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    Happy and Glorious.Encounters with the Windsors: In My Own Voice. Reading from My Collected Works
    Happy and Glorious.Encounters with the Windsors: In My Own Voice. Reading from My Collected Works
    Happy and Glorious.Encounters with the Windsors: In My Own Voice. Reading from My Collected Works
    Ebook90 pages54 minutes

    Happy and Glorious.Encounters with the Windsors: In My Own Voice. Reading from My Collected Works

    By Jeffrey Lant

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    About this ebook

    I little thought, so many years ago, when I first encountered the Queen and the 
    royal Windsors, that I should be writing my own memoirs of my several encounters. But I am. 
    How did I begin my connection with the Windsor dynasty? 
    In just this way: to get a doctoral degree at Harvard, you must write a work of intellectual distinction, challenging existing nostrums, replacing them with new truths, found and defended by you; your topic in due course becoming your first book.
    Just what topic you select is closely evaluated and reviewed by your designated dissertation adviser, a poobah with enormous influence on your life.
    Here's where my English History Professor at Harvard, Professor Hanham now stepped in to alter my life, irrevocably, thoroughly, beneficially. He said, "Why don't you write about the formulation of the great English royal pageants. It would make a splendid book." 
    Thus, he handed me a subject which I have been able to dine out on for my 
    entire life. Millions of people worldwide have participated in the British pageants 
    since there were such pageants. But "real" historians disdain such frippery. It is beneath their lordly notice. 
    Here, however, Hanham made an astute observation about me, one for which I 
    probably have never given him sufficient acknowledgement or recognition. 
    Forgive me.  
    The pageants are so obvious, so ubiquitous, so universal, so wide ranging, that by definition, amongst my more snobbish colleagues at Harvard, they couldn't possibly be important. 
    However, Hanham was shrewd. He knew, or must have known, that I would be 
    the only true lyric historian in my class. It was a canny observation. So I began 
    my lifetime career writing about the "obvious", because it never really is. 
    Thus he set me on this path... The path that led to the pageants of the
    Windsors, their lives, their foibles, things that were happy and glorious, and 
    things that were not. 
    I accepted his challenge, and went to work at once in my usual bull-dog way, 
    for I am a man who does not fear hard work, so long as at the end of the day, it 
    produces something of real magnitude and importance. In other words, a thing 
    worth doing. 
    My first real breakthrough occurred in one of the most beautiful buildings at Christ Church, Cambridge. There, in a medieval library perfect for my imaginings, I was presented with a box of unpublished letters and documents owned by the current Marquess of Salisbury. These were the letters of his ancestor, the 3rd Marquess (1830-1903). He was Queen Victoria's Prime Minister three times. Now, thanks to these papers, I had my first sampling of truly substantive and important information.
    That day, I knew that I would have further encounters with the Sovereign and the 
    Royal Family. Thus, I set out with a will upon the task of promptly finishing my 
    dissertation. Out of innumerable pieces of the puzzle, I fashioned a work of two 
    volumes, 623 pages, presented to the Department of History, December, 1974, 
    and immediately accepted. 
    I give you, ladies and gentlemen, the opus maximus, "Queen Victoria's Golden 
    Jubilee, 1887". I am as proud of it today as I was proud of it then, and this work 
    has worn well over the years.
    Plus all the material for my first book "Insubstantial Pageant: Ceremony and confusion at Queen Victoria's Court " 269 pages
    Now, I was a Recognized Scholar.
    Yankee Doodle was coming to storm the palace. God save the Queen!

    A tale from an insider, the first American granted unique access to the Royal Archives of Windsor Castle

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherJeffrey Lant
    Release dateAug 18, 2016
    ISBN9781536562071
    Happy and Glorious.Encounters with the Windsors: In My Own Voice. Reading from My Collected Works
    Author

    Jeffrey Lant

    Dr. Jeffrey Lant is known worldwide. He started in the media business when he was 5 years old, a Kindergartner in Downers Grove, Illinois, publishing his first newspaper article. Since then Dr. Lant has earned four university degrees, including the PhD from Harvard. He has taught at over 40 colleges and universities and is quite possibly the first to offer satellite courses. He has written over 50 books, thousands of articles and been a welcome guest on hundreds of radio and television programs. He has founded several successful corporations and businesses including his latest at …writerssecrets.com His memoirs “A Connoisseur’s Journey” has garnered nine literary prizes that ensure its classic status. Its subtitle is “Being the artful memoirs of a man of wit, discernment, pluck, and joy.” A good read by this man of so many letters. Such a man can offer you thousands of insights into the business of becoming a successful writer. Be sure to sign up now at www.writerssecrets.co

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      Book preview

      Happy and Glorious.Encounters with the Windsors - Jeffrey Lant

      INTRODUCTION

      —————————-

      Musical note.

      I have selected four musical tunes to accompany the text.

      You can find them in any search engine.

      For the Introduction, Sir William Walton's Prelude to

      Richard III. A Shakespeare Suite. (1955)

      For Chapter 1, Walton's Crown Imperial march (1937).

      For Chapter 2 Ascot Gavotte from My Fair Lady. (1964)

      Alan Jay Lerner (lyrics) and Frederick Loewe (music).

      For Chapter 3. Zadok the Priest, composed by Georg

      Frideric Handel for the 1727 coronation of George II

      and played at every coronation since. It is the favorite

      tune of every Windsor.

      I little thought, so many years ago, when I first encountered the Queen and the

      royal Windsors, that I should be, so many decades later, writing my own

      memoirs of my several encounters. But I am.

      How did I begin my connection with the Windsor dynasty? In just this way: to get

      a doctoral degree at Harvard, you must write a work of intellectual distinction,

      challenging existing nostrums, replacing them with new truths, found and defended

      by you; your topic in due course becoming your first book.

      Just what topic you select is closely evaluated and reviewed by your designated

      dissertation adviser, a poobah with enormous influence on your life.

      The drill goes like this... You present a list of possible doctoral dissertation topics

      you feel yourself able to write about with new insights, new data, and the certainty

      of a front page review in the New York Times, always our sure objective.

      My list of possible subjects went like this:

      1) the Appeasement of Nazi Germany by England and her allies before World

      War II

      2) the biography of Margot Asquith (1864-1945), and

      3) an examination of the British government's 1812 role in bribing Indians of the

      Northwest Territory to disrupt and kill American colonial settlers

      This is what my adviser Professor H.J. Hanham said, my future in his hands.

      1) "You're not old enough or wise enough to write about Appeasement with the

      necessary authority and thoroughness. (I hope he said yet", but cannot be

      sure).

      For those who don't know, Appeasement was the major policy within the ruling

      Conservative party under Neville Chamberlain (1869-1940). It was predicated on

      the notion that being reasonable with Hitler would produce reasonable results.

      This policy was a notorious, indeed catastrophic, failure.

      As a result, my adviser didn't want a young graduate student like me mucking

      about with everything that could still be found under rocks, where far too many

      Appeasers were still to be found. This could create any amount of ruckus and

      stench.

      2) "You've never written a biography before, and Margot Asquith is too eminent

      a subject to cut your teeth on."

      For the uninitiated, Margot Asquith was the second wife of British World War I

      Prime Minister H.H. Asquith. Margot was notoriously indiscreet, hence my

      sadness when this subject was squashed.

      Daphne Bennett's biography is workmanlike, but the real Margot I would have

      resurrected was far more exciting, and challenging, and rash. Frankly, she

      deserved me, but our relationship was not to be.

      P.S. I've always had a way with women of a certain age, who cannot keep their

      nimble fingers out of my hair, or anything else. On such a basis we might have

      gone far, Margot and I. Thus I cannot resist just one tiny illustration of a typical

      mot by Margot.

      According to a Hollywood legend there was a pointed verbal encounter between

      the movie siren Jean Harlow and the sharp-tongued English aristocrat Margot

      Asquith. When Harlow attended a party given by Asquith, the movie star

      presumptuously referred to the hostess by her first name, and she repeatedly

      mispronounced it as Margott, i.e., she pronounced a t at the end of the name.

      Eventually, Asquith responded with a squelcher:

      No, no, Jean. The ‘t’ is silent, as in Harlow.

      3) Prof. Hanham surmised the British government of Spencer Perceval undoubtedly

      engineered such savage acts, but he also surmised that all the necessary papers,

      documents, and telltale instructions implicating the Perceval government would have

      ended up in a fire. Therefore, writing on this topic would prove to be difficult, if not

      impossible.

      Note: my professor's prophetic words seem to have been correct. In truth, I

      have never seen a book on this subject in my entire life, though I am sure having

      mentioned the matter, six will show up in the morning's mail.

      The British did not want their heinous acts exposed, for after all, they were

      gentlemen, murderers only as necessary, and never by dirtying their own fair

      hands and linen. However they not only did it in the War of 1812, but in the

      American Revolution, too.

      1, 2, 3, Out

      Well, imagine my chagrin. I had money

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