Saturday, January 13, 2018

Non-English Blogs about Royalty

While most of the blogs we list are written in English (even when their authors hail from non-English-speaking nations), there are many great blogs that are written in several different languages. We have listed royal blogs in French, Spanish, Portuguese, Polish, Romanian, Italian, German, etc. With this update, we are adding two blogs that focus primarily on royal history, one composed in French and one composed in Spanish. For those of you who prefer to read in English or other languages, check your browser for a "translate page" tool. These translations are imperfect, but at least you'll be able to understand most of the content.

Les Favorites Royales [French]
"La découverte du pouvoir secret des femmes"

Secretos Cortesanos [Spanish]
"Historias sobre la vida en las cortes más célebres y suculentos relatos de amores, intrigas, asesinatos, pasiones, extravagancias y manías."

Sunday, December 31, 2017

More Royal Fashion Blogs

One of the busiest royal blog areas focuses on royal fashions. These bloggers have to stay on top of their game at all times, especially those who cover more than one royal lady. Royal Blog Central already lists dozens of these fashion-focused blogs. Click the "By Topic" tab and scroll down to "Fashion and Jewelry" or select a specific royal lady or royal house to see them. Here are a few that we are adding this week.

New My Royals Hollywood Fashion
Covering all of royal Europe with indexes both by royal lady and by fashion designer.

RepliKate

"This website was created as a space to easily find your favorite pieces and inexpensive style alternatives" to correspond with the Duchess of Cambridge's fashion choices. From the same group as What Would Kate Do and Meghan's Mirror.

UFO No More

"This site hopes to bring you the most correct, up-to-date glimpse into the closets of the European Royal Ladies...we also hope to bring you articles about events you may have forgotten about and identifications of old and forgotten pieces!"

What Kate's Kids Wore

"Our goal is to simply provide an ongoing compendium of pieces worn by Their Royal Highnesses [George and Charlotte of Cambridge], notable toys, gifts, or other items of note."

Monday, November 27, 2017

Blogs about Meghan!

Now that the engagement between Prince Harry and Meghan Markle has been announced, we can finally add the Meghan-focused blogs to Royal Blog Central. Welcome aboard, Meghan bloggers. We are very excited that Meghan is becoming part of the British Royal Family and we look forward to your coverage and commentary. Cheers!

Mad About Meghan
"The life and style of Meghan Markle"

Meghan Markle Review
"A blog about Meghan Markle, her life and charity work, and Prince Harry."

Meghan's Fashion
"A gallery of Meghan Markle's style."

Meghan's Mirror
"Founded in late 2016, it has quickly become the go-to source for all things Meghan Markle and her style."

Monday, November 13, 2017

Royal Fashion Blogger Controversy: In Defense of Heaven

Screenshot of Princess Marie's Closet
The Duchess of Cambridge's smart attire at the Remembrance ceremony at the Cenotaph this past weekend sparked a Twitter debate among royal bloggers, royal reporters and royal watchers. This time, they weren't discussing what Catherine was wearing. Instead they were arguing about whether they should be discussing her clothes on such a solemn occasion.

The controversy was apparently ignited when multifaceted blogger Heaven, who runs several royal fashion blogs (including Swedish Royal Fashion and Princess Marie's Closet), quickly tweeted an identification for Catherine's coat and then dashed off to church. As she later shared, she then received a very unkind (putting it mildly) direct message for having focused on fashion while the solemn ceremony honoring war heroes was still taking place.

There are dozens and dozens of royal fashion bloggers (and hundreds of general fashion bloggers) who work to identify what someone is wearing, regardless of when or where the high-profile person is wearing it. In the case of royal coverage, I have seen many Twitter conversations between royal reporters and royal photographers asking royal bloggers to provide information about an outfit. This is especially true when the respective royal household has not provided such information, as is frequently the case.

On this occasion, however, a rather routine Tweet became a lightning rod. Many accused Heaven of being insensitive to the occasion while some even questioned her own patriotism. Others stood up for her both as a blogger and as a fellow human being. A few even jokingly wondered what Kate will wear to her own funeral.

There are thousands, perhaps millions, of blog readers out there who want to know every detail of every royal outfit. Bloggers like Heaven have a wide range of resources and personal knowledge that fill these readers' demands. Other readers out there could care less to distinguish between a new chartreuse gown or an altered kelly green gown.

Is it always appropriate to talk about fashion when our royal ladies are trying to direct our attention to issues like mental health, child abuse, homelessness, etc.? Perhaps not, but is it harmful? Is it deserving of scorn? Certainly not. In this blogger's opinion, we should all focus on maintaining a civil and supportive community.

Screenshot of The Royal Order of Sartorial Splendor
When even the wildly popular Royal Order of Sartorial Splendor blog felt compelled today to remind readers of "The Windsors at Remembrance Ceremonies" post that this blog openly states that it is "frivolous," I think that the conversation has crossed the bounds. Fortunately, most of the readers responded with their usual light-hearted, conversational comments and no one seemed to be upset about discussing coats instead of casualties.

Royal fashion bloggers will blog about fashion. Whenever. Wherever. They are providing a desired service not only to their readers but also to those professional journalists who get paid to follow the royals around. If you don't like what they write, don't read them. If you don't like what they tweet, don't follow them. There are plenty of other royal blogs out there to spend your time with, but stop with the snarky, rude or nasty comments.

As my college class president once said, "It's mean to be mean." So, just be nice, okay?

Now, go enjoy some royal blogs....

Sunday, November 5, 2017

Royal Tumblr Sites

Tumblr has become a popular microblogging social network. Not surprisingly, royal fans around the world have started many, many Tumblr sites about their favorite royals. Several of these are already included on Royal Blog Central. Here are a few that are being added to our catalog today:

Anything and Everything Royal
"A blog dedicated to following the daily lives of royals."

Camilla, The Duchess of Cornwall
"It's all about our lovely, wonderful and adorable Duchess of Cornwall."

Mr. Harry Wales
All about Prince Harry. Recently announced that there will be no new posts, but plenty of background is still available.

Royalty Speaking
"A collection of thoughts, pictures, and ideas about the European royal realm."

Monday, October 9, 2017

French Treats

French claimant Henri Comte de Paris
via Wikimedia Commons
Not every throne has made it into the current century. In fact, the French throne may be the most dismantled, revived, and dismantled again. The execution of the Bourbon king in 1792 led to alternating periods of republics and monarchies with several royal houses including the Bonapartes (1804-1814), the Bourbons again (1814-1815), the Bonapartes again (part of 1815), the Bourbons yet again (1815-1830), the Orleans branch of the Bourbon family (1830-1848), and then the Bonapartes one more time (1852-1870). This has spawned four different sets of claimants to the throne, but with nearly 150 years since France had a crowned head, it's unlikely that any of these descendants will ever sit on the throne. 

However, that doesn't make French royal history and French royal families less interesting to royal watchers. So, here are a few blogs to enjoy on this subject.

Confrerie Royale (French)
"Lettre aux membres et sympathisants de la Confrerie Royale."

Le Blog du Le Comte de Paris (French)
"C'est ce que je ressens pour la France et les Francais."

La couronne (French)
"Le blog de soutien a la famille royale de France"

Tiaras and Trianon
The dual focus here is on Marie Antoinette and tiaras.

Sunday, October 1, 2017

Focus on the Swedish Royals

 Photo: Jonas Ekströmer, The Royal Court, Sweden
The royal family of Sweden is one of the most active and visible around the world. In some monarchies, we don't get to see much of the whole family. In Sweden, however, the whole family is very active and publicly accessible, even the little babes. Plus, in recent years, there always seems to be another baby on the way! It's no wonder then that there are numerous blogs dedicated to this beautiful, happy and growing family.

Bernadotte Windsor
"A blog dedicated to the Swedish and British Royal Families. You'll occasionally find posts about other Royals though."

Kungahuset
"A blog about the royal family of Sweden!"

The Princess Family
"A blog dedicated to the Princess Family of Sweden - Madeleine, Christopher, Leonore, Nicolas and Baby Sunshine!"

Swedish Monarchy
"I've been a royalwatcher ever since I can remember. This blog is dedicated to the Swedish Royal Family."

Swedish Princesses (Polish)

"W styczniu 2014 roku założyła swojego pierwszego bloga o szwedzkiej księżniczce, który rok późnej przekształciła w Swedish Princesses Blog."

Swedish Royal Fashion

"I am an avid fan of the Swedish Royals and love the scavenger hunt of identifying Royal Clothing."

Swedish Royal House Mafia

"Welcome to Swedish Royal House Mafia! Created in February 2013, we were the first tumblr blog dedicated entirely to the much loved Swedish Royal Family."