Word: monarchs
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...Prime Minister, had to fight his way to the grandstand, at one point knocking off the turban of a man who had gotten in his way. He was worried for the safety of his friends, the last British viceroy Lord Mountbatten, who was a cousin of England's monarch, and his wife Edwina, with whom Nehru was secretly enamored. But Mountbatten knew of another secret that would cause great grief...
...scores of hotels and businesses with Thai connections were vandalized, and more than 700 Thai nationals, including Ambassador Chatchawed Chartsuwan and his staff, were forced to flee for their lives. But for stunned Thais watching the riots on TV back home, these acts paled beside news of their revered monarch's image defiled inside their own embassy in Phnom Penh while police stood watching from the lawn. "If Cambodians destroy our property, I can deal with that," says Rangsri, 48, a chauffeur in Bangkok. "But stepping on a picture of our King, our father, cannot be accepted. For that, Cambodia...
...prostate cancer treatment; in Tokyo. A tumor was discovered last December, and the Emperor is expected to remain in hospital for about a month after an operation to remove it. The news came as a surprise to a Japanese public accustomed to being kept in the dark about their monarch's health; Akihito is long credited with trying to modernize the royal family...
...royal flummery, no one beats the British. Last Wednesday, accompanied by retainers with ancient titles like the Rouge Croix Pursuivant, Queen Elizabeth processed into the House of Lords to open Parliament by reading a dull speech in a firm voice. But underneath the imperial crown, the 76-year-old monarch looked drawn and frail, perhaps because of something else the British are best at: royal scandal...
Schama, narrating in a scruffy leather jacket, is a popularizer in the best sense. He can be snarky, poetic or both, as when he describes Queen Victoria's funeral procession, the monarch dressed in white: "There was a touch of Miss Havisham about this--the 80-year-old, flower-bedecked virgin bride." He's an enlightening, entertaining guide to a history that isn't ours, except that it really is. --By James Poniewozik