Queen Elizabeth, Esperantist

But did she write in it?

Not that Queen Elizabeth. The current Sovereign of the United Kingdom wasn’t even born when this particular Elizabeth was queen. Nor even her mother (another Queen Elizabeth). Not British royalty at all, but instead a German princess who became Queen of Romania (when she married the King of Romania). Our Esperantist Queen Elizabeth is referred to on Wikipedia as Elisabeth of Wied, daughter of the Prince of Wied, whose principality had gone out of existance before he was born.

In addition to being minor German nobility, Elizabeth was a writer, which she did under the name of Carmen Sylva. She was a prolific writer, although when you’re queen of Romania, you can get away with How I Spent Sixtieth Birthday. But it wasn’t all Thoughts of Queen, she also wrote things like Legends from River and Mountain, and Songs of Toil. She was also an Esperantist.

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Crushed By Troubles, Duchess Studies Esperanto

What language would she be
studying if she were happy?

I’m sorry, but was the Esperanto part supposed to make us feel more sorry for Consuelo Spencer-Churchill? The Esperanto reference appears in the third subhead in an article in September 9, 1907 San Francisco Call. In the headline and subheads we learn that the “American duchess” is “crushed by troubles,” “forlorn,” has given up society, and that she’s “reading and learning Esperanto.” Oh, the horror of it all.

The duchess in question was, at the time, Duchess of Marlborough. Her maiden name was Consuelo Vanderbilt; she was an American heiress who married into the British nobility (just like Downton Abbey!). Unlike the Crawleys (specifically the Earl of Grantham and his American-born wife), history (and Wikipedia, yeah) records that the Spencer-Churchills did not have a happy marriage (though this scandal would have died down before the Titanic sunk with Lady Mary’s marriage prospects)[1]

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