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Post by Tim on Sept 7, 2016 16:39:54 GMT -5
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Post by Tim on Feb 7, 2017 12:27:03 GMT -5
Queen Elizabeth II reached another record yesterday.
She has now been on the throne for 65 years, a feat no other British Monarch has achieved.
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Post by adzpower on Feb 7, 2017 15:04:25 GMT -5
We have a theory in Britain that she is holding onto her throne for as long as possible so that William will become King sooner. Good for her!
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Post by Tim on Feb 7, 2017 18:02:55 GMT -5
That could happen.
If she lives another ten years, for example, Charles by then will be so old that he might just step aside for William.
William and Kate are very popular with the people all over.
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Post by Melinda Halliwell on Feb 8, 2017 14:07:57 GMT -5
Yes, Charles does not want to be king I've heard somewhere.
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Post by Squad 51 on Feb 9, 2017 13:00:35 GMT -5
Yeah, that could happen. We will see how it goes out. We have to remember that Queen Mom became 101!
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Post by Tim on Feb 10, 2017 0:22:34 GMT -5
Yeah, she did.
A few more years and Elizabeth could break the record of Franz Josef of Austria-Hungary, who reigned from 1848 to 1916 (his empire would only outlive him by two more years).
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Post by Tim on Mar 13, 2017 17:47:30 GMT -5
It's the 100th Anniversary of the abdication of Nicholas II of Russia.Of course, I'd studied this era and am a member of the Alexander Palace Time Machine board, devoted to the Romanovs (I met Tess over there). As the article says, people are still divided over Nicholas II, some say that he was a man who was in way over his head, while others feel that he was a bumbling fool who led his country to ruin. As to where I stand, well, neither is quiet correct. Nicholas II was a devoted husband and family man, even his most harshest critics admit that. No matter, that is one thing that cannot be taken away from him. That being said, however, NII's greatest flaw is that he refused to let go of Autocracy. It was clearly no longer working, yet he didn't see, or didn't want to see that. And you would think that his wife, Alexandra, would have realized that too. Her grandmother, Queen Victoria, worked with a Parliament, after all. Alexandra was very close to her grandmother, who practically raised her after her mother, Princess Alice, died of diphtheria. I don't know why Alexandra would think that Autocracy would work here. I wonder what Nicholas and Alexandra would have thought had they known that they abdication was the beginning of Russia's slide into a dark age, a dark age it is still struggling to emerge from, a century later.
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Post by Squad 51 on Mar 16, 2017 10:51:50 GMT -5
I think the Russian royals lost the contact to their people, because mainly they lived in their palaces and didn't see the world outside. At least, that's my impression. Correct me if I'm wrong. Plus, I think Nicholas II should have never been Tsar at that time. A hard hand was needed, yet the Bolsheviki did that then later. *sighs*
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Post by Tim on Mar 16, 2017 17:38:05 GMT -5
No, Jana, that's pretty much it. The Tsar was so far removed from the common folk that he just didn't see what was happening around him.
I got the impression that, if he could have, Nicholas would have happily retired to the Crimea and let someone else run the country.
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Post by wakas on Mar 17, 2017 14:14:04 GMT -5
I agree with those statements. Nicholas obviously didn't like to be Tsar. Wasn't cut out for it anyway. And Alexandra didn't like being Tsarina either.
I pity them a lot. They couldn't chose their way of life, unlike us....
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Post by Tim on Mar 17, 2017 17:35:48 GMT -5
The problem was that they believed that God himself ruled through a Tsar. Given that, saying "no" to the job was clearly not an option.
Poor Nicky and Alix were trapped by centuries of beliefs and tradition. They were forced into a position that neither of them really wanted, but they couldn't turn it down.
Things would have been better for their whole family if they had been able to get out of it, but that's a century of hindsight talking.
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Post by wakas on Mar 19, 2017 16:30:00 GMT -5
Yeah, a big WHAT IF. How things would have turned out for them if July 17th 1918 never happened... We'll never know...
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Post by Tim on Mar 20, 2017 0:17:33 GMT -5
Well, in a way, Days does give one possible look. I mean the bit where, after nearly getting himself and his whole family killed, Nicholas finally wakes up and realizes that Autocracy no longer worked and got rid of it.
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Post by Squad 51 on Mar 20, 2017 10:21:34 GMT -5
In a way, the United Kingdom was a great example here but I don't think that would have worked in Russia. You just have to look at the modern Tsars (Stalin, Putin). With the mass of area, Russia needs a hard hand.
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