Tuesday, May 17, 2011

Young King Peter "believes a revolution is justified"

Embed from Getty Images 
 May 17, 1935

Young King Peter of Yugoslavia is "beginning to think for himself," reports the New York Times. 

His great-aunt, Infanta Beatriz of Spain, recently visited her sister, Dowager Queen Marie, the grandmother of the 12-year-old King.   The conversation "turned on the Spanish revolution" and King Alfonso's exile from the country.

Peter asked, "What is a revolution?"   Infanta Beatriz, a bit embarrassed, responded by saying that a "revolution was a kind of madness that attacked people and drove them to irresponsible actions."

"And it was during a revolution that the Spanish people drove out their king?" Peter asked.  "Why did they do that?
Infanta Beatriz, a granddaughter of Queen Victoria, replied: "As I told you because they were mad."

King Peter thought for a few minutes about Aunt Beatriz's remarks and then said: "It seems to me that there is something wrong in what you say.  I think that if people drive away a king he must have done something he should not have done."

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