European Royalty

The Hungarians Yearned for the Hapsburgs
(Time Magazine, 1923)

“Hungary is reported to be on the brink of revolution…[Since the war’s end] The Government has never been popular with the majority of the people; it was only accepted by them as a temporary measure, pending the advent of King Otto – the late King Charles’ young son – to the throne of Hungary.”

Her First Born
(Collier’s Magazine, 1955)

This article served to introduce the boy who is now Charles III (b.1948) to American magazine readers and answer all their questions as to how impossibly glamorous his life was when he was only six years-old:


“Despite his scant years, Charles is already launched in his training for chairman of the board. In that training, the ancient and splendid trappings of British royal tradition still play a part, but in the main Charles is unmistakably a child of the mid-Twentieth Century.”

Did He Postpone the War?
(Liberty Magazine, 1936)

On March 7, 1936, Hitler ordered his army to violate the Versailles Treaty, once more, and march into the Rhineland (the portions of Western Germany that border France, Luxembourg, Belgium, and the Netherlands). Hitler was knee-deep in such violations by this time – since 1919, Germany was forbidden to raise an army, manufacture armaments or draft conscripts, so he thought he’d test the waters once more. Western Europe was appalled, seeing this encroachment as the biggest crisis since 1914. Journalist Earl Reeves, insisted in this column that what happened next was entirely due to the acumen of King Edward VIII, but, alas, it really made no difference and the 22,000 German soldiers remained in the Rhineland.

The Duchess and her New Life
(Liberty Magazine, 1938)

The first indication for the Windsors that the life of an abdicator is a tough one came on their wedding day, when none of their friends or family stood in attendance. All the yes-men and royal hangers-on who they believed so loyal, were nowhere in sight. In this article, journalist Adela Rogers St. John (1894 – 1988) looks at the tasks before the newly minted Duchess of Windsor. Seeing that the former king had been snubbed at his own wedding, the most burdensome cross that the Duchess bore was seeing to it that this man never be placed in a position that made him appear as a fool.

Anticipating Elizabeth II
(Literary Digest, 1937)

When Edward VIII chose to abdicate, the world’s attention shifted to the new heir, the Duke of York (George VI: 1895 – 1952) and his daughter, Elizabeth (Elizabeth II: b. 1926). This magazine article served to introduce the future queen to American readers – making clear that the princess was something like a British version of the Hollywood child star, Shirley Temple – often imitated and recognized as the gold standard of girlhood. Written during the depression, her lavish, story-book existence seemed unreal to many.

Queen Elizabeth: HOTTIE
(Pageant Magazine, 1966)

Actor Richard Burton, CBE (1925 – 1984) was no stranger to pretty feminine faces – and as a Welshman, he was no fan of British royalty; so it must have turned some heads when he listed Britain’s Queen Elizabeth as one of the most beautiful women in the world for the editors of Pageant Magazine.

Her Coronation
(Pageant Magazine, 1953)

Judging by the photographs in this eleven page article, the editors of PAGEANT MAGAZINE must have finally decided to take their name quite seriously when they decided to dispatch a correspondent across the sea to report on all the glorious pageantry and glamour that made up the 1953 Coronation of the 27-year-old Elizabeth II (b. 1926):

When Elizabeth arrives at Westminster Abbey for the two-and-a-half-hour ceremony of the Coronation, it will mark the first time in fifty years that a queen has been crowned in England. Three queens have ruled over Albion in 800 years: Elizabeth I, Ann and Victoria; each of their reigns have brought great progress and prosperity. That is one reason why her subjects look forward with such glowing hope to the reign of Elizabeth II.

(Although it is no reflection on her, Britain’s power has decreased dramatically since 1953)

Princess Elizabeth During the Second World War
(Collier’s Magazine, 1947)

A printable article (excerpted from a longer one) outlining what exactly Princess Elizabeth II was up to during World War II:

…and it was decided that Elizabeth must not enlist in anything, that her training for the throne was of the first importance. But Elizabeth felt that she would be a slacker and carry about an inferiority complex for life. So for a year, relentlessly, she persisted. Just before her nineteenth birthday, her father gave in…

The Crown Prince in Exile
(Literary Digest, 1919)

In this interview the Kaiser’s son and fellow exile, Crown Prince Wilhelm (1882-1951, a.k.a. The Butcher of Verdun), catalogs his many discomforts as a refugee in Holland. At this point in his life the former heir apparent was dictating his memoir and following closely the goings-on at Versailles.


Click here to read what Kaiser Wilhelm II thought of Adolf Hitler.

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