Wednesday, January 18, 2012
[Denmark] Queen Margrethe II Celebrates 40 Years on The Throne - City Hall Reception
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| King Carl XVI Gustaf, cousin of the Queen |
All photos from Zimbio
Sunday, January 15, 2012
Queen Beatrix, Prince Willem-Alexander & Princess Maxima in Middle-East trip to UAE & Oman
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| This caption stirred a row in the Netherlands, for the fact the Queen and Princess Maxima used veils in a sacred place. No comments. |
On January 8th, Queen Beatrix accompanied by Crown Prince Willem-Alexander and his wife, Princess Máxima, and a delegation of business leaders visited the UAE, invited by President Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan. This was the Queen’s fiftieth state visit since she was crowned in 1980.
On January 10th, the Queen and her entourage traveled on to Oman at the invitation of Sultan Qaboos. A prior state visit, planned in March, was called off in view of the ongoing pro-democracy demonstrations and the violent crackdown by Oman’s authorities. The Dutch parliament cancelled the state visit after two demonstrators died in clashes with Omani security forces in February. Dutch MPs did not want the state visit to be seen as endorsing the regime. In a surprise move, Queen Beatrix travelled to Oman after all, arguing her tip had been downgraded to a private visit.
Sultan Qaboos is Oman’s head of state, prime minister, defence minister, foreign minister and the head of the armed forces. The country has no legal political parties.
The UAE is a federation of seven absolute monarchies. The Federal National Council consists of 40 members drawn from all the emirates. Half are appointed by the emirates’ rulers, and the other half are indirectly elected to serve two-year terms.The first indirect elections took place in 2006.
source of the article
source of the photos
Sunday, January 8, 2012
Young royal (and almost) princely couples we like
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| Beatrice Borromeo & Pierre Casiraghi, dating since 2008. They met in Italy. |
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| Dave Clark & Princess Beatrice. |
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| Charlotte Casiraghi and Alex Dellal, a London art dealer. |
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| Chris O'Neill & Princess Madeleine of Sweden |
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| Tatiana Santo Domingo & Andrea Casiraghi. They met at school, in Paris. |
Tuesday, January 3, 2012
Who do you think Crown Princess Victoria will pick as Godparents to her first child?
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| Crown Princess Victoria with her husband, Prince Daniel. |
Sometimes, I use my twitter account to ask my fellow royal watchers and enthusiasts a few questions that could be more of guessing games (as Marcia Tracy would suggest).
My question tonight was related to Crown Princess Victoria: she is best known as Godmother of Europe as she has this role with Ingrid Alexandra of Norway, Amalia of the Netherlands, Eléonore of Belgium and Christian of Denmark. So, who will she and Daniel pick as Godparents to her child?
As Royalty in the News cited, and I quote: it's "amazing how Crown Princess Victoria and Queen Victoria have motherly links to Europe. Victoria of UK was Mother of Europe, Crown Princess Victoria the godmother". That is so true. The biggest highlight on how Crown Princess Victoria takes her role as godmother very personally, she picked them (except very wee Princess Eleonore) as her bridesmaids and pageboys at her wedding, on June 19th, 2010.
As Order of Splendor reminded me, in Sweden, you cannot have more than 4 godparents - fine for me, as I do have 4 godparents, but this numbers usually burst for other royal and princely houses. Was is interesting though is that her father, King Carl XVI Gustaf's godparents were Crown Prince Frederick of Denmark, Crown Princess Ingrid of Denmark, Crown Prince Olav of Norway, Crown Princess Juliana of the Netherlands, King Gustaf V of Sweden, Prince Friedrich Josias of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, Crown Prince Gustaf Adolf of Sweden, Crown Princess Louise of Sweden, Count Folke Bernadotte af Wisborg, and the Countess Maria Bernadotte af Wisborg. If my count is right, he had 10! Would be interesting to know why this changed. I asked myself if it was because Victoria was not Crown Princess at birth (her brother was), but even Prince Carl Philip only had 4 godparents.
Victoria's godparents are King Harald V of Norway, her maternal uncle, Ralf Sommerlath, Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands, and her aunt Princess Désirée, Baroness Silfverschiöld.
In light of all this, my first choice would go to: Crown Prince Frederik of Denmark, Crown Prince Haakon, Princess Madeleine and Princess Maxima of the Netherlands.
But, I tend to forget: that baby also has a father, so maybe it will be half royal, half Westling.
Why would I choose those two Crown Princes? Both of them, with Victoria, were raised together. The Scandinavian Royal Houses (Norway, Sweden, Denmark) have a close bond, mostly due to geographical proximity, language (I know that there are differences, but the 3 languages are close, could not say the same if we put Finnish in the mix) and family ties. A few years ago, the 3 heirs travelled together, you can watch the video here.
Here are a few answers that popped up on twitter: many confirmed my first intuition by including Frederik and Haakon, like Malaya. Gert-Jan de Wit vouches for Prince Willem-Alexander of Oranje. Marcia Tracy has her bet on, as well as Fred and Haakon, on Prince Albert and Princess Charlene of Monaco. Why not?
Order of Splendor goes for both of Victoria's siblings (Carl Philip and Madeleine) and Haakon and Mette-Marit. This combination could happen, living Crown Princess Victoria to choose Frederik and Mary for her second child. Or vice-versa.
Cheryl Anderson Brown suggested that "probably no catholic godparents" and maybe that would discard Monaco.
The two most sensible and close-to-mine answers I received were from Spanish Royals & Sasha Ackler: Fred, Haakon, Madeleine and Anna Westling, Daniel's sister. This seems like a good fit.
Marie Elizabeth was spot on when she replied "no one from the British Royal Family" which I completely agree with, as there does not seem to be a close relationship between the Swedish House and the British one.
When Janet Webb & The Countess of Grantham answered they would see the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge being invited to be the Godparents, I did not picture that happening. Of course, it could, but if there is any bond to be created between Prince William and Princess Victoria, it would be when they are both heirs or both regents. Not before.
Let's come back to this post in 4/5 months, once the baby (a girl? a boy?) is born and being actually christened so that we reveal who was right or wrong!
All links are towards twitter accounts. If you want me to take them out of this post, just... tweet me and I will do it straight away!
Sunday, January 1, 2012
But who is Prince Philippe? Philip? Felipe? Filip? Philipp? Philippos?
It might have happened to you - or not, if you are an amazing royal watcher or you just do not care that much - to stumble into a "Prince Philippe did this..." and if you have no mention of the City/Country of action, you don't know exactly who it is. In Italy, France, Germany, The Netherlands, the name "Philip" was massively used as a regal name, such as George, Edward, John, Carl, Albert and so on. The major difference resides in the spelling according to the country. But if you read Spanish newspapers, you might have noticed that they "translate" names. No Queen Elizabeth II there, they call her "Isabel II". Yeah...
So, back at the Philips! First, top right, Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, the consort of Queen Elisabeth before-mentioned. Bottom right, Felipe, the Prince of Asturias, heir apparent to the Spanish throne. Bottom left, Prince Philippe, the Duke of Brabant, future King of the Belgians. And top left, he is not really (just a) Philip, but Carl Philip, brother of Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden and always a good reason to fit in a montage.
Second, from non-reigning houses, we have on top left Prince Philippos of Greece and Denmark, son of former King Constantine and Queen Anne-Marie of Greece. Top right, Philipp, prince of Hohenlohe-Langenburg, bottom right Prince Filip of Yugoslavia and bottom left, Philipp, Prince of Hesse.
Hope this helped a bit!
[Japan] Emperor Akihito expresses hopes for united rebuilding effort in New Year's greetings
Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko on Sunday received New Year's greetings at the start of 2012 from other imperial family members and foreign ambassadors, while expressing hope in his New Year's message for cooperative and patient efforts to rebuild society after the nation was devastated by a series of natural disasters last year.
Among the well-wishers who extended congratulations to the emperor and the empress at the Imperial Palace in Tokyo were Crown Prince Naruhito and Crown Princess Masako, Prince Akishino and his wife Princess Kiko, Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda and about 200 ambassadors and their spouses.
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| photos found on twitter |
"It is certainly a pleasure to celebrate the New Year together," the emperor said at the ceremony. "At the beginning of the year, I wish for the prosperity of the nation and happiness of the people."
In his New Year message to the Japanese people released earlier in the day, the emperor expressed hope that everyone will cooperate and make patient efforts to rebuild Japanese society after the country was hard hit in 2011 by calamities, such as the March 11 earthquake and tsunami disaster as well as torrential rains which ravaged parts of western Japan in September.
to read more, click here
Royal Births in January
2011: Prince Vincent and Princess Josephine of Denmark
January 9th
1982: Catherine, The Duchess of Cambridge
January 20th
1973: Princess Mathilde, Duchess of Brabant
January 21st
2004: Princess Ingrid Alexandra of Norway
January 23rd
1957: Princess Caroline of Hanover (sister of Prince Albert II of Monaco)
January 25th
1978: Princess Charlene of Monaco (former Wittstock)
1978: Princess Charlene of Monaco (former Wittstock)
January 30th
1962: King Abdullah II of Jordan
1968: Crown Prince Felipe of Spain
2005: Prince Hashem of Jordan
1968: Crown Prince Felipe of Spain
2005: Prince Hashem of Jordan
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