Anne’s Wartime Escape
26. At age 16, Queen Anne of Romania fled Nazi Germans in 1939 and eventually reached the United States. She went to college in New York and worked as a sales assistant at Macy’s department store. In 1943, she volunteered for military service in the French Army, where she received the Cross of war.
27. Empress Dowager Cixi was presented with 120 different dishes at every meal. She would take only two or three bites of some of the dishes because she feared they had been poisoned. Cixi usually allowed the other concubines, officials, and eunuchs to eat the unfinished dishes.
28. Empress Kōken of Japan almost made the Buddhist monk Dōkyō her heir to the throne. This would have broken the tradition that Japanese monarchs were all descendants of Amaterasu and entirely changed the Imperial dynasty forever.
29. In the 19th century, Empress Elisabeth of Austria washed her hair with brandy, bathed in olive oil, and slept in a face mask lined with raw veal. She was reportedly regarded as one of the most beautiful women in Europe.
30. Queen Victoria, the matriarch of the British Empire, proposed to her future husband Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha because tradition said a man could not propose to the queen.
Add Comment