Kate, Letizia and Madeleine are best dressed royals

A wedding dress by Valentino is always going to get you noticed so it's not really that much of a surprise that Madeleine of Sweden has made it onto this year's Vanity Fair best dressed list.  The newly wed royal gets a nod for the frock she wore on June 8th 2013 to marry Chris O'Neill as well as for general glamour and gorgeousness.

A beautiful bride among the best dressed - Madeleine of Sweden in the Valentino dress that won her a place on this year's best dressed list published by Vanity Fair

(photo Ewa-Marie Rundquist, copyright kungahuset.se)

 

 

And no surprises that Kate, Duchess of Cambridge also makes the list with a special nod to the mummy tummy that got everyone talking when she left hospital last week carrying HRH Prince George on his way home.  Kate may have had a lower profile in recent months as she got ready to have her baby but the outfits still generate a massive amount of attention and other special nods went to the outfits chosen for the Queen's Diamond Jubilee celebrations last summer. 

 

 

 

Looking just like every mum who has just given birth - perhaps the Duchess' finest fashion hour as she shows the world just what happens to ladies with newborn babies

(photo Christopher Neve)

 

And also included in Letizia, Princess of Asturias.  Her top pick, according to the magazine, is the outfit worn to the coronation of King Willem-Alexander and Maxima back in April this year.  She's also singled out for the funky twist she's put on traditional suits for some of her royal activities. 

 

 

 

Letizia in dove grey to see a new king and queen crowned

 

 

Personally, my favourite outft of the coronation was the one worn by the new queen.  But while Maxima's sapphire blue was majestic and magnificent, some of her other choices have been a bit over the top.  So it's understandable that a bible of chic like Vanity Fair might steer clear of adding her to the list.

 

 

 

King Willem-Alexander and Queen Maxima in an official portrait on the day of their accession to the Dutch throne, April 30th 2013

(Photo Dutch Royal Household)

 

Meanwhile, another royal has made the bid for the worst piece of fashion of the year.  She may be a proud granny but is that really a reason for the photo montage bag that Queen Sofia of Spain was proudly showing off in Mallorca the other day? 

 

 

Sofia, Leonor, Irene and Victoria all smiling from the front of granny's handbag









Kate, Letizia, Mette-Marit and Mary vs the press

The poll is now closed and it's honours even among the queens competing for title of most misunderstood. Margaret of Anjou and Anne Boleyn got 50% of the votes each with no one thinking poor old Isabella, the She Wolf of France has been harshly treated by history.

 

Margaret of Anjou and Anne Boleyn - misunderstood queen consorts of England

  

But why is their reputation so harsh?  Part of it is to do with how they were represented at the time.  Neither took any prisoners - well, Margaret did but she soon got rid of them - and their uncompromising outlook put them at odds with the idea of being a woman and a queen at the time and with the powerful courtiers whose prestige they undermined.  So does it all come down to getting a bad press?

 

How else does the story of a queen consort or one in waiting come to us other than in other people's words?  It's still not the done thing for these women to speak for themselves.  Royalty might be at the top of the tree in their own countries but they're one of the few groups of people without a voice of their own.  The magic of monarchy for many is in its mystique but if does that leave it open to misinterpretation? 

 

 

Kate is used to being on the front pages but future historians will know far more about her from what other people say than from the Duchess herself

 

The queens in waiting in Europe are a case in point.  Kate, Mary and Mette-Marit were all subjected to intense public scrutiny before getting engaged to their princes while Letizia found her life being picked apart after her marriage, such was the speed and surprise of her engagement. Who comes out best and who is the most misunderstood of our modern monarchs in waiting?

 

That's the poll this week - which future queen consort is having the hardest time in the way her story is being told?  Kate of Cambridge is riding a wave of public support and the moment, just two years into her royal marriage and about to deliver the future heir to the throne?  But she's had her moments and spent years being dubbed Waity Katie by some as her courtship with William spanned nearly a decade before they wed.  That will be part of the tale told by future historians - how fair is it?

 

 

Kate got her prince but they married almost ten years after first meeting - how will history tell that part of the duchess' story?

(Tom Soper Photography)

 

Because once there's a ring of some sorts on your finger then a princess in waiting gets a lot more protection than a possible princess.  Mary of Denmark also had a long courtship with her prince charming allowing the press to pick over every aspect of her life and character.  From meeting Crown Prince Frederick at the Sydney Olympics in 2000 to the announcement of her engagement in Octobr 2003 she was subject to intensive press scrutiny, even after her move to Denmark ahead of the marriage being confirmed. 

 

 

Mary Elizabeth Donaldson had three years of press scrutiny before she married the Crown Prince of Denmark

(photo Visit Copenhagen)

Mette Marit of Norway had a lot to pick over from her pre-princess days but however much help and protection royal houses try to give the girlfriends of the kings to be, there's only so much they can do.  Mette-Marit had to protect her young son as well and the fact that she was a single mother gave the papers plenty to talk about.  Once safely ensconced in the royal fold the questions are answered for you by press officers but how much of the way Mette-Marit's tale was told before her engagement will stick to her future appearances in the history books?

Crown Princess Mette-Marit of Norway had a lot for the press to chew over as she continued the relationship with Haakon Magnus that would lead to the throne

(photo Frankie Fouagnthin)

 

No such problems for Letizia whose engagement to Felipe of Spain was a surprise to many when it was announced on Spanish TV on a Saturday afternoon late in 2003.  With hardly anyone knowing that the couple were seeing one another, there were no tricky questions to answer for this future queen consort even though she was on TV every day reading the news.  Given that Felipe's previous girlfriends had seen their lives examined in close detail, it's no surprise he wanted to keep his latest relationship quiet but it did mean that a lot of the chatting that inevitably accompanies the arrival of a new royal love interest needed to find an outlet at a later date.  Would Letizia have got an easier ride from the press in the long run if she'd enjoyed a longer courtship?

 

 

Letizia of Spain was a well known journalist before she started making the headlines herself

(photo Holger Motzkau)

 

Later this week we'll look at how these princesses' stories have been told after their marriages and whether the press takes a different stance when a royal girlfriend becomes a wife.  And then there's the poll - which queen consort in waiting has had it hardest from the papers, TV and radio covering their lives, the voices that are the real historians of today?



Kate and William name baby after mum?

Past queen consorts have had a good hit rate in having first born daughters name after them.  It's the second most popular source of names for eldest girls, just behind calling them after their paternal grandmother.  So will the royal birth announcement, due any time now, introduce us to a new Princess Catherine?

The name has got royal pedigree with five queen consorts carrying it.  Where it first came from isn't clear.  The first queen Katherine was French and without any Katherines in her immediate family the reason she was given the name can only be guessed at.  But she was born in 1401 when the cult of St Katherine of Alexandria was at its height so she may have been named for this saint.  The name had been found in the English royal family before Katherine of Valois' marriage when the youngest daughter of Henry III arrived on the feast day of St Katherine and was given the name in her honour.  She died young and just a few years later her brother, Edward I, had a little girl who he named Katherine, possibly in her honour.  This little princess also died young.

But the first Katherine to wear the crown was the Valois princess who wed Henry V.  On paper, this first Katherine was royal box office.  She was born a princess of France, grew up into a beauty, married the most chivalrous of kings and then finding herself a widow in her early twenties she fell in love with a servant and their grandson founded one of Europe's most successful and famous royal houses.  What's not to love about this first Kate, she is Hollywood and then some?

A romantic interpretation of the marriage of Katherine of Valois and Henry V in 1420 - Katherine's story is usually told as a romantic fairytale

 

 

Except as with all good fairytales, there are always demons lurking in the background and the reality of being the first Queen Katherine was slightly harsher than the rose tinted version in the history books.  Her father was mad, her mother is said to have neglected her and she married Henry V as part of a peace treaty which saw him named heir of France above her own brother.  When her husband and father died within months of one another she was left a widow at just twenty and mother of a nine month old who was now king of England and France.  She had to watch advisers fight over his kingdoms and found herself the subject of a harsh law forbidding her remarriage until her own son could approve it.  He was six at the time and unlikely to approve anything by himself for a good decade or so. 

 

 

Katherine of Valois watched advisers tear two countries apart over the kingdoms of her father and her son

 

She did marry again - though there is no record of the wedding anywhere - to a servant called Owen Tudor.  Their grandson, Henry, became Henry VII and founded the Tudor dynasty.  But Katherine died fifty years before he claimed the crown.  After her death her eldest son, Henry VI, suffered the same mental health problems that had affected her father and her second husband was executed as a traitor in the Wars of the Roses.  Katherine herself was just 36 when she died, probably in childbirth. 

Then we have the trio of Kates that make up most of the Tudor queens.  Henry VIII's first wife, Catherine of Aragaon, was very popular.  Even the king liked her for a while.  And that meant a whole range of mums and dads naming daughters after her for the best part of two decades.  Which was rather nice for this first Catherine but not so great for her husband because while he may have got rid of wife number one, her name followed him around like a bad smell. 

 

Catherine of Aragaon.  Being queen had a lot of advantages at the time including having people right across your kingdom naming their babies after you

In 1540 when he was meant to be marrying Anne of Cleves, one of her ladies in waiting caught his eye.  Catherine Howard had been named in honour of the first queen of Henry.  She became his fifth consort.  But while wife number one had driven Henry mad by being too obedient and devoted to her marriage vows, the second Catherine in his life went the other way and forgot all about the fidelity part of being a queen within months. 

 

England's third Queen Catherine, Catherine Howard who lost her head in 1542

 

Having had a pretty poor pass rate with the first two Catherines, Henry went for a third.  Ever the optimist in the marriage stakes, the Tudor king married Catherine Parr who had been named after the first queen as well but with two previous marriages under her belt and her eye on someone else, proved more than a match in matrimony for the much married monarch.  The fourth queen Kate of England is, so far, the most successful of the lot as she ruled as regent for her husband and in so doing became the first woman to officially wield kingly power in the country.  She also managed to talk Henry out of his plans to make her his third wife without a head but that little marital inconvenience lessened her power considerably and after his death she was out maneouvred politically on a massive scale.

 

 

Kate the Great - Catherine of England number four was by far the most successful

 

 

Last on the list of Queen Consorts called Kate was Katherine of Braganza, a Portuguese princess who came to England in 1662 to marry the newly restored King, Charles II.  He already had several children by a mistress who was none too happy about a rival for her man's affections.  And this Katherine was a Catholic - at a time when many at court mistrusted Catholics.  She suffered quite a lot of abuse for this and her sadness was compounded by her inability to have children.  But the king remained supportive of her.  He may have had a string of lovers but he was quite certain that his queen would remain consort and defied plans to get rid of her or undermine her.  She in her turn was a devoted queen and despite its unorthodox set up theirs was a model royal marriage in many ways.

 

 

Queen Consort Catherine of Braganza, wife of Charles II.  The Merry Monarch was her greatest supporter at court.

 

 

A queen regnant called Katherine is perhaps long overdue - it's among England's most regal names.  But whether William and Kate will call a daughter after her mum remains to be seen - it's not a current tradition and might be seen as old fashioned.  However, England's last three queen regnants have all been named after their mothers so a Queen Catherine would follow Anne, Victoria and Elizabeth II and that's not a bad start for any future monarch.





Will Kate follow Letizia's fashion lead?

There was quite a furore recently when fashion commentators accused Princess Letizia of Spain of copying the fashion choices of Kate, Duchess of Cambridge.  Letizia has a pretty cool fashion pedigree with a reputation for liking on trend clothes be they from top designers like Felipe Varela or High Street chains like Mango.  In fact just this week she cracked out the pale pink Mango lace dress that first caused a stir in 2011.

 

Princess Letizia in a pale pink Mango dress, first worn while visiting the company's headquarters in 2011.  The princess has a reputation for following fashion.

 

 

It's not the first time it's been suggested Letizia is less than original in her clothes choice with some commentators suggesting she was trying a bit too hard to be like that ultra fashionable royal lady, Queen Rania of Jordan.

 

 



Queen Rania of Jordan visits the White House in 2009

 

 

But in recent years Letizia has taken a bit of a lead in the fashion stakes among Europe's royal women, regularly voted among the best dressed at big get togethers like the recent wedding of Luxembourg heir, Guillaume, or the coronation of King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands in April 2013.  So the idea that she was copying Kate when it came to couture didn't go down too well with some fashion followers or Letizia loyalists.

 

But might Kate and William be about to copy Letizia when it comes to naming their first baby?  A quick scan of the names chosen for future queens among European royalty points to three main elements shared by most name choices.

 

• they begin with a vowel - Estelle of Sweden, Elisabeth of Belgium, Ingrid of Norway, Amalia of the Netherlands
• they have an historic connection - Leonor of Spain, Elisabeth of Belgium, Amalia of the Netherlands, Ingrid of Norway
• and they usually have six or seven letters - Amalia of the Netherlands, Leonor of Spain, Ingrid of Norway and Estelle of Sweden

So which names does that leave us with for a future Queen of England?  Just one given to previous queen consorts fits all three requirements.  If a queen consort has already borne it then it's got history so now we need six or seven letters and starting with a vowel.  And that leaves us with just one name really...Eleanor.  And that's just what Letizia called her first little girl.

 

 

 

Princess Letizia with her Leonor, alongside Prince Felipe and the Infanta Sofia in the family's Christmas card

 

Leonor, or Eleanor, was well used in both Spanish and English royal families in the middle ages but fell out of use in recent centuries.  Letizia surprised many with the choice and if the Cambridges go for it, they'll cause a shock as well.  But Eleanor is quite popular as a baby name at the moment without being top of the tree and there are three queen consorts with the name.  And three years after the Spanish heirs used it, the soon to be king and queen of the Belgians, Philippe and Mathilde, named their youngest child Eleonore.  So it's got a bit of energy behind it.

 

The new royal family of Belgium - Princess Eleonore sits on mum Mathilde's lap during an official photo call

 

There's one other possible contender if we change the spelling of the name quite a bit.  There have been three queen consorts of England called Isabella or Isabelle.  None of them used the modern spelling Isabel so they go over our letter limit but they start with a vowel and they've got the history factor.  Isabella, Isabelle, Isabel and a lot of variant spellings have been really popular names in the UK in the last decade so a future queen with that name would have a lot in common with her future subjects.  If Kate does have an Isabella she'd ben following the trend set by Crown Princess Mary of Denmark.  But whether the Cambridge baby name fits the European model remains to be seen.