A little over three years since their first visit Crown Prince Frederik and Crown Princess Mary returned to Australia. A mix of the official and the personal it was also quite a feat of logistics – needing, as Mary told an admirer during the tour, a good deal of “synchronisation and organisation”. Even more so, as alongside the official duties, the latest additions to the family, twins Prince Vincent and Princess Josephine, were brought along for the trip, writes Simona Rossi. The tour kicked off in the New South Wales capital, Sydney, and a visit to the ‘Sculpture by the…
Author: Royalty
Turning thirty marks the opening of the next chapter for the future king. A symbolic moment in that long journey took place at a ceremony in Edinburgh where William joined the Order of the Thistle. At a time when the Royal Family’s role north of the border is part of the debate around the forthcoming referendum on Scottish independence, the ceremony held a contemporary political as well as personal significance. The event at the city’s St. Giles Cathedral was attended by the Queen, the Duke of Edinburgh, the Princess Royal, the Duchess of Cambridge and hundreds of invited guests. Thousands…
The picturesque Basilica San Miniato al Monte in Florence, central Italy, provided a beautiful setting for the marriage of HRH Princess Maria Carolina of Bourbon-Parma and Mr. Albert Brenninkmeijer. The marriage was attended by many of Maria Carolina’s royal relations, including Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands Princess Maria Carolina, 38, is the daughter of Princess Irene of the Netherlands, younger sister of Queen Beatrix. Princess Maria Carolina is the youngest child from Princess Irene’s marriage to Prince Carlos Hugo. The wedding, which took place in 1964, was controversial as Carlos Hugo was the Carlist pretender to the Spanish throne and…
The end of Prince Harry’s four month tour of duty in Afghanistan was marked by the broadcasting of a series of short interviews. The media blackout whilst Harry was on active service as an Apache Helicopter gunner had been for security reasons. The media had been allowed to interview him during the deployment so long as they did not broadcast prior to his leaving the country. Harry’s first deployment in 2007/2008 had been as part of a two-man Tactical Air Control Party (TACP) team in the south of Helmand Province. When the news of his deployment was leaked via the…
Change can be dealt with in different ways and the British certainly have their own way of going about it; usually reluctantly bending to circumstances rather than being swayed by ideological considerations. In the current debate over the laws of succession and the reform of the 1701 Act of Settlement, contemporary beliefs and tradition find themselves in opposition, with the former appearing to have an unstoppable momentum, writes Jonathan Taylor. Which is welcome news for the reformers. Whilst changing the law of succession has been on the agenda it has been quietly left aside for years and it took the…
The marriage of Heir Apparent Grand Duke Guillaume and Countess Stephanie de Lannoy brought together much of Europe’s royalty to one of its smallest states, Luxembourg. A Bourbon-Parma and one of the most eligible bachelors around tying the knot with the bride hailing from the Belgium aristocracy was reason enough to celebrate. And with the ceremony held at the picturesque Notre Dame Cathedral in Luxembourg City, the day promised to be one to remember. Grand Duke Guillaume, Heir Apparent to the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, and Countess Stephanie de Lannoy began dating around three years ago, but it was only in…
Few figures in modern royal history have faced greater opprobrium than Wallis Warfield, but the view of the woman for whom Edward VIII abdicated the British throne in December 1936 has softened a little since her death in 1986. The Baltimore belle has long been cast as a scheming seductress, and even Nazi agent, who supported the Duke of Windsor in his goal of avoiding war by bringing Britain to an accommodation with Nazi Germany. Those more sympathetic to Edward and Wallis have stressed the romantic aspect – of a king who abdicated for love. Edward and Wallis were certainly…
Andrew Rose’s ‘The Prince, the Princess and the Perfect Murder’ tells a great story: the romance between a future king and a courtesan, a murder most foul and royal blackmail. Truth as so often being more colourful than fiction the future king in question is Edward, Prince of Wales, (the future King Edward VIII) and the courtesan an impoverished Parisian who schemes her way to a fortune before shooting her Egyptian husband dead at London’s Savoy Hotel. The story culminates with the courtesan escaping the death penalty, according to the author, through an audacious blackmail based on the secret correspondence…
For author Lucinda Hawksley the project of writing a biography of Queen Victoria’s sixth child, Princess Louise, had an unusual genesis. It began with an initial curiousity about the artistic and bohemian royal. But as she sought to dig deeper into Princess Louise’s life a mystery emerged as she found her access to historic materials blocked: why had so much been concealed? The nature of the project changed, from an art historian’s curiousity to an investigative royal biography. The result of these labours is an engrossing read which opens up new perspectives on Princess Louise’s life. Hawksley’s interest was initially…
The Duchess, starring Keira Knightley in the title role, tells the story of Georgina Spencer nee the Duchess of Devonshire, one of the eighteenth century’s most celebrated society figures. The film is an adaptation of the acclaimed biography by Amanda Foreman and aims to give a dramatised but historically truthful account of a high-rolling aristocratic lady famous for her beauty, her brilliant but unhappy marriage, her style, her political activism and her love of gambling. It is a life that has all the ingredients for an engrossing cinematic experience – intriguing characters, an exciting period of history in the late…