I came across this great photo earlier, unfortunately it only has the caption '9 Kings at Windsor Castle, May 20, 1910'. Can anyone name them, aside from the obvious contender centre front? So far I've had no luck finding who is who.

This lot all showed up for the funeral of Edward VII on May 20th, 1910:


The German Emperor;

The King of the Hellenes;

The King of Spain;

The King of Norway;

The King of Denmark;

The King of Portugal;

The Tsar of Bulgaria;

The King of the Belgians.

But I haven't a clue who's actually who (although that looks like Kaiser Bill standing behind George V).

It was a pretty impressive gathering, Teddy's funeral - there were also lots of Serene Highnesses, Royal Highnesses and Imperial Highnesses, plus a Grand Ducal Highness or two. Not many of them left though by 1918, I think.

Full list here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Funeral_of_Edward_VII

Thanks Temp, I hadn't thought of the funeral when of course it would have been for all of them to be together.

And all so self assured and secure in their positions, little did they know that it was the end of an era and indeed, the end for many, as you say.

Temperance wrote:

The King of Norway

Haakon VII no less. He had been in the job for five years, Norway having left the union with Sweden in 1905 and the Norwegians having opted to take Haakon (a grandson of the then king of Denmark) as their new head of state. Haakon’s father Frederick VIII of Denmark is also in the photograph having acceded to the Danish throne in the interim.

Haakon’s great-grandson (also named Haakon) in currently crown prince of Norway and last month he attended the enthronement of the new Japanese emperor Naruhito following the abdication of his father emperor Akihito earlier in the year. The enthronement took place on 22 October while the (rugby) Union World Cup which Japan was hosting was ongoing and a week after the country had been ravaged by Typhoon Hagibis.

What I haven’t been able to work out, however, is who is the woman who accompanied Haakon to the enthronement. They can be seen arriving at the ceremony in the following clip:



(about 1:15 in)

Her manner of dress certainly stands out from the crowd.

Hard to say what with her being in what I take to be traditional Norwegian costume but the French society gossip magazine, 'Gala', says Haakon came without his wife, Mette-Marit Tjessem Høiby, because she has pulmonary fibrosis which limits her official programmes. Whoever the lady is she doesn't seem to appear in any of the official 'royal' photos.

MM, can it be Queen Sonja, the mother of Haakon, in tradtional clothing?

Kind regards, Paul.

I think she is the Norwegian Ambassador to Japan, Inga M. W. Nyhamar, here pictured and similarly attired as above (centre)  with the other Embassy staff:

   

It seems she only 'presented her credentials', ie took up the post, two months ago:  norambtokyo tweet

PS - Going back to Vizzer's youtube of the guests arriving ... I know the Japanese are usually quite short, but King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands and his wife Queen Máxima, King Felipe of Spain and Letizia, indeed nearly all the European royals fairly tower over Naruhito and the Empress.

PaulRyckier wrote:

can it be Queen Sonja, the mother of Haakon, in tradtional clothing?

I had thought along those lines too Paul - but the face just didn't fit. Meles is absolutely on the money though with the ambassador. The answer is obvious now one knows.

You're right about the slightly comical aspect to the physical disparity of the attendees Meles. It's a pity that none of the videos available has a comprehensive commentary so that we could know who all these fantastically garbed and bejewelled folk are. Not being a UK royal event, of course, the BBC and the rest of the UK media were generally at arms length about it. How good it would have been to have had the deferential/subversive tones of, say, a Dimbleby informing us that we were witnessing, say, the arrival of "the impressive bulk of president Tshisekedi of the democratic republic of the Congo and his handsome wife Denise" etc.

It was also interesting to note who wasn't there ... Trump wasn't there and Camilla didn't accompany Charles, but I also read somewhere (probably, by accident I hasten to add, in 'Gala', which is a bit like a French equivalent of the British 'Hello!' magazine - only classier) that Alexander, the Crown Prince of Yugoslavia and claimant to the Serbian throne, had declined his invitation. He's the son of former King Peter II of Yugoslavia and his wife, Alexandra of Greece and Denmark (so he's a cousin or perhaps second-cousin, of Phillip, Duke of Edinburgh), and he was once in the line of succession to the British throne ... until he married a catholic, the Princess Maria da Gloria of Orléans-Braganza. He held the position of crown prince in the Democratic Federal Yugoslavia for just four-and-a-half months, from his birth until the declaration of the Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia later in 1945. 

You'd have thought he'd have jumped at the chance to play king for the day alongside proper reigning monarchs, no?

Camilla will certainly be accompanying Charles to the next coronation. Looking at the invitation cards which have been sent out, then there are a plethora of flora and fauna featured on them:





Trying to identify them all is a challenge. The royal website lists all the fauna:

Green Man
Lion
Unicorn
Robin
Wren
Boar
Butterfly
Bumble Bee
Ladybird

And some of the flora:

Oak leaves and Acorns
Ivy leaves
Hawthorn flowers (above both coats of arms and also crowning the Green Man)
Lily of the valley (below the Robin)
Cornflowers (below the Unicorn trying to skewer the Bumble Bee)
Wild Strawberries and leaves
Dog Roses (in the top left and top right corners)
Bluebells
Rosemary (below the King's coat of arms)
Daffodils
Shamrock
Thistles
Tudor Roses

In addition there are (I think):

Daisies (to the left of the Robin)
Cowslips (to the left of the Wren)
Snowdrops (above the Butterfly and below the Rosemary)
Forget-me-nots (on the brow of the Green Man)  
 
And yet to be identified:

purple ‘Bauhinia?’ (to the left of the Daisies)
pink flowers (to the right if the Robin)
blue flower (to the left of the Cowslips)
purple, white and yellow ‘Pansies?’ (below the Cornflowers)
yellow flowers (to the right of the ‘Pansies’)
pale pink flower (below the Lion trying to swat the Butterfly)

Does anyone know what they are?

Blue flower -aquilegia called - also called grandmothers bonnets by God knows who
Pink flower - dog rose
Other pink flower... larger here - corncockle - rather rare - no, very rare  because i never found it!
Heartsease - are to wild form pf pansies
yellow primrose


also there... scarlet pimpernel... small red jobs at the top. I only ever found once about here.
speedwell blue that I find about a thousand a day in the garden

Also a form of vetch - not sure which one - wild pea hedge plant shades of blue and purple

Knapweed - a thistle  but no spikes - dark purple.

On either side of both the crowns are some little white thingies...... bittersweet?...... nice little joke if they are

And what of the little blue imp in the corner... a sortof nordmann touch.  The canons of the affronted church seemed to have missed that one.

I love the design - my sort of thing- no shells though and I am very good at shells...sad.

Err - I notice there was  no poppy in the display of wild flowers..... yes, well hmm. There ought have been May blossom what with the date and all..... perhaps they are the small white flowers by the crowns - but that is not a hawthorn leaf.......

As a child I could identify - and knew where to look for, 340 wild flowers (I kept a record and had samples verified too)  Surprising how much knowledge learned young stays forever.

Thanks for those suggestions Priscilla.
 
Yes, the flowers in the top corners are Scarlet pimpernels and not Dog roses as I had said. Dog roses can sometimes flower to a quite dark purple but not scarlet like the Pimpernels. And the flower below the Lion trying to swat the Butterfly is definitely a Dog rose - pale pink and with a green stigma. I really should have got that as we have dog roses and guelder roses on a bank which I planted several years ago and which flower wonderfully every summer!
 
I’m not fully convinced, though, with the 'corncockle' identification for the pink flowers to the right if the Robin because of their serrated petals which corncockles don’t really have. I'm pretty sure also that the 'vetch' is actually Rosemary. Similarly, the 'speedwell blues' are almost certainly Forget-me-nots. And that's made me since notice that on the brow of the Green Man there are 2 purple flowers between the Forget-me-nots. What are they?
 
I’m trying to see where the 'knapweed' is unless those are the Cornflowers. I would also agree with you that the Hawthorn flowers are indeed May blossom and not bittersweet. The leaves drawn do, however, seem to me to be be a fair representation of Hawthorn leaves.

The blue ‘imp’ looks like a boar. By drawing attention to it you've revealed another flower which I hadn't noticed before. The blue flower to the right of the little boar. That also needs identifying.

Here’s the list updated:

Oak leaves and acorns
Ivy leaves
Hawthorn flowers (above both coats of arms and also crowning the Green Man)
Lily of the valley (below the Robin)
Cornflowers (below the Unicorn trying to skewer the Bumble Bee)
Wild strawberries and flowers and leaves
Scarlet pimpernels (in the top left and top right corners)
Bluebells
Rosemary (below the King's coat of arms)
Daffodils
Shamrock
Thistles
Tudor roses

Also (mainly thanks to Priscilla) there are:

Daisies (to the left of the Robin)
Cowslips (to the left of the Wren)
Snowdrops (above the Butterfly and below the Rosemary)
Forget-me-nots (on the brow of the Green Man)
Granny’s bonnet/Columbine (to the left of the Cowslips)
Dog rose (below the Lion trying to swat the Butterfly)
Wild pansies/Heartsease/Viola tricolor (below the Cornflowers)
Primrose (to the right of the Pansies)
 
Still to be identified:

purple ‘Bauhinia?’ (to the left of the Daisies)
pink flowers (to the right of the Robin)
blue flower (to the right of the little Boar)
purple flowers (between the Forget-me-nots on the brow of the Green Man)

Purple flower is surely violet. I disagree about the vetch - there are so many of them  but they all have those sort of leaves.

green man's hair - one of those between the forget me nots might be hare bell (and faint joke) the other one might be periwinkle

The one you do not think is corncockle - I do but it has  dianthus petals - but is that a wild flower.... are there wild carnations? (a frail sort of coronation joke?) Some of the diddly blue ones are germander speedwell.

Correction - If the official list says its rosemary and not vetch, I'd better shut up.,,, not well drawn rosemary is all I have to say on that. And there is May blossom about the coat of arms, I think. Why, I wonder is there a Blue Boar?..... that impish thingy in the corner.

Priscilla, that Blue Boar - the 'impish thingy in the corner' - might refer to the coat of arms which, according to wiki, was granted to the father of queen Camilla back in 2005?

Beaten to it by Nielsen.

A blue boar is one of the supporters on Camilla's coat of arms which is displayed in full at the top. The two supporters are described in heraldry speak as, "dexter: a lion rampant guardant Or langued and armed Gules, sinister: a Boar Azure armed and unguled Or langued Gules and gorged with a Coronet composed of crosses formy and fleurs-de-lys attached thereto a Chain reflexed over the back and ending in a ring all Or". Unless the little piggy is a reference to the infamous service station on the M1 at Watford Gap.

Is the blue flower to the right of the little boar not speedwell, having four petals rather than the five petals of forget-me-not? Also the pink flower to the right of the robin looks like a type of dianthus, so possibly the wild pink (Dianthus plumarius).

Simply meaning crossed posts MM, could I offer you a little something to warm the heart at the pub?

And perhaps some small talk, e.g. over the ancient Norman-French language used by those granting coats of arms in the UK.


Edit: does the pub in this place even exist these days?

A drink at nine o'clock on a Sunday morning? That's a bit early even for me, although I'm sure the sun must be well over the yardarm somewhere in the world. But it's a lovely calm sunny day here after gales overnight, so maybe just a wee dram.

The pink flower could be ragged robin ... campion...... there is a white one also and it is common enough as wild flowers go these days.

Hi Per and MM .... seen wandering about in this wild flower garden with drinks in hand....... very trendy. There is an ancient hostelry  in Essex called the Blue Boar.

I wondered about ragged robin but aren't the petals a bit more, well, ragged-looking, which is why it's got that name, no?

  Silene flos-cuculi, aka ragged-robin.

There's a Blue Boar in York too, supposedly haunted by the ghost of Dick Turpin whose body was kept in the pub's cellar overnight after his execution and with the enterprising landlord letting curious visitors go down to view the body for a small fee.