European Royalty

In five short paragraphs, this writer (Ard Choille), nicely sums up the chumminess that made up the royal families of old Europe and the vital role Queen Victoria played in the creation and maintenance of that bond:

Until the outbreak of the war the royal families of the various nations made up a wonderful club, the like of which had never been known before. Judging from the society papers, most of Europe existed for their convenience, and even the variety of military uniforms was kept up in order that royalty, while at home or abroad, might have the opportunity to change its clothes as often as possible

Assorted photographs of the assembled German, Spanish, Belgian, Russian, Norwegian and British royal families, posed as they gathered to attend the the 1894 and 1896 Royal weddings at Coburg; also pictured is the group photo snapped at the 1898 shooting party at Sandingham. Queen Victoria appears in two of the pictures, while Kaiser Wilhelm II can be seen in all of them.

Photographic portraits of the six sons and one daughter of the German Kaiser. The sons pose polished, varnished and bemedaled as the military fops they were trained to be: Born in a palace; in a barracks bred. The journalist points out that even Wilhelm’s one daughter served as a Colonel in an elite cavalry regiment.

Click here to read about the royal princess colonels of of the pre-war period.

~Click Here to Read About Women in World War One~