It would seem so.
When the nice lady across the road sorts out her old magazines, she passes them on to me instead of throwing them away, which is how I came to be reading The Week for the week of 19th December. Sadly, it seems that His Tremendousness, Prince Giorgio I of Seborga, has just died aged 73. Seborga is a bit bigger than Hay, at around 5 square miles, but has only 364 inhabitants.
By a clerical oversight, it seemed that Seborga had never been officially incorporated into the Italian state, so the position of Prince was free and local man Giorgio Carbone took up the post. He designed coins, stamps and a flag (white cross on a blue background) for his principality, and held court in the Bianca Azzurra bar, wearing a bright blue sash and a sword.
The Italian state has never officially recognised the state of Seborga, saying that Giorgio only dreamed the whole thing up to encourage tourism. His Tremendousness's response to that was "The Government are imbeciles! Tourists! Pah!"
It seems that there is no heir to the title, which I think is rather a shame.
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2 comments:
I read the obituary of His Tremendousness shortly after his death and I too was struck by the comparison to Hay. I think it was his tremendous self-appointed title that caught my eye!
I do hope that another Seborgian takes up the throne and becomes the next Tremendousness.
At the risk of stirring up a hornet's nest here on your blog, Lesley, what say we keep Richard as 'Couer de Livre'.
Well, as you know, I am a loyal member of the new Commonwealth, but Richard's contribution to Hay can never be taken away from him.
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