Saturday, July 30, 2011

AS SEEN ON TV ADDENDUM: LILLIE LANGTRY

We celebrated Lillie Langtry here at Inner Toob two years ago, but there's no harm in sharing a YouTube video about her in the midst of our salute to characters from 'Edward The King'.....
Here's a song about Lillie Langtry


BCnU!

AS SEEN ON TV: VICTORIA'S MUM

THE DUCHESS OF KENT


AS SEEN IN:
'Edward The King'


AS PLAYED BY:
Allison Leggatt

From Wikipedia:
Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld (Mary Louise Victoria; 17 August 1786 – 16 March 1861) was the mother of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom.

When Victoria became Queen, she relegated the Duchess to separate accommodations, away from her own.

When the Queen's first child, the Princess Royal, was born, the Duchess of Kent unexpectedly found herself welcomed back into Victoria's inner circle. It is likely that this came about as a result of the dismissal of Baroness Lehzen at the behest of Victoria's husband (and the Duchess's nephew), Prince Albert. It left the Queen wholly open to Albert's influence, and he likely prevailed upon her to reconcile with her mother.

The Duchess's finances were revived thanks to her daughter and her daughter's advisors. She became a doting grandmother, by all accounts, and was closer to her daughter than she ever had been.


BCnU!

Friday, July 29, 2011

AS SEEN ON TV: PRINCE ALBERT

PRINCE ALBERT

AS SEEN IN:
'Edward The King'

AS PLAYED BY:
Robert Hardy

From Wikipedia:
Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (later The Prince Consort; Francis Albert Augustus Charles Emmanuel; 26 August 1819 – 14 December 1861) was the husband of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.

He was born in the Saxon duchy of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld to a family connected to many of Europe's ruling monarchs. At the age of 20 he married his first cousin, Queen Victoria, with whom he had nine children. At first, Albert felt constrained by his position as consort, which did not confer any power or duties upon him. Over time he adopted many public causes, such as educational reform and the abolition of slavery, and took on the responsibilities of running the Queen's household, estates and office. He was heavily involved with the organisation of the Great Exhibition of 1851. Albert aided in the development of Britain's constitutional monarchy by persuading his wife to show less partisanship in her dealings with Parliament—although he actively disagreed with the interventionist foreign policy pursued during Lord Palmerston's tenure as Foreign Secretary.

He died at the early age of 42, plunging the Queen into a deep mourning which lasted for the rest of her life. Upon Queen Victoria's death in 1901, their son, Edward VII, succeeded as the first monarch of the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, named after the ducal house to which Albert belonged.

BCnU!

Thursday, July 28, 2011

AS SEEN ON TV: PRINCE ALFRED

PRINCE ALFRED


AS SEEN IN:
'Edward The King'

AS PLAYED BY:
Ian Gelder

From Wikipedia:
Alfred, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (Alfred Ernest Albert; 6 August 1844 – 30 July 1900) was the third Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, and reigned from 1893 to 1900. He was also a member of the British Royal Family, the second son and fourth child of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. He was created Duke of Edinburgh, Earl of Kent and Earl of Ulster in the peerage of the United Kingdom on 24 May 1866. He succeeded his paternal uncle Ernst II as the reigning Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha in the German Empire on 23 August 1893.

BCnU!

Wednesday, July 27, 2011

AS SEEN ON TV: PRINCESS ALICE

PRINCESS ALICE


AS SEEN IN:
'Edward The King'

AS PLAYED BY:
Shirley Steedman

From Wikipedia:
The Princess Alice (Alice Maud Mary: Princess Louis and Grand Duchess of Hesse and by Rhine by marriage; 25 April 1843 – 14 December 1878) was a member of the British royal family, the third child and second daughter of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha.

Alice's education was devised by Albert's close friend and adviser, Baron Stockmar. Like her other siblings, Alice spent her early childhood in the company of her parents and siblings, travelling between the British royal residences. In 1861, Prince Albert became ill with typhoid fever, and Alice nursed him through his final illness before he died on 14 December. Following his death, Queen Victoria entered a period of intense mourning, and Alice spent the next six months acting as her unofficial secretary. While the court was still at the height of mourning, on 1 July 1862, Alice married the minor German Prince Louis of Hesse, heir to the Grand Duchy of Hesse. The ceremony—conducted privately and with unrelieved gloom at Osborne House—was described by the Queen as "more of a funeral than a wedding". The Princess' life in Darmstadt was unhappy as a result of impoverishment, family tragedy and worsening relations with her husband and mother.

Alice was a prolific patron of women's causes, especially nursing, and was a follower of Florence Nightingale. When Hesse became involved in the Austro-Prussian War, and Darmstadt filled with the injured, the heavily pregnant Alice devoted much of her time to the management of field hospitals. One of her organisations, the Princess Alice Women's Guild, became a national one, and took over much of the day-to-day running of the military hospitals in Darmstadt. Furthermore, she befriended and promoted the theologian David Friedrich Strauss, who provided an intellectual basis for her faith instead of the traditional sentimentality of Victorian religion. In 1877, Alice became Grand Duchess following the accession of her husband, and her duties put a further strain on her health. The following year, she travelled to England for the last time, holidaying in Eastbourne at the Queen's expense. In the later months of 1878, diphtheria infected the Hessian court, and Alice nursed her family for over a month before falling ill herself. She died on the 17th anniversary of her father's death, 14 December 1878, at the New Palace in Darmstadt.

BCnU!

Tuesday, July 26, 2011

AS SEEN ON TV: QUEEN ALIX

QUEEN ALEXANDRA

AS SEEN IN:
'Edward The King'

AS PLAYED BY:
Helen Ryan


QUEEN ALEXANDRA

AS SEEN IN:

"The Lost Prince"

AS PLAYED BY:
Bibi Andersson

From Wikipedia:
Alexandra of Denmark (Alexandra Caroline Marie Charlotte Louise Julia; 1 December 1844 – 20 November 1925) was the wife of Edward VII of the United Kingdom. As such, she was Queen consort of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Empress of India, from 1901 to 1910.

At the age of sixteen, she was chosen as the future wife of Albert Edward, Prince of Wales, the heir of Queen Victoria. They married eighteen months later in 1863, the same year her father became Christian IX of Denmark and her brother, George, was appointed King of Greece. She was Princess of Wales from 1863 to 1901, the longest anyone has ever held that title, and became generally popular; her style of dress and bearing were copied by fashion-conscious women. Although largely excluded from wielding any political power, she unsuccessfully attempted to sway the opinion of British ministers and her husband's family to favour Greek and Danish interests. Her public duties were restricted to uncontroversial involvement in charitable work.

On the death of Queen Victoria in 1901, Albert Edward became King-Emperor as Edward VII, with Alexandra as Queen-Empress consort. From Edward's death in 1910 until her own death, she was the Queen Mother, being a queen and the mother of the reigning monarch, George V, though she was more generally styled Her Majesty Queen Alexandra. She greatly distrusted her nephew, German Emperor Wilhelm II, and supported her son during World War I, in which Britain and its allies fought Germany.

Two for Tuesday!

BCnU!

Monday, July 25, 2011

AS SEEN ON TV: THE DUKE OF WELLINGTON

THE DUKE OF WELLINGTON


AS SEEN IN:
'Edward The King'

AS PLAYED BY:
John Welsh

From Wikipedia:
Field Marshal Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, KG, GCB, GCH, PC, FRS (c. 29 April/1 May 1769 – 14 September 1852), was an Anglo-Irish soldier and statesman, and one of the leading military and political figures of the 19th century. He is often referred to as simply "The Duke of Wellington", even after his death, when there have been subsequent Dukes of Wellington.

Born in Ireland to a prominent family of Hiberno-Norman origins and Old English culture, he was commissioned an ensign in the British Army in 1787. Serving in Ireland as aide-de-camp to two successive Lords Lieutenant of Ireland he was also elected as a Member of Parliament in the Irish House of Commons. A colonel by 1796, Wellesley saw action in the Netherlands and later India where he fought in the Fourth Anglo-Mysore War at the Battle of Seringapatam. He was appointed governor of Seringapatam and Mysore in 1799.

Wellesley rose to prominence as a general during the Peninsular campaign of the Napoleonic Wars, and was promoted to the rank of Field Marshal after leading the allied forces to victory against the French at the Battle of Vitoria in 1813. Following Napoleon's exile in 1814, he served as the ambassador to France and was granted a Dukedom. During the Hundred Days in 1815, he commanded the allied army which, with a Prussian army under Blücher, defeated Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo. Wellesley's battle record is exemplary, ultimately participating in some 60 battles throughout his military career.

He was twice Prime Minister under the Tory party and oversaw the passage of the Catholic Relief Act 1829. He was Prime Minister from 1828–30 and served briefly in 1834. He was unable to prevent the passage of the Reform Act of 1832 and continued as one of the leading figures in the House of Lords until his retirement. He remained Commander-in-Chief of the British Army until his death in 1852.

BCnU!

Sunday, July 24, 2011

AS SEEN ON TV: CHARLES CARRINGTON

CHARLES CARRINGTON


AS SEEN IN:
'Edward The King'

AS PLAYED BY:
Guy Slater

From Wikipedia:
Charles Carrington (1857-1922) was a leading British publisher of erotica in late-19th and early 20th century Europe. Born Paul Harry Ferdinando in Bethnal Green, England on 11 November 1867, he moved in 1895 from London to Paris where he published and sold books in the rue Faubourg Montmartre and rue de Chateaudun; for a short period of time he moved his activities to Brussels.

Carrington also published works of classical literature, including the first English translation of Aristophanes' "Comedies," and books by famous authors such as Oscar Wilde and Anatole France, in order to hide his "undercover" erotica publications under a veil of legitimacy. His books featured the erotic art of Martin van Maële. He published a French series "La Flagellation a Travers le Monde" mainly on English flagellation, identifying it as an English predilection.

Carrington went blind as a result of syphilis and the last few years of his life were spent in poverty as his mistress stole his valuable collection of rare books. He was placed in a lunatic asylum and died in 1922 at Ivry-sur-Seine, France.

BCnU!