24 Tuesday Jan 2023
Posted in Featured Royal, In the News today..., Kingdom of Europe
BREAKING: Buckingham Palace has announced HRH Princess Eugenie of York and her husband Jack Brooksbank are expecting their second child.
Buckingham Palace said in a statement: “Princess Eugenie and Mr Jack Brooksbank are pleased to announce they are expecting their second child this summer.
“The family are delighted and August is very much looking forward to being a big brother.”
11 Wednesday Jan 2023
Tags
Anne-Marie of Denmark, Athens, Duke of Edinburgh, King Charles III of the United Kingdom, King Constantine II of the Hellenes, Kingdom of Greece, Prince Philip, Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom, Queen Margrethe II of Denmark.
King Constantine II of the Hellenes, whose reigned for nine years from March 6, 1964 until the abolition of the Greek monarchy on June 1, 1973, has died at a private hospital in Athens, late on Tuesday. He was 82.
Constantine II (June 2, 1940 – January 10, 2023) was the last King of the Hellenes (Greece).
King Constantine II was a second cousin of British monarch King Charles III. For most of his years in exile, Constantine lived in Hampstead Garden Suburb in north London.
His older sister, Queen Sophia of Spain, is the wife of former King Juan Carlos I of Spain. The current King Felipe VI of Spain is his nephew. Constantine II was also the cousin of Greek-Danish Prince Philip, the late Duke of Edinburgh and the husband of the late Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom.
Christian IX of Denmark’s second son, Vilhelm of Denmark, was elected King George I of the Hellenes in 1863, a few months before his father ascended the Danish throne.
Christian IX was of the House of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg and this family ruled in Greece from 1863 – until the monarchy was abolished in 1974. There was also a period of time when Greece was a Republic, 1922 and 1935, until the monarchy was restored under King George II of the Hellenes.
Constantine was the only son of King Pavlos of Greece and Friederike, Princess of Hanover, Princess of Great Britain and Ireland, and Princess of Brunswick-Lüneburg, the only daughter and third child of Ernst August of Hanover, then reigning Duke of Brunswick, and his wife Princess Viktoria Luise of Prussia, herself the only daughter of the German Emperor Wilhelm II.
The Greek Royal Family was forced into exile after the First World War and then again during the Second World War. Constantine returned to Greece with his family in 1946 during the Greek Civil War. King George II died in 1947, and Constantine’s father became King Pavlos I, making Constantine the Crown Prince.
Constantine became king in 1964 following the death of his father, King Pavlos I. During the same year the new Greek King married his cousin Princess of Denmark with whom he eventually had five children.
Princess Anne-Marie of Denmark, is the youngest daughter of King Frederick IX of Denmark and his wife Ingrid of Sweden. Ingrid of Sweden was the daughter of King Gustaf VI Adolf of Sweden and his first wife, Princess Margaret of Connaught (a granddaughter of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom).
Anne-Marie’s sister is Queen Margrethe II of Denmark.
King Constantine II, continued to style himself King of Greece and his children as princes and princesses even though Greece no longer recognised titles of nobility. This is not unusual for former Royal Families. The Greek Royal Family are still Prince and Princesses of Denmark. Constantine travelled with a Danish passport, as a Danish prince.
It took Constantine 14 years to return to his country, briefly, to bury his mother, Queen Frederica in 1981, but he eventually moved back permanently.
His five children are Princess Alexia, Crown Prince Pavlos, Prince Nikolaos, Princess Theodora and Prince Philippos; and nine grandchildren.
If the Greek monarchy remained extant King Constantine II would have reigned for 59 years and his son, Crown Prince Pavlos, would now be King Pavlos II of the Hellenes.
09 Monday Jan 2023
Tags
Catherine Elizabeth Middleton, HM King Charles III of the United Kingdom, HRH The Duchess of Cambridge, HRH The Duke of Cambridge, HRH The Princess of Wales, Prince William of Wales, Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom
HRH The Princess of Wales (born Catherine Elizabeth Middleton; January 9, 1982) is a member of the British royal family. She is married to HRH The Prince of Wales, heir apparent to the British throne, making Catherine the likely next queen consort.
Catherine Elizabeth Middleton was born at the Royal Berkshire Hospital in Reading on January 9, 1982 into an upper-middle-class family. She was baptised at St Andrew’s Bradfield, a local parish church, on June 20, 1982.
She is the eldest of three children born to Michael Middleton (b. 1949) and his wife, Carole (née Goldsmith; b. 1955), a former flight dispatcher and flight attendant, respectively,
She was educated at St Andrew’s School and Marlborough College before studying art history at the University of St Andrews in Scotland, where she met Prince William of Wales in 2001. Prince William of Wales the son of the then Prince Charles, The Prince of Wales and his first wife, Lady Diana Spencer.
Catherine held jobs in retail and marketing and pursued charity work before their engagement was announced in November 2010. They married on April 29, 2011 at Westminster Abbey.
On the morning of thier wedding Queen Elizabeth II created Prince William Duke of Cambridge, Earl of Strathearn and Baron Carrickfergus. The letters patent granting these titles were issued on May 26 that year. Catherine became The Duchess of Cambridge, Countess of Strathearn and Baroness Carrickfergus.
By marrying a Prince of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland Catherine became a Princess of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. However, the privilege to be called Princess, followed by thier first name, is reserved for Princesses that are born into the Royal Family.
Had her husband not been elevated to the Peerage of the United Kingdom, Catherine would have been addressed as Her Royal Highness Princess William of Wales. See Princess Michael of Kent as an example.
On the accession of the Duke of Cambridge’s father to the throne as HM King Charles III on September 8, 2022, as the eldest son of the monarch, the Duke of Cambridge automatically became Duke of Cornwall, Duke of Rothesay, Earl of Carrick, Baron of Renfrew, Lord of the Isles, and Prince and Great Steward of Scotland.
As heir to the throne the title Duke of Cambridge was to be used along with his new title Duke of Cornwall and for one day William and Catherine were officially The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and Cornwall.
However, this new styling was only to last one day for on the next day, September 9, 2022, His Majesty the King announced the creation of the Duke of Cambridge and Cornwall as Prince of Wales and Earl of Chester.
His wife took on the feminine form of her husband’s titles and is addressed as Her Royal Highness the Princess of Wales in England but in Scotland is addressed as Her Royal Highness the Duchess of Rothesay. As mentioned above, since the Princess of Wales was not born into the Royal Family it is not correct to refer to her as Princess Catherine.
The couple’s children—Prince George, Princess Charlotte, and Prince Louis—are second, third, and fourth in the line of succession to the British throne, respectively.
Catherine holds patronage within over 20 charitable and military organisations, including Action for Children, SportsAid, and the National Portrait Gallery. She undertakes projects through The Royal Foundation, with her charity work focusing on issues surrounding young children, addiction, and art.
To encourage people to open up about their mental health issues, Catherine envisioned the mental health awareness campaign “Heads Together”, launched with William and Prince Harry in April 2016.
In 2011, 2012, and 2013, Time magazine selected her as one of the 100 Most Influential People in the World.
07 Wednesday Dec 2022
Tags
HRH The Princess of Orange, King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands., Princess Catharina-Amalia of the Netherlands, Queen Maxima of the Netherlands
Catharina-Amalia, Princess of Orange (Catharina-Amalia born December 7, 2003) is the heir apparent to the throne of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, which consists of the constituent countries of Aruba, Curaçao, the Netherlands, and Sint Maarten.
Catharina-Amalia became heir apparent to the Dutch throne when her father ascended the throne on April 30, 2013.
Birth
Princess Catharina-Amalia Beatrix Carmen Victoria was born at 17:01 CET on December 7, 2003 in the HMC Bronovo in The Hague, the first child of the then Prince Willem-Alexander (now king) and Princess Máxima. Upon the public announcement of her birth, 101 salute shots were fired at four places in the Kingdom of the Netherlands: Den Helder and The Hague in the Netherlands, Willemstad in Curacao, and Oranjestad in Aruba.
03 Saturday Dec 2022
Tags
coronation, Imperial State Crown., King Charles III of the United Kingdom, St. Edward's Crown, Tower of London
Buckingham Palace: St Edward’s Crown, the historic centrepiece of the Crown Jewels, has been removed from the Tower of London to allow for modification work to begin ahead of the Coronation on Saturday 6th May 2023.
I was wondering if King Charles III would use the St. Edward’s Crown. I had been thinking it was too large. I had forgotten that it could be modified just like the Imperial State Crown!
Modification of the Imperial State Crown: The arches were lowered for Queen Elizabeth II
04 Friday Nov 2022
Tags
Gelderland, Glorious Revolution, King Charles II of England, King James II-VII of England, Overijssel, Prince of Orange, Prince Willem II of Orange, Princess Mary of England and Scotland, Stadholder of Holland, the Netherlands, Utrecht, Willem III, William III and Mary II, Zeeland
November 4, 1677, Willem III, Prince of Orange, Stadholder of Holland, Zeeland, Utrecht, Gelderland, and Overijssel (future King of England, Scotland, and Ireland), marries Mary (future Queen Mary II), the daughter of James, Duke of York (future King James II-VII).
Willem was born on November 4, 1650, his mother’s birthday, as the only child of Willem II, Prince of Orange, and Mary, Princess Royal, the eldest daughter of King Charles I of England, Scotland and Ireland and Princess Henrietta Maria de Bourbon of France, herself the daughter of King Henri IV of France and Navarre and his wife Maria de Medici.
Princess Mary was born November 4, 1631 and was married to the future stadtholder of the Netherlands, Willem II of Orange, at 9 years old in 1641. Initially, she remained in England with her parents because of the heated political situation in England until early 1642, when she and her mother left for the Netherlands.
Five years later in 1647, Mary’s husband inherited the titles of Prince of Orange and Stadtholder of Holland, Zeeland, Utrecht, Guelders, Overijssel and Groningen in the United Provinces of the Netherlands.
Eight days after her husband’s death in 1650, Mary gave birth to a son, Willem III of Orange, on November 4, 1650 who later became King of England, Scotland and Ireland.
Mary wanted to name him Charles after her brother, but her mother-in-law insisted on giving him the name William (Willem) to bolster his prospects of becoming stadtholder.
Willem II had appointed his wife as their son’s guardian in his will; however, the document remained unsigned at Willem II’s death and was void. On August 13, 1651, the Hoge Raad van Holland en Zeeland (Supreme Court) ruled that guardianship would be shared between his mother, his paternal grandmother and Friedrich Wilhelm, Elector of Brandenburg, whose wife, Louise Henriette, was Willem II’s eldest sister.
Mary, was not popular in the Netherlands because of her support of her brothers and her difficult relationship with her mother-in-law Amalia of Solms-Braunfels, who considered the princess young and inexperienced. After the restoration of the monarchy in England in 1660, Mary departed for celebrations in London, where she fell ill with smallpox and died.
During the war with France, Willem wanted to improve his position by marrying his first 15 year old first cousin Mary, elder surviving daughter of the Duke of York, later King James II of England (James VII of Scotland).
Mary was eleven years his junior and he anticipated resistance to a Stuart match from the Amsterdam merchants who had disliked his mother (another Mary Stuart), but Willem believed that marrying Mary would increase his chances of eventually succeeding to Charles’s kingdoms, and would draw England’s monarch away from his pro-French policies.
Mary’s father, James, Duke of York, was not inclined to consent, but Charles II pressured his brother to agree. Charles wanted to use the possibility of marriage to gain leverage in negotiations relating to the war, but Willem insisted that the two issues be decided separately.
Charles relented and agreed to the marriage. When James told Mary that she was to marry her cousin, “she wept all that afternoon and all the following day.”
Willem and a tearful Mary were married in St James’s Palace by Bishop Henry Compton on November 4, 1677, Prince Willem’s birthday.
The bedding ceremony to publicly establish the consummation of the marriage was attended by the royal family, with her uncle the King Charles II himself drawing the bedcurtains. Mary accompanied her husband on a rough sea crossing to the Netherlands later that month, after a delay of two weeks caused by bad weather.
Rotterdam was inaccessible because of ice, and they were forced to land at the small village of Ter Heijde, and walk through the frosty countryside until met by coaches to take them to Huis Honselaarsdijk. On December 14, they made a formal entry to The Hague in a grand procession.
Mary became pregnant soon after the marriage, but miscarried. After a further illness later in 1678, she never conceived again.
Throughout Willem and Mary’s marriage, Willem had only one reputed mistress, Elizabeth Villiers, in contrast to the many mistresses his uncles openly kept.
King Charles II died in 1685 and James took the throne, as King James II-VII, making Mary heir presumptive. James’s attempts at rule by decree and the birth of his Catholic son from a second marriage, James Francis Edward (later known as “the Old Pretender”), led to his deposition in the Glorious Revolution of 1688 and the adoption of the English Bill of Rights.
In February 1689 Parliament offered the throne jointly to Willem and Mary who reigned as King William III and Queen Mary II.
25 Tuesday Oct 2022
Tags
Duchess of Brabant, King Albert II of Belgium, King of the Belgians, King Philippe of Belgium, Princess Elisabeth of Belgium, Queen Mathilde
Princess Elisabeth, Duchess of Brabant (Dutch: Elisabeth Theresia Maria Helena; French: Élisabeth Thérèse Marie Hélène; born October 25, 2001) is the heir apparent to the Belgian throne. The eldest child of King Philippe and Queen Mathilde, she acquired her position after her grandfather King Albert II abdicated in favour of her father on July 21, 2013.
The first child of the then Duke and Duchess of Brabant, Elisabeth was delivered by Caesarean section at 21:58 CET on October 25, 2001 at the Erasmus Hospital, the teaching hospital of Université libre de Bruxelles in Anderlecht, Brussels.
She was baptized on December 9, 2001 in the chapel of Ciergnon Castle in the Belgian Ardennes, by Cardinal Godfried Danneels, the Archbishop of Mechelen-Brussels. Her godparents are Archduke Amedeo of Austria-Este (paternal cousin), and Countess Hélène d’Udekem d’Acoz (maternal aunt).
Education
Elisabeth studied at St John Berchmans College in the Marollen district of Brussels, which had been attended by her older cousins, the children of her paternal aunt, Princess Astrid of Belgium. This is a significant change in the habits of the royal family, as it is the first time that a future Belgian monarch’s education has begun in Dutch.
In 2018, she continued her secondary education at UWC Atlantic College in Wales and received her International Baccalaureate Diploma in 2020. She also attended the Yale Young Global Scholars Program at Yale University.
After her secondary school graduation in 2020, she spent a year at the Royal Military Academy Belgium in Brussels, studying Social and Military Sciences. She began studying history and politics at Lincoln College, University of Oxford in October 2021, while remain attending Royal Military Academy Belgium’s annual summer camps and other practical and theoretical military classes.
Elisabeth speaks Dutch, French, German and English. She also took classes in Mandarin Chinese.
Position
Ten years prior to Elisabeth’s birth, a new act of succession was put into effect which introduced absolute primogeniture, meaning that she comes first in the line of succession because she is the eldest child.
On July 21, 2013, once Elisabeth’s father had taken the oath of office as King of the Belgians (his father, King Albert II, having abdicated shortly before), she became heir apparent to the throne and as such bears the title of Duchess of Brabant. If she ascends to the throne as expected, she will be Belgium’s first female monarch.
21 Friday Oct 2022
Tags
HIH Grand Duchess Maria Vladimirovna of Russia, HIH Grand Duke George Mikhailovich of Russia, HSH Prince Alexander Georgievich of Russia, HSH Princess Victoria Romanova of Russia, Royal Birth
HIH Grand Duke George Mikhailovich of Russia and HSH Princess Victoria Romanovna of Russia have had a boy! HSH Prince Alexander Georgievich of Russia
This press release is from HIH Grand Duchess Maria Vladimirovna of Russia
28 Wednesday Sep 2022
Tags
counts and countess of Monpezat, Kingdom of Denmark, Prince Joachim of Denmark, Queen Margrethe II of Denmark., Royal Titles
Changes in title for Prince Joachim’s descendants – https://www.kongehuset.dk/en/news/changes-in-titles-and-forms-of-address-in-the-royal-family
“In April 2008, Her Majesty The Queen bestowed upon her sons, their spouses and their descendants the titles of count and countess of Monpezat. In May 2016, it was also announced that His Royal Highness Prince Christian, as the only one of The Queen’s grandchildren, is expected to receive an annuity from the state as an adult.
As a natural extension of this, Her Majesty has decided that, as of 1 January 2023, His Royal Highness Prince Joachim’s descendants can only use their titles as counts and countess of Monpezat, as the titles of prince and princess that they have held up until now will be discontinued. Prince Joachim’s descendants will thus have to be addressed as excellencies in the future. The Queen’s decision is in line with similar adjustments that other royal houses have made in various ways in recent years.
With her decision, Her Majesty The Queen wishes to create the framework for the four grandchildren to be able to shape their own lives to a much greater extent without being limited by the special considerations and duties that a formal affiliation with the Royal House of Denmark as an institution involves.
All four grandchildren maintain their places in the order of succession.”
14 Wednesday Sep 2022
Posted in Featured Monarch, In the News today..., Royal Death
Tags
Charles I of England and Scotland, coronation banquet, Henry III of England, Houses of Parliament, Pope Benedict XVI, Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom, Trials, Westminster Hall, William II of England, William Wallace
The body of her late Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II is now lying in state at Westminster Hall.
Westminster Hall, the oldest existing part of the Palace of Westminster, was erected in 1097 by King William II (‘William Rufus’), at which point it was the largest hall in Europe. The roof was probably originally supported by pillars, giving three aisles, but during the reign of King Richard II, this was replaced by a hammerbeam roof by the royal carpenter Hugh Herland, “the greatest creation of medieval timber architecture”, which allowed the original three aisles to be replaced with a single huge open space, with a dais at the end.
The new roof was commissioned in 1393. Richard’s master builder Henry Yevele retained the original dimensions, refacing the walls, with fifteen life-size statues of kings placed in niches. The rebuilding had been begun by King Henry III in 1245, but by Richard’s time had been dormant for over a century. In Westminster Hall, the favourite heraldic badge of Richard II – a white hart, chained, and in an attitude of rest – is repeated eighty-three times, without any of them being an exact copy of another.
The largest clearspan medieval roof in England, Westminster Hall’s roof measures 20.7 by 73.2 metres (68 by 240 ft). Oak timbers for the roof came from royal woods in Hampshire and from parks in Hertfordshire and from that of William Crozier of Stoke d’Abernon, who supplied over 600 oaks in Surrey, among other sources; they were assembled near Farnham, Surrey, 56 kilometres (35 mi) away. Accounts record the large number of wagons and barges which delivered the jointed timbers to Westminster for assembly.
Westminster Hall has served numerous functions. Until the 19th century, it was regularly used for judicial purposes, housing three of the most important courts in the land: the Court of King’s Bench, the Court of Common Pleas and the Court of Chancery. In the reign of Henry II (1154–89) a royal decree established a fixed siting of judges in the Hall.
In 1215, Magna Carta stipulated that these courts would sit regularly in the Hall for the convenience of litigants. In 1875, the courts were amalgamated into the High Court of Justice, which continued to have chambers adjacent to Westminster Hall until moved to the then new Royal Courts of Justice building in 1882.
In addition to regular courts, Westminster Hall also housed important state trials, including impeachment trials and the state trials of King Charles I at the end of the English Civil War, William Wallace, Thomas More, Cardinal John Fisher, Guy Fawkes, the Earl of Strafford, the rebel Scottish lords of the 1715 and 1745 uprisings, and Warren Hastings.
The St Stephen’s Porch end of the Hall displays under the stained glass window the Parliamentary War Memorial listing on eight panels the names of Members and staff of both Houses of Parliament and their sons killed serving in the First World War; the window itself, installed in 1952, commemorates members and staff of both Houses who died in the Second World War. In 2012, a new stained glass window commemorating Queen Elizabeth II’s diamond jubilee was installed opposite this window, at the other end of the hall.
George IV’s coronation banquet was held in Westminster Hall in 1821, the last of its kind; no such banquet has been held since.
Westminster Hall has also served ceremonial functions. From the twelfth century to the nineteenth, coronation banquets honouring new monarchs were held here. The last coronation banquet was that of King George IV, held in 1821; his successor, William IV, abandoned the idea because he deemed it too expensive.
The Hall has been used as a place for lying in state during state and ceremonial funerals. Such an honour is usually reserved for the Sovereign and for their consorts; the only non-royals to receive it in the twentieth century were Frederick Sleigh Roberts, 1st Earl Roberts (1914) and Winston Churchill (1965). In 2002 the hall was used for the lying in state of Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother, and in 2022 the hall was used for the lying in state of Queen Elizabeth II.
The two Houses have presented ceremonial Addresses to the Crown in Westminster Hall on important public occasions. For example, Addresses were presented at Elizabeth II’s Silver Jubilee (1977), Golden Jubilee (2002) and Diamond Jubilee (2012), the Accession of Charles III (2022), the 300th anniversary of the Glorious Revolution (1988), and the fiftieth anniversary of the end of the Second World War (1995).
It is considered a rare privilege for a foreign leader to be invited to address both Houses of Parliament in Westminster Hall. Since the Second World War, the only leaders to have done so have been French president Charles de Gaulle in 1960, South African president Nelson Mandela in 1996, Pope Benedict XVI in 2010, U.S. president Barack Obama in 2011 and Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi in 2012.
President Obama was the first US president to be invited to use the Hall for an address to Parliament and Aung San Suu Kyi was the first non-head of state to be given the accolade of addressing MPs and peers in Westminster Hall.
European Royal History 