Adel in Limburg

Dit jaar zal een repertorium verschijnen over de adel in Limburg.

Het boek Adel in ‘Limburg’ Een verkenning biedt u volgens de auteur een compleet overzicht van geslachten die het ‘gezicht’ van Limburg mee hebben bepaald.
Lou Heynens, schrijver, kenner en publicist over adel en kastelen, inventariseerde de adellijke geslachten in Limburg vanaf 1590 tot 1960. Dat betekent 350 jaar adelsgeschiedenis.

In alfabetische volgorde beschrijft Heynens de geslachten vanuit diverse invalshoeken met als themapunten: herkomst van geslacht en adeldom, politieke functies en kastelenbezit. Dit resulteert in een naslagwerk; volgens de auteur het allereerste complete overzicht van 200 adellijke familie’s, verlucht met kwartierstaten, kasteel- en portretfoto’s, analyses en overzichten.

Het zal de geïnteresseerde niet verbazen dat veel geslachten hun oorsprong vinden in de provincies van de Zuidelijke Nederlanden of het vorstendom Luik, het huidige België.

U kunt het boek bestellen via Lou Heynens, St. Antoniuslaan 44-B, NL 6221 XK Maastricht. U kunt ook bestellen per E-mail: louheynens@planet.nl. Bij verschijnen ontvangt u de bestelling thuis met een betaalkaart.

Prince William To Be Made Knight Of Garter

To mark St George's Day, the Queen has made her senior grandson, Prince William, the 1,000th Knight of the Garter in the 660th anniversary of Britain's oldest order of chivalry, which was founded in 1348 by King Edward III.

William will be invested by his grandmother at a private ceremony soon, after which he will be able to wear the well-known blue sash across his left shoulder and the silver star with the red cross of St George on his chest, as monarchs, royalty and many famous Englishmen have done for centuries.

On June 16, at Windsor Castle, he will be invested with a blue velvet garter around the left leg, below the knee, with the motto, in gold letters, "Honi soit qui mal y pense", which translates as "Shame to those who think evil of it".

Afterwards he will process through the castle wearing dark blue robes, a Tudor hat and ostrich feathers to St George's Chapel to be 'installed' under heraldic banners, helmets and the brass plates of knights that date back to the foundation.

He has been created a Royal Knight, which means that he does not constitute one of the limited number of 26 Knights, or Ladies, Companion that make up the core of the Order.

The statutes limited membership to the English monarch, the Prince of Wales and 24 other Knights Companion.

This is why William's father became a Knight of the Garter at the tender age of nine, because this is when the Queen made him Prince of Wales - and the Garter comes with the job.

One day, when he becomes king, William will be head of the order, or Sovereign.

The first Knight of the Garter was the Black Prince, who was Edward III's eldest son.

The Black Prince led English troops successfully against the French during the opening campaigns of the Hundred Years War, which was about King Edward's claim to the French throne.

For this reason, the colour of the order is blue, which was the royal livery of the kings of France.

In the strict order of knights, William appears as 999. However, historians compiling this list have overlooked the founder, Edward III, who was the uncounted knight, making William the 1000th.

Lord Luce and Sir Thomas Dunne have also been nominated today.

Recent famous knights include Sir Winston Churchill, Lord Montgomery and, more recently Baroness Thatcher.

The Queen opened the order to women in 1987.

By Sky News SkyNews - Wednesday, April 23 12:55 am

Zu Gast beim jungen Welfenprinzen

Wer Prinz Ernst August jr. von Hannover treffen möchte, muss normalerweise weit reisen. Der älteste Sohn von Prinzessin Carolines Ehemann lebt in New York. Manchmal weilt er aber auch auf seinem Schloss, der Marienburg, die zwischen Nordstemmen und Schulenburg bei Hannover liegt. Das hat er von seinem Großvater geerbt, der ebenfalls Ernst August hieß. Vor einigen Tagen war der junge Prinz mal wieder zu Hause. Und er hatte sich Gäste eingeladen. Anlass war eine Gala auf der Marienburg zum 850. Geburtstag der Stadt München, die von einst vom Welfen Heinrich dem Löwen gegründet worden war.

Der junge Schlossherr begrüßte jeden seiner 60 Gäste mit Handschlag und zeigte sich schlagfertig. Als ihm einer der Anwesenden mitteilte, dass er beim Gang durch die Räume eine tote Maus entdeckt habe, erwiderte der Prinz: „Besser als eine tote Katze...“ Beim Dinner (es gab Münchner Festtagssuppe, Kalbsvögerl mit leichter Biersoße, getrüffeltem Spitzkohl und Kartoffelplätzchen und zum Nachtisch Welfenspeise und Bayerisch` Creme, das Bier wurde in mit einer goldenen Krone verzierten Gläsern ausgeschenkt) plauschte er mit Münchens Tourismuschefin Gabriele Weishäupl. Eine Rede wollte er allerdings nicht halten. Dies überließ Ernst August jr. seinem Schlossverwalter Mauritz von Reden. Der freute sich über rund 200 000 Gäste, die jedes Jahr die Marienburg besuchen und drückte seine Hoffnung aus, dass noch mehr Besucher aus München kommen werden.

Vor Japanern kann sich der Junior-Prinz schon heute nicht mehr retten. Sie fallen in Horden, mit Digitalkameras bewaffnet, auf der Burg ein. Vergangenes Wochenende heiratete dort erstmals ein Paar aus Japan. Shiro Miyazaki und seine Braut Wataru gaben sich in der Schlosskapelle nach christlichem Ritus das Ja-Wort. Obwohl beide Buddhisten sind. Ein Pastor mit „buddhistischer Ausbildung“ war extra aus Oberhausen gekommen. Auch hofft man auf russische Hochzeitspaare. Mauritz von Reden: „Wir bewerben gezielt den osteuropäischen Markt.“ Nach der Trauung und einem festlichen Mittagessen reiste das japanische Paar weiter. Wohin? Natürlich nach München – ins Hofbräuhaus.

Source: BUNTE Royal - Stefan Blatt

Act repeal could make Franz Herzog von Bayern new King of England and Scotland

Gordon Brown is considering repealing the 1701 Act of Settlement as a way of healing a historic injustice by ending the prohibition against Catholics taking the throne.

The Duke of Bavaria, with his niece Elisabeth, is a descendant of King Charles I.

But doing so would have the unforeseen consequence of making a 74-year-old German aristocrat the new King of England and Scotland.

Without the Act, Franz Herzog von Bayern, the current Duke of Bavaria, would be the rightful heir to the British Crown under the Stuart line.

The bachelor, who lives alone in the vast Nymphenberg Palace in Munich, is the blood descendant of the 17th-century King Charles I.

"If it [the Act] goes then the whole Catholic line is reinstated," said Prof Daniel Szechi, a lecturer in early modern history at the University of Manchester.

"Franz becomes the rightful claimant to the throne. We would just exchange one German family for another one."

The Act was introduced as part of the power struggle between Parliament, the Christian churches and the monarchy, then dominated by the House of Stuart.

It prohibits any Roman Catholic from having access to the throne, even through marriage. Once a person marries a "Papist" they shall be "for ever incapable to inherit, possess or enjoy the Crown", it asserts.

The legislation effectively severed the Stuart line of succession, a family who favoured Catholicism, and switched it to their distant relatives the Hanoverians, from which our current Queen descends. James II, the son of King Charles, fled into exile.

The Stuarts stopped making claims to the Crown after the death of Henry Benedict Stuart (known to the Jacobites as Henry IX) in 1807, but there remains bitter feeling among many Catholics at their treatment.



The Royal Stuart Society still holds annual vigils at the bronze statue of Charles I in Trafalgar Square.

The Act of Settlement's reach continues today. Prince Michael of Kent renounced his claim to the throne when he married Marie-Christine von Reibnitz, a Catholic divorcee, in 1978.

Next month Peter Phillips, 30, the eldest grandson of the Queen and 11th in line to the throne, will automatically lose his birthright by marrying Autumn Kelly, a Canadian Catholic.

The Act has recently come under attack from Church leaders and MPs, in particular Scottish MPs, as an unjustifiable discrimination.

In the face of this new pressure, the Prime Minister indicated he would consider abolishing the legislation as it was "antiquated" and discriminatory.

Jack Straw, the Justice Secretary, whose brief includes constitutional affairs, said the Government was ready to consider repealing the Act, although he added that it was an extremely complicated issue.

Dr Eveline Cruikshanks, the author of The Glorious Revolution and a former president of the Royal Stuart Society, said: "They ought to repeal the Act. The language is particularly offensive to Catholics and should go."

Patrick Cracroft-Brennan, the editor of Cracroft's Peerage, said that while theoretically the Duke's claim was good, it could never be actioned because Parliament now effectively chose the monarch.

"It is a very interesting hypothesis and theoretically he is the head of the House of Stuart," he said. "But the Government effectively chooses the monarch now and it is highly unlikely to remove the Windsors from the throne."

As for the Duke of Bavaria himself, he is a reluctant heir.

The graduate in economics, who values his privacy, has always laughed off pretensions to the British crown and prefers to concentrate on his modern art collection.

Baron Marcus Bechtolsheim, the president of the administration of the Duke of Bavaria, said: "The Duke generally does not comment on this issue because he sees it as an entirely British question which does not concern him. And he regards it as a purely hypothetical issue.

"Even if this change in Britain happens, it won't change his attitude. All this interest in his opinion makes him smile because, really, he is very happy and satisfied with being the Duke of Bavaria."

By Richard Alleyne and Harry de Quetteville
Last Updated: 2:48am BST 07/04/2008
Source: Telegraph.co.uk

The Red Baron (German title: Der Rote Baron) is an upcoming 2008 feature film about legendary fighter pilot Manfred von Richthofen.

Plot
Baron Manfred von Richthofen is the most feared and celebrated pilot of the Imperial German Air Service in World War I. To him and his companions, air combats are events of sporty nature, technical challenge and honorable acting, ignoring the terrible extent of war. But after being wounded in action, he falls in love with the nurse Käte and realizes he is only being manipulated for propaganda. Torn between his disgust for the war and his duty to his men, von Richthofen sets out to fly again.

Controversy
It has been reported that the movie portrays Canadian pilot Roy Brown killing the Baron. Modern research has shown that Brown could not have killed von Richthofen, as he did not fire at him from the angle at which the fatal bullet approached, or within the right timeframe, although he was given credit for it by the Royal Air Force. It is now believed that Australian machine gunner Cedric Popkin, or another Australian soldier, killed the baron.

Director Nikolai Müllerschön has said:
A meticulous reconstruction of the Baron's life and the historical setting was not uppermost in mind, that didn't interest me so much. It is more important to see what is relevant for people today. I saw no sense in making the film like a well-researched documentary. However, during my preparation on the film and looking into the story of his life, the man seems to be more like how I thought he should be.

There has never been any historical evidence to purport the story that Manfred von Richthofen was ever romantically linked with his nurse.

The Red Baron - The Movie