General News for the Duchess of Cambridge 1: November 2010-February 2017


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Not sure where to put this but documentary about Willam and Kate (Mostly English with subtitles Dutch)
Videozone
 
Zonk said:
I also loved the implication that Kate was going to save the BRF. Not to get into comparisons but they certainly said that in the past about a blonde and a redhead. While Kate will certainly be a welcome addition to the family and there are certain things that can and should be changed...its not about Kate. Its about Charles and William.
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It is my understanding that the blonde made some pretty significant changes in the way the royal family operates and is viewed by people around the world. She changed people's expectations of the BRF. She modernized the monarchy in many respects. You can't have a distant monarchy in the age of information. If her marriage had been a happy one, you never know what she may have achieved, and what further changes she may have made. Charles and William are the main players, but, if all goes well, Kate could have a real impact on the future of the BRF, picking up to a certain extent where Diana left off. Kate gets a lot of grief for being a commoner, but, in truth, it is her biggest asset. It is a great thing, IMO, for the monarchy in this day and age. I look forward to seeing what she does in the future. It will be interesting. :flowers:

That said, I agree that it's a really poorly researched and cited article.
 
I can't load it either.
 
when will she shift to london to prepare for the wedding?
 
Please note that speculative posts about Kate's weight have been deleted.

As a reminder:

  • Whenever possible, opinions should be based on factual information obtained from reputable sources and should be backed up by references to those sources. The moderators reserve the right to delete posts containing the more fanciful types of gossip and speculation, whether they originate in gossip magazines and websites or are simply fabricated.
Any questions should be directed to the British moderators and/or TRF Administrators via Private Message.

Zonk
British Forums Moderator
 
Is the Mirror not a reputable source? I know the Daily Mail is a tabloid (although, it sometimes breaks real stories). The Mirror article (cited above) says that Kate told a member of the crowd (apparently within hearing of a reporter? or is the Mail not reliable on such things?) that she was on a "wedding diet."

Anyway, it was good to read about Kate's college days and her lack of heavy drinking - all the various sources seem to reveal a serious-minded, kind-hearted and responsible young woman.

What's Starmix? Is that like gummy bears? Tangfastics? Anything like Sweetarts?

This is got to be good for England's economy, as now we are much wanting a trip to England to see the sights and peruse the English stores for these intriguing candies (and much else that I'd never heard of until I got into the Royal Wedding - and this forum).
 
Article from a student who did the same Gap Year as Kate in fLorence. Kate spend 3 months in Florence and had 3 hours of italian lessons each day (except the week-end) for 3 months combined with daily lectures on the Renaissance. I really love more and more this girl.

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For the last century, it’s stayed pretty true to that aim; both Kate Middleton and I learnt a mixture of art history and Italian. For the equivalent today of £2,800, she got three months of Italian lessons – three hours a day, Monday to Friday – combined with daily lectures on the Renaissance. The Institute also arranges your accommodation. For around £500 a month, Kate Middleton stayed, as I did, in student digs that were clean and comfortable, but not on the flabbergastingly grand scale of the palazzi where we studied.

Kate Middleton’s Italian lessons took place in the Palazzo dello Strozzino, a princely palace built in 1458, with four mammoth entrances and four floors of heavily rusticated stone in traditional Florentine style, each separated by delicate classical cornices and sheltered by deep eaves.

But even this is eclipsed by the palazzo where Kate Middleton had her art history lectures and where the Institute’s drinks parties were held: the 15th century Palazzo Lanfredini, on the south bank of the River Arno. Owned by Harold Acton, Evelyn Waugh’s friend and part-inspiration for Anthony Blanche in Brideshead Revisited, the palazzo was bequeathed to the Institute when he died in 1994.
Palazzo Lanfredini breathes the last enchantments of Edwardian Florence, of the days when the city was a cultural outpost of the British Empire. It’s all very grand, in an old-fashioned shabby-chic way; and has been for decades. Kate’s prospective father-in-law, Prince Charles, and Princess Diana visited the Institute in 1985, when Prince Charles became one of the Institute’s patrons; he still is today, along with Wanda Ferragamo, honorary chairman of Salvatore Ferragamo, the fashionable shoe shop which once shared its palazzo premises with the Institute.
It houses the biggest lending collection of English books in mainland Europe; 50,000 of them, with a particularly good selection of English novels, alongside books on Italian art, history and music. You can read the English papers – including the Daily Telegraph – sunk deep into the comfortable armchairs, or squirreled away at a desk overlooking the river and the 17th century Palazzo Corsini on the opposite bank.
This old-fashioned English grandness has rubbed off on the school’s clientele. There were several Kate Middleton types when I was there, Gap Yah girls with long blond hair that required regular tossing back from the left temple over the right ear. But its art history lectures and tours – in Florence’s museums, churches and palazzi, alongside day trips to Siena and San Gimignano – will have left Kate Middleton positively blasé about being surrounded by Botticellis, Michelangelos and Leonardo da Vincis.
After such an education, the royal art collection and the royal palaces will strike her as pretty good, but perhaps a little, well, hit and miss.
 
Her programm when on Chile:
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The royal bride followed Sloane convention by going on a volunteering trip to Chile in 2001, working on environmental projects and a community programme with underprivileged children, organised by Raleigh International, the educational development charity.
 
Duchess of Cambridge Friends

I have a question about her friends. She has been with William for so long and I saw a girl from college on tv before the wedding who said she was a close friend. But I just can't see close friends giving interviews. I realize Pippa is probably her best friend but does she have any girlfriends besides family?

I remember a link on Princess Mary's friends and found it fascinating to read about her friendships. I also am a bit curious did she let her friendships fall by the wayside while she was dating William that she really doesn't have anyone that close?
 
Now Is Her Sister Name "Pippa" Or NickName Of Another Name ?
 
Burzg said:
Now Is Her Sister Name "Pippa" Or NickName Of Another Name ?
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The name Pippa is a common nickname for girls named Philippa and this is the case here as well.
 
MichelleVA said:
I have a question about her friends. She has been with William for so long and I saw a girl from college on tv before the wedding who said she was a close friend. But I just can't see close friends giving interviews. I realize Pippa is probably her best friend but does she have any girlfriends besides family?

I remember a link on Princess Mary's friends and found it fascinating to read about her friendships. I also am a bit curious did she let her friendships fall by the wayside while she was dating William that she really doesn't have anyone that close?
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It seems to me, based on her very noticeable lack of career, that Kate made her relationship with Prince William her "career". It does not surprise me that she probably didn't have a lot of time for friends.

Does anyone know how much she gets from the Civil List as her allowance?
 
Presumably Kate helped out in her parents' business??

If not, then she can be forgiven for preparing herself for a potential / possible future with William.

Where's the harm in that?
 
monica17 said:
Does anyone know how much she gets from the Civil List as her allowance?
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Nothing.

Only the Queen and Duke of Edinburgh get anything from the Civil List.

Kate will being supported by Charles and William - from the Duchy of Cornwall estate and William's inheritance from his mother and his RAF salary during the present reign. Then when Charles becomes King William will have all the income of the Duchy of Cornwall, less what he decides to give as taxes, assuming he follows his father's lead and voluntarily gives some of the income for that purpose. Then when William is King she will have some income paid by the government, although the Civil List is about to be changed to a set income from the Crown Estates, to cover her official expenses.

Charles has the income of the Duchy of Cornwall as that is the income for the Duke of Cornwall and he is expected to support his family from this money so he presumably also gives William and Harry an allowance from that to go with their inheritance and military pay.

The Queen pays for the rest of the royal family from her private income from sources such as the Duchy of Lancaster estate.

The Civil List only funds the official side of the Queen and Duke's duties and not their private life.
 
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Iluvbertie said:
Nothing.

Only the Queen and Duke of Edinburgh get anything from the Civil List.

Kate will being supported by Charles and William - from the Duchy of Cornwall estate and William's inheritance from his mother and his RAF salary during the present reign. Then when Charles becomes King William will have all the income of the Duchy of Cornwall, less what he decides to give as taxes, assuming he follows his father's lead and voluntarily gives some of the income for that purpose. Then when William is King she will have some income paid by the government, although the Civil List is about to be changed to a set income from the Crown Estates, to cover her official expenses.

Charles has the income of the Duchy of Cornwall as that is the income for the Duke of Cornwall and he is expected to support his family from this money so he presumably also gives William and Harry an allowance from that to go with their inheritance and military pay.

The Queen pays for the rest of the royal family from her private income from sources such as the Duchy of Lancaster estate.

The Civil List only funds the official side of the Queen and Duke's duties and not their private life.
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Thank you very much for this information. I realise from your post that the Civil List has been changed since I first read about it years ago... and since I have been reading up on the 18th century most of the time, all I remember is that Caroline of Brunswick, as Princess of Wales, initially received an annual allowance of £5,000, voted from the increase her husband had in his allowance as a married man. That would be around £5 M/year in today's worth.

Anything heard of in form of Kate's dowry, if any?

I'm not sure if Diana's family had to pay any dowry but Grace Kelly's family did give a dowry, and much fuss has been made about the Middleton family's wealth..... The author of the Princess In Waiting book made a big fuss about how the Middletons' wealth (some £64,000 in 1884, said to be £33,000,000 worth in today's money) was inherited wealth but by the 1950s, it was down to about £20,000 - £1.3 M in today's value - and split among 4 children - ...I'm not very convinced about her assertations that the Middletons had a "fortune" (£64,000 in the late 19th century was quite a handsome amount, but her paternal ancestors were far from being millionaires either), and that's how Kate's family came about their wealth (and leading Kate to Buckingham Palace's gates) and not through the family business Party Pieces.

At any rate, using 18th century perspective (truly a splendid era for royals), my favourite princess (a daughter of Empress Maria Theresa) had much more than the £64,000 "fortune" of the Middletons in form of an annual allowance, not including the money from the family's appanages in Spain. Clearly, the author did not have what I'd call the "royal perspective" in such matters, calling £64,000 "staggering"!
 
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Just a small correction - Charles will probably not become King William, but King George VII.
 
Renata4711 said:
Presumably Kate helped out in her parents' business??

If not, then she can be forgiven for preparing herself for a potential / possible future with William.

Where's the harm in that?
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There is no harm per se, and if she saw herself as having a potential future with Prince William and wanted to devote her time and efforts to that, then of course she had the free will and choice not to have a career.

It's just that a university graduate (among the top schools in the UK and rated highly worldwide as well, albeit with an Art History degree) who studied at an expensive boarding school as well, could've done much more. Other commoners who married into European royal families (Maxima of the Netherlands, Mary of Denmark, Letizia of Spain) had at least their careers to be proud of. Note that Maxima and (especially the aristocratic) Mathilde of Belgium (seemingly) came from a much wealthier/more prestigious backgrounds than Kate yet both strived and excelled in their chosen careers. All ladies married in their late 20s-early 30s, given enough time to develop a career.

I've read that Kate did help out in the family business, and that during that time the "Princess" line came out.
 
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Two points: 1) Maxima was already working when she met her future husband.
2) The "princess" line had been available long before Catherine was announced working for the family business.
 
AuroraB said:
Two points:
1) Maxima was already working when she met her future husband.
2) The "princess" line had been available long before Catherine was announced working for the family business.
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Yes, of course I know Maxima was already working when she met the Crown Prince of the Netherlands. She was an international investment banker, I believe. The point is, she was not waiting (seemingly) to catch (or to marry) a prince (so to speak) and didn't even believe her husband when he first told her he was a prince.

I stand corrected on the second point. Thank you!
 
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I think the point is that is its unfair to judge Catherine by the same standards as Maxima, Letizia and Mary.

They met their husbands AFTER they had established their careers. Catherine met hers in college. Yes, like a lot of women but let's face it not a lot of these women are marrying Princes. And with his schedule, it would have impossible to carry on a normal job. Does anyone remember how she was "stalked" by the press when she worked at Jigsaw. Who wants that outside of their business everyday? Working for her parents, in their home was a better option for her. And as someone who has worked for family and myself, I am here to tell you that sometimes you work a lot harder for them (and yourself) than if you worked for someone else (i.e. a company).

Its pretty clear that at some point both William and Catherine, as two educated consenting adults made a decision regarding their future, so who are we to say she is not fulfilling her potential? Her education was paid for by her parents, was it not? She didn't attend university on public funds did she? If her parents are okay with it, who are we to judge? And let's not talk about providing a bad example for young ladies, their are plenty of "bad examples" out there for people to emulate. And frankly, its not uncommon for women of a certain social class to educate themselves, not have a substantial or a career at all and than marry.

ETA: If there should be a comparison, it should be with Grand Duchess Maria Theresa of Luxembourgh. She met her husband at University the only difference is that they married a year after graduation. And William and Kate waited 8 to 9.
They are married now, so I am a bit confused why we are rehashing this old argument.
 
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Zonk said:
I think the point is that is its unfair to judge Catherine by the same standards as Maxima, Letizia and Mary.

They met their husbands AFTER they had established their careers. Catherine met hers in college. Yes, like a lot of women but let's face it not a lot of these women are marrying Princes. And with his schedule, it would have impossible to carry on a normal job. Does anyone remember how she was "stalked" by the press when she worked at Jigsaw. Who wants that outside of their business everyday? Working for her parents, in their home was a better option for her. And as someone who has worked for family and myself, I am here to tell you that sometimes you work a lot harder for them (and yourself) than if you worked for someone else (i.e. a company).

Its pretty clear that at some point both William and Catherine, as two educated consenting adults made a decision regarding their future, so who are we to say she is not fulfilling her potential? Her education was paid for by her parents, was it not? She didn't attend university on public funds did she? If her parents are okay with it, who are we to judge? And let's not talk about providing a bad example for young ladies, their are plenty of "bad examples" out there for people to emulate.

They are married now, so I am a bit confused why we are rehashing this old argument.
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I don't think it's unfair but if you think so......

Yes, I know about the stalking part when Kate had her job at Jigsaw but surely there are "quiet" and meaningful things she could've done with her time instead of being a "socialite" or appearing at "events"? Charity work for instance (albeit very quietly, not the kind of charity work for publicity). It is possible.

I never made a statement about how Kate is a bad example, nor did I ever bring up who paid for her university education. I can tell you a lot of girls (where I live) look up to her. And indeed, if her parents are fine with her doing nothing with her education, then that's up to them. I'm not even a UK resident or citizen who pays taxes there so I'd never bring up the public funds thing.

Also, I returned to TRF recently so it's only now that I'm reading up into the present royals (and the BRF in particular due to the recent wedding). I've been at the Alexander Palace Time Machine forums more in the past couple of years or so due to its discussions/sections on past royals.... so it seems to you that I've been rehashing "this old argument".

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Sadly, based on the last post, the forum (or at least some members) seems a bit deficient in courtesy if someone has other ideas (on their favourite royals), not to mention putting words into other people's mouths......
 
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I just feel that the marriage has been a "done deal" for some time now - so why rehash what was before?

Much more fun checking out what's going on in their life .... and waiting for more developments :)
 
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