#european royalty

[catherinetheprincessofwales]

His Majesty King Charles is ‘so proud of Catherine for her courage in speaking as she did’. Following their time in hospital together, His Majesty has ‘remained in the closest contact with his beloved daughter-in-law throughout the past weeks. Both Their Majesties will continue to offer their love and support to the whole family through this difficult time.’ The Kings’ message after the announcement The Princess of Wales has cancer.

[gemsofgreece]

King Constantine of Greece and his wife Anne Marie, who is wearing a traditional local costume from Tilos island, Dodecanese, visiting the Dodecanese Islands, October 19th 1965. (Photo by Keystone/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

[stastrodome]

“Good night sweet prince!”

Prince Hamlet entertains Count Chocula, an unexpected visitor to Elsinore Castle in Denmark. 

[canberramaidan]

Olesko Castle, Ukraine.

[thepastisalreadywritten]

Norway’s King Harald V, Europe’s oldest monarch, in hospital in Malaysia after falling ill on vacation

—

Harald V (born 21 February 1937) is king of Norway. He succeeded to the throne on 17 January 1991.

[loiladadiani]

Princes in sailor suits

Even today, once in a while, we’ll see a little boy (or girl) walking down the boardwalk on a beach, or playing by a lake, wearing a little sailor suit. Of course, they are not the uniforms they used to be. But they are still just as flattering and still out there.

Here are several pictures of young princes wearing their sailor suits: Tsarevich Alexis; Prince Lennart of Sweden, son of Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna the younger and Prince Wilhelm, Duke of Sodermanland; Prince John, youngest son of George V and Queen Mary; Prince George of Greece and Denmark; George Donatus and Louis, sons of Ernst Ludwig, Grand Duke of Hesse; Prince Feodor Alexandrovich, son of the daughter of Tsar Alexander III, Xenia Alexandrovna, and Grand Duke Alexander; Prince Ioann and Prince Gavriil Konstantinovich and between them, Prince Christopher of Greece and Denmark.

And to cap the post, two of our present royalties, looking their handsomest wearing sailor suits.

[rayeshistoryhouse]

The Romanov family in Livadiya, Crimea

1913

rayeshistory.com

[madeleineoneillofsweden]

Love this initiative Queen Silvia had for her birthday!

[way-of-the-road]

Diana, Princess of Wales

by Bryan Organ acrylic on canvas, 1981

National portrait Gallery

Rest in peace Diana, Princess of Wales. 25 years ago today Diana died in a Paris car accident.

Gone too soon.

[catherinetheprincessofwales]

UK Newspapers Saturday 23 Mar 2024, reporting on The Princess of Wales revealing she has been diagnosed with cancer.

[gemsofgreece]

Queen consort Anne-Marie of Greece posing in front of the war portrait of King Constantine I of Greece, the grandfather of her husband. 

[splendor-sine-occasu]

Edited: There’s really nothing like a big, beautiful, gold room. 

[hello-aztecstar]

From the funeral of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II September 19, 2022. Royals that attend Her Majesty funeral.

[thepastisalreadywritten]

Princess Catharina-Amalia of the Netherlands

Princess Catharina-Amalia (born 7 December 2003) is the heir to the Dutch throne and is the eldest of King Willem-Alexander and Queen Maxima’s three daughters.

Unusually, the monarchy in The Netherlands has been predominantly female-led, with three Queens reigning in succession from 1890-2013, when Catharina-Amalia’s father became King, so she’s in good company historically.

Unlike her parents who have committed a handful of regrettable gaffes (including going on holiday to Greece during a Covid-19 lockdown), Catharina-Amalia seems to have her finger on the pulse of the nation.

Case in point:

She rejected her rights to a yearly royal allowance when she turned 18, ostensibly because as a student (she’s studying politics, psychology, law, and economics at the University of Amsterdam), she’s not a “working” royal but also because it felt wrong during a cost of living crisis.

Much like Prince William here, the Princess is keen to have a normal university experience and lived in shared housing with other students until she was threatened with kidnap by a criminal gang.

She also attended a public primary school and even worked in a beach bar in The Hague during her summer break.

Like many Gen Z-ers, she has spoken candidly about mental health, revealing she sometimes sees a therapist, and while making no direct comments about it, she was the focus of new legislation that means LGBTQIA+ royals would be able to marry anyone they chose without forfeiting their right to the throne.

The House of Orange is in need of good PR, as its popularity rankings have dropped in recent years, with Catharina-Amalia hopefully just the fresh face it needs.

Princess Elisabeth of Belgium

Princess Elisabeth (born 25 October 2001) will make history when she ascends to the throne as the country’s first Queen Regnant.

A decade before her birth, the primogeniture was altered to allow for female succession, and she will be the first monarch to benefit.

Had it not been changed, her younger brother, Prince Gabriel, would have been the next King.

The 22-year-old is the eldest daughter of King Philippe and Queen Mathilde. She has a second younger brother, Prince Emmanuel.

She spent her formative years in Brussels, before attending “Hippie Hogwarts,” UWC Atlantic College in Wales.

After completing her education, she undertook a year of military training at the Royal Military Academy in Brussels, following in the footsteps of other heirs to the throne.

She’s now studying at Lincoln’s College at Oxford University, where she has competed in the rowing team.

She’s a confident public speaker, having had lots of practice: her first speech was at the age of nine when she opened a children’s hospital named in her honour.

She’s also becoming increasingly recognised for her fashion choices, with reports of the “Elisabeth” effect in Belgium, where her fans rush out to buy what she’s wearing, drawing comparisons to our very own Princess of Wales.

In recent years, Belgium, like many other Western nations, has had to confront its colonial past.

How the Princess decides to acknowledge and apologise for Belgium’s part remains to be seen, but will be vital for how she’s viewed both at home and on the world stage.

Princess Leonor of Spain

The world has been gripped by so-called “Leonormania” in recent weeks, after the heir to the Spanish throne turned 18.

The eldest of King Felipe and Queen Letizia’s two daughters, Princess Leonor (born 31 October 2005) is fast-becoming a national obsession, with her every fashion choice (and potential boyfriend) documented and dissected.

Her rising public profile is in contrast to her closely guarded childhood, during which she made very few public appearances.

After attending primary school in Barcelona, she moved to Wales to complete her education at UWC Atlantic (the same school as Princess Elisabeth of Belgium), where she graduated earlier this year.

She is now enrolled in a military academy undergoing officer training, which will last for three years.

Ahead of her 18th birthday, she presented her inaugural Princess of Asturias Awards, managing to appear decidedly unstarstuck when meeting Hollywood icon Meryl Streep and Japanese author Haruki Murakami.

Much like her father, Leonor will be keen to distance herself from the fiscal scandals of her grandfather, the ex-King Juan Carlos, which also implicated her aunt and uncle, and have played out telenovela-style in Spain over the last decade.

She will do well instead to emulate her mother and grandmother, the beloved Queen Sofia, whose chic style she has already clearly inherited.

In terms of politics, one issue she may have to face head on is the rise of Catalan separatism – an issue that her father made a rare public statement against in 2020 – and which he has been widely criticised on.

Princess Victoria of Sweden (and Princess Estelle)

The 46-year-old Princess Victoria (born 14 July 1977) is another European royal who has benefitted from the modernisation of primogeniture.

In fact, she was second-in-line to the Swedish throne at birth and leapfrogged over her younger brother, Prince Carl Philip, upon the change in the constitution.

It caused something of a controversy at the time, as her father, King Carl XVI Gustaf, objected to the change – not because he didn’t want women to succeed but because of his sympathy towards his son, who was suddenly stripped of his Crown Prince status.

In Sweden, the monarch has even less of a role in public life than in the UK, and as such, King Carl XVI Gustaf has largely kept out of the spotlight.

However, similar to other royals of her generation, Victoria has been more candid about her personal life. She was open about her struggles with anorexia in the 1990s.

Speaking about her experience in 2002, she said:

“I, Victoria, didn’t exist. It felt like everything in my life and around me was controlled by others. The one thing I could control was the food I put in me.”

She leapt to the defence of her now-husband, personal trainer Daniel Westering, when the couple’s early relationship came under close scrutiny.

Princess Victoria’s 11-year-old daughter, Princess Estelle (born 23 February 2012), is next in line to the throne after her mother.

She has similarly benefitted from the change in the law, as she has a younger brother, Prince Oscar.

Commentary in the Swedish press questioned the appropriateness of their match, something which Victoria spoke out against.

[loiladadiani]

This is a blog about the ROMANOVS, believe it or not...

I did not know how interrelated European Royal families are until I started snooping around the Romanovs. Naturally, from the core of their Imperial Family, I followed diverse trails to the aunts, uncles, cousins, second cousins, and so on...and that is when I found out that they were literally all over. Queen Victoria's dream of having all the ruling families of Europe be related had a lot to do with that (she thought it would bring peace...you can tell she grew up alone...families will squabble) and about the fact that Christian IX and his wife Louise were called the "parents in law" of Europe (to this day, I believe all the ruling houses are related to them.)

So what I am trying to say is that I post all of those pictures of British, Danish, Swedish, German, and Prussian, etc., etc. royalty not only because they are fascinating personages (which they are; some are great looking too) but because, one way or the other, they were related to the Romanovs! And yes, this is a Romanov blog.

Since they say a picture is worth a thousand words, I posted two (and an insert.) The family trees are too complex, and I like to get into the weeds of everything, so I did not want to get lost forever in there...whoever is curious can dive in! Maybe one of the great, seasoned history bloggers on Tumblr (of which there are a few) has a simplified genealogical tree around and can post it.

[fuckyeahhannahwaddingham]

Petition to have these two Queens present Eurovision 2024

Reblog to agree!