My column in the Globe and Mail: Why William and Kate are bringing their children on royal visit to Canada

September 16, 2016 by CarolynHarris | Leave a comment

The Duchess of Cambridge and Prince George arrive in Sydney. Photo credit: Chris Jackson/Getty Images

My column in today’s Globe and Mail discusses royal children and royal tours.

“Royal children on tour influence popular perceptions of the monarchy in two ways. First, they create a personal bond between royal parents and the public – parenting provides common ground between royalty and people of all backgrounds.

Second, royal children personify the future of the monarchy. Like Queen Victoria during the last years of her reign, Elizabeth now has three generations of direct heirs. At various points over the course of her long reign, there has been debate about the future of the monarchy. The presence of George and Charlotte in the coming royal visit demonstrates the potential for the monarchy to enjoy public support in Canada and the wider Commonwealth for generations to come.”

Click here to read the full column in the Globe and Mail

Friday Royal Read: On The Trail of the Yorks by Kristie Dean

March 17, 2016January 6, 2023 by CarolynHarris | Leave a comment

Medieval royalty were always on the move. The monarchs from the House of York who ruled England in the late fifteenth century (Edward IV, Richard III and the short lived “Prince in the Tower” Edward V) traveled around their kingdom dispensing justice and asserting their authority. Royal children were fostered in noble households then young men traveled on military campaigns, sometimes accompanied by their wives. Royal women who made dynastic marriages to foreign princes traveled far from home to their new households.

The Wars of the Roses resulted in unexpected travels for royalty who were forced to flee abroad or into places of religious sanctuary when events turned against them. In On the Trail of the Yorks, Kristie Dean, author of The World of Richard III, follows in the footsteps of the House of York, visiting the sites of castles, cathedrals and towns associated with Richard III as well as his parents, siblings, children, nieces and nephews.

On the Trail of the Yorks is both a series of short biographies of the key figures from the House of York and a guidebook detailing the history and visitor information for the places familiar to them. Dean begins with Richard, Duke of York and Cecily Neville, parents of Edward IV and Richard III, examining how their sudden changes of fortune during the Wars of the Roses sent them as far afield as Ireland and France.

The travels of the famous Yorkist kings and their siblings are then discussed in detail. While numerous books about the Yorks end with Richard III’s defeat at the Battle of Bosworth field, Dean continues into the reign of Henry VII, visiting the places significant to the first Tudor queen consort, Elizabeth of York and her book will be of interest to those interested in Henry VIII’s childhood.

In addition to providing a fresh perspective about the House of York, On the Trail of the Yorks reveals how the House of Plantagenet acquired properties over the course of successive reigns and what eventually happened to these estates. With the notable exception of Margaret of York’s marriage to the Duke of Burgundy, Yorkist royalty married members of the English nobility and acquired properties inherited by landed heiresses such as Cecily, Isabel and Anne Neville. Members of the landed gentry convicted of treason often forfeited their estates to the Crown and these new lands were integrated into the royal domains.

There is a popular perception that the British Isles are filled with medieval castles but On the Trail of the Yorks reveals how few of the buildings familiar to fifteenth century royalty are still standing. The dissolution of the monasteries during the reign of King Henry VIII, the English Civil Wars of the 1640s, The Great Fire of London in 1666 all contributed to the destruction of medieval royal residences and places of worship.

The only trace of Palace of Placentia at Greenwich beloved by Elizabeth of York is a plaque commemorating the birth of her son Henry VIII and granddaughters, Mary I and Elizabeth I. The medieval St. Paul’s cathedral burned down in the Great Fire and was replaced by the modern cathedral designed by Sir Christopher Wren. There is now a Travelodge hotel on the site of the Blue Boar Inn where Richard III reputedly spent the night before the Battle of Bosworth Field and the Duke of Buckingham is reputed to haunt the Debenhams department store near the site of his execution. On the Trail of the Yorks bridges the divide between how these sites appear to a modern visitor and how they would have looked to the House of York.

There are two kinds of readers who will be interested in On the Trail of the Yorks: armchair travelers interested imagining the settings of the Yorkist court and actual travelers looking for information about which sites are open to visitors and whether parking or transit connections are available. Dean provides a wealth of information for both kinds of readers. On the Trail of the Yorks brings the settings of the Yorkist court alive and encourages readers to follow in the footsteps of Richard III and his family during their own travels to the United Kingdom, Ireland, Belgium, the Netherlands and France.

Click here to purchase On the Trail of the Yorks from Amazon.

Next week: The Romanovs: 1613-1918 by Simon Sebag Montefiore

Royal History Q&A: Sara Cockerill, author of Eleanor of Castile: The Shadow Queen

September 27, 2014January 6, 2023 by CarolynHarris | Leave a comment

Eleanor of Castile, consort to King Edward I of England, traveled further than most medieval queens, living in five different countries and going on crusade. She exerted political and cultural influence over the English court and was part of one of the most successful marriages in royal history. Despite her varied life, achievements and forceful personality, Eleanor of Castile is little known today. Sara Cockerill has written the first full length popular biography of this enigmatic medieval queen, Eleanor of Castile: The Shadow Queen. Here, Cockerill discusses how she discovered Eleanor of Castile and how she brought this little known queen out of the shadows:

Eleanor of Castile

Carolyn Harris: You have been researching Eleanor for Castile in your spare time for 10 years. How did you become interested in this particular queen?

Sara Cockerill: It was really via her husband, Edward I. I had read the romantic Victorian accounts of Eleanor, and thought that, if they were true, it seemed a bit odd that Edward I should have been so devoted to her. Then, as I started to read more about Edward, the odd bits of information that cropped up about Eleanor actually raised more questions than they answered. As I started to delve into the material on Eleanor herself, I just got hooked, and started to think it was outrageous that no-one had written a biography of her for a general readership before.

Eleanor of Aquitaine’s effigy in Fontevraud Abbey

CH: Eleanor of Aquitaine is one of the most famous women in history but her descendant Eleanor of Castile is little known. Why is Edward I’s consort so obscure?

SC: Well, my own view is that this was entirely deliberate. The English crown had passed through a very difficult period in the mid 1200’s during which a very assertive queen, Edward’s mother, Eleanor of Provence, had become so unpopular that the citizens of London made a bit of a stab at lynching her. An overtly assertive queen was therefore never going to go down well – and an overtly assertive foreign queen, in a climate where “aliens” had become the target of much political hostility, still less so.

Edward I

Edward and Eleanor therefore decided that it was best that she didn’t make her influence or her assertiveness too generally known. For public consumption she was simply the devoted queen who accompanied Edward everywhere. Which of course was, usefully, a strand of the truth. The fact that she was an intellectual powerhouse, whose business drove quite a lot of Edward’s movements around the country, was something people didn’t need to know – and would probably never work out. The only hints at the truth came in contemporaneous letters and documents concerning the inquest into her property, first really considered in the nineteenth century, which showed that Eleanor ran a property empire – and ran it with an extremely firm hand.

CH: Agnes Strickland thought Eleanor was meek and retiring. Lisa Hilton thought she was bad tempered and unpleasant. Why are the few biographical sketches of Eleanor so different from each other? Who is the real Eleanor?

Agnes Strickland, author of Lives of the Queens of England from the Norman Conquest

SC: Most certainly Hilton is nearer the mark than the Victorians who had Eleanor down as a bit of a sap – but I think she is also quite far from the truth. The reason for the different views of Eleanor is really a succession of historical accidents. The romantic side, fed by the survival of the Eleanor Crosses, came from some poetic exaggerations about Eleanor after her death – sometimes fueled by a political agenda. The more modern view of Eleanor amongst scholars has equally been fueled by the fortuitous survival of the records concerning the inquest into the running of her properties after her death, and a few rather trenchant letters by the Archbishop of Canterbury about – again – her business practices. Since these are rather negative, and make up the bulk of the surviving direct testimony, it is not surprising that a negative view of her developed.

The real woman that I have found is rather different. She was a vibrant, energetic woman with many interests, and a woman who was considerate of those around her and generous to those she loved. But at the same time, she was a very competent, successful businesswoman who very much disliked inefficiency, or being thwarted; and was capable of really letting rip when she was displeased. All in all, I find her a very real, and surprisingly modern, figure.

The Queen Eleanor Cross at Northampton

CH: Edward I reissued the Magna Carta during his reign. Did your law background inform your research about Eleanor’s life and times?

SC: Yes and no. I didn’t come to the story as a lawyer, looking for the legal spin. However I did find things which resonated with me as a lawyer. I found the legal aspect of the transition from dower to dowry and the treatment of dower fascinating – and revelatory. And the parallels between the Castilian approach to legal structures in resettling new territories and that adopted by Edward in Wales also struck me forcibly. But I think there is still much work to be done on looking to see if Eleanor’s fingerprints are to be seen in other aspects of Edward’s legislative programme.

CH: What’s the most surprising thing you learned about Eleanor of Castile?

SC: I’m tempted to say just how much more substantial and forceful a person she was than I expected; and that certainly was a big surprise. I was ready to find that the woman who won Edward I’s devotion was no milk and water girl, but the sheer range of her accomplishments, her energy, her vibrancy, her force – that, I was not prepared for. But actually really the most surprising thing to me in the end, was given that range of interests and achievements, how successfully she had kept the traces of this dynamism from public knowledge. It is one of the reasons that I have called her “The Shadow Queen” – she has deliberately obscured herself and hidden out of sight, so that only glimpses of different aspects of her personality can be seen.

Westminster Abbey

CH: Where did your research take you? To what degree did you follow in Eleanor’s footsteps?

SC: Sadly, with research having to be fitted around my job, I didn’t get to do the full tour of the places Eleanor knew from childhood, or follow her on crusade. A number of her properties were familiar to me from holidays – and romantic weekends in the Cotswolds – and I had also visited a number of the Gascon venues as an Edward I fan. Dover Castle and the properties in Kent are close by for me – I often cycle past Wallett’s Court, known to Eleanor as the manor of Westcliffe, and caught some great photos there just the other day. Mostly, though, my research was confined to the British Library, with the occasional foray to the National Archives. But I had a wonderful trip to pay homage at the surviving crosses, and I have paid a few visits to Eleanor at Westminster Abbey.

CH: What are your plans for future books?

SC: There is nothing absolutely firm yet, but I have a fairly substantial list of things which I would like to do. One day I would like to know another medieval queen as well as I have go to know Eleanor. But I am not planning to commit to another big biography quite yet – because I can’t work at it full time, I need to be very sure about a project of that size.

At the moment I’m looking at a rather shorter book concerning the development of knighthood and chivalry, showing the forces which brought it into being, and shaped it into what it became and also showcasing some amazing people and their stories as illustrations of those themes. I got interested in the idea while writing about Eleanor. I was very struck by the looming figures of William Marshal and Jean de Brienne who became respectively the greatest man in England and the King of Jerusalem and Emperor of Constantinople through their knightly prowess. And Eleanor’s own contact with the institution showcases a number of aspects of the developing institution – the fading of the social mobility theme, alongside the changing nature and role of tournaments, the increasing Arthurian and literary links, and also the administrative importance which the institution acquired, and which Edward and Eleanor promoted. Whether I can pull it together in a way which will appeal to anyone but myself is the question, though!

“Eleanor of Castile: The Shadow Queen” by Sara Cockerill is available now in bookstores and direct from Amberley Publishing. ISBN: 9781445635897

Royal Travelogue 5: Caernarfon Castle and the Princes of Wales

August 23, 2014 by CarolynHarris | Leave a comment

Caernarfon Castle

In 1538, King Henry VIII of England received a report that Caernarfon Castle in Wales was “moche ruynous and ferre in decaye for lackke of tymely reparations.” With the Tudor dynasty on the throne, descendants of Henry V’s widow, Katherine of Valois and her Welsh steward, Owen Tudor, there was less need for fortifications to keep the English and Welsh apart, as a conquering Edward I intended in the late thirteenth century. By the reign of King James I (1603-1625), only the Eagle Tower and King’s Gate still had roofs and the buildings inside the castle were “all quite faln down to the ground and the Tymber and the rest of the materialls as Iron and Glasse carried away and nothing left that [is] valiable.”

The King’s Gate

The magnificent ruins of Caernarfon Castle still bear the evidence of centuries of neglect. Reaching the top of the Well Tower, which once housed the the massive castle cistern, requires a long climb up a stone spiral staircase into the darkness above. The narrow steps are uneven from centuries of use and exposure to the elements. (The Well Tower was still unfinished in the 14th century and did not receive a roof until the 19th century restoration of the castle). There are ropes to assist visitors up the medieval steps to see Edward I’s view of the village of Caernarfon and waterfront. Once at the top, Edward I’s plans for his new castle become clear. There is space for an entire royal household in the turrets as well as massive fortifications designed to enforce England’s conquest of Wales.

In 1282, Llywelyn “the Last,” the final Welsh ruler from the House of Gwynedd died in battle against English forces. Edward I seized the opportunity for a complete conquest of Wales. The King sent Llywelyn’s only child, Gwenllian ferch Llywelyn, to a distant Lancashire convent and began construction of a series of castles around Wales. Edward I’s queen, Eleanor of Castile, accompanied the King on the 9th Crusade and she was also present for his occupation of Wales. In 1284, the royal couple’s son, the future Edward II, was born in Caernarfon during the construction of the Castle.

View of Caernarfon Castle from Eagles Tower

According to a legend dating from the 16th century, Edward I promised the Welsh a prince, “borne in Wales and could speake never a word of English,” beginning the practice of the King’s eldest son serving as Prince of Wales. While some of these Princes, including Henry VIII’s elder brother, Arthur, spent time in Wales learning the business of kingship, more than half of the “Princes of Wales” never visited Wales. Caernarfon Castle rarely served its intended purpose as a Welsh residence for the Prince of Wales. Instead, the castle became a local prison and storage facility for armaments, gradually falling into disrepair.

Statue of David Lloyd George in Caernarfon

The castle returned to prominence in the 20th century when it became the site of investiture for Princes of Wales. In 1911, David Lloyd George, the future Prime Minister and member of parliament for Caernarfon Burroughs, was Chancellor of the Exchequer, and he favoured a Welsh investiture ceremony for the future Edward VIII as Prince of Wales. The ceremony, which took place in Caernarfon Castle, sped the restoration work.

In 1969, the current Prince of Wales, Prince Charles, was also invested as Prince of Wales in the castle. In contrast to previous Princes of Wales, Charles made efforts to learn the language and customs of Wales before his investiture, completing part of his university education in Aberystwyth. The current royal family continues to maintain close links with the region.

Following their wedding in 2011, William and Catherine, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, resided in Anglesey while William worked as a Search and Rescue pilot. Edward I arrived in Wales as a conqueror but William and Catherine arrived as residents eager to blend into their surroundings, finding a degree of privacy and normalcy in the early years of their marriage. Caernarfon Castle is now a World Heritage Site and one of the most popular tourist destinations in Wales.

Next: Cornet Castle in Guernsey, the last Royalist stronghold during the English Civil Wars

Royal Travelogue 4: The Queens Who Shaped Edinburgh’s Palace of Holyroodhouse

August 16, 2014January 6, 2023 by CarolynHarris | Leave a comment

The Palace of Holyroodhouse

The Palace of Holyroodhouse in Edinburgh is Queen Elizabeth II’s official residence in Scotland. Every year, the Queen resides at the Castle for “Royal Week,” hosting garden parties on the Holyroodhouse grounds and inducting new members into the ancient Order of the Thistle. If Scotland votes to secede from the United Kingdom in September, the Queen’s successor may have a separate Scottish coronation at Edinburgh’s St. Giles Cathedral.

The Queen has a close affinity for Scotland. She spent her childhood summers visiting both sets of grandparents there: King George V and Queen Mary at Balmoral and the Earl and Countess of Strathmore at Glamis Castle. Elizabeth II is not the only Queen who has made her mark on the Palace of Holyroodhouse. Here are 5 Scottish and English queens who contributed to the development of the modern palace:

The ruins of Holyrood Abbey

1) St. Margaret (1045-1093) Malcolm III’s queen, Margaret, chose Edinburgh as Scotland’s capital, persuading her husband to move his court there from Dunfermline. Margaret was renowned for her piety and education and transformed the Scottish court into a centre of learning. One of the holy relics in her possession was a fragment of the “holy rood” or true cross. In 1128, Margaret’s son, David I, founded Holyrood Abbey to house the relic.

2) Margaret Tudor (1489-1541) When James IV negotiated his marriage to Henry VII’s elder daughter, Margaret, he decided to transform to royal apartments at Holyrood Abbey into a Renaissance Palace between 1501 and 1505. James IV was well versed in history and spoke multiple languages. The construction of the Palace of Holyroodhouse was intended to impress the King’s English bride and proclaim to the world the Scottish court was the equal of other European royal establishments.

1833 artist’s depiction of the murder of David Rizzio in 1566

3) Mary, Queen of Scots (1542-1587) When Mary, Queen of Scots returned to Scotland from France in 1561 at the age of eighteen, she introduced French style decorations to her apartments in Holyroodhouse. Mary spent her youth in France as the future wife of King Francois II and found Holyroodhouse shabby in comparison to the Louvre and the Chateaux of the Loire Valley. In 1566, a heavily pregnant Mary, Queen of Scots witnessed the murder of her secretary, David Rizzio, in her private apartments at Holyroodhouse by a faction of Scottish nobles led by her second husband, Lord Darnley. After the murder, Mary left Holyroodhouse and gave birth to the future King James VI of Scotland/James I of England at Edinburgh Castle.

Holyroodhouse Gardens, where the Queen hosts Scottish garden parties today.

4) Catherine of Braganza (1638-1705) Charles II’s Portuguese queen, Catherine of Braganza, never visited the Palace of Holyroodhouse. Following the restoration of the English and Scottish monarchies in 1660, however, Charles II ordered extensive improvements to the palace for himself and his bride including new apartments for the queen. The King appointed architect Sir William Bruce to oversee additions to the palace including the modern quadrangle. Catherine also had a strong cultural impact on Britain – she popularized tea drinking at a time when coffee was the preferred beverage of the aristocracy.

5) Queen Victoria (1819-1901) Queen Victoria discovered Scottish culture through the novels of Sir Walter Scott and developed a strong affinity for Scotland. While her predecessors largely neglected Holyroodhouse, Victoria spent part of her year in Scotland, attending official engagements in Edinburgh and holidaying at her private residence, Balmoral. While in Scotland, Victoria immersed herself in Scottish culture, dressing her children in tartans, listening to readings of Robert Burns poems and even assuming a Scottish accent. The relationship between the monarchy and Scotland has remained close since Victoria’s reign.

Further Reading on the Palace of Holyroodhouse, Scotland’s Palaces and Scottish Monarchs

History:

Elizabeth Patricia Dennison, Holyrood and Canongate: A Thousand Years of History
John Dunbar, Scottish Royal Palaces: The Architecture of the Royal Residences During the Late Medieval and Early Renaissance Periods

John Guy, Queen of Scots: Queen of Scots: The True Life of Mary Stuart

Historical Fiction:

Sir Walter Scott, Waverley

Nigel Tranter, Robert the Bruce Trilogy

Jean Plaidy, The Thistle And The Rose

ReayTannahil, Fatal Majesty: A Novel of Mary Queen of Scots

Next: The Investiture of Prince Charles at Caernarfon Castle in Wales

Royal Travelogue 3: The Royal Yacht Britannia’s Last Harbour

August 14, 2014January 6, 2023 by CarolynHarris | Leave a comment

“The yacht was now permanently beside a quay in Leith, outside Edinburgh. Tourist attraction. Such a pity, really. She loved that ship. She’d fly out to the Caribbean, meet some governors, tour the hospital wards, look at the new sewers, and then they could all retire to Britannia for a few days, having justified the expense of sailing her out by holding some official dinners on board. How lovely, she looked, white and buff and blue, rising out of the haze on a hot afternoon. And when she became too old, too expensive to run, well the Government absolutely refused to build another yacht.” – From the novel, Mrs Queen Takes the Train by William Kuhn

The Queen’s former yacht, Britannia, decommissioned in 1997, is not only a tourist attraction today but was voted a top tourist attraction in the United Kingdom by Trip Advisor, receiving 300,000 visitors per year. The Britannia’s last harbour cannot be described as majestic. The ship is docked behind the Ocean Terminal shopping mall in Leith, accessible via escalator to the second floor and a walk through the mall food court. The view from the bridge is of a cruise ship docked in the harbour and the shuttle buses on the pier to transport the passengers into Edinburgh.

There are complimentary audio tours, an onboard tea room and an exit through a gift shop selling Britannia t-shirts. Families from around the world arrive by the double decker bus load from the Royal Mile, allowing their children to take their turn at the helm. Parties of cruise ship passengers make their way around the pier, clutching the enormous umbrellas from their staterooms, emblazoned with name of their cruise line. When wind and rain make the journey into Edinburgh uninviting, they visit the Britannia.

The Queen’s drawing room aboard Britannia

Inside Britannia’s royal apartments, the modern world is forgotten. The Queen launched the ship in 1953 and the interiors reflect the aesthetic of the early decades of her reign. In the state drawing room, where the Queen entertained foreign dignitaries in port and gathered with her family at sea, there is a set of furniture that was a gift from the Swedish royal family in 1956. The Queen personally selected the chintz sofa and armchair covers. Off duty, the royal family gathered here to play cards and board games and Princess Margaret, Princess Alexandra and Princess Diana all took their turn at the piano. The state dining room seated thirty two people with extra tables available from the previous royal yacht, Victoria and Albert III, for especially large banquets.

The Queen’s bedroom

The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh occupied simple private cabins on the Britannia, two adjoining bedrooms on the starboard side with twin beds. The Queen preferred floral decoration while Prince Philip favoured dark timber furniture and requested pillows that did not have lace borders. The bedrooms across the hall were originally occupied by Prince Charles and Princess Anne as children but when Charles and Diana spent their honeymoon onboard the Britannia, his former bedroom was transformed into a honeymoon suite, complete with the yacht’s only double bed.

Gift from the people of Pitcairn Island in 1971 signed by all adult islanders

The focus of the exhibition is the role Britannia played in the past but there are hints of how the absence of a royal yacht affects the Queen’s royal engagements in the present. The gifts from the Commonwealth nations that now adorn the walls of the dining room reveal how a royal yacht helped the Queen engaged with a worldwide maritime family of nations. The sixteen Commonwealth realms where the Queen is Head of State all have maritime traditions. The yacht allowed the Queen to visit her Pacific and Caribbean realms more frequently, stopping at several islands in a single tour.

Narwhal tusk presented to the Queen by Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau in Frobisher Bay, 1970

When the Queen decommissioned the Britannia, she observed, “Looking back over forty-four years we can all reflect with pride and gratitude upon this great ship which has served the country, the Royal Navy and my family with such distinction. Britannia has provided magnificent support to us throughout this time, playing such an important role in the history of the second half of the century.” There is still a case to be made for the importance of a royal yacht to a global Commonwealth.

Next: The Palace of HolyroodHouse in Edinburgh

Royal Travelogue 2: “400 Years of Legal Piracy” Hamlet’s Castle Kronborg and Denmark’s Sound Dues

August 7, 2014January 6, 2023 by CarolynHarris | Leave a comment

Kronborg Castle in Helsingør, Denmark

“But what is your affair in Elsinore?
We’ll teach you to drink deep ere you depart.” – Hamlet, Act 1,Scene 2

When Shakespeare wrote Hamlet around 1600, Kronborg Castle in Helsingør (Elsinore), Denmark was the most famous royal residence in Northern Europe. King Frederick II rebuilt Erik of Pomerania’s grim medieval castle of Krogen as a stately Renaissance Palace with an enormous ballroom for lavish court entertainments. When the King proposed a toast, the cannons fired and the trumpets sounded.

The ballroom at Kronborg

Frederick’s daughter Anna honeymooned at the Castle with her new husband, King James VI of Scotland (the future James I of England) in 1589-1590. The royal couple had already been married by proxy at Kronborg and married in person at the Old Bishop’s Palace in Oslo but they decided to have a third wedding in the Kronborg ballroom followed by more celebrations. They stayed in what is now known as “the Scottish suite” before traveling to Copenhagen for the wedding of Anna’s sister Elizabeth to the Duke of Brunswick then sailing to Leith, Scotland. Anna’s brother, King Christian IV, continued the building program at Kronborg, making additions to the chapel including a closed royal box so that he could nap unobserved during church services.

The Kronborg Cannons, overlooking “the Sound” between Denmark and Sweden

How did Frederick VI and Christian IV finance their building program and royal festivities? From 1423 to 1857, the monarchs of Denmark charged “sound dues” to any vessel passing through the sound between Denmark and Sweden to enter or leave the Baltic Sea. These tolls were the chief revenue source for generations of Danish Kings, allowing them to maintain the most sumptuous court in Northern Europe.

In 1423, Erik of Pomerania (King Erik VII of Denmark) summoned merchants from the German Hanseatic League and informed them that every ship sailing past Helsingør would henceforth have to lower its flag, strike its topsails and drop anchor so that the captain could go ashore to pay a gold coin to pass in or out of the Baltic. Erik’s control over Scandinavia gave him the power to impose these lucrative shipping controls. His great-aunt and predecessor, Margrethe I, united Sweden, Norway and Denmark in the Kalmar Union, which lasted until 1523. Erik built the original castle on the site of Kronborg to ensure that no passing ship attempted to evade the sound dues. If a ship attempted to pass Helsingør without paying, the castle cannons would fire a shot across the bow, and the cost of the ammunition would be added to the captain’s dues when he finally came ashore,

Statue of Erik of Pomerania in Helsingør

Attitudes toward the sound dues varied among Europe’s merchants and sea captains. A 1585-1586 German atlas praised the Kings of Denmark for keeping pirates out of the Baltic stating, “Denmark, which owns no gold mines, does however possess something no less valuable in the Sound, whose waters flow with gold, for all ships must pay toll in gold to the King, who in return, by preventing the ungodly assaults of pirates, reserves the use of the sea for the benefit of merchants. (Quoted in David Hohnen, Hamlet’s Castle & Shakespeare’s Elsinore, p. 10) ” The heads of captured and executed pirates were displayed on the Kronborg battlements.

Kronborg Castle Courtyard

Other observers quietly grumbled that the King of Denmark was little better than a pirate himself for insisting that passing ships pay a percentage of the value of their cargo in sound dues. Since the King also had the first right to purchase any goods passing through the Sound, Captains were motivated to state a high value for their cargo to prevent the King from purchasing their goods at a loss. One historian described the system as “400 years of legal piracy. (Hohnen, p. 11).”

The era of sound dues finally came to an end in 1857 when an American merchant vessel refused to the pay the toll. The American government declared that Sound Dues dated from “a remote and barbarous age, even before the discovery of America” and that “they apply exclusively to the nations of Europe (Quoted in Hohnen, p. 109).” The United States’s refusal to pay the Sound Dues, however, encouraged European nations to do the same. Denmark received a final payment from all maritime nations that traded in the Baltic Sea but the monarchy permanently lost its most lucrative source of income. The era of lavish entertainments at the Danish court had come to an end.

Next: Leith, Scotland: The Last Harbour of the Royal Yacht Britannia

Royal Travelogue 1: Castles of Copenhagen

August 6, 2014August 7, 2014 by CarolynHarris | Leave a comment

The Changing of the Guard outside the Amalienborg Palace, Copenhagen

Denmark is Europe’s oldest monarchy and the seaside capital, Copenhagen is steeped in royal history. Here are Copenhagen’s three most famous past and present royal residences:

1) Amalienborg was once home to four of Copenhagen’s noble families but after the Christiansborg Palace burned down in 1794, the royal family moved in. Today, Amalienborg is Queen Margrethe II’s official winter residence and a museum devoted to Denmark’s Kings and Queens of the House of Glucksborg from Christian IX and his consort Queen Louise, who became known as the in-laws of Europe because of the illustrious marriages of their children in the 19th century, to the present day.

Amalienborg Palace

The museum reveals the daily lives of Denmark’s recent Kings and Queens, reconstructing their rooms such as Queen Louise’s drawing room and her son Frederick VIII’s study with personal objects. There are photographs from the family gatherings hosted by Christian IX and Queen Louise that brought the Russian, British, Greek, Danish and Norwegian royal families together in the late nineteenth century. Portraits, costumes and royal jewels are also on display. Photography is not permitted without a special permit but richly illustrated exhibition guides are sold in the gift shop, which also stocks royal history books that are difficult to find elsewhere.

The Christiansborg Palace

2) The current Christiansborg palace was built between 1907 and 1928 after Thorvald Jørgensen’s design won an architecture contest held to determined the future of the site. Today, Christiansborg is the seat of the Danish parliament and contains the Prime Minister’s Office and Supreme Court in addition to royal reception rooms, the palace chapel and stables. Christiansborg is the only building in the world that houses all three branches of a nation’s government. The royal reception rooms and stables are open to the public and there are guided tours of parliament. The balcony of the castle tower provides a scenic overview of Copenhagen. Since 1924, the ruins of previous palaces that once stood on this site have also been open to the public. The ruins date back to 1167, when Bishop Absalon of Roskilde built his residence on the site. Equestrian statues of Christian IX and his predecessor Frederick VII stand outside Christiansborg.

Rosenborg

3) Rosenborg Castle was originally a royal summer residence, built in 1606 as part of Christian IV’s extensive building program for the city. Rosenborg remained a royal residence until 1710. After the reign of Frederick IV, Rosenborg only housed royalty in times of crisis such as the 1801 Battle of Copenhagen when Horatio Nelson destroyed much of the Danish and Norwegian fleets. Today, Rosenborg houses Denmark’s Crown Jewels, which date from the eighteenth century, and other regalia. The museum collections are devoted to Denmark’s monarchy between the 16th and 19th centuries. The castle has been open to the public since 1838.

Next: Following in the footsteps of Shakespeare’s Hamlet at the Kronborg in Helsingør, Denmark.

Historian on the High Seas

August 4, 2014July 25, 2021 by CarolynHarris | Leave a comment

Sailing into St. Maarten in December 2012

On August 5, I fly to Copenhagen, Denmark. After a few days touring Danish castles, I board a cruise ship bound for the United Kingdom, Ireland, France, Spain and Portugal where I will be a royal history guest lecturer for the month of August. This will be my third cruise ship lecture series. In 2012, I sailed from Barcelona to Miami with stops in the Canary Islands and St. Maarten/St. Martin. During the summer of 2013, I lectured on a Baltic Sea cruise, visiting Amsterdam, Stockholm, Copenhagen, Helsinki, Tallinn and Saint Petersburg.

The usual blog features, including royal book reviews and royal history articles will be on hiatus until I return to Canada on September 4. Instead, there will be pictures and posts from my travels. There are plenty of royal stops planned for my itinerary including Hamlet’s Castle Kronborg in Helsingør, Denmark, the Royal Yacht Britannia in Scotland, Caernarfon Castle in Wales, Cornet Castle in Guernsey, the Castle of the Dukes of Brittany in Nantes, Louis XIV’s house in St. Jean de Luz and the Castle of São Jorge in Lisbon.

For more about my past experiences as a cruise ship lecturer, see my article “Down to the Sea with a History PhD” on page 6 of the Summer 2013 Queen’s University Alumni Review Magazine

Carolyn Harris

Historian and Author

Category Archives: Royal Travel