09:30

[Music – There’s One Little Girl Who Loves Me by Jack Hylton, Album Fascinating Rhythm – Great Hits of the 20s]

Section 2 – History & Historiography

[Music Fade Out]

09:45

Long before I ever stumbled across the article that eventually led to this podcast, I had a deep interest in dynastic and royal histories.  In fact, my passion for history stems first and foremost with the love of fairytales.

My real obsession with history kicked off after my mom returned from a two week trip to England with a small side trip to Paris and Versailles and brought me a book on the Kings and Queens of England.  Only a few years earlier, I had watched with her the wedding of Prince Charles and Diana on television.  As I flipped through my book as well as looking at the photos of Versailles, it dawned on me that those fairy tales and myths I liked so much had a basis and relevance to history. 

10:32

Those costumes had been real outfits.  Those sets not just fictional fantasies.  Those titles – people actually had them.  Such a life so different than the modern one I lived in Texas.  I fell in love over and over again.  With literature, art, and whatever signifies the evolution of a culture.  I was and am fascinated by many from around the world.  As I went to public school and met other kids from immigrant families, I tried to pay attention to anything I could learn about their culture as they lived within mine.  And each time, I secretly delighted when I discovered a new set of royals.  Even better the list seems endless around the world throughout time, a point of reference and familiarity and yet different each time.

11:26

Studying those histories and cultures has prepared me to also notice patterns.  The beginning, the rise, the golden period, and inevitably the decay.  My lessons in historiography during grad school were formulated around Edward Gibbon’s The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, published in over 6 volumes from 1776 – 1788.  This work was to be used as a guideline to develop equivalent scholarship on the much relatively newer academic topic of the Middle East.  Beyond the technicalities of academia, the subject matter with its same patterns can be applied to various governments and financial empires.  Characteristically, I asked one of my graduate professors to recommend a book with comparative world timelines, and he did The Outline of History by H.G. Wells.  I once wanted to make a large wall chart of world royalty so that I could better see the connections and overlaps.

12:24

When I started this podcast, I had no idea I was going to be incorporating so much of my long term academic interests.  But of course, I am absolutely delighted.

As mentioned in previous episodes, the concept of being royal and especially reigning royalty is something very hard to let go.  So of course, I love that it plays so much into the formation of these tales and the myriad of ways it creeps in.

Before World War I, it could be safe to assume that most nations were ruled by monarchies, maybe like 80% or more.  But that number drastically reduces after World War I.  According to Wikipedia from 1914 to 2015 in Europe alone, monarchies fell from 22 to 12, while republics expanded from 4 to 34.  But that can also be misleading, from 1400 – 1900 many smaller kingdoms assimilate into larger empires, thus most of the territory and populace would be under some form of monarchy – king, sultan, shah, emperor,…  At the dissolution, the former territories of empires would now become their own sovereign nations, thus a large multiplicity in replacement of an overarching system.  Nowadays, a new nation is likely to be declared a republic of some sort versus a monarchy.  Very rarely is monarchy ever re-established in modern times – Spain, Kuwait, and Cambodia being some of the very select few.

13:59

As previously discussed, various pretenders and claimants always appear even for defunct thrones, and with the large and sudden abandonment of monarchy there are a plethora floating about in the 1920s and the 1930s.  It was du jour and not uncommon for anyone to overstate their past nobility with very little need of proof or any ongoing legitimacy.  So to discuss the situation better with the Mdivani royal claim, we would first need to know if there is even a claim to be made.  Forewarning, I cannot guarantee all my pronunciations are correct.

14:33

The modern nation state of Georgia is located in the Caucus Mountains between Turkey and Russia.  This Georgia has a history going back to pre-history with some of the oldest known fossils of hominins in Eurasia dating to about 1.8 millions years ago.  By 6^th Millenium B.C. agriculture comes to the region due to the proximity to the Fertile Crescent.  The ancient empires of Hittite, Greek, and Roman have all ruled parts of the region.  By 337 A.D., King Mirian III adopts Christianity.  In 580 A.D., the Persian Sasanian Empire invades, and the Arabs later in 645 A.D.   Parts of the area would be split between Christian – Byzantine rule and influence and Muslim dominated areas. From 1184-1213, the first female ruler Tamar would find herself in foreign policy matters between the Seljuk Turks and the Eastern Holy Roman Empire of Byzantium.  In 1226, Khwarezmian leader Jalal-al Din will invade, and then Genghis Khan.  The Mongols will be expelled between 1299 and 1302. 

15:29

Ongoing battles in 1400-1600s with Ottoman Turkish and Persian Safavid neighbors, Georgia would be divided into 3 independent kingdoms and 5 semi-independent principalities.  Some of which would align with the Russian forces. 

It is after this period the Mdivanis have claimed that an ancestor Solomon Mdivani is bestowed the title of prince in 1752 / 1753 in thanks for military service and valor to the Georgian Tsar Heraclius II (or Erekle / Irakly II).  Previous Mdivani lineage and title history information has been covered in Episode 15: Tales of Two Princes and Episode 49: Revelations and Resolutions.  Please note depending on the sources, there may be contradicting dates or spellings, the latter due to transliteration issues.

16:20

By 1800, Georgia under King George XII incorporates into the Russian Empire.  The reigning Bagriotinis dynasty – one of the longest Christian dynasties dating back to the 6^th Century A.D., converts to an aristocratic family while retaining the “prince” titles for its descendants.  Georgia will be central in the ongoing conflicts with the neighboring Turkish Ottoman Empire and Persian Safavid Empire. 

In 1917, Georgia is declared an independent democratic republic but will be invaded and join the Soviet Union in 1921.

And now that’s the localized history for one line of royalty.  What seems not merely localized but rather ongoing are the complications of royals marrying for love outside approved alliances and other factors.

17:12

Already within our story, we are heading to the looming British succession crisis with the future King Edward VIII – Duke of Windsor – formerly Prince David – Prince of Wales on the eve of World War II.  As well as the issues remaining in the defunct Romanov dynasty with later claimants and issues regarding morganatic marriages.  And now, we can add another to the list.

17:35

Similar to the Prince of Wales title for the British throne and essentially the crown prince or hereditary prince, the Prince of Asturias is the designated title for the heir apparent and heir presumptive to the Spanish throne regardless of which dynasty is in power.  The title originates in 1388 when King John I of Castile bestows the title on his first born son Henry to prevent future dynastic struggles with other potential heirs and claimants for the Crown of Castile.  When the kingdoms of Castile and Aragon are united, the Prince of Asturias becomes the primary title, and as such the title remains through the Habsburg and later Bourbon dynasties.  The Bourbon dynasty is related to the last and present day monarchy. 

Females too can inherit the title Princess of Asturias.  In history, there are several Princess of Asturias, but some are displaced when a male heir is then born.

18:34

By the way, Barbara Hutton’s best friend and Prince Alexis Mdivani’s secret fiery lover now Countess Silvia de Rivas de Castellane has ties to Spanish King Alfonso XIII whom Silvia’s father served faithfully but without enough benefit to improve her family’s circumstances after the Wall Street Crash of 1929.

Despite being deposed in 1931, King Alfonso XIII of Spain still insists that the line of succession remains clear.  When Prince or in Spanish title Infante Alfonso abdicates his place in line for the basically nonexistent throne, his brother Infante Jaime shortly thereafter also renounces his rights to throne due to being deaf as a result from a childhood operation.  Thus on June 21^st, 1933, the title is then passed to third son Prince Infante Juan who would have been titled King Juan III had he succeeded.  It will be his son who will become King Juan Carlos I when the crown is restored in Spain in 1975. 

19:41

Prince Alfonso will later divorce his Cuban commoner wife in 1937 and turnaround and marry another commoner in 1937.  He will die in a car accident in 1938.  In 1941, Prince Jaime claims to be the legitimate male heir to the House of Capet and head of the House of Bourbon both related to the French throne, and Jaime will also hold the title Duke of Anjou.  In 1949, Jaime will also try to retract his renunciation to the Spanish throne.

In 1975, Spain restores the monarchy, and the Prince of Asturias title is bestowed by the Royal Decree of 1977 on Prince Felipe – the future and now present King Felipe VI.  The title Prince of Asturias will also be acknowledged in the 1978 Spanish Constitution as the heir to the throne.   The current title holder is Princess Leonor, daughter of King Felipe VI.

20:38

As previously mentioned in another episode, the Prince of Wales title dates back to 1160s, and the longest held title owner is now King Charles III of England, who he himself had struggles with getting spousal approval.

While the situations with the Spanish throne or Prince Alexis Mdivani have little consequence and are more benign, there have been times the issues surrounding marriage and love have resulted in much darker and disastrous circumstances.

21:08

Frustrations in thwarted love and royalty have a long lingering history.  Further back another heir apparent of the Austro-Hungarian Empire Crown Prince Rudolf committed suicide with his lover Baroness Maria von Vetsera at the Mayerling hunting lodge in 1889.  His death will eventually lead to the potential succession of his cousin Archduke Franz Ferdinand, who himself upon becoming the heir presumptive had to renounce the right of his children for succession due to his own morganatic marriage.  It will be his and his wife’s assassinations which kick off World War I that will result in the overall decline of *all monarchies. The Mayerling incident is covered in several works including a British ballet in 1978.

21:55

In 2001, Nepalese Crown Prince Dipendra massacres his royal family, where 9 family members are killed and the Prince himself is declared king while in a coma only to die days later from his own self-inflicted gunshot wound.  His motives are unclear, but one persistent rumor implies that it came from his family’s rejection and preventing marriage to the woman he loved of lower class birth.  The Nepalese monarchy will be abolished during the 2006 revolution.

22:26

On more serious matters in May 1933, adjoining the Hutton-Mdivani engagement, articles are popping up involving Hitler’s right hand the Prime Minister of Prussia Captain Goering (Goring) having a secret meeting with Mussolini.  War is looming on the horizon.  It also hints that people know something is up, but no one could imagine what all the future would hold.

Frivolous disputes pale in comparison to the darkness that lies ahead, but even in the lesser circumstances we are reminded of how fragile and dangerous life can become.