Trashy Royals

It was a dark and stormy night in The Bahamas back on July 8, 1943, when a Canadian gold magnate who'd relocated years before for tax reasons was brutally murdered in his home. But don't worry, friends: this was during the period when David, Duke of Windsor, and the former King Edward VIII, was governor of the territory, and he made it his mission to personally handle the investigation of the murder of his rich, white friend. It went.... well, have you met David?

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In the 18th century, modern Germany continued to be a patchwork of various duchies, which kept German nobles in the marriage rotation throughout Europe. So it was that two brothers - Ernst and Leopold - came into the world in the Duchy of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld in 1784 and 1790. One would become the King of Belgium, and one would be the legal father of Prince Albert, later the husband of Queen Victoria.

We say "legal father" because apparently it's not 100% clear that Ernst's estranged wife, the long suffering Princess Louise, wasn't comforting her brother-in-law after the death of his wife, England's Princess Charlotte, whose death in childbirth prompted the Hanoverian race to reproduce that gave the world Queen Victoria. 

It is, as they say, complicated.

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Oh my, this lady is one to remember, and Alicia does her level best to bring Millicent, Duchess of Sutherland to the forefront in this week’s episode. Milicent was mentioned in Episode 5 of the Wallis Series, as she is the mother of Rosemary Levenson-Gower, one of Edward’s early loves.

Millicent lived quite a life – from aristocratic hostess to reformer for social justice, this lady did it all. Also included are her three marriages and a writing career too. You won’t forget Millicent anytime soon after this one!

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In this second half of the story of Mary Adelaide, Duchess of Teck, Alicia takes us through the family's financial exile to Italy - Queen Vic thought living in Florence would restrain the lavish spending the Tecks were known for - and the circuitous, flu-induced path that took Fat Mary's daughter from shy noblewoman to future Queen of England. Oh - and why some historians have falsely tarred Queen Mary as a kleptomaniac.

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This episode is brought to you by Incogni!

In the tangle of British royals to come out of the Hanoverian period, most aren't memorable. This is probably partly due to Queen Victoria's long reign, but there was a cousin of the Queen that she was quite partial to: Fat Mary. Princess Mary Adelaide of Cambridge was 14 years the Queen's junior, but she and her siblings were the cousins who comprised Victoria's friend group during her heavily restricted childhood, and Mary's age made her almost a younger sister to the future Queen.

Mary had little use for the notions of how women were supposed to behave, especially royal women, in her era, and enjoyed life lavishly. Her weight was a concern to her parents from a young age, and when it came time to find suitors for their daughter, few were forthcoming. Mary wouldn't walk down the aisle until the age of 32, when she found a love match with Frances, Duke of Teck, a member of a noble family in Germany.

The couple prospered - though never financially - and in this Part One episode, we talk about Fat Mary's childhood, and the childhood of her daughter, the future Queen Mary. Let's say that having a large and extremely gregarious mother was not especially to the liking of her shy daughter.

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While it may be true that the only certainties in this world are death and taxes, we do bumble through our lives with the expectation that our physicians will not knowingly prematurely end us. At least, most of us do. But for British royals in the 1930s, the royal physician, Lord Bertrand Dawson, was making decisions he arguably had no right to make - not only for the mortally ill George V, but two years later, for his sister, Queen Maud of Norway.

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This week, Alicia is joined by Dr. Alicia King Anderson to deep dive into the topic of stepmothers. Included within this wide-ranging discussion are the economic realities of women through history, the reason we have these stories in our lore, and more intricate discussions about Jacob Grimm, witches, Hansel and Gretel, Cinderella, Vasilisa and Baba Yaga too.

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Alicia’s Website: https://aliciakinganderson.com

Fairy Tale retelling class: https://www.morbidanatomy.org/classes/p/how-to-write-fairy-tale-retellings-with-alicia-king-anderson-phd-begins-august-19

Alicia’s new book:  Magic, Murder & Machines: Reimagining Fairy Tales, by Alicia K. Anderson (Bookshop.og)

From the Beast to the Blonde: On Fairy Tales and Their Tellers, by Marina Warner (Amazon)

Why Fairy Tales Stick: The Evolution and Relevance of a Genre, by Jack Zipes (Amazon)

The Hard Facts of the Grimms' Fairy Tales: Expanded Edition (Princeton Classics) by Maria M. Tatar (Amazon)

Off with Their Heads! Fairy Tales and the Culture of Childhood, by Maria M. Tatar (Amazon)

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We are taking a very trashy tour back in time this week discussing the Arthurian legends with our resident mythology expert Dr. Alicia King Anderson. Alicia dives into all the classic stories, including the choosing of King Arthur, the magical man Merlin, the love-angst of Guinevere and Lancelot, the trickery of Morgan le Fay, and so much more!

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Over a millennium ago, Norsemen loaded up their boats and moved south toward the heart of Europe, traversing its abundant rivers to raid, trade, and conquer. One of these conquests was the city of Kyiv, which these Rus' invaders ('Swedes,' in the local long-ago parlance, Stacie thinks, but also 'men who row') made the seat of the first Eastern Slavic State, way before Moscow was a thing, the Kyivan Rus. The Kyivan Rus's second ruler, Igor I, took a wife at some point during his long reign, and upon his murder, she took both his crown and his vengeance on those who had wronged them both, and their kingdom.

In a notably bloodthirsty series of events, Olga of Kyiv murdered the

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In our finale of the Wallis, Duchess of Windsor series, we spend time with the Duke and the Duchess in their time as the toast of international society. David and Wallis appear in all the best places and at all the best tables, but ultimately that is not a fulfilling life for either of them.

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