Royal Anecdotes

[stellastarr]

Oh, these are wonderful! I hope they keep coming, because this is definitely my favorite thread.

[tiaraprin]

Another of my favorite anecdotes concerns Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.

When Charles was young, he lost one of the dog leads. He came back without it and the Queen made him go back out and look for it. Charles grumbled and asked why he had to go look for it. The Queen told him "Dog leads cost money." Her Majesty is parsimonious!!

[Eva-Britt]

Pieter van Vollenhoven when he was in holiday: 'I want to have a discount (good word??) for this clothes!' The woman in the shop asked 'Why?' ' Because my wife is a princess.' The woman answered 'Then you must have a lot of money!' and he answered 'No that's the problem in fact, she is a princess and she has all the money, I have nothing!'

[tiaraprin]

Originally Posted by Splodger

Its one of those Motor Mouth Royal moments when someone speaks before thinking... and from my previous posts regarding Princess Alice... you can see where Prince Philip and his children get it from!

Princess Anne: One day upon leaving the Church at Sandringham, Princess Anne was given a basket of flowers by a well wishing member of the public. Excited that she was at the front of the spectators and that she had been fortunate enough to be able to hand her flowers directly to the Princess, the women remarked "I arranged them my self," to which the Princess replied "Really? Why did you bother doing that!" and carried on down the road. It is not known what Anne ment by this comment and if it should have been "oh thank you, you really shouldnt have spent so much time on it for us." However the well wisher was offended but is still a fan of the Royal Family.

I feel bad for that poor lady!! I hope Anne meant it as a "you didn't have to waste your time on me doing that!"

[Splodger]

Originally Posted by CATS

Prince Charles has temper so he's reaction would have been nasty too. Prince Edward I not sure what would have done.

Prince Edward would probably have pulled out a video camera and filmed the whole thing before turning it into a documentry later.

[Harry's polo shirt]

Originally Posted by Splodger

Prince Edward would probably have pulled out a video camera and filmed the whole thing before turning it into a documentry later.

hahahahahahaha that is brilliant... hahahahaha*dies*

[cd_1]

ok, thanks tiger, but its really weird that they have funeral rehersals!thats like saying, we cant wait till your dead, we practice every year!

[Dennism]

Originally Posted by Eva-Britt

Pieter van Vollenhoven when he was in holiday: 'I want to have a discount (good word??) for this clothes!' The woman in the shop asked 'Why?' ' Because my wife is a princess.' The woman answered 'Then you must have a lot of money!' and he answered 'No that's the problem in fact, she is a princess and she has all the money, I have nothing!'

Yes, a discount. The perfect word for that context. That is funny. I think many a man would feel like saying that sometimes too.

[gaggleofcrazypeople]

Originally Posted by tiaraprin

Another of my favorite anecdotes concerns Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.

When Charles was young, he lost one of the dog leads. He came back without it and the Queen made him go back out and look for it. Charles grumbled and asked why he had to go look for it. The Queen told him "Dog leads cost money." Her Majesty is parsimonious!!

I never thought she would be so cheap!

[Von Schlesian]

Originally Posted by gaggleofcrazypeople

I never thought she would be so cheap!

Cheap?! Her Majesty was teaching His Royal Highness a valuable lesson in thriftiness, please keep in mind, Her Majesty was a child of the Second World War, and has a strong reputation of not wasting money, or much else: electricity, paper, dog leads etc!

[tiger]

I think they have such a rehersal to be shure that everything is perfect. Between the death and the funeral of a Royal you havn't very much time for planing as for a wedding or so. So I think it is quiet normal to do so. I know that they have done the cortege by night with an empty carriage.

[tiaraprin]

Originally Posted by Dennism

Yes, a discount. The perfect word for that context. That is funny. I think many a man would feel like saying that sometimes too.

That is too funny!!!:p

[iowabelle]

Originally Posted by Von Schlesian

Cheap?! Her Majesty was teaching His Royal Highness a valuable lesson in thriftiness, please keep in mind, Her Majesty was a child of the Second World War, and has a strong reputation of not wasting money, or much else: electricity, paper, dog leads etc!

It must have worked -- in some areas. I hear he is a maniac about left-overs and what the staff eats. And he has one of those things you put on a tube of toothpaste to get the very last bit out. (I heard it was silver but maybe I'm wrong.) Very handy for a prince's butler when it comes to squeezing out HRH's toothpaste!

[Furienna]

Someone asked for an anecdote from the Swedish royal family. Well, I have one. Unfortuneately, you have to know both English and Swedish to really appreciate it. Our king's father Prince Gustaf Adolf had four younger siblings: Prince Sigvard, Princess Ingrid (later queen of Denmark), Prince Bertil and Prince Carl Johan. All these five siblings were the children of future king Gustav VI Adolf and his Brittish wife Margareth of Connaught, and at home, they spoke both Swedish and English. As they got grew up, they learned to tell the languages apart, but as small children, they could still mix them up. And in his autobiography, Prince Sigvard writes, that one morning, a little Prince Bertil came down saying "Jag smeller bacon!" He mixed up the English sentence "I smell bacon" with Swedish words!

[JessRulz]

I have one about Queen Louise of Sweden that I read somewhere on this forum:
When she was visiting London once, Louise had been put in a hotel across the road from Harrods. She would continuously walk out across the road to get to the store without looking for cars, nearly getting run over on numerous ocassions. So, one day, she had someone write on a piece of cardboard 'Queen of Sweden' so that as she was walking across the road she could hold it up and people would stop!!

[norwegianne]

Originally Posted by auntie

How were they uncle and nephew?

George was the son of George who was the brother of Maud - Haakon's wife.

Other anecdotes:

Astrid and Ragnhild of Norway
When they were little girls, Princesses Ragnhild and Astrid of Norway came across another girl who had a fancy doll with various accessories. The princesses expressed their admiration. The other girl asked why, since they were princesses they could have as many dolls as they wanted.

One of the princesses replied: No, we can't. We just have to behave better than others.

King Harald
When the royal family of Norway was in exile during WWII - Princesses Ragnhild and Astrid came across their little brother, Harald, before Christmas. Harald was sewing buttons onto a piece of cloth.

"what are you making?" one of the princesses asked.

"It's a christmas present for the President [Roosevelt]" the young prince replied.

"Buttons?"

"Yes, it can be very irritating when you loose a button in your pajamas," the prince replied.

[crisiñaki]

Great stories everybody!:)

I'll go with the Spanish Royal Family:

1. When KJC (then the Prince of Asturias) wanted to get engaged to QS (then Princess of Greece) he didn't ask the "proper" way (you know, bend in one knee and ask and stuff). They were (with their parents) in a hotel in Switzerland and Juan took a box out of his pocket and threw it at her and said: "Sofi, catch it" and it was the engagement ring; I guess words weren't needed back then

2. The SRF doesn't live in the Royal Palace in Madrid because King Alfonso XIII scared his grandson Prince Juan Carlos with stories about haunted spirits and cold food (the kitchens are so far away from the dinning room that they always had cold food back then); that's the reason they (KJC and QS) decided to live in la Zarzuela, their actual home

[Furienna]

But Zarzuela still is in Madrid?

[lula]

Originally Posted by crisiñaki

Great stories everybody!:)

I'll go with the Spanish Royal Family:

2. The SRF doesn't live in the Royal Palace in Madrid because King Alfonso XIII scared his grandson Prince Juan Carlos with stories about haunted spirits and cold food (the kitchens are so far away from the dinning room that they always had cold food back then); that's the reason they (KJC and QS) decided to live in la Zarzuela, their actual home

I do not believe that this it was the principal reason, though the legend is graceful.

The Princes were living already in the Zarzuela, where they were taking a very familiar life, and they were thinking that this house was a real home. In addition, for questions of privacy and of safety La Zarzuela is much more comfortable.

The Royal Palace was an immense, relatively old palace because it was going more than 40 years without being used, to rehabilitate it it had been excessively expensive, for a Kings who were coming without knew which was going to be their future and for a country with a bad economy.
In addition, the balcony of the Royal Palace had been used by Franco during decades, and for many Spanish that one was an evil remember. The Palace had a few political negative links, and was not very intelligent to use it how home of the new Chief of State.

[crisiñaki]

Originally Posted by Furienna

But Zarzuela still is in Madrid?

It's near but not in Madrid's downtown like the Royal Palace is

La Zarzuela used to be a palace for the Kings when they were hunting so it's just outside of Madrid, near El Pardo

Here's a view of la Zarzuela:
http://maps.google.es/maps?f=q&hl=es...05407&t=h&om=1

I hope I have gotten it right:o:o:o