Without the Monarchy in place,who would you choose for President?

[JFKvsNixon]

I know what you mean here.

Not many people know that Queen Victoria had great difficulty speaking English.

She spoke with a German accent, that is why her voice was never recorded, even though that technology was easily available before she died.

The so called recieved pronunciation, wich all the royalty used to speak in prior to the 80's was a result of this.

It was a result of trying to get shut of their German accents.

 

Before this the Monarchs used to speak in local accents, depending on where they were brought up.

 

You do know that there is a recording around that she supposedly sent to Emperor Menelek of Ethiopia which has been accepted as being Queen Victoria, also the jury is still out as to whether she spoke with a German accent. Interestingly as well as English, French and German she also spoke Hindustani, or Hindi-Urdu as it's now known.

[Harleyman]

Caused by received pronunciation, and making him write with his right hand whan he was left handed.My own mother came through this punishment, and was ambidextrous after it all.

It was amazing to see her write as well with both hands as not many of us can do.

 

I saw "The Kings Speech"

 

Tell me this though. When was the last king of England truly English?

 

The original inhabitants of England, the Celts were tribal and had their indivdual leaders. Then along came the Romans and England had a Roman Emperor for around five hundred years.

After they left the Saxons, Jutes, Angles and Danes invaded. England was divided up into various Saxons and Danish kingdoms.

By the late 10th century all these peoples had become known as "English" and in turn ruled by Saxon or Danish kings.

That was until William the Conqueror and the Normans arrived. The Normans were Scandinavians who had settled in Normandy a century and half or so before and adopted the French language and customs. Edward the Confessor and King Harold were then it could be said the last of the English line.

 

From 1066 onwards a succession of Kings whose primary language was French sat on the throne and French was the language spoken at Court. They had started to speak English by the time of Richard the Third then after a tussle over the throne along came the Tudors who were descended from a Welshman Owen Glendower. The Tudors, displaced Taffys ruled until the death of Elizabeth the First. Prior to her reign Queen Mary, half Spanish ruled for a few years as did Henry's son Edward who died young.

What was Elizabeth the First? Perhaps her mother's family, the Boleyns were of French extraction themselves. The name certainly suggests it.

 

Old Liz dies childless and King James the Sixth of Scotland becomes King James the First of England and Scotland.

 

The Stuart Charles the First, a displaced Jock ruled until Oliver Cromwell took over. Now Cromwell was a true Englishman by race but he turned out to be a worse despot than Charles was and when he died only his mommy shed a tear Back to the Stuarrs again who reigned until Queen Anne died childless and a woman named Mary (who I dont know much about) became Queen and married a Dutchman, William of Orange.

 

The next lot to crop up were the Hanovarians and when George of Hanover who became King George the First was crowned he didnt speak a word of English or if he did only enough to ask where his meals, chamber pot and snuff box were.

 

So that's it. None of the Monarchy today can be truly said to be of one hundred percent "native English" blood but that doesnt mean to say they're not as British as you are.

 

The war with Germany is long over mate. They may beat us at footy and build great cars but they cant rival Britain for it's tradition of democracy, common laws that many other nations have adopted and an association of nations known as the Commonwealth. When Hitler went to war with Britain he took on half the world along with it

 

Time to forgive and forget. The Germans are our friends

[janie48]

King George the Sixth had great difficulty speaking at all but that didnt stop him being King

 

Now i'm reminded of the film..The Kings Speech with Colin Firth playing GeorgeV1 brilliant performance!!

[Harleyman]

You do know that there is a recording around that she supposedly sent to Emperor Menelek of Ethiopia which has been accepted as being Queen Victoria, also the jury is still out as to whether she spoke with a German accent. Interestingly as well as English, French and German she also spoke Hindustani, or Hindi-Urdu as it's now known.

 

Her diaries are still around. Judging by the spelling and grammar she was very conversant with the language

[Harleyman]

Now i'm reminded of the film..The Kings Speech with Colin Firth playing GeorgeV1 brilliant performance!!

 

Yes it was. Pity the actor who played his speech coach didn't get an award.

He put in a great performance as well

[Harleyman]

I have Irish roots on my fathers side and am proud of that, in spite of that i am proud of being English and a staunch Royalist,duel loyalties in one respect i suppose.

Incidentally,we used to hear the Kennedy family referred to as the "American Royals" I expect that was before all the scandals became public.

Are their offspring behaving themselves these days?

 

Havent heard anything about the Kennedy's for a long time. I always wished that Edward Kennedy could have been president. He was a great friend of the American working man in every way.

 

If you follow the logic of Balpin and Teddybare the Kennedy's werent Americans either since they had lived in America only since the Irish Potato Famine barely a century before JFK became a Senator in the 1950s My wife might have a slender claim to be a real American since she's 1/8 Cherokee, ignoring the Norwegian, Irish and French-Canadian parts of her family.

[Harleyman]

No. But the fact you've emigrated to another country and seemingly adopted all their values, opinions and viewpoints and refer to the Americans as "us" might do though

English nobility have been "foreign" to people they rule for centuries. Upper classes have their own little gene pool. Being half Irish half English doesn't really compare to that at all.

The squaddy history explains why you're an ardent monarchist also.

 

Millions of Brits emigrated to Commonwealth countries and America during the three decades after WW2. I just happened to be one of them. All looking for a better life. I dont blame the Monarchy for my financially deprived situation at that time. The Monarchy didnt start the war, politicians did and Britain took a long time to recover from it.

 

I dont subscribe to the opinions of many on here that the Americans are behind all the trouble in the world. The world has benefied from America in many ways especially Europe and Japan after World War Two. Most of the troubles following WW2 had it's origins in the days of European colonialism.

 

As for being a squaddy... yes I was. Served two years as a National Serviceman most of it in the Far East. Proud of it too. I doubt today that the whingers and moaners could handle it. That has nothiing to do with being a Monarchist.

 

i just happen to hold the opinion that the Monarchy works well for a country like Britain as it does for Norway, Sweden and Denmark, three of the most civilized and liveable countries in the world.

[Teddybare]

Havent heard anything about the Kennedy's for a long time. I always wished that Edward Kennedy could have been president. He was a great friend of the American working man in every way.

 

If you follow the logic of Balpin and Teddybare the Kennedy's werent Americans either since they had lived in America only since the Irish Potato Famine barely a century before JFK became a Senator in the 1950s My wife might have a slender claim to be a real American since she's 1/8 Cherokee, ignoring the Norwegian, Irish and French-Canadian parts of her family.

 

if a royal family is of German origin, has a German name, has married into only other Germanic family for centuries but happens to live a country that isn't Germany where it has virtually no interaction with the populace whatsoever, why is it so unreasonable to consider them to have German, not British origin?

If someone wants to say the hanovers are German then that's fair enough.

Was about who we'd choose to replace the monarchy and for possibly for some brainwashed military reason you have chosen to devote your time to defending Liz. As it in no way affects you anymore i find that very interesting.

Yes we are all from somewhere different but ordinary people integrate and are absorbed by a country whereas the royalty sits in a gilded castle locked away and marries only it's German origin cousins.

Also it's always fun to discuss ethnicity with Americans. Haven't met one yet that didn't claim to be Irish or 1/19 Sioux Indian.

[Harleyman]

if a royal family is of German origin, has a German name, has married into only other Germanic family for centuries but happens to live a country that isn't Germany where it has virtually no interaction with the populace whatsoever, why is it so unreasonable to consider them to have German, not British origin?

If someone wants to say the hanovers are German then that's fair enough.

Was about who we'd choose to replace the monarchy and for possibly for some brainwashed military reason you have chosen to devote your time to defending Liz. As it in no way affects you anymore i find that very interesting.

Yes we are all from somewhere different but ordinary people integrate and are absorbed by a country whereas the royalty sits in a gilded castle locked away and marries only it's German origin cousins.

Also it's always fun to discuss ethnicity with Americans. Haven't met one yet that didn't claim to be Irish or 1/19 Sioux Indian.

 

 

Surprise ! surpise ! I didnt know Diana Spencer, Fergie and Kate Middleton were of German extraction I learn something new every day from you Ted

 

Millions of Americans have some Native American blood along the family line and considering that about 30 percent of the population of Ireland had to leave for America I'm not surpised that so many have Irish blood also

[Teddybare]

Millions of Brits emigrated to Commonwealth countries and America during the three decades after WW2. I just happened to be one of them. All looking for a better life. I dont blame the Monarchy for my financially deprived situation at that time. The Monarchy didnt start the war, politicians did and Britain took a long time to recover from it.

 

I dont subscribe to the opinions of many on here that the Americans are behind all the trouble in the world. The world has benefied from America in many ways especially Europe and Japan after World War Two. Most of the troubles following WW2 had it's origins in the days of European colonialism.

 

As for being a squaddy... yes I was. Served two years as a National Serviceman most of it in the Far East. Proud of it too. I doubt today that the whingers and moaners could handle it. That has nothiing to do with being a Monarchist.

 

i just happen to hold the opinion that the Monarchy works well for a country like Britain as it does for Norway, Sweden and Denmark, three of the most civilized and liveable countries in the world.

 

In that case it's rather ironic that America was the main cause of the financial strife in Britain after ww2. Upon seeing British politics headed down a socialist route and seizing the opportunity to break up the British empire, America suddenly cancelled the land-lease agreement that Britain was using to buy food and essential goods. This led to companies collapsing and the continuation of rationing long after the war had ended. It also gave america a hold over us in many decisions which affected the population.

I agree that Germany did benefit greatly from international investment of which much came from the US. This further crippled the uk economy by damaging our industrial/manufacturing base forever as it could not compete with a subsidised German one.

Similar happened in Japan, specifically in the motorcycle and technology industries.

I don't believe we have any debt of gratitude to the US whatsoever. Quite the contrary.

Many parties had interests in seeing the downfall of the European colonies, violent or not, and one of the biggest was America.

Another great irony is that they backed/aided the future communist forces of Cambodia/Vietnam against the French and later on went to war with the very same people. Same in Afghanistan. Lesson to be learned is: meddling never ends well.

 

Not really sure what the monarchs of those countries do that make them more liveable or civilised nations. I don't believe they have that big an impact on the lives of the majority of citizens.

 

There's no need to subscribe to any kind of ideology in order to read books and learn about history.