Five things you did not know about the Royal family
Celebrating the birth of a son to the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, the Jerusalem Post invites you to explore the curious history of British Royals.
By HAGAY HACOHENIsrael’s UK Ambassador Mark Regev meets Queen Elizabeth at Buckingham Palace in 2016(photo credit: DOMINIC LIPINSKI / POOL / REUTERS)
Prince Harry and his wife Meghan announced to the public on Monday the birth of a healthy boy."The Queen, the Duke of Edinburgh, the Prince of Wales, the Duchess of Cornwall, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, Lady Jane Fellowes, Lady Sarah McCorquodale and Earl Spencer have been informed and are delighted with the news,” Buckingham Palace said.To mark the special day, The Jerusalem Post put together five interesting things about the Royals that might surprise even hard-core Royals enthusiasts. 1. Whalers and the Royals.The kings and queens of England are anointed using a special mixture of oils during their coronation. The exact content of the mixture is kept secret and, at least in theory, should a person present at the ceremony rush forward and anoint himself or herself, he or she would have a legal right to rule the realm.This was used by American writer Herman Melville in his famous work Moby Dick.In a passage in which he exults the bravery and worth of whalers who provide whale fat to produce oil and candles, he addresses the people of Britain saying, “We Nantucket whalers anoint your kings!”The line was struck off the first edition of the great American novel when it was printed in England.2. The royal who was inked in Jerusalem.
When Prince Albert Victor and George V visited the holy land in 1882 they got tattoos on their arms consisting of five crosses and the three crowns of Jerusalem.The tattoo was given by the Razzouk family, Coptic Christians specializing in tattoos and who migrated to Jerusalem in 1750 from Egypt.The family's descendants are still in the ink business and when Prince William visited Israel in 2018 there was some hope he'd hop in and continue the tradition [he didn't].3. The first Jew to meet George III was a boxer.There is a documented account of the first encounter of King George and a Jew. That Jewish person was called Daniel Mendoza.Mendoza was born in England to Portuguese–Jewish parents and was one of the celebrated boxers in his day and age.4. Circumcision among the mighty and the good.Up until the 1970’s males born to the Royal family had been circumcised. The surgery was usually done by a Jewish Mohel and in the 1950’s twenty percent of all males in the UK were circumcised, the Telegraph reported.The practice was started by George the First, as it was common in Hanover in his time.5. When the King speaks, he can do so in Hebrew.During the British Mandate in Palestine, British decisions were published in Hebrew, one of the first cases the language was used in modern time for government needs.The legislation type used by the British was called Order in Council and refers to orders given by the King or Queen of the realm, the Hebrew translation is “the king said in his council that…” Some of the laws accepted in this way are still used in Israeli law today.
