In May this year I watched (on television) with sadness the funeral procession of Jean, Duke of Luxembourg. Now cast your mind back to 1558 when Charles V’s funeral procession took place in Brussels.
He died in September in Spain (malaria) but the funeral was held in Brussels in December, conveniently for his son, Philip II of Spain, who at the time lived in the Netherlands. Who was Charles V ? A Holy Roman Emperor and King of Spain with a big chin and protruding lower lip, as depicted by Titian.
If you want to know more and set him in context – read on. John Julius Norwich spotted that he is of the same generation as Henry VIII, Francis I and Suleiman the Magnificent; they were all born between 1491 and 1500. His Four Princes describes their lives and their impact on Europe. If your medieval history is a bit rusty, mine is, there is no more pleasurable way up to which to brush it.
33% Guaranteed Return
Recently I mislaid my Freedom Pass and had recourse to an old Oyster card. It stopped working when there was only 15 p credit left so I decided to reclaim my credit and use a Debit card. To my pleasure the machine at Barons Court station refunded me 20p, doubtless because it doesn’t have any 5 ps.
Other investments are slower burn. North Atlantic Smaller Companies trades at a 27 % discount and CEO, Christopher Mills, and Chairman, Peregrine Moncreiffe, have added to their holdings.
At £30 a share Christopher’s holding is worth almost £113 million. How much did Neil Woodford invest in his ill-fated funds? I don’t know. How much did Neil Woodford and his business partner trouser from 2014 to 2019? Just shy of £120 million. Nice work if you can get it and sod the clients.
Order of St Patrick
You are familiar with Fabergé, jewellers to the Russian Tsars founded in St Petersburg in 1842. You are probably less familiar with Rundell Bridge & Rundell, founded in 1797. They sound like a firm of provincial solicitors. Actually they were goldsmiths and jewellers serving George IV, William IV and Queen Victoria. I saw some of their work at this exhibition. Note the tasteful Christmas tree decororations.
You may remember relatively recent exhibitions of the collections of Charles I and II at the Royal Academy and the Queen’s Gallery. This continues the theme and George IV splashed out on some impressive pictures. But we are interested in a small item of jewellery; gold, diamond, ruby, emerald and enamel, created by Rundell Bridge & Rundell for George IV. It is the badge of the Order of St Patrick (right, below).
Fit for a King. If you happened not to be a King but a member of the Order your badge was less sparkly but nonetheless, no doubt, pleasing to the wearer.
Wednesday 11th December
Tomorrow will be my 5th Election Observation Mission (EOM) this year. To get to and from the first four I took twelve flights – not very eco-friendly. Tomorrow I will only need to take a combination of tubes, buses and maybe a taxi or two to cover my Area of Observation: Kensington. It is an especially interesting constituency because in the north there is extreme poverty while the constituency as a whole has one of the highest levels of income in the country. In the 2017 General Election, Labour won the seat by a margin of twenty votes, so it will be hotly contested tomorrow. Who are the eight candidates?
ASTON COLQUHOUN Jay Hilda – Brexit Party
BUCHAN Felicity Christiana – The Conservative Party Candidate
DENT COAD Emma – Labour Party
DORE Scott Ejiro – Workers Revolutionary Party
GORE Harriet Nkechi Adimora – Touch Love Worldwide (UK)
GYIMAH Samuel Phillip – Liberal Democrats
LICHTENSTEIN Vivien Aviva – Green Party
PHILLIPS Roger David – Christian Peoples Alliance
I was under the misapprehension that electoral law in the UK had hardly changed since the 19th century. In fact, as you know, it is frequently tweaked and tomorrow two new procedures will be introduced for the first time. I wonder if Presiding Officers at polling stations will be aware of them?
Friday 13th December
The weather yesterday was inclement. My American election observation partner and I covered twelve polling stations in Kensington before I called it a day and went home to wring out my socks and have a glass of Jameson’s. As it happens, the Presiding Officers at every polling station were unaware of the small rule changes, something that my Head of Mission will draw to the attention of the Electoral Commission. They were, however, all welcoming, informative, helpful and their stations were well run. More importantly they were helpful to voters who found they were unable to vote; usually because they were at the wrong polling station or had requested a postal vote. I nearly forgot; after a recount the Conservative candidate won by 150 votes.
The Order of St John
Earlier this month I visited the Order of St John in Clerkenwell. It is hard to understand the origins of an Order members of which were soldiers and hospitallers – they killed and cured as it were. John Julius Norwich provides a succinct explanation in Four Princes.
A military order originally established in Palestine in the eleventh century to tend sick pilgrims, the Knights of St John had been evicted with the last of the Crusaders from the Holy Land in 1291. After a long search for a suitable new headquarters, followed by a two-year siege, they had captured Rhodes, which in 1310 they had made their base and which, by a subsequent papal decree, became their property. In these circumstances they were not only an order of knighthood; they were a sovereign state. One of their very first tasks on their arrival had been to start work on their new infirmary. It was soon to become the most celebrated – and by far the best – hospital in the world. The great ward – which remains today almost exactly as it was when the Order left it nearly five centuries ago – could accommodate no fewer than eighty-five patients, all tended by the Knights themselves. With their hospital completed, they returned to their other preferred occupation. Now at last they could resume their continuing war against the infidel, with its avowed object of ‘reducing to silence the enemies of Christ’.
In January 1523 the Knights surrendered Rhodes to Sultan Suleiman and his army. JJN takes up the story.
Then, in 1530, the Emperor Charles offered them Malta with its neighbouring island of Gozo and, as an additional bonus, the city of Tripoli on the North African coast. The fee was a single falcon – ‘the Maltese Falcon’ – payable every year on All Souls’ Day. The Knights accepted with alacrity, and started work at once on their new hospital. Malta was to be their home for the next 268 years.
Pure Luck
I bought Edinburgh Investment Trust in May 2016. The shares cost £6.78 and it became apparent were under-performing. In January 2018 I sold them for £6.99 but, after costs, lost a few hundred pounds. Now the fund manager has been sacked and the shares, even after Friday’s Boris Bounce, closed at £6.17. It was pure luck that I decided to sell. I didn’t know the manager was a disciple of Neil Woodford who was replicating his mentor’s mistakes.
Meanwhile, in another part of the financial forest, palm oil is strong – $760 from a low of $460 a year ago – and MP Evans have appointed a new non-executive director. Dr Darian McBain is their first female director and her environmental credentials are impeccable. I’m pleased, not least because I have been lobbying for a woman on the Board for a while.
After the election you might think that there is a plan for the UK. Oh no, it’s panto season and if you think It’s All Over Now, don’t believe it.