Princely Wedding in Monaco 1 and 2 July 2011

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).

Official Website for the Princely Wedding in Monaco

The Princely Court of Monaco has launched an official website for the wedding between Prince Albert and Charlène Wittstock:

http://www.mariageprinciermonaco2011.mc/

The civil wedding takes place on Friday 1 July 2011 in the Throne Room, while the religious ceremony takes place the day after in the Main Courtyard of the Palace of Monaco.

A new year is awaiting...

With 2010 well behind us, a new year - 2011 - is awaiting. Exciting! First of all I would like to wish you all a Happy New Year! On the first day of the new year, it seems fitting to make a few reflections about the old year and what we can expect of the new year, with a special focus on my blog.

In 2010 I wrote as many as 175 blog articles, which means that I on average wrote one article every second day, far more than I had planned in advance. I would have been happy with 1 or 2 articles a week. Family life, my work at the Lovdata Foundation, committee work (the Norwegian Genealogical Society), my website and other hobbies are all factors that set limitations on my work with this blog. But I think it is great fun to work on it, and obviously the blog won over my website Hoelseth.com during 2010. I still have many pages that have to be moved from my old Geocities website to my "new" domain. But one day... I guess one of my new year's resolutions would be to find a better balance between working on my blog and my website.

The blog articles are very different in content and form. Now and then I find the time to write "in depth" articles, dealing more fully with a newsworthy topic, like for instance the royal wedding in Stockholm in June 2010 or the publishing of Bernadotteättlingar - The Bernadotte Descendants. Other times I restrict myself to write a few lines about a news item, as when the wedding date for Prince William and Kate Middleton was made public. And there are times I just post a link to other articles that I hope the readers will find interesting as well, as for instance Ted Sorensen's obituary in The Daily Telegraph. Because of my other commitments, it is not always possible to write "news articles" as often as I could wish, which explains why my less "news-breaking" ("timeless") blog articles seems to dominate. My photo articles are good examples of this. There will probably be more "timeless" articles in the future, like photos from Østmarka in Oslo or from the many cemeteries I visit from time to time.

I feel that I have found a nice balance between the various forms of articles on my blog. Another matter is how relevant or successful my blog is, but I will leave comments on this to my readers. I was pleased, however, when the number of page views passed 30.000 just before Christmas. It is interesting to note that most of the blog readers come from the United States (10.067 page views as of today), while Norway come second with 2.568, and Canada closely behind with 2.501 page views.

So, which articles were most popular during 2010? Here is the list:

1. 25.07.2010: Countess Ruth of Rosenborg has died (942 page views)
2. 16.11.2010: UK: Prince William of Wales and Kate Middleton engaged to marry (658)
3. 05.08.2010: Prince Carlos Hugo of Bourbon-Parma seriously ill (450)
4. 05.07.2010: Prenuptial agreement between Crown Princess Victoria and Daniel Westling (353)
5. 24.08.2010: Bernadotteättlingar - The Bernadotte Descendants (330)
6. 17.11.2010: More on Kate Middleton's ancestry (328)
7. 13.11.2010: William A. Reitwiesner (1954-2010) (284)
8. 07.08.2010: Royal twins expected in Denmark (266)
9. 21.12.2010: UK: Zara Phillips and Mike Tindall engaged to be married (229)
10. 16.09.2010: Prince Friedrich Wilhelm of Hohenzollern has died (217)

I am a bit surprised that the sad news of the death of Countess Ruth of Rosenborg still tops the list, as it was for the most part just a translation of a very short Politiken/Ritzau article. That there is a great interest in the British royal family is less surprising. Ted Rosvall's genealogy publication Bernadotteättlingar - The Bernadotte Descendants deserves all the attention it has got, but I thought the follow-up article in September would have got more "hits". So, which articles have been most fun to work with? Difficult to say. From Gegerfelt to Shetelig and Countess Aagot von Ostheim, née Midling are two possibilities. The latter will get a follow-up later on, I promise! Genealogy is one of my greatest interests, which explains my many photo articles from the cemeteries I have visited. It is difficult to top the pride and happiness I felt when I posted the news of my daughter Sigrid's birth on 17 July 2010, though. What a great joy she has brought to our lives!

Concerning royalty, there are many events to look forward to in 2011. Crown Princess Mary of Denmark will give birth to twins some time in January. And two major royal weddings will take place - Prince William of Wales will marry Kate Middleton on 29 April, while Prince Albert II of Monaco will formalize his relationship with Charlène Wittstock in July. The wedding dates for the latter seem to have changed once again, though. The civil ceremony will according to the official website now take place on 1 July 2011, while the happy couple will get God's blessings the day after.

Most pages of 2011 are still blank. It is up to us all to fill them out and make the best of it!

Updated on Saturday 1 january 2011 at 19.30 (statistics corrected!).

Postscript 4 January 2011: The numbers of page views mentioned above are from the period of August 2009 until 1 January 2011. Corrected on 8 January 2012 at 21.50 (I started my blog in August 2009, so it is irrelevant that Blogspot.com could offer page views statistics from May 2009. It is a bit strange that I wrote "from the period of May 2010...", though, but worse mistakes can be made, I guess...)

Monaco: New wedding date

The date of the religious ceremony for the wedding of Prince Albert II and Charlène Wittstock has been changed from 9 July to 3 July 2011, the Princely Court of Monaco announced last Sunday, 1 August 2010. The civil ceremony will take place on 2 July 2011.

The reason for the change of dates is that a meeting of the International Olympic Committee is scheduled to take place in Durban in the period of 5-9 July 2011, and "the couple wished for the presence of the Olympic family by their sides". I am not sure if this means that all members of the "Olympic family" will be invited to the wedding, or if this was a reference to the Monegasque presence at the meeting in Durban. Prince Albert II has been a member of the IOC since 1985.

The Prince also wanted that their first trip abroad as husband and wife should go to Ms. Wittstock's homeland, the Republic of South Africa.

(Updated on Friday 19 October 2010 at 0800 (link corrected).

Monaco: Wedding date set to 9 July 2011

The Princely Court of Monaco announced today, 22 July 2010, that the religious ceremony for the wedding between HSH Prince Albert II and Charlène Wittstock will take place on Saturday 9 July 2011.

The civil wedding will take place at the Palace on Friday 8 July 2011.

The engagement was announced on 23 June 2010.

Monaco: Charlène Wittstock's ancestry

Earlier this week I wrote in connection with Prince Albert's engagement to Ms. Charlène Wittstock that I expected more details about her ancestry to be revealed before the wedding next year.

Ronald Elward, who has his own blog, Heirs of Europe, has already started to work on Ms. Wittstock's ancestry (or rather the ancestry of the couple's future children (!)):

• Heir of Europe 23 June 2010

There is also a new thread titled Ancestry of Charlene Wittstock at the Nobiliana Forum (you will have to get registered in order to read it).

Updated on Monday 28 June 2010 at 08.00 (minor language correction).

Monaco: Princely wedding set for summer 2011

Following the engagement between Prince Albert and Charlène Wittstock yesterday, the French newspaper Nice Matin published a short interview with the prince in today's edition. The Sovereign Prince informed that the wedding is going to take place during the summer of 2011.

The exact date will obviously be published later. In other words, there will be plenty of time for Charlène Wittstock to adjust to her future position as the principality's first lady.

Prince Albert seems to have much more contact with the other royal families of Europe than his father used to, so I think we can expect a large gathering of royals in Monaco at the wedding next year.

Monaco: Prince Albert II and Charlène Wittstock engaged

The Princely Court of Monaco announced today the engagement between Prince Albert II and his long-time girl-friend Charléne Lynette Wittstock. The wedding date has not yet been set.

Prince Albert, b. Monaco 14 March 1958, is the only son of Prince Rainier III (1923-2005) and Grace Kelly (1929-1982). Charlène Lynette Wittstock, who has competed for South Africa as a swimmer and is a former youth worker, was born in Bulawayo, Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) on 25 January 1978. She moved with her family (parents are Lynette and Mike Wittstock) to South Africa when she was 11 years old. I am sure that more details of the ancestry of Ms. Wittstock will be available before the wedding takes place.

The Sovereign Prince of Monaco has two children from earlier relationships - Alexandre Coste (b. 24 August 2003) and Jazmin Grimaldi (b. 4 March 1992).

Prince Albert brought Charlene Wittstock along for the royal wedding in Stockholm last weekend, something many interpreted as a sign that a formalization of their relationship was imminent.

Sources and references

• Press release from the Princely Court of Monaco 23 June 2010
• YourMonaco.com (date unknown; the subpage which partly gave information for the blog article has expired, hence the link has been made unactive)
• New York Times 5 May 2005
• A 'Princess Diaries' Moment for Prince Albert's daughter (The Washington Post 5 June 2006)
• Bye to bachelorhood, Monaco's Prince Albert says (Associated Press 23 June 2010)

Corrected on Friday 25 June 2010 at 11.30 (Ms. Wittstock was originally presented as a former teacher, while according to the Court "youth worker" would be a more correct translation.). Last time updated on Monday 16 May 2011 (birth dates corrected, cf. the comments section below); Friday 23 May 2014 at 08.00 (link made unactive).