24th August 1883 - Death of the Comte de Chambord, the last of the male descendants of the senior line of the House of Bourbon

Henri, Duc de Bordeaux

Henri Charles Ferdinand Marie Dieudonné de Bourbon, Duc de Bordeaux from his birth, later known as the Comte de Chambord, and by French Legitimists as Henri V, King of France and Navarre, died on 24th August 1883 in Frohsdorf, Austria. He was the last of the male descendants of the senior line of the House of Bourbon from King Louis XIV.

His birth on 29th September 1820, as the posthumous son of Charles Ferdinand, Duc de Berry, assassinated as he left the Paris Opera House theatre seven months before, came as joyful news to French Royalists, who had feared the extinction of the senior line. He was given the baptismal name "Dieudonné" and called "l'enfant miracle". His mother, Caroline of Bourbon-Two Sicilies, each of whose four grandparents were descendants of Princess Elizabeth Stuart, Electress Palatine of the Rhine, Duchess of Orléans, was determined that her son should inherit the Bourbon Throne of France.

After the abdication of King Charles X in the July Revolution of 1830, his heir was his surviving elder son, the Dauphin, Louis Antoine, Duc d'Angoulême, who had no children from his marriage with his cousin, Marie Thérèse, the last surviving child of King Louis XVI, known as Madame Royale.

Louis Antoine, Duc d'Angoulême

For 20 minutes, no more, Louis Antoine became de facto King Louis XIX. Henri was at once proclai- med Henri V, King of France and Navarre, but the National Assembly declared the Throne vacant and summoned Louis Philippe, Duc d'Orléans, whose consort, Marie Amélie of Bourbon-Two Sicilies was the aunt of Henri's mother, the Duchesse de Berry. Louis Philippe was proclaimed King of the French and reigned until 1848.

Royalists in France were divided. Liberals and constitutionalists supported the July Monarchy of the Orléans branch of the House of Bourbon, Conservatives recognised Henri V, while Legitimists and the former Ultra-Royalists considered that Charles X had no right to renounce the Throne and that, consequently, he was still de jure King of France and Navarre, until his death in 1836 at Gorizia, in Venezia Friuli. Only then was the Dauphin Louis Antoine recognised by Legitimists as Louis XIX, until his death in 1844, also at Gorizia, then Austria, today Slovenia.

From 3rd June 1844, Henri V, while the retaining the title of Comte de Chambord, by which he is known in history, became the official French Legitimist claimant. On 16th November 1846, at Brück an der Mur, in Austrian Styria, he married Archduchess Marie Therese Beatrice Gaëtane of Austria-Este and Princess of Modena. The couple remained childless.

It is perhaps the last years of Henri V, Comte de Chambord, which are the most controversial. With the defeat of Napoleon III by Prussia in 1870, France found herself with the Legitimist Maréchal Patrice de MacMahon, Duc de Magenta, as Provisional President of the Third Republic, and with a mixed Royalist majority in the National Assembly.

Louis Philippe, Comte de Paris, 1893

Orléanists were prepared to support the restoration of Henri V, on condition that Louis-Philippe Albert d'Orléans, Comte de Paris, would be recognised as his successor, in the event of a Restoration. Whether or not Henri, the Comte de Chambord, was prepared to make a compromise settlement, he was implacably opposed to accepting the Revolutionary Tricoleur as the national flag of France, insisting on the white "Fleur de Lys" of the pre-revolutionary Bourbon Monarchy. He remained in exile and was not prepared to return to France, before a settlement had been reached among Royalists, according to his declared principles. But he and the Comte de Paris met and found a common ground:

Le comte de Paris cherche à se rapprocher de son cousin. «Henri V» n’ayant pas d’enfant, le chef des Orléans est en effet convaincu qu’une restauration légitimiste ferait de lui le dauphin et permettrait de renforcer le camp monarchiste face aux républicains et aux bonapartistes. Après l’envoi infructueux de plusieurs émissaires auprès du « comte de Chambord », le comte de Paris décide de se rendre lui-même à Frohsdorf afin d’y affirmer officiellement sa soumission à l’aîné des Capétiens. Le 3 août 1873, le prince déclare ainsi à son cousin : « Je viens en mon nom, et au nom de tous les membres de ma famille, vous présenter mes respectueux hommages, non seulement comme au chef de notre maison mais comme au représentant du principe monarchique en France ». À ces mots, le « comte de Chambord » l’embrasse et lui répond : « Croyez, mon cousin, que je trouve tout naturel que vous conserviez les opinions politiques de votre famille, dans lesquelles vous avez été élevé. L’héritier du trône peut avoir ses idées comme le Roi a les siennes ». La fusion des deux courants monarchistes et la reconnaissance mutuelle des deux princes en tant que chef de famille et héritier semblent donc totales

It was clear that after the death of Henri, Comte de Chambord, the head of the Maison de France (as distinguished from the Maison de Bourbon) would be the head of the Orléans line, i.e. the Comte de Paris. Henri himself had accepted that and it was accepted by many Legitimists, and was the default on legal grounds; since the only surviving Bourbon line more senior was the Spanish branch, which had renounced its right to inherit the throne of France as a condition of the Treaty of Utrecht. However, many of Henri's supporters, including his widow, chose to disregard his statements and this law, arguing that no one had the right to deny to the senior direct-male-line male Bourbon to be the head of the Maison de France and thus the legitimate King of France.

Reconciliation between the Comte de Chambord and the Comte de Paris.

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French Royalists commemorate murdered King Louis XVI

In more than fifty cities all across France Royalists commemorated King Louis XVI of France who was murdered on 21st January 1793 by the Jacobins.

France 3, a public TV station, reported on a Catholic Mass in its news bulletin.

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French claimant to the throne endorses Nicolas Sarkozy

Last week La Nouvelle Action royaliste asked its supporters to vote for François Holland (Parti Socialiste) in next Sunday's run-off elections.

Yesterday Prince Henri, Comte de Paris, claimant to the French throne, came out in support of the incumbent candidate, Nicolas Sarkozy (UMP - Union pour un Mouvement Populaire).

Via his twitter account Prince Henri wrote:

Dans un tweet posté vers 13 heures, le Comte de Paris déclare « En ces temps troublés autant qu’opaques la France a besoin d’un capitaine compétent parce qu’expérimenté pour redevenir une France forte. »

Addendum 15h20 : « LES CAPETIENS ONT CONSTRUIT UNE FRANCE FORTE. ELLE DOIT LE RESTER », confirme-t-il sur Twitter.

(At 1 pm yesterday - 30th April - Le Comte de Paris has declared: « In these troubled times France needs a competent head, experienced enough to make France strong again. »

Added later at 3.20 pm: « The Capetiens - members of the French dynasty since Hugues Capet was elected and crowned King of France in 987 - built a strong France. She must remain that. »

« La France forte » is of course Nicolas Sarkozy's election slogan. By using this slogan twice in his tweets, Le Comte de Paris.

The Royalists supporting Prince Henri are enthusiastic about his declaration:

En vrai Prince de son époque, c'est via son compte Twitter que le chef de la maison royale de France, Monseigneur le comte de Paris vient publiquement d'apporter son soutien à Nicolas Sarkozy pour le vote du 6 Mai prochain.

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French Royalists ask supporters to vote for François Hollande

"The directing committee of the Nouvelle Action Royalist (NAR) is happy about the big turn-out of the French in the first round of the presidential election. It welcomes the massive rejection of Nicolas Sarkozy to which the NAR contributed by asking the French  people to vote for Nicolas Dupont-Aignan, who in difficult circumstances has received an honourable result [644,043 votes or 1,79%]. It regrets the success Marine Le Pen achieved by exploiting the betrayel of de Gaulle’s legacy by the classic right, the abandonment of the popular classes by a cast of Socialist managers and and the ravages of ultra-liberalism.

"For the second round of the presidential elections the directing committee of the Nouvelle Action Royalist asked to transform Nicolas Sarkozy’s setback into a final defeat."

 
Voter François Hollande

Le Comité directeur de la Nouvelle Action royaliste se réjouit de la très forte participation des Français au premier tour de l’élection présidentielle. Il se félicite du rejet massif de Nicolas Sarkozy, auquel la NAR a participé en appelant à voter pour Nicolas Dupont-Aignan qui a obtenu, dans des conditions difficiles, un premier résultat très honorable. Il constate avec regret le succès remporté par Marine Le Pen qui exploite la trahison du gaullisme par la droite classique, l’abandon des classes populaires par la caste des gestionnaires socialistes et les ravages de l’ultra-libéralisme.

Pour le second tour de l’élection présidentielle, le Comité directeur de la Nouvelle Action royaliste appelle à transformer le revers de Nicolas Sarkozy en une défaite définitive. Tout au long de ce quinquennat, la Nouvelle Action royaliste a dénoncé l’instauration d’une autocratie brouillonne dénaturant la fonction présidentielle, le durcissement de la guerre sociale menée par l’oligarchie, la destruction méthodique de l’administration centrale, le mépris de l’autorité judiciaire, la xénophobie d’État, la corruption du milieu dirigeant et, sur le plan international, le retour dans l’Otan, l’enlisement sanglant en Afghanistan et l’alignement sur l’Allemagne qui est inscrit dans la lettre des nouveaux traités conçus à Berlin.

Livrée à la concurrence effrénée et déloyale que permet le libre échange, prise dans le carcan monétaire, exposée à la violence de la déflation, la France a été engagée par Nicolas Sarkozy dans un processus à tel point désastreux qu’il est impossible de prendre pour le second tour une position de neutralité. Les critiques que la Nouvelle Action royaliste a adressées au Parti socialiste ont toujours été sévères : elle n’a jamais accepté le tournant de la rigueur de 1983, le ralliement à l’ultra-libéralisme, la dérive oligarchique, les illusions européistes et la croyance en l’euro. Mais il s’agit de choisir le 6 mai un président de la République, non un Premier ministre, sans oublier que l’orientation du nouveau gouvernement sera fonction des résultats obtenus par les différents partis lors des élections législatives.

Quant au choix du président, tel qu’il est défini par l’article 5 de la Constitution, nous avons la certitude que François Hollande saura redonner à la fonction présidentielle la dignité qu’elle a perdue et qu’il retrouvera, dans les négociations internationales, le langage et le comportement d’un chef d’État. Et nous sommes persuadés que le nouveau président, chef des Armées, veillera au retrait rapide et ordonné des troupes françaises positionnées en Afghanistan. Telles sont les raisons décisives qui nous conduisent à appeler les militants et les sympathisants de la Nouvelle Action royaliste à apporter leurs voix à François Hollande.

Cet appel doit être entendu comme un message d’espérance quant aux révolutions que la France peut accomplir à la faveur de l’élection présidentielle et des élections législatives. La crise de l’euro s’aggrave. Elle a pris un tour tragique en Grèce et la logique déflationniste conduira tous les pays qui l’acceptent à la violence sociale et à l’extrémisme politique. Des solutions nouvelles devront être trouvées, avec le soutien du peuple français. Ouverte par François Hollande, la perspective de la renégociation du pacte budgétaire européen et du Mécanisme Européen de Stabilité donne à la France la possibilité de mettre radicalement en question la politique dictée par l’Allemagne, la recherche inepte de l’équilibre budgétaire et les décisions de la Banque centrale européenne.

Nous espérons que le nouveau président de la République ne cherchera pas à obtenir une simple déclaration sur la croissance mais engagera la négociation avec nos partenaires européens après avoir soumis à référendum le traité signé mais pas encore ratifié. Nous espérons que le peuple français confirmera le refus qu’il avait exprimé en 2005 et qui a été ignoré au mépris de la démocratie. Nous attendons de ce choc salutaire une redéfinition de la politique française, selon les objectifs généraux de l’indépendance nationale, de la justice sociale et du développement économique qui nous permettront de retrouver le sens de notre histoire.

LE COMITÉ DIRECTEUR DE LA NOUVELLE ACTION ROYALISTE

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The French Royalists and the presidential elections

The French are in the middle of a presidential campaign that is not only costlier than ever, but also nastier. Incumbent president Nicolas Sarkozy is trailing behind the Socialist competitor François Hollande.

The French Constitutional Court has approved ten candidates to run for the presidency in elections starting on 22nd April. Former prime minister and foreign minister Dominique de Villepin is not among them, because he did not succeed in convincing 500 dignitaries of the French republic to support him with a "parrainage" (sponsorship). He very bitterly complained that he, who held high offices in the first decade of the third millennium, could not find 500 French dignitaries to give their signature for his candidacy - due to pressure from the ruling conservative party (UMP) and arch-enemy Nicolas Sarkozy with whom he sat at the same cabinet table.

De Villepin pointed out that "fantasist" candidates of all sorts had an easy go to fulfil the parrainage requirement. He aimed not only at the Trotskyite or the Revolutionary Communist candidates, but also at Jacques Cheminade. The 71-year-old - who first sought the presidency in 1981 - is again running as an independent. In 1995 he secured 0.28 percent of the vote. But he is hardly an independent candidate, he is the head of the ominous LaRouche movement in France and spreads their bizarre theses.

This year there is no outspoken Royalist candidate who tries to make it to the Elysée Palace. In 2007 Yves-Marie Adeline, chairman of the Alliance Royale, failed to find 500 signatories. Although he could convince 250 dignitaries to endorse his candidacy, he had to give up his attempt to present a Royalist alternative to the voters. This year his successor Patrick de Villenoisy failed to find 500 godfathers to endorse him.

However, in 2012 there is one candidate, whom the Italian news agency AGI.it connects with Monarchists:

The Constitutional Court has confirmed that there are officially 10 candidates for the French elections, after the official deadline for the presentation of 500 signatures of at least 30 departments of local administrations. ... and monarchist Nicolas Dupont-Aignan.

Strangely enough Monsieur Dupont-Aignan's party is called Debout la république and he could collect 708 signatures.


On the other hand, the royalist organisation (and semi-party)La Nouvelle Action Royaliste (NAR) last week endorsed Nicolas Dupont-Aignan:

Élection présidentielle - COMMUNIQUÉ de la Nouvelle Action Royaliste
Dans le souci primordial de restaurer l'État dans son indépendance et sa dignité, la Nouvelle Action royaliste confirme son rejet de Nicolas Sarkozy et appelle à en délivrer la France. Elle s'oppose, non moins fermement à la propagande xénophobe de Marine Le Pen qui nie la tradition nationale du droit du sol et qui viole, par ses diatribes antimusulmanes, la lettre et l'esprit de la loi sur la laïcité.

Pour le premier tour de l'élection présidentielle, la Nouvelle Action royaliste appelle à voter pour Nicolas Dupont-Aignan, proche de ses positions sur les questions institutionnelles et européennes.

Paris 26 mars 2012

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You have to love the revolution unconditionally, otherwise ...

Georges Clemenceau (1841-1929) was hardly a likable politician. A fierce Jacobin to his bone he denounced his opponents without mercy. After he had banned a theatre play by Victorien Sardou at the Comédie-Française in 1891, which he deemed «pro-monarchist», he defended his action by stating his conviction that the French revolution must be accepted as a block. He had accused the play’s author to be selective on the French revolution – some aspects he liked, by others he was appalled. Clemenceau proclaimed in the French Assembly:

«Messieurs, que nous le voulions ou non, que cela nous plaise ou que cela nous choque, la Révolution française est un bloc... un bloc dont on ne peut rien distraire, parce que la vérité historique ne le permet pas.

«Gentlemen, if we want it or not, if we like it or not, the French revolution is a block … a block from which nothing can be distracted, because the historical truth doesn’t allow it.»

He explicitly included as indispensable for the revolution the time of the terror regime (La Patrie en danger et la «première» Terreur & La Grande Terreur {juin-juillet 1794}) and the genocide in the Vendée, where ethnic cleansing wiped out whole villages, because the republican troops suspected the peasants to be royalist and catholic to the core, who could not be converted to republicanism.

Once good for the revolution, always good for the revolution
For present day Jacobins the French revolution is still a sacred cow that should not be touched.

La Tour du Temple.

One recent example concerns a ten year old child that died in the infamous republican prison Le Temple. In June 2005 the council of the City of Paris expressed the wish that a place or a street should be named in the French capital after the child that died on 8th June 1795. This motion was opposed by Jean-Pierre Caffet, socialist deputy-mayor of Paris and responsible for urban development. He gave three reasons for his negative attitude – mainly because the child in matter was King Louis XVII. And obviously he was King not just for the Royalists and historians, but for the Jacobins as well. Jean-Pierre Caffet:

- «The revolution is a «block» and by retreating from this or that episode under the terror, then the whole foundation of the revolution and therefore that of the republic would be put in doubt.

- «Since two centuries the City of Paris has re-baptized places that were once named after Louis XV and Louis XVI – and not the other way round.

- «Naming a street is an honour for a person who has rendered imminent services to the City of Paris, which is not the case with Louis XVII.»

Critics ask, why the City was quick to name a square in the 4th arrondissement after Marie Trintignant, an actress murdered by her lover. Or what significance Mohamed Bouazizi could have for Paris, whose name will be given to a place in the 14th arrondissement to «salute the heroism of this young man».

←«Enfant roi Enfant martyr» (Child King, Martered Child), Sculpture by Catherine Cairn.

This child will not be forgotten
The boy king’s death will be commemorated today in Paris. The association «Marais-Temple» has invited everyone to join them outside the town hall of the 3rd arrondissement this 8th June 2011 Les Manants du Roi:

«This young child was captured by the political events for which he bared no responsibility and remained primarily a victim. His ordeals did not leave the Parisians untouched.

«More than two hundred years after this tragic episode of the French revolution, Paris must act to commemorate this little boy who was only convicted because of his birth.»

This year Marais-Temple will remember those people who risked their life to support the Royal Family in their audacious prison. The plaque on a town hall wall dedicated to the Royal Family, was put there on the bicentenary of the revolution by the City of Paris. After the commemoration ceremony a requiem mass for Louis XVII and all abused children will be celebrated in the St. Elisabeth church.


Life is never only black or white - that is unless you are a republican revolutionary who has no option to differentiate.

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Royalist uprising
On 12th March 1793 the population of Saint-Florent-le-Vieil rose against the French republic and the Jacobin terror regime.

Jean-François Michael sings the Royalist battle song Chouans en avant in a powerful modern version:



A history of the War of the Vendée here in French. Wikipedia as vague as usual: Estimates of those killed in the Vendean conflict - on both sides - range between 117,000 and 450,000, out of a population of around 800,000.

A more radical approach, calling the republican response a genocide, put it like this:

What the French Revolution invented, 150 years before Auschwitz, was industrialized murder.

In Vendée, a city that had revolted against the central Revolutionary government, over 100,000 people, including women and children, were murdered, executed in part by grapeshot and by tying them to boats that were sunk in the Loire River. ("No nation," wrote Friedrich Engels in a diatribe against the Czechs, "can tolerate a Vendee in its heart.") A similar, somewhat smaller outrage took place in Lyons, a city that had rebelled and was to be erased for good. By some estimates, 14,000 houses were demolished.

During this sombre extermination drive, two sinister shadows stand out: those of General Turreau and of Carrier - known as "the drowner of Nantes".

Two thousand Vendeans - half of them women - were shot at Angers; 1,500 on the island of Noirmoutier; 1,800 in the quarries of Gigant, near Nantes.

Carrier had 4,000 prisoners drowned in the river Loire.

Still it was not enough. On 19th January 1794, Turreau presented his extermination plan to the Convention: 24 columns of men would be sent to the Vendée with orders to penetrate every corner of the rebellious département and to burn and destroy everything they found. The Vendée was put to fire and sword.

On just one day, 28th February 1794, at Les Lucs sur Boulogne, a column under the command of Cordellier killed 563 people.

But it was not over yet. The exhausted survivors regrouped behind two battle-hardened leaders: Charette and Stofflet. The death-squads were massacred in their turn at Chauché, at Les Clouzeaux and elsewhere.

A Republican column led by Crouzat - who, in the absence of Stofflet, killed 1,500 people in the forest of Vezins on 25th March - was cut down three days later at Les Ouleries.

Turreau's plan had failed. The Vendée was wounded, but with its endless programme of guerrilla warfare was still a threat. The wooded bocage provided a maze of sunken lanes where a single strategically-placed Vendean could easily pick off his opponents and into which Republican troops ventured at their peril. Reprisals, though, were often enacted on civilians. "The incredible Vendée still survives," wrote back the angry Republican commanders to the Convention.

On 13th May 1794 Turreau was relieved of his duties. Needing troops to fight on its frontiers, the Convention pulled out of the Vendée.

A bas la république!

Vive le Roi!

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Prince Charles at the Indian Memorial at Neuve-Chapelle in France

Most Australian media reported from Fromelles, where the last of the 250 British and Australian soldiers were laid to rest with full military honours on 19th July. They could not avoid noticing that HRH Prince Charles and HRH The Duchess of Cornwall attended the commemorative ceremony at the new Military Cemetery, however, nobody had found it newsworthy that the heir to the throne and his wife also attended a ceremony to honour the fallen Indian soldiers the very same day.


The French newspaper La Voix du Nord published a very fine article on this event, that is in stark contrast to the abysmal journalism practiced by The Age, and the daily's photographs give an excellent insight into the ceremonies with the Indian soldiers and their relatives.


TRH The Prince of Wales and The Duchess of Cornwall paid tribute to the contribution of Muslim and Sikh and Hindu soldiers in the First World War during a visit to the Neuve-Chapelle Indian Memorial.

The Battle of Neuve-Chapelle saw a huge contribution by the British Indian Army, and the memorial represents the 4,742 Indian soldiers with no known grave who died in the First World War.


Their Royal Highnesses attended a memorial service, which was attended by children from a number of schools in Britain learning about the contributions of the many different ethnic communities that fought and died in the First World War for the Allied cause.

On entering the memorial, The Duchess was presented with flowers, before The Prince was invited to lay a wreath given to him by a pupil from Allerton Grange School in Leeds.


Pupils from the school talked to The Prince and told him what they have been learning about the link between shared national values and national cohesion, in relation to Neuve-Chappelle and the sacrifices made there by the many different ethnic communities.

Poems were recited by 10-year-old Rasnam Singh, who travelled with a Sikh delegation. Their Royal Highnesses listened as he read the poem which had been written by a Sikh soldier who served at Neuve-Chapelle.


Rasnam was followed by a specially written poem by a pupil from Allerton Grange School.


The Prince and The Duchess toured the memorial grounds meeting with veterans, Gurkhas, and representatives from Britain’s Hindu, Sikh and Muslim communities who had made the journey to Neuve-Chapelle especially for the service.


Prince Charles asks: Why are all our war heroes white?

In its edition of 21st July 2010 The Daily Express quoted “a senior royal aid” having said “the Prince was so concerned about the way that black and Asian troops had been marginalised from our history he had decided to try to highlight the issue”.

The Prince of Wales and The Duchess of Cornwall paid tribute to 4,742 Indians whose deaths in two battles in October 1914 and March 1915 are commemorated at the First World War memorial at Neuve Chapelle. They were among 140,000 Indians who saw active service on the Western Front in the First World War.

The Daily Express continues:

"At the memorial Charles and Camilla learned about the exploits of Rifleman Gobar Singh Negi, who won a posthumous Victoria Cross for his bravery fighting in the trenches with the 2nd Battalion, 39th Garhwal Rifles at Neuve Chapelle on March 10, 1915.

Charles and Camilla also met Jaimal Singh Johal, 74, a retired sub-postmaster from Maidenhead, Berkshire, whose grandfather Manta Singh, a junior officer in the 2nd Sikh Royal Infantry, was fatally wounded at Neuve Chapelle, dying in hospital in Brighton aged only 27.

"It means a lot that they have come to see this memorial and that my grandfather is being recognised in a foreign country," said Mr Johal.

Sir Christopher Bayly, professor of imperial and naval history at Cambridge University, agreed that many people knew little about the role of non-whites who had fought for Britain, apart from the Gurkhas."

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Australia's future King paid tribute to 250 British and Australian WWI soldiers


The Prince of Wales and The Duchess of Cornwall today paid tribute to the last of the 250 British and Australian soldiers who were laid to rest with full military honours in Fromelles, France, after their bodies were found in mass graves in 2008.


The Prince of Wales walked behind the coffin of an unidentified soldier which was carried through the village on a First World War military wagon pulled by horses from the Kings Troop Royal Horse Artillery.


The unnamed soldier was just one out of more than 1,500 Britons and 5,000 Australians whose bodies were dumped in one of four mass graves by German soldiers.


His Royal Highness was joined by the Governor-General of Australia, Her Excellency Quentin Bryce, in the walking procession to the Commonwealth cemetery specially created to give the 250 men their last resting place.


The Duchess of Cornwall was also present in the audience, while The Prince made a speech to honour the fallen soldiers.

The speech by HRH The Prince of Wales at the Dedication of the Fromelles cemetery, France
19th July 2010:

Governor General, Monsieur le ministre, Families of those killed in action here in Fromelles, Ladies and Gentlemen.

It is a great privilege for my wife and myself to be here today to bear witness to this important and moving ceremony, as we lay to rest the last of the "Unnamed Warriors" whose remains were so recently discovered only metres away. In laying this last hero to rest, we honour them all.

Standing here, I cannot help but be taken back to that terrible day in July 1916; to a world made familiar and accessible to us and our children by the truly outstanding work of organizations like the Australian War Memorial in Canberra and Imperial War Museum in London. Ninety-four years ago in Fromelles there were no buildings, or even trees or hedges, to define and punctuate the landscape we see today – such was the intensity and ferocity of the conflict. There were not even any local people - they had all been displaced. The vast and heavily defended German position stretched out two kilometres to our North West.

In the trenches beyond the German front line and No-Mans Land, the man we have reinterred today was billeted with his brothers-in-arms – his “cobbers” - from the 5th Australian Division and the British soldiers of the 61st (South Midland) Division. I can only begin to imagine his emotions as he made the journey to the Western Front: perhaps the initial excitement of waiting for orders, the sickening anxiety preparing for battle and, as the attack began in earnest, a mix of sheer adrenaline and heart-stopping apprehension. But, somehow, he and his friends mustered the incredible courage to climb over the parapet into a hail of machinegun fire and into a field strewn with mud, barbed wire and the dead. We will never know what impact that apocalyptic scene had on them. Leon Gellert captures all this with such poignancy in his poem “Before Action,” when he says “I wondered if my packing-straps were tight, And wondered why I wondered… Sound went wild… and order came… I ran into the night, wondering why I smiled.”


The next day the full horror of what had taken place was revealed. More than 5,500 Australian soldiers and 1,500 British soldiers were killed, wounded or missing. Under orders, German soldiers moved the body of this man and his cobbers to Pheasant Wood where they were buried.

Ladies and Gentlemen, I am profoundly humbled by the outstanding bravery of these men who fought so valiantly in the indescribable mud and carnage, many thousands of miles from their families and from their homes. Today we honour and commemorate these young soldiers who made the ultimate sacrifice so that we might live in peace and so that our children and grandchildren might learn the lessons from both devastating world conflicts.

We dedicate this cemetery in grateful memory of all those in the Land Forces of the Commonwealth who died in the cause of freedom, particularly those who fought and died during the Battle of Fromelles and the 250 soldiers whom we remember especially today.

May we ever be mindful of them and their comrades in arms of all Services and be guided by their example of loyalty, service and selflessness.

Emotion et recueillement à Fromelles
La foule était silencieuse, encore sous l'émotion de ces lettres de soldats qui venaient d'être lues, quand le prince Charles a pénétré, hier à 12 h 40, dans le nouveau cimetière de Fromelles, au son des tambours et des fifres.

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Commemorations on 14th July

This 14th July marks France's national day, which seems appropriate to remind of the massacres the French republic committed among the French who opposed the republic.


Galliawatch, a US-based blog, has translated an article of the French daily newspaper Le Figaro that described the work of the archeologists and historians of INRAP (National Institute of Preventive Archeological Research) as they unearth the graves of the victims of the 1793 battle of Le Mans, in the department of Vendée:

(...) It is the first time that excavations have been done of the mass graves of the Vendée War, as if there was a fear of arousing the ghosts of the past. There has always been a lot of reticence in our country regarding this episode in which the soldiers of the Republic confronted the insurgents of Western France, better known as the "Vendéens" (Vendeans or people of Vendée). For a longtime, history text books and the "national story" have erased or disguised this civil war that was every bit as ferocious as those that are tearing apart some countries even today.

On December 12 and 13, 1793, the battle of Le Mans was a veritable massacre. The republican army, having made a surprise appearance in order to finish once and for all with the insurrection, took no prisoners. Starving and sick, the bulk of the Vendean population, half of which consisted of women, old people and children, had taken refuge in Le Mans in the hope of finding food and medical supplies. According to estimates between 2000 and 5000 persons were killed.

And Galliawatch also quotes Catholic writer Bernard Antony

So 217 years had to pass before the first excavations at Le Mans of the mass graves from the Vendean War were undertaken.

This, it seems, will allow us to see lifted, oh so timidly, a small corner of the immense and heavy veil of amnesia that, for over two centuries, has been covering and hiding the truth about what the French Revolution was. But this veil must not be lowered again. It must be lifted entirely for the honor of France, her memory, her continuity and for civil peace among Frenchmen.

For it is the congenital flaw of our republican system to have been founded on the assassination of the King of France and his family and on an exterminating civil war. In addition, the French Revolution, by organizing the all-powerful State around a dialectic between the State and the individual, thus dissolving away all other social bonds, served as the ideological model of the two totalitarian monsters of the 20th century - Communism and Nazism.

Both Lenin and Hitler praised their Jacobin filiation. From the Jacobin sans-culottes came the Red Guard and the SS. The red and black ideologies of extermination justified their genocides with arguments similar to those used by the Convention to justify the genocide in Vendée. And the Jacobin ideology continues to inspire the subversion of the ideas of liberty, equality and fraternity into a totalitarian individualism that destroys the natural communities, beginning with the family, and that confiscates the fundamental freedom of education of children by their parents.

Less than twenty years after the end of the USSR, the Russian State, even though in some ways a continuation of the Soviet system, honored itself by repenting for the assassination of the Tsar and his family, and by replacing Russia in its historical and religious continuity.

France is in need of a similar symbolic gesture. The State, by repenting for the original crimes of our republic would liberate our national memory, and accomplish a far-reaching act of French Friendship.

One of the organisers of the Royalist resistance against the republican tyranny ("la terreur" was the official government policy against the royalists) was the great French royalist, Henri du Vergier Comte de la Rochejaquelein, who received a fine commemoration by The Mad Monarchist.

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A lone British republican gets a little help from his Aussie TV friends

This week we were able to watch an extraordinary news item on the ABC’s “7.30 Report”. While this programme usually deals with Australian topics, ignores the Australian Constitutional Monarchy and more often than not features self-loving TV presenters, last Wednesday, 7th July, it reported on the cost of maintaining a crowned head of state. Mind you, the “7.30 Report” did not deal with the Australian Monarchy, but with the British. The Australians for Constitutional Monarchy criticised quite rightly: ABC gives platform to UK republicans.

Philip Benwell of The Australian Monarchist League wrote in a statement:

“They told us about a crowd of protesters gathered outside Buckingham Palace, but one could see only a handful of people, as opposed to the massive crowds thronging to see the 'Changing of the Guard'.

They spoke to a lone British republican who protested that the Queen cost the British people 62p a year.”

That lone British republican was the well-known Graham Smith, whose analytic skills let him predict in 2007 :

“Australia's new republic

Whatever the result of the Australian election, there is bound to be one big loser: the British monarchy. ... It is all but certain that Australia will be a republic within the next five to 10 years.”

With the same analytic skills he claimed about the British Monarchy, that “the true bill to the taxpayer would be nearer £150m a year if the costs of police and army security were included”.

But his contention that the UK Monarchy is the most expensive head of state in Europe is just plain false either Mr. Smith got his figures wrong or just chose to ignore the reality of the cost of the German or the Italian Presidency both of wich are way above the cost of maintaining the monarchy.

Mr. Smith's figures contradict the Royal Public Finances Annual Report that states that Head of State support for 2009-10 was £38.2 million (including VAT of £1.9 million), compared with £41.5 last year.

Sir Alan Reid, Keeper of the Privy Purse, said in a press release:

"The Treasury contributed the equivalent of just 62 pence per person in the country to enable The Queen to carry out her duties as Head of State.

"The Royal Household is acutely aware of the difficult economic climate and took early action to reduce its Civil List expenditure by 2.5 per cent in real terms in 2009. We are implementing a headcount freeze and reviewing every vacancy to see if we can avoid replacement."

The ABC's Europe correspondent did not do her homework and seemed to have met opponents and suporters of the British Monarchy will little preparatory work. For example, what the “7.30 Report” failed to do, was to ask Mr. Smith which republican model he had in mind to replace the Monarchy. Or they could have put it simpler: Name any republic with the size and population of the UK that is cheaper.

Sometimes republicans say, they’d favour the German model. To which The Daily Telegraph remarked: “The Queen is a lot cheaper than tedious republics like Germany.” Not to mention the rather odd way of selecting the German president.

To continue with the real figures The Daily Telegraph had this to say: ”Head of State expenditure covers the Queen’s duties as Head of State and Head of the Commonwealth. It is met from public funds – principally the Civil List and Grants-in-aid (see right) – in exchange for surrender by The Queen of the revenue from the Crown Estate (in 2008-09, the revenue surplus from the Crown Estate paid to the Treasury was £230 million).”

Blogger Malden Capell says:

"The most important question however is this: if Britain were to abolish the monarchy, would these costs go away? Answer: no.

The security bill (even if it were £100 million!) would remain pretty much the same. Equally, the cost of maintaining the palaces would remain the same – the German Bundespräsident has a number of official residences too, after all. The staffing costs, the pensions, the full range of duties a Head of State carries out will still have to be carried out by whatever replaces the monarchy. State Visits would continue. Garden parties would continue. Visits to local councils, receptions and the granting of honours would continue. The Head of State’s functions as constitutional umpire would continue. And of course, the new Head of State would require a salary."

It cannot be pointed out stringly enough: The Queen does not receive a salary - neither from the British nor from the Australian taxpayers. The civil list is for the running of "the machinery".

Why don’t British republicans look across the channel to France? As Senator Cory Bernardi recently remarked in Melbourne: “France offers you five republics to choose from.” In the 1958 model Nicolas Sarkozy came to power in 2007. One of his first actions was to grant himself a pay rise, it was actually a staggering 206% salary increase. This week a BBC reporter in Paris pointed to the Elysée Palace and said: “Since Nicolas Sarkozy’s arrival here the expenditures have tripled.” He did not go into details, but the RadicalRoyalist revealed that extravagance is a republican characteristic.

On the Elysée Palace’s website, the official budget for president Sarkozy is given at 112,533,700 € for 2010 (= AUS $ 161,912,088), which is substantially higher than the Queen’s civil list (which is, just to remind you, AUS $65,495,300. Opposition parties in France claim that these figures don’t comprise all expenditures – not unlike the lone British republican.

Everybody knows, that Sarkozy aims higher. His latest project is an aero plane of his own, nicknamed Air Sarko One. Estimated costs: 180 million € (= AUS $259 million). And this is the president's palace in the air:
It goes without saying that not a single cent for this plane will come from the presidential budget.

However, I am sure a British republican head of state would give Graham Smith a ride in his then to be bought presidential plane, just to thank him for his efforts of getting rid of an economical Monarch.

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75th Birthday of King Faisal II of Iraq

He would be an old man today. Born on 2nd May 1935 as Crown Prince Faisal, the only son of the King Ghazi of the Hashemite Kingdom of Iraq, he did not have a chance to grow old.

His grandfather and first King of Iraq, Faisal, had died in 1933 aged only 48 and his father, who succeeded Faisal I to the throne at the age of 21, died in a car accident on 4th April 1939 at the age of only 27. Crown Prince Faisal (Arabic: الملك فيصل الثاني Al-Malik Fayṣal Ath-thānī) became King at the age of three years and eleven months and was also pretender to the throne of Syria.

Faisal I fought against the Turks with T. E. (Seven Pillars of Wisdom) Lawrence in World War I. On 7th March 1920 he was elected King of Greater Syria by the Syrian National Congress. In April 1920, the San Remo conference gave France the League of Nation's mandate for Syria, which led to the battle of Maysalun on July 24, 1920. Faisal was expelled from Syria by the French and emerged as founder and first King of modern Iraq.

His grandson’s accession to the Iraqi throne took place in 1939, a turbulent year worldwide. Iraq’s oil resources made the country a target for the rival powers.

King Faisal II's uncle, Prince Abdul Ilah (see his profile by The Mad Monarchist) acted as regent until the king came of age. In April 1941, Prince Abdul Ilah escaped a military revolt that apparently aimed to kill him and lead Iraq to join the Axis powers. Prince Abdul Ilah fled to Jordan (ruled by his uncle Emir Abdullah I), while the young King Faisal and Queen Mother Aliyah sought refuge outside Baghdad. However, the promised German aid did not arrive.

By early June, British forces had taken control of Baghdad. Rashid Ali’s two-month rule ended when he fled to Berlin. The four Iraqi colonels behind his coup were captured and hanged. In retaliation, outraged Iraqi mobs stormed the Jewish quarter, presumed to be pro-British, and killed 179 men, women and children, injuring hundreds more.

Saddam Hussein, a child at the time, would later say that Rashid Ali’s rise and fall affected him deeply because the uncle who raised him was an army officer whose career ended when the coup was crushed.

Prince Abdul Ilah re-assumed his regency of Iraq, and King Faisal returned to the palace. Iraq re-newed the British alliance, and joined the United Nations in 1945.

After World War II the young king began his education in Britain, finishing at Harrow in 1952. The next year, on his 18th birthday, he officially ascended the throne as Faisal II. King Faisal II began his reign with good intentions and a seriousness of purpose that his father had lacked. For guidance, he continued to rely on Prince Abdul Ilah and the veteran politician and nationalist, General Nuri al-Sa'id. With oil production now providing large revenues, the government determined to devote 70% of the wealth to development projects.

In early 1958 Egypt and Syria formed the United Arab Republic. The Hashemite monarchies of Jordan and Iraq announced plans to unite as well. However, on July 14, 1958, a division of the Iraqi army under the command of General Abdul Karim Kassem (Qasim) marched on Baghdad and robbed the country of its Monarchy.

More on the massacre of the Iraqi Royal Family that followed the republican coup d'état can be read here: The End of the Hashemite Monarchy of Iraq started 50 Years of Bloodshed: "The world was shocked and horrified, with the news of the coup d’état against King Faisal II of Iraq. The 23 year old King was brutally murdered in a military putsch on 14th July 1958."

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Costs of a presidency

We can be assured that before long will we get the bill for Prince William's unofficial visit in Australia. Republicans will triumphantly present the figures and claim that these costs would never have occurred under a republican regime, no matter how minimal they are.

Well, friends, don't be sure, because unless Australia closes its borders for visitors, there will always be costs which a host has to cover, not matter if the visitor fit to one's own ideology or not. A Chinese president does not come cheap, nor will an Irish president expect to pay her all her own expenses. It is rather impolite if a guest is presented the bill after he or she left the country.

But that is just what republicans do with royal guests in Australia.

Nothing new. So, let's look what expenses a president can cause in his own country. The figures come from the French website Observatoire des subventions.

Last week French president Nicolas Sarkozy paid a visit to the overseas departement of La Réunion to wish his subjects a Happy New Year. His 24-hour stay in the island east of Madagascar cost the French taxpayer 1.6 million Euros (=2.511 AUS $).

The president spent this sum for:

815 000 Euros on transport
Not less than four aeroplanes were used for this trip: one A319 for the president himself, another A319 for journalists and his delegation, a Falcon 50 flew empty to La Réunion, just in case, and an A310 also brought journalists and another part of the delegation to the island.

To these 815 000 Euros more costs have to be added, detailed figures are unknown, for fours helicopters that transported the president and his entourage between Saint-Pierre and Saint-Denis, the capital.

50 000 Euros for airconditioning
The Élysée Palace insisted on the installation of a new airconditioning system under the podium. It was out of the question that the president would appear with sweat marks under his arms when being seen by the public. On the other hand, the public had nothing other than the invitation card to fan fresh air into their faces.

23 000 Euros for meals
This sum does not include drinks.

17 000 Euros for the invitations
10 000 personal invitations on cardboard were sent to functionaries, party members, CEOs and other business men of La Réunion.

17 000 Euros rent for the hall
The rent for the “salle des expositions”, where Sarkozy expressed his New Year's wishes did not include lights, sound, staff costs and cleaning.

13 000 Euros for accomodation
An abnormally high price. The président de la république had chosen “l’un des plus luxueux mais aussi plus onéreux hôtel de la Réunion” (one of the most luxurious, but also most expensive hotels of La Réunion): Le Palm hôtel & Spa de Petite-Île. 55 rooms for 55 people (ministers, councillors, security staff, CEOs …).

Just as a footnote: In 2009 Nicolas Sarkozy's spent more money on garden parties than the Queen of the United Kingdom - but entertained less guests.

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SBS censorship

First the positve: SBS – Special Broadcasting System – provides an extraordinary access to news programmes from all over the world and has services in 64 languages. That is certainly a record and thanks to SBS millions of migrants in Australia can watch and listen to news from many countries in the world.

However, the republican virus has infected SBS. Or at least the editing of news journals sometimes gives the impression that could lead to such a conclusion.

The French journal “France 2” of 3rd November 2009, which was broadcast on 4th November in Australia was cut short. Not extensively, it was just three minutes shorter than the journal the French audience could watch. But these three minutes were a report on the French royalists and the second in line to the throne, Prince Jean de France. Anchorman David Pujadas had announced a report on “Les Royalistes français d’aujourd’hui” (Today's French Royalists) and a few pictures of Prince Jean scrolled on the screen, giving the audience an impression of what was to come.

But not for the Australian spectators. SBS deprived them of this report. Since the journal was not longer than usual it is up to everyone’s guess, why SBS deleted the report on “Les Royalistes du 21eme sciecle”, as it was titled on France 2’s website. Fortunately the news is available on the French website for a couple of days. Click on the 20 heures button of "mardi 3" and scroll down to the second last item of the content list.

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Where are all those republican writers on Queen's Birthday Holiday?

I have to admit: I was wrong. I expected the united republican media hunt to have a field day on Queen’s Birthday Holiday. I was prepared to read the re-heated phrases from previous years, but the usual suspects, the famous “Melbourne commentators and republicans” must have been occupied elsewhere.

However, The Age fulfilled my expectations and printed an editorial in connection with the Queen’s Birthday’s honours list. “The one truly incongruous note about today's holiday is that officially it marks the Queen's birthday even though the monarch — whose real birth date is April 21 — has precious little to do these days with either the Australian awards system or Australia. The empire is long gone, and widely shared loyalties to the Queen with it; most Australians' allegiance is to the country they live in. Imperial honours were discarded in 1975, yet today's honours are still awarded on a day supposedly devoted to our head of state.”

The Imperial honours were dropped by politicians, not by popular demand of the people. France kept the "Légion d'honneur", which was established by the first consul, Napoléon Bonaparte, in 1802. The country went through many changes, but the honours list remained.

And why does The Age claim, Queen's Birthday were “a day supposedly devoted to our head of state”? It is republicans who have to accept a fact they dislike. This day IS devoted to our Queen.

“By all means retain a long holiday weekend, but … [t]his holiday requires an identity to match its place and purpose in a country that is already republican at heart.” Wishful thinking: This country’s media are republican oriented, but the country itself is still “Monarchist at heart.” The circles journalists and their employers mingle in are the ones who dream of a republic, but they cannot specify their dreams and tell us, what kind of republic they want.

This year The Age did not run a campaign like the one in 2008, when a “Kids Day” was high on their agenda. “Resurrection Day” might be an option, after a couple of republicans groups decided to resurrect in a newly formed Coalition of Australian Republicans (CAR) the day before Queen’s Birthday Holiday. Or could “CAR Day” be acceptable to our republican media?

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Call to all Royalists - European Elections

Dear Madam, dear Sir,

Dear friends,
Alliance Royale is a political party created in 2001 to reintroduce the question of the monarchy into the political debates. Our sole objective is to use the election campaigns to make our fellow citizens understand that the royal principle is making a relevant and timely response to the difficulties our country has been facing for many years. We were therefore present in different local or national elections during the past few years.

As in 2004, Alliance Royale will present candidates in the forthcoming European elections. Wishing to stay out of conflicts that divide the French Royalist opinion, Alliance Royale has opted for neutrality in dynastic matters since its creation. It develops proposals that are primarily designed to meet the legitimate questions being asked by voters about the decision that a king and his councils could make in the current situation. We understand very well that other royalist movements can legitimately advocate an other political vision. These differences should not be a cause of division between us.

That is why we offer all of them to gather around the urgent and important issue : meeting the citizens of our respective countries to invite them to build their future by reviving the identity of European countries founded on christian monarchies.

We invite you to join our European campaign. This is not to set aside your own sensitivity or to give up your freedom of speech, but to align with us on what we share : the defense and promotion of the royal principle. You can do this in several ways :

- in providing institutional support to our lists, which would result in information to your members and supporters and in a mention that we would add to our campaign documents like "With the support of" followed by your logo,

- in calling your members and supporters to be on our list of candidates (especially women, to meet the requirements of parity), as did Italian and French Royalist movements.
There is no other engagement expected from movements or candidates beyond this temporary cooperation. This does not say that there is no disagreement on any particular issue that could be discussed, as long as we avoid unnecessary controversy that could weaken a loyal support to our common objective for the duration of the campaign.

Hoping that this offer will attract your attention and that you will be willing to respond positively, we remain at your disposal to answer your questions.

Cyrille Henrys
General Delegate of Alliance Royale

At Gallia Watch you the party's ten reasons why it is important to vote for the AR in English.
Poster, photos and lists of all candidates can be downloaded from the Alliance Royale's website.

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Air France flight 447 killed the Brazilian Imperial Family’s Heir Presumptive

French media reported it were unlikely to find any survivors of the 228 people on board a Paris-bound Air France plane which disappeared over the Atlantic after taking off from Rio de Janeiro last Monday.

His Imperial and Royal Highness Dom Pedro Luiz de Orléans e Bragança, Prince of Brazil, was aboard Air France flight 447 and died at the age of 26.

The late Dom Pedro Luiz, born 12th January 1983, was an attractive young man, actively involved in Brazilian Monarchist affairs, and great hopes were placed in his future as the Heir Presumptive, after his bachelor uncles, Dom Luiz I and Dom Bertrão, and his father, Dom Antonio.

Through his mother, Princess Christine of Ligne, Dom Pedro Luiz was also related to the Grand Ducal Family of Luxembourg. His mother's grandmother was Grand Duchess Charlotte of Luxembourg, who is grandmother of the present Grand Duke of Luxembourg, Henri I.

The late Dom Pedro Luiz has a younger brother, Dom Rafael Antonio Maria José Francisco Miguel Gabriel Gonzaga de Orléans e Bragança, Prince of Brazil (born 1986) and two sisters, Princess Amélia (born 1984) and Princess Maria Gabriela (born 1989), who are in the line of succession after their bachelor uncles, HI&RH Dom Luíz de Orléans e Bragança (born 1938), Head of the Imperial House of Brazil, and HI&RH Dom Bertrão de Orléans e Bragançca (born 1942), and their father, HI&RH Dom Antônio of Orléans-Bragança (born 1950).

Requiescat in pace.

Brazilian News

The Imperial Family of Brazil's website

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Differences

While in the Constitutional Monarchy of Australia Victoria's only quality newspaper, The Age , printed 19 faulty lines on the Queen of Australia's Birthday, in the French republic the daily newspaper Le Figaro dedicated a whole page to the Queen on 21st April 2009:
"Faut-il s'étonner, alors que toutes les autres institutions - Église d'Angleterre, justice, Parlement ... - sont aujourd'hui déconsidérées par des scandales à répétition, qu'Élisabeth II paraisse un roc dans la tempête?"

Translation: "Does one have to wonder while all the other institutions - Church of England, justice, parliament ... - today are discredited by continuous scandals, that Elizabeth II seems to be a rock in the storm?"

The article without a single faulty line, written by Le Figaro's royal editor Stéphane Bern, yes, this French newspaper has a royal editor, is full of praise for "cette petite femme d'1.58 m, dotée d'un teint de pêche et d'un regard bleu qui la font ressembler á une porcellaine de Saxe".

It is utopian to think of a royal editor at The Age, but why don't they let their articles about our Monarchy and our Royal Family be written by someone, who can distinguish between facts and fiction, between information and defamation?

No, The Age prefers authors like Guy Rundle, who states: "The old Marxist in me wants conflict, dissatisfaction and chaos ...". He made his confession in the book "The Best Australian Political Writing 2009" and you wonder, why the editor asked Guy Rundle to contribute. After all, he lives in the United Kingdom and not in Australia.

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