Click on image to see photo at refdag.nl

A job as lackey for queen Beatrix at the palace seems very popular. Since the ’service of the royal house’ placed a job advertisement on the internet last week, the service has been flooded with applications.

‘We often place advertisements on the internet’, says spokesperson Weijermans in the Algemeen Dagblad, ‘but this time we are getting an enormous amount of reactions’.  The adversisement says that women can also apply for the job. According to Weijermans it is a misunderstanding that only men can be lackey’s, though at the moment no women are employed in this function.

Candidates can reply until November 1st. Among other things, they need to be fluent in English and have knowledge about polishing silverware. The exact requirements can be read in Dutch here. The job takes 36 hours a week, for which you will be payed 2338,64  euros a month.

Marengo Dutch Royals Queen Beatrix, Royal Household, Royal Staff

On Monday the 26th, the former Head of the Household of H.M. the King, Don Sabino Fernandez Campo, Count of Latores, died in Madrid. He was a very beloved man in Spain, and was 91 years old.

View the image at El Mundo

Don Sabino was born in Oviedo on March 17, 1918. After a military career, he started his work at the Royal House in 1977 as General Secretary and from 1990 to 1993, he become the Head of the Househld. He developed an important role in the Spanish life as the Head of the Household. He made main decisions in Royal Family’s institutional work, and he was a key person in Prince Felipe’s education.

He was the closest man to King Juan Carlos during the Spanish state coup on the 23rd of February 1981, when almost 200 members of the Guardia Civil stormed the Congreso de los Diputados and staged a coup while Congress was in the process of electing a new Prime Minister.

Don Sabino was great defender of democracy during those difficult moments and a very loyal person. “My role always has been secondary; it’s been characterized for being always next to someone, never above. To be secondary is never to want occupy the principal position, but to advise well and to be always at service,” he said about himself.

On 1992, King Juan Carlos granted the nobility title of Count of Latores for his “long and brilliant career of out-standing, military and civil services to Spain”.

The Count of Latores was buried yesterday in Oviedo, his homeland. Today the Royal Family will hold a funeral at Pardo Palace church, which will be attended by Don Sabino’s relatives and the Royal Family.

Paty Spanish Royals Death, King Juan Carlos, Royal Staff

Click the image to see the photo at the Telegraph

 A new documentary drama about HM The Queen, simply titled The Queen, is being produced by Channel 4.  The filmmakers have hired one of The Queen’s former press secretaries, Penny Russell-Smith, as a consultant on the project.  The Queen is said to be disappointed at Russell-Smith’s decision to become involved with the production.

The dramatized look at The Queen’s life will be comprised of four episodes, each of which centers on a pivotal time in her life.  There will be episodes covering HRH The Princess Margaret’s aborted engagement to Group Captain Peter Townsend in 1955, the kidnapping attempt on HRH The Princess Royal in 1974, the “annus horribilis” events of 1992 (including the divorce of The Princess Royal, the separations of HRH The Prince of Wales and HRH The Duke of York, and the fire at Windsor Castle), and the marriage of The Prince of Wales to Mrs. Camilla Parker Bowles in 2005.  The Queen will be played by different actresses at different points in the program, including Samantha Bond.

Palace staff are required to sign confidentiality agreements while in the service of The Queen, but after they leave their jobs they are free to speak — at the risk of alienating or angering the royal family.  Ironically, Russell-Smith once publicly criticized Paul Burrell, former butler to Diana, Princess of Wales, for the tell-all book he published.

Russell-Smith was press secretary at Buckingham Palace from 2002 until 2007.  Upon leaving her post, she was made a Commander of the Victorian Order in recognition of her service to The Queen.

For more information on the docu-drama or on The Queen’s reaction, please visit this thread.

Ella Kay British Royals Documentary, Elizabeth II, Royal Staff, Television