Cheers rang out as the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge appeared from the Lindo Wing of St. Mary’s Hospital, London, with their newborn son in the mid-afternoon of Tuesday 23rd July. It was a moment of royal history thirty-one years in the making. The proud father was gently but firmly in control of the proceedings responding to questions from the waiting media and cheering crowd: “He’s got a good pair of lungs on him that’s for sure. He’s a big boy, he’s quite heavy, but we’re still working on a name, so we’ll have that as soon as we can.…
Author: Royalty
King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands investiture on April 30, 2013, was a glorious day with a supporting cast of royalty from around the world in attendance, writes Katia Thomas. The accession of a monarch is always an historic moment for many reasons, amongst them on this occasion the notable fact that Willem-Alexander is the country’s first male monarch since King Willem III (1845-1890). He follows in the footsteps of his redoubtable mother, Queen Beatrix (1980-2013), and her predecessors, Queen Juliana (1948-1980) and Queen Wilhelmina (1890-1948). Queen Beatrix was admired for her strength of character and respected for the stability she…
The passing of King Norodom Sihanouk of Cambodia brought more than a million people on to the streets of Pnom Penh, far more than the hundred thousand the authorities had anticipated. It was a significant moment: a gesture of respect and the acknowledgement of Sihanouk’s long and complex role in Cambodian history. It was also a generous tribute to a colourful man who undoubtedly had talent and sought, in his own mercurial way, to represent Cambodia’s interests. But King Sihanouk did not so much rule over the Southeast Asian kingdom as survive through its twentieth century traumas, ultimately coming to…
The fortieth anniversary of King Carl Gustaf of Sweden’s reign saw celebrations across the nation which had, prior to the anniversary weekend, also included a countrywide tour by the King and Queen to all of the nation’s twenty-one provinces. The weekend celebrations were the culmination of the King’s fortieth anniversary, opening with a dinner hosted by the Swedish government at the Nordiska Museum in Stockholm, which was also attended by Crown Princess Victoria, Prince Daniel, Prince Carl Philip, Princess Madeleine and Christoper O’Neill. After dinner the Royal Family was driven to Stockholm’s Concert Hall for a Gala Concert. The mood…
Crown Princess Mary’s three day trip to Morocco was in her role as Chairman of the Board of Directors of The Mary Foundation. The foundation was started in 2007 with the aim of preventing and alleviating social isolation. An important aspect of the foundation’s work has been women’s rights, which were the focus for the Morocco visit. Special emphasis was placed on developing partnerships to combat violence against women and improve women’s rights generally in the Middle East and North Africa, writes Simona Rossi. The foundation’s work comes under the umbrella of ‘The Danish Arab Partnership Programme’ overseen by the…
The medieval Basilica of Sainte-Marie-Madeleine in Provence provided a wonderful setting for the wedding of Prince Félix and Princess Claire of Luxembourg. It was the romantic culmination of a relationship that had begun twelve years ago as students at the Collège Alpin International Beau Soleil in Switzerland. Félix and Claire had already tied the knot in a civil ceremony a few days earlier at Königstein im Taunus in Germany, near to Claire’s hometown of Frankfurt. In opting for a civil ceremony prior to the religious, the couple were following in the footsteps of other recent royal marriages. Félix’s elder brother…
Having just completed their highly successful tour of Australia and New Zealand, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge will have been dismayed to see risque pictures being published in the German and Australian press. Bild, perhaps Germany’s most notorious tabloid, and Rupert Murdoch’s The Sydney Daily Telegraph played dice with privacy laws to publish a photograph of William and Kate taken during a visit to Sydney’s Blue Mountains. A paparazzi pounced as Kate’s blue and white Diane Von Furstenberg dress momentarily blew up in the wind, revealing more than royal dignity would ever want. In the UK the national tabloids are much more circumspect…