But it’s still taking time to get used to things like KC etc.
Duchess of Edinburgh’s motorcade hit 80-year-old woman
After decades of knowing that we don’t refer to the Duchess of Edinburgh, for people are known by their highest, not any intermediate, titles – therefore she was Brenda – to find that we do in fact have a D of E who is so referred to – well, it just takes time.
But maybe it’s just me. I always find 18th and 19th cent political history terribly difficult to follow as all the main participants seem to change their names every three pages. Wellesley becomes Wellington I grasp (leaving Wellesley as his older brother, Marquess of) and Nelson did us all a favour by changing title but not name. But Pitt to Chatham (??) and so on desperately confuses. As with earlier history, writers refer to Franconia, Bessarabia, thislittlebitofland’ere without telling us what the modern names are. We’re supposed to know, see?
I always find 18th and 19th cent political history terribly difficult to follow as all the main participants seem to change their names every three pages.
I find modern politics harder to follow, because it’s all interchangeable, perma-grinning People of LinkedIn promising to make our lives poorer and shittier.
The late queen (of blessed memory, pbuh) was indeed officially called the Duchess of E before ascending. Old newsreels refer to her as such.
I think ( am not sure ) that she was Princess Royal before marrying Phil the Greek.
He was a Wesley before his elder brother change it to Wellesley.
Talking of Victorian name-changers, this is one of the best Dizzy stories I know. From Leftopedia:
In later years, the German chancellor [Bismarck] would show visitors to his office three pictures on the wall: “the portrait of my Sovereign, there on the right that of my wife, and on the left, there, that of Lord Beaconsfield”.
Actually I didn’t have too much trouble with 18th and 19th century history, as I used to love to rummage through an old Popular Educator when I was a kid.
But now they keep on changing Burma to Myanmar and the Congo from Zaire back to the Congo, I find it hard to keep up. I suppose the brains’ getting a bit old and creaky.
“Scotland Yard were called after one of its vehicles collided with a pedestrian on the M4 at the junction of Cromwell Road and Warwick Road, Earls Court…”
A journalist typed that and nobody thought “Why was a pedestrian on a motorway?” The answer of course is that Cromwell Road is not the M4, it’s the A4.
But if they can’t get the basics right…
As much as I admire Sophie Wessex/Edinburgh whatever, why does she have a “motorcade” and outriders ? Why can’t she drive her own armoured Chelsea Tractor ?
Last time I was in the Cromwell Road, it was a car park.
Ever tried to explain to someone why some London roads take the ‘the’ prefix but most don’t?
Otto, Princess Anne used to, maybe still does, much to the dismay of her bodyguard as she was quite well known for enjoying driving very fast.
@bloke in spain: “ Ever tried to explain to someone why some London roads take the ‘the’ prefix but most don’t?”
To add to the confusion.
‘The’ Strand is actually just Strand.
@John B “‘The’ Strand is actually just Strand.”
Nah, just Westminster council can’t get their streetsigns right.
BiND
She had a Scimitar when young, as I recall. Was constantly getting nicked for zooming up The Mall.
I had (my dad’s old) Scimitar at the same time as P. Anne. There any similarity ends 🙂
The late Queen was not Princess Royal because her aunt, Princess Mary, lived to 1965. She was the Duchess of Edinburgh from her marriage until her accession.
She was Princess Elizabeth of York from birth until her father’s accession, then simply “The Princess Elizabeth” to her marriage, then “HRH the Duchess of Edinburgh”, and then, obviously, simply “Her Majesty The Queen”.