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Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Lack of interest?

The whining keeps on coming about the supposed lack of interest by British royals in attending foreign royal events. I suppose they having nothing better to do but whine.

British representation is not based on interest, but on discussions and advisement from the Foreign Office. European royal houses are aware of how the British do it because the British have been doing it for more than 100 years. It appears to be a policy where one member of the family is designated as the representative. The Sovereign, in consultation with the Foreign Office, is not going to send more than one representative, which may include the spouse of the royal. In the case of Crown Princess Victoria's wedding, the Queen's representative was HRH the Earl of Wessex, who was accompanied by his wife.

The other royal houses do not see this as a snub. They know the drill, they know the British will send a representative. Those who are not involved may grumble, but consider the cost. Hotel rooms and air fares are not covered by the host. Every member of the Royal family has a personal protection officer, and security also needs a place to sleep. As a royal wedding is an official overseas engagement, the Foreign Office may be the on responsible for picking up the tab.

Here is a link to an article about royal clothes budgets and overseas tours. Royal wardrobes for overseas tours are paid out of the Foreign Office budget. Thus, it makes sense to have a minimalist approach to foreign royal weddings and funerals. One hopes Edward and Sophie did not buy anything new for the trip to Stockholm.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/the-royal-cost-of-keeping-up-appearances-1311641.html

Although the Queen did not actually attend the wedding, I bet she sent Victoria and Daniel a very nice gift.

Face facts, folks. Prince William and Princess Madeleine are not going to get married. Madeleine may be single, but William is not. He is also not unlikely to seek a foreign bride. His circle of friends is largely upper class British. King George V and Queen Mary encouraged marriages between their children and the British aristocracy.
It should be noted since the end of the second world war, there have been only five marriages between two reigning royal houses. The five couples: Elizabeth II and the Duke of Edinburgh (ne Greece); Grand Duke Jean of Luxembourg and Princess Josephine-Charlotte of Belgium; Juan Carlos, Prince of Spain, and Princess Sophie of Greece; King Constantine II of the Hellenes and Queen Anne Marie; and Prince Nikolaus of Liechtenstein and Princess Margaretha of Luxembourg. The first four marriages were made by the heir or the Sovereign. Prince Nikolaus is the second son of the late Prince Franz Joseph II.
Hereditary Grand Duke Guillaume of Luxembourg has great family connections on his father's side, but, he, too, may follow his father, and marry a commoner.

Princess Madeleine is also unlikely to marry a foreigner. She moves in a largely Swedish circle. Although the tabloid newspapers wanted us to believe the King desired a royal marriage for his daughter, when, in fact, his own wife is a German commoner, whom he met at the Olympics.
The Swedish sovereigns never went out of their way to encourage Victoria to find a nice eligible German prince, or even the only eligible Greek prince (before Nicholas got involved with Tatiana Blatnik.) Victoria's circle of friends included members of Sweden's aristocratic families and school chums.

There are two nice and eligible German princes for Madeleine: Prince Carl-Albrecht and Prince August of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg, who were born in 1976 and 1981, respectively. They are the sons of Prince and Princess Ludwig-Ferdinand of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg. Princess Ludwig-Ferdinand is the former Countess Yvonne Wachmeister af Johannhus, whose mother, father, is a first cousin of Countess Gunilla Wachtmeister, the wife of Count Carl-Johan Bernadotte af Wisborg, who is Madeleine's great uncle.
Prince and Princess Ludwig-Ferdinand's daughter, Princess Anna, is married to Prince Manuel of Bavaria.
Ludwig-Ferdinand and Prince Richard of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg, who is the head of the house, are first cousins.
As this branch of the Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg family resides in Sweden, Princess Madeleine would not need to reside outside Sweden. A win-win situation.
In all seriousness, however, Princess Madeleine has been through a rough patch lately, and, it will take time to get over her engagement, and her love for Jonas. He treated her badly.
The Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg princes were not on the official guest list. Too bad - the wedding would have allowed each of the brothers to ask Madeleine to dance!

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