Exit of the Ex-Emperor of Vietnam

It was on this day in 1955 that the last Emperor of Vietnam was removed as "Chief of State" of the French-sponsored State of Vietnam based out of Saigon and struggling to survive against the communist revolutionaries in Hanoi. After an epic, heroic defeat at Dien Bien Phu the French were forced to pull out of Southeast Asia and the U.S. began to take over their job of defending the area. In the north, the government and people were united by a totalitarian regime, in the south Prime Minister Ngo Dinh Diem was unifying the region, but making alot of enemies doing it. He appointed his family to most high offices, sent military troops after dissidents and Communist insurgents and promoted Catholic moral values. He turned against the Binh Xuyen gang in a street war, though the group had been sending Bao Dai a percentage of their profits to maintain their status. Diem would not tolerate this. When word reached Emperor Bao Dai in France he immediately decided to remove Diem from office.

Prime Minister Ngo Dinh Diem knew this was coming. He was also supported by the American Colonel Edward G. Lansdale (member of the OSS, forerunner of the CIA) who urged him to replace the "State" that seemed like a monarchy but technically was hard to categorize with a more "American style" republic, which the people in the United States would be more willing to support. On October 6, 1955 the Ministry of the Interior announced that a referendum would be held to depose Bao Dai in favor of Ngo Dinh Diem and replace the "State of Vietnam" with a republic. The Emperor denounced this decision, and said such on the 13th in a note to the French government and the Paris embassies of Britain, the United States, Russia and India. On the 18th Emperor Bao Dai announced the dismissal of Ngo Dinh Diem as Prime Minister and the revocation of all powers he had previously granted him. The next day he told the Vietnamese people he did this because, "police methods and personal dictatorship must be brought to an end, and I can no longer continue to lend my name and my authority to a man who will drag you into ruin, famine and war". However, the Emperor was in France and Colonel Lansdale had been using funds from the C.I.A. to bribe government officials and buy support for Ngo Dinh Diem. He also attempted to have one of the Emperor's most loyal supporters assassinated but when the attack failed, the government silenced the issue. None of it was probably necessary. The Emperor had been associated with the French for so long, and had been away from Vietnam for such lengthy periods that his government never really had any grass-roots support. Ngo Dinh Diem could have undoubtedly won without the use of any strong-arm tactics. However, in Vietnamese politics, regime-change was never about democracy but rather about power. Diem had it, Bao Dai did not.

When the referendum was held, Ngo Dinh Diem was in complete control of the polling stations and the entire voting process. Colonel Lansdale had also helped to give the would-be president an unfair advantage. He had the ballot cards for Bao Dai printed in green ink, the color of misfortune, and printed those for Ngo Dinh Diem in red, the color of good luck and prosperity. Those who did not understand the voting system were told by the troops at the polls to place the red ballots in the envelopes and throw the green ones in the trash. Those who persisted in trying to vote for Emperor Bao Dai were caught outside and assaulted by the soldiers. Some were severely beaten, others had water forced down their throats or hot sauce poured up their nose. In retrospect many said that Bao Dai never had a chance of winning even a fair election. However, this was a matter of principle for Diem who wanted to send a clear message to the country and the world as to who was in charge. A life-long monarchist (at least until now) Diem wanted a display of power as well as 'democratic progress'. When the votes were counted Ngo Dinh Diem claimed victory by 98%. Colonel Lansdale advised him to lower the number to a more realistic percentage, after all, anyone with experience in democracy knows that winning 98% of the electorate is unheard of. This advice was refused and everyone knew the referendum to be fraudulent. In Saigon for example, Diem claimed to have received more votes than there were registered voters in the entire area.

Bao Dai had few choices after this development. With America in support of Ngo Dinh Diem, no one had even listened to his original objection over the holding of the referendum and he had no reason to believe that this would change now. Already the Americans were taking on a larger role in the war effort. Most of the government officials had been bribed into supporting the new president (though only temporarily as time would tell) and Bao Dai had no real avenue with which to protest the results. He also knew that any effort to contest the results of the referendum would only further fragment an already divided nation. Instead, he decided that his only choice was to accept defeat and abdicate once again as the Head of State for Viet-Nám. The Emperor made one last appeal as he left the political stage for peace and unity and for his successors in the Saigon government to give consideration to all parties in the national struggle. He then settled into a life in exile and watched from the sidelines as his country was torn apart. In 1965 he told the French writer Hilaire du Berrier, "If your government had given me one thousandth of the sum it spent to depose me, I could have won that war." Colonel Nicholas Thorne, the U.S. Marine Corps language specialist and authority on the central region of Annam, had said the same as early as 1959.

With the new Viet-Nám being called America's "Showcase for Democracy" Colonel Lansdale came home and left behind Colonel Albert Pham Ngoc Thao to replace him. After the war it was released that Thao had been a communist agent and his remains were removed to the "Heroes Cemetery" in Hanoi. As for Emperor Bao Dai, he was reduced to the life of a powerless exile. During his final years in politics the Emperor's reputation was ruined by the American media. The CBS bureau chief in Paris, David Schoenbrun, wrote a story in Collier's of September 30, 1955 regarding Emperor Bao Dai. He was more concerned with politics than factual journalism however, saying, "Diem must not only remove Bao Dai but must do it in such a way that he no longer has any usefulness as a symbol of Vietnamese unity". In this at least, it can be said that the efforts of advocates of the "third force" in Vietnam were entirely successful.

Monarchist Profile: Comte de la Rochejaquelein

Easily my favorite of the great French royalists, Henri du Vergier Comte de la Rochejaquelein was a dashing young monarchist, the youngest general of the Catholic and Royal Grand Army, and his youth, noble background and great zeal and audacity made him something of a celebrity of the counterrevolution. Of the entire effort probably the two most well known leaders of the uprising in the Vendee were the common coachman Cathelineau and the young nobleman Comte de la Rochejaquelein. He was born on August 30, 1772 in the Chateau de la Durbelliere, Saint-Aubin-de-Baubigne, near Chatillon. Like many young men of his background he was destined for a military career early in life.

Rochejaquelein was an officer in the Constitutional Guard of King Louis XVI and first saw action on August 10, 1792 when he tried to defend the Tuileries Palace from revolutionary mobs. After returning to his home he avoided being drafted into the republican army by refusing to apply for the levé e en masse; a revolutionary innovation that gave the world the concept of the ‘nation in arms’. In April of 1793 he joined with his cousin, the Marquis Louis-Marie Lescure at his estates in Poitou to join the counterrevolutionary forces.

In no time at all the cousins were fighting republican revolutionaries alongside Maurice d’Elbee and the Marquis de Bonchamps. Rochejaquelein showed great skill and bravery and was a very inspiration figure. His handsome youth and great courage made him a natural leader that his troops would follow anywhere. He once gave an order which has become one of the most famous phrases of the counterrevolutionary forces, "Mes amis, si j'avance, suivez-moi! Si je recule, tuez-moi! Si je meurs, vengez-moi!" - "Friends, if I advance, follow me! If I retreat, kill me! If I die, avenge me!"

With only a few thousand peasants under his command Rochejaquelein won his first great victory on April 13 and on May 3 fought in the victory at Bressuire, then at the battle of Fontenay-le-Comte on May 25 and the battle of Saumur on June 9. Showing great leadership again, he inspired the Vendee army to fight on when they were on the threshold of giving up and going home to tend their crops. He rallied the troops and led them to victory at the battle of Chantonnay in September. However, the odds were long and Rochejaquelein was not invincible and he was defeated at the battle of Cholet on October 17 after which he was forced to retreat across the Loire river.

Nonetheless, in spite of this setback, after the death of d’Elbee he was chosen to be generalissimo of the royalist forces on October 20. The Comte de La Rochejaquelein would seem to some to be an unusual choice for such a high command since he was always a "front-line" soldier. However, he proved his strategic abilities quickly. He attacked toward Granville and captured Avranches on November 12. Granville, however, eluded him and he was forced to re-cross the Loire and retreat to Angers. Pursued and harassed by superior forces under Marceau and Kleber until being caught and defeated piece by piece from December 12-23 where the final blow came at Savenay. However, Rochejaquelein managed to escape and continued to lead a guerilla war against the republican forces until he was killed by revolutionaries on January 29, 1794. After his death his brother Louis carried on the fight until his own death in 1815.

Few other royalist leaders so fit the perfect image of the inspiring, romantic royalist at the Comte de la Rochejaquelein who will be forever remembered for his heroic leadership, his loyalty unto death to cross and crown and for his stirring command, “if I advance, follow me! If I retreat, kill me! If I die, avenge me!”

M.M. Movie Review: Kingdom of Heaven

I put off seeing "Kingdom of Heaven" for a while, mostly because of all the hype the film received, particularly as being anti-Christian and especially anti-organized religion, but I always knew I would see it eventually and so I did, curiosity finally getting the better of me. It was about a historical period I find fascinated and featured some of my favorite historical characters. Of course, it wastes no time in attacking the Church. The film only happens because of a wicked, uncaring, grave robbing priest and it is remarked how the Pope has urged all Christians to kill Muslims as though the Crusades were supposed to be some kind of campaign of genocide and it is noted several times with a very un-Medieval 21st Century mentality that you can only be truly devoted to your faith if you are a fanatic. All of the "good guys" in this movie only let religion influence them up to a point. For them, it is no so much a belief as it is simply a matter of which camp you are in and what sort of flag you fly. The supposed hero is openly agnostic.

As for the cast, Liam Neeson plays the father of our would-be hero Godfrey of Ibelin, the would-be hero himself, Balian of Ibelin, is played by Orlando Bloom; possibly the most annoying character in the movie. David Thewlis is an unnamed knight Hospitaler, Marton Csokas is Guy de Lusignan, a character totally out of step with his historical counterpart, much like the star of the show; Eva Green is Princess Sibylle, Jeremy Irons plays a guy called Tiberius, the Marshal of Jerusalem but based on Count Raymond of Tripoli, Ghassan Massoud does a good enough job as Sultan Saladin, he might easily be mistaken as the hero of the film given his portrayal; Brendan Gleeson plays the maniacal Reynaud of Chatillon with about the right level of cruel fanaticism and finally Edward Norton portrays excellently the part of King Baldwin IV of Jerusalem. In my opinion, as well as at least one other I know, the movie would have been much better and certainly more inspirational and uplifting had it simply been about him.

Perhaps even more so than "Gladiator" the historical inaccuracies in "Kingdom of Heaven" are numerous. The attempt to add modern moral lessons is clumsy and arrogant and takes up time that could have been better spent showing actual, exciting events central to the story like the battle at the Horns of Hattin for instance, which happens off screen in this movie. There is plenty of action to be sure, but the siege of Jerusalem is the only really big battle depicted on screen. Probably the worst part of the movie is Orlando Bloom. His character is totally inaccurate, annoying and rather pathetic. Rest assured the actual Balian of Ibelin was nothing like this. In the movie he is a simple blacksmith until Godfrey of Ibelin rides up and announces he had a one-night-stand with his mother and Balian was the result. He assures the young man that his mother was taken willingly -oh yeah, what a gentleman.

The character is totally unbelievable. The movie would have us believe that he is not in the least bothered by finding out that he is the illegitimate son of a noble lord who never came to see him in his whole life, nor made any provision for him or his mother to ensure that his son did not have to become, well, a blacksmith in a dirt poor French village lets say. Furthermore, after being a blacksmith all his life he somehow learns to be a knight in less than a day, after only one unfinished lesson before dear old daddy bites the dust. He continues on to the Holy Land as his father wished, to serve the king and the people, though he arrives there after a somewhat bewildering shipwreck that really was not necessary. He then kills a Muslim who challenges him and has the man's servant escort him to Jerusalem, after which he gives the man his freedom and his horse. Evidently, this man then spread word of this great act of charity to every single Muslim on the planet so that they all like Balian in the future and know what a great guy he is.

Once in Jerusalem he goes to see King Baldwin IV. On the way he sees Knights Templar being executed for violating the peace agreement with the Muslims. Marveling at what a great king they had, Balian remarks that these men were killed for doing what the Pope would have commanded them to do. Nothing like that happened in real life of course, but it is important for the filmmakers to highlight just what an evil warmonger the Holy Father was. In town he meets the sister of the king, Princess Sibylle who takes an instant liking to the heartthrob Balian even though she is married to rough and tough Guy of Lusignan who naturally takes just as strong a disliking to our would-be hero. Princess Sibylle is portrayed as a woman trapped in a loveless and unhappy marriage, when in fact the opposite was true. Guy was basically a big, dumb brute, but she was very devoted to him in real life.

Finally, Balian meets King Baldwin IV, the man who SHOULD have been the star of the movie. In this case, the filmmakers mostly get it right. Baldwin IV was, in reality, a very good, upright, wise and heroic ruler who really did come down with leprosy when he was only nine years old. He didn't actually ride around wearing a silver mask, but that is easily forgiven since it looks so cool. In fact, by the end of his young life Baldwin the Leper, as he was called, was so covered by sores that he could not walk at all but had to be carried everywhere on a litter. He is the best man in the movie and my favorite character by far. Of course, they try to portray him as being somewhat more "modern" than he actually was, not one of the religious fanatics, though in fact the young leprous king was a pious man and a great warrior who bested the fierce Saladin more than once when he was only a teenager. Undoubtedly my absolute favorite scene of the entire movie is when King Baldwin confronts the wicked Reynaud of Chatillon. Ordering him to his knees, Baldwin announces, "I am Jerusalem" before taking off his left glove to reveal his withered and sore-covered hand, extending it to Reynaud and ordering him to give him the kiss of peace. Once this is done he gives the bad knight a good thrashing with his riding crop. That is a scene everyone would have to appreciate, and, as a side note to something the movie got right, Saladin really did send his doctors to try and treat the gallant young Christian king.

When the young king finally dies it is a truly sad and touching scene. His sister is there to comfort him and after his death she removes his mask to reveal the ravages of the disease he had kept hidden for so long. However, in his last moments, as he remembered the happier days of his youth, she correctly remarks that he was a man beautiful in every way. That is, in the way that really matters -in the heart. However, as much as I prefer Baldwin, I should get back to the star of the show, Balian of Ibelin. Just to refresh, the real Balian was not illegitimate, he was not French, not a blacksmith and not humble born. He was actually born in the Holy Land, head of a noble family with ambitions of his own, his wife was a Byzantine princess and he did not have a one-night-stand with Princess Sibylle. Oh, did I forget to mention that? The star of the film having an affair with the only babe on screen, boy, I bet no one saw that coming did they? Oddly enough, in the movie (none of this happened in real life) King Baldwin offers to knock off the wicked Guy of Lusignan and marry his sister to Balian. After all, in the movie Sibylle does not love Guy, she does love Balian and this way the Kingdom of Jerusalem will pass to a good guy rather than a murdering thug. The ideal plan right? You would think so, but Balian won't go along with it since our agnostic knight who complains that God does not know him has moral qualms about being responsible for the killing of the wicked and murderous Guy. Oddly enough he didn't seem to have any moral qualms about sleeping with the man's wife! It is just another reason why Balian is such a terrible movie hero. So, ultimately, a maniac takes the throne, provokes a war with Saladin that the Christians cannot win and brings about hundreds or thousands of deaths and the fall of Jerusalem all because Balian does not want to be involved in the death of a bad man who deserved to die anyway. And, I might add, the sole reason given for Balian becoming agnostic is that he went to Calvary and felt no different afterwards. I guess his whole faith hung on visions of angels and a booming voice from the sky telling him everything is okay. For crying out loud, he could have just gone to confession!

Anyway, that is how it works out. The upright King of Jerusalem dies, Baldwin the Leper, and his sister becomes Queen. She automatically makes Guy the new King and he and Reynaud pick a fight with the Muslims by massacring some Arab pilgrims and kidnapping the sister of Saladin (Reynaud was a jerk -most Christians and Muslims would probably agree on this). They are then defeated by Saladin at the Horns of Hattin, after which the Muslim army marches on Jerusalem. It is up to Balian to defend the city even though the local Patriarch advised immediate surrender on any terms. This is another character the films gets wrong, from what I have read the real Patriarch was an upstanding guy. In any event, Balian leads the defense of the city, which is accurate, and does surrender the city after threatening to fight to the death and destroy every holy place therein, which is also true though I think in actuality he only threatened the Muslim sites and I cannot imagine Saladin thinking that might be a good idea (rest assured though Christians come off looking worse there is plenty that would offend devout Muslims as well). Once again, we see how Balian is not the standard sort of hero when his greatest claim to fame is giving up the Holy City. The film then ends on even greater distortions of truth. In fact, Saladin did not let the Christians go free, he ransomed them and anyone who could not pay the ransom was sold into slavery. The film really loses touch with reality when Balian and Sibylle go back to France to live happily ever after where Balian is once again a blacksmith in his same shop (the film ignores the fact that Balian is a wanted criminal here at the start of the film and burns his shop down, so the movie is not even accurate to its own story line) and he turns down an invitation to return to the Holy Land by King Richard I of England. In truth, the real Balian never left and he and Richard were enemies in a bitter dispute over the kingship of Jerusalem, but evidently the film totally abandoned history by the end, throwing up its hands and saying WE JUST DON'T CARE! Of course, what is possibly the least believable thing is that a Medieval princess turned Queen would go off to live in a hut and be the wife of a blacksmith.

Now, with that out of the way, let me say that there were things about this movie that I liked. Ridley Scott knows how to do good battle scenes as we saw in "Gladiator" and this movie has great ones and would have been even better if they had shown the so-called marriage siege at Kerak castle and the Horns of Hattin. There are some great scenes and great lines in this film to compensate for the bad ones. One of my favorites is when the Muslim soldier sees dust on the horizon and announces that "Jerusalem has come" as the Latin knights come marching and riding in, with the True Cross held up front before them and Baldwin the Leper riding in the vanguard. Of course, all of his scenes are touching, and I love how they had his horse trained to kneel so the leper king could step off rather than dismounting in the traditional way. I did not like the way the Templars were portrayed to be a bunch of bloodthirsty fanatics, but there is a lesson to be learned in expecting that God will get you out of any fight just because you are a Christian. What happens at Hattin is a slight parallel to what happened to the Israelites in the Bible when they think they can fight for their own reasons and still gain help from God by carrying the Ark of the Covenant before them, only to have God prove them wrong and allow them to be defeated in spite of the presence of the Ark.

The movie also does show, though only slightly, that there was peace and tolerance in the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem, that there were real heroes like Baldwin the Leper and that knights were expected to live by a moral code to protect the weak and innocent, which Balian does before the Muslims at Kerak. The film moves well, the only notable exceptions being the time wasted showing Balian spruce up his inherited fiefdom and the boring affair between him and Sibylle. The look of the movie was good, and though I would be wary about recommending it to just anyone because of the anti-religious slant and the gross inaccuracies, I would say it is worth a look if only for the portrayal of the noble Christian King, Baldwin IV and the touching and truthful scenes he is the center of. Once again we see that Hollywood knows all the technical tricks to make a good movie, they just need better stories; better writers.

US Nurse Africa's Latest Monarch

The Republic of Uganda, as most monarchists know, has several ceremonial monarchs reigning on the tribal level. Now, they have one more. Charles Wesley Mumbere was working as a nurse's aide in the United States, no one knowing anything about his ancestry or that for the last few years he had been calling on the Ugandan government to give him official recognition as a king. He was crowned in 1966 as King of the 300,000-strong Rwenzururu nation. However, the "King of the Mountains of the Moon" began as a teenage rebel fighting alongside his father in a war of secession against the neighboring nation of Toro. Mumbere inherited the kingship upon the death of his father but was confined to struggling in the wilderness until he obtained a government scholarship to study in the U.S. Later, Uganda shut off his cash flow and he had to leave school and begin working as a nurse's aide. He said he chose the profession because it promised steady work.

Now, after finally obtaining the blessing of the republican government, the King is back and was welcomed at a colorful celebration to marke his formal restoration to his ancestral throne. He was warned by the President to stick to cultural issues and to stay out of politics (yeah, because the politicians are doing such a great job on that front) but all is not peace and stability for the restored royal. At least four other men are claiming kingship over disputed areas of the Bakonzo-Bamba and have been trying (without success) to raise legal roadblocks to the restoration.

The Latest from Japan

Today, Her Imperial Majesty Empress Michiko of Japan celebrates her birthday. She was born in 1934 in Tokyo to Hidesaburo Shōda and his wife Fumiko Soejima. She attended the University of the Sacred Heart in Tokyo, Harvard in the United States and Oxford in Great Britain. On April 10, 1959 she married HIH Crown Prince Akihito who became Emperor of Japan in 1989. The Mad Monarchist wishes Her Imperial Majesty, the world's last Empress, a happy birthday and many, many more.

Getting bigger every day, HIH Princess Aiko of Japan was cheering loud at the victory of her team in a relay race during an annual autumn sports event at her Gakushuin elementary school in Tokyo last Saturday. Her proud parents, TIH Crown Prince Naruhito and Crown Princess Masako were also on hand to watch and were all smiles like any other pair of proud parents at their daughter's contribution to the victory. She is an adorable little girl, though I am glad that issue of her succession was able to be dodged. Princess Aiko is a great girl, but, call me old fashioned -you wouldn't be the first, I simply cannot picture Japan without an Emperor.

Controversial Aristocrat in Texas

The controversial British peer Lord Christopher Monckton, 3rd Viscount Monckton of Brenchley, is in College Station, TX, home of Texas A&M (gig'em Aggies!) spreading his message of warning against global climate change legislation currently working its way through the United Nations. His words come just as lame-duck British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has warned that unless drastic action is taken in the next 50 days the WORLD WILL DIE! Needless to say, Lord Monckton takes the opposite view and has contrarily warned that the environmentalist movement has been hijacked by communists who exchanged their "red" for "green" and drummed up the global warming hysteria to push their agenda through which would result in a centralized world government, socialist/communist in nature, which would re-distribute wealth from the first world to the third world.

Needless to say, Lord Monckton is not to popular amongst the "mainstream" crowd of today. Aside from dismissing global warming as a hoax he is on the "wrong" side of many other issues as well. In the past the hereditary peer, a Roman Catholic and member of the Knights of St John and the Knights of Malta, has been associated with the Tory "new right", called heterosexual AIDS a "myth" and advocated the mass quarantine of the infected and has been a vocal enemy of British integration into the European Union which he has described as an "atheistic, humanistic government". Most known for his opposition to global warming alarmism, Lord Monckton has pointed out that he is not an enemy of the environment and was friends with some of the founders of the "green" movement but that these people were soon forced out by radical leftists who took the movement over in order to push their political agenda under the cover of environmentalism.

Monarch Profile: Ferdinand III of Tuscany

Grand Duke Ferdinand III of Tuscany was born on May 6, 1769 to the future Holy Roman Emperor Leopold II and his wife the Infanta Maria Luisa of Spain. He succeeded to the throne of Tuscany when his father was elected Emperor in 1790 and that same year was married to his cousin Princess Luisa of the Two Sicilies. The couple eventually had six children though the last was stillborn. However, Ferdinand was to have a very troubled reign due to the effects of the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars. When the French Revolutionary Wars first broke out Ferdinand III, understandably for the ruler of a small country, tried to remain neutral but his efforts in this regard went unappreciated and in 1799 French troops marched in to occupy Florence to the cheers of local Tuscan revolutionary republicans.

The loyal people of Tuscany, encouraged by Pope Pius VII, rose up in a counterrevolutionary movement in the name of Ferdinand III against the French. The fighting was often extremely brutal but in the end the French were driven out and with Austrian support Florence was also recovered. However, in October of 1800 the French came back and due to the fact that the occupying Austrians had not always behaved with the best manners there was more local support for France this time around. A provisional government was set up by the French marshal Joachim Murat and in the treaties of Luneville and Aranjuez the Grand Duchy of Tuscany became the Kingdom of Eturia as part of the Spanish empire and with the former Duke Louis of Bourbon-Parma as king.

In an effort to keep the deposed Ferdinand III placated he was made the Duke-Elector of Salzburg in Austria; a duchy made from the seized lands of the former Prince-Archbishop of Salzburg. At the end of 1802 he was further promoted to Prince-Elector of the Holy Roman Empire but that body itself would ultimately be dissolved in 1806. However, it did not matter much to Ferdinand at that point as a year earlier he had been forced to relinquish his rule of Salzburg when it was annexed by his brother, Emperor Francis II, in the Treaty of Pressburg. 1802 was a particularly difficult year for Ferdinand as it was also in that year that his wife Luisa died in Vienna during childbirth. The baby boy was still born and was entombed in his mother’s arms in the Imperial Crypt of the Hapsburgs.

Again, using lands seized from the Bishop of Wü rzburg, Ferdinand was made Duke of Wü rzburg, retaining his electoral title for another year until the Empire was dissolved at which time he was compensated by a promotion to Grand Duke of Wü rzburg. It was not until Napoleon had been defeated that on May 30, 1814 Ferdinand III was restored to his original place as Grand Duke of Tuscany, though he would suffer another minor territorial loss the following year. In 1821 Grand Duke Ferdinand married again to Princess Maria of Saxony in Florence. They never had any children and Ferdinand III died a few years later on June 18, 1824. He was succeeded by his son Leopold II who would be the last Grand Duke of Tuscany.

Monarchist Destinations: Hawa Mahal

Of the multitude of royal sites of interest in India probably the most famous is the Taj Mahal. My personal favorite would have to be the majestic Mughal palace complex known as the Red Fort. However, one of the less well known but certainly memorable monarchist destinations in India is the Hawa Mahal in Jaipur. It was built in 1799 by Maharaja Sawai Pratap Singh and designed by Lal Chand Usta to resemble the crown of the Hindu god Krishna. Part of the Jaipur city palace it was an embelishment of the Zenana or harem where the royal women lived and this, in part, accounts for the striking face of the palace which was built to allow the ladies of the harem to see out onto the streets below without passersby being able to see in.

Inspired by Mughal architecture it was built in the Rajputana style, five stories tall and made of red and pink sandstone lined with white quick lime. The side facing the street is covered in 953 windows which both keep the inside cool and give the palace its name, the "Hall of the Winds". It is sometimes also referred to as the whispering or singing palace as the brilliant design was built so that the wind blowing through the windows would create a musical sound. Ramps are the only way to reach the upper levels and there is a courtyard inside with 2-story buildings on three sides and another on the east side that is 3 stories tall but only one room wide. It is definitely a sight to see and one of those monuments that, in its style, grandeur and creative design is very uniquely Indian.

Princess Francoise of Monaco, victim of the Revolution

Read about the eventful and ultimately trafic life of Françoise-Thérèse de Choiseul-Stainville, Princesse Joséph de Monaco, the daughter of a prominent French family, daughter-in-law of Prince Honore III of Monaco and victim of the French Revolution. Her story and more at the sister blog Mad for Monaco.

MM Video: Royals of Jordan

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Hitler: Right Wing Dictator?

I get a little tired of people categorizing Adolf Hitler as a "right-wing dictator". This is because, for the most part, this often seems to come from those who refuse to believe that there is such a thing as a really bad left-wing dictator. Where does this classification come from? Is it simply a monopoly on racism? Because I cannot, for the life of me, see why Adolf Hitler is considered more right-wing than left-wing. Think about it; the man was an irreligious, environmentalist, vegetarian who banned smoking and founded a party called the "National Socialist German Workers Party". Does that sound like a conservative, right-wing guy to you? Hitler was born into the Austrian Empire but had nothing but contempt for the Hapsburg domain which was far too cosmopolitan for his racial purist views and was far too accepting of Jews for his anti-Semitic taste. So much was he against his own homeland that when World War I came he went to fight for Germany rather than Austria.

Furthermore, I would say simply look to Hitler's background and his own words if any doubt remains. He scorned the German princes, insulting them in his political testament Mein Kampf and was inordinately proud of his "common" background and dismissive of the aristocratic class and the old royals. He at times made friendly gestures toward the princely class to win over conservatives but never followed through on his real or implied promises. He purposely copied the methods of the socialists and communists such as in his design of the Nazi flag, chosen, he wrote, because he had seen the hypnotic effect of massed red flags at communist rallies. When the last German Kaiser died he forbid high officials to attend the funeral and when Prince Wilhelm of Prussia was killed in World War II he so feared the monarchist sentiment that arose at his funeral that he forbid German royals from serving at the front after that. Look at his political record.

After World War I he joined the German Workers Party, not the conservatives who wanted a restoration of the old monarchy. He then molded this party into the National Socialist German Workers Party and he made it clear that his vision was an aristocracy of racial blood rather than royal blood and which adhered to a religion of blood and soil rather than Christ and the Apostles. His goal, he openly stated, was to have all class distinctions abolished, something very liberal by the standards of any country. Even when German princes embraced Nazism he was loathe to accept them and did so only for the propaganda value of their conversions. He tried to tread somewhat lightly on the subject of religion because he wanted to appeal to a very broad audience though he did find some of the writings of Martin Luther quite useful when they condemned and ridiculed the Jews. On the whole though, Hitler wanted a new version of Nazi paganism rather than Christianity as can be seen in his insistence that his elite guard, the SS, not have any firm religious convictions. The extent to which Hitler was an occultist is debatable and in all probability he did not have any religion in the common sense of the term. Oddly enough his spiritual beliefs seem most compliant with the liberal elites of today who usually state that they do not believe in organized religion but prefer a vague sort of naturalistic spiritualism. In fact, it was specifically the paganism of Nazi Germany and to a lesser extent fascist Italy that the Pope (Pius XI) condemned and which gave the most pause to more conservative but fervently Christian nationalists like Salazar in Portugal, Franco in Spain and Dollfuss in Austria.

There were right-wing elements to Hitler and some fairly conservative sorts of people among his followers, but on the whole, I cannot see how anyone can call Hitler a right-wing guy. From his background, political testament and the state he created I do not see how the man can be considered, on the whole, to be of anything other than the political left. He was no friend of monarchy, wanted all class differences abolished, legalized abortion (for non-Aryans), banned smoking, instituted gun control, was a fervent environmentalist, a vegetarian and hated organized religion in favor of a nature-based spiritualism. I ask again, does any of that sound conservative or right-wing to you?

Consort Profile: Queen Leonor of Viseu

Queen Leonor of Viseu was the consort of King Joao II of Portugal and quite a remarkable woman. The Infanta Leonor was born on May 2, 1458 to Infante Fernando, Duke of Viseu and his wife Beatrice of Portugal. Her maternal grandfather was Afonso, first Duke of Braganza. In January of 1471 the 13-year-old Leonor was married to the 16-year-old Joao Prince of Portugal, heir to throne as the only living son of King Afonso V. In 1475 Leonor gave birth to the first of her only two children, Prince Afonso, who was sadly later to die a premature death in a horse-riding accident in 1491. In 1482 she gave birth to another son, named after his father, but he did not survive.

On August 28, 1481 King Afonso V died and Leonor’s husband became King Joao II of Portugal. The new king was widely unpopular amongst the nobles as he sought to curtail their power and centralize government authority. Part of this was because of the many schemes and court intrigues that naturally tended to hatch from the nobility. No one could say that Queen Leonor had any undue influence on her husband in his zeal to wipe out corruption in the nobility. Her older brother, Duke Diogo of Viseu and her brother-in-law Duke Fernando II of Braganza were both executed by her husband after being linked to a treasonous plot against him. This campaign of the Crown against the nobility almost wiped out the house of Braganza (which might have seriously changed Portuguese history had it happened).

One of the things the Queen is most known for is her foundation of the city of Caldas da Rainha which was named after her. She was greatly troubled by the conspiracies that surrounded her husband and when he died on October 25, 1495 there were rumors that he had been poisoned. His reign had been an eventful one, fraught with conflict but also one which saw the elevation of Prince Henry the Navigator and a renewal of exploration that laid the foundations of the future Portuguese empire. In his absence Queen Leonor devoted herself to the Church and charitable works. Her brother became King Manuel I and she established, in 1498, the Holy Houses of Mercy which worked to relieve the suffering of the poor, the diseased, abandoned children and orphans. Thanks to her, the Holy Houses of Mercy later sprang up across the world in Portuguese colonies making Queen Leonor the founder of an empire of compassion just as impressive if not moreso than that of her late husband.

The Latest from Luxembourg

The Grand Ducal Family of Luxembourg has passed a few milestones lately. October 7th marked the ninth anniversary of Grand Duke Henri's accession to the Luxembourg throne. They marked the occasion with the release of a new set of family photos, group and individual, in formal and informal attire, showing off again that the Grand Ducal Family are obvious winners in the genetic lottery. The photos can be see on the Luxembourg monarchy's website here. These were the first family photos to include Princess Tessy, the wife of Prince Louis, and the couple’s two sons, Gabriel and Noah. On October 9th TRH Prince Guillaume and Princess Sibilla of Luxembourg were in Monaco for the European Organization for the Research and Treatment of Cancer gala hosted by HSH Prince Albert II (covered on Mad for Monaco). Yesterday, HRH Grand Duke Henri of Luxembourg along with his son and heir Hereditary Grand Duke Guillaume hosted a reception at the Grand Ducal Palace following the ceremonious opening of the Chamber of Deputies for Luxembourg's new political term. Ordinarily Grand Duchess María Teresa would have attended but is still taking it easy after having surgery early last month.

Monarchist Profile: Phan Boi Chau

One of the greatest loyal counterrevolutionary figures of 20th Century Vietnam was Sao Nam Phan Boi Chau. He was born in 1867 in the Province of Nghe An to a proud educated family. As a boy he displayed great intelligence very early. In 1890 Phan Boi Chau earned a second class degree (Pho bang) in the metropolitan examinations. With such an accomplishment, an intellectual such as Phan Boi Chau could have easily become a great official, scholar or other high position. However, he determined early on to use his talents and his devotion to Vietnam and the Great Nguyen Dynasty to set his country and his people free of colonial control.

In 1903 Phan Boi Chau formed the Restoration Society of revolutionary patriots under the leadership of His Imperial Highness Prince Cuong De, a descendant of Crown Prince Nguyen Phuc Canh and Emperor Gia Long. In 1905 Phan Boi Chau and Prince Cuong De formed a base for revolutionary activity in Japan, safe from the colonial authorities in Vietnam. Phan Boi Chau wrote many great articles and tracts calling on the people to join him in the struggle to free Vietnam and restore its greatness as a free modern monarchy with liberty for the people under the Nguyen Dynasty.

After being removed from Japan, Phan Boi Chau went to China to continue his revolutionary activities. He formed a new organization, hoping to win support from all groups of Vietnamese patriots. Although he wished to modernize, he had already shown that his first idea was to restore freedom while keeping the ancient monarchy of the Nguyen Dynasty in place. When forming his patriotic groups, he took his inspiration from the "Can Vuong" Save the King movement led by Emperor Ham Nghi. He took as his core supporters the great patriots who had fought for Emperor Ham Nghi in the years of the Can Vuong movement. These many made numerous attempts to overthrow the colonial regime and Phan Boi Chau was even imprisoned in China. Despite all of this though, he stressed that harmony with France was needed, he desired freedom from the colonial regime but also offered friendship to his enemies.

In 1925 Phan Boi Chau was moving in the International Settlement in Shanghai when he was captured by French colonial authorities. He had been betrayed by his fellow revolutionary Ho Chi Minh who had sold his freedom to the French. Because of this treason Phan Boi Chau was taken to Hanoi and convicted of treason with a sentance of death, but his fellow Vietnamese who admired his courage and loyal patriotism refused to allow his death. He was therefore placed under house arrest in his cottage in the Imperial capital of Hue until his death in 1940. He is still honored by all for his heroic patriotism and loyalty to the people, the country and the Nguyen Dynasty.

MM Video: Bette Davis as Empress Carlota

Cinema Royals: Bette Davis

Bette Davis was at her typical best in the 1939 bio-pic "Juarez" as the tragic Empress Carlota of Mexico. The superb cast included Paul Muni as Benito Juarez, Brian Aherne as Emperor Maximilian (who was nominated for the best supporting actor Oscar for his performance), the always excellent Claude Rains as Emperor Napoleon III, Gale Sondergaard as Empress Eugenie, John Garfield as General Porfirio Diaz and Donald Crisp as Marshal Achille de Bazaine. However, Bette Davis easily captivated the audience as Empress Carlota, bearing at least a passing resemblance to the Belgian empress and, on the whole, giving a fairly accurate portayal of the woman. She mentions that it was she who pressed Maximilian to accept the Mexican throne and she effectively conveys the idealism that Carlota had for what she and her beloved Max could make of Mexico as well as her fiery determination in times of crisis. In this film Carlota is made ignorant of the fact (though Max and his doctor are not) that she can have no children and one of the most moving scenes is her heartfelt prayer in a candle-lit cave before a statue of the Virgin of Guadalupe to give her a son so that her husband's throne might be secure. Her scenes with Maximilian are truly moving and their on-screen relationship totally overshadows the story of the wooden, plodding Benito Juarez. She is heartbroken at the idea of adopting an heir from the Iturbide dynasty but, once persuaded that this is best, accepts the boy as her own. Still, her best scenes are the most tragic as she journeys to France for a showdown with Napoleon who has left them in the lurch. Her descent into paranoia and madness must rank as one of Bette Davis' greatest performances in her illustrious career. "Juarez" is a movie well worth seeing, even if one must skip through the scenes featuring the president, and although not entirely historically accurate it does get many things right. It is guilty more of the over-glorification of Juarez rather than slandering or vilifying Carlota and Maximilian. A great performance and one of my personal favorites.

Monarch Profile: King Frederick I of Wurttemberg

Frederick I is known for being the first King of Wurttemberg and for being extremely large (he was nearly 7 feet tall and weighed over 400 pounds!). He was the nephew of Duke Charles Eugene of Wurttemberg whose reckless spending and wars had left the country divided, relatively poor and quite volatile. His father had purposely raised him as a Protestant so that he would share the religion of the majority of his future subjects (the previous dukes of Wurttemberg had been Catholic). Expected to inherit the throne steps were taken to see that he would be prepared for the job. Empress Catherine II of Russia made him governor-general of eastern Finland from Viipuri. In 1797 he succeeded his short-reigning father as Duke Frederick III of Wurttemberg but within 3 years was forced to flee to Vienna by after the French invaded.

Frederick signed his own secret peace with France and was raised to the status of a Prince-Elector in the formal peace that followed. Later, when he agreed to provide troops to aid the French the Emperor Napoleon had him elevated to the status of King of Wurttemberg. The country left the Holy Roman Empire to join the French-backed Confederation of the Rhine and Frederick even had his daughter Catherine married to Napoleon's brother Jerome. This match likely did not go over well in London with Frederick's father-in-law, King George III of Britain. During the French war against Russia the Wurttemberg troops earned a high reputation for their discipline and tenacity, their few survivors being the only soldiers marching in perfect formation on the horrific retreat from Moscow.

A very pragmatic ruler, Frederick turned on his former French allies during the War of Liberation of 1813, playing up his British family ties, and was rewarded at the Congress of Vienna by having his kingship confirmed by the more established powers of Europe. The alliance with France had truly been one of forced necessity and neither Frederick nor Napoleon had very many kind things to say about the other. In political terms his reign was a great success seeing Wurttemberg fight on the losing side, emerge on the winning side and raised to the status of a kingdom. In private he was much less of a success. His marriage to Duchess Augusta of Brunswick was an unhappy one and many rumors spread about Frederick, from accusations of homosexuality to being abusive toward his wife. They had 2 sons and 2 daughters before Augusta's death in 1788. Frederick later married the Princess Royal of Great Britain but had only one daughter who was born dead. The massive monarch died in 1816, one year after joining the German Confederation.

Monaco Updates

For those not keeping up with the "sister blog", some recent posts which might be of interest to Mad Monarchist readers include bios of Lord Charles II, the patron of Monaco St Devote which ties in with his story, a series of posts on the Casiraghis who are the younger face of Monaco; Andrea, Pierre and Charlotte and the latest about Prince Albert II and Belgium's Princess Astrid at the premiere of the film "Oceans". Lots of stuff there, not updated as often as this blog, but if you want to know about the history and monarchy of Monaco and keep up with the Grimaldis check out Mad for Monaco.

Borbon Royals Celebrate Spanish National Day

Viva el Rey! Arriba Espana!