King Philippe of Belgium and Princess Elisabeth cheer on Belgium today
Today’s sysmatic European quarterfinal in which Wales sent heavy favorites Belgium home after a 3-1 defeat caught your Blog Hostess’ attention for more than one reason. (1) Obviously duh, the game was an honest-to-God, edge-of-your-seat matchup. Literally, we were on the edge of the couch. The best our posture’s been in years. (2) We are now convinced that any national team with a royal representin’ will ultimately suffer an untimely defeat at the UEFA European Championships in France. If only Fellaini’s afro had been a little wider in diameter maybe those goal would have gone in…
Belgium, ranked #2 by FIFA even though we all know those rankings are total BS, seemed to have a cake-walk when they drew Wales instead of England for the Euro Quarterfinal matchup. King Philippe and heir-apparent Princess Elisabeth were shocked with the rest of the Red Devil supporters in the stands. This isn’t the first instance of underdog victory against footballers representing a monarchy.
During the round of 16, Prince William expressed his joy that England would be playing Iceland instead of facing off against the animated hair-gel sculpture also known as Cristiano Ronaldo. Yup, we’re in the future also…Unfortunately, the Duke of Cambridge didn’t realize that his prescense at the 3 Lions’ draw against Slovakia had already sealed their fate against the little Ísland that could.
Prince William suffers Harry Kane’s 88th minute miss
Most of you know that here we don’t gush over the Windsors at all but those specs on William are terribly becoming. However, your Blog Hostess and most of ITV’s viewership were left wondering what ex-BBC pundit Greg Dyke shouted when Harry Kane’s header didn’t hit home. William has yet to comment on the UEFA unpleasantness.
felipe VI of spain congratulates the Spanish National team after their 1-0 victory against the Czech Republic. “At least I’m not as short as Iniesta,” the monarch reassured.
King Felipe was definitely spotted in the bleachers more than once to root for defending champs Spain this June. We are also 98% certain one of his daughters was in attendance at least once. (Don’t ask us which one, Sofía and Leonor are interchangably indistinguishable unless they stand side-by-side.) Although the ‘seleccion de oro’ has oxidized considerably since 2012, let’s not blame coach Vincente del Bosque, duke of el Bosque, for the early Euro exit. We all know it’s because Spain’s monarch was in the stands. Strange, Felipe still has his job but they told Vinny to hit the bricks.
Prince Carl Phillip watches Ibramovich’s last game
Finally, we come to poor Sweden. No, they weren’t underdogs. Yes, their showing in the tournament was total malarkey and, in a paltry effort to motivate a lackluster squad to victory, Swedish scoring machine Zlatan Ibramovich announced that this would be the last tournament in which he suited up in canary yellow. Sweden did not advance past the group stage when they failed to beat Belgium. Ironically, Sweden wasn’t jinxed by their monarch or even heir to the throne. Second-born and second-tier royal rep Prince Carl Phillip watched on in Nice. Fun fact, not one but two princes were in attendance. [Cue ‘the Spin Doctors’ if you can stomah it.] Prince Albert of Monaco made the 20-minute drive to watch simply because he enjoys the beautiful game. No image appeared of the man who puts the ‘prince’ in ‘principality’ on international broadcast because Albert was there for the love of the sport, not a political photo-op. Seriously royal personages, who wears a scarf and a suit in late June? Think it through! Yeesh!
As a girl who enjoys billing herself as “more superstitious than a Pisces starting pitcher,” we feel we must implore the Duke of Cornwall to stay home. Charles also enjoys a moniker as prince of a wonderful country that’s having one helluva Euro debut. But please, pretty please, learn a lesson here and don’t attend the semifinal. Make your sons surrender their passports! Watch the match on the telly in the living room if you suddenly espouse Wales. We are simply having too much fun watching the Unselfish Eleven to say goodbye just yet.
We supposed you could also call Iceland “the Unselfish Eleven.” The two squads probably wouldn’t mind sharing the honorific.
assay stamps.
The tiara was made in 1920 and is signed “Cartier Londres Paris New York”, with a maker’s mark for Atelier Renault. We have Googled this and all that comes up is the Renault F1 webpage for the self-styled “bright space celebrating [the] car maker, with restaurant & events including televised Grand Prix races and race car-themed restaurant,” located on the Champs-Élysées. Oddly a venue that would appeal much more to my aerospace engineer brother than his jewel-monger sis.
bandeau of Albanian wildflowers. The Ram of Skanderberg was the chosen symbol of the Albanian Royal family by Zog; the newest monarch in Europe actually added Skanderborg to his name thus attaching himself to the eponymous national hero, a nobleman and warrior from the 15th Century.
royal crown usually bears a symbol of the monarch’s faith…religious motifs in the ornamentation…my problem was to establish a royal but not a religious motif.
Geraldine Apponyi, the 17 year-old was dressed as Mimi from La Boheme. It was love at first daguerrotype. After her 21st birthday, Geraldine, impoverished and working at a library in Budapest, received a letter from Princess Senji, King Zog’s favorite sister, inviting her to court. Princess Senji (see left) was scouting Europe for the best blue-blooded beauty to be her brother’s queen. The young countess had everything on Zog’s wish list: beautiful duh, didn’t see that one coming; of noble birth check; and most importantly she was not recommended or sponsored by Mussolini who had greedy designs on Albania. The invade-y kind.
For all the mystery surrounding the Three Roses Tiara’s craftsmanship and provenance, we do know one of the roses was worn as a brooch in British fashion designer Erdem Moralioglu’s SS16 show. Moralioglu’s dresses were inspired by the “prairie girls” of 1862. “The delicacy of the tiara reflects the “wild” floral embroidery “littered across” his SS16 collection, both as beautiful in their delicacy,” expostulates the Sotheby’s website.
history buff, jewelry whore, chatterbox, mets fan