Hasty Pudding: a baby first, then marriage?

In January I wrote about the breakup of the marriage of Archduchess Catharina of Austria and Count Massimiliano Secco d'Aragona after 16 years of marriage.  I am not sure if the couple has divorced but Maxi has moved out of the marital home.

 As first reported by the German magazine, Bunte,  the apparent cause of the breakup between the archduchess and her Italian husband is a German heiress,  Julia Oetker, a scion of the very well-to-do German baking products family.

http://royalmusingsblogspotcom.blogspot.com/2016/01/you-may-need-scorecard.html

Julia, 37.  was married to José Antonio Ruiz-Berdejo y Sigurtà, who happens to be Maxi's first cousin.   The short-lived marriage took place in 2011.

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"Unfortunately, it did not work, but we remain best friends,"  José Antonio said at the time of the separation.

Recently, Julia gave birth to her first child, a son, and the father is Count Maxi.  They are not married, which leads me to think, Catharina and Maxi are not divorced.   He has three sons with his wife.

Oh,  José-Antonio is still seeing Pia Miller, the former wife of Christopher Getty.

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http://www.bunte.de/panorama/wirtschaft/milliardaerin-julia-oetker-ein-baby-vom-besten-freund-des-ex-mannes.html

A selection of royal images

I opened one of my royal postcard albums and selected a number of images to share here.  I am always adding cards to the collection - but one eludes me:  Grand Duchess Augusta of Mecklenburg-Strelitz ... I know a few cards exist ... so keep looking for Augusta, for her husband Friedrich Wilhelm, their son, Adolphus Friedrich and his family.

My postcard collection includes more than 9000 cards from the late 1800s to the present.

Queen Frederika of the Hellenes and her two Aunts,  Alexandra, the Grand Duchess of Mecklenburg-Schwerin and Princess Olga of Hannover

The Duchess of Brunswick-Lüneburg

Prince and Princess Heinrich of Prussia

The three daughters and their husbands of Friedrich Karl of Prussia and Marie Anne of Anhalt-Dessau: Marie and Hendrik of the Netherlands, Elisabeth and  Grand Duke Friedrich August of Oldenburg and Princess Luise Margarete and Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught (1878).

Theodora of Greece and Berthold Margrave of Baden

Crown Princess Antonia (nee Luxembourg), and her children

Princess Adalbert of Bavaria and her grandchild (child of Prince Konstantin)

Princess Dorothea of Bavaria at the time of her engagement to Archduke Gottfried of Austria

Countess Julie von Hauke (Princess of Battenberg)

Grand Duchess Eleonore of Hesse and by Rhine with her two grandsons, Alexander and Ludwig

 Irene Sibylle Auguste Hermine of Hesse (1907-1980) was the third of five children of Chlodwig, Landgrave of Hesse-Philippstahl-Barchfeld and Princess Caroline of Solms-Hohensolms-Lich.  She was married twice to Waldemar von Thomsen (1891-1967),  The first marriage took place in 1934.  Divorced in 1955, remarried two years later.  Caroline was a younger sister of Princess Eleonore of Solms-Hohensolms-Lich, who was the second wife of Grand Duke Ernst Ludwig of Hesse and by Rhine.

The Prince and Princess of Fürstenberg with Kaiser Wilhelm II, when he visited their home.  The Prince and Wilhelm were friends

Redux: when the queen mother was a princess

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This post was first published in 2013.   Three years later, it needs repeating.

All this fuss over a title.  So many people cannot grasp that HRH The Duchess of Cambridge is a British princess by marriage.

There were a few cardiac arrests yesterday and the need for smelling salts when the Duchess' occupation (on Prince George's birth certificate)  was listed as Princess of the United Kingdom.

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Made sense to me.  The Duke of Cambridge's occupation was listed as Prince of the United Kingdom.  Not RAF pilot.  (Same information on Princess Charlotte's birth certificate.)

It has been the norm to put Prince as the occupation of a royal father.  Adding the mother's occupation is relatively new.  The line did not exist on birth registrations when William was born.

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In Britain, a wife takes her husband's rank and title, unless her rank is higher.   In 1923, after the wedding of the Duke of York to Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, an official statement was released by the palace:

"In accordance with the settled general rule that a wife takes the status of her husband Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon on her marriage has become Her Royal Highness the Duchess of York with the status of a Princess."

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http://www.express.co.uk/news/royal/419749/Palace-inquest-after-Prince-William-names-Kate-as-his-Princess

a selection of Christmas cards

Signatures on Liechtenstein card are printed although look real

This is a selection of the Christmas cards I have received so far ... some I choose not to publish for privacy reasons.   One of my favorite cards so far came from Prince Guillaume and Princess Sibilla of Luxembourg (their kids are growing up) but this one I cannot publish.