To close out this season of Royal mourning, we're pleased to welcome to The Mark Steyn Show the historian Helen Rappaport in a special edition for Mark Steyn Club members.
Dr Rappaport is an expert in two contrasting dynasties - the Romanovs and the Windsors - whose respective fates form the extremes of monarchical outcomes in this most unmonarchical age. Mark and Helen begin with the only photograph ever taken of nine kings - gathered at Windsor Castle for Edward VII's funeral a few years before the Great War swept away all the European empires save for Britain. Then Dr Rappaport explores what bound so many of the royal houses - the so-called "Coburg Curse" of haemophilia - which, in the case of the Russian royal family, helped lead to the Bolshevik Revolution and a century of horrors.
The House of Windsor were the great survivors through these turbulent times. But what now - for the Commonwealth and even for the home nations? Mark and Helen mull past, present and future. To watch this special show, members of The Mark Steyn Show should click here and log-in.
Among the benefits of Mark Steyn Club membership is that you can enjoy The Mark Steyn Show in any medium you desire: video, audio or text. So, if you find Steyn and his guests more convivial in non-visual form, please log-in to our Audio and Transcript versions. To listen to the above show, simply click here.
~As we said above, this edition of The Mark Steyn Show is a special production of The Mark Steyn Club. We appreciate that membership is not for everyone, but, if you'd like to find out more about it, please see here. Another advantage of membership is access to our comments section. So, if you take issue with anything Helen or Mark said on the show, then feel free to comment away below.
~We had a busy weekend at SteynOnline, starting with another edition of Mark's Clubland Q&A live around the planet, very much focused on the accelerating degeneration of what Churchill called "the Great Republic". Saturday brought our weekly sense of perspective in The Hundred Years Ago Show, and Rick McGinnis' consideration of one of Steyn's favourite actresses, Myrna Loy. Our Sunday Song of the Week was a faux-Mexican folk-song and our marquee presentation was a Sunday Poem for the death of the Sovereign. If you were too distracted by Royal obsequies all weekend, we hope you'll want to check out one or three of the foregoing as a new week commences.
Mark will catch you on the radio on Tuesday, with Mister Snerdley live across New York on 77 WABC at 4pm Eastern.
