Prince Amedeo lives, supposedly Sunday, May 15 2011

There’s been talk for a while about a written interview that a paper was going to do on HI&RH Prince Amedeo of Belgium, Archduke of Austria-Este, Hereditary Prince of Modena etc etc the whole list of titles. A written interview meaning no one actually talked to him but the questions were written out and he essentially sent them back (I suppose a few press offices in Laeken were involved, but that’s the gist of it, really; and yes, hence the headline).

Now it’s been dug up somewhere and a friend sent me the link the other day. And yes, the fact that they had to use a 4 year old picture is significant, imho.

Amedeo, un prince à New York

Yes, it’s in French. No, I’m not going to provide a translation, mainly because while I can read French well enough and get the gist, my actual communication skills in it are crap. That includes translating. But if you need help, Google Translate is your friend.

Anyway, what it boils down to is: Boy is happy to be a private person rather than a working royal with a spotlight shone on him and overall, I can’t blame him for it.

In blog news, I’m currently in the preparations of moving house again (twice in less than a year, oh joy), so depending on things like actual moving date, a working internet connection and some other things, so updates will probably be spotty once more.

Leave a Response »

 

Search Queries CW 33 Sunday, Aug 22 2010

Aaaand another round.

Need a better structure though so we’ll go by country this time.

Belgium

What’s it with the interest in the House of Austria-Este? Luisa Maria is still in school, I doubt you’ll find much of her anyway, safe for a few shots with her family. Joachim is just out to school and will either start studying in the fall or be enrolled in the royal military academy of Belgium. Maria Laura is studying and probably currently in Asia. Amedeo is still working for Deloitte in New York City; I don’t know which branch or what his job description is. I don’t really have that kind of stalker tendencies. Laetitzia is too young to make an appearance on this blog, save for shots with her family. Astrid is doing the working royal thing, Lorenz shows up when it’s required and elsewise he’s doing his own thing, he has an actual job (probably not 9 to 5 though).

Lorenz, Amedeo and Maria Laura were given titles as princes/princess of Belgium by royal decree in 1991, while, or shortly before, Astrid was pregnant with Joachim. Until then, they were only archdukes and archduchess, which means Lorenz and Amedeo are theoretically in the succession to the Austro-Hungarian throne (and pretty high up, too will likely go up further due to deaths and some fighting within the family about proper marriages). For Maria Laura the title would have had no consequences, as no one can need an archduchess as bride these days anymore (lucky for her, she can do what she wants). While I have read the decree itself, I can only speculate on the reason for it. Philippe was still unmarried and didn’t look like he would marry any time soon, the succession was running through the male line and that seemed wrong for a modern country… I wouldn’t know. Speculation and more input on this are welcome.

Okay… Dear Amedeo, if you want to send me a message, just do it. I’m not the rabid fangirl type; actually, I probably have less respect for your status and your title than even your colleagues. But please no placing cryptic search queries that aren’t search queries by a long shot. Seriously.

Denmark

I have absolutely no idea if Prince Joachim and Prince Frederik are on good terms. The fact that Fred told Joachim only at a very recent photo shoot that his wife is pregnant seems to suggest otherweise, but I really couldn’t tell.

Prince Joachim very very likely speaks fluent French. His father is originally French (and his Danish is horrible say the Danish people so I would guess he speaks French with his children) and his wife is French. The assumption that he does speak French is reasonable. As for Fred, I know he does because I’ve seen footage of him and Guillaume chatting about some sports event or other – in French.

It is still being denied that Princess Mary had fertility treatment, but with her advanced age and her somewhat too thin figure, I wouldn’t be surprised. While I don’t think it was ivf or icsi, I suppose she might at least have been on ovulation stimulating drugs.

Uhm as for Mary and her…reputation as a golddigger, well. My opinion? When the young royals were in Sydney for the Olympics, she checked out who was available, first had a little tryst with Nikolaos (I’m not at all sure if this is just rumours of what actually happened but as I’ve heard it from several sides so far, let’s treat it as a fact), before figuring out Fred was the bigger number. As she’s been flaunting ‘her’ money for the past few years, clothes and jewels, and she’s not at all interested in doing any actual work, I suppose it’s safe to say I consider her a gold digger, yes. Being a princess is not all dresses and tiaras, it’s actually pretty damn hard work.

Greece

Seems like more people are noticing Prince Philippos now. He’s a bit young for me (currently, give it ten years and he’ll be perfectly acceptable *g*), but I can already see he’s gonna be hunky. No idea on the girlfriend bit, sorry. As for photos, hope for the wedding. With any luck, we’ll get a few good shots of him and Theodora both.

Luxembourg

I’d ask who Princess Catherine is, but I would only do that because I’m too lazy to get the family tree out now. As she’s not of the current generation, she must be historical, or potentially nonexistent. Either way, I have nothing on her.

Still no girlfriend for HGD Guillaume, nor is it known of he’s gay or bi or straight. We he could be gay, he has enough brothers left to take care of succession issues at the very least ^^; (yeah I’m pragmatic, sue me :-P). He’s not engaged though, that much I’m sure of (at least not officially, what he does in private, who knows).

Okay so by “Crown prince Guillaume bathing” I hope you mean swimming in the sea, and not in the bathtub with a small yellow plastic duck. Seriously, that would be wrong. Anyway, there are pictures of Guillaume swimming trunks and playing volleyball in the sea from a couple of years ago, I don’t have them though (and I’m not going hunting for them). So I assure you can can relax…which doesn’t mean he gets to it often. Félix and Henri at one those pictures too, btw. If you find them shoot me a line ;-).

Monaco

I’m serious: Charlotte Casiraghi is not pregnant. Gosh, if Charlotte’s had known what she’s doing she might not have shown up with that baby bump at the shower. Neither is Tatiana Santo Domingo, btw.

Andrea has made himself somewhat rare the past few weeks, but he’s still in Paris, doing his internship at the embassy of Qatar. So I suppose there’s no reason to show up, at the moment he should see to get his training finished so they can use him, sooner rather than later.

People, when you google for “prince of monaco naked” I do hope you mean the Casiraghi brothers and not Albert.

Which brings us to something that also was a query and thank you for that: Andrea, Charlotte and Pierre do not hold princely titles. They are descended from the Grimaldi dynasty through their mother, and the title of prince and princess was, at the time of their births, only hereditary by the male line, rather than the female. Prince Rainier could have given them princely titles, but all sources agree that Caroline didn’t want that. for good reason, too, because growing up a prince or princess puts way too many obstacles in your way, especially in a small country like Monaco. Further, they would have been members of the princely family of Monaco (which they are currently not, no matter if Andrea is heir to Caroline or not), which might have brought complication in terms of later inheritance from their father. Caroline and Stefano must have agreed on this pretty early on. As for Alexandra, she is a princess, but she’s a royal highness, rather than a serene highness, and she got the title from her father, rather than her mother. Prince Ernst August of Hanover is a royal highness as the heir to the duchy of Brunswick-Lüneburg.

Now, dynastically speaking (I know, annoying, blabla), the Monegasques should put Alexandra on the throne and let the line run through her, in another generation or two the houses won’t care that much that they were originally only princes. Won’t happen, but could be interesting.

As for Andrea’s status as heir to his mother, should it come to pass that he will be Prince of Monaco, he will adopt the name Grimaldi and be made that. Easy as that, really. Has lots to do with constitution and house law.

Sweden

Someone else has noticed, I’m delighted! Yes, Carl Philip has put on a lot of muscle since spring. Not so much that it would be unnatural, but enough to make a difference. He looked pretty bad back in April, enough that I was a bit worried about his health, but since then he’s on a steady increase. I first really noticed a couple of weeks ago, when King Carl Gustaf was at the races with Per Gessle. CP had his arms over the rails in one picture and I was a bit woah. Good though, suits him well.

I refuse to talk about Sofia again, I think I’ve everything that needed to be said on Wednesday.

General stuff / Undefinable

Royals who wear sashes over their chest wear orders. When abroad, a royal will either wear the highest order of his own country that he had been presented with (by the sovereign) or the highest order of the country he is visited, that he has been presented with (by the sovereign). HGD Guillaume was wearing a Luxembourgian order at Princess Victoria’s wedding, while his father was wearing a Swedish one.
Orders are usually presented at state’s visits or the like (or upon marriage, see Prince Daniel) and consist usually of two parts: The sash and attached batch and a star to be pinned to the chest. When someone possess more than one order, they wear the sash of the highest one of the country of origin or the visited country (depending on what they have) and only the stars of the others. How the sash is worn (left to right or right to left) and where the star is pinned (most often left chest) depends on the specifications of the order.
Not only royals can have orders, but usually foreign politicians visiting are presented with the, too. Not only monarchies do have orders but most republics do, as well.

Fred and Princess Victoria are not only cousins but you can be sure that they have a sibling-relationship to each other. Vikkan has a younger brother in Carl Philip, but you can be sure she has older brothers in Frederik, Haakon and Willem-Alexander at the very least. Hurt her and you have three crown princes on your doorstep wanting to beat you within an inch of your life (that said, Daniel is a very very brave man).

And uh…jacobite leather waistcoat? Anyone want to enlighten me? (I’ve talked about Sophia’s theoretical Jacobite claim to the throne of Britain, but where does the waist coat come from? Several times, too Oo)

4 Responses »

 

Search Queries CW 32 Wednesday, Aug 18 2010

No internet over the weekend and thesis stress makes for belated queries post. This is just the stuff from last week (and it’ll be enough already, believe me).

Nominally, it’s Hereditary Grand Duke, not “Crown Prince” or “Hereditary Crown prince”, mostly a matter of semantics and tradition and language. Though admittedly, the sound of it in German is somewhat different and easily jumbled with the Austrian archdukes (“erb” vs. “erz”). Certainly makes for entertaining miscommunication.

Generally speaking you’re right, of course, Guillaume also is a prince, since children of dukes are always princes and princesses, that’s the nature of the whole thing. Which is why so many members of the British royal family are princes and princesses while some with the same pedigree aren’t. Example: Princess Beatrice of York is the daughter of the Duke of York, Prince Andrew. Zara Philipps is the daughter of Princess Anne, but Anne’s first husband declined the dukedom Queen Elizabeth II offered him, hence Zara is no princess. She could still get the title via letters patent, but I don’t think she wants it. More trouble than it’s worth. Same for Prince Edward’s children, btw, Edward declined the dukedom, so his children are ‘only’ Ladies and Viscounts. That said, A prince or a princess do not get a “His/Her Royal/Serene/whatever Highness” attached to their name, that depends very much on the family and dynastic complications.

Ruth, Countess of Rosenborg, was the wife of Prince Flemming, later Count Flemming Valdemar of Rosenborg. Prince Flemming married 1949 morganatically (i.e. beneath his own standing, as Ruth Nielsen was a commoner), and renounced his rights to the Danish throne. Hence, the Counts of Rosenborg are the morganatic line of the Danish royal family, simply speaking. Countess Ruth died on July 25th of this year.

Okay, whatever do you mean with princess maxima eating food? As Máxima is alive and kicking (potentially kicking ass, too), I suppose she eats, more or less regularly depending on her schedule.

As I said before, I have my doubts that Madeleine and Guillaume will become a couple. It would be quite interesting, but I think the Swedes would get into a bit of manpower trouble. These days, Madde at least works with Childhood, if she ceased to be a part of the Swedish royal family, there would be one less person to do work. And considering Vikkan will hopefully be pregnant soon and have a decreased workload…oops. Otherwise, I admit that would be an interesting match. With the only problem that she’d have Guillaume for breakfast but…I suppose they’d have an interesting sex life, at least.

As the court has not released anything, I have my doubts that Princess Máxima is pregnant. They have three adorable girls, she’s almost 40, I seriously doubt they’ll have another round of kids. Then again, everyone thought Mary and Frederik were done, so I really can’t say. She didn’t strike me as pregnant the last time I saw pictures of her, though. (We wouldn’t know before the third trimester is over anyway, no one in their right mind would announce that.)
In that vein, no Tatiana still isn’t pregnant to the best of my knowledge.

Princess Sophie I take it the one from Liechtenstein? At which wedding, Victoria’s? I know nothing about Sophie’s own wedding to Hereditary Prince Alois of Liechtenstein, sorry, not the time when I was interested in royalty. Sophie herself is the heiress (at least would be heiress if they didn’t operate under Salic law) of the family of Wittelsbach. She is the heiress to the Jacobite claim to the throne of Britain, i.e. if the Brits didn’t have the Act of Settlement, and everyone would still have married the people they did despite that, Sophie would now be Queen of Britain. Anyway, at Vikkan’s wedding her dinner date was Crown prince Philippe of Belgium and she had a good time chatting with Guillaume and Mette-Marit.

As Queen Anne-Marie is Prince Frederik’s aunt, and all her children did so, yes she attended that wedding six years ago. I don’t currently have pictures of that but I think Ella over at the Hattery did a wedding bash on that, you can probably head over and look for it.

Prince Sébastien of Luxembourg is the youngest son of Grand Duke Henri and María-Teresa, youngest brother of Guillaume. He’s barely of age, he’s not doing royal duties yet, except showing up at family weddings and the National Day celebrations.

As for Princess Mary’s pregnancy, rumours are high it was fertility treatment, especially as the court right out denied it, but I can’t be sure either way. If you ask me, yes she took ovulation stimulating drugs. Do I have proof? No. Would it be good if she said so? Hell yes, women having trouble to conceive can use all the support they can get.

The topic Sofia Hellqvist. Now, I won’t say I’m sick of it, but this is really getting out of hand, people. Two scenarios:

1) She’s actually Carl Philip’s girlfriend. Well, good for her. If she is, she’s acting exactly right, she’s not making public appearances that are in any way untoward, and that’s what I expect of a royal gf. She also isn’t flaunting her relationship, I suppose she’s as sick of the press as anyone in her position sensibly should be. And good for him as well, because he’s looking so much better these days than he still did in spring, and if that’s the effect she has on him, by all means, CP, keep her. Problem is, I don’t know if even the progressive Swedes will accept a princess (even if she’s not the crown princess) who has nude pictures out in public. Can’t tell, but I doubt it. CP could, of course, give up his place in the succession, as so many princes of Sweden before him have done, but then the Swedes are in serious trouble about their workload and I suppose CP has too much family sense to do so.

2) She’s a ruse, a beard or a rebound. In the latter case, good for both of them, as he’s getting laid and no one hassles him about finally getting a new gf (and probably won’t in the future, looking at the press echo), and she’s getting publicity for her future career (and gets laid by a prince, I mean, hello? CP of all people, who would kick that man out of bed for eating crackers? uh…I digress). If she’s a ruse or a beard, well, I suppose they both get something out of it, so why not?

Either way, for the moment everyone will have to deal with her.
Oh, and I know there was an article in a Danish tabloid about him saying to a friend he was very much in love with her *sigh*. It’s the same as all the ‘sources close to the prince’ that the British tabloids are digging up all the time, they’re not worth anything. The friendships of the Swedes are pretty close-knit and no one would go out and blab any such crap to the papers.

That said, yes I know the pictures from the kart race. But I also have to say it’s the very first picture in which CP makes any kind of gentle move toward her, so far any pictures together, they even sat on different couches while having drinks. So uh…not sure *shrug*.

Still not posting her nude pictures.

Austrian princess, which one? For one, if you mean the Habsburgs: they’re not princes and princesses, they’re archdukes. It seems petty, but believe me, it’s not. Titles are quite important there. If you mean someone else: There’s a few noble houses on Austria left, although they’re only princesses by dynastic decree anymore, not even by name. Austria has officially purged any royalty from its society, funnily enough though, Austrians are the most monarchistical people without a monarchy out there.

Princess Mary + prince’s girlfriend? You know more than me there, care to enlighten me? *g*

Hm. What still surprises me is the vast interest in the Belgian royals who are not the crown princely family. What’s this about, is someone researching the Austria-Este family? Because that’s currently how it looks. Maybe it’s time to get a post about current Habsburg-controversies out there, it would fit nicely with the dynastic approach here. Anyone want to tell me what Lorenz did that’s suddenly so interesting?

And now the usual rundown:
Prince Félix of Luxembourg is not gay (wouldn’t know about bisexuality), and has a girlfriend, Claire. HGD Guillaume does not have an official gf, there’s no shots of him with men or women that I have seen, so I can’t tell. Also, no idea if he’s gay or bi or straight, although there’s enough people whose gaydar he’s tingling. Yes, Carl Philip has a girlfriend, as we’ve discussed above. No, no pregnancies that are new and fresh beside Mary’s. Uhm… As for naked Casiraghis, please click on the tags ;-). Prince Amedeo is still in NYC to the best of my knowledge, and no idea about a girlfriend. That has to do with dynastics, once more.

5 Responses »

 

Search Queries CW 31 Sunday, Aug 8 2010

[That’s Calender Week 31, for those wondering.]

So it looks like this will be a weekly or bi-weekly thing to do. Fun ^^.

What surprises me is the sudden increase of interested in the Benelux royalty, especially Luxembourg and Belgium. While I’ve been blogging about the Luxers for a while yet, the last two weeks have seen practically plastered with them. Is it the increase in ‘public’ attention or what? If it were searched in German or French I’d be less surprised, but something seems to be going on I’m unaware of.

Ah well.

But first things first: I will not, never and under no circumstances post the nude pictures of Sofia Hellqvist to the blog. While I don’t know which set of pictures Slitz has bought, I can say that yes, I’ve seen some in which she was completely undressed, as well as bikini pictures that I hadn’t seen so far (and which left little to the imagination). However, these pictures were taken before she took up with Prince Carl Philip (if indeed she did and this is not an elaborate ruse, after all), and I see no reason to publicise them. These were taken before her life took a turn towards maybe-princess and while she can’t wipe them off any and all hard drives, I’ll not aid in getting them out there. She, as well as CP, has a right to that much privacy.

Now, it may seem like hypocrisy, as I’ve posted paparazzi shots of Pierre and Andrea Casiraghi before, and would not stop at doing the same for e.g. Princes Harry, William, Freddles or whoever, but the difference is: they know they’re interesting to the public at the time the pictures are taken, there is no reason they could not stay dressed or go below deck / inside for changing clothes. Miss Hellqvist could not know she would be quite interesting in this way to the public one day, at the time those pictures were taken, and she has taken every precaution to make herself scarce after things took up between her and CP.

Sorry, there’s definite limits to what I’ll do.

As for how tall Miss Hellqvist is, think optimistic 1,75 m for Carl Philip and go down from there. I’d say 1,50 m, 1,55 m. Very maybe 1,60 m, but doubt it. She’s tiny.

Yep, Prince Félix of Luxembourg has a girlfriend, but no surprise there, really. Her name’s Claire, and if you really need to know more, you’re free to google. There’s places which offer quite comprehensive information, but YHR is not it. The amount of Félix’ public duties is limited, and officially he’s still a student. Neither of them is flaunting their relationship to the public, and there’s no reason to assume any kind of scandal at this point. Could be interesting in the months to come though, especially as he should be finishing up his studies at some point this year. Spares are much more fun than the heirs.

Mh. Not royal but as it shows up anyway and I’m fond enough of him: Yep, Diego Forlán has a girlfriend. Her name’s Zaira Nara and she’s an Argentinian model. They make a cute couple. Rumour is he’s proposed to her, not nothing from the man about that yet, so I can’t tell.

Yep, Pierre Casiraghi smokes, so does his brother, his brother’s girlfriend, his uncle’s fiancée… For the first three, they’ve been doing that for a lot of years already, you can find pictures of Pierre and Andrea smoking from pretty much all years since they’re majors…and probably even a few from before that. Aside from wanting to slap them for it, nothing much I can so.

Princess Madeleine has participated in show jumping competitions under the alias Anna…something. Svensson, I think. She’s not doing that anymore, but she was quite good, I think. These days, I usually have an eye out for her alias and for Charlotte Casiraghi as well as Princess Nathalie (who is a successful dressage competitor) when I catch competitions. Not much luck, yet.

Seriously, people, if I had the address of Prince William’s cottage in North Wales, don’t you think I’d have written a good long letter and ranted at him yet? Or better yet, flown up and given him a piece of my mind in person, could have visited my Welsh friend on the western coast in the same instant. I’m not interested in having the address either, or would any of you want tea with Miss Middleton and make polite conversation? But it can’t be that hard to find out, how many remote cottages in North Wales will have uniformed and armed guards outside of them? You know William’s home base, you know the harbour town closest to the cottage, go digging. Remember though: That’s considered stalking. Want to risk a run-in with the Royalty Protection Department? Think twice.

Is Prince Félix of Luxembourg losing his what? Hair? Virginity? *eg* I hope he’s lost that one a while ago, the man’s 26, after all. And I doubt it about the hair, while he does appear to have a receding hairline, he and HGD Guillaume both have looked like that for years and it’s not growing. Actually, Guillaume had them and the side parting at the age of two already, it was quite adorable. So no worries there.

Princess Madeleine is no longer engaged, I’d thought that had transpired to everyone already. She’s broken up with the lying, cheating scumbag and according to various media outlets, he’s the most hated man in all of Sweden. Hard to do, in a country like Sweden.

Yes, for all I know Prince Amedeo is still working for Deloitte, however as he is not that interesting to the media, no press reports or anything about him recently. Good for him. I also don’t know if he has a girlfriend in New York, but he just might. And good for him he can keep a relationship private, that’s more than a lot of other royals can manage. I really wish him he’s gotten out of the royal circuit for good and can live his life in peace, despite being an Imperial and Royal Highness. I’d rather have him have a peaceful life and see more of them, truth be told.

Also, no idea if Prince Joachim has a girlfriend. As I said, Princess Astrid is sheltering her children, and that’s good.

Yeah, I’ll be covering the wedding of Prince Nikolaos of Greece and Denmark, at least in pieces. I still need to see about getting any media outlets. That was easier with Vikkan :-/.

Seriously, Princess Madeleine and HGD Guillaume? While Aftonbladet had a piece on that a while ago and while it would make sense age- and breeding-wise…. Hmmm no. Forcing Madeleine into the corset of rules that is the Catholic Church, I don’t think so. I’m sure they actually do get along, but this is no romance I want to see happing. They’d make a splendid pair and have pretty babies but….no. Besides, she’d have him for breakfast.

As far as I’m aware, there is no history of twins within Crown Princess Mary’s family. While it was stressed that this was a natural conception, I doubt it was without the aid of chemicals. Ovulation inducing drugs and the like. The fact of twins speak for that, as well as Princess Mary’s advanced age and the fact that she’s so…thin.

Okay now, anyone want to tell me what’s up with the sudden interest in the Belgians and Luxers? Because I’ve covered the wedding and nothing since and suddenly this week I get searches for everyone who’s over the age of 18 and unmarried from the Grand Ducal Family and the family of Archduke Lorenz and Princess Astrid? Is anyone looking for a prince or princess of marriageable age? Did something happen that I simply missed? Is it because of the National Days recently (well, not quite so recent for Lux but…)? Not that I mind, but it is a little weird, especially as most of those, including Lorenz and Astrid, are not very media-present, usually.

2 Responses »

 

Search Queries #2 Tuesday, Aug 3 2010

Another round of queries. You wouldn’t believe how many people want to see naked royals *shakes head*.

Height
For the most part I don’t have completely accurate measurements, especially for the likes of someone like Carl Philip, but here a few tendencies and rough estimates:
Prince Carl Philip: is small for a Scandinavian male, which is probably due to the fact that he’s not very Scandinavian by blood (the House of Bernadotte had only one or two Queens who had Swedish roots, the rest are foreigners, German, British, French etc.). Estimates are between 1,73 m and 1,76 m (do your own foot and inch calculations, I’m metric). Considering his sisters are always wearing heels next to him and CP is vain enough to have his own heels a little higher than normal, it’s hard to guess. But as his girlfriends have always been smaller than him, they must have been really tiny tiny. But yeah, 1,75 m is a good estimate for him.

Prince William is between 1,90 m and 1,92 m, estimates differ. But he’s tall. Prince Harry is maybe 2-3 cm smaller than his brother, still one of the taller ones out there.

Andrea Casiraghi falls into that category as well, with 1,90 m to 1,93 m. His brother Pierre is a few centimetres shorter, but not much. All things considered, it doesn’t really matter.

HGD Guillaume has not inherited a lot of his father’s height, he’s closer to Carl Philip with I’d say 1,76 m, maybe 1,78 m tops. Prince Félix has had more luck, he’s taller than his brother, about 1,85 m I’d say. No guarantees though.

Prince Amedeo (who I think hasn’t been a search query so far but as I was talking about him anyway…) is freakishly tall as well, ranging high up there with the 1,90 m gang. He also has a pronounced slouch when he’s with his family, because save for Joachim and Lorenz, they’re all considerably smaller.

Any more you’d like to know?

As for HGD Guillaume being able to marry a Muslim woman…honestly I have no idea. Gut feeling says no, as the House of Nassau-Weilburg is decidedly Catholic since a few generations back, but I don’t know how that relates exactly to the laws of succession. They do not, like GB, have a code that a spouse has to convert into a specific faith prior to the marriage, and Astrid of the Belgians has only later converted from Church of Sweden (which is Lutheran) to the Catholic denomination, but I have no idea how that would relate as to a completely non-Christian faith, sorry. Would be interesting to know, though, maybe Luxarazzi (tender of the Lëtzebuerg blog and usually very well informed) can make a comment as to that regard?

As for suitable brides for Prince William… Suitable how? Royal? If you don’t count on religious denominations (which are changeable) you can take Charlotte Casiraghi, Princess Theodora, Princess Madeleine, and a few Archduchesses into account, as well as some of the as-of-today defunct monarchies in Germany, Italy and the Balkans. The most suitable of those (taking into account religious faith, lack of incest within her own family, lack if incest with the British royal family and the necessary spine to stand up to the Commonwealth) is probably Madeleine, although good luck convincing her of Wills. I suppose you can sooner make CP and Wills go gay with each other before you get Madde to shoulder that particular criss on her shoulders.

I also don’t think that HGD Guillaume and Princess Madeleine will hit it off, despite the fact that they probably know each other pretty well and Aftonbladet has speculated into that direction before as well. Looking at Madde, I don’t think she’d be happy in a such decidedly Catholic monarchy.

Whatever did you want to tell me with hereditary grand duke pin up anyway? I can probably offer a few shots of him in swimming trunks, but that’s about it. And those are a good few years older as well.

Oh and Prince Félix isn’t tingling my gaydar one little bit. While that, of course, doesn’t mean much I have my doubts. Really.

For all I know Princess Mette-Marit is not pregnant again. The woman is 37 years old and has 3 children, cut her a break. The succession is more than taken care of, I doubt she and Haakon want more (unless an accident happens, we’ve had a few of those in the last generation already *waves to Caroline and Astrid*).

There seems to be an interest in seeing our current Queens (Margrethe, Sofia) young is that right? I could probably try to track down pictures…

That seems to be largely it for the moment…

4 Responses »

 

Belgian National Day and other afflictions Tuesday, Aug 3 2010

Promised, didn’t I?

The Belgians had their National Day the other week and I was really hoping the kids would be out in full force. Sadly, they weren’t :-(. Still, a few glimpses were possible and I can use this to introduce two more princes (and a princess).

From left to right: His Imperial and Royal Highness Archduke Joachim of Austria, Prince of Belgium (as the Austrian throne is defunct and only exists in form of its dynasty anymore, he will be labelled as Prince Joachim from now on, as he is a member of the Belgian royal family), His Imperial and Royal Highness Archduke Lorenz of Austria, Prince of Belgium (Joachim’s father who is quite high up in the Austrian succession and as I recently learned has quite a few dynastic ideas, and yes I haven’t forgotten I wanted to post about dynastic power, I’ll get to that, but for us here he is Archduke Lorenz, as that was his title before being granted the Prince of Belgium in 1991), Her Imperial and Royal Highness Archduchess Astrid of Austria, Princess of Belgium (Joachim’s mother Princess Astrid, since she is a born princess of Belgium and she acts as such rather than as Archduchess of Austria), Princess Claire (wife to Prince Laurent), Prince Laurent (youngest son of King Albert II; there’s probably stuff to say about Laurent and Claire but I haven’t been reading up on them, especially Laurent as there was a scandal, too much, so I’ll just cover the bases by saying: they exists and here they are.).

Gotta love a princess in uniform. You go, Astrid!

Generally speaking, Princess Astrid is a bit…different (make whatever you want of that but look at her dress and hattery choices at royal wedding sat some point, at Vikkan’s she was quite conventional), but I suppose you have to be in order to marry a Habsburg. Even though I’ve heard speculation that this was a half arranged marriage.

Prince Joachim is only just 18 years old, but the puppy protection is off now and mama drags him out to be official. You can see how happy he is about it.

Joachim has two older siblings (and two younger siblings *g*) and I suppose him and me both were hoping his older brother, Prince Amedeo (yes, with e and not a; the name Amedeo stems from the side of Lorenz’ mother, who was a Savoy and the oldest sons of the main line are often called Amedeo there), would take the honours of sitting next to his parents (for Joachim that would have meant not having to play royal, for me that would have meant getting another glimpse at Amedeo, after more than a year *g*). Sadly, he didn’t.

I can’t even tell you if he was there or not. After all, there was a military parade going on and he might have well been part of that.

Why? Oh, well. For one, and it needed Lara to point me to that, this is the proud mama-wave:

And for two, it would make quite a lot of sense.

Astrid was the first of King Albert’s (back then still Prince Albert) children to have children of her own, back on the 80’s. Amedeo is 24 years old, born in 1986, long before Prince Philippe (not Crown Prince then) was even thinking about marrying anyone, let alone to have children of his own. By the time Amedeo was old enough to be sent away to school, everyone must have been worried about the state of succession, which might be one reason for the royal decree of 1991, abolishing agnatic primogeniture and granting Astrid’s children (and her husband) titles of princes and princesses of Belgium. Amedeo was raised as heir presumptive to Philippe, the whole works with boarding school in England, military officer academy in Belgium, etc etc.

(Poor love *pats him*.)

This image is from the 2005 National Day Military Parade, so he just might have been part of the one this year as well, in the same capacity you see here. And yes, the hat is awful.

Anyway, Philippe did marry and had children after all, freeing Amedeo to get out of the royal circuit. I suppose Astrid wasn’t too happy about this, even though it was her who always tried to keep her children out of the limelight. One reason why I’m thinking this is because Amedeo applied to the London School of Economics (LSE) under false name and was admitted under a pseudonym. These days, he’s living in New York, working for Deloitte and running marathons.

Lorenz occasionally joins him, btw.

The most recent picture, aside from the marathon one, I have of him is this:

(Amedeo with his parents and his sister, Her Imperial and Royal Highness Archduchess Maria Laura of Austria, Princess of Belgium.)

It’s from sometime last year as well and while I quite enjoy seeing him in jeans and leather jacket, I wouldn’t have minded a few more glimpses at him from National Day footage.

As for Joachim, he’s next in line to succeed anything from Lorenz after Amedeo, and I suppose he’s praying to whatever power there is that it won’t hit him, if his facial expressions are any indication.

Amedeo himself will inherit the title Duke of Modena, additional to being head of the House of Austria-Este. If he is really really unlucky he’s next in line to the headship to the House of Habsburg-Lorraine (that has to do with dynastic power plays, as there is a quite loud discussion running if a certain marriage is morganaic or not, if it was, the headship would fall to Lorenz, with his sons next in line, but I guess I’ll talk about that in the dynastic power post rather than here, especially as Habsburg House Law is not my forte). All of that doesn’t mean he’s going to live a public life, unless he marries into a ruling House somewhere (or is married off, the way his life has been pre-planned until he got himself admitted to LSE suggests he’s not going to come away lightly), but it does mean that he might have a bigger rile (dynastically speaking) and more weight (in the royal circuit) than he probably wants.

Wait and see?

Leave a Response »