Dag Trygsland Hoelseth

More on Crown Princess Mette-Marit’s Twitter account

2012-01-29T21:32:00.005+01:00

Crown Princess Mette-Marit of Norway (@CrownPrincessMM) has become a hit on Twitter and has already got more than 25.000 followers, only 11 days after her account in reality was opened with her first tweet, and it will not surprise anyone if she soon tops the list of Norwegians with the most followers.

This blog article is first of all a summary of the debate which has been going on about Crown Princess Mette-Marit's Twitter account after my first article on the subject was published on Friday 20 January 2012.

The news of Crown Princess Mette-Marit’s Twitter account has been received well by other tweeters, who have seen it as another sign of her down to earth personality. The newspapers that have written about the account have for the most part focused on the number of followers with whom she has exchanged tweets the first days and who she follows herself. Few have made reservations about her decision to get her own playground on Twitter.

One should perhaps be careful not to read too much into the Royal Palace’s reticence in dealing with the media’s questions concerning the Crown Princess’ account, but I can’t help wondering if the communication department rather would have preferred that the Crown Princess had kept herself to the official profile (@Kronprinsparet) she and her husband have together. Sven Gj. Gjeruldsen, assistant information director at the Royal Palace was not willing to comment further on the Twitter account other than confirming that the profile was really hers when I contacted him on the afternoon of Friday 20 January 2012. As I wrote in my last blog article on the subject, this was before I read the confirmation from @Kronprinsparet, tweeted by Crown Prince Haakon himself.

When the Internet magazine Kampanje.com (20 January 2012) wanted to know why she had opened her own account, Gjeruldsen had no comments. And when asked whether the Palace had made a communication strategy for Mette-Marit’s Twitter profile, Gjeruldsen replied that they did not comment on this sort of questions. Kampanje.com also wanted to know if the Crown Princess was the first member of the royal house with her own profile, and naturally Gjeruldsen referred to the official profile the Crown Princess had together with her husband. Kampanje.com pointed out that she didn’t handle all the tweets herself from the @Kronprinsparet account, upon which Gjeruldsen responded that «on the account it says who is replying». By this Gjeruldsen referred to the way the tweets from @Kronprinsparet are formed - «KPH» stands for Crown Prince Haakon, «KPM» for Crown Princess Mette-Marit «KPP» means that the tweet is from both of them, while no «code» means that the information department has tweeted on their behalf.

A large part of the article deals with the appointment of Christian Lagaard in November 2010 as the Royal Palace's «social media expert», a position several people «in the know» believe he was not qualified for.

The Norwegian daily Aftenposten published on 20 January 2012 an interview with Cecilie Staude, an expert on social media and a senior lecturer at BI (Norwegian Business School), who claims that the Crown Prince couple has not had a apparent strategy with the @Kronprinsparet account. – They have been on Twitter for a long time, but it has not looked as if they have had a clear plan for how they should use the profile. They have had some unfortunate episodes. At times it seemed they didn't have an idea about who they were following, although I will not open old wounds.

Staude might be referring to the sex blog Flinkepiker.org (Twitter profile @FlinkePiker), which followed @Kronprinsparet and got their favour returned. Dagbladet.no wrote about it in September 2010.

Staude believes that Crown Princess Mette-Marit has planned her use of social media well. – It seems that she has a plan about how she wants to appear, and how she is going to use Twitter as a channel. I think it is positive that she has started using social media. It shows that the Crown Princess sees the potential for this kind of platform. The senior lecturer continues saying that Mette-Marit has to be conscious about how she appears, and be aware of the pitfalls in the social media. She must mind her p's and q's, but I am convinced she will make it. It will be exciting to follow her.

Dagbladet.no' first article on the subject was somewhat amusing, as it seems the newspaper thought the profile @SpanishRoyals represented the Prince and Princess of Asturias, while in fact the account is owned by a royal watcher following the Spanish royals. The profile was quoted because it at the time was not 100% whether Crown Princess Mette-Marit really was behind the profile @CrownPrincessMM or not.

But it doesn't end there. TV2.no made on 23 January 2012 a point out of Crown Princess Mette-Marit's decision to retweet a message written by @KongenDin (in translation «@YourKing»), which goes under the name «Harald Rex» and regards itself qualified to make fun of the royal family and its members. The Crown Princess has even retweeted one of «his» messages. The humour appears to be rather innocent, and to most people I guess it shows her sense of humour, but one should as a principle be careful about following false profiles. It shows a bad signal in my view.

Dagbladet.no's website on celebrities, Kjendis.no, followed up on 24 January 2012 with a large survey of the people Mette-Marit has decided to follow. Among the 441 people she followed at the time the article was published, were mainly politicians, artists, business people, sports stars and authors, including the author Erlend Loe, the handball player Camilla Herrem, the rapper and record producer Kanye West and Bill Gates (doesn't need an introduction, does he?). The communication company Geelmuyden.Kiese's «digital consultant» Marius Eriksen claims that the list of people she follows is rather predictable. He thinks it is surprising that she doesn't follow more ordinary people. Most of the people she follows has she had some contact with before, and the list will most likely be expanded to become more [politically] correct, Eriksen claims. She is thus communicating that she is not one of the people, but one of the elite and of the «Celebrity-Norway».

VG.no on 24 January 2012 quotes Marius Eriksen as well, but his comments are opposed by the media bureau Carat's «communication consultant» Øyvind Solstad, who believes that some of his colleagues in his line of business has been a bit too eager to demand a big plan. It is too much to be asked for that the Crown Princess should sit in her chamber and select 1000 people to follow before she opened her account. – I think it is quite okay that she starts by following people she is interested in. He does not agree with the allegations that Mette-Marit through her selection of people communicate that she is part of the elite. – The discussion which all the time has been going on in Norway about Twitter and the elite is outdated. In other countries Twitter has first of all become a youth phenomenon, and the same thing is happening in Norway too. Twitter has long ago moved from journalists and the communication trade to become a much more «folkelig» (could be translated into «popular» or «down to earth») place. It just hasn't reached the larger crowd yet.

Solstad thinks it is «cool» that Mette-Marit has opened her own Twitter account which clearly differs from the more formal account she and her husband has together. – It is more private, in the meaning personal, than the one she has with her husband. When you look at the conversations she has it has a different style than on their common account.

The consultant thinks that the Crown Prince and the Crown Prince couple is doing a good job with the social media. – The Crown Prince couple has got most of it right. They are using Facebook and Twitter to front the topics that are important to them in their roles, and they are doing it with both texts, photos and videos.

Marius Eriksen on the other hand believes that the division between «the royals» and «the people» is not erased by Crown Princess Mette-Marit's twittering. – No, it does not wipe out anything. It only adds an ingredient to the cocktail. This might eventually make her more a celebrity than a royal, something that will lead to downgrading other celebrities.

The court reporter Kjell Arne Totland describes Mette-Marit's follow list on Twitter as «ambitious». – Many of them are people she has met through her role and position - and some of them have become close friends of her. The list says a lot about our crown princess's sphere of interest, and who she wants to be, he says.

As of now I tend to agree with Solstad that the media is making too much out of Mette-Marit's follow list. Maybe one should wait half a year or even a year from now before a more thorough analysis could be made. She clearly follows a lot of high-profiled people, but who doesn't?

Crown Princess Mette-Marit's Twitter account was debated on the Norwegian radio channel NRK's news program Dagsnytt 18, in which the above-mentioned Cecilie Staude and the sociologist Hedvig S. Johansen participated. Staude has followed up with her own blog article where she makes her own interpretation of why Crown Princess Mette-Marit has established herself on Twitter. Staude, who is a sister of the TV2 journalist Vår Staude, believes the reasons are the same for the Crown Princess as for the more than a quarter million Norwegians who have got a Twitter profile. It is all about exchange of information, dialogue, knowledge, learning and sharing. And maybe also to just have some fun. In addition Twitter gives the Crown Princess a good opportunity for direct communication with people, instead of indirectly through the media etc. It also opens for the possibility of receiving direct and honest feedback, which she can use in her role.

Well, in my opinion it also opens up for the opposite - abuse and stalking. Yes, you can block spammers and others you feel are taking things too far, but a profiled person like the Crown Princess is likely to receive far more negative attention on Twitter than the man in the street. I hope she will have the stomach to deal with it. Then again, things don't have to go that bad. But with all the nutcases out there, it is not an unrealistic scenario. It doesn't appear to have been a big problem so far, though. On a very different subject - the most entertaining aspect of following Crown Princess Mette-Marit's account so far has been to observe all the people crying for a reply from the Crown Princess or hoping that she will subscribe to their tweets as well. I am sure she will be able to see through the attention seekers and correspond with people who really has something to say.

But back to Staude's blog article again, where she towards the end comments on the need to find a balance between Mette-Marit's down to earth approach and her professional role, which has to set some limits on her activities. She is after all a Crown Princess, Staude adds, reminding her readers of the pitfalls. The Twitter format with 140 characters is challenging. Precision is important, as it is easy to be misinterpreted or misunderstood. A misstep can quickly be spread around the net and might result in people getting another impression of her than she would have liked. Staude also claims that because of her role she will never be regarded as a private person, and that everything she writes on Twitter will be viewed in the light of her position as Crown Princess and her tasks. I agree with what she says about missteps. A wrong use of word or a not so well-thought utterance can easily be misunderstood and cause a lot of trouble and negative attention. First of all she has to stay away from political and other potentially controversial issues and discussions.

Staude ends her article by saying that the Crown Princess has caught «the Twitter spirit» surprisingly fast. Why is this surprising, I wonder… Staude believes that Mette-Marit response, retweets, uses hashtags, shows a sense of humour and shares information which so far makes her interesting to follow. If she manages to follow up her great start, she will soon be popular – not only because she is a Crown Princess, but because she is interesting to follow because she offers something unique on Twitter.

This week the Crown Prince and Crown Princess attended World Economic Forum in Davos, and they answered a few questions from the press regarding the new Twitter profile. According to the NTB interview published by VG.no on 26 January, the Crown Princess regards Twitter as a great opportunity to spread information about exciting projects which take place around the world, especially [those] run by young people. So far she thinks she has managed to judge how personal her tweets should be, adding that it is important to have «a high focus on the contents». When the Crown Prince was asked if he was going to follow up and become an active tweeter, he responded by saying that he thought he was an active tweeter already, referring to the account they had together. He didn't rule out the possibility for his own profile later on.

I had planned to round off the blog article with the Crown Prince couple's comments, but on Saturday 28 January author and Aftenposten commentator Vidar Kvalshaug gave his own view of the Mette-Marit on Twitter discussions this week. His main message was that Twitter is «for the democracy», denouncing the claims that the social platform is for the elite only. He finds it to be «an open and democratic tool» to everyone, and the way the Crown Princess has used Twitter so far, by among others discussing literature with a librarian from Trondheim, a dog lover from Moss and himself, does not give the impression of an elite project.

I tend to agree with Kvalshaug. Some of the critics seem to have got lost in profiles she has decided to follow so far. As long as she doesn't lose sight of the librarian from Trondheim I wouldn't be too worried. She seems to have used her Twitter account quite sensibly so far. But as said already, it is too early to make a judgment. Let's make another review a year from now on. It has been an interesting debate, though. And a serious discussion on the role the royal house and its members have or should have can never be wrong.

Articles

Kampanje.com 20.01.2012: Mette-Marit inntar Twitter
VG.no 20.01.2012: Mette-Marit på Twitter
Aftenposten.no 20.01.2012: Mette-Marit er på Twitter
Dagbladet.no 21.01.2012: - Verdens skjønneste prinsesse!
TV2.no 23.01.2012: Mette-Marit følger falsk kong Harald på nett
Kjendis.no 24.01.2012: Her er Mette-Marits nettvenner
VG.no 24.01.2012: Mener Twitter gjør Mette-Marit mindre folkelig
Cecilie Staudes blogg 24.01.2012: Kronprinsesser må balansere mellom folkelig og royal
VG Nett (NTB) 26.01.2012: Mette-Marit kvitrer for å nå de unge. Og kanskje kommer kronprinsen på Twitter
Aftenposten.no 28.01.2012: Twitter er for demokratiet, ikke for eliten (headline in paper edition: «#mettemariteffekten» («#themettemariteffect»)).

See also Views and News from Norway's article «Royal heir turns eight as mom ‘tweets’» (21 January 2012).

Denmark: Princess Marie has given birth to a girl

2012-01-24T22:25:00.004+01:00

The Royal Court in Copenhagen announced this morning that Princess Marie, wife of Prince Joachim, earlier today, Tuesday 24 January 2012 at 8.27 a.m., gave birth to a girl at Rigshospitalet in Copenhagen. The newborn princess weighed 2930 g and was 49 cm long. Both mother and child are doing well. The press release also told that Prince Joachim was present at the birth. Go here for Rigshospitalet's press release.

The birth was marked with a 21-gun-salute at noon and flags were flown from the public buildings.

Prince Joachim, the youngest son of Queen Margrethe II and Prince Henrik, is now the proud father of four children. He has 2 boys - Prince Nikolai and Prince Felix - with his former wife, now Alexandra, Countess of Frederiksborg - and a son, Prince Henrik, with his second wife, Marie. The names of the new princess will in accordance with tradition not be known until the christening. The name-guessing has already started! Well, as I have said on similar occasions earlier, I hope that the parents will find a call name (traditionally the girl will receive four names) that follow Danish royal traditions, but we might be taken by surprise again. As Prince Joachim said earlier today according to Berlingske, the princess "could be named everything from Jo to Sherezade"!

The newborn princess is tenth in line of succession to the Danish throne:

HRH Crown Prince Frederik (b. 1968)
HRH Prince Christian (b. 2005)
HRH Princess Isabella (b. 2007)
HRH Prince Vincent (b. 2011)
HRH Princess Josephine (b. 2011)
HRH Prince Joachim (b. 1969)
HH Prince Nikolai (b. 1999)
HH Prince Felix (b. 2002)
HH Prince Henrik (b. 2009)
HH Princess NN (b. 2012)
HRH Princess Benedikte (b. 1944)
HH Princess Elisabeth (b. 1935)

See also Peter Kurrild-Klitgaard's article Conditional Consent, Dynastic Rights and the Danish Law of Succession for a discussion on the rights of Princess Benedikte's children.

A cemetery in Rhodes (city), Rhodes, Greece

2012-01-21T22:53:00.011+01:00

(1) "Nekrotapheion", today's Greek word for cemetery, it seems. And it make sense!

(2) The entrance of the cemetery, at the backside.

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(4) Cemetery chapel.

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(29) Have you noticed that while the animal you most likely are going to meet at a North European cemetery is a squirrel, the cemeteries in the Mediterranean region are usually swarmed by cats? I will come back to this when I some time in a not too distant future publish photos of a cemetery I once visited in Istanbul, Turkey. Anyway, this particular cat was actually resting inside the shovel when I discovered it. But unfortunately as soon as I took up my camera it came out to meet me.

(30) This cat, on the other hand, was not a happy sight, as one of its eyes had a running sore. Not a cat I wanted to have too close to my daughter, who was sitting in her pram, so I walked away soon after the encounter, but of course it started to follow me! Scary cat!

I try to visit cemeteries whenever or wherever I travel, but at a place like Rhodes with so many historical places it would normally not be included in my "things to do list". The Acropolis of Rhodes would be a better idea. However, my daughter, almost 15 months old at the time, needed her afternoon nap, so I was worried that the tourist-crowded Acropolis would disturb her sleep and thus I decided to go to the cemetery instead. Getting my daughter to sleep turned out to be a greater challenge than anticipated. She usually falls asleep with one of her thumbs in her mouth, but in addition she needs her small comfort blanket. She managed to lose it or throw it away not many metres outside the walls of the old town, but I didn't discoved it before it was too late. So she didn't sleep at all during my cemetery visit, but as soon as I had found the blanket again on our way back to the old town, she entered dreamland only after a minute or two! The pram was not easy to manouvre at the cemetery because the graves were so close to eachother that they were almost above eachother, so I couldn't get all the shots I would have liked, as I wouldn't leave the pram in order to get closer to the objects.

Anyway, I am not sure if there are more than one cemetery in Rhodes (and now I am mostly thinking about the new city) or if the cemetery I visited had a particular name, hence the subject title "A cemetery in Rhodes ...". The word "cemetery" comes from Greek originally and means "sleeping place", but it seems that the word used today is "Νεκροταφείο" ("Nekrotapheio"). It's all Greek to me, anyway (sorry, I just couldn't resist!).

According to the map I had got, the cemetery was supposed to be quite close to the sea, but the cemetery I found was close to a stadium, but certainly not to the sea. And yes, I am quite good with reading maps, actually! So it is possible that I stumbled over another cemetery than the one I had planned to visit. Will I ever find out? Anyway, it was an interesting cemetery to visit, even if I am not mastering the Greek words too well and even though my daughter's restlessness cut the visit short!

(All the photos were taken on Friday 7 October 2012.)

Rhodes (city), Rhodes, Greece

2012-01-21T21:02:00.006+01:00

(1) A part of the Grand Master's Palace (the Knights Hospitallers). It was just too crowded to get decent photos of the main part of the palace. it was not easy to get a good over view anyway.

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(6) At the top of Socrates Street.

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(9) A memorial for the 1604 Jews from Rhodes and Kos who were deported and killed in concentration camps. See the website of the Rhodes Jewish Museum for more information .

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(13) Kleftikos, "a very traditional dish with lamb, vine leafs, gently baked in the oven." The dinner was enjoyed at the restaurant Romeo, which is situated in Menekleous Street, a few metres off the main street Socrates. I can absolutely recommend this restaurant! Nice atmosphere and great food!

I visited the old town of Rhodes during my week-long stay at the Greek island of Rhodes in early October 2011. Except for a short excursion to the local cemetery outside the city walls I stayed in the old town, thus missing among others the Acropolis of Rhodes. A bit too crowded with tourists, but a lovely place to visit, and so rich of history, and under so many regimes - among others the Romans, the Knights Hospitallers, Ottomans and Italy, before becoming united with Greece in 1947. The diffferent architecture is of course marked by the different periods. As this was "an enlarged family trip", I didn't get to see everything I had hoped for, so I will not rule out the possibility of another visit later on. There are plenty of sights both in the city and at other parts of the island, and if you are just going for the sun and the beach you will seldomly be disappointed...

Crown Princess Mette-Marit on Twitter

2012-01-20T16:47:00.007+01:00

Crown Prince Mette-Marit of Norway "officially" opened her own Twitter account on Wednesday 18 January 2012, and she has already got more than 7.100 followers. According to VG Nett today the account (@CrownPrincessMM) was registered on 28 November 2011, but only on Wednesday did she write her first tweet. The account has been verified by the Crown Prince couple's common Twitter account @Kronprinsparet and by Sven Gj. Gjeruldsen at the Royal Palace in an e-mail today (I contacted the Palace before I had read the verification at @Kronprinsparet).

As Gjeruldsen was not willing to give any further comments other than confirming that the Crown Princess had opened her own account, I gather that there is no media strategy behind the creation. I take it that while @Kronprinsparet will continue to publish news etc. about their public activities, Crown Princess Mette-Marit will use her own account to get a more direct contact with friends, acquaintances, organisations she is involved with through her work etc.

Many royal courts have their own Twitter account. Examples besides the Crown Prince couple are @ClarenceHouse and @palaisprinciermonaco. Royals with their own more or less private Twitter account is of course nothing new. Queen Noor (@QueenNoor) and Queen Rania (@QueenRania) of Jordan and Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum of Dubai (@HHShkMohd) have been on Twitter for quite some time.

It will surely be interesting to follow the Crown Princess. She is excellent in communicating with people, but on the other hand I some times miss the "royal distance" that for instance Queen Margrethe II has. This is not intended as criticism towards the Crown Princess, just an observation that we don't really need to know everything about the royals 24 hours a day, regardless of what view one has on the monarchical institution. I am sure that the Crown Princess will not tell or comment "on everything", but she has to be careful with what she writes and who she decides to follow. Some times people can be too impulsive when tweeting and it can lead into more trouble and controversy than one could wish for. I will not be surprised if the media some times will make more out of her tweets than she might have intended, so I really hope she knows what she is getting into. She has to keep a clear line between her public role and private sphere, and she has to remember the difference between being private and being personal.

Whether Crown Prince Haakon will follow up with his own account remains to be seen. As already mentioned Sven Gj. Gjeruldsen at the information departement of the Royal Palace was not willing to comment on that particular question. Time will show.

Updated on Friday 20 January 2012 at 19.25 (link added).

Santorum declared winner of Iowa caucuses

2012-01-19T20:54:00.006+01:00

Following a recount in Iowa it turns out that it was Rick Santorum - and not the front-runner Mitt Romney - who won the GOP caucuses on 3 January this year, Des Moines Register reports today (see also Bloomberg.com). It was earlier reported that Mitt Romney had won by 8 votes, but the new count gives 34 votes in favour of Santorum. Really? It turns out that 8 precincts remain uncertified, so it will be difficult to say for sure who the winner really was.

Concerning the number of delegates from Iowa, it will not change anything. The question is whether Santorum's (alleged) victory would have made a bigger impact on the campaign if it had been known earlier. I have my doubts. Santorum didn't stand a chance in New Hampshire anyway, and today's news will probably not change the result in Saturday's South Carolina primary much either.

Obviously the campaign has become more open and exciting now as Rick Perry has finally suspended his campaign and endorsed Newt Gingrich. Romney still has a small lead in South Carolina according to the latest polls (see RCP), but it will be interesting to see how Perry's goodbye will influence the campaign in the next few days. Could Gingrich actually win in South Carolina? Well, he certainly can. Then again, if ABC's interview with his ex-wife Marianne is aired before the primary takes place on Saturday 21 January, it might hurt his chances. Mitt Romney will nevertheless remain the front-runner and favourite to win the GOP nomination. But the campaign will certainly be more exciting for a few days more. Santorum and Paul are too far behind to have any chance in South Carolina. As of now Romney holds a solid lead in Florida (RCP). If he wins there, I am inclined to believe that it is a done deal.

Queen Margrethe II of Denmark's 40th anniversary as regent

2012-01-15T22:38:00.009+01:00

King Frederik IX of Denmark died on Friday 14 January 1972 and was succeeded by his eldest daughter, Margrethe. The 40th anniversary as Queen of Denmark has been marked by a rather tightly-packed programme which can be viewed here (and in English here).

The main events took place on Saturday 14 and Sunday 15 January. On Saturday morning the royal family attended the wreath laying ceremony at King Frederik IX's and Queen Ingrid's graves outside Roskilde Cathedral (the photo was taken in July 2011, I will return with a blog article later).

Well back in Copenhagen Queen Margrethe and Prince Henrik travelled by coach from Amalienborg through the pedestrian street with escort by the Royal Danish Hussar Guard Regiment to the City Hall were they attended the official reception. The guest list included among others (and I have for the most part followed the order given by the court):

HM Queen Margrethe II and HRH Prince Henrik
HRH Crown Prince Frederik and HRH Crown Princess Mary
HRH Prince Joachim
HRH Prince Benedikte and HSH Prince Richard of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg
HM King Constantin and HM Queen Anne-Marie of the Hellenes
HSH Prince Gustav of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg and his partner Ms. Carina Axelsson
HSH Princess Alexandra of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg and her husband Count Jefferson-Friedrich von Pfeil und Klein-Ellguth
HSH Princess Nathalie of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg and her husband Alexander Johannsmann
HRH Crown Prince Pavlos and HRH Crown Princess Marie-Chantal of Greece
HRH Princess Theodora of Greece
HRH Prince Philippos
HM King Carl Gustaf and HM Queen Silvia of Sweden
HM King Harald and HM Queen Sonja of Norway
HE Olafur Ragnar Grimsson, President of Iceland, and his wife Dorrit Moussaieff
Thomas Beauvillain and Mie Beauvillian (members of Prince Henrik's family)

I haven't been able to follow the events this weekend this closely, so I cannot say if the list concerning royals is complete or not.

The Regent Couple also greeted the people outside the City Hall from the balcony. In the evening the Queen and her guests attended a gala performance in DR's Concert Hall. Among the people in attendance were:

HM Queen Margrethe and HRH Prince Henrik
HRH Crown Prince Frederik and HRH Crown Princess Mary
HRH Prince Joachim
HH Prince Nikolai
HH Prince Felix
HRH Princess Benedikte and HSH Prince Richard of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg
HM King Constantin and HM Queen Anne-Marie of the Hellenes
HSH Prince Gustav of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg and Ms. Carina Axelsson
HSH Princess Alexandra of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg and Count Jefferson-Friedrich von Pfeil und Klein-Ellguth
HSH Princess Nathalie of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg and Alexander Johannsmann
HRH Crown Prince Pavlos and HRH Crown Princess Marie-Chantal of Greece
HRH Princess Theodora of Greece
HRH Prince Philippos of Greece
HH Princess Elisabeth
HE Count Ingolf and Countess Sussie of Rosenborg
HE Count Christian and Countess Anne Dorte of Rosenborg
Camilla af Rosenborg and her husband Mikael Rosanes
Josephine af Rosenborg and her husband Thomas Christian Schmidt
Feodora af Rosenborg and her husband Morten Rønnow (Camilla, Josephine and Feodora are all daughters of Count Christian)
HM King Carl Gustaf and HM Queen Silvia of Sweden
HM King Harald and HM Queen Sonja of Norway
HE Olafur Ragnar Grimsson, President of Iceland, and his wife Dorrit Moussaieff

In addition also members of the government, the Parliament and other parts of the official Denmark were present, as well as representatives of the court and from Greenland and Faro Islands. Also Prince Joachim's former wife, Countess Alexandra of Fredensborg and her husband Martin Jørgensen were present.

Today, Sunday 15 January 2012, the changing of the guard took place at noon and the royal family greeted the people from the balcony of Christian IX's Palace, Amalienborg. The twins, Prince Vincent and Princess Josephine were there too! The heavily pregnant Princess Marie, wife of Prince Joachim, was absent from the festivities in general, but appeared at the balcony.

Later on Sunday the Crown Prince couple hosted a buffet luncheon for foreign guests and the family in Frederik VIII's Palace, Amalienborg. The guest list can be found here. I am not going to repeat all the names, as for the most part they were identical with the names listed yesterday, but it should be added that the Crown Prince couple of Norway had joined the party, together with the President of Finland, Tarja Halonen, and her husband, Pentti Arajärvi. Crown Prince Frederik's oldest children Prince Christian and Princess Isabella were also listed.

After lunch the Danish royal family and the guests went to Christiansborg Palace Church for the celebratory service. The guest list can be viewed here. In the evening there was a gala dinner at Christiansborg Palace for the extended royal family and foreign guests as well as Danish officials. The guest list can be viewed here. Most of the people mentioned earlier were present, but I note that the President of Iceland had returned home. See photos at Berlingske's website.

New Hampshire primary

2012-01-11T19:28:00.007+01:00

Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney won Tuesday 10 January 2012 the New Hampshire primary as everyone expected he would and thus strengthened his position as the Republican party's front runner in the battle for presidential nomination. Romney even became the first GOP candidate except for sitting presidents to win both the Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire primary.

Romney won 39,3% of the votes, while Ron Paul came second with 23,8% (cf. Real Clear Politics). In my last comment on the GOP campaign I suggested that Romney would get 45% of the votes, but that was obviously a bit too optimistic on his behalf. When Monticello Society yesterday invited its readers to forecast the top three, I adjusted my estimate to 38%, which wasn't too bad, but as so many of the others who responded to Monticello's challenge, I underestimated the libertarian Ron Paul's popularity. Jon Huntsman only got 16,9% of the votes and thus became third, Newt Gingrich and Rich Santorum got 9,4% each, while Rick Perry only collected 0,7% of the votes. According to 2012newhampshireprimary.com, Romney then got 5 delegates, Paul 3 and Huntsman 2 (according to Wikipedia - for whatever it is worth - Romney won 7 delegates, which seems more plausible).

Next one out is South Carolina on 21 January, and Gingrich, Santorum and Perry need to do really well in order to not to be left too far behind Romney. The latest polls published at Real Clear Politics (dated before the NH primary) suggest that Romney has a solid grip on the campaign in South Carolina as well. I guess it doesn't hurt his chances that he has already been endorsed by Governor Nikki Haley, who is one of several candidates mentioned for the vice precident nomination.

What a battle we will witness in the forthcoming days!

Lindos, Rhodes, Greece

2012-01-10T21:07:00.009+01:00

(1)

(2) On the way up to Acropolis. View of the city of Lindos.

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(5) How did the cat stand the heat, I wonder... A beauty, anyway!

(6) This was unfortunately the closest we got to Acropolis this time, as at the gate we were told that the tourist attraction was affected by the general strike that day...

(7) The ancient theatre.

(8) A glimpse of Acropolis in the background.

(9) On our way to St. Paul's Bay where a chapel has erected in memory of St. Paul the Apostle's visit during his third missionary journey. As Acropolis was closed, the stay at the bay was the higlight of our visit to Lindos. Beautiful surroundings and a great beach as well.

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(11) From the beach in St. Paul's Bay one could view the back side of Acropolis.

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(18) On our way back to "down town" Lindos. Yet another angle of Acropolis.

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I visited the Greek island of Rhodes in early October 2011. My parents-in-law had invited their children, children-in-law and grandchildren to a week's vacation at Rhodes in connection with their 70th birthdays. Sun hungry as we were, we spent most of the time at the beach closest to Sunwing Resort & Spa Kallithea, but made two excursions - to Lindos (founded around the 10th century BC!) and to the city of Rhodes. I will come back to Rhodes with a couple of blog articles later on.

Lindos is a most beautiful place and really "a must" if you ever visit the island of Rhodes!

The blog - standing

2012-01-08T20:52:00.009+01:00

On 1 January 2011 I wrote the article A new year is awaiting..., in which I among others gave details about the number of page views and the ten most popular blog articles. We are already a few days into the year 2012, but I thought I should write a similar report to compare how the blog has developed.

As of today, 8 January 2012, the blog has had 95.537 page views, starting in August 2009. In January 2011 the number had passed 30,000, so it is obviously I have got more readers, even though the number of articles has decreased (from 175 to 104). Most readers come from the United States (31.165 page views), followed by Norway (7.373 ) and Canada (7.052).

Top ten counting from August 2009 to January 2012:

25.07.2010: Countess Ruth of Rosenborg has died (946 page views)
16.11.2010: UK: Prince William of Wales and Kate Middleton engaged to marry (935)
30.11.2011: 'King' Leka of the Albanias has died (874)
23.01.2010: Cimetière de Passy, Paris, France (778)
26.10.2011: Princess Tatiana of Greece is pregnant (742)
07.06.2011: 75 years since the death of Queen Sonja's brother (689)
21.02.2011: UK: No official guest list for the royal wedding to be released (539)
30.12.2010: UK: Peter and Autumn Phillips parents to a baby girl (507)
19.09.2011: Last resting place of Erica Bernadotte, née Patzek (1911-2007) (Wilmersdorf Cemetery, Berlin, Germany, Part I) (496)
23.10.2011: England weekend, October 2011 (493)

Surprisingly enough the rather superficial article about the death of Countess Ruth of Rosenborg is still the most read article in terms of number of page views. Prince William of Wales and Kate Middleton's engagement is still in second place. The others have been replaced, though. How should one sum up the articles? Births, weddings and deaths are popular topics to read about?! All of them except for the last touches on genealogy, which shouldn't be a big surprise, as that is one of my favourite subjects.

I am pleased that the article about Queen Sonja's brother Karl Herman Haraldsen (1929-1936), which took some time to work on, reached top ten. The most funny or interesting article to work on in 2011? Hard to say, but maybe the articles The Citadel Park cemeteries, Poznan, Poland, Part I and The Norwegian Royal Family and Court in the 1909 and 1910 censuses (23 February 2011).

2011 was a rather hectic year, which explains why the number of articles compared with 2010 dropped. I am not too happy with that, but I said last year that I would be happy with 1 or 2 articles a week, and that is exactly what I achieved. Still, I have some times been a bit frustrated with the missed opportunites - events have taken place which I would have liked to write about, but had no time when they occurred. As expected there were more "timeless" blog articles than "news articles" in 2011.

What can the readers expect from my blog in 2012? Well, royal births in the Danish, Swedish and Greek royal families will surely be commented on. I will pay some attention to the US elections this year. During my paternity leave last spring I visited a bunch of cemeteries here in Oslo (my daughter needed a nap anyway, so why not take the pram to the cemeteries?!), but have not made blog articles out of these visits yet. And I have travelled a lot the last few years, so you could expect articles on everything from Texas to Montenegro. I just have to get the time to do them!

Updated on Sunday 8 January 2012 at 23.30 (one sentence corrected), last time Monday 9 January 2012 at 08:30 (another sentence modified).

Joe Kennedy III to run for Congress?

2012-01-07T22:43:00.008+01:00

The Boston Globe reported on Thursday 5 January 2012* that Joe Kennedy III, son of Joe Kennedy II by his first wife Sheila Brewster Rauch, and thus a grandson of Robert Kennedy and a great nephew of John F. Kennedy, has created an exploratory committee as a first step in the process of running for Congress later this year. A final decision will be made in the next few weeks. Kennedy has already resigned from his job as assistant district attorney in Middlesex, Massachusetts.

If Kennedy decides to run, he will fight for the Democratic nomination in the redrawn Newton and Brookline district. Barney Frank, the current US Representative of Massachusett's 4th district since 1981, announced on 29 November 2011 that he would not seek re-election, so it his seat that Kennedy might fight for, although I am not sure if the redrawn district of Newton and Brookline will still have the number four.

After Joe Kennedy III's first cousin once removed, Patrick Kennedy, son of Ted Kennedy, left Congress in January 2011, many wondered if this marked the end of "the Kennedy era" in US American politics. Well, now we know. It has been speculated earlier that Joe Kennedy III was the most likely Kennedy family member of his generation to pursue a political career, cf. among others The Boston Globe 14 February 2010 and Mail Online 2 September 2011, so I guess people who have an interest in the matter are not too surprised by the news. There are of course a few ifs here. Joe Kennedy III first has to decide to run (I think he will), then he has to win his party's nomination (more an open question) and finally he has to win the election in November. The Democratic party usually does well in this area, so I think that the fight for party nomination will be the biggest challenge. Well, time will show...

I can't help still being fascinated by the Kennedy family and the involvement in politics and other profiled areas. I guess it is first of all the dynastic aspect of it...

* For some reason if you click on the URL http://bostonglobe.com/metro/2012/01/05/joseph-kennedy-iii-launch-explorator y-committee/XSSFMt5wLN7pVrujuG90RM/story.html dated 5 January 2012 (I copied it on Thursday planning to write about it the same day, but in the end didn't get the time) you will automatically be transferred to the URL http://articles.boston.com/2012-01-06/metro/30592085_1_kennedy-family-robert-f-kennedy-edward-m-kennedy dated 6 January 2012. One mistake - the allegation that the US Congress had been without a Kennedy family member since the death of Ted Kennedy in 2009 - has been corrected. Patrick Kennedy left Congress in January 2011.

Iowa caucuses

2012-01-04T22:09:00.011+01:00

What a thriller the Iowa caucuses last night turned out to be! And my prayers were almost heard! Almost! :-) Mitt Romney won Iowa by 8 more votes than Rick Santorum (30,015 vs. 30.007)! Romney won 24,6% of the votes, Santorum got 24,5%, Ron Paul 21,4%, Newt Gingrich 13,3%, Rick Perry 10,3%, the Norwegian-American Michele Bachmann 5%, Jon Huntsman 0,6% (but he didn't spend much time in Iowa if any at all), 0,1% had no preference (135 people), 0,1% voted for other candidates (who?), while Herman Cain, who suspended his campaign last month, got 58 votes. All according to Des Moines Register.

Iowa's Republican party only provides 28 delegates to the party convention in August. The caucus is said to give one or more candidates a boost before the later primaries, but is not necessarily that important after all. John McCain became no. 4 in 2008, but made a great comeback in New Hampshire and never really looked back. Not that I think Gingrich will follow in McCain's footsteps. According to the polls (source Real Clear Politics) he is still in the lead in South Carolina and Florida, but Gingrich's popularity has dropped since the polls took place and even if he might still do relatively well in those states, it will not be enough to stop Romney's parade towards August victory.

Even if Romney just about won Iowa, one could say that Santorum became "the true winner" if one considers how far behind he was in the polls only a couple of weeks ago. His "barnstorming" (how I love this expression!) of Iowa paid off. He will enjoy the sun for a while, and it will be interesting to see how much he can climb in popularity in South Carolina and Florida, but most commentaries today don't believe in his future beyond that.

I still haven't found any website which shows the GOP delegate count after the Iowa caucus. That could be because the delegates are not formally elected yet. The path goes from the precinct caucuses via the county and district conventions to the Iowa state convention, which actually chooses the delegates. In theory they are unbound from the results of the precinct caucuses. So different election system from I am used to here in Norway, but very fascinating! If the delegates were bound to follow the results, Romney and Santorum would have won 7 each, Paul 6, Gingrich 4, Perry 3 and Bachmann 1. If I have got the math right, that is!

Michele Bachmann, who was born in Iowa and represent the neighbour state Minnesota in the US House of Representatives, decided to suspend her campaign today, just as I predicted yesterday. There were rumours earlier today that Perry was about to give up as well, but he has decided to go on. It will probably not last for long, though.

The New Hampshire primary takes place on 10 January 2012. As I have already commented on, Romney is sure to win, and the question is only how big the percentage will be. 45% perhaps? And can Jon Huntsman create a few headlines? Time will show. I will not be able to blog about every primary or caucus this spring - and of course there are other bloggers who will write far better comments and analysis than I can - but you can be sure that I will continue to follow the campaign with great interest!

The only thing I wonder about is how to get photos (free of use) of the various candidates? I have checked their websites, but not found pages which includes photos "in the public domain". Anyone who can help me out? E-mails and tweets to Romney's campaign office has not helped so far... The blog could need some illustrations in connection with my US elections comments.

Updated on Thursday 5 January 2012 at 15.45 (subject title).

US Presidential Election 2012, Iowa caucuses

2012-01-03T22:00:00.008+01:00

Finally the day has come! The US Presidential Election 2012 opens with the Iowa caucus tonight. As I have written earlier, I am very interested in US politics and have looked forward to this year's campaign for a long time.

The former Governor of Massachusetts, Mitt Romney, has more or less been campaigning ever since he lost the GOP nomination in 2008 to John McCain, and many consider him to be «the next in line» to front the party in this year's election. He is supported by the majority of the Republican establishment, he is in the lead among the Republican candidates concerning fundraising, he has solid business experience which surely will be helpful and the polls show that he has the greatest chance to beat President Barack Obama.

It is of course far too early to predict who will win the election in November, but as of now I think the chances of Mitt Romney becoming the next US President is greater than that Obama will be re-elected. The economy is the main reason for this. According to Cafferty File no president since Roosevelt has won re-election with unemployment over 7.2% The current rate is today 8.6%, and no-one seriously expects that it will be anywhere near 7.2% in November. But if the economy shows signs of improvement in the fall, Obama might surprise us after all.

The GOP campaign has been interesting to watch the last few months. Romney is obviously one of the Republican candidates closest to the political center, and for the Republican (Christian-Conservative) right he is just not conservative enough. The «anyone but Mitt» slogan has dominated in the GOP campaign so far, where more conservative politicians, supported by the Tea Party, have give given Romney a true challenge for a while but then slipped behind again – Pawlenty, Bachmann, Perry, Cain and Gingrich have all come and gone. Romney's position has not weakened. Tonight only Mitt Romney, Ron Paul and Rick Santorum have a chance to win the Iowa caucus, and to keep some excitement a few more weeks I almost hope that Santorum will win the majority of delegates!

Romney doesn't need to win tonight, he is certain to win in New Hampshire and will probably take South Carolina unless Santorum's campaign should catch more wind if he does well tonight. Gingrich shouldn't be ruled out completely, but as I have already hinted I would be really surprised if Romney doesn't win the nomination in the end. It will be more exciting to see who he will choose as his VP candidate. He might have to pick a more conservative partner in order to please the right wing of his party, but the VP can't be too conservative either as it would surely scare off too many of the independent, centrist votes. I will come back to this later on.

The results of the Iowa caucus is expected to be ready around 3 a.m. Norwegian time. I would love to stay up to follow the news as the results come in, but as my 17 months old daughter has not given me the best sleep the last couple of nights, I will have to wait until tomorrow to get the latest news of the campaign. I plan to visit the United States in the summer and really hope that I will be able to follow the election campaign more closely then.

I have to include some genealogy in this article as well. It is after all one of my main interests. Fortunately the website of the genealogist William A. Reitwiesner, who died in 2010, is still in existence. At his website Wargs.com you can find the ancestry tables of Mitt Romney, Jon Huntsman, Ron Paul and Newt Gingrich. Rick Santorum is not listed, but you can find some details here and here. I have blogged about Michele Bachmann, née Amble, earlier. I haven't had the time yet to do more research on her Norwegian ancestry, but you will find some details here, here and here. One of Rick Perry's great-great grandfathers was a Choctaw (Native American) according to this page. Yet another page with information on his ancestry can be found here. And finally, go here for a collection of the presidential candidates' ancestries. I can of course not speak for the accuracy of information given at the various websites I have provided links to.

Updated on Thursday 5 January 2012 at 15.45 (subject title).

Merry Christmas!

2011-12-22T23:50:00.006+01:00

There were some shepherds in that
part of the country who were spending the
night in the fields, taking care of their
flocks. An angel of the Lord appeared
to them, and the glory of the Lord shone
over them. They were terribly afraid, but
the angel said to them, "Don't be afraid!
I am here with good news for you,
which will bring great joy to all the people.
This very day in David's town your
Saviour was born - Christ the Lord!
And this is what will prove it to you:
you will find a baby wrapped in strips
of cloth and lying in a manger."
Suddenly a great army of heaven's
angels appeared with the angel, singing
praises to God:
"Glory to God in the highest heaven,
and peace on earth to those with
whom he is pleased!"

(Luke 2, 8-14)

***

I wish you all a Merry Christmas!

Royalty Digest Quarterly no. 4, 2011

2011-12-22T20:07:00.007+01:00

Oh, isn't it just wonderful! Two days before Christmas the latest issue of Royalty Digest Quarterly arrived in my mailbox. Great timing! Tonight I have just looked quickly through it in order to make this little presentation of its contents, and look forward to reading it more carefully when I leave for Kristiansand and Mandal tomorrow evening.

The front cover of Royalty Digest Quarterly no. 4, 2011 shows a photo taken around 1904 of six Saxe-Meiningen siblings, and their ducal house is dealt with later in the issue. The magazine editor, Ted Rosvall, not surprisingly comments on the proposal to change the British Act of Settlement (succession law) in his editioral column and is like your sincerely in favour of the idea of letting the eldest child inherit the throne regardless of sex.

The Polish Lucas Szkopinski has - just like I have - a great interest in the former Balkan monarchies, and this time he has delivered the article Alexander and Drage. Love and death in Belgrade, which of course deals with the last Obrenovic king and queen of Serbia, who were killed in 1903.

The next man out is the Brazilian Alberto Penna Rodriguez, whose contribution this time is called The forgotten Infanta. Dona Maria Adelaide of Braganza (Mrs. van Uden), who will celebrate her 100th birthday on 31 January 2012. She was the youngest child of the Miguelist pretender to the Portuguese throne Dom Miguel (II) and his second wife Maria Teresa, née Princess of Löwenstein-Wertheim-Rosenberg. Dona Maria Adelaide is an aunt of the current Portuguese pretender, Dom Duarte Pio, Duke of Braganza. She married in 1945 the Dutch man Nicolaas van Uden and they got five children. Nicolaas died in 1991.

RDQ's historical consultant Charlotte Zeepvat is as usual responsible of A Family Album, which as already suggested gives an illustrated presentation of the ducal house of Saxe-Meiningen. Besides the 2 pages' long presentation and photos of Schloss Elisabethenburg and Schloss und Veste Heldburg, the reader can enjoy 16 pages with 59 photos of various family members as well as one photo of the family's summer palace Schloss Altenstein, as well as two pages with genealogical tables.

Archduke Otto of Austria (Otto von Habsburg) died on 4 July this year, and this is marked by two articles - An Imperial Farewell. Funeral Ceremonies of Otto von Habsburg by Stefan Haderer and An Autumn Wedding by Michael Nash (the latter article is about Archduke Otto's parents' wedding, it should be added).

The historian Trond Norén Isaksen gives an account of The oldest of the Bernadottes - Elsa Cedergren (1893-1996), followed by Charlotte Zeepvat second (but not last) contribution, Prelude to a Winter Wedding. The article deals with the 8 January 1930 wedding between the then Prince of Piedmont, later King Umberto II of Italy, and Princess Marie José, daughter of King Albert I and Queen Elizabeth of the Belgians. The last main article of this issue is written by Netty Leistra, Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands (1911-2004). A long and interesting life.

The editor has made space for three book reviews this time, and Trond Norén Isaksen has written two of them. His first review is of Philip Eade's book Young Prince Philip. His Turbulent Early Life, which I mentioned in my article England weekend October 2011 and which also Isaksen has commented on, and his second deals with Ilana D. Miller's The Four Graces. Queen Victoria's Hessian Granddaughters. Interestingly enough Charlotte Zepvaat returns with a second opinion of the same book.

As usual the Royalty Digest Quarterly gives the latest news of the royal world (or rather royal Europe) in the column The World Wide Web of Royalty. You can also find information about the forthcoming Royalty Weekend, which takes place in Ticehurst, East Sussex on 14-15 April 2012 (I attended the RW 2011, which I have written about here). Finally you can also find an advertisement of the book Hvidøre. A Royal Retreat, which is to be published in March 2012. Coryne Hall and Senta Driver are the authors. The villa Hvidøre on the Danish coast was once owned by the Danish-born Queen Alexandra of the United Kingdom and her sister, Empress Maria Feodorovna, née Princess Dagmar of Denmark. Well, she was actually born a Princess of Glücksburg, when I come to think of it.

In other words, plenty of reading when my plane takes off tomorrow evening!

Royalty Digest Quarterly is published by Roosvall Royal Books, which can be contacted by e-mail royalbooks[at]telia.com.

See earler presentations of RDQ here.

Updated on Sunday 1 January 2012 at 20.15 (link added), last time Monday 9 January 2012 at 08.30 (one sentence modified).

A cemetery in Lindos, Rhodes, Greece

2011-12-19T23:08:00.004+01:00

During my visit to Lindos at the Greek island of Rhodes back in October this year, I came over this small cemetery on the way up to the main road and bus station. The gate was closed, so I couldn't get better pictures than these. At the other side of the road there was a rather angry goat which I feared could attack me any minute, so I didn't stay long outside the gate!

Norwegian news in English

2011-12-18T23:06:00.005+01:00

I have earlier written about two online newspapers which publish news about and from Norway in English - Views and News from Norway and The Foreigner (go here and here).

Recently I discovered that The Local earlier this fall launched a Norwegian version. The news portal also has similar English-speaking editions for France, Germany, Sweden and Switzerland.

Yet another online news site, "written in English, dedicated to Norwegian affairs at home and abroad", cf. the news site's own presentation, is Norway News.

Although not a news site, Norway.org - the Norwegian official site in the United States - is also a good source for news about Norwegian affairs.

New book for King Harald of Norway's 75th birthday: "Idrettskongen" ("The Sports King")

2011-12-13T20:21:00.011+01:00

Dag Erik Pedersen's book Idrettskongen ("The Sports King") is to be launched in connection with King Harald V's 75th birthday on 21 February next year, Dagbladet.no revealed in the article Kongen håndplukket Dag Erik til bokprosjekt ("The king hand-picked Dag Erik for [the] book project") yesterday.

The book is meant to cover King Harald's commitment to and great interest in sports, both as an athlete, spectator and as a protector. The king is the Norwegian Olympic and Paralympic Committee and Confederation of Sports (NIF)'s protector and is still an active yachtsman. In 1987 King Harald and his crew won the World Championships with his one-tonne yacht, the Fram X, and in 2005 they won the European Championships with the Fram XV. The King remains an avid yachtsman, participating in national and international regattas each year, cf. his biography at Kongehuset.no.

The king has on several times been described by his wife as a "sportsidiot" ("mad on sports", "sports crazy"), so even if there might be some sports that he finds more interesting than others, his frequent attendance at sports events in Norway and abroad is certainly not because of duty. His knowledge about Norwegian and international sports is said to be impressive. - You can interview any Norwegian athlete, and everyone will tell you that the king was present at the greatest moment of their career, the author says to Dagbladet.no.

Dag Erik Pedersen works as a sports journalist for the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation (NRK) and is a former professional cyclist. In 1999 he produced a TV documentary with the same title as the book, Idrettskongen. According to VG.no 10 December 2011, Pedersen asked the king if he would be interested in contributing to the book during the Olympic Winter Games in Torino in 2006. Dagbladet.no on the other hand claims that it was the king who wanted Pedersen to write the authorised book.

The book will be sold in the book stores as well as by the athletic clubs, which will get some of the profit.

The publisher is Gyldendal Norsk Forlag. ISBN: 9788205422803
(820542280X). Price: NOK 399. Expected to be on sale from 14 February 2012.

Updated on Tuesday 13 December 2011 at 22.00 (paragraph about the publishers added).

'King' Leka of the Albanians has died

2011-11-30T20:07:00.006+01:00

"The Albanian Royal Court" announced today the death of the self-styled King Leka of the Albanians. The king died at the Mother Teresa Hospital in the Albanian capital of Tirana in the morning of 30 November 2011, 72 years old. He had been hospitalized earlier in November with heart and lung problems.

According to an Associated Press article, Saturday 3 December has been declared a day of national mourning, and President Bamir Topi has said that Albania "will respect King Leka I with all the attributes of a king not in office." In his condolence message the president also said that "His active efforts and role to topple the communist system and, during transition, to heighten Albania's national values and promote the integrating process remain alive in the nation's memory".

King Leka was born in Tirana on 5 April 1939 as the only child of King Zog (1895-1928-1939-1961) and Queen Geraldine, née Countess Apponyi de Nagy Appony (1915-2002). Through his mother King Leka was related to most reigning and former reigning royal families of Europe, as Geraldine descended from the Princely House of Anhalt-Dessau.

The royal family had to escape when Italy occupied Albania only a couple of days after Leka's birth. After many years in exile in among others United Kingdom, France, Spain and South Africa Leka was allowed to return to his fatherland in 2002. He was kicked out in 1993 when he first attempted to visit Albania, and again in 1997 after being charged with organizing an armed uprising following the demonstrations he lead after he lost a referendum on the form of government. Die-hard monarchists have claimed that the referendum was flawed. It should, howver, be added that the official result - about 33% in favour of restoration of the monarchy - was as far as I remember close to the last poll carried out before the referendum took place as well as the exit poll (I think it was the latter I wrote about in the newsgroup alt.talk.royalty on 13 June 1997).

Leka succeeded to the headship of the Albanian Royal Family on the death of King Zog in 1961 and styled himself King, which most of his supporters have referred to ever since. As he never held office as King, it might have made more sense to refer to him as Crown Prince Leka, just like his colleague in Yugoslavia (Serbia), Alexander, did. Alternatively one could have used his civil name, Leka Zogu.

King Leka married in 1975 the Australian-born Susan Cullen-Ward (1941-2004). They had one son, also named Leka, b. 1982, who has succeeded his father as head of the royal family. The new head, who works as a political adviser to the Albanian Minister of Interior, is engaged to marry the Albanian woman Elia Zaharia, b. 1983.

See also my website with links to more information about the Albanian Royal Family as well as the blog article I wrote in 2009 following my visit to the Thiais cemetery in Paris.

War memorials at Digitaltmuseum.no

2011-11-26T11:37:00.008+01:00

Kulturnett.no (Culturenet.no) published earlier this week (21 November 2011) an interesting article about Norwegian war memorials which have been registered at Digitaltmuseum.no.

Forsvarsmuseet (The Armed Forces Museum) in Norway has kept a record of the war memorials in Norway since 1979. The survey was, however, rather insufficient and difficult of access. The Armed Forces carried out a national registration of all the war memorials with the help of the Home Guard districts. This registration work makes the basis for today's accessibility.

The survey of the war memorials can be viewed here.

According to the article historical objects, cultural monuments/relics or cultivated areas with defence-related relevance are not included in the Armed Forces' presentation of war memorials.

A war memorial is defined as a memorial of persons or events related to war occurrences and defence-related activity throughout history. A war memorial can be everything from a small plaque on a wall to a large monument in the middle of a city. There are war memorials of persons and events in every corner of Norway, symbolizing courage, resistance and the basic values of the Armed Forces. The vast majority of war memorials have been erected by initiatives of the local community. But the Armed Forces itself has also erected war memorials - both inside and outside military areas.

As of now about 2700 war memorials are included in the register.

I have over the years photographed many war memorials, often in connection with visits to cemeteries. The photos will be included in blog articles in due time. The photo at the top shows a war memorial outside Spangereid Cemetery in Lindesnes at the very south of Norway. Another photo of the memorial can be found at Digitaltmuseum.no. Named on the memorial are Sverre Gundersen (1916-1941), Norman E. Samuelsen (1919-1942) and Toralf Robertsen (1921-1943). The latter was a first cousin of my father-in-law and I wrote a few words about him in the Robertsen booklet published in August 2009 in connection with the Robertsen family reunion at Spangereid. Toralf, who had been a sailor since he was 15, was on board the ship D/S Christian Michelsen which was torpedoed on 26 September 1943.

Norway: Kongefamiliens årbok 2011 - The Royal Family's Yearbok 2011

2011-11-15T20:10:00.004+01:00

We are getting closer to yet another Christmas celebration, and as usual a bunch of new and interesting book titles has reached the market. The fifth volume of Tor Bomann-Larsen's biography about King Haakon VII and Queen Maud of Norway, Æresordet (Cappelen Damm, 2011, ISBN 978-82-02-30374-7) has created several headlines in the newspapers and is expected to sell well (I hope to get it for Christmas!). But it might get some competition in Juritzen forlag's publication Kongefamiliens årbok 2011 ("The Royal Family's Yearbook 2011"), which has recently arrived in the bookstores (it was delivered from the printers on 8 November 2011, cf. the blog Passion&Prose bokdesign). As the title suggests, the book, edited by Arve Juritzen, covers the main royal events of 2011, and according to its publisher, consists of about 350 pages with more than 400 photos (the BibSys entry, however, gives the number of pages to be 317). The publisher's presentation mentions the Crown Prince family's trip to the Middle East and Asia, the Oslo and Utøya terror acts and the British Royal Wedding as some of the events that will be covered by the yearbook.

The book costs NOK 399, but is priced at NOK 349 in some of the Internet bookstores (see for instance Norli). ISBN: 978-82-8205-168-2.

Kadriorg Palace and Park, Tallinn, Estonia

2011-11-09T20:49:00.007+01:00

(1) Kadriorg Palace, today Kadriorg Art Museum.

(2)

(3)

(4)

(5) The back side of the palace with the garden.

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(10) The Presidential Palace can be seen in the background.

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(12) Interior.

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(17) The Presidential Palace.

(18) Peter The Great House Museum.

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(20) The Russalka monument - a sculpture of an angel facing the sea - is a memorial to the military ship Russalka which sunk in 1893. The sun made it too difficult to get a decent photo of the angel's face...

(21) Statue of the Estonian writer Friedrich Reinhold Kreutzwald (1803-1882).

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The construction of Kadriorg Palace in Tallinn, Estonia, started in 1718 on the order of Emperor Peter I of Russia (Peter the Great) (1672-1682-1725), but was not completed before after his death. It was named after his second wife Catherine (1684-1725-1727), née Marta Helena Skawrońska, who succeeded him on his death in 1725 and enjoyed a short reign before she died 2 years later. The German name of the baroque-style palace, which was designed by the Italian architect Niccolo Michetti, was Catherinethal ("Catherine's Valley"). The name by which the palace is better known today, Kadriorg - "Kadri" is an Estonian version of "Catherine" - was first established in the 20th century.

The palace was meant to be the summer residence of the Russian Emperor (Czar) when staying in Tallinn, and according to the official website, "Most of the Russian rulers, from Peter’s daughter Elizabeth, to the last Romanov emperor Nicholas II", have visited it. For a short period during the first Estonian independence, the palace served as the president's office, before the new presidential palace was built. Today the palace houses an art museum, a branch of the Art Museum of Estonia.

In the Kadriorg Park you can also find the Presidential Palace, which was finished in 1938, and which served its purpose once again from 1991 when the Republic of Estonia got independent for the second time, as well as the Peter The Great House Museum, Kumu Art Museum, the Swan Pond and the Russalka monument. Peter The Great used to stay in what is now a small museum during his visits to Tallinn during the construction work of the palace. Some of Peter's furniture can be viewed in the museum.

Kadriorg Palace and the park with the same name is only a short walk from Tallinn's old city. It can also be reached by taking tram no. 1 or 3.

All the photos were taken on Sunday 6 November 2011.

Hoelseth.com: 'Longest reigns' page updated

2011-10-29T21:17:00.004+02:00

Crown Prince Sultan Bin Abdulaziz Al Saud of Saudi Arabia died on Saturday 22 October 2011 in New York City and was buried in the Al-Oud cemetery in Riyadh on Tuesday 25 October. 3 days later Saudi Arabia's interior minister, Prince Nayef Bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, b. 1933, was appointed as the country's new Crown Prince. He was also named prime minister, a position he will hold in addition to his post as interior minister.

In connection with the changes to the Saudi succession I have updated my website Longest reigns, which is a survey of the longest reigns among the reigning monarchs today.

The website will soon be updated once again, as Sultan Abdul Halim Mu'adzam Shah, the Sultan of Kedah, was recently elected by the Council of Rulers to be the next Yang di-Pertuan Agong (King) of Malaysia. The Sultan of Kedah will succeed as King on 13 December 2011. The Sultan of Kelantan, Sultan Muhammad V, will at the same time be installed as the next Deputy Yang di-Pertuan Agong.

Princess Tatiana of Greece is pregnant

2011-10-26T19:59:00.004+02:00

Princess Tatiana of Greece, née Blatnik, wife of Prince Nikolaos of Greece, has confirmed to the Danish magazine Billed-Bladet that she is expecting their first child in the spring of 2012.

Prince Nikolaos is the third child and second son of the former King Constantine and Queen Anne-Marie of the Hellenes. The child will become Their Majesties' tenth grandchild, and would have, if the Greek monarchy had still existed, become no. 8 in the line of succession.

Prince Nikolaos and Princess Tatiana were married at the Greek island of Spetses on 25 August 2010.

England weekend October 2011

2011-10-23T20:02:00.014+02:00

Last weekend (14-17 October 2011) I made my second trip to England this year. Last time was in April when I for the first time attended the Royalty Weekend in Ticehurst, East Sussex. I also spent one day in London, meeting friends and doing some shopping. It was the first time for a very long time that I visited England without watching at least one football (soccer) game. During the Royalty Weekend my English favourite team, Norwich City, played Swansea City away and lost 0-3, so I guess it didn't matter that much that I focused on royal history instead of travelling to Wales!

Carrow Road, Norwich. City Stand in the background.

Fortunately I got a chance to see football in England again in October because Supporterunionen for Britisk Fotball (SBF) (The Supporters' Union of British Football), which is the umbrella organisation for all the Scandinavian supporters' clubs following various British football teams, invited representatives of the membership clubs to an anniversary trip in connection with the organisation's 25th anniversary.

I was chairman of the Norwich City Supporters' Club of Scandinavia (NCSCS) from 1983 to 1996 and returned to the committee in June this year, now as an ordinary member. As none of the other members of the NCSCS committee were able to represent the supporterts' club that particular weekend, I got the chance instead. I was actually present when the SBF was founded back in 1986, so I guess it was only natural that I joined the other supporters' club representatives for the football weekend.

Marc Tierney ready for a throw-in.

On Saturday 15 August I took the train from London up to Norwich with members of the Capital Canaries, the London-based supporters' club for the Canaries (nick-name of Norwich City). I will not get too much into detail about the football part of the weekend, as I am going to write a piece for our newsletter, The Canary Magazine. But I am happy to tell that my favourites, who won promotion to the Premiership after last season, most deservedly beat Swansea City 3-1! The atmosphere at the stadium was great, and the weather was warm and lovely.
On Sunday the whole SBF group travelled up to Birmingham to watch the Championship game between Birmingham City and Leicester City. The home team won 2-0.

Display of royal biographies at Waterstone's, Piccadilly.

The display included one of the biographies I ended up buying, Young Prince Philip. His Turbulent Early Life by Philip Eade.

On Monday 17 October 2011 I had a few hours to spend in London before heading for Stansted and the flight home to Norway. My shopping round was not so very different from the one I had after the Royalty Weekend in April. I bought a few stamps at the Stanley Gibbons stamps shop at Strand, before visiting the bookstores at Piccadilly - Waterstone's and Hatchard's. I think the latter could do more out of the royal biographies section - the former seems to be more professional regarding how to display news items, but still I spent more time at Hatchard's. One of the reasons might be that one of the employees I have known since the early 1990s was in that day, and I hadn't seen him for quite some time. Always nice with a little chat about royalty!

I bought two biographies which as far as I remember (please correct me if I am wrong) were published after my last visit to London - Nazi Princess. Hitler, Lord Rothermere and Princess Stephanie von Hohenlohe by Jim Wilson (Stroud, Gloucestershire: The History Press, 2011) and Young Prince Philip. His Turbulent Early Life by Philip Eade (London: HarperPress, 2011). The latter was actually bought at Waterstone's, as it was signed by the author. Not sure why if was so important to me, though. It is not supposed to contain that much new information, but the topic interested me nevertheless.

I almost regret that I bought Jim Wilson's book. Now, it must be stressed that I have only read a few chapters of the book, but what I have read so far makes me a bit sceptical. With "access to secret British intelligence files, only derestricted and released to The National Archives in 2005, and a large collection of Princess Stephanie's own papers now held in the Hoover Institution Archives at Stanford University in California" (cf. the introduction), the book seemed promising, but as always it is important how you make use of the sources and how you present the story.

"Princess Stephanie von Hohenlohe" refers to the Vienna-born Stéphanie Richter (1896-1972), who in 1914 married Prince Friedrich Franz of Hohenlohe-Waldenburg-Schillingsfürst (1879-1958). After her divorce in 1920, she became "a close confidante of Hitler, Goering, Himmler and von Ribbentrop" (cf. the front inside flap). Stéphanie was born as the daughter of Ludmilla Kuranda, a Jewish woman from Prague, following - according to the biography - an affair with one Max Wiener. Kuranda, or rather Mrs. Richter, who converted upon marriage converted to Catholism, was married to one Johann "Hans" Richter who was in prison serving a sentence for embezzlement, and who accepted the child as his own after he was released.

One thing is that the author ignores the obvious question of the morganatic status of Prince Friedrich Franz's marriage to Stéphanie Richter. She surely kept the Hohenlohe name following the divorce, and she might have used "her title" all along, but as far as I know the marriage was not deemed dynastic. I find it much worse, though, that the author claims in connection with her marriage to Prince Friedrich Franz and the child that was born into the marriage, Franz Joseph, that the true father of the son was Archduke Franz Salvador, Prince of Tuscany (1866-1939) and son-in-law of Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria, without giving any source for the paternity. It might be true for all I know, but then the author should have told how the information was reached. There is no footnote or any clue whatsoever in the particular paragraph on page 31. Even more funny, on the very same page the author refers to Stéphanie's son as "illegitimate". No, no, no! Even if he was fathered by another man than his mother's husband, he was born into wedlock and was of course legitimate at birth. Pater est quem nuptiae demonstrant!

Oh well, I will finish the book eventually and might come back with a review later on. My general impression might change, but as of now I am a bit disappointed. I only hope that I will not get similarly disappointed with Philip Eade's biography of the young Prince Philip after having read the first 55 pages! If you have read any of the said biographies, you are of course free to post your thoughts!

After more shopping, I got home to Oslo late Monday evening (17 October). I have travelled a lot recently - among others to Rhodes (Greece), England and Mandal in Southern Norway this weekend - one reason why there has been little time for blogging and website updating. Other reasons are of course family and work commitments etc. I am also going to spend a weekend in Tallinn, Estonia in November, but apart from that I hope to do more blogging from now on, i.e. more frequently than in the last couple of months (I will not make any promises, though!). Besides news items (there was unfortunately no time to write about the Bhutanese Royal Wedding of 13 October or Princess Märtha Louise's 40th birthday celebration in September, but the initiatives to change the Danish Constitution and the British Act of Settlement can easily be commented on later on), I have numerous cemetery visits to write about - could be as many as 30, 40 articles, I think (graves and cemeteries in Norway, Denmark, the United States, Greece, Turkey, Montenegro and the United Kingdom). And from my many travels there are many royal history topics to cover as well!

Postscript 24 October 2011: I forgot to mention yesterday that another biography about Stéphanie von Hohenlohe was published in 2004: Hitler's Spy Princess: The Extraordinary Life of Princess Stephanie von Hohenlohe (Stround, Gloucestershire: Sutton Publishing, 2004, ISBN 978-0750935142). See also Sfluxe.com's article dated 8 December 2010, Sflashback: The Nazi Princess of Pacific Heights.

Postscript 10 November 2011: Tim Allman of the Capital Canaries has mentioned me in his review of the Swansea game (link). Unfortunately he has mixed things up and written that I come from Sweden! Yes, we did talk about Swedish players during the train trip, including Ottosson and Svensson, but we also talked about other Scandinavian football players formerly with Norwich, such as Åge Hareide, today manager of Viking FK, Erik Fuglestad (now at Bryne FK) and Henrik Mortensen (from Denmark).

Postscript 19 December 2011: See Supporterunionen for Britisk Fotball's chairman Trond Fuhre's article about the anniversary trip at www.supporterunionen.no (in Norwegian, but with photo).

Updated on Sunday 23 October 2011 at 22.55 (typo corrected), Monday 24 October 2011 at 08.45 (postscript added), Thursday 10 November 2011 at 23.35 (postscript added), last time updated at Monday 19 December 2011 at 21.45 (postscript added).

Wilmersdorf Cemetery, Berlin, Germany, Part III

2011-10-13T20:49:00.007+02:00

Part I and part II.

(32) Wilmersdorf Cemetery in Berlin had many war memorials and war graves. Here is a "denkmal" for the victims of WW1.

(33) WW2.

(34) One of the victims, C. v. Callenberg (b. 17 February 1891, d. 26 April 1945).

(35)

(36) WW1 and WW2.

(37)

(38) Another WW2 memorial.

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(40) The Columbarium at Wilmersdorf. As I have mentioned before, I would like to see similar memorials in Norway as well. The graves in Norway take up too much space.

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(48) As I mentioned in part II, I had not made any preparations prior to my visit to the Wilmersdorf Friedhof. Therefore I didn't know of any other graves which could be of interest. The cemetery lists a few honorary graves, which includes Gustav Kemmann, architect of the first subway line in Berlin, the actor Guido Thielscher, the author Fedor von Zobeltitz and the politician Eugen Schiffer.

For photos of the Patzek family grave, a map of the cemetery and for directions, go to part I. For other graves, go to part II.

Wilmersdorf Cemetery, Berlin, Germany, Part II

2011-10-12T21:58:00.011+02:00

For part I, go here.

(10) At the end of this wall, but on the other side, you will find the Patzek family grave.

(11)

(12) I have really tried to find out more of this Vladimir Segline, who I gather was an ice hockey player, but to no avail. There was an Anatoli Seglin, though, who played for the USSR team Spartak Moscow. Might be a Latvian connection.

(13) Grave of the composer Leon Jessel (1871-1942).

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(18) The Kalkowski family grave (several politicians).

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(20) Grave of "Tante Jenny" ("Aunt Jenny")!

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(23) Havestadt.

(24) Feist.

(25) Speck.

(26) More Speck family members (and others).

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(28) I should obviously have taken a more complete photo of this family grave, or at least written down the name. Immrath? Ammrath? Hard to tell.

(29) To the left the Bahmer family grave.

(30)

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I visited the Wilmersdorf Cemetery (Friedhof Wilmersdorf) in Berlin during the last weekend of August, 2011. My main goal for the cemetery visit was to see the grave of Erica Bernadotte, née Patzek, the first wife of Count Sigvard Bernadotte of Wisborg, born Prince of Sweden. As the part I suggests, I didn't know for sure where Erica was buried before I left for Berlin, so I made no preparations for the visit and therefore might have missed several other interesting graves and monuments. The German Wikipedia article brings, for instance, the picture of the baronial von Dincklage family, which I must have missed somehow.

Anyway, it was a beautiful cemetery park, and quite a contrast to the Friedrichsfelde Cemetery which I visited later the same day (I will come back with one or more blog articles about that visit later on).

As already mentioned, for part I of the Wilmersdorf Cemetery series, go here. And yes, there will be a part III as well! [to see part III, go here.]

Updated on Thursday 13 October 2011 at 21.20 (link added).

Royalty Digest Quarterly no. 3, 2011

2011-09-28T22:06:00.007+02:00

Royalty Digest Quarterly no. 3, 2011 arrived in my mailbox last week. As usual I will give a short presentation of its contents.

In his Editor's Corner Ted Rosvall has not very surprisingly decided to comment on the pregnancy of HRH Crown Princess Victoria Sweden. Rosvall's main focus this time is his disagreement with the claim that Victoria marks the end of the Bernadotte dynasty on the Swedish throne, as the future child, which is expected in March 2012, will be a Westling. Rosvall hammers away: "Rubbish, I say! Uneducated, stubborn, macho rubbish!"

Of course I agree with Rosvall. I am not going to ignore the fact that traditionally - and genealogically speaking - dynastic and family names are inherited through the agnatic line. But the times have changed, and the name laws in Scandinavia, to take one example, open up for many possibilities concerning the choice of a child's surname. And of course there are many dynastic names which have carried on through the cognatic line, such as Oranje-Nassau, Romanov and Grimaldi. Finally, the fact remains that Prince Daniel has formally taken the surname Bernadotte (see my articles (1) and (2) of June 2010), so the future heir will definately be a Bernadotte, regardless of what the traditionalists say!

Following the Editor's Corner, Robert Prentice has the honour of being credited the first article of this issue, titled Princess Olga of Greece and Yugoslavia. Princess Olga was the daughter of Prince Nicholas of Greece and his wife Princess Helena, née Grand Princess of Russia. Prentice's sources include conversations and correspondence with numerous family members.

No issue of Royalty Digest Quarterly without the traditional family album provided by the periodical's historical consultant, Charlotte Zeepvat. This time we get the 2nd part of her Saxe-Coburg series. In RDQ no. 2, 2011 we were introduced to the Saalfeld and Kohary branch. This time the focus is on Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, and we get a short introduction besides the main part - a 21 pages' long family album, or 23 pages if we include the photos above the introduction. All in all 75 wonderful photos of royals and houses! And as usual 2 pages with a genealogical outline of the family.

Otto von Habsburg died earlier this year, 98 years old, and his obituary The Life of an Uncrowned Emperor is written by Stefan Haderer. Randi Buchwaldt, on the other hand, has contributed with the article Royal Twins, which, as the title suggests, deals with a long list of royal twins throughout the years - from Alexander Helios and Cleopatra Selene, children of Cleopatra VII of Egypt and the Roman triumvir Mark Antony, to the Danish royal twins Vincent and Josephine.

Charlotte Zeepvat then continues with the second part of her wonderful article Diddo, Arnold ... and the Urge (Governess Edith Greer, Archduchess Ileana and Archduke Anton of Austria), and the article is close to make claim on the rest of the issue - 23 pages! But as usual we get to read The World Wide Web of Royalty with news of the royal and princely families (page 64) as well as the ads section, which includes information about Diana Mandache's forthcoming publication (30 September 2011), which I also mentioned last time around.

The front cover shows the family of Duke Karl Eduard of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (Karl Eduard, Victoria Adelheid, Caroline Mathilde, Sibylla, Hubertus and Friedrich Josias).

Royalty Digest Quarterly is published by Roosvall Royal Books, which can be contacted by e-mail royalbooks[at]telia.com.

See earler presentations of RDQ here.

Last resting place of Erica Bernadotte, née Patzek (1911-2007) (Wilmersdorf Cemetery, Berlin, Germany, Part I)

2011-09-19T20:47:00.012+02:00

Last resting place of Erica Bernadotte, née Patzek (1911-2007), former wife of Sigvard Bernadotte (born Prince of Sweden).

The text above her name was taken from Psalm 23: "Und ob ich schon wanderte im finstern Tal, fürchte ich kein Unglück; denn du bist bei mir." ("Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me", English standard version).

Erica's mother Maria Patzek, née Lala (b. 19 February 1880, d. 28 May 1949).

Erica's father Anton Patzek (b. 4 June 1878, d. 6 July 1939).

Erica's brother Georg Patzek (b. 16 August 1908, d. 7 August 1968).

Just before I left for Berlin for a work trip at the last weekend of August this year, I came to think about Erica Patzek, the first wife of the former Prince Sigvard of Sweden (1907-2002). From Ted Rosvall's "must have" Bernadotte genealogy - Bernadotteättlingar ("The Bernadotte Descendants"), 2010 edition - I had learned that Erica had died in Berlin on 30 July 2007. He didn't know where she was buried, but mentioned in an e-mail that she had lived in Wilmersdorf, Berlin.

So when I left for Berlin I didn't have much information to go by, other than that Erica most likely was interred somewhere in the current borough of Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf, but one could of course never know for sure. According to the website of the Senatsverwaltung für Stadtentwicklung (Senate Department for Urban Development) there was no central grave register. The official website of Berlin could tell that there were 18 cemeteries and crematories in the borough. Now, some of them could because of their nature easily be ignored, but still there were more than a handful of alternatives, and too little time to visit them all.

I would most likely have started with checking out the Friedhof Wilmersdorf (Wilmersdorf Cemetery) due to its name and location in Wilmersdorf, but if the cemetery was large "the grave hunting" could turn out to be like looking for the famous needle in a haystack.

But I was lucky this time. The city guide the company I work for used for part of the weekend happened to own a copy of Lexicon Berliner Grabstätten by Hans-Jürgen Mende (Haude & Spener, 2005). Erica Bernadotte was of course not included in the book, as she died 2 years after it was published, but there was an entry for her father Anton Patzek, and as Erica never remarried, it was more than likely that she was interred in a grave together with her Patzek family. At least I knew now that Anton Patzek was buried in the section WG1, which was located between the A and D sections. So on the last day of my visit, Sunday 28 August, I took the subway to Blissestrasse (line U7) and walked to the cemetery in Berliner Strasse (81-103). The Patzek monument was located at the wall between the A and D sections (in front of A7, see the map above). If I had not known where the family grave was, I would most likely have started with looking at the larger monuments, but I was still surprised by the size of it. The Patzek family was perhaps even more well-off than I had realized?

I will come back with another photo blog article about Wilmersdorf Cemetery, but just want to state the basic facts about Sigvard and Erica: Prince Sigvard of Sweden, Duke of Uppland, was the second son of the then Prince Gustaf Adolf (later King Gustaf VI Adolf) (1882-1950-1973) and his first wife Princess Margaret, née Princess of Great Britain and Ireland (1882-1920). Prince Sigvard married in a civil ceremony at Caxton Hall, Westminster, London 8 March 1934 Erica Patzek*, the only daugher of Anton Patzek and Maria Patzek, née Lala. As Erica according to the Swedish Constitution was a "private man's daughter", i.e. a commoner, Prince Sigvard automatically lost his rights of succession to the Swedish throne. His grandfather, King Gustaf V, also decided that Sigvard, who later developed into a skilled (industrial) designer, was also to be deprived of his titles. After the marriage had taken place, his diplomatic passport was replaced by a "normal blue Swedish passport" with the name Sigvard Bernadotte. Already in 1935 there were rumours that Sigvard and Erica were getting divorced, a rumour that was promptly denied. The couple was, however, divorced in October 1943.

Sigvard, who in 1951 got the title Count of Wisborg by the Grand Duchess of Luxembourg (his later legal battle with the Swedish court over his former title does not belong to this blog article), later remarried twice, while Erica returned to Berlin (they had lived in Denmark for some time) and never remarried. It would be interesting to know what her life was like after the divorce in 1943 and all the years that went by until she died in 2007. As far as I know she was never interviewed and seemed to have lived a rather anonymous life. But from what I remember she was heard from in 2002 when Sigvard died, as his third wife Marianne received her condolences. Will it ever be possible to find more information about Erica and write about her life after the divorce? Time will show. As of now she remains a very short chapter of the Bernadotte family history...

Sources: Ted Rosvall. Bernadotteättlingar, Falköping: Rosvall Royal Books, 2010; Aftenposten 9 March 1934 No. 124, p. 6; Aftenposten 4 January 1935 No. 5, p. 4; Sigvard Bernadotte. Erindringer, Copenhagen: Forum, 1975 (Danish edition).

*Rosvall:2010 lists her given names as Erika Maria Regina Rosalie, i.e. Erika with a 'k', while the gravestone clearly says Erica with a 'c'. Sigvard Bernadotte af Wisborg's biography also uses the spelling Erica.

For later articles covering the Wilmersdorf Friedhof, go here (part II) and here (part III).

Updated on Tuesday 20 September 2011 at 08.10 (one sentence added in footnote) and 09.00 (typo corrected). Last time updated on Thursday 13 october 2011 at 21.25 (links added).

A pregnancy, an anniversary and a wedding - a roundup

2011-09-02T22:32:00.010+02:00

I have earlier commented on the challenges I meet as a blogger when I want to write about and comment on current issues, but just don't have enough time. It is often easier for me to write "timeless" articles, like my many blog articles about cemetery visits, than to write about topics which are "in the news" here and now.

There have been many interesting events to write about lately, but I will have to limit myself to a "roundup" this time around. Normally I would have written about the pregnancy news from Denmark on Thursday 24 August the very same day, but as I was preparing for a work trip to Berlin the day after, I just didn't have the time. And I have also been rather busy after I returned to Oslo. Anyway, Amalienborg Palace issued the following press release on 24 August 2011:

Prince Joachim and Princess Marie are expectng a child

Amalienborg Palace, August 24, 2011

Their Royal Highnesses Prince Joachim and Princess Marie are happy to announce the pregnancy of Princess Marie.

It is expected that the birth will take place at Rigshospitalet in Copenhagen (Copenhagen University Hospital) at the end of January, 2012.

The press release was signed Kurt Bache, Chamberlain, Colonel, Private Secretary.

Prince Joachim has from earlier two sons - Prince Nikolai and Prince Felix - from his former marriage to Alexandra Manley, now Countess of Fredensborg, as well as one son - Prince Henrik - with his current wife, Princess Marie, née Cavallier. The future prince or princess will when born enter the line of succession to the Danish throne as no. 10 (see the current line here). Queen Margrethe II and Prince Henrik, the Prince Consort, will by then have 8 grandchildren.

The same day I left for Berlin, 25 August 2011, Crown Prince Haakon and Crown Princess Mette-Marit celebrated their 10th wedding anniversary. The occasion was first marked with a church service in Oslo Domkirke (Cathedral). In attendance were among others King Harald, Queen Sonja, Princess Märtha Louise and Ari Behn, Princess Astrid Mrs. Ferner and Johan Martin Ferner, Crown Princess Victoria and Prince Daniel of Sweden, Princess Rosario of Bulgaria, members of the Norwegian Government, Crown Princess Mette-Marit's mother Marit Tessem and her partner Magnar Alfred Fjeldvær, other members of the Tjessem family as well as many friends of the Crown Prince couple. After the church service the Crown Prince couple attended the 10th anniversary of their wedding fund at Universitetsplassen (the University Square), while in the evening the king and queen had the pleasure of hosting a private dinner at the Royal Palace. (Sources: Kongehuset.no; VG 26 August 2011.)

The Norwegian Crown Prince couple will have to share their wedding day with the head of the Royal House of Prussia, Prince Georg Friedrich, and his wife Princess Sophie of Isenburg, as their civil wedding took place at Potsdam City Hall on Thursday 25 August 2011 (I wrote about their engagement in January 2011). I was in Potsdam at the same day, having a day off with sightseeing together with a group of "royalty watchers" and bloggers. Funnily enough the bridal couple passed us in their car after the ceremony had taken place, as we were standing at the road between the Sanssouci and Orangery Palaces, but as I was on the wrong side of the car, I didn't get a glimpse of them.

The religious wedding was celebrated in Friedenskirche in Potsdam on Saturday 27 August (and that date will surely be more celebrated in the years to come, not the date of the civil ceremony), followed by a reception at Neue Kammern (New Chambers) and a gala dinner at the Orangery Palace in the evening (our group toured this palace on Thursday and witnessed some of the preparations). I have seen different numbers of guests, but apparently 650-700 people attended the church wedding, while around the half were present for the gala dinner. The guests included Prince Hassan Bin Talal and Princess Saravath of Jordan, Princess Sybilla of Luxembourg, Prince Laurent of Belgium, the British Lord and Lady Nicholas Windsor and many members of the former royal, princely or noble families of Germany as well as from other parts of Europe, such as Anhalt, Austria, Baden, Bavaria, Bourbon-Parme, Bourbon-Two Sicilies, Castell-Castell, Castell-Rüdenhausen, Hannover, Hesse, Hohenzollern, Isenburg, Leiningen, Lippe, Oldenburg, Portugal, Prussia, Reuss, Romania, Russia, Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, Schaumburg-Lippe, Solms-Laubach and Württemberg.

The newspaper B.Z. am Sonntag produced an ancestry table for Prince Georg Friedrich, besides focusing on politicians and celebrities such as former German football team coach Otto Rehhagel and his wife Beate, Brandenburg Minister-President Matthias and his wife Jeanette Platzeck, the bridal dress designer Wolfgang Joop, the publisher Friede Springer as well as Count Alexander von Kalckreuth and Countess Tamara von Nayhauß(-Cormons) with their children Max and Louis (has she not taken her husband's name and social title?) Berliner Morgenpost brought more photos of royal guests, but also mentioned the singer Max Raabe.

The church ceremony was, by the way, officiated by Pastor Michael Wohlrab and the Catholic abbot Count Gregor Henckel zu Donnersmarck. (Sources: Nobiliana.de, B.Z. 28 August 2011, Berliner Morgenpost 27 August and 28 August 2011.)

Other than the pregnancy, anniversary and wedding mentioned above, I would also to include a future wedding date in my round-up: The wedding of the King of Bhutan, Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck and Jetsun Pama (see the engagement news here) will take place in Punakha on 13 October 2011. The celebrations wil be held at the Changlingmithang Stadium in the capital Thimphu 2 days later, cf. Kuensel Online 1 September 2011.

Time for Crown Prince Sayyid Muhammad to go home?

2011-08-22T21:42:00.009+02:00

We have heard for quite some time now that the days of Colonel Muammar Gaddafi of Libya are numbered, and following the developments in the last few days, with the rebels now taking control over most parts of the capital Tripoli, we seem to getting closer and closer to a de facto change of government. At last!

The chairman of the Transitional National Council, Mustafa Muhammed Abdul Jalil, is expected to become the Libyan nation's new leader, at least until elections are held.

The head of the former Libyan Royal Family, Crown Prince Sayyid Muhammad, b. 1962, a grand-nephew of King Idris (1889-1951-1969-1983), lives in exile in London. As soon as the rebels have taken absolute control over Tripoli and the security situation is solved, the Crown Prince is expected to return to his homeland. It is in my opinion little chance of a restoration, and it is unclear what kind of role the Crown Prince will be able to play, but at least he finally gets the opportunity to come home again. The Crown Prince has figured in the media from time to time this year. After my last blog article on Libya in March 2011, he has created an official website, http://mohammedelsenussi.org/, but unfortunately he hasn't been able to update it regularly.

Another website worth mentioning is 24 Dec 1951. The name of the website refers to the day when the United Libyan Monarchy was proclaimed. It has proven too difficult to find out who is behind the website, but it contains lots of interesting historical information about the monarchy and the Senussi dynasty.

There are many members of the Sanussi family who are already involved or will be taking part one way or another in the construction of a (hopefully) democratic Libya. I have already mentioned the Crown Prince as well as Sayyid Ahmad Mindas al-Sanussi, who is or at least was a member of the above-mentioned Transitional National Council. Yet another member is Prince Muhammed Hilal, who wrote a piece for The Washington Post on 17 March 2011, soon after his return to Libya after 41 years in exile. He is by the newspaper described as a grand-nephew of King Idris, but I believe there must be a mix-up with the Crown Prince. According to both The Royal Ark and Genealogical Gleanings the relationship seems to be more distant, unless there is a cognatic connection that I haven't figured out yet.

For the main line of the Sanussi family, see The Royal Ark, page 6.

Prince Sverre Magnus of Norway starts school

2011-08-17T20:43:00.007+02:00

Prince Sverre Magnus of Norway, the youngest child of Crown Prince Haakon and Crown Princess Mette-Marit, will have his first school day tomorrow, Thursday 18 August 2011. The prince is to attend Jansløkka primary school in Asker, the same school which his elder sister Princess Ingrid Alexandra goes to. His half-brother Marius Borg Høiby was also a pupil at Jansløkka until 2010.

Views and News of Norway has today written a little piece, Youngest prince starts school, about Sverre Magnus' big day.

According to the Norwegian Royal Court, Prince Sverre Magnus will be followed to school on Tuesday by his parents as well as his grandmother, Queen Sonja. It could very well be that the other grandmother, Marit Tjessem, will also come along, but she would naturally enough not be included in such a press release.

Postscript 18 August 2011 (20:05): For the record Marit Tjessem was not present when Prince Sverre Magnus had his first school day at Jansløkka in Asker today. See photos and videos at Budstikka.no and VG Nett.

Sweden: Crown Princess Victoria and Prince Daniel to become parents in March 2012

2011-08-17T20:10:00.008+02:00

The Royal Court in Stockholm published earlier today, 17 August 2011, the following announcement:

Their Royal Highnesses The Crown Princess Victoria and Prince Daniel are happy to announce that The Crown Princess is expecting their first child.

The birth is expected to take place in March of 2012. No changes in the schedule of The Crown Princess's public engagements are planned during the fall of 2011.

In the Swedish version of the announcement we are also told that the Crown Princess is doing well.

Prince Daniel said to Aftonbladet today: - Vi är jättelyckliga och glada förstås, men vi tar en dag i taget. ("- We are very happy and pleased of course, but we take one day at a time.")

For some reason also the King of Norway, who is busy these days with the regatta H.M. Kongens Serieseilaser, was asked to comment the pregnancy news today (VG Nett): - Dette er kjempehyggelige nyheter! This is wonderful news! He declined to offer the Swedish couple some advice on the way, though.

The speculations about a name for the future heir has of course already started, and according to the betting company Unibet Gustav and Oscar are - as of now - in the lead among the male names, while Desireé seems to be the safest bet if the royal couple gets a girl. Betsson has Gustav on first place, while Oscar comes close behind. Personally I would love a future King Oscar! I haven't really thought so much about a girl's name yet, but can surely give some thoughts on it later on.

Crown Princess Victoria will, by the way, visit Norway on Sunday 21 August to attend the National Memorial Ceremony for 22 July 2011, which will take place in Oslo Spektrum. Together with her husband Prince Daniel she will return to Norway already on Thursday 25 August to attend the church service in Oslo Domkirke (Cathedral) on the occasion of the Norwegian Crown Prince couple's 10th anniversary.

The Rove and Amundsen connection

2011-08-16T21:33:00.006+02:00

In my article About notable Norwegian-Americans ... and Karl Rove published on Sunday 14 August, I wrote that "I have been told by a distant Norwegian relative of the late Louis C. Rove that also the explorer Roald Amundsen (1872-1928) of South Pole 1911 fame descended from the same Rove family, but I have not got the details on exactly how he was related to the line mentioned above. As far as I understand it, and this must be taken with some reservation, it is not from Andreas Rove, so the connection must be further back."

When I was told about the Rove-Amundsen connection a couple of years ago, I didn't get too many details, so there was a good reason why I stressed that the information should be taken with some reservation. Yes, the Rove and Amundsen families are related, but Rove is not a common denominator in the agnatic line. The starting point is the Botne farm, also at Hvaler.

According to the booklet Vadholmslekten, part I, pp. 40-41, written by Tom S. Vadholm, the Rove and Amundsen lines descend from Jens Torchelsen Edholmen (b. appr. 1665) and Marthe Andersdatter Botne (b. appr. 1670)

The explorer Roald Engelbregt Gravning Amundsen descend from Jens and Marthe through their daughter Kirsten Jensdatter Botne, b. 1707:

Kirsten Jensdatter Botne, b. 1707, m. (her first cousin) Niels Andersen Søndre Kile b. 1695 --> Oliana Nielsdatter Søndre Kile b. 1733 --> Anne Jonsdatter Søndre Kile b. 1762 --> Anne Kristine Jensdatter Gravning b. 1783 --> Jens Engebreth Amundsen b. 1820 --> Roald Engelbregt Gravning Amundsen (1872-1928).

The Rove line descends from another daughter, Mari Jensdatter Botne, b. 1709:

Mari Jensdatter Botne 1709, m. Ole Christophersen Botne-Havna b. 1715 --> Jacob Olsen Sandø Nordre brug b. 1738 --> Mari Jacobsdatter Sandø Nordre brug b. 1779 --> Andrias (Anders) Jacob Johannessen Rove b. 1800 (moved with his parents to Halden) --> Severin Marinius Rove b. 1830 (Halden) --> Olaf Julius Rove b. 1864 (emigrated to Milwaukee, Wisconsin) --> Louis C. Rove Sr. (1895-1967) --> Louis C. Rove Jr. (1928-2004).

As told earlier Louis Jr. adopted Karl Christian Rove when he married his mother Rega Wood. The short outline above shows that Roald Amundsen was a fifth cousin to Olaf Julius Rove (1864-1940).

About notable Norwegian-Americans ... and Karl Rove

2011-08-14T20:12:00.014+02:00

Towards the end of my vacation in July this year the website Side3.no, owned by the media company Mediehuset Nettavisen, which also owns the first Norwegian online newspaper Nettavisen, published a survey of notable Norwegian-Americans. The article of 25 July 2011 was titled "Her er norsk-amerikanerne" ("Here are the Norwegian-Americans"). Such surveys are rather "timeless", so I am not too bothered about the fact that I haven't found the time to comment on it until now, more than two weeks later. There are of course plenty of such lists on the Internet, including Wikipedia and the Norwegian-American Hall of Fame, but the topic is well worth revisiting.

Side3.no's article lists among others several top politicians, including former Vice Presidents Hubert Humphrey and Walter Mondale (I was, by the way, pleased to get the opportunity to shake hands with the latter during his visit to Oslo in 2009) as well as Governors Knute Nelson and Earl Warren (the latter was also a chief justice), models and celebrities such as CariDee English and Paris Hilton, actors (Dynasty soap star Linda Evans, James Arness, Marilyn Monroe and Renee Zellweger), Academy Awards winners (James Cagney and Jennifer Connelly), musicians Matt Sorum and Tom Waits, sports stars like Knut Rockne and Sonny Jurgensen, etc.

The list is almost endless. It is of course a discussion on its own who should be regarded as "notable" and who should not, but it is as interesting to note the many rather well-known persons who were not mentioned. The road racing cyclist Lance Armstrong, who was born Gunderson, is one example. Comments to the article (go to the bottom of the website) mention among others Atlanta Thrashers ice hockey player Justin Byfuglien, who won the Stanley Cup with Chicago in 2010 (go here for a discussion about his ancestry) and actress Kirsten Vangsness of "Criminal Minds". I'd like to add my grandmother Torborg Hoelseth's first cousin Bjorn Egeli (1900-1984), a notable artist (all his five children - Peter, Cedric, Bjorn James, Mary Lois and Carolyn - and at least four grandchildren - Lisa Egeli, Arthur Bjorn Egeli, Anastasia Egeli Deppe and Ingrid Egeli McGuckian - have followed in his path) who originally came from Horten in Vestfold, but whose Egeli/Ekeli family originates from Haukeli in Vinje, Telemark.

The GOP presidential candidate Congresswoman Michele Bachmann as well as Senator John Thune are not mentioned. Senator Thune decided in February this year not to run for president in 2012, so his omission from the list might be understood, but it is rather strange that the journalist has forgotten about Bachmann. I don't think she will be nominated for the Republicans - I am rather certain that it will either be former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney or Texas Governor Rick Perry - but Bachmann has certainly made a name for herself. Despite my doubts about her winning chances, she is a strong candidate and will certainly win a decent number of delegates. I have earlier promised to write something about her ancestry, and hope to get more time to do more research in the winter. In the meantime you can read George Gooding's article on the subject (see also his report written in English). I have earlier opened a discussion about her at the genealogy forum at Digitalarkivet. Concerning John Thune, I have got some more details from one of his Norwegian third cousins and hope to come back with more details later.

But one name stands out in the survey of politicians among the notable Norwegian-Americans: Karl Rove, the political consultant (and brilliant election strategist) who served as President George W. Bush's Senior Advisor and Deputy Chief of Staff from February 2001 until August 2007. Rove, who was born in Colorado in 1950 but grew up in Nevada, is a Norwegian-American by adoption only. So does he really belong to such a list? Well, it depends on what definition you want to use.

According to Karl Rove's autobiography Courage and Consequence. My Life as a Conservative in the Fight (2010), which I still have only read the first chapter of, Louis Claude Rove Jr. (1928-2004), who originally came from Wisconsin, adopted Karl and his older brother Eric, when he married their mother Reba, née Wood (1929-1981). Karl learned about the truth only after his parents were divorced in 1970. He has met his biological father, whose name has not been revealed (but is not relevant to this story), but neither were interested in having any further contact.

One could perhaps use a "cultural definition", but from the little I have read about Rove in interviews as well as the first chapter of the said autobiography, he doesn't strike me as having been brought up in a particular Norwegian-American "Fargo"-like environment (those who have seen the movie "Fargo" know what I mean) with lefse and lutefisk on the dinner table. I could be wrong, of course, and it would be interesting to get Rove to comment on this one day, but as of now that is the impression I have got.

But it is evident that Karl Rove clearly identifies himself as a Norwegian-American. Throughout the book he refers to Louis C. Rove as "my father", has often made a point of his Norwegian connection in interviews and speeches and according to VG Nett (16 May 2003) he had a portrait of his great grandfather (i.e. Louis Rove's grandfather) Olaf Julius Rove on the wall in his White House office and he has also visitied Norway together with his stepfather. So I guess it is not totally wrong to include Karl Rove in such a list of notable Norwegian-Americans, but it should still have been mentioned that the connection goes through his stepfather. One should of course not rule out the possibility that Rove could have Norwegian ancestry somehow through his mother's parents Robert G. and Elsie Wood or through his biological father, but as Rove doesn't mention it himself, it is a long shot.

So, what exactly is Karl Rove's Norwegian connection? Rove descends from the farm with the same name at Kirkeøy in Hvaler in the Norwegian county of Østfold. You can find a photo of the farm in Fredriksstad Blad's article "Det startet på Rove" ("It started at Rove") published on 5 November 2005. In the national census of 1865 one can find the Rove ancestor Andreas Johannessen Rove living in Frederikshald (today Halden) together with among others his wife Magdalene Jonsdatter, his son watchmaker Severin M. and daughter-in-law Gunhilde (Azora), née Olsen/Olsdatter, and several grandchildren. One of them was Olaf Julius Herman Emil Rove, b. 15 April 1864 and christened as late as 23 April 1865 (see no. 34). He emigrated 22 years old to Wisconsin in the United States where he married the Swedish-born Emma, b. 1863, and had at least 2 sons, Louis C. Rode (1895-1967) and Olaf N. Rode (1898-1980). My sources are several US censuses found at Ancestry.com, SSDI etc. Louis was the father of the previously mentioned Louis C. Rove, Jr., the stepfather of Karl Rove. I am sure I could have found more details if I had done a more thorough research, but this will do for now.

I have been told by a distant Norwegian relative of the late Louis C. Rove that also the explorer Roald Amundsen (1872-1928) of South Pole 1911 fame descended from the same Rove family, but I have not got the details on exactly how he was related to the line mentioned above. As far as I understand it, and this must be taken with some reservation, it is not from Andreas Rove, so the connection must be further back. That is of course a topic I could get back to another time.

Updated on Monday 15 August 2011 at 08.25 (minor text addition, typos corrected).

Royalty Digest Quarterly no. 2, 2011

2011-08-08T19:40:00.008+02:00

Royalty Digest Quarterly no. 2, 2011 arrived in my mailbox while I was on vacation for three weeks in July. After I had I returned to Oslo I wrote 3 new blog articles (1, 2 and 3), but then got too busy to follow up until now. In other words, my traditional presentation of the contents of Royalty Digest Quarterly comes a bit late this time, but as they say, better late than never.

To start with the photo on the front cover, it shows Princess Clémentine of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, née d'Orléans (1817-1917), with her daughter-in-law Queen Marie Louise of the Bulgarians (1870-1899) and grandson (later King) Boris (1894-1918-1943) in 1895.

Following the Editor's Corner the historian Trond Norén Isaksen opens the ball with his article Young Ingrid. Queen Ingrid of Denmark's early years in Sweden.

The periodical's historical consultant Charlotte Zeepvat returns with yet another family album, this time Saxe-Coburg and the Saalfeld and Kohary branch is covered. The presentation of the branch could perhaps have been expanded a bit, but the portraits and other photos - 85 in all - are certainly worth a look. In addition you get 2 pages with family tables.

The third article, More Than Just a Tutor, written by the author Coryne Hall, deals with the German-Swiss Marc-Ferdinand Thormeyer (1858-1944), who served as a tutor to the children of Emperor Alexander III of Russia.

As promised at the Royalty Weekend in Ticehurst, East Sussex, in April this year, Charlotte Zeepvat's excellent lecture titled Diddo, Arnold .. and the URGE was to be converted into an article in the RDQ, and in the current issue we are treated with Part 1: Diddo goes to Austria. The article is based on letters the British governess Edith Greer ("Diddo" sent home from Schloss Sonnberg in Austria, where she worked for Archduke Anton of Austria ("the Urge") and his wife Ileana, née Princess of Romania ("Arnold"). A wonderful article, and I am already looking forward to the second part in the next issue.

Zeepvat's third contribution this time is her review of the book Honour and Fidelity. The Russian Dukes of Leuchtenberg by Zoia Belyakova (St. Petersburg: Logos Publishers, 2010). I bought the book at the Royalty Weekend back in April, but have still not found the time to read it.

The column The World Wide Web of Royalty gives the latest news of the royal and princely families, while on the 2nd last page we get a presentation of Diana Mandache's forthcoming publication Dearest Missy. The Letters of Marie Alexandrovna, Grand Duchess of Russia, Duchess of Edinburgh and of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, and of her daughter, Marie, Crown Princess of Romania. The first part covering the period 1879-1900 will be published by Rosvall Royal Books in September 2011.

Royalty Digest Quarterly is published by Roosvall Royal Books, which can be contacted by e-mail royalbooks[at]telia.com.

See earler presentations of RDQ here.

New books in connection with the Norwegian Crown Prince couple's 10th anniversary

2011-07-31T20:57:00.018+02:00

Crown Prince Haakon and Crown Princess Mette-Marit, née Høiby, will celebrate their 10th wedding anniversary on 25 August 2011. The occasion will be marked by a church service in Oslo Domkirke (Oslo Cathedral) on Thursday 25 August at 3 p.m.

I have so far noted 3 books that have been or will be published in connection with the anniversary. The first one is titled Mette-Marit. Prinsesse av folket ("Mette-Marit. The people's princess") and is published by Kagge Forlag. It is described as "an illustrated celebration of Norway's Crown Prince couple", with photographs by Aasta Børte, while the Hjemmet journalist Monica Aafløy Hansen has written the texts. The book is originally priced at NOK 399, but Libris sells it for NOK 349. No mentioning of the title at the publisher's own website, though (I just made a search). ISBN: 9788248911074.

Aller Media AS has recently published 10 år med Kronprinsparet. Jubileumsbok ("10 years with the Crown Prince couple. An anniversary book"). I can't find any BibSys registration, but according to the publiser's website the 140 pages' long book is priced at NOK 149 for those who subscribe to one of Aller Media's periodicals. It can also be purchased in one of the Narvesen kiosks (price NOK 179).

The Aftenposten journalist and former court reporter Liv Berit Tjessem has written the book Haakon og Mette-Marit i 10 år ("10 years with Haakon and Mette-Marit"). It is published by Schibsted Forlag and will be available for purchase on 25 August 2011.

According to the Norli bookstore it is priced at NOK 199, while BibSys operates with the price NOK 299 (and even with a slightly different book title, Kronprinsparet gjennom 10 år!). No information at the publisher's website so far, but the ISBN is 9788251656306.

It should be added that I have not read any of the (photo) books yet, but had a very short look into Børte/Hansen's illustrated celebration book and it looked rather nice.

Postscript 7 August 2011: Liv Berit Tessem's book Haakon og Mette-Marit i 10 år is now available in the bookstores (and the supermarkets). At Norli's website I was earlier told that the book would first hit the market on the wedding day, 25 August, but this information has now been changed. The price is NOK 199. Again, I have not read the book, but it looked nice!

Updated on Monday 1 August 2011 at 08:25 (minor text additions), last time on Sunday 7 August 2011 at 08.00 (postscript).

UK: Zara Phillips and Mike Tindall married

2011-07-31T20:35:00.004+02:00

Zara Phillips, daughter of the Princess Royal (Princess Anne) and Mark Phillips, were married to Mike Tindall, son of Phillip Tindall and Linda Tindall, née Shepherd, at Canongate Kirk in Edinburgh yesterday, 30 July 2011. The wedding reception took place at Holyroodhouse. The Queen's declaration of consent to the marriage was given in the Pricy Council held on 10 May 2011.

In attendance were among others the bride's grandparents, the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh; the Princess Royal, Timothy Laurence, Captain Mark Phillips with spouse, Peter and Autumn Phillips, the Duke and Duchess of Rothesay, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, Prince Henry of Wales, the Duke of York, Princess Beatrix and Princess Eugenie of York, the Earl and Countess of Wessex, Andrew Parker Bowles (one of Zara Phillips' godparents), Iain Balshaw (best man), Dave Clark (boyfriend of Princess Beatrice) as well as Daniel and Lady Sarah Chatto (the latter the daughter of the late Princess Margaret).

BBC News writes that Zara Phillips upon marriage will keep her maiden name, and that «it is understood this is because of her sporting career in equestrianism». Oh well, could it just be that she didn't see the point in changing the surname she has had her whole life? BBC News adds that Zara by not taking the surname of Mike Tindall «is believed to be setting a royal precedent». Maybe, but it is too early to tell.

Source for guest list: Various news reports as well as the guest list section at Nobiliana.de.

Norway in mourning

2011-07-31T19:44:00.008+02:00

The flower garden outside Oslo Domkirke (Oslo Cathedral).

Outside the Storting (the Norwegian Parliament).

In Grubbegata. "Vi vil aldri glemme." ("We will never forget".)

In Akersgata, one of the roads that leads to the government offices.

One of the government buildings, where the Prime Minister's Office and the Ministry of Justice and Police held office.

Late Friday night (29 July) I came home from a 3 weeks' long vacation to a capital very different from the one I left… The city I live in and love has got a scar it will take a long, long time to heal. The whole nation has got a scar. Norway is in mourning.

Yesterday I went with my family to downtown Oslo to see with my own eyes the damage the car bomb did to the government offices and surrounding areas on 22 July and to lay down flowers at the flower garden outside Oslo domkirke (Oslo Cathedral). A way of working through the shock and grief one feels after the 22 July terror acts in Oslo and at Utøya.

The terror acts carried out by Anders Behring Breivik were targeted against the government of Norway and the Worker's Youth League's (AUF) summer camp at Utøya, but the whole nation was affected.

It is almost impossible to add anything of substance to everything that has been written in forms of newspaper commentaries and blog articles as well as in the social media after the tragedy that struck our country. My heart goes out to the families and friends of the victims.

In the midst of this monstrous tragedy it has still been comforting to see how the Norwegian people have reacted in such a dignified manner – it has been wonderful to witness the unity and compassion the Norwegian have shown. It has been good to see true leadership carried out by the prime minister. And it has also been good to see how the royal family has shared the sorrow and grief of the people. The royals have met the AUF members and the families of the victims at the temporary reception centre at Sundvolden Hotel, they have attended mourning services, visited hospitals, held speeches and appeals. But first of all they have offered a shoulder to cry on, shown empathy and compassion.

It has also been comforting to see how the whole world has expressed sympathy and shared our grief. In times like these we need to stand united shoulder to shoulder.

Der neugeborene Erzherzog ist gesund und kräftig

2011-07-05T22:22:00.006+02:00

Otto von Habsburg (Archduke of Austria), the last Crown Prince of Austria and Hungary, died yesterday 4 July 2011 early in the morning, in his 99th year. Truly the end of an era.

Archduke Otto's birth on 20 November 1912 was announced in Wiener Zeitung on Thursday 21 November 1912 No. 267, p. 1:

Ihre k. und k. Hoheit die durchlauchtigste Frau Erzherzogin Zita, Gemahlin Seiner k. und k. Hoheit der durchlauchtigsten Herrn Erzherzog Karl Franz Josef, ist Mittwoch, den 20. d. M., um 2 Uhr 40 Minuten früh in der Villa Wartholz bei Reichenau in Nieder-Österreich von einem Erzherzog glücklich entbunden worden.

I. Bulletin

Das Allgemeinbefinden Ihrer k. und k. Hoheit ist den Umständen entsprechend. Der Kräftezustand ist normal, Temperatur 37.3, Puls 84. Der neugeborene Erzherzog ist gesund und kräftig.

Reichenau in Nieder-Österreich, am 20. November 1912.

Professor Dr. Beham. Dr. Bittner.

The birth notice shouldn't be too difficult to understand. Her Imperial and Royal Highness Archduchess Zita, consort of His Imperial and Royal Highness Archduke Karl, gave birth to an Archduke at Villa Wartholz bei Reichenau, Lower Austria on Wednesday 20 November 1912, at 2.40 a.m.

Then followed the usual medical bulletin, the first of several in the days that followed, telling that Archduchess Zita had a temperature of 37.3 Celcius and a pulse of 84! "Der neugeborene Erzherzog ist gesund und kräftig" - "The newborn Archduke is healthy and strong"... And he went on to live for 98 7/12 years...

Otto von Habsburg (1912-2011): Obituary in The Daily Telegraph

2011-07-04T19:48:00.006+02:00

Otto von Habsburg (Archduke Otto of Austria), former Crown Prince of Austria-Hungary and head of the Imperial House of Habsburg, born at Villa Wartholz bei Reichenau, Lower Austria 20 November 1912, died at Pöcking, Bavaria, Germany early in the morning of 4 July 2011, 98 years old. Otto was the oldest son of the last Emperor of Austria, Karl (1887-1916-1918-1922) and his wife Zita (1892-1989), née Princess of Bourbon-Parme. In 1951 the former Crown Prince married Princess Regina of Saxe-Meiningen (1925-2010). They had 7 children - Andrea (1953), Monika (1954), Michaela (1954), Gabriela (1956), Walburga (1958), Karl (1961) and Georg (1964).

Archduke Karl took over as head of the Imperial House of Austria in 2007.

Archduke Otto's obituary was published in The Daily Telegraph today, 4 July 2011.

According to the late Archduke's website as well as Orf.at, the coffin "will rest for three days in the Church of St. Ulrich in Pöcking, Bavaria, while there is a pepetual adoration". Requiems will then be held in Pöcking (9 July), Munich (11 July), Mariazell (13 July), Vienna and Budapest. The funeral will take place in the Kapuzinergruft (Kaisergruft) following the requiem in St. Stephen's Cathedral on 16 July 2011. Archduke Otto's heart will then be buried at the Archabbey of Pannonhalma, Hungary (17 July).

Photo: Ottovonhabsburg.org.

Updated on Tuesday 5 July 2011 at 23.00 (minor text change, link added).

New personal flags for the Prince of Wales and Duke of Cambridge for use in Canada

2011-07-03T23:57:00.006+02:00

In connection with the ongoing visit of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge to Canada, two new royal flags created by the Canadian Heraldic Authority and approved by HM Queen Elizabeth II, were unveiled.

The Governor General of Canada, Rt.Hon. David Johnston was pleased with the unveiling, and gave the following statement at the official website:

These new flags created for The Prince of Wales and The Duke of Cambridge are magnificent expressions of our constitutional monarchy and heritage. [...] As we prepare to welcome Their Royal Highnesses to experience this marvelous country, I am sure that many Canadians will take great interest in these new emblems. As head of the Canadian Heraldic Authority, I am delighted with the work of our Canadian heralds in preparing these designs.

According to the information provided by the Office of the Governor General, the two new flags are based on HM The Queen's personal flag for use in Canada (image 3), which uses the Royal Arms of Canada as its basis. Since the flag was adopted in 1962, Her Majesty has been the only member to have a flag for use in Canada.

According to the fact sheet on the personal flags presented this week, the designs were - as already stated - developed by the Canadian Heraldic Authority, "working with the households of Her Majesty The Queen, The Prince of Wales and The Duke of Cambridge". The personal heraldic flags are used during travelling in Canada.

The new flag of the Prince of Wales (image 1) is described as follows: "The flag bears a blue roundel within a wreath of golden maple leaves for Canada. The centre features the badge commonly known as The Prince of Wales's feathers, used by the heir apparent to the Sovereign. Near the top of the flag is the traditional heraldic mark of an eldest male child, the three-point white label."

The new flag of the Duke of Cambridge (image 2): "The flag bears a blue roundel within a wreath of golden maple leaves for Canada, and of shells, a symbol borrowed from his coat of arms. The centre features his Cypher, composed of the letter "W" with a coronet above it that indicates he is the child of the heir apparent to the Sovereign. Near the top of the flag is the personal three-point white label charged with a red shell, taken from his coat of arms."

The flag of HM The Queen (image 3): "The flag bears a blue roundel within a wreath of roses in gold. The centre features her Cypher, composed of the letter 'E' with the Royal Crown above it, also in gold."

All the flags use the Royal Arms of Canada, in banner form, as their basis.

Princely Wedding in Monaco 1 and 2 July 2011

2011-07-03T21:46:00.007+02:00

HSH Prince Albert II of Monaco married Charlène Lynette Wittstock, daughter of Michael Wittstock and his wife Lynette, née Humberstone, in a civil ceremony in the Throne Room at the Prince's Palace on Friday 1 July 2011. The ceremony was officiated by Mr. Philippe Narmino, President of the Council of State and the Sovereign Family's civil registrar.

Following the ceremony, the newly-wed couple greeted the people from the balcony of the Hall of Mirrors.

The religious wedding took place in the Main Courtyard of the Prince's Palace on Saturday 2 July 2011. The Archbishop of Monaco, Bernard Barsi, celebrated the mass. A most beautiful ceremony attended by representatives of almost all the royal families of Europe as well an impressive number of celebrities.

I will come back to the list soon, but would first like to say how impressed I was by how everything was carried out and the excellent service the information office at the Palace has provided. Even the order of presedence followed seemed to make sense, as opposed to the (also wonderful) British Royal Wedding in April this year. I watched parts of the ceremony on Swedish and Norwegian TV. I started with Swedish TV4, but when it took a commercial break, I switched to the Norwegian channel NRK1. On the latter you got the ceremonial program subtitled, which made all the difference, I would say. The Swedish commentators talked too much as well.

After the wedding, the princely couple (funnily enough the Official Wedding Website says "the royal couple") left the Palace for Sainte Dévote's Church so that the Princess could lay down her wedding bouquet. I only saw parts of this on TV before I had to move on to other matters.

The official dinner and the ball took place in the Opera Garnier and the Casino Terraces, concluded by a firework display at midnight.

Shortly before the wedding weekend, the Princely Court published two guest lists with lots of biographical details - "Biographical Information of the Heads of State and other Official Personalities present at the Religious Wedding Ceremony July 2nd 2011" (pdf) and "Biographical Information of a Selection of Private Guests present at the Religious Wedding Ceremony July 2nd 2011" (pdf).

Besides the bride and groom, HRH The Princess of Hanover (Princess Caroline), her children Andrea, Pierre and Charlotte Casiraghi as well as HRH Princess Alexandra of Hanover and also Princess Stephanie of Monaco and her children Louis Ducruet, Pauline Ducruet and Camille Gottlieb attended the wedding, as well as members of the late Princess Antoinette's family. Princess Caroline's husband Prince Ernst August was - quite understandably - not present, but his two sons Ernst August and Christian from his former marriage, were present. Members of Prince Albert's US American family was of course present, including his best man and cousin Chris Le Vine, and also members of the Wittstock family.

Here are the guest lists, with some additional comments by me (I cannot guarantee that everyone mentioned actually attended, as I was not able to follow the whole broadcast, and I would not be able to recognize everyone either - with a few exceptions I have followed the order given by the court):

Heads of state, in Order of Protocol, with spouses

HE Mr. Nicolas Sarkozy, President of the French Republic (and HE Co-Prince of Andorra as well, but he did not attend in that capacity)
HM King Carl XVI Gustaf and HM Queen Silvia of Sweden
(HM King Juan Carlos of Spain (no, he didn't attend, but the court obviously didn't update the list))
HM King Albert and Queen Paola of the Belgians
HM King Letsie III of Lesotho
HE Mr. Olafur Ragnar Grimsson, President of Iceland
HE Ms. Mary McAleese, President of Ireland (Prince Albert paid the Republic of Ireland an official visit not a long time ago and he has Irish roots through his mother, the late Princess Grace)
HRH Grand Duke Henri and HRH Grand Duchess Maria Teresa of Luxembourg
HE Mr. Michel Sleiman, President of Lebanon
HE Mr. George Abela, President of Malta
HE Mr. Christian Wulff, President of Germany
HE Mr. Pál Schmitt, President of Hungary
HE Ms. Maria Luisa Berti, Captain Regent of San Marino
HE Mr. Filippo Tamagnini, Captain Regent of San Marino

Heirs of reigning monarchies, with spouses

HRH Salman bin Hamad bin Isa Al-Khalifa, Crown Prince of Bahrain
HRH Prince Philippe and HRH Princess Mathilde of Belgium, Duke and Duchess of Brabant
HRH Willem-Alexander, Prince of Orange and HRH Princess Máxima of the Netherlands
HRH Crown Prince Frederik and HRH Crown Princess Mary of Denmark
HSH Hereditary Prince Alois and HRH Princess Sophie of Liechtenstein
HRH Crown Prince Haakon and HRH Crown Princess Mette-Marit of Norway
HRH Crown Princess Victoria and HRH Prince Daniel of Sweden
HRH Hereditary Grand Duke Guillaume of Luxembourg

Other royals

HRH The Earl of Wessex (Prince Edward) and HRH The Countess of Wessex
HRH Prince Michael and HRH Princess Michael of Kent
HRH Princess Astrid and HRH Prince Lorenz of Belgium
HRH Princess Lalla Meriem of Morocco and her daughter, HRH Princess Lalla Soukaïna
HRH Prince Faisal bin Hussein of Jordan
HRH Prince Laurent and HRH Princess Claire of Belgium
HRH Prince Joachim and HRH Princess Marie of Denmark
HRH Prince Carl Philip and his sister HRH Princess Madeleine of Sweden
HRH Princess Sirivannavari Nariratana of Thailand (granddaughter of King Bhumibol)
HRH Prince Henri of Orléans, Count of Paris (one of the 3 pretenders to the French throne)
HRH Margrave Maximilian and HRH Margravine Valerie of Baden
HH Prince Aga Khan IV, Imam of the Shia Imami Nizari Ismaili Muslims
HRH Prince Vittorio Emanuele (Duke of Savoy, Prince of Naples) and HRH Princess Marina of Italy (the Prince of Naples is the son of the last King of Italy, Umberto II, but his claim of the former throne of Italy is disputed)
HIM Empress Farah Pahlavi of Iran
HSH Princess Virginia of Fürstenberg
HRH Prince Leopold and HRH Princess Ursula of Bavaria
HRH Duarte Pio and HRH Isabel of Portugal, Duke and Duchess of Braganza
HRH Crown Prince Alexander and HRH Crown Princess Katarina of Yugoslavia (Serbia)
HRH Princess Margarita and HRH Prince Radu of Romania
HIH Grand Princess (Duchess) Maria Vladimirovna of Russia (head of the Imperial Russian Family) as well as her son, HIH Grand Prince George
HRH Prince Carlo and HRH Princess Camilla of Bourbon-Two Sicilies, Duke and Duchess of Castro (Prince Carlo is one of the two claimants to the headhip of the House of Bourbon-Two Sicilies)
HRH Hereditary Prince Bernard and HRH Hereditary Princess Stephanie of Baden
HRH Emanuele Filiberto and Clotilde of Italy, Prince and Princess of Venice and Piedmont
HRH Louis, Duke of Anjou (one of 3 claimants to the French throne)
HRH Prince Georg Friedrich of Prussia and his fiancée, HSH Princess Sophie of Isenburg
HM King Leruo Molotlegi of the Kingdom of Bafokeng (I have brought him up from the friends list)

Other representatives of Heads of State

Mr. Marthinus van Schalkwyk, South-Afrian Minister of Tourism
Mr. Karlheinz Töchterle, Austrian Federal Minister for Science and Research
HE Mr. Missoum Sbih, Ambassador of Algeria to Monaco and France
HE Mr. Marc Lortie, Ambassador of Canada to Monaco and France
HE Ms. Salma Ahmed, Ambassador of Kenya to France
HE Mr. Lejeune Mbella Mbella, Ambassador of Cameroon to France
Mr. Jeffrey Radebe, South African Minister of Justice and Constitutional Development
HE Ms. Veronika Stabej, Ambassador of Slovenia to Monaco and France
HE Mr. Charles Rivkin, Ambassador of the USA to Monaco and France
HE Mr. Constantin Chalastanis, Ambassador of the Hellenic Republic to Monaco and France
HE Mr. Viraphand Vacharathit, Ambassador of Thailand to Monaco and France
HE Mr. Kornelios Korneliou, Ambassador of Cyprus to Monaco and France
HE Mr. Mirko Galic, Ambassador of Croatia to Monaco and France
HE Mr. Ulrich Lehner, Amassador of the Swiss Confederation to Monaco and France
HE Mr. Thomasz Orlowski, Ambassador of Poland to Monaco and France

Selection of VIP personalities

Mrs. Bernadette Chirac, wife of former President Jacques Chirac
Count Jacques Rogge, President of the International Olympic Committee
Mr. Jean Todt, President of the FIA
Ms. Michelle Yeoh, actress and dancer

Selection of private guests

Mr. Bernard Arnault, businessman, chairman and CEO of LVMH and Mrs. Hélène Mercier-Arnault
Mr. Francisco Flores, former President of El Salvador
Mr. Guy Laliberté, among others a Canadian entrepreneur and philanthropist
Mr. Eric Peugeot, marketing engineer (several positions in the Peugeot company)
Mr. Yves Piaget, President of Piaget SA
Mr. Bertrand Piccard, Swiss psychiatrist and balloonist
Mr. Johann Rupert, South African businessman
Mr. Sonu Shivdasani, British-born Indian entrepreneur
Sir Michael Smurfit, Irish businessman
Mr. Andrea Bocelli, Italian tenor, multi-instrumentalist and classical crossover artist
Mr. Gerard Butler, Scottish actor
Ms. Bernice Coppieters, Belgian ballet artist
Ms. Donna D'Cruz, Indian-born US American DJ and model
Ms. Renée Fleming, US American soprano
Mr. Juan Diego Florez, Peruvian operatic tenor
Mr. Jean-Christophe Maillot, French dancer and choreographer
Ms. Pumexa Matshikiza, South-African lyrical soprano
Sir Roger Moore, British actor and his wife Christina, née Tholstrup
Ms. Victoria Silvstedt, Swedish model, actress, singer and TV personality
Mr. Umberto Tozzi, Italian pop/rock artist
Mr. Giorgio Armani, Italian fashion designer
Mr. Terrence Bray, South-African fashion designer
Ms. Naomi Campbell, British model
Mr. Roberto Cavalli, Italian fashion designer
Ms. Inès de la Fressange, French model and designer of fashion and perfume
Mr. Sébastien Jondeau, former professional boxer, now personal assistant to Karl Lagerfeld
Ms. Isabell Kristensen, Danish designer
Ms. Karolina Kurková, Czech model
Mr. Karl Lagerfeld, German fashion designer
Ms. Tereza Maxová, Czech model
Mr. Gerhard Berger, Austrian former Formula One racing driver
Ms. Pernilla Bjerke (née Wiberg), Swedish former alpine ski racer and her husband Bödvar Bjerke
Mr. Jonas Björkman, Swedish former tennis player
Mr. Sergey Bubka, Ukrainian former athlete (pole vaulter)
Ms. Nadia Comãneci, Romanian former gymnast
Ms. Charmaine Crooks, Canadian former athlete
Mr. Bob Ctvrlik, US American former volleyball player
Ms. Sophie Edington, Australian backstroke and freestyle swimmer
Mr. Patrice Evra, French football player (Manchester United)
Mr. Frank Fredericks, Namibian former athlete
Mr. Graham Hill, South African swimming coach and former competitive swimmer
Mr. Jacky Ickz, Belgian former racing driver
Mr. Branislav Ivkovic, Serbian swimming coach (trained the now Princess Charlène ahead of the 2008 Beijing Olympics, before she had to pull out due to a shoulder injury)
Mr. Byron Kelleher, New Zealand rugby player
Mr. Henri Leconte, French former tennis player
Mr. Axel Lund Svindal, Norwegian alpine ski racer
Ms. Julia Mancuso, US American alpine ski racer and girl-friend of the former
Mr. Ian Mcintosh, Zimbabwean-South African rugby union coach
Ms. Elana Meyer, South African former long-distance runner
Mr. Ilie Nastase, Romanian former tennis player
Mr. Ryk Neethling, South African swimmer
Mr. Terence Parkin, South Afrian swimmer
Mr. François Pienaar, South-African former rugby player
Mr. Nicola Pietrangeli, Italian former tennis player
Ms. Sarah Poewe, South African-born German swimmer
Mr. Wayne Riddin, South African swimming coach and former competitive swimmer
Mr. Roland Schoeman, South African swimmer
Sir Jackie Stewart, Scottish former racing driver
Ms. Franziska van Almsick, German former swimmer

Many of these friends might have attended with their partners, but for the most part they are not mentioned in the guest list. There was no representation from the Imperial Family of Japan, the Royal Family of Spain and the Royal Family of Romania.

Updated on Wednesday 6 July 2011 at 23.00 (spelling of one name corrected), last time on Tuesday 2 August 2011 at 13.30 (see comments section).

Luxembourg: Grand Ducal decree concerning succession changes published in Mémorial

2011-06-23T23:34:00.008+02:00

The Grand Ducal decree of 16 September 2010 introducing equality between males and females with respect to the succession to the throne (Decret grand-ducal du 16 septembre 2010 introduisant l'égalité entre hommes et femmes en matière de succession au trône) was today published in the Official Gazette of Luxembourg, Mémorial B (Legilux.lu).

The Lord Chamberlain's Office at the Grand Ducal Court announced on Monday this week that Grand Duke Henri by decree of 16 September 2010 had modified the regulations governing the succession to the throne of Luxembourg, something I commented on in my blog the day after, 21 June 2011.

The text of the decree has now been added to my Luxembourg page (together with some other links which the readers hopefully will find interesting). I have also received a translation to the said press release, including the explanatory note, which has also been added to my website. I hope that all the documents will be used actively as a basis for further discussions on the royalty discussion forums and/or in comments to my blog.

As far as I can tell, the decree doesn't really add much more than the Lord Chamberlain's Office told in the press release. There still seems to be some uncertainty about whether the new rules only apply to the children of Grand Duke Henri, or if they could also be retroactively used for the Grand Duke's siblings as well, meaning that Princess Marie Astrid and Princess Margaretha and their issue would surpass Prince Guillaume in the line of succession. Maybe I was a bit too categorical when I in my previous article on the succession law stated that "According to the press release the new rules only affect the descendants of Grand Duke Henri". The word first might be the key here. One correspondent has disagreed with me, reading the text to say that the new rule will be first applied to the issue of Grand Duke Henri and that in the unlikely extinction of the current Grand Duke's issue, his older sister's issue would come first. I suppose his interpretation is as plausible as my understanding (I have become less categorical by now).

It would be interesting to get more opinions on this! I might try to contact a Luxembourgian legal expert to have a say as well.

Postscript 1 August 2011: As mentioned above I have written to a Luxembourgian constitutional expert in order to get his comments on the modifications to the succession law and the various interpretations. Unfortunately I have not received an answer yet. The blogger Trond Norén Isaksen has taken the time to contact the Grand-Ducal Court to get more information. In the first article dated 29 June 2011 we are told that the court maintained that the law was not made retroactive, meaning that Princess Alexandra did not have succession rights. I found this hard to believe, as the court's statement certainly was contrary to the wording of the decree (and the press release).

On 11 July 2011, however, it is stated that the court has informed that Princess Alexandra indeed is in the line of succession to the Grand-Ducal throne. This is in agreement with the most obvious interpretation of the decree, as I commented on in my first article (21 June 2011). The question remains, as pointed out above, if the changes to the succession law also apply to the other branches of the Grand-Ducal family. The question is what is meant by the word first, cf. the press release from the court as well as the decree ("erstmals"). One correspondent believes, as written above, that the changes could also apply to the other branches. I can understand why he thinks so, which is why I have decided to have an open mind on the matter. It remains an academic question, though, as the line of succession is secure enough. However, all the confusion the court has created goes against the very point of a succession law. The text of the law should be crystal-clear, one should not need to question who would be next in line after Grand Duke Henri's youngest son Prince Sébastien.

I have been told that the Luxemburgian Parliament (Chambre des Deputes) is currently working on a constitutional amendment that is said to regulate the succession entirely on the constitution removing it from the realm of the family pact. I really hope that the Parliament will eventually make more clarity to the matter.