THE Prince of Wales was stranded yesterday in an
all-male monastic community as Camilla Parker-Bowles
waited for him on a luxury yacht to continue an Aegean
cruise.
The Prince had undertaken a 24-hour retreat in one of the
world's most rigorous centres of Christian asceticism, the
Mount Athos community, on a mountainous peninsula in
northern Greece. But when it was time for him to leave,
winds and rough seas prevented a speedboat from
reaching the enclave to collect him.
The self-governing community bars powered wheeled
vehicles. Women and even female animals have been
resolutely banned for the better part of a millennium.
The Prince spent his time walking in woodlands while
waiting for the gale to ease. He also attended a Divine
Liturgy at the Christian Orthodox Vatopedion monastery,
one of about two dozen self-contained cloisters in the
region 80 miles southeast of Thessalonika.
He had arrived in Greece on Monday aboard a private
aircraft that landed on the northern Aegean island of
Limnos for the start of a private spring holiday.
He is sailing with Mrs Parker-Bowles on the Alexander,
the yacht owned by John Latsis, the Greek shipping
magnate. A spokeswoman in London said only that the
Prince was "taking a very private holiday in Greece".
Secrecy is a characteristic of the holiday. Among batteries
of hopeful news photographers, only Greece's Alpha
television channel apparantly succeeded in obtaining
footage of the royal arrival at Limnos.
The British Embassy in Athens claimed to have been kept
in the dark. "This is a private visit, and in such cases we
are not told anything," an embassy spokesman said.
On Tuesday, the Prince went for his short retreat, leaving
his travelling companion basking on the Alexander at
anchor near by. Accompanied by a five-man bodyguard,
he disembarked by fast boat at Vatopedion to spend
some time in spiritual meditation away from publicity
pressures. "We made him feel he was welcome to come
and pray here," one monk at Vatopedion told the Alpha
channel.
Founded in the 4th century by Byzantine Emperor
Theodosius in thanks for his son's survival of a shipwreck
on the rocky coast, Vatopedion is a vast wood and
granite complex with about 60 monks, resembling a
medieval version of a beach hotel. It is famous for its red
clock tower adjoining the chapel, reputed to house a
piece of the reed on which a vinegar-soaked sponge was
placed to be offered to Christ to drink from at the
crucifixion.The last time that the Prince of Wales had an
Aegean break was last August, accompanied by Princes
William and Harry. It was two years after Diana, Princess
of Wales spent the last holiday of her life in the same
sparkling blue waters. This week, choppy waters and
cloudy skies have discouraged sunbathing. The Prince and
his father have called at Mount Athos in the past. The
Greeks have a good opinion of the Duke of Edinburgh,
whom they believe to be a quiet supporter of Greek
Orthodoxy.
Mount Athos in recent years has become a centre of an
aggressive independent Orthodox revival, fighting attempts
by the Istanbul-based Ecumenical Orthodox Patriarchate
to control the holy mountain's administration and finances,
but at the same time cultivating a profound mistrust of
Orthodoxy's chief regional rival, the Vatican.
~*~
PRINCE HASSAN AZIZ HASSAN(UK Times)
A COUSIN of King Farouk, Egypt's last ruling monarch,
and a great-grandson of Khedive Ismail, who built
modern Cairo, Hassan Aziz Hassan died shortly before
the publication of his memoir of life inside Egypt's
deposed royal family, In the House of Muhammad Ali:
A Family Album, 1805-1952.
One of the few members of the fallen dynasty who did not
flee abroad after the Free Officers' coup in 1952 which
deposed King Farouk, Hassan was also among Egypt's
finest painters and a gifted pianist.
He was a familiar figure at Simonds, the flagship coffee
shop of the ancien regime in Cairo, where he would
quietly sip his espresso while streams of Egyptians and
foreigners from all walks of life swirled about him.
His few heirlooms from the family whose 147-year rule
took Egypt from semi-feudal lethargy to dynamic - if often
squandered and lopsided - development, were
sequestrated by the Government. So to survive, Hassan
sold his own art to private collectors. He was forbidden to
exhibit in Egyptian galleries, and yet he managed to stage
two shows (the second of them in 1997) at Cairo's Italian
Cultural Centre.
Hassan's father, Prince Aziz Hassan, was a founder of the
Wafd, Egypt's pro-independence party. He met Hassan's
mother (who was then a Roman Catholic) while in Spain,
one of the countries in which he made a home after being
banished from Egypt by the British authorities during the
First World War. After his death when Hassan was eight,
Hassan's mother, being a foreigner, was not allowed to
raise her own children, and so his uncle, King Fuad, sent
them to the rural estate of his sister, near Cairo.
Hassan was then educated at schools in Izmir, Beirut and
finally in England at a Quaker school near Reading. During
the war he made his way back to Cairo via Cape Town
and Sudan, by ship and flying boat.
At 18, fed up with having no say in his own future, Hassan
broke with his father's family. Meanwhile, the monarchy
fêted its way through its foggy final years, as the corpulent
and gambling-addicted Farouk lurched from scandal to
scandal until he finally alienated the only group capable of
crushing him, the army, and was overthrown on July 23,
1952.
Farouk, who abdicated in favour of his infant son, Fuad
II, then sailed into exile in his yacht to Italy. In 1953, the
Free Officers ended the monarchy, confiscating the former
royal family's property, right down to their lingerie. In
1961 Hassan's brother Ismail, a decorated Egyptian Air
Force pilot, shot himself in despair.
Hassan, however, found solace in painting, and in music,
for many years sharing a modest flat with one of his sisters
and her family. They did not get along, but had nowhere
else to go.
Journalists and other writers often visited Hassan, whom
they tapped for background material on the old order.
Few could resist mocking in print his clipped British
accent and dignified air of decline. But none captured his
graceful manner, erudition in several languages or his
humane - if testy - wit. He chose to be buried in a private
part of the decaying royal cemetery, in the tomb of an
obscure prince of the past, upon which his own name is
not yet engraved.
~*~
Cast Of 7,000 For Queen Mother's Birthday Pageant(Yahoo: PA)
Horse Guards Parade is to hold its biggest ever pageant in honour of the Queen Mother's 100th
birthday.
More than 7,000 performers, including many celebrities, will take part in the parade and tribute on July
19.
Representatives of all the associations and charities linked to the Queen Mother will take part and they
will be joined by massed and mounted bands, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and a massed choir of
more than 1,000 singers, a spokesman said.
The tribute will be a non-profit making event using stands and seating erected at Horse Guards for the Royal Military Tattoo
2000 the previous week. Costs of mounting the event will come from the generosity and goodwill of those taking part and
donations from a number of benefactors.
Most of the 12,000 seats for the event will go to members of the charities and associations taking part. A limited number will be
available to the general public.
The Queen Mother is 100 on August 4.
~*~
Queen To Open Shakespeare-To-Stones Gallery Wing(Yahoo: PA)
The Queen is opening a new £16 million wing at the National Portrait Gallery housing famous faces
from William Shakespeare to the Rolling Stones.
The gallery, overlooking London's Trafalgar Square, is the largest of its kind in the world.
The new extension, named after benefactor Christopher Ondaatje, creates 50% more public and
exhibition space, upgrades visitor facilities and includes an IT gallery with 10 large touchscreens, lecture theatre and rooftop
restaurant.
~*~
Andrew could remarry Fergie(Yahoo:Evening Standard)
By Colin Adamson
Prince Andrew has tantalisingly left open the question of whether he may remarry the Duchess of York.
"I don't rule remarriage out, and I certainly don't rule it in," he says in an interview today. "If ever the
opportunity arose, I don't know what I'd do as it isn't in the plan."
The Duchess adds: "I simply say that if it should happen, great. It is not in, nor is it ruled out."
The couple, both 40, separated in 1993, but there has been speculation over their relationship since Sarah moved back to their
Berkshire home three years ago.
Interviewed for the June issue of Tatler, Prince Andrew says living together despite being divorced works well for their
daughters Beatrice, 11, and Eugenie, 10.
He adds, however: "We are not just doing it for the children. We are doing it for our own benefit too."
Then Andrew appears to go cool on remarriage by saying: "The fact is that we got married and had a wonderful time, but it
didn't work out, for whatever reason. Both Sarah and I are determined not to make a nonsense of it again."
He blames himself for not understanding "cries for help" until it was too late.