The Landing of Princess Alexandra of Denmark at Gravesend

A poem to celebrate the arrival of Princess Alexandra of Denmark in Britain, as the future bride of Edward, Prince of Wales. It was written by Lord Alfred Tennyson in 1863.

A Welcome to Alexandra

Sea-kings' daughter from over the sea,
Alexandra!
Saxon and Norman and Dane are we,
But all of us Danes in our welcome of thee,
Alexandra!
Welcome her, thunders of fort and of fleet!
Welcome her, thundering cheer of the street!
Welcome her, all things youthful and sweet,
Scatter the blossom under her feet!
Break, happy land, into earlier flowers!
Make music, O bird, in the new-budded bowers!
Blazon your mottos of blessing and prayer!
Welcome her, welcome her, all that is ours!
Warble, O bugle, and trumpet, blare!
Flags, flutter out upon turrets and towers!
Flames, on the windy headland flare!
Utter your jubilee, steeple and spire!
Clash, ye bells, in the merry March air!
Flash, ye cities, in rivers of fire!
Rush to the roof, sudden rocket, and higher
Melt into stars for the land's desire!
Roll and rejoice, jubilant voice,
Roll as a ground-swell dash'd on the strand,
Roar as the sea when he welcomes the land,
And welcome her, welcome the land's desire,
The sea-kings' daughter as happy as fair,
Blissful bride of a blissful heir,
Bride of the heir of the kings of the sea--
O joy to the people and joy to the throne,
Come to us, love us, and make us your own:
For Saxon or Dane or Norman we,
Teuton or Celt, or whatever we be,
We are each all Dane in our welcome of thee,
Alexandra!

Gertrude of Meran, Queen of Hungary

Queen Gertrude and King Andrew II
of Hungary.

Gertrude of Andechs-Meran was the mother of Saint Elizabeth of Hungary. She was born in Andechs sometime in 1185, the second daughter of Berthold IV, Count of Andechs and Agnes of Wettin. Like her sisters, Gertrude was also a famous beauty. Her father wanted all her daughters to make important political marriages for the benefit of their small country. Thus, Gertrude's younger sister Agnes married the King of France, and Gertrude herself was married off to Andrew II, King of Hungary.

It was a politically significant marriage, and Gertrude relished her role as Queen. She exerted much political influence over her husband, and he trusted her explicitly, as evidence of him making her regent during his absence. She proved to be an effective regent. Dietrich of Apolda wrote that Gertrude, during the King's absence, conducted the affairs of the kingdom "like a man". She was reported to be quite popular with the Hungarian people, but this popularity never extended to the Hungarian nobles. Gertrude distributed lands as "gifts" for her relatives while her husband was away, and this earned her the anger and hatred of the nobles.

So while King Andrew was campaigning in Galicia, the nobles hatched a plot to murder the queen. While on a hunt with her brother Bethold and several guests in the Pilis Mountain, Gertrude was killed, her body said to be torn into pieces. Berthold and the other guests barely escaped with their lives. The brutal act left an indelible impression on Gertrude's eldest son, Bela, who had probably seen her mother's murder firsthand.

Bela wanted to see all the conspirators executed but his father only executed the group's leader. The other members of the group were pardoned and left unpunished, and this fueled Bela's growing antipathy towards his father. When he became King of Hungary in 1235, one of his first act after his accession was to avenge his mother's murder.

Gertrude's tomb is in Pilisszentkereszt Abbey in Hungary.

Alexander and Elizabeth

The marriage of the future Tsar Alexander I of Russia and the Grand Duchess Elizabeth Alexeievna in September 1793 was one of the highlights of Catherine the Great's life and reign. Dubbed by contemporaries as the marriage of "Cupid and Psyche", the couple won universal acclaim throughout Europe because of their angelic appearance and their charming nature. It was an arranged marriage, but Alexander and Elizabeth started their married life genuinely fond of and happy with each other. Sadly, marriage bliss for the couple was short-lived. The unfathomable Alexander drifted away from Elizabeth, got a mistress, and fathered several illegitimate children, while Elizabeth - with her placid nature and retiring ways - became a solitary and melancholy figure, neglected by her husband and treated with indifference by his family. It was only towards the end of their lives that the couple had a reconciliation - they were finally reunited and promised to devote themselves to each other. But this new-found happiness was cut short by Alexander's sudden death at the age of 47. Elizabeth, now a tired and broken woman, followed Alexander to the grave 5 months later.

The relationship between Alexander and Elizabeth was best summed up by the Countess of Choisseul-Gouffier in her memoirs:

"What a difference would it have made in the happiness of both, if they had been able to understand each other! They seemed to have been made the one for the other; the same goodness, the same gentleness and intellectual power. Yet there seemed to have been one point on which their hearts could not meet. Why is it that death alone has reunited such perfect souls?"

Asian Venus

The very first time I saw a picture of this lady was more than a year ago and I was immediately captivated by her otherworldly beauty. I made some research at the Internet about her identity and found out that her name was Fawzia, a princess of Egypt and former Queen of Iran.

She was called an "Asian Venus" by renowned photographer, Cecil Beaton. He described her as a woman blessed with a "perfect heart-shaped face and strangely pale but piercing blue eyes".

Princess Fawzia was born on 5 November 1921 in Alexandria, Egypt. She was the eldest daughter of Sultan Fuad I of Egypt and his second wife Nazli Sabri. One of her ancestors was a French army officer who served under Napoleon Bonaparte, later converted to Islam and oversaw the overhaul of the Egyptian army.

Shortly after Fawzia's birth, Fuad I dropped the title 'Sultan' in favor of 'King' and enacted a new constitution that would limit the power of parliament. He then embarked on a program that would modernize Egypt and its image abroad. With these new changes, the Queen and her daughters were allowed to appear unveiled in public.

Queen Fawzia of Iran, 1942.
Photographed by Cecil Beaton.

At the age of 17, Fawzia was engaged to the future Shah of Iran, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. They were married on 16 March 1939 in Cairo, and soon after the wedding Fawzia moved to Tehran. Two years later, Mohammad Pahlavi succeeded as the new Shah of Iran, and Fawzia became Queen.

As the new Queen of Iran, Fawzia became an instant celebrity. She was photographed everywhere she traveled, wearing the latest Parisian couture. She appeared in different magazines like Vogue and Life, and was hailed as Persia's beautiful and glamorous queen.

However, marriage life for Fawzia and the Shah was far from being a happy and ideal one. Although Fawzia had given birth to a daughter, Princess Shahnaz, she was unhappy and felt miserable in Tehran. Her strained relationship with her husband was further complicated by her sisters-in-law's meddling. They disliked Fawzia and were jealous of her beauty. Unfortunately, Fawzia could not handle them. She spent more and more time in Egypt, and one time when she came back from a long vacation, she asked for a divorce. The divorce was granted, but one of the major conditions of the divorce was that their daughter must be left behind in Iran. Fawzia was not allowed to see her daughter; it was only when Princess Shahnaz was already 18 years old that she saw her mother again.

After her divorce, Fawzia moved back to Cairo where she met and fell in love with an Egyptian colonel. They married on 28 March 1949, and the couple had two children.

Today, Fawzia was the most senior member of the deposed Egyptian royal family. She currently resides in Switzerland.

Opera's Greatest Beauty

Praised as 'the most beautiful woman in the world', Lina Cavalieri was a legendary opera singer and the most photographed star of her time.

Born as Natalina Cavalieri on Christmas Day 1874 in Italy, Lina lost her parents at a very young age. She grew up in great poverty, selling flowers and newspapers in Rome. She was then taken to a Catholic orphanage, but the strictness of the nuns prompted her to run away with a touring theatrical group. Eventually, she made her way to Paris, where her beautiful singing voice obtained her work as a singer in cafe-concerts. She then performed at a variety of music halls and other venues in Europe. Once she was able to save enough money, she begin her voice and singing lessons under a certain Mme. Marchesi, with whom she worked diligently for two years.

Gradually, Lina's talent, and her extraordinary beauty, made her the talk of Europe. She then made her way to Russia, performing Neapolitan songs in different theaters in St. Petersburg. It was here that she met and fell in love with Prince Alexander Bariatinsky. It was said that he persuaded Lina to be an opera singer and paid for her voice lessons at Mariani Masi in Milan. In 1900, she married Prince Bariatinsky, and at the same year, made her opera debut in Lisbon.

Her debut in Lisbon was not successful. But this did not undermine her to continue her career as a singer. Fortunately for her, her next singing ventures were more successful. In 1904, she sang at the Opera de Monte-Carlo, and then in Paris. Her singing in New York Metropolitan Opera earned her success when she co-star with the tenor Enrico Caruso.

Lina became a famous beauty of the Belle Epoque. Audiences flocked to see her rather than hear her, although one critic wrote that she ‘has a sincere aptitude for the stage’ and her voice ‘has a certain prettiness’. She had amassed a fortune in just a few short years since her debut. She was considered to have a classical beauty, an hour-glass figure, with charm and personality free from affectation and her taste in dress was exquisite.

Her marriage with Prince Alexander Bariatinsky was not successful. They separated, and Lina had a whirlwind romance and marriage with an American, Robert Chandler. However, the marriage lasted for only two weeks, and with her marriage over, decided to go back to Europe. Her third husband was the French tenor Lucien Muratore, whom she married in 1913. They sang together on stage and starred in silent films.

Lina's fourth marriage was with Paolo d'Arvanni. She returned with him in Italy and retired there, setting up a beauty salon. During World War II, she became a volunteer nurse. But she was killed on 7 February 1944 during an Allied bombing raid that destroyed her home in the countryside of Fiesole, a small town near Florence, where she was placed under police surveillance because of her foreign husband. Hearing an American bomber nearby, Lina, her husband and servants ran to the air-raid shelter in the grounds, but she and her husband were delayed because they were collecting her valuable jewellery from the house. Both Lina and her husband were killed running to the air-raid shelter, while the servants inside the shelter all survived.