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Tag Archives: Prince Philip

I am going to gloat a little!!

11 Saturday Mar 2023

Posted by liamfoley63 in From the Emperor's Desk, Royal Succession, Royal Titles, Uncategorized

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Duke of Edinburgh, Liam Foley, Prince Charles, Prince Edward, Prince Philip

From the Emperor’s Desk:

I’m going to gloat a little. When Prince Philip died in 2021 I had reported on the Facebook page connected to this blog that Prince Charles had become the new Duke of Edinburgh. I had more than 75+ people angrily tell me how wrong I was and that Prince Edward was then the new Duke of Edinburgh.

No matter how I tried to explain the situation about how the Dukedom was to be inherited, people kept telling me and attacking me for being wrong. Some attacks were harsh and personal.

I gave up trying to defend my position and explaining things, knowing in time I’d be proven right.

Yesterday I was proven right!

History of the Title Duke of Edinburgh

10 Friday Mar 2023

Posted by liamfoley63 in Duchy/Dukedom of Europe, Featured Noble, Featured Royal, Kingdom of Europe, Royal Titles

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Duke of Edinburgh, King Charles III of the United Kingdom, King George I of Great Britain, King George VI of the United Kingdom, Peerage of Great Britain, Peerage of the United Kingdom, Prince Alfred, Prince Edward, Prince Frederick Louis, Prince Philip, Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom

Duke of Edinburgh, named after the city of Edinburgh in Scotland, is a substantive title that has been created four times since 1726 for members of the British royal family. It does not include any territorial landholdings and does not produce any revenue for the title holder.

1726 Creation

HRH Prince Frederick Louis, Duke of Edinburgh

The title was first created in the Peerage of Great Britain on July 26, 1726 by King George I of Great Britain, who bestowed it on his grandson Prince Frederick Louis, who also became Prince of Wales the following year.

The subsidiary titles of the dukedom were Marquess of the Isle of Ely, Earl of Eltham, in the County of Kent, Viscount of Launceston, in the County of Cornwall, and Baron of Snowdon, in the County of Caernarvon, all of which were also in the Peerage of Great Britain.

The marquessate was gazetted as Marquess of the Isle of Wight, apparently erroneously. In later editions of the London Gazette the Duke is referred to as the Marquess of the Isle of Ely.

After Prince Frederick Louis was created Prince of Wales and Earl of Chester and had inherited all the other titles associated with the Prince of Wales and Earl of Chester titles: Duke of Cornwall (as heir to the throne in England) titles: Duke of Rothesay (heir apparent to the King of Scots), High Steward of Scotland and Lord of the Isles, he still remained Duke of Edinburgh.

Upon Frederick Louis death in 1751 the titles were inherited by his son Prince George. When Prince George became King George III in 1760, the titles merged in the Crown and ceased to exist.

1866 Creation

HRH Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh

Queen Victoria re-created the title, this time in the Peerage of the United Kingdom, on 24 May 1866 for her second son Prince Alfred, instead of Duke of York, the traditional title of the second son of the monarch. The subsidiary titles of the dukedom were Earl of Kent and Earl of Ulster, also in the Peerage of the United Kingdom.

When Alfred became the reigning Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha in 1893, he retained his British titles. His only son that survived birth, Alfred, Hereditary Prince of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, committed suicide in 1899, so the Dukedom of Edinburgh and subsidiary titles became extinct upon the elder Alfred’s death in 1900.

1947 Creation

HRH Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh

The title was created for a third time on November 19, 1947 by King George VI, who bestowed it on his son-in-law Philip Mountbatten, when he married Princess Elizabeth. Subsequently, Elizabeth was styled “HRH The Princess Elizabeth, Duchess of Edinburgh” until her accession in 1952.

The subsidiary titles of the dukedom were Earl of Merioneth and Baron Greenwich, of Greenwich in the County of London; all these titles were in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. Earlier that year, Philip had renounced his Greek and Danish royal titles (he was born a Prince of Greece and Denmark, being a male-line grandson of King George I of the Hellenes and male-line great-grandson of King Christian IX of Denmark) along with his rights to the Greek throne. In 1957, Philip became a Prince of the United Kingdom in his own right.

Upon Philip’s death on April 9, 2021, his eldest son Charles, Prince of Wales, succeeded to all of his hereditary titles. Upon Charles’s accession to the throne on September 8, 2022, the peerages merged in the Crown and ceased to exist.

2023 Creation

HRH Prince Edward, Duke of Edinburgh

It was announced in 1999, at the time of the wedding of Prince Edward, Earl of Wessex, that he would eventually follow his father as Duke of Edinburgh.

It was expected that a new, fourth creation would be bestowed on Prince Edward after the third creation reverted to the Crown when Charles III acceded to the throne. In July 2021, The Times reported that Charles had decided not to give the title to his brother upon accession. Clarence House stated that “all stories of this nature are speculation, no final decisions have been taken” and declined to comment further.

The title was created for a fourth time on March 10, 2023 by King Charles III, who bestowed it on his brother Prince Edward, when he turned 59. The title will be held by Prince Edward for his lifetime, as a non-hereditary peerage title.

February 2, 1882: Birth of Prince Andrew of Greece and Denmark.

02 Thursday Feb 2023

Posted by liamfoley63 in Featured Royal, Kingdom of Europe, Royal Genealogy, Royal House, This Day in Royal History

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Duke of Edinburgh, Grand Duchess Olga Constantinovna, House of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg, King Charles III of the United Kingdom, King George I of the Hellenes, Prince Andrew of Greece and Denmark, Prince Philip, Princess Alice of Battenberg, Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom

Prince Andrew of Greece and Denmark (February 2, 1882 – December 3, 1944) of the House of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg, was the seventh child and fourth son of King George I of the Hellenes and He was a grandson of Christian IX of Denmark, and the father of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. He was a prince of both Denmark and Greece by virtue of his patrilineal descent.

Prince Andrew of Greece and Denmark

Prince Andrew was born at the Tatoi Palace just north of Athens on February 2, 1882, the fourth son of George I of the Hellenes and Grand Duchess Olga Constantinovna of Russia, the oldest daughter of Grand Duke Constantine Nikolaievich and his wife, Princess Alexandra of Saxe-Altenburg.

Grand Duke Constantine Nikolaievich was the son of Emperor Nicholas I of Russia and Princess Charlotte of Prussia, the eldest surviving daughter and fourth child of King Friedrich Wilhelm III of Prussia, and Duchess Louise of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, and a sister of King Friedrich Wilhelm IV and of German Emperor Wilhelm I, King of Prussia.

King George I of the Hellenes

Prince Andrew was a member of the House of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg, he was a Prince of both Greece and Denmark, as his father, King George I of the Hellenes a younger son of Christian IX of Denmark and his wife Prince Louise of Hesse-Cassel. Prince Andrew was in the line of succession to the Greek and more distantly to the Danish throne.

A career soldier, he began military training at an early age, and was commissioned as an officer in the Greek army. His command positions were substantive appointments rather than honorary, and he saw service in the Balkan Wars.

Grand Duchess Olga Constantinovna

In 1913, his father was assassinated and Andrew’s elder brother, Constantine, became king. The king’s neutrality policy during World War I led to his abdication, and most of the royal family, including Andrew, was exiled. On their return a few years later, Andrew saw service as Major General in the Greco-Turkish War (1919–1922), but the war went badly for Greece, and Andrew was blamed, in part, for the loss of Greek territory. He was exiled for a second time in 1922, and spent most of the rest of his life in France.

Grand Duchess Olga Constantinovna

Marriage

In 1902, Prince Andrew met Princess Alice of Battenberg during his stay in London on the occasion of the coronation of King Edward VII of the United Kingdom who was his uncle-by-marriage and her grand-uncle.

Princess Alice was a daughter of Prince Louis of Battenberg and Princess Victoria of Hesse and by Rhine, King Edward VII’s niece. They fell in love, and the following year, on October 6, 1903, Andrew married Alice in a civil wedding at Darmstadt.

Princess Alice of Battenberg

The following day two religious wedding services were performed: one Lutheran in the Evangelical Castle Church, and another Greek Orthodox in the Russian Chapel on the Mathildenhöhe. Prince and Princess Andrew had five children, all of whom later had children of their own.

Princess Alice of Battenberg

During their time in exile the family became more and more dispersed. Alice suffered a nervous breakdown and was institutionalized in Switzerland. Philip was sent to school in Britain, where he was brought up by his mother’s British relatives. Andrew went to live in the South of France.

Prince and Princess Andrew of Greece and Denmark

By 1930, he was estranged from his wife, Princess Alice of Battenberg. His only son, Prince Philip, served in the British navy during World War II, while all four of his daughters were married to German Royals, three of whom had Nazi connections.

On the French Riviera, Andrew lived in a small apartment, or hotel rooms, or on board a yacht with Countess Andrée de La Bigne. His marriage to Alice was effectively over, and after her recovery and release, she returned to Greece.

In 1936, his sentence of exile was quashed by emergency laws, which also restored land and annuities to the King. Andrew returned to Greece for a brief visit that May.

The following year, his pregnant daughter Cecilie, his son-in-law and two of his grandchildren were killed in an air accident at Ostend; he met Alice for the first time in six years at the funeral, which was also attended by Andrew’s sixteen-year-old son Prince Philip.

During World War II, he found himself essentially trapped in Vichy France, while his son, Prince Philip, fought on the side of the British. They were unable to see or even correspond with one another.

Prince Andrew of Greece and Denmark

Andrew’s three surviving sons-in-law fought on the German side: Prince Christoph of Hesse was a member of the Nazi Party and the Waffen-SS; Berthold, Margrave of Baden, was invalided out of the Wehrmacht in 1940 after an injury in France; Prince Gottfried of Hohenlohe-Langenburg served on the Eastern Front and was dismissed after the July 20 plot. For five years, Andrew saw neither his wife nor his son.

Death and burial

He died on December 3, 1944 in the Hotel Metropole, Monte Carlo, Monaco, of heart failure and arteriosclerosis in the closing months of the war in Europe.

Andrew was at first buried in the Russian Orthodox church in Nice, but in 1946 his remains were transferred, by the Greek cruiser Averof, to the royal cemetery at Tatoi Palace, near Athens.

Prince Philip and then-private secretary, Mike Parker, traveled to Monte Carlo to collect items belonging to his father from Andrée de La Bigne; among these items: a signet ring which the Prince wore from then onwards, an ivory shaving brush he took to using, and some clothes he had adapted to fit him.

Prince Philip of Greece and Denmark, Duke of Edinburgh

Prince Andrew left to his only son seven-tenths of his estate, but he also left behind a debt of £17,500, leading Philip’s maternal grandmother, Victoria, Marchioness of Milford Haven, to complain bitterly of the extravagance the Greek prince had been led into by his French mistress.

His only son, Prince Philip married Princess Elizabeth on November 20, 1947, the daughter of King George VI of the United Kingdom and his wife Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon. Prince Philip was created Duke of Edinburgh by the King. Princess Elizabeth succeeded to the throne in 1952 as Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom. This makes Prince Andrew the paternal grandfather of King Charles III of the United Kingdom.

King, Constantine II of the Hellenes, Has Died.

11 Wednesday Jan 2023

Posted by liamfoley63 in Abdication, Featured Monarch, In the News today..., Kingdom of Europe, Royal Death, Royal Genealogy, Royal House, Royal Succession, Royal Titles, This Day in Royal History

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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.

Happy 74th Birthday to His Majesty, the King

14 Monday Nov 2022

Posted by liamfoley63 in Bishop of Rome and the Catholic Church, coronation, Featured Monarch, Happy Birthday, Kingdom of Europe, Royal Divorce, Royal Succession

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Camilla Parker Bowles, coronation, Duke of Edinburgh, King Charles III of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, Lady Diana Spencer, Prince of Wales, Prince Philip, Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom, The Princes Trust, Westminster Abbey Birthday

King Charles III of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland was born at 21:14 (GMT) on November 14, 1948, during the reign of his maternal grandfather, King George VI. He was the first child of Princess Elizabeth, Duchess of Edinburgh (later Queen Elizabeth II), and Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. His parents would have three additional children, Anne (born 1950), Andrew (born 1960) and Edward (born 1964). On 15 December 1948, at four weeks old, he was christened in the Music Room of Buckingham Palace by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Geoffrey Fisher.

In February 1952, upon the death of his grandfather and the accession of his mother as Queen Elizabeth II, Charles became the heir apparent. Under a charter of King Edward III in 1337, and as the monarch’s eldest son, he automatically assumed the traditional titles of the Duke of Cornwall and, in the Scottish peerage, the titles Duke of Rothesay, Earl of Carrick, Baron of Renfrew, Lord of the Isles, and Prince and Great Steward of Scotland. On June 2, 1953, Charles attended his mother’s coronation at Westminster Abbey.

Charles was created Prince of Wales and Earl of Chester on July 26, 1958, by his mother though his investiture was not held until July 1, 1969, when he was crowned by his mother in a televised ceremony held at Caernarfon Castle.

He took his seat in the House of Lords in 1970, and he made his maiden speech in June 1974, the first royal to speak from the floor since the future Edward VII in 1884. He spoke again in 1975. Charles began to take on more public duties, founding the Prince’s Trust in 1976, and travelling to the United States in 1981.

Charles first met Lady Diana Spencer in 1977 while he was visiting her home, Althorp. He was the companion of her elder sister, Sarah, and did not consider Diana romantically until mid-1980. While Charles and Diana were sitting together on a bale of hay at a friend’s barbecue in July, she mentioned that he had looked forlorn and in need of care at the funeral of his granduncle Lord Mountbatten.

Soon, according to Charles’s chosen biographer, Jonathan Dimbleby, “without any apparent surge in feeling, he began to think seriously of her as a potential bride”, and she accompanied Charles on visits to Balmoral Castle and Sandringham House.

Charles proposed to Diana in February 1981; she accepted and they married in St Paul’s Cathedral on 29 July 29 of that year. The couple lived at Kensington Palace and at Highgrove House, near Tetbury, and had two children: Princes William (b. 1982) and Henry (known as “Harry”) (b. 1984). Charles set a precedent by being the first royal father to be present at his children’s births.

In December 1992, British prime minister John Major announced the couple’s legal separation in Parliament. Charles and Diana divorced on August 28, 1996, after being formally advised by the Queen in December 1995 to end the marriage. The couple shared custody of their children. Diana was killed in a car crash in Paris on August 31 of the following year; Charles flew to Paris with Diana’s sisters to accompany her body back to Britain.

The engagement of Charles and Camilla Parker Bowles was announced on February 10, 2005; he presented her with an engagement ring that had belonged to his grandmother. The Queen’s consent to the marriage (as required by the Royal Marriages Act 1772) was recorded in a Privy Council meeting on March 2.

The marriage was scheduled to take place in a civil ceremony at Windsor Castle, with a subsequent religious blessing at St George’s Chapel. The venue was subsequently changed to Windsor Guildhall, because a civil marriage at Windsor Castle would oblige the venue to be available to anyone who wished to be married there.

Four days before the wedding, it was postponed from the originally scheduled date of April 8 until the following day in order to allow Charles and some of the invited dignitaries to attend the funeral of Pope John Paul II.

The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh attended the service of blessing and later held a reception for the newlyweds at Windsor Castle. The blessing, by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, at St George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle, was televised.

In 2008, The Daily Telegraph described Charles as the “hardest-working member of the royal family”. He carried out 560 official engagements in 2008, 499 in 2010, and over 600 in 2011.

During his time as Prince of Wales, Charles undertook official duties on behalf of the Queen. He officiated at investitures and attended the funerals of foreign dignitaries. Charles made regular tours of Wales, fulfilling a week of engagements each summer, and attending important national occasions, such as opening the Senedd. The six trustees of the Royal Collection Trust met three times a year under his chairmanship.

In May 2022, Charles attended the State Opening of Parliament and delivered the Queen’s Speech on behalf of his mother as a counsellor of state for the first time.

Charles acceded to the British throne on September 8, 2022, following the death of his mother, Queen Elizabeth II. Charles was the longest-serving British heir apparent, surpassing Edward VII’s record on April 20, 2011. When he became monarch at the age of 73, he was the oldest person to do so, the previous record holder being William IV, who was 64 when he became king in 1830.

Plans for Charles’s coronation have been made for many years, under the code name Operation Golden Orb. Reports before his accession suggested that Charles’s coronation would be simpler and smaller in scale than his mother’s in 1953, with the ceremony expected to be “shorter, smaller, less expensive and more representative of different faiths and community groups – falling in line with the King’s wish to reflect the ethnic diversity of modern Britain”. Nonetheless, the coronation will be a Church of England ceremony and will require a coronation oath, the anointment, the delivery of the orb and the enthronement.

There had been speculation as to what regnal name Charles would choose upon his succession to the throne. In 2005, it was reported that Charles had suggested he might choose to reign as George VII in honour of his grandfather George VI, and to avoid associations with previous royals named Charles.

Charles’s office said at the time that no decision had yet been made. Following the death of Queen Elizabeth II, Clarence House confirmed that Charles would use the regnal name “Charles III”.

King Charles III gave his first speech to the nation on September 9 at 18:00 BST, in which he mourned his late mother and proclaimed his elder son, William, Prince of Wales.

On September 10, 2022, Charles was publicly proclaimed King of the United Kingdom by the Accession Council. The ceremony was televised for the first time. Attendees included Queen Camilla, The Prince of Wales, then-British prime minister Liz Truss, and her predecessors John Major, Tony Blair, Gordon Brown, David Cameron, Theresa May, and Boris Johnson. Charles was also proclaimed king of each of his other realms by the relevant privy or executive council.

The coronation of King Charles III and Queen Camilla is due to take place on May 6, 2023 at Westminster Abbey.

July 12: 1915: Birth of Princess Catherine Ivanovna of Russia

12 Tuesday Jul 2022

Posted by liamfoley63 in Empire of Europe, Featured Royal, Royal Birth, Royal Genealogy, This Day in Royal History

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Duke of Edinburgh, Emperor Nicholas I of Russia, Grand Duchess Olga Constantinova of Russia, House of Romanov, King George I of the Hellenes, Marchese di Villaforesta, Prince Philip, Princess Catherine Ivanovna of Russia, Queen Elena of Montenegro, Ruggero Farace, Russian Revolution

Princess Catherine Ivanovna of Russia (July 12, 1915 – March 13, 2007) was a male line great-great-granddaughter of Emperor Nicholas I of Russia and a niece of King Alexander I of Yugoslavia. She was the last member of the Imperial Family to be born before the fall of the dynasty. She was also second cousin of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, as Catherine’s grandfather Grand Duke Constantine Constantinovich of Russia was a younger brother of Prince Philip’s grandmother Grand Duchess Olga Constantinova of Russia, Queen of Hellenes as wife of King George I of the Hellenes.

Born in Pavlovsk Palace, she was the second child of Prince John Constantinovich of Russia and Princess Helen of Serbia. After the Revolution, her father was arrested and deported from the capital and her mother followed her husband into exile.

Catherine and her brother, Vsevolod, remained in the care of her grandmother, the Grand Duchess Elizaveta Mavriekievna of Russia. On July 18, 1918, their father, Prince John, was killed, and their mother, Princess Jelena, was arrested and spent several months in Soviet prisons. Grand Duchess Elizabeth was able to take Catherine and her brother to Sweden. Sometime later, they were reunited with their mother.

The family lived in Yugoslavia, then moved to England. There, Catherine received an excellent education, although she never learned the Russian language because her mother, devastated by her husband’s death, did not want her children speaking that language in front of her.

Marriage

From 1937 to 1945, Princess Catherine Ivanovna lived in Italy, with her great-aunt Queen Elena of Montenegro. During her stay she married the Italian diplomat Ruggero Farace, Marchese di Villaforesta (1909 – 1970), in Rome on September 15, 1937; on occasion of her wedding, she renounced to her succession rights to the Russian throne.

Marchese Ruggero Farace Farace di Villaforesta (1909-1970) was son of Alfredo, Marchese Farace di Villaforesta (1860-1949), member of an old Sicilian noble family and Greek aristocrat Caterina Fachiri (1882-1968), who was descendant of some of the most prominent Phanariote families of Constantinople.

Through mutual descent from Princes of Mavrocordato Ruggero was distantly related to Queen Natalia of Serbia (1859-1941), Princess Aspasia of Greece and Denmark (1896-1972) and her daughter Queen Alexandra of Yugoslavia (1921-1993), who was married to his wife’s first cousin King Peter II of Yugoslavia (1922-1970).

In 1945, after the end of the World War II, Princess Catherine separated from her husband (although they never legally divorced) and moved with her children to South America. In later years, she lived in Montevideo, capital city of Uruguay.

Death

She died on March 13, 2007 in Montevideo, Uruquay. Aged 91.

Happy 73rd Birthday to HRH The Prince of Wales

14 Sunday Nov 2021

Posted by liamfoley63 in Duchy/Dukedom of Europe, Featured Royal, Happy Birthday, Kingdom of Europe, Royal Death, Royal Divorce, Royal Genealogy, Royal Titles, This Day in Royal History

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Camilla Parker Bowles, Duke of Cambridge, Duke of Edinburgh, Duke of Susex, HRH The Prince of Wales, King Edward VII, King William IV, Lady Diana Spencer, Prince Charles, Prince Philip, Prince's Trust, Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom

Charles, Prince of Wales (Charles Philip Arthur George; born November 14, 1948), is the heir apparent to the British throne as the eldest son of Queen Elizabeth II.

Charles was born in Buckingham Palace on November 14, 1948, during the reign of his maternal grandfather King George VI, as the first child of Princess Elizabeth, Duchess of Edinburgh, and Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. He was baptised there by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Geoffrey Fisher, on December 15, 1948.

The death of his grandfather and the accession of his mother as Queen Elizabeth II in 1952 made Charles the heir apparent. As the monarch’s eldest son, he automatically inherited the titles Duke of Cornwall, Duke of Rothesay, Earl of Carrick, Baron of Renfrew, Lord of the Isles, and Prince and Great Steward of Scotland. Charles attended his mother’s coronation at Westminster Abbey on June 2, 1953.

Prince Charles was created Prince of Wales and Earl of Chester by his mother on July 26, 1958. His investiture was not held until July 1, 1969, when he was crowned by his mother in a televised ceremony held at Caernarfon Castle.

The Prince of Wales is both the oldest and the longest-serving heir apparent in British history. He is the oldest Duke of Cornwall, Duke of Rothesay. He is also the longest-serving Prince of Wales. He surpassed the record held by Edward VII on September 9, 2017. If he becomes monarch, he will be the oldest person to do so, the current record holder being King William IV, who was 64 when he became king in 1830. Upon the death of his father, Prince Philip, on April 9, 2021, Charles also inherited the title of Duke of Edinburgh.

The Prince of Wales took his seat in the House of Lords in 1970, and he made his maiden speech in June 1974, the first royal to speak from the floor since the future Edward VII in 1884. He spoke again in 1975. Charles began to take on more public duties, founding The Prince’s Trust in 1976, and travelling to the United States in 1981.

He was educated at Cheam and Gordonstoun schools, both of which his father attended as a child. He later spent a year at the Timbertop campus of Geelong Grammar School in Victoria, Australia. After earning a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Cambridge, Charles served in the Royal Air Force and Royal Navy from 1971 to 1976.

In 1981, he married Lady Diana Spencer, with whom he had two sons: William and Henry, the current Duke of Cambridge and Duke of Susex respectively.

In 1996, the couple divorced following well-publicised extramarital affairs by both parties. Diana died as the result of a car crash in Paris the following year. In 2005, Charles married his long-term partner Camilla Parker Bowles. Although legally she is the Princess of Wales out of respect for the late Diana, Princess of Wales she is known as the Duchess of Cornwall.

The Prince of Wales has five grandchildren. The children of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge are: Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis. The Children of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex are Archie and Lillibet Mountbatten-Windsor.

As the Prince of Wales, Charles undertakes official duties on behalf of the Queen. He founded The Prince’s Trust in 1976, sponsors The Prince’s Charities, and is a patron, president, or a member of over 400 other charities and organisations.

As a self-described environmentalist, Charles has spoken publicly about issues such as organic farming and climate change, which has earned him awards and recognition from environmental groups. His support for alternative medicine, including homeopathy, has been the subject of criticism.

His views on the role of architecture in society and the conservation of historic buildings have received significant attention from British architects and design critics. Since 1993, Charles has worked on the creation of Poundbury, an experimental new town based on his architectural tastes. He is also an author or co-author of a number of books.

The Life of HRH The Duke of Edinburgh: Part V

16 Friday Apr 2021

Posted by liamfoley63 in Duchy/Dukedom of Europe, Featured Royal, In the News today..., Kingdom of Europe, Royal Death

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70th Wedding Anniversary, Death Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom, Duke of Edinburgh, Lord High Admiral, Prince Philip, Retirement, royal wedding

Prince Philip became the oldest-ever male British royal in February 2013, and the third-longest-lived member of the British royal family (following Princess Alice, Duchess of Gloucester, and Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother) in April 2019. Personally, he was not enthused about living an extremely long life, remarking in a 2000 interview (when he was 79) that he could not “imagine anything worse” and had “no desire whatsoever” to become a centenarian, saying “bits of me are falling off already”.

In 2008, Philip was admitted to King Edward VII’s Hospital, London, for a chest infection; he walked into the hospital unaided, recovered quickly, and was discharged three days later. After the Evening Standard reported that Philip had prostate cancer, Buckingham Palace – which usually refuses to comment on health rumours – denied the story and the paper retracted it.

In June 2011, in an interview marking his 90th birthday, he said that he would now slow down and reduce his duties, stating that he had “done [his] bit”. His wife, the Queen, gave him the title Lord High Admiral for his 90th birthday. While staying at Sandringham House, the royal residence in Norfolk, on December 23, 2011, the Duke suffered chest pains and was taken to the cardio-thoracic unit at Papworth Hospital, Cambridgeshire, where he underwent successful coronary angioplasty and stenting. He was discharged on December 27.


On June 4, 2012, during the celebrations in honour of his wife’s Diamond Jubilee, Philip was taken from Windsor Castle to King Edward VII’s Hospital suffering from a bladder infection. He was released from hospital on June 9. After a recurrence of infection in August 2012, while staying at Balmoral Castle, he was admitted to Aberdeen Royal Infirmary for five nights as a precautionary measure. In June 2013, Philip was admitted to the London Clinic for an exploratory operation on his abdomen, spending 11 days in hospital. On May 21, 2014, the Prince appeared in public with a bandage on his right hand after a “minor procedure” was performed in Buckingham Palace the preceding day. In June 2017, he was taken from Windsor to London and admitted to King Edward VII’s Hospital after being diagnosed with an infection. He spent two nights in the hospital and was unable to attend the State Opening of Parliament and Royal Ascot.

Retirement

Prince Philip retired from his royal duties on August 2, 2017, meeting Royal Marines in his final solo public engagement, aged 96. Since 1952 he had completed 22,219 solo engagements. Prime Minister Theresa May thanked him for “a remarkable lifetime of service”. On November 0, 2017, he celebrated his 70th wedding anniversary with the Queen, which made her the first British monarch to celebrate a platinum wedding anniversary.

On April 3, 2018, Philip was admitted to King Edward VII’s Hospital for a planned hip replacement, which took place the next day. This came after the Duke missed the annual Maundy and Easter Sunday services. On April 12, his daughter, Princess Anne, spent about 50 minutes in the hospital and afterwards said her father was “on good form”. He was discharged the following day. On May 19, six weeks later, he attended the wedding of his grandson Prince Harry to Meghan Markle and was able to walk with the Queen unaided. That October, he accompanied the Queen to the wedding of their granddaughter Princess Eugenie to Jack Brooksbank, with The Telegraph reporting that Philip works on a “wake up and see how I feel” basis when deciding whether to attend an event or not.

Philip died on the morning of April 9, 2021 at Windsor Castle, aged 99, two months before his 100th birthday. He was the longest-serving royal consort in British history. In private, the Queen described her husband’s death as “having left a huge void in her life”.

The cause of death has not been disclosed, though the palace said Philip died peacefully. Philip’s daughter-in-law, the Countess of Wessex, confirmed the official statement, describing his death as “…so gentle. It was just like somebody took him by the hand and off he went.” His death led to the commencement of Operation Forth Bridge, the plan for publicly announcing his death and organising his funeral. The funeral is scheduled to take place on April 16, 2021 at St George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle.

The Life of HRH The Duke of Edinburgh: Part IV

15 Thursday Apr 2021

Posted by liamfoley63 in Duchy/Dukedom of Europe, Featured Royal, Kingdom of Europe

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Tags

Commonwealth, Duke of Edinburgh, Patron, Prince Philip, Privy Council of Canada, Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom, Royal Society, Royal Tours, State Dinners, State Opening of Parliament

Duties

As consort to the Queen, Philip supported his wife in her duties as sovereign, accompanying her to ceremonies such as the State Opening of Parliament in various countries, state dinners, and tours abroad. As chairman of the Coronation Commission, he was the first member of the royal family to fly in a helicopter, visiting the troops that were to take part in the ceremony. Philip was not crowned in the service, but knelt before Elizabeth, with her hands enclosing his, and swore to be her “liege man of life and limb”.

In the early 1950s, his sister-in-law, Princess Margaret, considered marrying a divorced older man, Peter Townsend. The press accused Philip of being hostile to the match, to which he replied “I haven’t done anything.” Philip had not interfered, preferring to stay out of other people’s love lives. Eventually, Margaret and Townsend parted. For six months, over 1953–1954, Philip and Elizabeth toured the Commonwealth; as with previous tours the children were left in Britain.

In 1956, the Duke, with Kurt Hahn, founded The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award in order to give young people “a sense of responsibility to themselves and their communities”. In the same year, he also established the Commonwealth Study Conferences. From 1956 to 1957, Philip travelled around the world aboard the newly commissioned HMY Britannia, during which he opened the 1956 Summer Olympics in Melbourne and visited the Antarctic, becoming the first royal to cross the Antarctic Circle.

The Queen and the children remained in the UK. On the return leg of the journey, Philip’s private secretary, Mike Parker, was sued for divorce by his wife. As with Townsend, the press still portrayed divorce as a scandal, and eventually Parker resigned. He later said that the Duke was very supportive and “the Queen was wonderful throughout. She regarded divorce as a sadness, not a hanging offence.” In a public show of support, the Queen created Parker a Commander of the Royal Victorian Order.

Further press reports claimed that the Queen and the Duke were drifting apart, which enraged the Duke and dismayed the Queen, who issued a strongly worded denial. On February 22, 1957, she granted her husband the style and title of a Prince of the United Kingdom by Letters Patent, and it was gazetted that he was to be known as “His Royal Highness The Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh”.

Philip was appointed to the Queen’s Privy Council for Canada on October 14, 1957, taking his Oath of Allegiance before the Queen in person at her Canadian residence, Rideau Hall. Remarks he made two years later to the Canadian Medical Association on the subject of youth and sport were taken as a suggestion that Canadian children were out of shape. This was at first considered “tactless”, but Philip was later admired for his encouragement of physical fitness.

Philip was patron of some 800 organisations, particularly focused on the environment, industry, sport, and education. His first solo engagement as Duke of Edinburgh was in March 1948, presenting prizes at the boxing finals of the London Federation of Boys’ Clubs at the Royal Albert Hall. He was president of the National Playing Fields Association (now known as Fields in Trust) for 64 years, from 1947 until his grandson Prince William took over the role in 2013.

He was appointed a fellow of the Royal Society in 1951. In 1952, he became patron of The Industrial Society (since renamed The Work Foundation). Between 1959 and 1965 Prince Philip was the President of BAFTA. He helped found the Australian Conservation Foundation in 1963 and the World Wildlife Fund in 1961 and served as the latter’s UK president from 1961 to 1982, international president from 1981, and president emeritus from 1996.

He was also president of the Zoological Society of London for two decades and was appointed an honorary fellow in 1977. Despite his involvement in initiatives for conserving nature, he was also criticised for practices such as fox hunting and shooting of game birds. He was president of the International Equestrian Federation from 1964 to 1986, and served as chancellor of the universities of Cambridge, Edinburgh, Salford, and Wales.

In 1965, at the suggestion of Prime Minister Harold Wilson, Philip became chair to a scheme set up for awarding industrial innovations, which later became known as the Queen’s Awards for Enterprise. In the same year, Philip became president of the Council of Engineering Institutions and in that capacity he assisted with the inception of the Fellowship of Engineering (later the Royal Academy of Engineering), of which he later became the senior fellow.

He also commissioned the Prince Philip Designers Prize and the Prince Philip Medal to recognise designers and engineers with exceptional contributions. In 2017, the British Heart Foundation thanked Prince Philip for being its patron for 55 years, during which time, in addition to organising fundraisers, he “supported the creation of nine BHF-funded centres of excellence”. He was an Honorary Fellow of St Edmund’s College, Cambridge.

The Life of HRH The Duke of Edinburgh: Part III

14 Wednesday Apr 2021

Posted by liamfoley63 in Duchy/Dukedom of Europe, Featured Royal, Kingdom of Europe, royal wedding, Uncategorized

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Dartmouth, Engagement, House of Mountbatten, King George VI, Philip Mountbatten, Prince Philip, Princess Elizabeth, Queen Elizabeth II, royal wedding

Marriage

The Duke of Edinburgh met his future wife in 1939 when he was 18 and she was 13. In 1939 King George VI and Queen Elizabeth visited the Royal Naval College at Dartmouth. Upon the request of the Queen and Philip’s uncle, Earl Mountbatten, they asked him to escort Elizabeth and Margaret, who were Philip’s third cousins through Queen Victoria, and second cousins once removed through King Christian IX of Denmark, while their parents visited the facility.


Elizabeth said she fell in love with Philip, and they began to exchange letters. In 1946 Philip asked the king for permission to marry Elizabeth. This request was granted on the condition that it would not be announced until after the Elizabeth’s 21st birthday in April of the next year. She was 21 when their engagement was officially announced on July 9, 1947.


The engagement was not without controversy; Philip had no financial standing, was foreign-born (though a British subject who had served in the Royal Navy throughout the Second World War), and had sisters who had married German Royalty with Nazi links. Marion Crawford wrote, “Some of the King’s advisors did not think him good enough for her. He was a prince without a home or kingdom.

Some of the papers played long and loud tunes on the string of Philip’s foreign origin.” Later biographies reported Elizabeth’s mother had reservations about the union initially, and teased Philip as “The Hun.” In later life, however, the Queen Mother told biographer Tim Heald that Philip was “an English gentleman.”

Before the marriage, Philip renounced his Greek and Danish titles, officially converted from Greek Orthodoxy to Anglicanism, and adopted the style Lieutenant Philip Mountbatten, taking the Anglicized version of Battenberg, the surname of his mother’s British family.

The day before the wedding his wedding, King George VI bestowed the style His Royal Highness on Philip, and on the day of the wedding, November 20, 1947, King George VI granted Philip the titles of Duke of Edinburgh, Earl of Merioneth, and Baron Greenwich. However, he wasn’t made a Prince of the United Kingdom in his own right until 1958 when Her Majesty granted him that distinction.


Elizabeth and Philip were married on November 20, 1947 at Westminster Abbey. They received 2,500 wedding gifts from around the world. Because Britain had not yet completely recovered from the devastation of the war, Elizabeth required ration coupons to buy the material for her gown, which was designed by Norman Hartnel. In post-war Britain, it was not acceptable for Philip’s German relations, including his three surviving sisters, to be invited to the wedding. The Duke of Windsor, formerly King Edward VIII, was not invited either.

Philip left active military service when Elizabeth became queen in 1952, having reached the rank of commander. Philip had four children with Elizabeth: Charles, Prince of Wales; Anne, Princess Royal; Prince Andrew, Duke of York; and Prince Edward, Earl of Wessex. Through a British Order in Council issued in 1960, descendants of the couple not bearing royal styles and titles can use the surname Mountbatten-Windsor, which has also been used by some members of the royal family who do hold titles, such as Anne, Andrew and Edward.

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