wagnerian intensity of love, death and betrayal, shot through with a very un-Wagnerian sense of reckless fun, of daring sexiness. But there is a deeper reason for the growing obsession with her. The flowers acknowledge an unease; we love her story but feel guilty toward her. I think I've understood why and it's made me a paid-up cult member."

The Coronation of Katherine of Aragon

Stephanie A. Mann, author of the book Supremacy and Survival: How Catholics Endured the English Reformation, has an account of the coronation of the 17 year-old Henry VIII and his 23 year-old queen, Katherine of Aragon, in 1509. This year is the 501st anniversary of that coronation. With the exception of Anne Boleyn, none of Henry's other wives were crowned and, as such, Katherine and Anne were the last women to undergo the full panoply of the medieval Catholic Queen's Coronation in England. By the time the next Queen-consort, Anne of Denmark, was crowned in 1603, England was a Protestant nation and the ancient rite of the Coronation rite was much-altered.

Stephanie's account can be read here.

Early Christian icons uncovered

Firstly, a word of condolence to the Northern Irish blogger, "Lord Belmont in Northern Ireland," whose posts on the history of the Protestant Ascendancy in Ulster and their surviving (or vanished) homes are both invaluable and fascinating. He sadly lost his mother, whom he affectionately nicknamed "the Dowager," when she passed away peacefully at 10 p.m. on Saturday, June 19th. Sincere condolences, thoughts and prayers to him and his family at this sad time.

Secondly, and on an unrelated note, excavations in Rome have uncovered some of the earliest surviving Christian icons of Saint Peter, Saint John the Evangelist and Saint Andrew (above; the patron saint of Scotland), as well as the evangelical Saint Paul, author of much of the latter-half of the New Testament. They were discovered in Santa Tecla catacombs beneath the Eternal City.

MSNBC has more on the story, including accounts of how lasers were used to help uncover these artifacts, the happy partnership between religion and science which helped unearth them and a little on their historical significance.

The Burning of the Fair Gospeller

Claire at The Anne Boleyn Files gives a fantastic, if grotesque, account of the horrible and hideous death of Anne Askew, a young Protestant convert savagely tortured and then executed for her beliefs during the last years of the already-bloody reign of King Henry VIII. Whatever one might think of Anne Askew's beliefs, there can be no real doubting her incredible bravery.

To quote Claire: -

"There is no doubt that Anne Askew was a martyr and an incredible woman. She was just 25 years old when she died but what an amazing life she had led. In an age where women were supposed to be submissive, and have no voice or opinions of their own, she was an outspoken preacher and died for her faith, remaining true to her friends and beliefs, whatever the cost. I admire her."

Read the full article here.

Summer Reading

So, I have arrived in Connecticut to spend two weeks with my friend, Alexa. I'm off to D.C. for two days to catch-up with some old friends from school and the delightful Courtney Pannell.

With the 7 hour flight from London and a two hour train ride from Grand Central to New Haven, I wanted to bring along some summer reading. Of course, I should probably be spending this time working on my sequel to "Popular," but working on an aeroplane or on the Metro North railroad is pretty difficult! I think I'm going to wait until I reach Alexa's beautiful family home in New Canaan, to start writing by the pool-side, and, of course, to catch-up with her wonderful family, who I had such a happy summer with last year.

In my carrier bag is a copy of Mary Lovell's utterly fantastic, sympathetic and pithy book "The Mitford Girls," a chronicle of the lives of six upper-class English sisters born in the first part of the 20th century. All of them fascinating, many of them controversial. I also brought along Alison Weir's "The Children of England," a great account of the period 1547 - 1558, focusing on the lives of Edward VI, Mary I, Elizabeth I and Lady Jane Grey. I've read it before and I particularly enjoy her account of the "quiet years" for Mary and Elizabeth (if such a thing was possible) during their brother's reign, when they spent their days as great chatelaines and ladies, as well as being powerful landed magnates with immense wealth and vast properties throughout the kingdom.

Upon arrival at Alexa's however, I was even more delighted to discover that two more books were waiting to be added to my summer reading list - "Trianon: A Novel of Royal France" by Elena Maria Vidal and "Eat, Drink & Succeed: Climb Your Way to the Top Using the Networking Power of Social Events" by Laura Schwartz. Two very different books, both gifts from the authors and both wonderfully and very kindly inscribed. I cannot wait to get reading on them both and to post reviews here as soon as possible!

Royal Snub in Ulster?

The news that His Royal Highness Prince Edward, youngest son of our Sovereign, and his wife, Sophie, Countess of Wessex, were not able to eat in a manor house restaurant during a recent visit to Northern Ireland, has not gone down well in many circles.

From what I can tell, it does sound as if the Northern Ireland Office bungled the arrangements and the restaurant's response doesn't seem like a republican snub. However, I can't help but feel that the excuses offered by the proprietor of the property in question, Mr. Damien McFaul, sound a little weak. The Earl and Countess are members of the Royal Family, who were making visits to a beautiful part of Northern Ireland - the concerns of the "privacy" of Mr. McFaul's other guests seems like a silly, indeed dubious, excuse for refusing to cater the Royal party on their visit.

More coverage in The Belfast Telegraph.