Why writing is a royal hobby

In the past the royals wrote lots of beautiful and interesting letters.
It must be an absolute certainty that writing really is and was a royal
hobby or even more a duty.

The writing desk of Empress Elisabeth of Austria 'Sisi'
in Corfu

Many royal heads of state had a diary, which they kept up to date very

well. 

United Kingdom

The most famous royal who kept diaries was Queen Victoria.

She wrote 122 volumes which were expurgated by her youngest

daughter: Princess Beatrice of the United Kingdom. Queen Victoria

started to write in her daily journal in 1832, when she was 13 years

old. 

Source picture: Wikipedia

Nowadays, in the United Kingdom Princess Michael of Kent is a well known author.

She wrote several books inter alia:

Eight royal Brides;

The Queen of for Kingdoms;

Agnès Sorel, mistress of Beauty and Quicksilver;

and she wrote some articles for the Orient Express Magazine. 

Russia

In Russia lots of members of the royal family held diaries, which were important

witnesses of the history. 

Tsar Nicholas II of Russia also wrote in his diary, for example after Bloody

Sunday in 1905:

Difficult day! In St. Petersburg there were serious disturbances due to the

desire of workers to get in the Winter Palace. The troops had to shoot in different

places of the city, there were many dead and wounded. Lord how painful and bad. 

In the Russian royal family there were more royals who kept a diary or letters:

* Grand Duchess Olga Alexandrandrovna of Russia, the sister of Tsar Nicholas II;

* Tsar Alexander III of Russia also kept a diary, he was the father of Tsar Nichoals II;

* Maria Feodorovna of Russia the mother of Tsar Nicholas II. She wrote how her 

father-in-law, Tsar Alexander II of Russia, was hit by a bomb on 13 March 1881. 

* Michael Romanov (brother of the last Tsar) also kept his diary very well. There is 

now a book about his journals. 

source picture: bookcover

Austria

Empress Elisabeth of Austria 'Sisi' also was a keen writer. She expressed her

intimate thoughts and feelings in a large number of romantic poems, which 

served as a secret type of diary. Her writing desk in the Achilleion Palace in 

Corfu is shown on top of this post (own picture taken in 2013). 

Belgium

Writing table of King Albert I of Belgium

King Albert I of Belgium wrote lots of letters even to his own wife, Queen 

Elisabeth (born as Duchess in Bavaria). Their letters expressed a deep and

mutual respect and affection. 

Princess Marie-José of Belgium, the daughter of King Albert I of Belgium 

and Queen Elisabeth also was a keen writer. She wrote several books inter

alia:

Albert & Elisabeth, mes parents:

But there were more writers in the Belgian royal family. 

King Leopold I of Belgium wrote many letters inter alia to his niece Queen

Victoria of The United Kingdom and to his daughter Princess Charlotte or

Empress Carlota of Mexico. 

In 1921 Princess Louise of Belgium, the daughter of King Leopold II wrote 

her memoirs. 'My own affairs'.

book cover

Princess Stéphanie of Belgium, the sister of Princess Louise, who was married

to Crown Prince Rudolf of Austria (the son of Sisi) also published her memoirs.

She first wanted to publish her book in 1935 but this caused a huge scandal and

the court forbade the publication. However in 1937 it was published outside

Austria under the title: I Was To Be Empress. 

Nowadays the Belgian royal family still has keen writers among them. 

Princess Esmeralda, the youngest daughter of King Leopold III and Lilian,

is a journalist, based in London. She also wrote some books about the royal 

family. 

The Netherlands

The Netherlands also has royal authors. During her last years, Queen 

Wilhelmina, then styled as Princess, wrote her memoirs  

'Lonely but not Alone' in which she gave an account on the

events that were happened in her life and her strong religious feelings. 

book cover

France

In France, Queen Marie-Antoinette wrote lots of letters to her mother,

Maria Theresa of Austria. Her husband King Louis XVI kept a journal.

In which he wrote about his daily life. 

Napoleon Bonaparte wrote lots of love letters to Joséphine de Beauharnais. 

In one of them he wrote:

"I awake full of you. Your image and the memory of last night's intoxicating

pleasures has left no rest to my senses."  

The daughter of Joséphine de Beauharnais, Hortense, who became Queen 

Consort of Holland, also was a keen writer and composer. A collection of

her work can be found in her "Livre d'Art de la reine Hortense."

Romania

Queen Marie of Romania was the daughter of Prince Alfred of 

Saxe-Coburg and Gotha and Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna of Russia. 

She married to King Ferdinand I of Romania and she became a popular 

Queen. She was known for her talent in horse-riding, writing, painting, 

sculpting and dancing as well for her beauty. Maria kept a diary from 

December 1918 until shortly before her death. The first volume was

published in 1996. She also wrote the book called: My Country. 

Yugoslavia

One of the books I really want to read is the book written by Dimitri of

Yugoslavia about the jewel stories of the royal families of Italy, Greece,

Belgium, Russia and of course Yugoslavia. The release date is in 

September 2020. The title of the book is "Once upon a diamond." 

A tradition with a future? 

Hopefully the present royals keep up the great writing tradition, so that

one day, their views about the present will be preserved in the future!