The Man Who Stole A Country..

The Man Who Stole A Country...

It might be good to be the king, but most of us will never have a chance to fin

After all, it’s not liked out.

anyone can just go out and declare themselves ruler of a whole country.

Or can they? Well, as it turns out, trying to become a king isn’t as rare as you’d think.

Boris Skossyreff...

His Majesty King Boris I of Andorra was born Boris Skossyreff in Vilnius, Lithuania between 1896 and 1898 and fled the country after the old Russian Empire collapsed in 1917.

At some point, he made his way to London, where he was arrested in 1919 for passing forged checks. He was later deported from Britain due to “incidents of a similar nature.”

By the early 1930s, Boris was hanging around the wealthy American yacht club in Mallorca, Spain, where he billed himself as a fitness expert. He also claimed to be the Count of Orange, an ancient and noble Dutch title, but his American friends noticed that he never seemed to pick up the bill in restaurants.

In truth, Boris was supported by a succession of wealthy women, including the American divorcee Florence Marmon. Eventually, the Spanish government expelled him from the country.

In 1934, Boris and Florence turned up in Andorra. The tiny European country was jointly governed by the president of France and the Spanish bishop of Urgell. However, many Andorrans were fed up with being ruled by foreigners, and the French had to send 60 policemen to put down a tiny revolution in 1933.

Sensing an opportunity, the smooth-talking con man swung into action. Still claiming to be a Dutch count, the urbane Boris had little trouble impressing the rural Andorrans with tales of his exploits.

Having drawn up a document outlining his plans for the little country, he declared himself king in June. Astonishingly, the Andorran General Council backed him, voting 23 to 1 .to accept the “Count of Orange” as their new monarch.

Even more astonishingly, the French government accepted the council’s decision, writing Andorra off with a Gallic shrug. However, the one Andorran councilor who opposed the decision raced across the border to inform the bishop of Urgell.

Unimpressed with Boris’s plan to open casinos in his new country, the bishop sent the Spanish police to arrest him. Boris responded by declaring war on the bishop. They arrested him anyway.

The Spanish took Boris to Madrid, where his own lawyer told authorities that he was violating the laws against vagrancy and should be kicked out of Spain.

They then deported him to Portugal, who immediately deported him to France, who also immediately deported him. Mrs. Marmon declined to pay for his fare to be upgraded to first class.

Comments

THE TERRIBLE STORY OF LT. COL.RONALD SPEIRS.

THE TERRIBLE STORY OF LT. COL.RONALD SPEIRS. Lt. Col. Ronald Speirs, one of the toughest soldiers in Easy Company (Band of Brothers) was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, April 20, 1920. His family moved to Boston, Mass, when he was 7. He enlisted in 1942 & trained as a paratrooper, becoming a platoon leader in Dog company and later company commander of Easy Company, both of 506th PIR, 101st Airborne. In January 1945, when Easy Company's initial attack on the German-occupied town of Foy bogged down due to the commander 1st Lieutenant Norman Dike, being wounded, battalion executive officer Captain Richard Winters ordered Speirs to relieve Dike of command. The selection of Speirs was incidental; Winters later stated that Speirs was simply the first officer he saw when he turned around. Speirs successfully took over the assault and led Easy Company to victory. During this battle, Lt. Dike had ordered a platoon to go on a flanking mission around the rear of the town. To countermand th

femina agabbadòra hammer

“In Sardinia, the use of the "femina agabbadòra hammer" was a women's practice. Whenever an elderly man or woman of a given family was dying and in great pain, the family would call for the Accabadòra or Lady of the Good Death. She would usually be a widow dressed entirely in black, who likely inherited her role from her own mother or grandmother. The title Accabadora means "She is the One Who Ends." She arrives with a large hammer of carved olive wood wrapped in heavy wool, and is left alone with the individual who may yet be screaming in agony and terror. A witness testimonial of the practice translates: "It was dark. The room was illuminated by a single wick in mastic oil. The Accabadòra entered the house -- the door had been left open for her. She passed no one as she enters her patient's room at at the bedside. "She caressed the face of the dying person, chanted the rosary, sang one of the many lullabies usually sung to children. Finally s

US executes first woman Lisa Montgomery on federal death row in nearly 70 years.

US executes first woman Lisa Montgomery on federal death row in nearly 70 years. Montgomery was the first female prisoner to be executed in by the US government since 1953. Montgomery, 52, was put to death by lethal injection of pentobarbital. The US government executed convicted murderer Lisa Montgomery, the only woman on federal death row, on Wednesday, after the Supreme Court cleared the last hurdle by overturning a stay. Challenges were fought across multiple federal courts on whether to allow the execution of Montgomery, 52, who was put to death by lethal injection of pentobarbital, a powerful barbiturate in the Justice Department`s execution chamber at its prison in Terre Haute, Indiana. The U.S. Supreme Court, with its conservative majority, cleared the way for her execution after overturning a stay by the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Kelley Henry, Montgomery`s lawyer, called the execution "vicious, unlawful, and unnecessary exercise of authoritarian power." &quo

WORLD OF ALL

Search This Blog