How / Why did you get interested in royalty?


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I've been interested in royals off and on, all my life. In fourth grade, I wrote a lengthy story about Queen Boadicca, and then later, become obsessed with the Renaissance court of Queen Elizabeth I, and everything about the Tudors and Plantagenets.

A lifelong Francophile (for reasons that used to be unclear), I made a big project of finding out more about French royals three years ago, which led to a revived interested in Russian royalty. I am obsessed with timelines, period costumes and culture, and the fascinating view one gets on history by studying the nobility.

Meanwhile, some of my family were busy (in a team, including a geneticist), starting research our family history (there are a few rather famous Americans somewhere in the family - not my direct ancestors, but great uncles or cousins). Turns out my colonial ancestors were related (on both sides) to William the Conqueror and therefore, to Charlemagne. Francophilia thereby explained!

So, after carefully studying all the links from myself back to the last royal member of the family (because despite Grandma's insistence about such things, I think we were all a little doubtful), I got interested in the royal ancestors too.

We lost our claims to any thrones or titles due to too many of my ancestors being female rather than male, or not firstborn males - or illegitimate. William the Conqueror was of course, himself, illegitimate (and so am I, so completely disqualified from any claims on any throne!)

But, the entire pageant of history (and my family's role in it) now fascinates me, even if it is some 20 plus generations ago.

As far as I can tell, the last time one of my direct lineal ancestors was a Princess was with Princess Joan of Acre, a Plantagenet. She was born 1272 - a while back. Another probable Princess ancestress was Eliska (Elizabeth), Princess of Bohemia (d. 1330). The last time any of my family held titles was in the Renaissance (or possibly, the early 1600's).

There are all sorts of other reasons I'm interested, but recently, I've been amusing my self (and my daughters) by my pretensions to various thrones (oh, if only male primogeniture were not the rule!)

My ancestors seemed to wiggle around the legitimacy thing every so often, I must say.
 
I've been interested in royalty since I was a young child. It all started when I visited the Moscow Kremlin at the age of five, and felt like I stepped into a fairy tale (illustrations in Russian children's books often were very similar to what one would see in the Moscow Kremlin). My grandmother caught onto that, and started telling me about all the Tzars that lived there in the years past.

When I was eight, I was put into a class to learn English, and our teacher showed us his slides from the Silver Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II. I was fascinated by the fact that a Queen could look like someone's grandmother, and wanted to know more. Again, as a child who was brought up in the former Soviet Union, the only monarchs I knew were in fairy tales, and those were always dressed in some elaborate outfits. For the longest time I couldn't get passed the fact that today's royals don't walk around in Court Dress (I realize that I was a rather strange child).

As I grew older, I became more interested in history and royalty. I have a decent collection on the family of Nikolai II and his family, and a few books on the Windsors and the Tudors (I'm in the process of expanding my royal reading material).
 
chelly said:
My interest started with Diana and then with Sarah. ( I think I watched Sarah and Andrew's wedding). So I started buying the magazines (royalty and majesty)...
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I was only young when Diana got married (about 7) but it put Princesses on my young radar...then I became more interested in Sarah because she managed to nab the best looking British prince (in my young opinion)...And when Sarah and Andrew visited my hometown of Townsville, QLD, Australia (you might have to look the date up for that)...I was beside myself, even though I didn't push myself up to the front to shake hands or even get a good look...because my feelings for the royals are twofold, on one hand there is interest and fascination but on the other hand I don't want to be a slobbering sycophant, bowing and scraping and sucking up just because they say they're 'Royalty', the cynical side...

Then I grew up my interest started to wane and I figured out it was uncool to take an interest in those freeloading tokenistic royals...So I just became a closet observer, then Diana died and it was OK to be into royalty, but I still wasn't interested...Only until Princess Mary came on the scene did I become interested in them again in 2003...She's Australian (like me), around the same age, lived in Sydney in 2000 (like me), maybe it could have been ME, if I was in the right place at the right time, like her?...I didn't even know there WAS a Danish royal family, since my only knowledge was the British royal family...but through discovering these boards, I have discovered lots of other amazing royal stories (like Mette-Marit, the single mother, Marie, the on-again-off-again princess, Alexandra, the Hong Kong princess, etc)
 
Mine comes from history plain and simple. My grandmother was British, born on the borderlands, the british side. Her family had been stewards to a noble, some illegitamite blood of the family, for generations. Unfortunately my grandmother was in a nursing home most of my childhood, and I never could ask much detail. I got interested in Scottish and English history, wondering which one I may be an illegitamite descendent of. We have family trees for my grandfathers, going back a few hundred years, but mainly Americans. Related to the architect of the library of congress, and a few historical politicians in the US. My father's family last name changed over the generations, but he heard that it originally once had von at the start, which in Germany where the family originates, designated aristocracy. But who knows, our only records we have traced have been in North America.

In high school and university I was a history buff. Specialized in british history in university, love the Stewarts and Scottish history the best, Tudors come close. It eventually led to looking at modern royalty. I was 3 months and 5 days old when Diana and Charles wed, so understandably a bit young to have watched. And a day short of 5 years and three months when Sarah and Andrew married, so I have a few sketchy memories there, I think I watched it with my Nana. Edward and Sophie was the first royal wedding for me, and was the one who took my slight interest in modern royals, to a passion for it. My real interest still lies mainly British, but I like the Swedes as well.

Oh and of course the Dutch. I remember my Uncle telling me when he came to visit, about how Princess Juliana and her children lived in Canada during WWII. Juliana is to this day remembered with great affection in Canada. She did her own grocerie shopping, kids went to public school, and when her neighbor went into labor, she baby-sat the woman's kids for her. The Governor General made the hospital rooms where she gave birth to her youngest daughter, extraterritorial, so she was a Dutch citizen. If she had dual, she would have lost her right of inheritance. It has made me have a real interest in Julliana's daughter, now Queen Beatrix, and the rest of her family, especially Princess Margrite. It is interesting, among her godparents is President Roosevelt, but also the entire Dutch merchant fleet, little unusual.
 
I have been thinking more about this lately! And it all stems from seeing a video of Diana & Charles's wedding ( was not born yet when they married), and Diana in that dress. A real life Cinderella... if only there was a happy ending!
 
I was born with an interest as my mother had worked at the British High Commission in the late 40s and had a lot of material on Elizabeth and Philip's wedding. She also had a replica of the Coronation carriage from 1937 that her family in Britain had had sent to her (she was 7 at the time) and she developed an interest from then on. My great-grandparents had had the then Duke of York and his Duchess attend their wedding in 1900 so it just seemed normal to me that royalty would be an interest.

I didn't see any live royal events until Anne's wedding - well the entrance to the Abbey anyway but the staff at my boarding school sent us to bed before she reached the altar as lights out was approaching.

I lost interest with the Diana phenomenon as she simply turned me off anything royal but after her death and when Charles married Camilla I regained some small interest.
 
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I came across this site accidently, and I'm glad I did. Its encouraged me to find out more about the non British Royal houses, even if The Windsors remain my predominant family of interest due to my British background.

I'm interested in Royalty because of the jewels and the Heraldry (yes, I'm a geek) but I also admire the charity work in a world where it takes increasingly less to be successful.
 
I followed the lives of royals since my youth, so I always had an interest in royalty. Obviously for me, the British royals were a first introduction, but I learned about others too. But for me it was not only about following their lives but also about the workings and benefits of monarchies to their countries that I became a strong supporter of the ideal.
 
Oops. That should be "in a world where it takes increasingly less to be admired"
 
This forum has increased my interest in royalty. Here in the States we don't hear much about them (except for the British Royal Family, occasionally hear about Prince Albert and the Monaco Royal Family but that's it). The marriage last year of Princess Victoria and Prince Daniel got a lot of coverage in Europe but very little coverage in the United States. A lot of other news items get heavy coverage in Europe but not in the States.
 
I got interested after CP Victoria wedding.I read it on a blog,then I wanted to know more about the wedding,then Victoria,then other royals,then royal history......and now im here.
 
For me it were a lot of little things that goz me hooked in royalty. It started around 1992 when I was a young teenager. My aunt (very intersted in royalty) had always a lot of newspapers and magazines lying around and when I visited her I was always skipping trough them, trying to find out what was true and what was just a big blow-up or pure lies by the media (German media is big in blow-up and lies *sigh*).

In some ways I'm very traditional and knowing that there were real Kings, Queens, Princes and Princesses still around meaning that real life was somehow interwoven with fairy tales kind of facinated me. So it became a habit to skip through my aunts magazines and newspapers and get the news on the royals and eventually my aunt told me the really interesting news right when I stepped into her appartment (and I was at hers a lot, because she was more like a bigger sister than an aunt). We talked about royals a lot and discussed the recent news. Sometimes for hours. And we weren't always on the same page but that made it all the more interesting. *lol*

In those first years I was most interested in:

- the Swedish Royal Family. 1. Because they had kids my age and a really, really handsome prince who didn't get as much media coverage like his sister. A fact that I was mad about so I sucked up every little detail I could get about Carl Philip. Even if it was just a tiny picture of him in the background of a story about Victoria/Madeleine. 2. Because for a while I was really mad about the changes of succession which robbed Carl Philip of his rights as a heir. Like I mentioned earlier I'm very traditional in some ways and I definitely wasn't okay with heirs regardless of gender. Don't get this wrong. I'm all for equality, but some things are better of when they stick to tradition and royalty is one of those things IMO. Also I'm very sad about the fact that there won't be any kings in the next generation with all those firstborn girls. If they go for equality they should go all the way. Which means man who marry crownprincesses or queens should become crownprinces or kings. In this case it would be the "Crownprincess couple: Crownprinccess Victoria and Crownprince Daniel". But I get way to far off-topic here.

- The Grimaldis: Or more specifically Caroline and her kids, because Stefanos accident was just two years back and I was just so sorry for the little kids who didn't have a father anymore. I always thought about how I would feel without a father and I was horrified by that thought. So my heart simply went out for them. But over the years I slowly lost interest in them simply because those little kids grew older and definitely when Caroline married Ernst August. nHow she could do that I will never get. No offense but EA is one big idiot.

- For a very short time the Danish Royal Family: The wedding of Joachim and Alexandra in 1995. It was the first royal wedding I ever saw (on a tiny black/white-TV in a very bad quality). I saw it simply because my aunt always told me how magical Charles and Dianas wedding was (a couple I only knew the bad sides of marriage about) and I wanted to see how a royal wedding really is. And my aunt was right. Royal weddings were magical (even in bad black/white quality). But after the wedding my interest got lost because they were so much older then me.

- For an even shorter time in Edward and Sophie of Wessex: The first royal wedding I saw in color on a big screen TV (not that tiny black/white TV). It was a special wedding for me because I had visited Windsor Castle just three month before when my aunt and me were in London for a week. I was always like "hey, that's were I sat eating my icecream" or "see, this little shop? That's where I bought the postcard I send my parents". It was a very special day because for the first time ever I had the feeling that royalty isn't just some real life fairytale that will never touch my life. Because in a very strange way it did touch my life on that day.

- And naturally Dianas death didn't escape my interest. I had the same feelings for William and Harry which I had for the Grimaldi Trio years ago and I was crying constantly when I saw them walking quietly (and heartbreakingly non-crying through the streets of London).


Nowadays my interests changed a little bit. I still think Carl Philip was somehow robbed even if he and Victoria didn't seem fazed by this fact. But today I'm also more interested in the royal houses of Denmark, Norway and the Netherlands. Simply because of all those weddings and little princesses and princes running around. It's so great seeing the next generation growing up. Some day in the far future I can tell my grandchildren that I remember "like it was today" when King Christian, Queen Ingrid, Queen Catharina-Amalia, Queen Leonor, etc were born and what a hype that was. And I even saw their parents get married "live on TV". I love fantazising about what will be. Who those kids will marry later. How they will interact. If maybe Prince Sverre Magnus of Norway will fall in love with little Princess Josephine of Denmark. Or if Princess Ingrid Alexandra of Norway, Prince Christian of Denmark and Prince/Princess XY of Sweden (Victorias and Daniels first child) will be just as close as their royal born parents today. And well, I also can't wait if Christian sticks with tradition and name his firstborn son Frederik or if he breaks it.

All this is what is interesting me nowadays. Weddings, kids, future fantasies. And definitely how the current crownprince-generation look, what they wear, how they appear in public (is it just me or does Frederik really get more and more nadsome the older he gets? He always had this little boy look but he's grown into a very handsome man recently).

OK, I stop now. This turned out to be way longer that I thought.

PS: I always am sad that Germany isn't a monarchy anymore. We could use a little glamour and someone to really identify with in comparsion to all these old (well mostly old) men (the Bundespräsidenten) that represent us. They come and go every 5 years and most of the german people don't even know who is currently Bundespräsident. I which we had still a royal family that could represent us just like all the other royal families do in their countries. And I'm even more sad when I see all the hype in England now (and in the other countries in the past) with the royal wedding. We could have this hype too in Germany because the man who would be our Emporer today is going to marry this summer. It could have been our very own fairytale. What a shame it will never come true. *sigh*
 
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Iluvbertie said:
I lost interest with the Diana phenomenon as she simply turned me off anything royal but after her death and when Charles married Camilla I regained some small interest.
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Same here. I was too young to have much awareness of the Diana phenomenom, but the return to a no frills Royal Family, has contributed to my interest. I don't like that "jet setter" type of fame, and this isn't limited to Royalty. My favorite celebrity in the entertainment industry is a low key television actress :whistling:
 
Trying to contact family led me here... thanks Google !
 
Though due to the recent search i found that even tatoo'd trash from the States (me) can be in line for the British throne... Number 2283 to be exact :))
 
I have had an interest in the royal family since a small child, after the royal visit I was told that we were descendants of the royal family,
now I am retired I have the time to research the family genealogy and discovered we are related to the Queen on two sides of the family, on my fathers side from the Stewart ( Stuart ) family, on my mothers side also the Stewart family and the mcdonnell clan.
very interesting to trace your family
 
It seemed to start with two events for me. First in 2005 PBS aired the six part 2004 documentary series "A Royal Family" talking about Christian IX of Denmark and his children marrying into the leading European familes. It was amazing how one humble family became the tree of almost all the present day royals. The next year was Queen Elizabeth II's 80th birthday and I went from there, with a specific interest in the Victorian royals and the network of relations throughout Europe. It's not the most exciting story but I am captivated by them!
 
bravado said:
I have had an interest in the royal family since a small child, after the royal visit I was told that we were descendants of the royal family,
now I am retired I have the time to research the family genealogy and discovered we are related to the Queen on two sides of the family, on my fathers side from the Stewart ( Stuart ) family, on my mothers side also the Stewart family and the mcdonnell clan.
very interesting to trace your family
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thepeerage.com has helped me quite a bit.. it is very extensive
 
Growing up, my mom was always a big Diana fan and so I always knew about the British royal family. I've read a lot about Queen Victoria and her children/grandchildren. I remember a time when I thought I would never be able to get the modern royal family links straight in my head, and yet now I do, for the most part!
 
I became interested in Royalty after reading a coffee table book about Princess Diana, and Magazines involving the Royals around the world. Watching Movies about Royalty also made me interested in knowing about the Royals.
 
When I was young my grandma always had lots of these "gossip rags" with lots of (mostly untrue) stories about the royal families and I always read them. So I knew a couple of things about them and they kind of fascinated me, though I don't believe that any person is better than others, but it's probably the mystery that made me interested in them... I especially loved Princess Diana, I still know exactly how I found out about her death and how shocked I was.
Then I lost interest for a couple of years (growing up, I probably had better things to wonder about than Royals ;)) and it all came back with the lovely wedding of Crown Princess Victoria and Prince Daniel :wub:
 
I'm heavily involved in politics and have lived in a monarchy and have relatives from another monarchy.

I am not interested in day-to-day lives of royals, or royal weddings, etc.- I am just interested in monarchy as a different way of governing.
 
why I am a royalist? May be because I love history ,traditions and fairy tales, and if you love all of the above ,it is no way not not have at least a little tiny dream of being a princess :)
 
I was at the age of 8 years and was sitting in front of the TV watching King Carl Gustav marriying Queen Silvia. I was deeply impressed about this event. A few days after the wedding my father gifted me with some magazins with pictures .... ahhh and then my passion was born.
BYe Bine
 
Through being obsessed with the movie Sissi and then going on the internet ofcourse. One thing led to another and here I am.
 
I remember watching QMII's New Years speeches every year as a kid, as a child though, I took a greater interest in Princess Alexandra (now the Countess of Frederiksborg), I remember once telling my grandmother that I'd wish that Prince Joachim had been the oldest of him and Frederik so that 'beautiful Alex can be our Queen!' Now I'm quite glad that Frederik is the oldest and I'm more interested in his family than Joachim's (it all comes down to Alexandra obviously, when she and Joachim got divorced I lost my interest in him :p).
When I was about 11-12 years old my big Romanov obsession started when digging deeper in the DRF, I took a serious interest in Princess Dagmar or Maria Feodorovna as she became, through her I got interested in her son, the Emperor, and his wife and children.
Queen Elizabeth II is the regent that has always, secretly fascinated me the most (maybe just apart from King Christian IX and Tsar Nicholas II). She's just such a fierce woman and I really admire her a lot. Princess Margaret has also always been interesting to me. Since I was about three years old when Princess Diana died, I was a big too young to be caught by the big Diana wave, although I've always been stunned by her loving personality. Now of course, my big hype is Will and Kate ;)
 
My interest in royalty is from an historical aspects. I´m very interseted in history, anthropology, politics, protocol, fashion and architecture. I´m interested especialy in British Royal Family. I love all British.
 
when i was littly boy & then throug my job :D
 
When I was in my mid-teens, my mother handed down a book to me that she'd finished reading. The book was entitled "The Concubine", about Anne Boleyn, and that started my fascination with royalty. The Tudors are still my favorites, and the British Royal Family are still the family that I'm most interested in.
 
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