When royal first borns don't end up on top

Being a first born child of a monarch or next in line to be monarch is now pretty much a guarantee of ending up king or queen of your country one day.  But being the eldest grandchild seems to offer another guarantee - that of coming nowhere near a crown of your own.  The current wave of European monarchs are all grandparents now - except Albert of Monaco and as his heir is his sister and she's a granny, they're almost there - and only one of them can expect their first born grandchild take the throne.  While there might be lots of interest in the first birth of a new generation, what happens to those babies who are shuffled out of the succession by younger cousins?

King Carl XVI Gustaf and Estelle of Sweden - he's the only one of Europe's current monarchs whose eldest grandchild is in line to take the throne

The continent's longest reigning monarch was the first to become a grandparent. Elizabeth II welcomed her first grandchild in 1977 but while Peter Phillips may have made the front of all the papers on the November day he arrived, he's slipped further and further into obscurity ever since.   He was the first grandchild of a British monarch to hold no title - a choice made by his parents, Princess Anne and her first husband, Captain Mark Phillips.  And while Peter Mark Andrew Phillips began life fifth in line to the throne, he's since slipped to twelfth and will continue to move further away from the crown.  He's worked in sports sponsorship and management as well as banking and has no official royal role.  That lack of duties was one of the reasons he was able to sell an interview and photos linked to his 2008 wedding to Autumn Kelly to Hello magazine, one of the few times he's made the news since his arrival.  The other was in December 2010 when he made the Queen a great grandmother for the first time.  Savannah Phillips, the eldest great grandchild of Elizabeth II, takes an even more remote royal role despite being the first of her generation to arrive.

 

He might never be king or even have a title but when your the Queen's first grandchild you do get a much better pick of places to hold your wedding.  Peter Phillips married Autumn Kelly at Windsor Castle in 2008.  The official photos were taken at the castle.

The eldest grandchild of King Juan Carlos of Spain was hailed as the securing of the succession on his birth in 1998 but he will most likely never be king. The first child of the Infanta Elena and Jaime de Marichalar was born in Madrid and baptized there soon afterwards with King Juan Carlos as one of his godparents.  Felipe Juan Froilan was third in line to the throne at his birth and stayed very close to the crown until just after his seventh birthday when his uncle Felipe, after whom he was named, began his own family and little cousin Leonor took over the mantle of most likely to succeed in the next generation.  He's now fifth in line and attending school in Madrid after a stint of education in England.  Froilan and his sister split their time between their parents who separated in 2007 and divorced in 2010.  He wad known for his cheekiness as a child and came close to stealing the show at Felipe and Letizia's wedding. His admission to hospital in 2012 after he accidentally shot himself in the foot while at his father caused controversy - as well as the injury, there were legal repercussions as it is against the law in Spain for a child under the age of fourteen to use a firearm.  No charges were pressed against his father and Froilan recovered fully from his injuries. 

Felipe Juan Froilan de Todos los Santos is shown off to the world by his proud parents in July 1998

 

In Norway, King Harald got two granddaughters in nine months but the first born is far from first in the line of succession.  Maud Angelica Behn arrived in April 2003, the eldest child of Harald's eldest child.  But mum Martha Louise took second place in the line of succession to her younger brother meaning that Maud was born third in line and slid quickly away from the throne when cousin Ingrid arrived in January 2004.  Since then she's moved another step further away and now lives in London with her parents and two younger sisters, Leah and Emma. 

Maud Angelica Behn was born in April 2003 in Oslo, nine months before her cousin - future queen regnant, Ingrid Alexanda

Another eldest grandchild who arrived just ahead of the girl who will be queen is Eloise, first born of the next generation of the Dutch royal family.  She arrived in June 2002, just a few months after her uncle, Willem-Alexander, married Maxima Zorreguieta.  Eloise Beatrix Sophie Laurence was fourth in line to the throne on her birth and a first grandchild for the then Queen Beatrix and her husband, Prince Claus.  Eighteen months later, she slipped a place when Willem-Alexander and Maxima welcomed baby Catharina-Amalia who will one day be Queen of the Netherlands.  She bears the title Countess of Orange-Nassau and is growing up in Brussels where her parents live.

 

Eloise of Orange-Nassau with her grandfather, Prince Claus of the Netherlands.  She was the only one of his grandchildren to meet Claus - he died four months after her birth.

In Belgium the eldest grandchild of newly abdicated Albert and Paola is Prince Amadeo who was born in 1986, before the couple had become king and queen.  At the time Amadeo had no place in the line of succession but when the laws were changed in 1991 to allow his mother, Princess Astrid, and her descendants rights to the throne, he was suddenly fourth in waiting.  On his grandfather's accession in 1993 he jumped up to third and for much of his youth he was in line to be King of the Belgians as his uncle, Philippe, remained unmarried until 1999 when Amadeo was 13. But Philippe's marriage and the birth of four children meant that Amadeo quickly moved away from the throne of Belgium.  Following the summer changeover which made his uncle the King of the Belgians, he's now sixth in line behind his four cousins and his mum.  He's got a degree from the London School of Economics and works in America.  And despite no crown in sight for this young prince, he regularly makes magazine lists of most eligible boys in town - this year he was number nine on Town and Country's top forty male totty rundown.  But Amadeo will get a title of his own one day, inheriting the role of head of the house of Austria-Este from his father, Prince Lorenz.  And he also gets the prize for most names of any royal grandchild, rejoicing in the full title of Prince Amadeo Marie Joseph Carl Pierre Philippe Paola Marcus of Belgium, Archduke of Austria-Este. 

Prince Amadeo of Belgium did national service in his home country and is now a reserve officer in the army.

 

Nikolai William Alexander Frederik of Denmark didn't get quite as many names but he did get pretty much the same deal as Amadeo.  First grandchild of Margrethe II, he was third in line to the throne on the day of his birth in August 1999 but has since moved further away from the crown as a host of little cousins arrived.  And just like Amadeo he's had a host of little brothers and sisters join him - the Belgian prince has four younger siblings while Nikolai has three, the most recent being Athena who arrived in January 2012.

 

 

Nikolai of Denmark gets a pat on the head from his little sister, Athena.  They are the oldest and youngest of Queen Margrethe's eight grandchildren

 

Which brings us back to the only first grandchild to be guaranteed first take on the throne of her country.  Estelle Silvia Ewa Mary of Sweden was born in February 2012, eldest child of Crown Princess Victoria and eldest grandchild of King Carl VXI Gustaf.  And thanks to the change in law of 1980, she is in line to be Queen Regnant of Sweden one day.

 



 

The three generations of Swedish monarchs at the christening of Estelle

 







England's only official male consort

He gave his first name to a hall, a museum, a memorial, a thousand streets and tens of thousands of babies who were all named after him when he arrived in England.  And every generation of British royals since his have had a bevy of boys with his name somewhere among theirs. He remains the only man in British history to ever officially hold the title of Prince Consort.  Today is the anniversary of the birth of Prince Albert.

 

Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, the only man ever to be made Prince Consort

 

Considering how prolific the name Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha became, it's perhaps a bit of a surprise that it wasn't the name he received on his birth in Schloss Rosenau near Coburg on August 25th 1819. His first name was Francis with Albert coming in second in a five horse race that also included Augustus, Charles and Emmanuel.  And he was born a prince of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld but when he was six his great uncle died leading to a reshuffle of the German duchies that led to Albert's father becoming the ruler of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha.

 

 

Prince Albert as a child with his brother, Ernest, and their mother, Louise.  She was exiled from court soon after this painting was made.

 

But different names were the least of Albert's worries as a child.  His father, Ernest, and his mother, Louise, had quickly grown to hate one another and she was exiled from court around the time of Albert's fifth birthday.  Louise had married her lover by the time Ernest became Duke and he had found another wife closer to home, making his niece his duchess.  Albert grew up with his cousin, Antoinette, as his stepmother.

 

 

Ernst, Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, married his niece.  One of his illegitimate daughters married her own first cousin bringing a whole new meaning to keeping it in the family

 

It's surprising that from this turbulent childhood grew a man who would establish the whole idea of a royal family in Britain.  Because it was Albert's romantic and solid marriage to Victoria and their nursery of nine children that formed the modern image of family that has been a bedrock of the British royal image ever since.  There was none of the infidelity associated with kings and queens of old.  The queen loved the prince and the prince loved the queen and their children grew up in a happy home.

 

 

The famous portrait of Victoria and Albert with their eldest five children, painted by Franz Xaver Winthalter in 1846.  It cemented the family image of the royals.

 

Albert was made Prince Consort by Victoria in 1857.  By then his public role had become considerable and he campaigned for better working rights and reform of the education system as well as abolition of slavery.  While Victoria was the public head of the family, at home that role belonged to him.  He was in charge of their children's education and leisure and was lent on heavily by the queen in her political and public duties.  He was by her side for just 21 years of her 63 year reign but his influence was such that even now it is impossible to think of Victoria without the man born 194 years ago today - Albert.

 

 

The Kingmaker of Belgium

The handover of royal power from Albert II to Philippe, King of the Belgians, this summer was smooth, peaceful and happy.  But the reason that Philippe and Mathilde have a kingdom to rule at all began 183 years ago today in rather more dramatic circumstances.  And it ended with the accession of a man who, by that time could have been King of Greece or Prince Consort of the United Kingdom.  Instead he became the first King of the Belgians and went on to make royal marriages and families across Europe.

One of the first official portraits of Queen Mathilde of the Belgians, released just days after the accession of her husband on July 21st 2013

On the evening of August 25th 1830 riots broke out in Brussels which led to the independence of Belgium and the creation of a new monarchy that still survives today.  A special performance of an opera to mark the birthday of the ruler of the United Netherlands, of which the future Belgium was then a part, ended in protests on the streets of Brussels.  The trouble had been brewing a while with pressures for independence and it only increased after the trouble of August 25th, culminating in peace conference in London in which the modern Belgium was created.  It is a truth universally acknowledged in 19th century Europe that a new nation must be in need of a king and the throne was offered to a man called Leopold who had already come close to ruling in two other European nations.  And all by the age of 40.

Philippe is the great, great, great grandson of the man whose destiny as King of the Belgians began on this day in 1830 after a riot outside a theatre

 

The man became Leopold I, King of the Belgians and founder of several dynasties.  He had started life as Prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, the second youngest son of a duke called Franz and his wife, Augusta.  Franz became famous for two things - his large art collection and being the ancestor of most of modern Europe's royals  Not bad for a chap from an obscure part of Germany that no one had really ever heard of when he became ruler of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld in 1800.

 

 

The great granddaddy of Europe's royals.  Franz of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld's genes are spread through the palaces of every modern monarchy on the continent, thanks to three of his children

 

By that time, little Leopold was ten and already in charge of an army.  Perhaps someone might have guessed then that he would go on to rule Europe through his descendants.  It might have been a purely ceremonial role but being made a colonel of a Russian regiment in his home state led to him going to Paris in 1806 following the Napoleonic occupation of Saxe-Coburg.  From there a military career in Russia beckoned where he fought again Napoleon and was climbing the ranks when he first came close to a crown.

 

 

Leopold I, King of the Belgians in his time in the Russian army

 

But while Leopold built his army career, his future career as king and royal superpapa was coming to find him.  In 1814, while in London, he met Princess Charlotte of Wales at a party and she asked him to call on her.  When he popped in for tea they spent the best part of an hour together, chaperoned of course, and a mutual attraction began to grow.  Reports show Charlotte's father, by then Prince Regent, as impressed by the young lieutenant general.  But the man who would be George IV had no intention of Leo scooping up his girl.  She was his only heir, the only legitimate grandchild at the time of George III, and she was going to be Queen of England.  Handsome but poor soldiers were not on dad's shopping list of potential husbands.

 

 

Princess Charlotte of Wales was in line to be England's fifth Queen Regnant from the moment she was born in 1796

 

Besides, George had just spent a lot of time and effort getting Charlotte to agree to marry the heir to the Dutch throne.  It was time badly spent because not long after she finally agreed to the wedding, she changed her mind and caused all kinds of ructions by running away in cabs to escape the marriage with royal uncles following her with warrants for her return to her father.  It's thought she had hopes of marrying a Prussian prince but that came to nothing as well and she told her father than she would wed Leopold or no one else.  The impoverished prince was summoned to Britain and the couple wed in 1816.  They were seemingly happy and Lieutenant Leo settled down to become the future Prince Consort of Great Britain.  But then disaster struck.  His wife died giving birth to their first child, a boy, who was stillborn.  After just 17 months of marriage, Leopold was a widower.

 



 

The last portrait of Princess Charlotte of Wales, made in the days before her death

 

Charlotte's death sparked a major crisis for the British royal family as there was now no legitimate heir beyond the sons of George III.  While Leopold mourned his wife, another member of his family became involved in the story.  His older sister, Victoria, was by now a widow and less than a year after Charlotte's death she married the fourth son of George III and provided him with the longed for legitimate heir, a little girl who bore the same name.  Leopold's niece became Queen Victoria.

 

 

Victoria of Saxce-Coburg-Saalfeld, sister of Leopold, gave the British crown the heir it needed

 

Leopold, meanwhile, was offered the throne of Greece.  He turned it down and by 1830 was a bit of a European enigma.  But the following year the great powers came calling and offered him the throne of Belgium - after considering him against several other candidates.  This time he liked the offer before him and agreed to take the title.  He swore his oath of allegiance on July 21st 1831 which became Belgium's national day.  He married again, giving Belgium its first queen, and went on to fight off an invasion from the Netherlands. 

 

 

Leopold I, King of the Belgians, and his second wife, Louise-Marie, Queen of the Belgians

 

But his involvement with the throne of England wasn't over yet.  He had lost his British princess, the girl who would have made him a Prince Consort.  But his niece needed a man to rule alongside her and in 1839, Leopold arranged a meeting between Victoria and one of his nephews, Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha.  This time, the fairytale romance between a Queen Regnant and a poor-ish prince from a far away part of Germany had a happier ending.  Victoria and Albert produced nine children and gave their names to a whole age. 

 

 

Prince Albert, nephew of Leopold I, married his cousin, Victoria, in 1840

 

Victoria and Albert's descendants married into royal houses across Europe while Leopold's descendants still rule Belgium today. And all because of a riot 183 years ago - a peaceful summer night in Brussels in 1830 might have led to a very different modern Europe.



 











Belgian King and Queen's first duties

One of the first duties the new Belgian King and Queen have performed is to remember a predecessor.  Today is the 20th anniversary of the death of King Baudouin and at the memorial service, King Philippe and Queen Mathilde led the royal family publicly for the first time since the swearing in of July 21st 2013 that made them monarchs.

Queen Mathilde and King Philippe of the

 

Belgians lead the royal family in the memorial to King Baudouin held in Brussels today on the 20th anniversary of his death

 

Next to the new king was the Queen Dowager, Fabiola, who was married to Baudouin for 33 years.  Albert II and Queen Paola were there too but for the first time since his brother's death in July 1993, Albert was able to attend first and foremost as a sibling rather than as a head of state leading official tributes. 

 



 

King Albert II pays tribute to his brother, Baudouin, flanked by Queen Paola and Dowager Queen Fabiola

Belgian abdication brings the monarchy back home

How important is it for a Queen Consort to be born in the country she will rule?  When Mathilde, Duchess of Brabant becomes Queen of the Belgians on July 21st she'll be the first home bred consort since the country got a monarchy in 1831. 

It's taken them almost two hundred years to get a Belgian girl on the throne.  Mathilde is hugely popular and while her place of birth may have helped to start off with, she's built on that herself to win respect at home and abroad. 

Mathilde will be a home grown queen for Belgium - the first since the beginning of its modern monarchy

 

 

In modern times nearly all European heirs have married people from their homelands.  In Sweden, Norway, Belgium and the United Kingdom the future kings have all chosen brides of the same nationality.  In Spain, Crown Prince Felipe went one better - his wife, Letizia, hails from Asturias, the area of which he is prince as heir to the throne.

 

 

Letizia Ortiz was born in Asturias and in 2004 became its princess on her marriage to Prince Felipe

(photo Luis Carlos Diaz)

 

But finding English born queens in English history is a harder job. The first homegrown queen was, wait for it, Elizabeth Woodville.  The girl who seemed to break the mould with her marriage claimed another first by becoming the first English woman to wear the crown of Queen Consort.  Anne Neville was another homegrown queen but if we put Henry VIII's marrying spree of 1533 - 1543 there are just two other queens of England born in that country.  One was the Queen Mother and the other her predecessor as Queen Consort, Mary of Teck.

 

 

Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother was just one of a handful of English born women who have been queen of their country

 

But did it really make that much difference?  Tomorrow we'll look at the Eleanors - the women who conquered English kings in the 12th and 13th centuries but who suffered a lot of hatred along the way...and part of that was because they just weren't English.