The Dutch tour of Europe

The new Dutch king and queen have finished their tour of European royal courts where they've been introducing themselves as monarchs for the first time.  The tour has been dotted amongst their other engagements over the last few months and started back in June before coming to an end on October 14th 2013.  They kept things simple at every turn with a spot of lunch with the royals before an afternoon chat with leading politicians.  Here's a look back at how the new Dutch monarchs said hello to some familiar faces.

 

King Willem-Alexander and Queen Maxima of the Netherlands on their first introductory tour - Luxembourg.  They met the Grand Duke, Henri, and the Grand Duchess, Maria Teresa, on May 24th 2013 at the Grand Ducal Palace. 

 

 

The next stop was Denmark on June 25th 2013 where they had lunch with Queen Margrethe II and Prince Henrik at the Christiansborg Palace in Copenhagen

 

The visit to the UK was slightly shorter with a meeting with Queen Elizabeth II at Windsor Castle on July 10th 2013

 

 

The first visit after the summer break was to Spain on September 18th 2013 where the royal couple had lunch with King Juan Carlos and Queen Sofia at the Zarzuela Palace in Madrid

 

 

King Harald and Queen Sonja welcomed Willem-Alexander and Maxima to the Royal Palace in Oslo on October 2nd 2013

 

 

The last stop on their tour was Sweden where they spent the day on October 14th 2013, starting with lunch with King Carl XVI Gustaf and Queen Silvia at the Royal Palace in Stockholm

 

Earlier in the summer, the Dutch Royal House said it would announce a visit to Belgium after the long holiday.  But with their fellow new king and queen on the block in the middle of their Joyeuses Entrees around their own country, it might be some time before these good neighbours and friends get to say hello to one another officially for the first time since their respective successions.

The peachy queen

The new king and queen of the Netherlands have finished their tour of the royal courts of Europe which they've undertaken to mark their accession.  Last stop on this very posh city break was Stockholm where they met King Carl XVI Gustaf and Queen Silvia at the Royal Palace.

 

King Willem-Alexander and Queen Maxima with the Swedish monarchs and Crown Princess Victoria and Prince Daniel on October 14th 2013

 

As is usual on these trips, the Dutch monarchs had lunch with their fellow royals before heading off to meet leading politicians including Swedish Prime Minister, Frederik Reinfeldt. They also visited the Swedish parliament.  And Queen Maxima ended her royal tour all peachy with a blush coloured top and dark brown skirt.  The monarchs who started their reign in the spring are now heading into their first winter as king and queen.

 

 

Prince Carl Philip wanders into shot - he attended the lunch held for the Dutch king and queen

 

Jubilee evening in Sweden

The Swedish royal family are at the Stockholm Concert Hall for a concert marking the jubilee that's being celebrated over the weekend.  King Carl XVI Gustaf and Queen Silvia arrived with their children and sons in law for the event which begins twenty four hours of festivities that will end with dancing in the streets.

 

The King and Queen of Sweden arriving at the Concert Hall in Stockholm for the celebration that kicks off twenty four hours of events to mark Carl XVI Gustaf's 40 years on the throne

 

Earlier the whole family had been at a special dinner to mark the event hosted by the government including Princess Madeleine showing the first hints of pregnancy.  The Prime Minister gave a speech to mark the occasion and then it was off to the concert, being hosted by parliament.  And then everyone's up nice and early tomorrow for a thanksgiving service at the Royal Chapel in the Royal Palace before the party really gets started.

 

 

Two royal daughters, one royal son and two royal sons-in-law - the family join the king and queen of Sweden for a dinner and concert to mark the jubilee being celebrated this weekend

A baby for Madeleine

Princess Estelle is about to get a little cousin.  The Swedish Royal House has just announced that Princess Madeleine will become a mummy in March 2014.

 

Two become three - Princess Madeleine of Sweden and her husband, Chris O'Neill, are expecting their first baby next year

 

The baby is the first for Madeleine and her husband, Chris O'Neill, who married in June this year.  The second grandchild of King Carl XVI Gustaf and Queen Silvia will be fifth in line to the throne when they arrive in 2014. 

 

 

 

One of the official photos of Madeleine's summer wedding to Chris O'Neill

 

The princess, who is 31, made her own announcement via her Facebook page this morning and the royal household confirmed the news.  The official press release said there were no planned changes to the princess' schedule for the rest of the year.  The news comes just days before her father celebrates the 40th anniversary of his accession meaning he starts his jubilee with another member of the next generation on the way.



Royal round up, week ending August 30th 2013

A round up of royal news from around Europe for the week ending August 30th 2013

UNITED KINGDOM

Another quiet seven days for the House of Windsor with things picking up as the week drew to a close.  On Saturday 30th August, the Royal Mail announced that the Prince of Wales would be one of the judges on its competition to design a Christmas stamp which has seen almost a quarter of a million children across the UK send in their vision of what the festive season means to them.  Prince Charles will cast his eye over the top 24 and select the winner. 

But it was his daughter in law who made all the headlines again this week with two chances to catch a look at Kate just five and a bit weeks after giving birth to Prince George.  First there were snatched shots in a supermarket car park showing a slim duchess pushing a trolley.  And then Kate made an unexpected appearance with William to start the Anglesey Ring of Fire marathon - the couple's last official outing on the island before they leave as the Duke of Cambridge's duties there come to an end.

 

The Duchess of Cambridge looking very well indeed less than six weeks after becoming a mother

 

The Queen continues her holiday at Balmoral.  And Prince Edward, who is a Trustee of the Duke of Edinburgh Award Scheme, attended a dinner for the organisation in Bachory, Aberdeenshire.

 

SPAIN

 

It was a very quiet week for the Spanish royal family as the summer holidays drew to a close.  The king is understood to be in Madrid but speculation continued over the location of the Prince and Princess of Asturias who are on private holiday with their two daughters with Italy being he favourite location in hunt an heir.  Queen Sofia remained in Mallorca where she visisted the headquarters of a food bank organization which is supported by the foundation that bears her name.  The queen met the management to find out about the services needed as economic crisis continues to affect Spain and she met voluteers working at the banks.

 

 

Queen Sofia with volunteers and patrons of the food bank in the Balearics

 

BELGIUM

 

A final week of preparations for the new king and queen before they get back to work at the beginning of September.  But visitors to the royal palace at Laeken were given the opportunity to pay their respects to Queen Astrid as they crypt was opened on August 29th to mark the anniversary of her death in 1935.

 

THE NETHERLANDS

 

It was back to work for the Dutch royals this week.  The main news was the public reappearance of former queen Beatrix following the death of her second son, Friso, in the middle of August.  Princess Beatrix attended a concert organised by the European Cultural Foundation at the Portuguese synagogue on August 26th alongside her youngest child, Constantijn, and his wife, Laurentien, who is the foundation's president.

 

 

The first public appearance of Beatrix of the Netherlands following the death of Prince Friso

 

Two days later, Beatrix appeared by herself at a concert by the European Union Youth Orchestra in Amsterdam. Meanwhile the new king marked the 100th anniversary of the Peace Palace in The Hague by attending a reception to mark the start of festivities across several weeks.  Also in attendance was the Secretary General of the United Nations, Ban Ki-Moon, who earlier in the week had been invited to a special dinner in his honour by King Willem-Alexander and Queen Maxima with Princess Beatrix also there but not featuring the official photo released by the Dutch royal household.

 

 

The King and Queen of the Netherlands with Ban Ki-Moon and his wife at a dinner at Noordeinde Palace in The Hague on August 27th 2013

 

NORWAY

 

Crown Princess Mette-Marit unveiled a new sculpture trail at Akershus Fortress in Oslo.  The trail has been created by and for children and features ten works of art which will remain in place for three years before being returned to the home towns of the children who designed them.

 

 

Princess Mette-Marit of Norway with one of the ten sculptures making up the trail in Akershus Fortress in Oslo

 

Crown Prince Haakon visited a school in Gjøvik, north of Oslo, as part of his involvement in Global Dignity.  The organization was set up by the prince in 2006, along with two friends, to promote the importance of human dignity for all to school children.  The prince often visits schools to lead courses on dignity.  This week's event was captured by pupils at the school themselves and is the start of the run up to Global Dignity Day on October 16th 2013 when many schools and colleges in 50 countries around the world will focus on the issue.

 

 

Prince Haakon during his visit to a school in Gjøvik as part of Global Dignity

 

At the end of the week, Prince Haakon attended the funeral of Rolv Wesunland, one of Norway's most popular actors who died at the age of 76.

 

DENMARK

 

Queen Margrethe II was back from her summer holidays this week and one of her first appearances was at the opening of a special exhibition charting the relationship between Denmark and Russia between 1600 and 1900 at the National History Museuam at Frederiksborg Castle.

 

 

Queen Margrethe II inspecting one of the statues that form part of the new Danish-Russian exhibition she opened this week

(photo  Hanne Juul, Billed-Bladet)

 

The Queen also attended the commemoration marking the anniversary of the Danish government resigning in 1943 marking the formalization of Danish resistance to the Nazi regime which had taken over the country at the beginning of World War Two.  Margrethe laid a wreath on this commemoration day.

 

Crown Prince Frederik spent some time with the Danish national volleyball team this week to mark his role as patron of the European Volleyball Championships which take place across Denmark and Poland later in the month with the final taking place in Copenhagen on September 29th 2013.

 

 

 Prince Frederik training with the Danish volleyball team ahead of the European Championships which will take place later this month

 

It was a sporty week all round as photos were released of the Crown Prince sailing with Oracle Team USA 17 in San Francisco where the famous trophy will be up for grabs again this September.  Frederik's sport theme continues - he's now a member of the International Olympic Committee which will spend the first week of September deciding where the 2020 Olympic Games will be held.

 

 

Fred afloat - the Crown Prince of Denmark at the build up to the Americas Cup in San Francisco

 

Meanwhile, Crown Princess Mary opened a new language centre in Aarhus in her role as patron of the Danish Refugee Council.

 

 

Princess Mary with some of the students at the new language centre in Aarhus she opened this week

(photo Miguel Mielgo)

 

And she attended the INDEX design awards ceremony which recognizes ideas that have improved life.  It was set up in 2005 by Frederik and Mary oversaw the presentation of the five prizes, each worth 100,00 euros while her husband was in America.

 

 

A princess in purple - Mary of Denmark at design awards in Helsingor on August 29th 2013

 



SWEDEN

 

King Carl XVI Gustaf attended the opening of the Sami parliament.  He has attended on a regular basis since the Sami people were granted their own parliament as part of their recognition as an indigenous people in the early 1990s.

 

 

The King of Sweden is welcomed to the Sami parliament by its chairman, Stegan Mikaelsson

 

Carl XVI Gustaf also presented the Polar Music Prize, handed out every year since 1992.  Winners this year included Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho and Senegalese musician Youssou N'Dour.

 

 

King Carl XVI Gustaf and Youssou N'Dour at the Polar Music Prize at Stockholm's Concert Hall on August 27th 2013

 

The king and queen continued their tour of the country to mark his 40 years on the throne this week.   They've been in Vastmanlad, west of Stockholm where they visited a riding school.  Earlier in the week they went to Gavelborgs, north of the capital, where the visit included a trip to a heritage farm and demonstrations of how the health benefits of gardening are being put to use in the area.

 

 

King Carl XVI Gustaf and Queen Silvia of Sweden on their visit to Vastmanlad on August 30th 2013.  The carriage ride took place in Stromsholm.

 



Crown Princess Victoria attended the annual Hermes export awards in Stockholm.  The prize is given out every year to a company with strong export records that have put Swedish business on the map and this year it went to computer game firm, Mojang. 

 

 

Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden at the annual Hermes export awards in Stockhom, August 29th

 

Prince Daniel was also looking at business in Sweden this week and spent a day at IKEA as part of his promotion of entrepreneurship in the country.  He spent some time with the company's founder, Ingvar Kamprad, to get tips on creating business and trade. The prince then attended Raoul Wallenburg Day, established to promote racial harmony in memory of the Swedish architect who saved thousands of Jews in World War Two and intended to be an annual event from now on.

 

 

Prince Daniel at events to mark Raoul Wallenburg Day in Stockholm on August 27th - Raoul's sister, Nina Lagergren, is on the prince's left

 

Prince Carl Philip opened an exhibition at the Varmland Museum showing the enduring legacy of the Muslim world in Sweden.  The event is called 1001 Inventions and highlights the legacy of the Muslim word over a 1000 year period.

 

 



 Prince Carl Philip on his tour of the exhibition - Discover the Muslim Heritage in Our World - which will tour Sweden



Royals at 40

Forty is the magic number for Europe's royals this year.  Two princes, one princess and one queen have all turned the big four oh this year and one king is marking his fortieth anniversary on the throne.  Middle age is spreading through the royal courts across the continent.

Let's start with Sweden.  September 15th 1973 turned out to be a very important day for the Swedish monarchy.  On that day, Gustaf VI Adolf died bringing to an end a 23 year reign and his crown passed to his grandson, Carl XVI Gustaf.  On that same day, a little boy was born in the middle of the kingdom.  Daniel Westling went on to marry Carl XVI Gustaf's daughter and heiress, Victoria, and father the future queen regnant of the country. 

 

 

The King of Sweden and the boy born to be consort - Prince Daniel arrived on the day his future father in law acceded to the throne

 

Carl XVI Gustaf's queen will have to wait for her own 40th anniversary - the couple married in 1976.  Her 40th anniversary will fall on June 19th 2016 which will also be Daniel's 6th wedding anniversary as he and Victoria married on the same date as the king and queen.

 

 

An official portrait of Crown Princess Victoria and Prince Daniel of Sweden

(photo copyright kungahuset.se)

 

This year is also a biggie for the new forty somethings in Sweden's neighbor, Norway.  Crown Prince Haakon Magnus and his wife, Mette-Marit, both mark this big birthday in the summer.  Haakon is now 40 having celebrated in style on July 20th with a massive party that started with the heir to the throne parachuting into the festivities.  Mette-Marit is a year younger on paper for just a few more weeks until her celebrations on August 19th.  Whether she tries a spot of sky diving to match hubby remains to be seen.

 

 

 

 Back on terra firma - Haakon Magnus an Mette-Marit of Norway in a photo taken to mark their 40th birthday celebrations this summer

(photo Norwegian royal household)

 

 

Whether Mathilde of Belgium knew she would become queen when this year got underway, she was pretty certain that 2013 would be a biggie for her as she marked her own 40th birthday in January.  Her own celebrations were slightly more low key with six official photographs and a stamp marking the occasion.  But then an accession and a major 40th party might be a bit too much for any queen in one year.

 



 

Mathilde and her children in a photo taken to mark her 40th birthday on January 20th 2013 - six months later she would become Queen of the Belgians

 

After that we've got a wait for another 40th - and then it will be back to Sweden where Crown Princess Victoria is due to mark her big birthday in 2017.





A win for Victoria?

When it comes to Queens of England there are two dominant forces at work - the Elizabeths and Victoria.  All three women have given their name to an age and come to define a generation.  Queen Victoria was so dominant that her name went from a mystery moniker to a top ten tag just through her influence.  Over 100 years since her death, will enough time have passed to make Victoria a contender for the Cambridge baby name?

I admit there's a little bit of cheating going on here because we've only ever had a Queen Regnant called Victoria - or did we?  In fact, Mary of Teck had quite a magnificent array of names, an octet in fact, and Mary was number two on the list.  Top of the tree was Victoria.  So, yes, Queen Mary was always known as Mary or May by her family and chose to reign under that name and she's already had a mention on the posting debating the merits of Mary but she was really a Victoria.  I think that means I can get away with this one!

 

Victoria

 

Victoria is such a popular name nowadays it's hard to believe that it was rarely used in England until about 200 years ago.  Now it's used for babies, towns, cities, whole chunks of countries and as such is one of the most spoken words in the Western world.   In fact when the little girl who would grow up to rule half the globe was born, her parents' choice of name was considered strange, foreign and a bit off.  

 

By the time Victoria was born, the Hanoverians had developed the habit of accumulating a long list of names for their babies.  It was rare to get to the font with less than four and some of the more out of control parents had six or seven names for the vicar to get through before the end of the christening.  The future queen had just two names and Victoria was definitely second on the list.  Her first name was actually Alexandrina, in honour of her godfather, Alexander I of Russia.  The came Victoria, after her mother.  And then Victoria senior had added on Georgina, Charlotte and Augusta.  But the Prince Regent, her brother in law and by then head of the family thanks to the illness of King George III, got rid of those before she could object and so the future Empress ended up with a rather unroyal name.

 

 

Queen Victoria at her coronation in 1838

 

And a very German one.  Her mother was a German princess who had married the fourth son of the reigning king, George III, just a year before as part of a spectacular royal wedding jamboree that happened so quickly the souvenir makers didn't have a hope of producing celebratory mugs. 

 

George III had had fifteen children and the first four were healthy boys.  They'd also had plenty of offspring but sadly only one legitimate child between them.  Even more sadly, that one legal heir, Charlotte, had died in childbirth in 1817.  Her parents, the Prince Regent and his wife Caroline, had hated one another from the moment they met and were too old to have more children.  Next on the list was Prince Frederick, Duke of York who also hated his wife so much that even if they had been of an age to keep producing there was little to no chance of it ever happening.  Then came William, Duke of Clarence who had had ten children but all with an actress who he hadn't married and then there was Edward who had had several long term relationships but no wife or legitimate children.

 

So William and Edward went off and married German princesses on the same day in 1818, just a few weeks after a younger brother - Adolphus, Duke of Cambridge had married as part of the great wedding race -  and set about making heirs to the throne.  William and his wife had two little girls, in 1819 and 1820, who both died very young.  Edward's only child with Victoria was the little girl they named after her mother.  On the day she arrived, Princess Alexandrina Victoria of Kent was fifth in line to the throne.  Her father died in 1820 and as his older brothers died childless, her way to the throne cleared.

 

 

Princess Victoria of Kent, aged four, when she was third in line to the throne

 

And of course once on the throne, she stayed there and witnessed an expansion of her kingdom that no one could have dreamed of.  OK, for a while she was just as well known for her deep mourning for her beloved husband, Prince Albert.  But ultimately, she's known more as a world power than as a widow.  Victoria ruled the Empire on which the sun never set.  As such, her name was given to hundreds of places all around the world in her honour and to hundreds of little girls.  Her reign saw an expansion of power and prestige for Great Britain that outshone anything that had gone before and made the country a world power of epic proportions.  It also saw massive social change and an explosion of literature and journalism that shone a light on issues such as poverty, women's rights and exploitation.  She was the first queen to celebrate a golden and diamond jubilee and she is still the longest reigning monarch in British history.

 

 

 

 

 

Queen Victoria towards the end of her 63 year reign

 

As well as ruling half the world, Victoria became the grandmother of Europe's royal families.  Her own eldest child was Victoria, later Empress of Germany.  Two of the Queen's four other daughters had Victoria as middle names.  And her son and heir, Edward, went one further with all his girls having Victoria somewhere among their many names.  Three of her younger children had a daughter called Victoria and as the children and grandchildren married into European royal families the old queen's name, as well as her genes, became a fixture in palaces across the continent.

 

 

Princess Victoria, Princess Royal, the eldest child of Queen Victoria and later Empress of Germany

 

 

So it's surprising that there are hardly any Queens called Victoria in our history books.  Sweden got a Queen Victoria at the end of the 19th century.  And Spain's last queen before the civil war was Victoria Eugenie, known as Queen Ena, the daughter of Queen Victoria's youngest child, Beatrice.  But it's not well used by royalty nowadays.  The eldest daughter of King Juan Carlos of Spain called her little girl Victoria and the Duke and Duchess of York used it as a middle name for their second child, Eugenie.  But the most high profile bearer is the Crown Princess of Sweden who was also the first European princess to leapfrog a younger brother in the line of succession when the law was changed when they were both babies to ensure the crown passed to the monarch's eldest child, regardless of gender.

 

Princess Victoria of Sweden with her husband, Prince Daniel, and their daughter, Princess Estelle.  Will a Cambridge princess be another future Queen Victoria?  (photo, Frankie Fouganthin)

 

 

And perhaps that's the biggest thing in its favour when it comes to predicting a name for the royal baby. 

 

Victoria...the argument for...

• It's the name of one of England's greatest queens and baby Cambridge is descended from Queen Victoria through both Elizabeth II and Prince Philip so it would really be keeping things in the family
• It's still a popular name in the UK and wouldn't be seen as elitist
• It's the name of another princess who changed the rules for the girls - and Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden is also hugely popular and does a great turn as a royal godmother (she counts three future monarchs among her godchildren)

And against...

 

• That does mean there will be a Queen called Victoria in Europe when baby Cambridge comes to reign
• Sometimes one person can so dominate a name that it's hard to shake them off and Queen Victoria is still such a dominant historical force it might be hard to put her to one side
• If you're going to name a royal baby after a great queen, might it be better to honour the child's great granny rather than their great, great, great, great, great grandmother?