#louise of the united kingdom

[royal-confessions]

“I need a Brigerton-type series for Queen V’s kids where each season focuses on a diff sibling.” - Submitted by Anonymous

[britanniabay]

Happy Birthday!!!

[adini-nikolaevna]

“Your sympathy is a great comfort to me and my daughter, who has endured such a severe trial at such an early age... She tells me that she would not for anything in the world wish to change the past, no matter how short, but happy it was; and I will never forget his look when the Tsar led her by the hand to his bed! It was pure happiness, and he recognized her all day when he was dying. He said goodbye to her, kissed her, and held her hand tightly in his until he died! We were on the road for four days and four nights, and she never left his bedside, kneeling next to him day and night, until at one o'clock in the afternoon she kissed him and he exhaled his young life! It was terrible for me, because I loved him very much and saw how all the happiness of the poor young bride had faded away... Minnie went to Darmstadt for the day to see his parents again. The whole dear family was so kind and sweet to her that the separation was doubly painful for her."

- Queen Louise of Denmark in a letter to Queen Victoria, on her daughter Princess Dagmar’s grief at the death of her fiancé, Grand Duke Nicholas Alexandrovich of Russia. Dagmar went on to become Empress Maria Feodorovna as the wife of Nicholas’s brother, Emperor Alexander III. Their firstborn son was named after the uncle he never knew, he is known to history as Nicholas II, the last Russian emperor.

[cuubism]

I’m BEGGING for more “retired!Dream opens up a weird magic fey bookshop” au. Its so intriguing!

you are in luck. i wrote more

--

"So," Hob says, leaning in the doorway of Dream's study-of-sorts, "much as I love the recommendations, do you mind if I browse?"

He's taken, recently, to meeting Dream on the upper floor of the shop, bringing coffee and watching Dream label and sort his new books in incomprehensible categories. He usually gets some interesting book facts out of it, too, or strange little stories -- "this book washed up on the Sardinian shore some years ago", "this was signed by a long-dead author, I've been curious to see how long it will take for a collector to find it," "an old man bestowed this upon me on the eve of his death, it's the only copy in existence" and so on -- not to mention the pleasure of Dream's company. He is so odd, and so engaging.

Dream looks up at him now with a tiny smile that crinkles the corner of his eyes. "Of course. Find whatever you wish."

Hob has been wondering if Dream's serendipitous knack with books will extend to browsing, to random finds. Only one way to know.

He leaves Dream to his labeling and goes to wander the shop.

This time, he does get swallowed in Oneiromancy, where he finds Sleeping Worlds, a book about dream travel. Then he wanders deeper into the shop, passes categories like, "Cat Training," CLOCKS, "Mathematics: Easy -> Impossible", and, "♾". Of course he goes into Infinity, and picks up The Birth of Numbers, a book whose text starts in the center of the page and spirals outwards, font growing larger as the book goes on, and in another section called "Romance: DIFFICULT LEVEL" -- whatever the hell difficult means -- he picks up a tiny book that's just one line, one syllable on each page.

I

on

ly

want

ed

you

to

see.

God, Dream's shop is weird.

Dream finds him there some time later, deep in Sleeping Worlds. "I see you've had a productive day."

"Yeah, sorry, lost track of time."

Dream keeps looking at him with a little smirk.

Worry darts through Hob's stomach. "Wait, what time is it?"

"Midnight," says Dream, with satisfaction. "I've absorbed you."

Yeah, no kidding. Hob scrambles to his feet. "Jesus, Dream, sorry. I'll get out of your hair."

"No matter. This is what The Library is for."

Hob goes to hand him the books, and he waves a hand. "Keep them, I will get them back eventually."

Ominous. Great.

"Gonna break into my house and retrieve them?" Hob asks. He probably wouldn't even mind, to be honest.

"Nothing so alarming." He gestures Hob forward, and Hob follows, lets Dream walk him out.

It is, indeed, pitch dark outside on their shared street. Hob's supposed to open the cafe at 6. Whoops.

"Thanks for the books, Dream," he says. "And for. Ten hours of distraction, apparently."

Dream leans in the narrow doorway of his shop. "Of course. Come browse... anytime."

And he melts back into the shadows as Hob steps down onto the street.

--

Hob wonders if he's an idiot for wanting to ask Dream out. Dream is clearly some kind of other thing, and hanging around him did kind of get Hob cursed. But the way he bites his lip when he's making notes in books is so cute. His unerring ability to make perfect book selections is both strange and endearing -- even the books Hob had picked up on his own had been exactly what he hadn't known he was looking for. Hob's heart picks up every time he steps into the cafe.

But if he's to ask out Dream, his own personal weird bookshop creature, he has to do it right.

And he knows how.

The next time Dream comes in for coffee, Hob sits down across from him and hands him a book. Dream looks at it in surprise, and Hob has the sudden thought that as the all-powerful selector of tomes, he probably isn't gifted books himself.

The book is called, Broken Hands. Hob had pulled it off his own shelf. Dream doesn't ask him what it is, instead he flips open the cover and reads, as Hob had hoped he would.

The first page of Broken Hands has the following paragraph:

Kissing her hand, he came to know himself. Kissing her mouth, he came to know them both. When they went onward, for now only in his mind, he kissed more of her, and more, and more, and then, he knew her. He wanted to know her.

Dream reads it, and looks back up at him. Offers a tiny smile. Yes, Hob knew he would get it.

"You have something you would like to ask me, Hob Gadling?" he says softly.

"You have something you want to answer?"

Dream takes a long sip of his coffee, but looks at Hob over the rim of the mug, a smile in his eyes. Then he swipes away the milk foam from his upper lip with his tongue and says, "I'd say that you are very foolish, to still wish to associate with someone who did, in a sense, get you cursed. But that I find myself grateful for this foolishness. People do often come back to the library, once they find it-- but they don't often come back for me."

It makes Hob sad to imagine--Dream the perennial custodian of The Library, shepherd of its patrons, gifting small touches of coincidence and magic, but always in the background, a bridge and not a destination. Meanwhile, Hob likes the strange books, but it's Dream he keeps wanting to hover around, to lure back into his own space.

He dares to take Dream's hand and squeezes. "...So?"

"I'd say that I'd like to get coffee with you, if you know a place."

Cheeky thing. "Yeah, there's a Starbucks a couple blocks down," Hob says, gesturing, and Dream chuckles. Hob's still holding his hand, and brings it to his lips for a light kiss, and gets to watch as Dream's cheeks tint pink. His heart lifts in his chest. So easy and light.

"You're gorgeous," he says, and that blush deepens. "I'd suffer even Starbucks for you."

"You would suffer much, then," says Dream.

"We'll get our Starbucks and wander around WHSmith and have a fabulous date," Hob says, and Dream's face goes through the most exquisite journey of horror.

"You demand too much," he says, faint. "You enjoy my suffering."

"Little bit, yeah." Hob's certainly enjoying the reaction.

Then Dream looks at him in challenge. "Very well," he declares. "You've set the date. Now you must follow through."

Hob can't even spare a thought to the distasteful activities he's now gotten himself into--he has a date with Dream. "So that's a yes?"

Dream smiles again, a tiny, pleased thing. "It is a yes, Hob Gadling."

--

They do go to Starbucks. Hob is treated to the glorious sight of Dream sipping a pink drink out of a long straw, which is so worth dealing with the coffee. Then he indeed drags Dream to WHSmith, where Dream stands in the middle of the brightly-lit store, spins in a circle staring at carefully lined book displays with wide eyes, says, "Hell would be more merciful," and bolts away. Hob follows him, laughing.

Outside, he finds Dream leaning in the shade of a tree, looking vaguely shell-shocked. Hob really shouldn't keep laughing at him, but he can't help it. "Were you traumatized permanently by the big chain store?"

"Yes," says Dream, but, despite the perilous adventure, smiles. "You are a cruel man, Hob Gadling."

"Nah. Just harnessed the fluorescent lighting to chase you back into the safety of my arms."

"Oh?" Dream pushes off the tree and steps closer, until he's standing just before Hob, close enough to touch. "Was that the goal?"

Hob takes the leap that's offered and touches Dream's cheek with a light hand. "Did it work?"

This close, in the midday light, Dream's eyes are almost grey. The shade of the tree dapples his skin. It's still odd to see him out of the contained space of his bookshop, of Hob's cafe, but it does make this feel more real. A part of the world beyond the spun-sugar story of their orbiting binary stars.

Dream rests a feather light hand on Hob's chest. Studies Hob from under his eyelashes. And instead of answering, he leans up and, with that same light touch, presses his lips to Hob's.

Hob revels in the mere touch of him for a moment, but doesn't let it stand at light for long. He takes Dream's face between his hands and deepens the kiss, sweeping his tongue into Dream's mouth, swallowing Dream's hum of pleasure. If only he could put into the kiss what he had felt when Dream had handed him Nightingales. A sudden finding of something long lost that was always meant to be rooted in his heart.

When they part, he makes good on a promise and does pull Dream into his arms. It feels like a great indulgence. It also feels right.

"Make me a solemn promise, Hob Gadling," Dream says against Hob's cheek, arms wrapped around his back.

"Anything."

"Never take me here ever again."

Hob laughs into his hair, squeezing him tight. "What could one possibly want from here when The Library exists?"

This seems to greatly gratify Dream, who preens in Hob's arms. Hob kisses the shell of his ear, then his cheek, then they part again, and he takes Dream's hand. "I'm glad you expanded your horizons with me for a day."

"And now I will shrink them again," says Dream. "Except for one." To which he runs his thumb along Hob's lower lip, a touch Hob sways forward to follow almost drunkenly as Dream smirks. "Come."

He starts leading Hob back in the direction of their quiet street, and far far away from any fluorescent lighting, and Hob follows, touching his lips fondly. And lets himself be cautiously, tentatively hopeful that this will continue spiraling up into something real, because he wants it so bad. Curses and all.

[x-heesy]

𝙻 𝚘 𝚟 𝚎 🇬🇧

Louise Body

Louise Body's abstract landcape paintings and design. Art for interiors. Contemporary British painter

Ruby by Tweaker, Will Oldham 🎧

[tiaramania]

Hi I'm a great fan of your blog. Can you say something about the headpieces of the princess of Wales and princess Charlotte at the coronation of Charles III?

I really loved them! Of course I would have preferred for everyone to be wearing tiaras but I had some time to get over that before the coronation so I wasn't still sad. The headpieces were made by Jess Collett and Alexander McQueen. Collett was supported by the Prince's Trust when she started her business which was a nice touch.

I thought the headpieces were a great compromise between a hat and a tiara and I love that Princess Charlotte had a mini version of her mother's. Both of their looks really walked that line of formality perfectly and were overall very flattering and timeless.

The semi-formality and matching outfits reminded me of what Queen Sonja and Princess Martha Louise wore to King Harald V's consecration in 1991. Norway doesn't do coronations anymore but they have a special service at Nidaros Cathedral. Queen Sonja wore a white dress with a cape and a fabric kokoshnik with pearl trim. Then her daughter, Princess Martha Louise, wore a dress made out of the same fabric and a headband.

Also, I am a sucker for symbolic embroidery and I'm looking forward to them doing an exhibition of the coronation clothes so that we can get a better look at the details.

[thehessiansisters]

Family portrait of Prince and Princess Louis of Battenberg, with their children Princess Louise of Battenberg, Princes George and Louis of Battenberg and Princess Andrew of Greece and Denmark, and grandchildren Princesses Margarita and Theodora of Greece, 1910.

[diemelusine]

Self-portrait in a straw hat (c. 1782) by Élisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun. National Gallery.

[archduchessofnowhere]

Princess Amalie of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, by Princess Louise of the United Kingdom, 1869

Via the Royal Collection Trust

[empress-alexandra]

Four generations: Queen Louise of Denmark (born Princess of Hesse-Kassel) with her eldest daughter Queen Alexandra of the United Kingdom (consort of King Edward VII, at the time of taking the picture she was the Princess of Wales) and Alexandra’s eldest daughter Princess Louise, Princess Royal and Duchess of Fife. Queen Louise is holding Princess Louise’s eldest daughter Princess Alexandra, Duchess of Fife, 1893.

Additional color versions are available on my instagram.

[loiladadiani]

King Christian X (Christian Carl Frederik Albert Alexander Vilhelm; 1870 – 1947); King of Denmark from 1912 to his death in 1947

I want to place this remarkable individual within the context of the many royal families we discuss in this blog. He had quite an eventful and successful reign, including transitioning his country into a constitutional monarchy, but this post is just about (some) of his relatives.

He was a grandson of Christian IX and the son of the future Frederick VIII. His brother was the future Hakoon VII of Norway. His paternal aunts were Dagmar (Empress Maria Feodorovna) and Queen Alexandra of the United Kingdom. King George V, Queen Maud, and Tsar Nicholas II were his first cousins. Christian X's mother was Lovisa of Sweden.

He was raised strictly in a palace part of the Amelienborg Palace complex. He received a military education and studied at the Officers Academy.

Christian initially loved Princess Marguerite of Orleans, but his feelings were not returned, so he married Princess Alexandrine of Mecklenburg Schwerin. Alexandrine's maternal line was Romanov...her mother, Anastasia, was the daughter of Nicholas I's younger son, Grand Duke Mikhail Nikolaievich. They had two sons: Prince Frederick (1899–1972), later King Frederick IX of Denmark and Prince Knud (1900–1976)

In case you are wondering, he was 6 feet 7 inches tall.

What a dynasty Christian IX and Queen Louise gave to the world!

[foreverinthepagesofhistory]

Princesses Louise, Victoria, and Maud of Wales, Late 1870s - Early 1880s

[britanniabay]

🇨🇦🇬🇧🇨🇦🇬🇧🇨🇦

cAnneada just keeps on giving and blessing us!

[royal-confessions]

“I don't understand why Queen Victoria thought Princess Helena was ugly when they both had the exact same features. Imo Princess Helena was more attractive than her mother. Also, I always get Helena and Louise mixed up in photos so I find it funny that Louise was considered the most beautiful and Helena the most unattractive.” - Submitted by Anonymous

[ykzzr]

Queen Louise of Denmark, Tsarevich Nicholas , Empress Marie Feodorovna of Russia,Prince Albert Victor , Prince George of Wales, and Alexandra Princess of Wales Fredensborg 1889

[tiaramania]

* Coronation Tiaras *

Princess Louise Margaret, Duchess of Connaught & Strathearn, wore the Connaught Fringe Tiara for the coronation of King Edward VII at Westminster Abbey on 9 August 1902.