Curious & Interesting Royal Facts


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ysbel

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For those of you who thought you knew everything about royalty, here are some curious royal facts that maybe you don't know. And for the rest of us, they're just fun to read. :)


  • Ivan the terrible claimed to have 'deflowered thousands of virgins and butchered a similar number of resulting offspring'.
  • Before the Second World War, it was considered a sacrilege to even touch an Emperor of Japan.
  • In 1647 the English Parliament abolished Christmas (no wonder the English wanted Charles II back on the throne ASAP).
  • King George III was declared violently insane in 1811, 9 years before he died.
  • When George I became King of England in 1714, his wife did not become Queen. He placed her under house arrest for 32 years.
  • Henry VII was the only British King to be crowned on the field of battle
  • Richard II died aged 33 in 1400. A hole was left in the side of his tomb so people could touch his royal head, but 376 years later some took advantage of this and stole his jawbone.
  • The Puritans forbade the singing of Christmas Carols, judging them to be out of keeping with the true spirit of Christmas. Another reason to bring back Charles II.
  • The British did not release the body of Napoleon Bonaparte to the French until twenty days after his death.
  • Catherine the First of Russia, made a rule that no man was allowed to get drunk at one of her parties before nine o'clock.
  • Queen Elizabeth I passed a law which forced everyone except for the rich to wear a flat cap on Sundays.
  • Julius Caesar wore a laurel wreath to cover the onset of baldness.
  • One of Queen Victoria's wedding gifts was a 3 metre diameter, half tonne cheese.
  • Queen Victoria was one of the first women ever to use chloroform to combat pain during childbirth.
  • Peter the Great had the head of his wife's lover cut off and put into a jar of preserving alcohol, which he then ordered to be placed by her bed.
  • Charles the Simple was the grandson of Charles the Bald, both were rulers of France.
  • Augustus II, the Elector of Saxony and King of Poland seemed to have a prodigious sexual appetite, and fathered hundreds of illegitimate children during his lifetime.
  • The Emperor Caligula once decided to go to war with the Roman God of the sea, Poseidon, and ordered his soldiers to throw their spears into the water at random.
  • During the reign of Elizabeth I, there was a tax put on men's beards.
  • Bonnie Prince Charlie, the leader of the Jacobite rebellion to depose of George II of England, was born 31 December 1720. Considered a great Scottish hero, he spent his final years as a drunkard in Rome.
  • Princess Anne was the only competitor at the 1976 Montreal Olympics that did not have to undergo a sex test.
  • Ethelred the Unready, King of England in the Tenth-century, spent his wedding night in bed with his wife and his mother-in-law.
  • The Imperial Throne of Japan has been occupied by the same family for the last thirteen hundred years.
 
[*]
Catherine the First of Russia, made a rule that no man was allowed to get drunk at one of her parties before nine o'clock.



:ROFLMAO: that i so much Catherine the first :ROFLMAO:
 
Well wasn't Catherine I married to Peter the Great who insisted his nobles get drunk before 9 o'clock? :lol:
 
  • When George I became King of England in 1714, his wife did not become Queen. He placed her under house arrest for 32 years.
Why???
  • The British did not release the body of Napoleon Bonaparte to the French until twenty days after his death.
Really thats kinda freaky?
  • Queen Victoria was one of the first women ever to use chloroform to combat pain during childbirth.
We've been learning about that in History recently.
  • Princess Anne was the only competitor at the 1976 Montreal Olympics that did not have to undergo a sex test.
Why, and whats is the sex test for?
  • Ethelred the Unready, King of England in the Tenth-century, spent his wedding night in bed with his wife and his mother-in-law.
Ewwwwwwwwww :(
 
  • Princess Anne was the only competitor at the 1976 Montreal Olympics that did not have to undergo a sex test.
Why, and whats is the sex test for?


Well, it's to see if you can compete in the women's competition or if you belong in the men's competition. Some women have genetically XXY instead of XX, so technically, even though they have all the external and internal "attributes" they would be considered men, and thus not fit to play in the women's competition.​
 
  • King Frederick William I of Prussia collected tall men for his Potsdam Giants guard, using any means necessary, and would even force couplings of tall men and women to produce extra tall children.
  • The last Holy King of Mongolia would hang an electric wire over the wall of his palace. Pilgrims would touch it, get a shock, and think they had received a blessing.
  • The only coherent command Emperor Ferdinand I of Austria ever gave was, "I'm the Emperor and I want noodles!"
  • Emperor Maximilian of Mexico would play pool with his courtiers and make the losers crawl under the table.
  • The last Emperor of China was enthroned and deposed three times.
  • Queen Juana of Castile was so attached to her husband that even after his death she took his corpse everywhere.
  • Emperor Domition of Rome enjoyed torturing flies.
  • German Kaiser Wilhelm I always marked the side of the wine bottle he drank from to ensure the servants were not helping themselves.
  • King George II of Great Britain died going to the bathroom.
  • Emperor Minh Mang of Vietnam had 142 children.
  • King James II of Britain was the last monarch of his country to touch the sick to ward off "the King's Evil".
 
  • Queen Juana of Castile was so attached to her husband that even after his death she took his corpse everywhere.

Really, Castile, is that french?
X
 
Nope, it's as Spanish as bullfights and the inquisition lol She was known as Juana la Loca or Joan the Mad/Joan the Insane
 
  • .... [snipped] The only coherent command Emperor Ferdinand I of Austria ever gave was, "I'm the Emperor and I want noodles!"... [snipped]
I take the liberty of correcting you. The original command in German was "Ich bin der Kaiser und ich will Knödel", which can be translated "I am an Emperor, and I want dumplings". Ferdinand I liked apricot dumplings. However a chef could not prepare the dish because apricots were out of season. I know this fact because it was mentioned multiple times during the course of the German language I took.
 
I enjoy reading these facts. Keep them coming.
 
  • Tibetans believed Queen Victoria to be the reincarnation of the gruesome protective goddess of the Dalai Lamas Palden Llamo.
  • While at an opening of Parliament the Taisho Emperor of Japan rolled his speech up and looked through it like a spyglass when he got bored.
  • Czar Ferdinand I of Bulgaria dreamed of becoming Emperor of a Restored East Roman Empire and carried a costume-shop copy of Byzantine emperors robes with him.
  • Emperor Thanh Thai of Vietnam repeatedly raped palace maids and chewed them up, once beat a eunuch half to death for having no marbles and forced another to drink then had him flogged for drunkenness.
  • The last Emperor of China was such a devout Buddhist that he would not allow flies to be killed in his palace and had any cats chased away for fear they might kill a mouse. He also would not eat anything white or green and would spit whenever he saw something he considered unlucky.
  • The Chinese Empress-Dowager Cixi spent the funds meant to modernize the imperial navy on her own pleasure retreat including a marble boat built in the style of a Mississippi paddle-steamer.
  • Prince Charles III of Monaco expelled the Jesuits from his country after they protested the opening of Monte Carlo casino.
  • Prince Florestan I of Monaco was an actor, totally out of his element as a monarch and was eager to abdicate in favor his son Charles III.
  • When Emperor Ferdinand I of Austria saw riots break out in Vienna he turned to a courtier and asked, "but are they allowed to do that?"
  • Princess Agnes, the American wife of Prince Felix zu Salm-Salm, once tried to seduce a Mexican officer to get her husband out of prison.
  • Queen Elizabeth I was a notoriously difficult guest and once an entire village feigned insanity so she would not stop for a visit.
  • Queen Mary I once called one of her ladies-in-waiting a whore in a joking fashion, having no idea what the word actually meant.
  • Napoleon Bonaparte referred to Queen Luise of Prussia as "the only man" in her country.
  • When Henry VIII of England married Catherine of Aragon they had to speak to each other entirely in Latin.
  • Mary Queen of Scots brought golf to France and had handsome cadets from the French military academy to escort her. She brought this custom home with her as well as the French pronunciation for "cadet" as the term for "caddies".
 
  • When George I became King of England in 1714, his wife did not become Queen. He placed her under house arrest for 32 years.
Why???
  • The British did not release the body of Napoleon Bonaparte to the French until twenty days after his death.
Really thats kinda freaky?
  • Queen Victoria was one of the first women ever to use chloroform to combat pain during childbirth.
We've been learning about that in History recently.
  • Princess Anne was the only competitor at the 1976 Montreal Olympics that did not have to undergo a sex test.
Why, and whats is the sex test for?
  • Ethelred the Unready, King of England in the Tenth-century, spent his wedding night in bed with his wife and his mother-in-law.
Ewwwwwwwwww :(


George I's queen ( she was his cousin, by the way) was placed under house arrest in Germany for the rest of her life for having an affair with a courtier. She was also officially divorced from George I. Her name was Sophia Dorothea of Zelle. The man she was having the affair with was murdered and buried in a castle where his bones were found many years later. He just disapeared at the time, no one knew what happened to him, although years later there were deathbed confessions from guards involved in his death. Eleanor Herman's book Sex With the Queen gives more info on George I's Queen. Wikipedia also has info on her, a basic bio.
 
Your right this is a wonderful thread. Always makes me laugh.
x
 
  • Emperor Tiberius spent the last 10 years of his life in paranoid debauchery on the island of Capri. He was fond of swimming with naked little boys he referred to as his "fishes".
  • It was once said of German Kaiser Wilhelm II and US President Teddy Roosevelt that both wanted to be "the bride at every wedding and the corpse at every funeral".
  • Emperor Caligula, after having himself deified, replaced the heads of all the gods in the temple with his own likeness.
  • Famous female sharpshooter Annie Oakley, while touring Europe, was challenged by an elegant stranger to shoot the tip of his cigarette. Only after doing so did she learn the gentleman was German Kaiser Wilhelm II.
  • Emperor Bao Dai of Vietnam built the first golf course in his country.
  • Emperor Nero had Christians burned on poles along the streets of Rome to light them at night. He also once had a boy castrated in order to marry him.
  • Queen Victoria once said that if she were a man she would like to give the Russians "such a beating!"
  • Kaiser Francis Joseph of Austria usually slept on an army cot in his bedroom.
  • The XIII Dalai Lama of Tibet had "Mein Kampf" translated into Tibetan and predicted that the then relatively unknown Adolf Hitler would have a great impact on the world.
  • Emperor Commodus believed he was Hercules reborn, had all the months renamed in his own honor and gave himself the titles of "the Supreme", "the Great Lord" and "Pacifier of the World".
  • William of Orange, later King William III of England, was pock-marked, hunchbacked and suffered from asthma.
  • Prince Rainier III of Monaco went on a pilgrimage to Lourdes to pray for a good wife. Within two years he married Grace Kelly who, at the age of 12, had taken the visionary of Lourdes as her patron saint.
  • German Kaiser Wilhelm II increased the efficiency of the mobilization of his army by copying the train-loading techniques of the Ringling Brothers Circus.
  • Emperor Heliogabalus was a transvestite and posed as a prostitute to find male lovers. He was also a masochist and many of his liasons left large scars on him. Not limited to men he also once raped a Vestal Virgin.
  • Pope Pius IX was known for his sense of humor and when a visiting group of Anglicans asked for his blessing he gave them (in Latin) the blessing for incense which stated in part, 'I bless you in the name of He in whose honor you will be burned'.
  • Gia Long, first Emperor of the Nguyen dynasty, named his country Nam Viet but when the official recognition of his rule came from the Qing court in Peking the name was written backwards and it became Viet Nam.
  • During the Investiture Dispute the powerful heiress of Tuscany, Countess Mathilda of Canossa put herself and her troops at the disposal of Pope Gregory VII. The pontiff was so impressed he said he wished he could take Mathilda on crusade to the Holy Land.
  • Francesco Grimaldi first seized Monaco for his family by storming the Ghibelline fortress on the Rock disguised as Fransciscan monks and hiding their swords under their robes.
 
  • The Sixth Dalai Lama was a beloved poet but also a flagrant drinker and womanizer. Spurning the life of a monk he devoted himself to partying and his secular duties living for most of his reign in a tent near the Potala.
  • The Princely Palace of Monaco contains a room known as the York Room as it was there that the Duke of York, brother of King George III, died in 1787 after his passing ship put in at Monaco when he became ill.
  • German Kaiser Wilhelm II had hundreds of uniforms and would wear them on almost any occasion. One could see him in a grand admiral's uniform in the morning visiting dockyard workers and in the afternoon wearing a death's head hussar uniform to visit an art gallery.
  • King Juan Carlos of Spain once gave a ride on his motorcycle to a man who had run out of gas. After reaching the nearest station the man insisted the King reveal himself. When he took off his helmet, Juan Carlos said, the man was "horrified".
  • The "Pearl Concubine" Zhen, consort of Emperor GuangXu, was killed when Empress Dowager Cixi ordered her thrown down a well in the Forbidden City.
  • Czar Paul I of Russia had the words "society", "citizen", "club" and "revolution" erased from the Russian dictionary.
  • King Victor Emmanuel III of Italy was so extremely short he often had to stand on a platform so those around him would not tower over him. Kaiser Wilhelm II referred to him as "the dwarf".
  • After the USA dropped 2 atomic bombs on Japan the Emperor Hirohito announced to his people that the war situation had developed in a way, "not necissarily to Japan's advantage".
  • Emperor Francis Joseph of Austria lived a tragic life. His brother Emperor Maximilian of Mexico was executed by revolutionaries, his wife Empress Elizabeth was killed at random by an Italian anarchist, his only son Crown Prince Rudolf committed suicide and his heir Francis Ferdinand was assassinated by a Serbian nationalist.
  • US President Teddy Roosevelt once asked Francis Joseph what his job was as emperor. He replied, "To protect my people from their governments!"
  • Charles Joseph Bonaparte, son of King Jerome Bonaparte of Westphalia, was Secretary of the Navy and Attorney General of the United States in the Teddy Roosevelt administration.
  • Ana Maria Huarte, wife of Emperor Agustin I of Mexico, is the only Empress buried in the United States.
  • Sultan Ibrahim I of Turkey had almost his entire harem, nearly 300 girls, thrown into the Bosporus together and drowned.
  • While hunting King James I of England was fond of cutting the dead animals open and smearing himself and his courtiers with the innards.
  • The last Bogd Khan of Mongolia collected clocks, magazines, record players and stuffed animals. His exotic collection included a grizzly bear, a crocodile suspended from the ceiling and two penguins.
 
Gosh, these are sick facts, not curious ones:ohmy:
 
  • Emperor Tiberius spent the last 10 years of his life in paranoid debauchery on the island of Capri. He was fond of swimming with naked little boys he referred to as his "fishes".
  • Emperor Nero had Christians burned on poles along the streets of Rome to light them at night. He also once had a boy castrated in order to marry him.
  • The XIII Dalai Lama of Tibet had "Mein Kampf" translated into Tibetan and predicted that the then relatively unknown Adolf Hitler would have a great impact on the world.
  • Prince Rainier III of Monaco went on a pilgrimage to Lourdes to pray for a good wife. Within two years he married Grace Kelly who, at the age of 12, had taken the visionary of Lourdes as her patron saint.
  • Emperor Heliogabalus was a transvestite and posed as a prostitute to find male lovers. He was also a masochist and many of his liasons left large scars on him. Not limited to men he also once raped a Vestal Virgin.

Wonderful quotes. Thank you bones, and some of them including the ones above are rather sick, but you've just got to laugh at the past :)
 
I will stop if people find these little odd facts sickening but I certainly don't think that
Prince Rainier III of Monaco went on a pilgrimage to Lourdes to pray for a good wife. Within two years he married Grace Kelly who, at the age of 12, had taken the visionary of Lourdes as her patron saint.
is in any way sick or should be included with the rest of them you cited. Even those who do not "believe" should not think that's sick or in any way akin to pedophiles and perverts. The XIII Dalai Lama, keep in mind, had very limited information about the wider world outsite Tibet and his prediction said nothing about the character of Hitler, just that he would have a major impact on the world and I don't think anyone can deny that he did have a major (dreadful) impact.
 
The last Holy King of Mongolia would hang an electric wire over the wall of his palace.Pilgrims would touch it,get a shock,and thought they had received a blessing.


The last Holy King of Mongolia has me in stitches:lol:
 
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The British did not release the body of Napoleon Bonaparte to the French until twenty days after his death.

How did they deal with the smell that the body probably emaneted?

Catherine the First of Russia, made a rule that no man was allowed to get drunk at one of her parties before nine o'clock.

Way to go, Catherine!

One of Queen Victoria's wedding gifts was a 3 metre diameter, half tonne cheese.

Weird and funny. I can imagine the cheese​

Queen Victoria was one of the first women ever to use chloroform to combat pain during childbirth.

Sort of a visionary

Ethelred the Unready, King of England in the Tenth-century, spent his wedding night in bed with his wife and his mother-in-law.

Oh My! How could he?! :yuk:

Prince Florestan I of Monaco was an actor, totally out of his element as a monarch and was eager to abdicate in favor his son Charles III.


So the artistic thing was going on before Grace came in?

Prince Rainier III of Monaco went on a pilgrimage to Lourdes to pray for a good wife. Within two years he married Grace Kelly who, at the age of 12, had taken the visionary of Lourdes as her patron saint.

I love this one. It's like they were meant to be :flowers:
 
WoW! these facts are insane, except the one with Prince Rainer of monaco and princess grace they were destined for each other.
 
The hobby of king Boris of Bulgaria was: trains. Not minature trains, but he liked to drive in real ones.
 
  • After the USA dropped 2 atomic bombs on Japan the Emperor Hirohito announced to his people that the war situation had developed in a way, "not necissarily to Japan's advantage".
  • While hunting King James I of England was fond of cutting the dead animals open and smearing himself and his courtiers with the innards.

The first; is rather humourous yet hopeless at the same time.
The second; is rather awful.
x
 
Peter I of Russia

The late British actor Oliver Reed claimed to be descended from a natural daughter of Czar Peter I of Russia ! In his book "Reed all about me" he said that the daughter was born while Peter was in London.
 
About Bones' comment about James I cutting animals open. I think it's traditional for hunters making their first kill of a deer to be blooded (have the animals blood put on their faces) in England, at least. Not sure about elsewhere, and I can't speak for the rest of James I's behavior.
 
The last Holy King of Mongolia would hang an electric wire over the wall of his palace.Pilgrims would touch it,get a shock,and thought they had received a blessing.


The last Holy King of Mongolia has me in stitches:lol:

Hilarious! :lol: What a blessing!:lol:
 
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