text:
Vännen min
In 1985, a Swedish historical novelist, Countess Anna Sparre, published her recollections of her friendship with Queen Astrid of the Belgians, niece of King Gustav V of Sweden. The book, Vännen min, has since been translated into French as La reine Astrid: mon amie à moi (1995) and as Astrid mon amie (2005). Under Anna's pen, Astrid's subtle personality comes to life. Tender, sensitive and loving, although not without her strict side, she was a loyal and devoted wife, mother and queen. Anna sensitively portrays Astrid's blossoming, through love, from a painfully shy, fearful, rather melancholic child into a radiant, dignified young woman, courageously assuming the role of royal consort under tragic circumstances. While carefully avoiding betraying confidences, Anna offers insight into her friend's spiritual depth and development, through her discussion of Astrid's conversion from Lutheranism to Catholicism. In a particularly haunting passage, Anna also mentions Astrid's mysterious premonitions of her death, shortly before her fatal car accident. However, she does not discuss the rumor that Astrid was expecting her fourth child at the time. Anna provides an affectionate portrayal of Astrid's beloved husband, King Leopold III, and father-in-law and dear friend, King Albert I. Throughout her life, the Countess remained close to Astrid's son, King Baudouin, who referred to Anna as an honorary aunt. By contrast, Anna found Astrid's mother-in-law, Queen Elisabeth of the Belgians, to be aloof and distant. This is surprising, since so many other personal accounts, such as the memoirs of Russian sculptress Catherine Barjansky, describe Elisabeth as natural, spontaneous, and extremely approachable. Perhaps Anna and Elisabeth simply had incompatible personalities? In any case, the rather derisive tone Anna adopts in Elisabeth's regard is one of the few aspects of the book I disliked. Otherwise, Vännen min is a noble, beautiful tribute to faithful friendship.
Posted by May at 12:48 AM 2 comments Links to this post
Labels: astrid
Le mythe d'Argenteuil: demeure d'un couple royal
Here is a review in French of Michel Verwilghen's wonderful book Le mythe d'Argenteuil: demeure d'un couple royal (2006). The article includes elegant photographs of Princess Lilian, Princess Esmeralda and Argenteuil, the home of the second family of King Leopold III from 1961 to 2002. I highly recommend Verwilghen's work to anyone who reads French. It is a careful, erudite history of the estate of Argenteuil, yet beautifully written, with humanity, poetry, passion and wit. Thanks to the charming style, the account is easy and fun to read, despite all the intricate details of changes of reign, transfers of ownership, legal disputes and political controversies. Verwilghen takes to task a number of malicious myths about Leopold and Lilian, such as the endlessly repeated story that they stole all the furniture from Laeken while moving to Argenteuil. Verwilghen also offers many astute, and often amusing observations regarding the political biases in the Belgian press. There are wonderful photographs in the book, including a few rare, touching images of an aged Princess Lilian with her granddaughter, Alexandra. Verwilghen's fascinating, moving, nuanced description of Lilian is probably the finest in print. Without falling into hagiography, he magnificently illustrates her faith, hope and charity.
Posted by May at 7:05 PM 0 comments Links to this post
Labels: leopold III, lilian
Christmas blessings...
...To all who have visited The Cross of Laeken in 2011. May the Prince of Peace grant you true and lasting joy.
Labels: catholicism, feasts
Mother of Kings
A famous allegory of the young Countess Augusta Reuss-Ebersdorf (1757-1831), mother of King Leopold I, and grandmother of Queen Victoria, as Artemisia. The portrait was painted in 1775 by Johann Heinrich Tischbein the Elder. Augusta, who later married Duke Francis of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, and bore him ten children, was considered one of the most beautiful women of her time, and her good looks seem to have been inherited by her Belgian descendants. Determined and ambitious, through her children's strategic marriages, she overcame the ruinous debts of her husband's family to become the ancestress of many European royal lines.
Labels: leopold i, royal family
The future Queen Astrid of the Belgians with her older sister, the future Crown Princess Märtha of Norway, mother of King Harald V. In her memoirs, Anna Sparre describes Märtha as being much more confident and outgoing than the young Astrid, and as the daughter most admired by their mother, Princess Ingeborg of Sweden. In fact, Anna believed that Ingeborg's constant praising of Märtha contributed to Astrid's insecurity and shyness.
"With my heartfelt hope that spring will bring quiet joy to you..."
On the eve of the accession of King Albert I and Queen Elisabeth to the Belgian throne, I was delighted to come across this beautiful letter from Einstein to Elisabeth, then mourning the loss of her husband and daughter-in-law. I was also pleased that Einstein mentions another good friend of the Queen, the Russian sculptress Catherine Barjansky, whose memoirs of the Belgian royal family I have often featured here.
Dear Queen,
Today, for the first time this year, the spring sunshine has made its appearance, and it aroused me from the dreamlike trance into which people like myself fall when immersed in scientific work. Thoughts rise up from an earlier and more colorful life, and with them comes remembrance of beautiful hours in Brussels.
Mrs. Barjansky wrote to me how gravely living in itself causes you suffering and how numbed you are by the indescribably painful blows that have befallen you.
And yet we should not grieve for those who have gone from us in the primes of their lives after happy and fruitful years of activity, and who have been privileged to accomplish in full measure their task in life.
Something there is that can refresh and revivify older people: joy in the activities of the younger generation—a joy, to be sure, that is clouded by dark forebodings in these unsettled times. And yet, as always, the springtime sun brings forth new life, and we may rejoice because of this new life and contribute to its unfolding; and Mozart remains as beautiful and tender as he always was and always will be. There is, after all, something eternal that lies beyond reach of the hand of fate and of all human delusions. And such eternals lie closer to an older person than to a younger one oscillating between fear and hope. For us, there remains the privilege of experiencing beauty and truth in their purest form.
Have you ever read the Maxims of La Rochefoucauld? They seem quite acerbic and gloomy, but by their objectivization of human and all-too-human nature they bring a strange feeling of liberation. In La Rochefoucauld we see a man who succeeded in liberating himself even though it had not been easy for him to be rid of the heavy burden of the passions that Nature had dealt him for his passage through life. It would be nicest to read him with people whose little boat had gone through many storms: for example, the good Barjanskys. I would gladly join in were it not forbidden by "the big water."
I am privileged by fate to live here in Princeton as if on an island that in many respects resembles the charming palace garden in Laeken. Into this small university town, too, the chaotic voices of human strife barely penetrate. I am almost ashamed to be living in such peace while all the rest struggle and suffer. But after all, it is still the best to concern oneself with eternals, for from them alone flows that spirit that can restore peace and serenity to the world of humans.
With my heartfelt hope that spring will bring quiet joy to you also, and will stimulate you to activity, I send you my best wishes.
[March 30, 1936]
Labels: albert I, astrid, elisabeth
Portrait of Princess Juliane
This is a painting by the great Elisabeth Vigée-Lebrun of Princess Juliane of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld (1781-1860), an older sister of King Leopold I of the Belgians. The portrait was destroyed by bombs during the Second World War. As a young girl of fourteen, Juliane married Grand Duke Constantine of Russia, a brother of Tsars Alexander I and Nicholas I, converting to Orthodoxy and changing her name to Anna Feodorovna. The marriage was deeply unhappy, however, and soon fell apart. Anna subsequently had several lovers and illegitimate children.
The Testimony of Felix Kersten, masseur of Heinrich Himmler
For some time, I have hesitated to use this account, because Dr. Kersten apparently had a tendency to distort the facts in order to portray himself in a more heroic light. However, I have never heard of his testimony regarding Leopold III being challenged, although it has often been neglected. It has been taken seriously by respected scholars, such as Jean Vanwelkenhuyzen, an eminent Belgian authority on the Second World War. It is discussed by Michel Verwilghen in Le mythe d'Argenteuil (2006) and by Christian Laporte in an article dated March 1, 1996, and published in Le Soir, a testimony all the more surprising and compelling since it comes from a paper traditionally hostile to Leopold III. Kersten's description of Heinrich Himmler's venom against the King squares with the revelations of General Alexander von Falkenhausen, military governor of Belgium during the Nazi occupation, and with the memoirs of Paul Schmidt, Hitler's interpreter. Both men indicated that there was no love lost between the Nazi hierarchy and their royal captive, despite continuing claims that Leopold sympathized with their regime. The recent television documentary, Léopold III, mon père, mentions that highly placed Nazi leaders, towards the end of the war, were considering the deportation and even the execution of the King of the Belgians. As is well known, Leopold and his family would indeed be deported to Germany at the time of the Allied landings in Normandy, although they managed to survive their ordeal. In the light of all this, Kersten's testimony seems plausible.
Dr. Felix Kersten's story is a fascinating one. A talented Finnish masseur of Estonian origin, he was approached by the SS to soothe the stomach cramps of Heinrich Himmler. Although Kersten appears to have exaggerated his role at times, he was also genuinely heroic in using his privileged position to save the lives of many. Himmler seems to have spoken quite freely in Kersten's presence, fulminating against the King of the Belgians on several occasions. Kersten, in turn, secretly kept a diary of his patient's confidences. In 1995, four documents relating to Leopold III were discovered among Kersten's papers by Professor Léon Masset of the University of Amsterdam and published in an issue of La Révue générale dedicated to the Second World War, with a commentary by Jean Vanwelkenhuyzen. King Leopold's devoted widow, Princess Lilian, was intrigued and pleased by the discovery of the documents concerning her late husband, as well as stunned by the fact that it had taken fifty years for the materials to come to light. According to Kersten's testimony, far from viewing Leopold III as a friend, Himmler saw him as an obstinate, bitter foe, a puppet of the Jews and the Roman Catholic Church. He was outraged that the King, the son of a Coburg father and a Wittelsbach mother, should have resisted the German invasion. He was furious that Leopold had rebuffed Hitler's attempts to entice him into collaborating with the Third Reich. Himmler also hated Leopold's sister, Princess Marie-José, for her opposition to Hitler. Like her brother, he insisted, she had betrayed her German blood. With a great deal of patience and tact, however, taking advantage of the fact that Himmler needed his services, Felix Kersten managed to persuade him to treat Leopold in a humane and dignified manner. By March, 1945, however, Himmler had changed his mind, and decided to have him killed. Kersten had to intervene once again to save his life.
Labels: leopold III, marie-josé, politics, world war II
Queen Louise-Marie, I suppose in mourning?
Posted by May at 1:22 AM 6 comments Links to this post
Labels: louise-marie
Albert and Elisabeth
They shared a love of great passion and purity. Here, Elisabeth seems to gaze at her bridegroom in wonderment.
Labels: albert I, elisabeth
Küssnacht-am-Rigi
I came across this painting of the beautiful place near Lake Lucerne where Queen Astrid perished.
Albert of Belgium: Defender of Right
I recently read Emile Cammaerts' Albert of Belgium: Defender of Right (1935), a famous and beautiful biography of the brave, thoughtful, gracious and beloved third King of the Belgians. It is tinged with sadness by the terrible events of the First World War and by the violent, untimely death of the King in a mountaineering accident. Opening with his courageous decision to defend with arms Belgium's right and duty to be neutral, it tells the dramatic story of his life in a noble, rigorous and eloquent manner. His love for God, his fellow man, his family and the people of Belgium are all conveyed with poignant intensity. Rare and beautiful photographs and samples of the King's delicate, even handwriting, assist in bringing to life a rich and sensitive personality. Particularly moving are the pictures of the royal couple's pilgrimage to the Holy Land, including a beautiful scene of Albert and Elisabeth in the Garden of Olives. I was glad that Cammaerts emphasized the role of Catholicism in the lives of the King and Queen, as it tends to be overlooked today. It is generally known that Albert's mother, Princess Marie of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen, was a fervent Catholic who gave her children a strict religious upbringing; it is less well known that her son continued his theological studies, on his own initiative, for several years after becoming heir to the throne. At his desk in Brussels, he kept a bronze cast of Cardinal Mercier's hand, holding a small crucifix, so that he could not raise his eyes from his work without seeing the image. A lady who hosted him during the war noticed that he kept a prayer-book on his night-stand and read a few pages every evening. The Imitation of Christ was always at his bedside. At the royal family's idyllic country retreat of Ciergnon, he used to go to Confession at the village church, humbly taking his place in line, and refusing to go before his turn. He was an ardent admirer of monastic and missionary discipline. Simple and conscientious in his daily religious practice, Albert was also capable of moments of mystical exaltation, as the author illustrates through the testimonies of his intimates. One morning, for example, during a Mass in the Belgian Congo, the King was deeply touched by the sight of a poor, ailing, miserable old negro, approaching Holy Communion alongside some white officers. It was one of the few times that Albert expressed strong emotion in public. On another occasion, when the King and Queen were shown, in Jerusalem, the site of Pilate's praetorium, they were so moved by the words of their learned guide, a Father of the École Biblique, that they both spontaneously knelt before the steps leading to the first station of the Via Dolorosa. The King of the Belgians, who would himself die tragically, only a year later, at the feet of a rustic crucifix in the Ardennes, contemplated the sacrifice of Christ where the King of Kings had suffered. Cammaerts notes that he was never able to discover an instance of Albert acting against his conscience. Although some of his decisions may have been mistaken, the author indicates, the King never appears to have adopted a course of action he did not sincerely consider just as well as prudent. He was a man of rare nobility and sweetness of soul.
Feast of the Immaculate Conception
A younger sister of Queen Louise-Marie of the Belgians, Françoise d'Orléans, the daughter of Louis-Philippe and Marie-Amélie who died as a toddler. Her grieving mother consoled herself with the thought that her child was now a saint in heaven.
Posted by May at 11:55 PM 0 comments Links to this post
Labels: princesses
Remembering Queen Elisabeth
Today is the anniversary of her death. The widow of King Albert I succumbed to heart failure on November 23, 1965, after a very long and fruitful life. Overcoming crushing sorrow, she had survived her beloved husband by 31 years. May she rest in peace with her loved ones!
Labels: elisabeth
Voice of a King
Here are two more recordings of the voice of Leopold III. Many thanks to Daniel Wybo for very kindly providing the following links:
~The swearing-in of Leopold III, as fourth King of the Belgians, on February 23, 1934
~On July 22, 1950, upon returning to Belgium after six years of exile, the King paid tribute to the heroism of the Belgian army in 1940
Labels: leopold III
The Life of Queen Elisabeth
A magnificent article.
Portrait of Princess Clémentine
A painting of the youngest daughter of Leopold II, by Emile Wauters (1846-1933).
Labels: princesses, the arts
November 10, 1926: The Wedding of Leopold and Astrid
...Je suis heureuse comme tout que tu reviens bientôt. Je t'embrasse de tout coeur. Embrasse notre petit chéri! Ta petite Loulou qui t'adore.
~Queen Astrid to King Leopold III, August 24, 1935, five days before her death, in a loving message quoted by Michel Verwilghen in Le mythe d'Argenteuil (2006)
Today is the anniversary of the religious wedding of the future King Leopold III and Queen Astrid of the Belgians. On November 4, 1926, Prince Leopold of Belgium, eldest son and heir of King Albert I and Queen Elisabeth, had married Princess Astrid of Sweden, niece of King Gustav V, in a civil ceremony in Stockholm. On November 10, the religious wedding followed in Brussels. Both handsome, shy, sensitive, thoughtful, and noble people, Leopold and Astrid had fallen passionately in love. Since Astrid was still a Lutheran, however, a papal dispensation was required for the marriage, and the religious ceremony was limited to a blessing, rather than a Nuptial Mass. The princess also had to promise to raise her children in the Catholic Faith.
Both sons of Leopold and Astrid, Baudouin and Albert, would become Kings of the Belgians, while their daughter, Josephine-Charlotte, became Grand Duchess of Luxembourg. It is often claimed that Leopold and Astrid also had a fourth, unborn child, who perished together with his mother in the tragic car accident in Küssnacht-am-Rigi, Switzerland on August 29, 1935. Astrid's best friend, Anna Sparre, however, makes no mention of a pregnancy in her account of the queen's death. Apparently, the queen's namesake and biographer, Astrid Bammens, also discounts the rumor, and, certainly, there was never an official announcement of a pregnancy.
As I have discussed before, Astrid converted to Roman Catholicism four years after her marriage, in August, 1930, a month before the birth of her eldest son, Prince Baudouin. Astrid's childhood friend Anna Sparre relates in her memoir, Vännen min (1985), that the princess took her conversion deeply to heart, writing Anna a sober, sincere letter describing the ceremony and declaring that her decision to become a Catholic gave her peace of soul. Astrid also touchingly described her conversion, and her first Confession, in a letter to her mother, Princess Ingeborg of Sweden, noting her happiness at finally being able to go to Communion with Leopold. Upon becoming engaged to the handsome Belgian prince, a delighted Astrid had written to her youthful religious educator and mentor, the Lutheran Archbishop of Uppsala, Nathan Söderblom, that Leopold's soul was even more beautiful than his appearance. Now, it seems, Astrid was glad to be more fully spiritually united to Leopold, by embracing his religion. It is comforting to think that the young woman who would suffer such a terrible death, only five years later, had attained such purity, peace and joy in her short life.
Labels: astrid, leopold III
Little Princess Marie-José
Another precious royal baby.
Labels: elisabeth, marie-josé
King Leopold's Broadcast
Here is a wonderful recording of a famous address, delivered to the USA on October 27, 1939, in the early stages of World War II, by King Leopold III of the Belgians. The speech outlines the reasons for Belgium's policy of independence and neutrality, adopted in 1937, and emphasizes Belgium's role in attempting to maintain the peace in Europe.
My warmest thanks to Mr. Daniel A. Wybo, researcher and spokesman of the National League of Veterans of His Majesty King Leopold III, who has very kindly made the recording available to the public.
Little Prince Leopold
October 25, 2001: The Birth of Princess Élisabeth
Yesterday was the tenth birthday of Princess Élisabeth, the eldest daughter of Prince Philippe and Princess Mathilde, and Belgium's first queen regnant-to-be. The royal household issued some new photographs for the occasion.
Best wishes to the Princess and her family!
Labels: princesses, royal family
Carlota and Zita
This is a good article as far as the lives of the holy Emperor Karl of Austria and his family are concerned, but I was rather hurt by the disparaging comparison of poor Carlota of Mexico with Empress Zita:
Carlota, born Princess Charlotte of Belgium, was nearly insane with ambition. Save for her insistence, poor Maximilian, a Romantic dreamer who wished nothing so much as to be able to dream forever, almost certainly would not have accepted the crown of Mexico when it was proffered. Carlota never had a child, or at least none by her husband. After Maximilian was shot the world saw little of her. Driven truly mad by the loss of the Mexican throne, she lived all the long decades of her remaining life in seclusion at one of her family's chateaux in Belgium, still believing she was a reigning empress.
Labels: carlota, empresses
"A Passion for Self-Sacrifice"
In his biography of Albert I, which I am finding to be quite a bittersweet read, Emile Cammaerts draws a comparison between the Belgian king and one of his relatives on his mother's side, the martyred hermit Meinrad of Einsiedeln.
Like most royal personages, he had many Christian names: Albert, Leopold, Clément, Marie, Meinrad. Now, St. Meinrad was supposed to be a member of the Hohenzollern family who, after founding the monastery of Einsiedeln in the ninth century, lived for a long time as a hermit in the company of two ravens and a squirrel. His namesake led a very different life, but remained nevertheless fond of solitude, an ardent admirer of monastic and missionary discipline, simple in his habits and frugal in his diet. His devotion to his people had developed into a passion for self-sacrifice. He shared the Saint's untiring patience and courage, with his delicate and almost feminine sympathy not for men only, but for beasts and even for trees (Emile Cammaerts, Albert of Belgium: Defender of Right, Macmillan Company, New York, 1935, p. 423).
Labels: albert I
Two Marriages
Labels: astrid, leopold III, lilian
Here is a description of the Royal Family's austere life during the early years of the reign of Albert I, by M. Vital Plas, one of the tutors of the young Princes. In later years, the King and Queen only drank water in private and followed a vegetarian diet. The King also gave up smoking.
The King rose very early and walked in the park, after which he took a light breakfast between 7 and 8 A.M., and began to work. The Queen breakfasted somewhat later. Her children came to her about ten o'clock; they were in the habit of bringing her flowers, this at the King's suggestion...Luncheon was taken at twelve, en famille; some members of the royal household took part in it, and on occasions the King or the Queen invited a visitor who had been received in the morning...There were only two courses and dessert. The King always insisted on a separate course of vegetables which the children were obliged to eat, whether they liked it or not. "It is necessary for your health," he told them. They drank wine mixed with water, or beer, sometimes a glass of champagne, when there was a guest.
Coffee, smoking and talk followed, but the King never allowed the Queen to stay long, as she was ordered to rest for an hour. When she delayed he urged her to go, leading her by the shoulder to the door.
The King resumed work with his secretaries or one of the ministers, and gave audiences until dinner when he had no ceremony to attend. The Queen either received her friends or went to a concert, an art exhibition, a hospital, or visited the sick privately. When they lived at Laeken, which they much preferred to the Brussels palace, they returned as early as possible in the afternoon. The King used to take motor rides in the neighbourhood. Before or after dinner, he and the Queen would walk arm in arm in the park; they visited the children's gardens and the beehives which supplied the Palace with honey.
Dinner was served at seven-thirty; it was frugal and strictly intimate, neither strangers nor members of the household being invited. It was short and the children went to bed soon afterwards. When the parents had not to attend some theatre or concert, they spent the evening reading and retired early. Sometimes there was music. (Quoted by Emile Cammaerts in Albert of Belgium: Defender of Right, Macmillan Company, New York, 1935, pp. 402-403)
Labels: albert I, elisabeth, royal family
Queen Elisabeth at prayer.
Labels: catholicism, elisabeth
The Life of Albert I
An excellent summary from The Mad Monarchist. I will be discussing Emile Cammaerts' biography of the King soon, so I am pleased to take this opportunity to review the facts of his life.
The future third King of the Belgians was born Prince Albert Leopold Clement Marie Meinrad on April 8, 1875 to Prince Philippe Count of Flanders and Princess Marie of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen. On the surface he would have seemed unlikely to ever become a monarch. He was the second son out of five siblings in his own family and his own father was the third son of the first Belgian king. However, after the death of the only son of King Leopold II and the death of his father and older brother Prince Baudouin, Prince Albert became heir to the Belgian throne. He was only 16 when his father became heir to the throne but even by that time he had the makings of a great monarch. His parents ensured that he was well grounded and sincerely religious. He was serious and studied hard and from the first moment he knew he would become king someday he set to work preparing himself for that task. The reputation of the Belgian monarchy had suffered during the reign of Leopold II and Albert was determined, even as a young man, to set a new tone.
Part of this new tone was to be the domestic life of the Royal Family. In 1900 he married Duchess Elisabeth of Bavaria in Munich, beginning what would be a very long, happy and fruitful marriage marked by mutual respect and devotion. The succession was also quickly secured as the following year Princess Elisabeth gave birth to the future King Leopold III. In 1903 another son was born, Prince Charles Theodore, giving Belgium an "heir and a spare". In 1906 the family was completed with the birth of Princess Maria Jose, the future Queen of Italy. Albert was a very devoted husband and father who set a fine example in his private life. This, in itself, was quite significant given the unhappy marriage of King Leopold II and Queen Marie Henriette of Austria. Together, Albert and Elisabeth would project a united front of domestic fidelity.
Prince Albert also made himself familiar with every section of Belgian society. He studied the problems of the working class and came up with recommendations to improve their working and living conditions. A firm believer in the principle of "go thyself", in 1909 he traveled to the recently annexed Belgian Congo to see the situation for himself and what conditions were like for the natives. He had, perhaps, learned from the experience of his uncle, King Leopold II, that it was not safe to simply take the word of officials as to what life was like in the central African colony. He took seriously his duties to all of his future subjects, Belgians and Africans alike, and when he returned home presented a detailed report and recommendations on improving the lives of the natives and for further modernization in the Congo. His role in the rapid improvement in conditions in the Congo is not often stated but it was significant.
Later that year, in December 1909, King Leopold II passed away and his nephew was formally sworn in as King Albert I of the Belgians. Whereas Leopold II wanted his reign to be known for grandeur and greatness, King Albert I, at least in his own life, was best known for his simplicity and moderation. He was a hard working monarch not at all enthralled by pomp and ceremony. He was also a very humble man, reluctant to accept any praise or adulation no matter how well deserved. He wanted peace, prosperity and contentment in Belgium but he was not blind to the growing threat across the border in Germany. He tried to strengthen the Belgian army and give them more up-to-date weapons but was hampered by an uncooperative government and the fact that Germany itself was the source of most of their rifles and artillery. In 1912 his generals estimated that it would not be until 1918 that the military was fully prepared to successfully defend the national territory. As we know, Belgium was not to have that long.
In August of 1914 the ultimatum arrived from Germany stating that Belgian neutrality would be violated and that if resistance was met Germany would consider Belgium an enemy. No effective resistance was expected. King Albert I, however, boldly rejected the ultimatum, famously stating that "Belgium is a country, not a road". A very upright and moral man, he had no other option. Belgium was bound to neutrality by treaty and if the Belgians had simply stood aside and allowed the Germans to pass through in order to attack France this would be a violation of that neutrality, not only by Germany but by Belgium as well as they would be passively cooperating in the invasion of France. Despite the impossible odds arrayed against them, King Albert I took command of the Belgian army and led a heroic defense of his country. The tall, serene soldier-king of "brave little Belgium" was tailor-made for the newspapers of the day and he quickly became a hero amongst the Allied nations for the stubborn defense of his country. The German timetable was upset and French and British forces had just enough time to rally in front of Paris to defeat the invasion force at the First Battle of the Marne.
King Albert, after being forced to withdraw from Antwerp, pulled back behind the Yser River and established a defensive line on the last corner of his native soil from which the Germans could never dislodge them. It was important to him to remain at the front, with his soldiers, on Belgian soil. He oversaw the rebuilding of the army which had been shattered in the initial invasion and in time they were better armed and equipped than they were at the outset. This was an extraordinary feat considering that almost the entire country was under German occupation and the sector the Belgians had to defend, the Flanders coast, was easily the most miserable on the western front, low, open and constantly waterlogged. As commander-in-chief he also had to oversee the operations of the Belgian colonial forces in Africa, where they met much success. It was a very trying time for the King, but his deep and sincere faith helped sustain him. A devout Catholic, King Albert impressed the importance of religion on his children and when Pope Benedict XV called for a peaceful end to the war he was the only Allied head-of-state to take the issue seriously. Unfortunately, his efforts to arrange peace with the Emperor Charles of Austria-Hungary were thwarted by the other Allied powers.
In 1918, since Belgian troops could only legally be commanded by their King, Albert was made commander of "Army Group Flanders" made up of the Belgian army and elements of the British II Army and French VI Army and he led these forces in a series of successful advances as part of the overall "Grand Offensive" or "Hundred Days Offensive" which brought the war to a successful conclusion by the Allies. There were wild celebrations in Brussels as the King rode in at the head of his army to liberate the country. However, there was no rest for the King as he immediately set to work rebuilding the devastated Belgian economy. He implemented government reforms such as universal suffrage and at the peace conference in Paris obtained reparations payments for Belgium but also showed his magnanimity by opposing overly-harsh treatment of the Germans. He could see, if none of his fellow Allied heads of state could, that the downfall of the German princes and the dissolution of the Hapsburg empire would dangerously destabilize all of central Europe. Alas, his warnings in this area went unheeded.
The interwar years were a period of recovery and King Albert I was kept very busy. He became the first reigning European monarch to visit the United States, paying tribute to the men of the AEF who helped clinch the Allied victory in the war, he opened the first national park in Africa in the Belgian Congo and he showed solidarity with the Dutch-speaking community of Flanders whose region had suffered the most in the war. He also saw his son Leopold married to Princess Astrid of Sweden and his daughter married to Crown Prince Umberto of Italy. When he did have some time for himself he loved mountain climbing. He was climbing in the Ardennes, near Namur, when, on February 17, 1934 he died in a tragic accident. His sudden death was a cause of great mourning and it is probably accurate to say that he was the most beloved King the Belgians ever had up to that time. He was upright, hard working, devoted to his God, his family and his country, courageous in the face of disaster and humble in the face of praise and adulation. He was a great man and a great king.
A Tribute to Leopold III
Beautifully made, with some wonderful live footage, very stirring.
October 11, 1927: The Birth of Princess Josephine-Charlotte
I had never noticed before that the first child of King Leopold III and Queen Astrid , the older sister of Kings Baudouin and Albert II, and the future Grand Duchess of Luxembourg, came into the world just a day after her uncle, Prince Charles of Belgium, celebrated his birthday.
October 10, 1903: The Birth of Prince Charles
Today is the birthday of Prince Charles Theodore Henri Antoine Meinrad, the second son of King Albert I and Queen Elisabeth, and the younger brother of King Leopold III, in whose stead he reigned from 1944-1950. The spare heir was named after his philanthropic maternal grandfather, Duke Karl-Theodor in Bavaria. Unfortunately, however, as I have mentioned before, I find Charles of Belgium to have been a far less admirable character. Nonetheless, the birth of the future Regent deserves to be commemorated.
Labels: albert I, charles, elisabeth, leopold III
Lilian's Deer
Like her husband, King Leopold III, Princess Lilian of Belgium loved nature. For years, she faithfully tended a large herd of deer in the magnificent park at Argenteuil. (Two finely carved marble stags with bronze antlers crowned with gilded stars, designed at Lilian's request and mounted on plinths, also adorned the esplanade behind the chateau). Visiting the park and admiring the herd became a hospitable ritual for the Princess' guests, as described poetically by journalists Marcel Jullian and Claude Désiré in Un couple dans la tempête (2004). Even in her old age, the frail but intrepid Lilian continued to care personally for the herd, feeding the animals as part of her afternoon routine.
On October 22, 1997, as related by Michel Verwilghen in Le mythe d'Argenteuil (2006), her temerity in this regard led to a serious accident. As she was emptying a bucket of grain onto the soil, an elderly stag, one of her favorites, whom she called "my friend", hurtled the Princess into the air with his antlers. Miraculously, she managed to avoid being stabbed, but fell to the ground, badly bruised and unconscious. After some time, she revived, but found herself unable to rise, her hips and shoulders in sharp pain. No help was at hand, since Lilian had left the chateau alone. Weakly, between fainting spells, she called for assistance, but the staff of Argenteuil, hundreds of meters away, could not hear her.
Towards evening, however, two worried gendarmes, Henri Dutrieux and Alain Pierlot, began a search for their missing mistress. Around the corner from her car, amidst a few deer ambling peacefully through the grass, they found the Princess, immobilized on the ground, where she had been suffering for over an hour. Still lucid, however, Lilian herself gave instructions as to her care. A gendarme returned to the chateau to sound the alert and to find a stretcher, where the Princess was cautiously placed. Transported by ambulance to the Cliniques Universitaires Saint-Luc, she was diagnosed with a fractured hip and right shoulder and hospitalized for over a month, while her loyal housekeeper, Madame Jeannine, remained comfortingly at her side. After returning home, Lilian had to spend a few more weeks confined to her room.
Barely recovered, however, the Princess fearlessly resumed her evening ritual of feeding the deer, even offering them apples by hand. Unable to dissuade her from going out alone, her anxious entourage gave her a portable telephone, but she never used it. Meanwhile, she continued to suffer from the scars of the accident. Despite physical therapy, her right arm and hand remained stiff and painful. Writing even a few words became difficult. Relief finally came, in a mysterious manner, after an injection in the biceps to prepare for cataract surgery. Always curious about medicine, the Princess asked various specialists why this apparently unrelated treatment might have soothed her arm, but nobody had a rational explanation for the pleasant surprise.
Labels: lilian
Smiling Astrid
A Valiant Woman
Here is my article on Queen Elisabeth at Lost in the Myths of History. In addition, here is a vignette from M. Poincaré after a visit to La Panne in November 1914, following the Battle of the Yser, during the Great War:
"I enter a bright drawing-room very simply furnished. The Queen, dressed all in white, receives me most graciously. Delicate and frail, it seems as if she should have been broken by the storm; but she has an indomitable soul; she has given herself wholly to her husband, her children and Belgium. She only lives for her family and her adopted country. She talks to me of the war with unflinching resolution. The young Princes and the little Princess are in England. She telegraphs to them every day, using a cable jealously guarded by our French soldiers, and she mentions this with gratitude. This royal misfortune so valiantly borne, in the bright surroundings of this seaside resort, seems at the same time imposing and pathetic."(Quoted by Emile Cammaerts in Albert of Belgium: Defender of Right, Macmillan Company, New York, 1935, p. 269)
Little Prince Albert
Here are some recollections of the future Roi Chevalier, by a German governess, who knew him as a child from 1877 to 1882. After his death in a mountaineering accident in 1934, she published her recollections:
My thoughts sadly linger on the young boy who passed a happy youth in Brussels in his father's Palace. The family usually spent the summer at the Amerois, and the little Prince's greatest joy was to romp in the meadows and among the bushes. He sometimes built small waterfalls by piling up stones across the brooks. He was absorbed in his games. Among my memories I see his crude drawings: trees and flowers, but mostly engines and railways. I still hear him, standing on a train made of chairs, his hair waving in the wind, shouting 'Départ pour Charleroi!' blowing his whistle and urging little Princess Joséphine to take her seat.
A great refinement of feeling, simplicity, kindness and a strong sense of justice, which distinguished his parents, were already noticeable in the child. All those who knew him remarked on his frankness; nothing would have induced him to tell a lie- a good omen for the future. (Quoted by Emile Cammaerts in Albert of Belgium: Defender of Right, Macmillan Company, New York, 1935, p. 36)
These tender thoughts somehow seem especially poignant coming from a German, in the light of the fate of Belgium in the world wars.
Sisi and Valerie
My post on Queen Elisabeth's aunt and cousin at Lost in the Myths of History.
Labels: elisabeth, princesses
Young Princess Elisabeth
Today, the Feast of the Guardian Angels, is her wedding anniversary.
The Princess, slight and tender, looked less than her height by the side of her stalwart fiance, who smiled tenderly down at her as the cheers of the crowd rose again and again. One chronicler described the Princess as being "small for a Queen," but true queenliness is an affair of spirit rather than of the body. Time has shown that, in the most trying circumstances, Queen Elizabeth has exhibited a truly regal dignity and a bearing that proclaims her Royal by more than birth. With delicate but regular features, her soft colour heightened by the emotions of the occasion, her chestnut hair surrounded by a diamond diadem, she presented a radiant figure in her ermine mantle which she later removed to reveal her flowered silk robe. She made a lovely picture, which none who saw her that night will ever forget.
Lady with a Bouquet
Splendor of the House of Orléans
A few images of the in-laws of King Leopold I. Above, we see Ferdinand-Philippe, the eldest son and heir of King Louis-Philippe who died in a dreadful carriage accident. Below are Ferdinand-Philippe's younger brother, Louis, Duc de Nemours, and his wife, Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Koháry.
Two Victorias: the iconic British monarch (right) with her cousin, the wife of the Duc de Nemours.
Princess Clémentine, the youngest sister of Queen Louise-Marie of the Belgians. Apparently, while still a child, Clémentine's grace and dignity aroused the admiration of King Charles X of France, whose throne her father would later take. At a ball at the Palais Royal, the home of the Orléans family, the King is said to have remarked to Louis-Philippe, shortly before the July Revolution: "Were I thirty years younger, your daughter would be Queen of France."
Labels: princes, princesses, royal family
The Faith of the Duc de Nemours
Here is a description of the second eldest brother of Queen Louise-Marie, Prince Louis, Duc de Nemours, who was once considered a candidate for the Belgian throne, prior to the choice of Leopold of Saxe-Coburg. According to the oral tradition of the Orléans family, his mother prayed, during his childhood, that he would become "another St. Louis".
The Duc de Nemours was the one who responded most of all to his mother's religious teaching. After his death his biographer, the academician, René Bazin, said, speaking of his noble life: "To what did he owe his unflinching pursuit of the ideal, his firmness and dignity in all vicissitudes? To his birth a little, but chiefly to his faith. His royal blood gave him the natural instinct to serve his country; the Catholic religion prevented his being deceived as to the best means of serving her, or from shrinking from the severity and duration of the service demanded. The Duc de Nemours was a believer, and acted up to his belief. He loved the ancient liturgy, the tradition and ritual of his church. He spoke little of his profoundest feelings, but he lived them, and they consoled him in the hour of death." (C. C. Dyson, The Life of Marie-Amélie last queen of the French, 1782-1866, 1910, p. 167)
Labels: catholicism, louise-marie, princes
I seem to be having trouble commenting on certain blogs which have comment boxes embedded below posts. Is anyone else experiencing similar problems?
Labels: blogging
In contrast to the charming Dalton miniature of Queen Louise-Marie, we have this rather grim portrait of her husband, King Leopold I. I like the contrast between the black and the gold. The portrait also aptly conveys Leopold's melancholy in later life, as described by Charlotte Brontë in her novel, Villette, inspired by her experiences in Belgium:
Well do I recall that King—a man of fifty, a little bowed, a little gray ; there was no face in all that assembly which resembled his. I had never read, never been told anything of his nature or his habits : and at first the strong hieroglyphics graven as with iron stylet on his brow, round his eyes, beside his mouth, puzzled and baffled instinct. Ere long, however, if I did not know, at least I felt, the meaning of those characters written without hand. There sat a silent sufferer—a nervous, melancholy man...
Some might say it was the foreign crown pressing the King's brows which bent them to that peculiar and painful fold; some might quote the effects of early bereavement. Something there might be of both these, but these as embittered by that darkest foe of humanity—constitutional melancholy.
Labels: leopold i
Miniature of Queen Louise-Marie
Commissioned by Queen Victoria in 1840, this miniature watercolor on ivory is the work of Magdalena Dalton, née Ross. After Louise-Marie's death in 1850, King Leopold I wrote to his niece in an effort to locate the Ross miniature of his wife "with red ribbands in her hair". Victoria responded that the original was with Louise-Marie's mother, the former Queen of the French, Marie-Amélie. Listing several other copies, Victoria offered to help Leopold obtain one if he so desired.
Victoria had worn a miniature of "Aunt Louise" in a bracelet even before meeting her for the first time in 1835. As I have mentioned before, the two queens were close. In her journal, Victoria described Louise-Marie as follows : "so kind & good; the more one sees her, the more one must love her; she is so thoroughly unselfish," adding that the Belgian queen was "the dearest friend, after my beloved Albert, I have." High praise, surely!
September 25, 1983: The Death of Leopold III
On September 25, 1983, Leopold III, King of the Belgians from 1934 to 1951, died suddenly, at the age of 81, after a heart operation at the Cliniques Universitaires Saint-Luc, in Woluwé-Saint-Lambert. His loss was a great grief to his family, particularly to his loyal wife, Princess Lilian, and to his beloved youngest daughter and confidante, Princess Esmeralda, who was only 26 at the time. Although his old enemies, the socialists, boycotted the ceremonies held in his honor, his death was also a deep sorrow to many of his people, especially his veterans, who had fought and suffered with him in World War II.
By a sad coincidence, the King passed away only three months after his younger brother, Prince Charles, Regent of Belgium from 1944 to 1950, with whom he had never truly been reconciled since the tragic divisions of the Royal Question. Despite their long estrangement, Charles' death had deeply affected Leopold, as noted by Princess Esmeralda in a recent television documentary. For the first time since his abdication, he had returned to the Royal Palace, the scene of so many of the most painful memories of his troubled reign, to pay his last respects to Charles privately, at his lying-in-state. (Neither Leopold nor Lilian would attend Charles' state funeral; Alexandre and Esmeralda represented their father on this occasion). An aide-de-camp, Colonel Guy Weber, saw the King praying before his brother's bier, pale, deeply moved, his hands trembling. Leopold returned to Argenteuil sad and tired. The death of a younger family member also seems to have reminded him all the more keenly of his own mortality. Always an avid photographer, he took a picture of Alexandre and Esmeralda in mourning, explaining he wanted to be able to imagine how they would appear the day of his own funeral...
Only a few months later, Leopold would follow his brother into eternity. His widow, however, would survive him for nearly two decades, piously cultivating his memory at Argenteuil. Her passing, on June 7, 2002, exactly one year after publishing her husband's account of the crises of his reign, Pour l'Histoire, would signify the end of an era; in a sense, the closing of the chapter of the Royal Question.
Labels: death, leopold III
Elisabeth and Astrid
These are two of my favorite photographs of two of my favorite queens of all time, Elisabeth and Astrid of Belgium, who were mother-in-law and daughter-in-law. They had much in common. Both were devoted wives to their kings. Each had three children, two sons and a daughter. Each was charitable and beloved by the people. It is ironic, though, that Astrid became so much more popular than Elisabeth, since Elisabeth did much more for the country than Astrid was able to do in her short time as crown princess and queen.
Labels: astrid, elisabeth
Remembering the Saxe-Coburgs
Not to be morbid, but here are a few of my favorite tributes, from Find a Grave.
~Au courage incarné par le grand Roi que fut Albert I.
~A Léopold III, Roi incompris mais courageux. Reposez en paix.
~A Elisabeth, héroïque Reine des Belges pendant la I°Guerre Mondiale. Que Dieu lui accorde le repos éternel tant mérité.
~Au Roi Baudouin I, grand Roi et grand homme, personne généreuse possédant de rares qualités. Que son âme repose en paix pour l'éternité.
~A l'Impératrice Charlotte, Votre vie n'a été que souffrance puissiez Vous trouvez enfin le repos éternel dans la Paix du Christ.
Labels: albert I, baudouin I, carlota, elisabeth, leopold III
Madame Adélaïde, aunt of Queen Louise-Marie
Here is a sympathetic description of the controversial character of Adélaïde d'Orléans, the sister of Louis-Philippe and aunt of Queen Louise-Marie of the Belgians.
Educated in liberal ideas by Mme. de Genlis, Adélaïde d'Orléans had made them her own. Long years of exile in a convent in Bremgarten, and afterwards with her aunt Mme. de Conti in Bavaria and Hungary, had separated her from family life. She knew little of her mother, and was subsequently altogether estranged from her, on account of the latter's subjugation by her chancellor, M. de Folmont. After their return to France, she concentrated all her affection on her brother and his family.
Her niece, the Queen of the Belgians, in a letter to Queen Victoria, says: "My good, excellent, beloved aunt lived only for her brother. Her devotion was absolute, and utterly unselfish. A heart so true, so noble, so loving is seldom found. She was a second mother to us, indeed few mothers do for their children all she did for us or love them better, and we in return loved and looked up to her".
Mme. de Boigne says: "In Madame Adélaïde I always admired her extreme goodness of heart and great intellectual powers. Her good qualities were her own, her defects due to circumstances in which she was placed in youth".
She was frank and sincere, and with her the inside was worth more than the outside.
Exclusive in her affections, she was a firm friend but a bitter enemy.
Her charities, however, left out no one.
She gave away one-sixth of her income in pensions to poor artists and men of letters, to the widows and orphans of combatants in the July Revolution, and in subscriptions to schools and hospitals, for the families of shipwrecked mariners, or artisans out of work, to cholera patients; pensions also to faithful servants of the House of Orléans, and rendered assistance even to poor Jews.
Her wealth and liberality gave her much influence, and she lived only for the aggrandisement of her brother and his family.
Her father, Philippe Egalité had been kindness itself to her. She was too young to judge the facts and would not acknowledge that his path had been one of crime. In her days of exile and among the émigrés who formed her aunt, Mme. de Conti's court, she found herself everywhere looked upon coldly on account of the name she bore, so she was driven in upon herself and raised a rampart of reserve in self-defence. Her mother's household being unendurable, she left it and joined her brother, and having no one else upon whom to lavish her capacity for affection, she gave her heart wholly to him.
He returned her affection, fell much under her influence, consulted her on all points, and having great respect for her powers of mind, deferred to her opinions.
Their father's life and death were a bond of intimacy between them.
Though both were generally the easiest of companions, upon this point they were irritable, even to rancour. After the Restoration neither of them was ever at ease with Louis XVIII, and least of all with the Duchesse d'Angoulême, daughter of Louis XVI, for whose death their father had voted.
Madame Adélaïde indeed frankly detested the royal family. She may have remembered that in her youth she had been taught to look on the Duc d'Angoulême as her future husband, but the match fell through upon the determined opposition of Marie Antoinette. Again in later life there had been an idea of marrying her to the Duc de Berry, which also collapsed.
Besides all this she was thoroughly at variance with the policy and opinions of the elder branch of the Bourbons; she despised their narrowness and bigotry, "they had learned nothing, and forgotten nothing". She herself was genuinely liberal and modern in her ideas, and she thought a constitutional Monarchy and representative Government was really what was needed for the welfare of France, and she loved her country only less than her brother. For him she was always ambitious. If he was not of the Orléanist faction, Mdme. Adélaïde certainly was; in and out of season she never lost sight of the ruling desire of her life, i.e. to see her brother on the throne of France. Her wealth gave her great influence. She spent it generously, patronised artists and literary men, and employed much labour on her estates, especially at Randan, which was her favourite residence; a whole countryside benefited by her benevolence and adored her, calling her "the good Mademoiselle"... (C. C. Dyson, The life of Marie-Amélie last queen of the French, 1782-1866, 1910, pp. 183-186)
Adélaïde as a young girl, during a harp lesson with Madame de Genlis
Labels: france, louise-marie, princesses, royal family
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The perfect bag for any of life's little adventures, this Myra cross body bag lets you conveniently transport your things everywhere you go. Each bag is made of recycled canvas materials from outdoor tents and tarps with genuine leather trim, so it already has that broken-in feel, kind of like your favorite pair of old jeans. The interior has plenty of space for just what you need, and a smooth-action zipper holds everything securely inside. Store the smallest stuff in the back pocket for easy access. The adjustable leather strap gives you hands-free ease and detaches to quickly adapt to any situation. This 6.5 inch long, 9 inch deep crossbody bag lets you easily take your things wherever life leads you. Your bag may differ slightly from the one pictured as the inherent colorations and markings of the recycled material are just all part of its unique charm.


Women are acclimated to actuality advised by their appearances. In fact, that goes a continued way to explain why we absorb so abundant money on clothes, cosmetics, haircuts and gym memberships. In fact, analysis by basic advertisement account Groupon begin that the boilerplate British woman forks out added than £70,000 on her actualization during the advance of her lifetime.
So what does it say about accepted attitudes adjoin women in business that changeable admiral are not judged on their facial actualization back they angle for acclamation as aggregation admiral – and yet men are?
According to analysis conducted by Professor Philipp Geiler and his colleagues from Emlyon Business School in France, a man's actualization can accept a cogent appulse on the likelihood of him actuality adopted to a aggregation administrator position. Perhaps surprisingly, though, he doesn't necessarily accept to be attractive to allure votes.
The analysis aggregation advised 621 aggregation administrator elections and re-elections for a cardinal of UK businesses amid 1996 and 2007.
The advisers affected an actualization account for accumulated administrator candidates based on rankings from bearding raters. These raters were asked to accord candidates a account of amid one and bristles for their beauty, perceived competence, intelligence, likability and trustworthiness, afterwards seeing alone a photograph of them. The advisers again akin these boilerplate ratings with the allotment of voters who either abstained or voted adjoin admiral in their elections and re-elections.
The abstraction arise that while adorableness had no appulse on voting patterns, the perceived competence, intelligence, likability and abidingness accepted by a accumulated director's facial actualization had a absolute aftereffect on the accommodation of voters. Admiral who ranked awful for these perceived appearance ancestry accustomed added votes in their favor.
If the applicant was male, that is.
Female candidates' beauty, or added perceived appearance traits, had actually no aftereffect on the cardinal of votes that they received.
He highlights that it's "the perceived characteristics of a macho accumulated administrator that accept an admission on the likelihood of them actuality voted for and are accordingly important ancestry for a macho accumulated administrator to have".
But why don't any of these factors arise to accept an admission on the elections of changeable accumulated directors? The acknowledgment to this catechism seems to lie in the actuality that voters are admiring to see a woman – any woman – in the anatomy for a administrator role. "Women accept actual little voting bone at all, which is acceptable due to top changeable admiral still actuality in abbreviate supply, and companies and shareholders acquainted the allowances of gender assortment at lath level," explains Geiler.
It seems acrid that women, who are acclimated to actuality advised by their appearances in so abounding aspects of their lives – including in their careers – escape this analysis already they ability the high echelons of the business world. Arguably it's a little hasty as able-bodied back changeable politicians don't assume to get the aforementioned account from the aberration agency – you alone accept attending at the bulk of absorption that gets paid to Hillary Clinton's hair styles to see that. In abounding ways, it's a acceptable affair that changeable aggregation admiral are not advised on their looks, of course. The bearings is absurd to break that way, however, already we accept a greater cardinal of women on boards and voters are in a position area they accept to baddest amid them. Inevitably they will alpha to accomplish judgments based on appearances.
What would be absolutely absorbing now would be to see some analysis that correlates acclamation after-effects with achievement – did the macho admiral who got the best votes based on their perceived characteristics alive up to expectations in practice? That would accord us some absolute acumen into how acceptable bodies absolutely are at anticipation a book by its cover. Perhaps it ability additionally accomplish the case for accepting "blind elections", area voters don't get accessible admission to the faces of admiral afore they casting their vote. Hard to brainstorm attempting that in the agenda age, however.


text:
Grad Student Assoc.
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Lingzhou Xue
lxx6
Lingzhou
High-Dimensional Data
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lzxue@psu.edu
Lingzhou Xue is an Associate Professor of Statistics at Penn State.
Xue received his Ph.D. in Statistics from the University of Minnesota in 2012. He received his M.S. in Statistics from the University of Minnesota in 2011, and his B.S. in Statistics from Peking University in 2008.
His research interests include high-dimensional statistics, statistical learning, optimization, econometrics, and statistical applications in biological science, environmental science, and social science. His papers have been published in top-tier journals in statistics and data science, including The Annals of Statistics, Biometrika, eLife, Journal of the American Statistical Association, Journal of Accounting & Economics, Journal of Econometrics, Monthly Weather Review, Nature Materials, Neural Computation, Proceedings of the IEEE, etc. His research has been supported by the National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health and Simons Foundation.
His professional activities include Co-Chair of the 2017 C. R. and Bhargavi Rao Prize Conference, University Park, PA (2017 and 2015); Member of the Big Data Research and Development Initiative Working Group of the American Statistical Association (ASA), and Co-author of the ASA white paper "Discovery with Data: Leveraging Statistics with Computer Science to Transform Science and Society", (2014); and Organizing committee member, "Large-Scale Statistical Learning and Inference: Challenges and New Directions" workshop, Minneapolis, MN, (2012).
He holds academic appointments at Penn State as Assistant Professor of Statistics (2014-present) and Associate Faculty in the Institute of CyberScience (2017-present). Xue was a Postdoctoral Research Associate at Princeton University (2012-2013), where his mentor was Professor Jianqing Fan. From 2011 to 2012, Xue was a Long Term Visitor at the Institute for Mathematics and its Applications (IMA).
International Consortium of Chinese Mathematicians (ICCM) Best Paper Award, 2019
Bernoulli Society (BS) New Researcher Award, 2019
International Chinese Statistical Association International Conference Young Researcher Award, 2016
International Statistical Institute (ISI) Elected Member, 2016
Du, K, Huddart, S. J., Xue, L. and Zhang, Y. (2020) Using a Hidden Markov Model to Measure Earnings Quality. Journal of Accounting & Economics, in press.
Chen, Y., Ju, L., Zhou, F., Liao, J., Xue, L., Su, Q., Yuan, Y., Lu, H., Jackson, S. and Zhu C. (2019). An Integrin αIIbβ3 Intermediate Affinity State Mediates Biomechanical Platelet Aggregation. Nature Materials, 18, 760–769.
Zou, H. and Xue, L. (2018) A Selective Overview of Sparse Principal Component Analysis. Proceedings of the IEEE, 106: 1311-1320.
Fan, J., Xue, L. and Yao, J. (2017) Sufficient Forecasting Using Factor Models. Jounral of Econometrics, 201: 292-306.
Ju, L., Chen, Y., Xue, L., Du, X. and Zhu C. (2016). Cooperative Unfolding of Distinctive Mechanoreceptor Domains Transduces Force into Signals. eLife, e15447.
Fan, J., Xue, L. and Zou, H. (2014) Strong Oracle Optimality of Folded Concave Penalized Estimation. The Annals of Statistics, 42: 819-849.
Xue, L. and Zou, H. (2012). Regularized Rank-Based Estimation of High-Dimensional Nonparanormal Graphical Models. The Annals of Statistics, 40(5): 2541-2571.
Xue, L., Ma, S. and Zou, H. (2012).Positive-Definite L1-Penalized Estimation of Large Covariance Matrices. Journal of the American Statistical Association, 107: 1480-1491.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Q: How to set Sails Mongo model name with dots I run the command sails generate model words.common
It created in the model folder the model file Words.common.js
but I got a server error:
The Words.common model has an invalid name.
Model names must start with a letter and contain only letters, numbers and underscores.
MongoDB supports collection name with dots. How do I set it correctly in Sails? and how do I call this model from the controller?
I use Sails v1.0

A: I found a solution:
i run : sails generate model wordsCommon
In the model file I added after the attributes field : tableName: 'words.common'
In the controller, I get the model by WordsCommon global variable.

A: Run This Comamnd:  sails generate model userModal your modal name

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


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This past Tuesday I attended the sold-out Steely Dan show at the Chicago Theater, and I have to say that even at 41, and as a major Steely Dan fan, I felt out of my demo at this show, and after watching, and even napping through one tune, I found myself asking; was this worth $150.00? The ticket was over $100, and gas was $50, with no other perks like drinks or t-shirts. My 26 year old friend felt like he was seeing Mel Torme`.
It wasn't a total snoozer, there of course were some great musical moments, but I'd heard some great stuff on the web with guitarist Jon Herington who's been playing live with them for years, and honestly that's why I spent the money, but what a disappointment, in that Walter Becker took nearly every solo, in his weak, boring, stale, sterile, lifeless tone. And while he had monumental tone and chops when I did get to hear them, Jon Herington looked bored stiff, as did most of the band. There was a major detachment between band and audience, it was like I was watching a DVD. Drummer Keith Carlock was the highlight of the night, and I wasn't the only one who thought so. Even during the introductions, he got BY FAR the loudest ovation, sending a major message to Fagan and Becker that I hope is picked up on; the one on stage who showed the most musicianship received the greatest appreciation from the crowd. That is, the enthusiastic part of the crowd; the musicians. Oddly, the drummer and the two incredible backup singers seemed to carry this show.
At one point Donald looked around at 2500 people in their seats and looked at the 10 people standing up in front, and somewhat sarcastically declared "This is crazy" before starting another tune. He seemed to be taunting the lifeless audience for sitting down the whole time. I was told the show would go until 10:30p, making it a two-hour set, but we were out of the building by 10:15. At the end, or the way I knew it was the end, was when Donald somewhat randomly got up and casually walked off the stage waving while the band played them off with something reminiscent of the tune the Blues Brothers played while Jake and Elwood made their escape.
Next time fellas, get a fan-friendly venue, at fan-friendly ticket prices, and cater to the crowd of musicians that have kept Steely Dan alive as a touring band all these years, and stop catering to the Gold-Coast Chicago crowd that, combined with the stuffy atmosphere at the Chicago Theater, made this the most lifeless, least personal show I've ever attended. Yes, it was sold out, but all these shows sell out. Yaz, Earth Wind & Fire, Bill Maher and Chris Rock will also sell out, that's not the point. It only holds 2500, Steely Dan could do 3 nights there and sell out, but so could Sonic Youth.
I got the feeling the band were longing for the same thing I was; to be in a club with the 250 musicians in that crowd that appreciate what's truly great about Steely Dan, the fact that they were able to do very poppy, very popular songs that contained astounding musicianship and creativity, but tunes that seemed poppy almost by accident, that they just happen to have pop appeal, not like they were written with that as the focus.
But this show lacked the proper focus, and lacked that critical ingredient; the musicianship. Everyone felt satisfied when listening to those albums, they covered all the bases, but there was a significant segment of their audience at this show that felt left out. There were the usual groups of musicians of all ages that you'll see at any Steely Dan show, and small legions of teenage boys and some girls who were almost certainly guitarists who came to this show hoping to hear what their dads and guitar instructors have been telling them about Steely Dan, about the fact that while many legendary guitarists played on the albums, they've got a do-it-all guy in Jon Herington who does a marvelous job of duplicating the feel we all want to experience when hearing these songs live, but they got cheated by Walter Becker's ego apparently. Herington could literally have sat out this show. I hope my next chance to see Steely Dan is in a club setting, with musicianship once again the focus of this great band. I'd pay $200 to see that.


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Download e-book for iPad: Bestsellers: A Very Short Introduction (Very Short by John Sutherland
By John Sutherland
Woman Chatterley's Lover. The Blue Lagoon. Portnoy's criticism. The Da Vinci Code. For the final century, the tastes and personal tastes of the typical reader were mirrored within the American and British bestseller lists, and this Very brief creation takes a fascinating glance through the lists to bare what now we have been reading--and why. John Sutherland exhibits that bestseller lists video display one of many most powerful pulses in smooth literature and are for that reason important of significant research. Exploring the connection among bestsellers and the models, ideologies, and cultural matters of the day, the booklet contains brief case-studies and full of life summaries of bestsellers over the years: from In His Steps--now virtually absolutely forgotten, however the largest all-time bestseller among 1895 and 1945--to long gone with the Wind, The Andromeda pressure, and The Da Vinci Code. Discussing either vintage and modern novels, along a few dazzling titles and long-forgotten names. Sutherland lifts the lid at the bestseller undefined, revealing what makes a ebook right into a bestseller and what separates bestsellers from canonical fiction.
His amiable trawl in the course of the heritage of well known books is usually unique Scott Pack, the days breezily exciting Kevin strength, Irish occasions (Dublin) Sutherland successfully demanding situations the belief book's advertisement good fortune by some means invalidates both its author's integrity or the severe acumen of its readers. as an alternative we're provided a believable imaginative and prescient of the blockbuster or the bodice-ripper as narrative in its purest shape. Jonathan Keates, TLS
Read Online or Download Bestsellers: A Very Short Introduction (Very Short Introductions) PDF
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Additional info for Bestsellers: A Very Short Introduction (Very Short Introductions)
Why are they not browsing rationally among the vast array of reading matter on offer to them? Or, put another way, if it's popular fiction they want, why are they not reading the bestsellers of ten, twenty, or a hundred years ago? With genre products, it is less mania than loyalty. Readers tend to be either brand-loyal to a particular category (science fiction, romance, horror) or to a particular author (see the myriad websites around, for example, Stephen King or Anne Rice). Given the fact that the essence of fiction marketing is variety, and constant renewal of stock, this loyalty too is as irrational as that mobilized to sell one-off blockbusters.
Send your answer to London, New York, Sydney, or Toronto. Or Berlin – since the parent Random House is now German-owned. ) The author Ken Follett, who was born and educated in Britain, sells very many more copies of his books in the US than in the UK, and his bestsellers, such as Code to Zero (#1, 2000), have American settings and characters. Where does he belong? Perhaps the answer will be found in his papers, deposited at Saginaw College in Michigan. For a hundred years, from the 1890s until the 1990s, British book culture (along with its European counterparts) was inherently inimical to the idea of the bestseller and disdained, entirely, any official 'lists'.
Beneath mountainous piles of whatever 'the book of the moment', worthy books struggled to be seen. Books did not 'compete' with each other – they were 'different', as a successful 1960 British legal defence of retail price maintenance insisted (successfully; the Net Book Agreement was judged 'legal'). No one ever said, as of books, 'where baked beans are burned, men are burned'. Why, then, sell books like baked beans? Or so the British book trade felt. As a result of this cultural resistance, the first reliable lists did not arrive in the UK until the mid-1970s, when the Bookseller began 16 assembling them for the trade, and The Sunday Times began making them available to the reading public.
Bestsellers: A Very Short Introduction (Very Short Introductions) by John Sutherland
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Rated 5 out of 5 by Cherlyntx from BEST time management game! I bought this game several years ago and am always on the lookout for a sequel or another time management game similar to it. I have found none other than Ranch Rush that come close it. I enjoy collecting one or more items to combine to make another item. Very fun and challenging!
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In a big isolated roof above La Route de la Louve. Sitstart on the right on a flat stone with the two hands on on the lowest ledge, climb the overhang and exit directly at the "nose".
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HomeInterviewsJames McCallum - on Fatherhood and a New Team
James McCallum – on Fatherhood and a New Team
James McCallum.
It seems just like yesterday we were asking James McCallum if he'd ever consider turning pro – but that was back in 2006 after his second Commonwealth Games and a bronze medal in the scratch race.
The following year he did indeed turn professional for Plowman Craven and since has ridden for Endura, Rapha Condor; and for 2014 he joins new – and much talked about – NFTO.
'Not For The Ordinary' is an outdoor clothing company based in Hereford with ex-military man John Wood behind it.
Wood has numerous business interests, including a bike shop and his team already have their clothing and bikes – always the sign of a good set up.
We spoke to 'Jamesy' soon after the birth of Penelope, the new Miss McCallum was four days early but weighed in at a healthy three kilos.
Our first question had to concern her arrival.
Congratulations; are you enjoying being a dad, James?
"Yeah, and there's a hidden advantage – we've been so busy with her that I keep forgetting to eat!"
How did you get the ride with NFTO?
"Dean Downing spoke to me earlier in the year about it – initially it was going to be just him and I chaperoning younger riders, which is a role I'm familiar with from Rapha.
"But the man behind things, John Wood wants to do it right and now we have Adam Blythe, both the Downing brothers, Sam Harrison, Jon Mould and James Williams.
"I have a meeting in Hereford next week to get to know everyone – it's going to be cool having Sean Yates as DS. It's a very strong team but names on a bit of paper are one thing, I'll be happier when we start racing and get some results.
"I'll be playing a selfless team roll with us having those big names but I'm sure I'll have my opportunities, too."
What does the programme look like?
"Whilst we'll support UK races like the Tour Series we hope to ride events like the Tour of Taiwan, the Herald Sun Tour in Australia and races in the US."
The Tour Series is a big deal in the UK but I believe it's a costly enterprise?
"I think it's a grand per round; so to ride the series you're looking at 20 grand out of your budget with travel and accommodation.
"I'm not sure what the UK scene will be like in 2014 – Rapha will be less of a development team, Madison are there and Sigma despite IG pulling out but I'm not sure about Node 4."
How's the team hardware coming along?
"We already have our road bikes – Swift carbon – and clothing, John Wood doesn't mess around, he decides what he wants and goes out and gets it.
"I may have to ride an unbranded track machine initially but track frames are currently being developed by Swift."
James' steed for 2014, a very smart looking Swift.
When's the first training camp?
"I was due to go to our camp in Majorca from 23/11 to 7/12 but with having the baby that's not possible.
"Scottish Cycling has a camp from the 5th to 15th December with Andy Fenn, David Millar, Evan Oliphant as well as the MTB guys – so I'll be attending that."
How was 2013 for you?
"Not the best; albeit we were second in the Tour Series.
"I didn't have much personal success but fulfilled my roll as a team player and mentored the young guys.
"It was my driest year for results in a long time but I had a lot of bad luck – crashes, illness and a bad ear infection."
James is at home on the road or track.
The Games?
"I want to ride road and track – points, scratch and maybe team pursuit.
"That's something we've been working on with Gary Coltman – me, Evan, Silas Goldsworthy, Michael Nicholson and perhaps Ben Peacock.
"To qualify you need a top five in a British championship – which Michael and I achieved with fourth in the British Madison Championship.
"There'll also be a timed standard to achieve which will involve a short distance sprint effort and an endurance distance to be ridden back to back.
"These Games will be my fourth (at VeloVeritas we reckon this will make James our most capped Games rider?) and I they'll be very hotly contested.
"Not only do you have the Aussies, New Zealanders and Canadians; you have four home nations to contend with; England, Isle of Man, Ireland and Wales – and are all strong.
"NFTO have me for Scotland, Sam Harrison for England and Jon Mould for Wales; we should all be there which is good publicity for the sponsor."
2014 will be your eighth as a pro?
"Yes, PCA, Endura, Rapha-Condor and now NFTO.
"It's early days yet but the signs are all good – there's a great level of support and to have all the team kit and bikes for November speaks for itself.
"We have great sponsors; Castelli, Bontrager, Kask, Oakley – no half measures."
Glasgow track, is it getting faster as the boards dry?
"If they'd switch the air conditioning off then maybe I'd be able to tell you – it feels like you're riding into a constant headwind!
"It's hard to say without being in competition where it's warmer – it's certainly a trickier track to ride than Manchester, you have to think about your line all the time. It's made a massive difference with SC training sessions twice a week and the track league – albeit the squad members are restricted to 91.8" gears.
"I think the way the league is structured is better now with more distance races and not so much sitting about between events – it makes people learn how to go fast.
"There's a Revolution meet coming up and that'll be good, very competitive – they're now UCI World Cup selection races so it's all for real with the World Cups being the qualifiers for the Worlds."
The Commonwealth Games next year in his home city of Glasgow are a major objective for James.
Life after racing?
"My contract is for one year but I'm thinking now about the side step into another area of cycling – I've done a lot of work with kids and I love to help people grow within the sport.
"I think I've made myself employable within the sport; but not as a DS, that way you spend even more time on the road.
"But for the moment I'm going to concentrate on being an athlete and squeeze the most out of it."


Summer, to me, is always defined by the fruits it has to offer. While I lived in India, it was the one and only Mango. Here, it conjures up images of plums, apricots, cherries and berries of several kinds. I know spring is moving on and summer is round the corner, when I start seeing baskets of cherries and strawberries in year-long farmer's markets – one of the perks of living in sunny California.
There are two apricot trees in my friend's backyard and the trees are fully laden with fruits in the summer. I was given several baskets that were ripening at a faster pace than we could consume. I did not want these delicious home-grown fruits to go waste and so decided to make jam with them. It is really easy to pit apricots as they are big (unlike cherries) and firm (unlike plums). In addition, the skin is so thin that there is no need to peel it.
Before you start cooking, place a small plate in the freezer.
Clean and dry the fruit completely, so that there is no moisture. Pit the apricots and save a few of the seeds. (Note: You can extract the kernel out of these seeds and add it to the jam jar for additional flavor).
Place the apricots in a non-reactive thick-bottomed vessel. Add water and stir every once in a while so that it doesn't stick to the bottom. The fruits will slowly start to cook and become tender.
At this stage, add the sugar and continue to cook in simmer. If you see foam rising to the surface, skim it off the top. Continue to stir as the mixture thickens and reduces to a thick jelly-like consistency. It takes about an hour to get to this stage.
Now, get the plate from the freezer add a few drops of the jelly and return it back to the freezer. After a couple of minutes, take the plate out to check if it is done. Nudge the jam a bit with your finger; the jelly should form wrinkles and mound at the other end. If not, continue to cook and stir. Rinse and repeat the test after a few minutes.
When done, turn the stove off and add the spices + orange extract. And then ladle the jam into clean jars (with kernel, if you have them saved). Store them in the refrigerator once they have cooled down to room temperature.
1. It's been about 3 months since I made the jam and it is still tastes fresh.
2. The same recipe can be used for other fruits like cherries, plums etc. Depending on the tartness of the fruit, you will have to add more sugar.
3. Feel free to experiment with the spices; lemon juice + lemon zest can be used or you can also use cardamon, nutmeg, etc. Vanilla extract can also be used instead of orange.


How to watch Meet Joe Black (1998) on Netflix Argentina!
Sorry, Meet Joe Black is not available on Argentine Netflix, but you can unlock it right now in Argentina and start watching! With a few simple steps you can change your Netflix region to a country like Spain and start watching Spanish Netflix, which includes Meet Joe Black.
We'll keep checking Netflix Argentina for Meet Joe Black, and this page will be updated with any changes.
Meet Joe Black is not available in Argentina BUT it can be unlocked and viewed!
When the grim reaper comes for a megamogul, he offers a proposition: Host him for a "vacation" among the living in trade for a few more days of life. Death comes to town in the form of a handsome young man. Before he leaves, he'll learn a lot about life and love.
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Alabama Chanin Wins This Year's CFDA/Lexus Eco-Fashion Challenge
Fashion people do breakfast. And cocktails. And later dinners. But to gather a who's who of the industry in one room for a long, semi-leisurely lunch is a notable feat. Yesterday, the CFDA and Lexus pulled it off by inviting everyone from designer Maria Cornejo to Coco Rocha to Bryan Boy for a crab-toast dotted spread at Jean-Georges's wildly successful farm-to-table venture, ABC Kitchen. The occasion? Announcing the winners of the CFDA/Lexus Eco-Fashion Challenge, a competition launched in 2010 to recognize designers who are following the practices all designers should be following.
In Our Dreams Coachella's Full of Chloé, Sunshine & Christopher Kane
We love Coachella for a number of reasons: 1. The music, of course. 2. The warm, sunny weather. 3. The phenomenal street-style. We were this c
By Kate Kaunitz


My husband used to call me the drama queen. I was constantly complaining about everything. I would moan about the incompetent waiter at the restaurant. I would whine about the useless girl at the coffee place. The taxi driver was an idiot, the landlord was a jerk, and people in the streets were spatially impaired. Everyone around me was annoying! My days were full of disasters. Nothing was ever going right. Everything was always wrong.
I don't know if you've had days like this but my days were weeks and my weeks were months. My husband hid at his office because he hated having conversations with me about the doom and gloom of the world. I was pathetic.
And then came NLP. When I took my NLP Practitioner Certification, I learned about metamodels. This is part of the linguistic side of Neuro Linguisitic Programming. When I said that "everything" was going wrong and "nothing" was right and "no one" was ever competent and "everyone" on the street was spatially unaware, I was using a language pattern called "Universal Qualifiers." Basically I was grouping all my woes together and making them really large and permanent. It was a recipe for disaster.
I was expecting everyone in the world to play by my rule book. And I had a lot of rules. When I spoke about incidences where people broke my rules, instead of making that story specific to that situation, I generalized it across cultures, countries, everyone, everything, and forever more. Can you see how even doing this just a little bit is problematic?
Speaking "universally" is creating drama in our lives just for the sake of it. I learned in my NLP Practitioner Course how to change my language and speak solely about individuals and specific circumstances. Doing so allowed me to feel in control over those unique events instead of feeling like the world was out to get me.
The more metamodel language patterns I changed the more my husband wanted to have conversations with me. He stopped staying late at work and our chats were drama-free.
Next week, I'm going to introduce one of the best presuppositions of NLP – the map is not the territory.
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