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Tuesday, April 11, 2023

Not enough Crowns to go around

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April 1, 1963


European royal families are a bit agitated as their palaces are "overstocked with unmarried princesses," and there are not enough princes to go around.

Robert Musel, UPI's London correspondent, noted that there are 26 unmarried princesses and "only 16 princes."  If a royal matchmaker "succeeds in pairing all off -- as some are trying to do  -- there would still be 10 princesses from whom the choice would be kind heart rather than a coronet."

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This "arithmetic worrying" faces Queen Juliana of the Netherlands (four unmarried daughters), King Gustav VI Adolf of Sweden (three unmarried granddaughters), King Frederik IX of Denmark (three unmarried daughters),  King Paul I of Greece (one unmarried daughter) and the heads of the former ruling houses of France, Italy, and Spain (six unmarried daughters.)

These once unattainable princesses might now fall in love with a commoner, who it is said, "never had it so good," until Britain's Princess Margaret married a man "named Jones."

But royalty prefers to "mate with royalty," and European royals are delighted with the news that Crown Prince Constantine of Greece is engaged to marry 16-year-old Princess Anne Marie of Denmark, the youngest of King Frederik IX's three daughters.

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 This leaves only three heirs to the throne:  Crown Prince Harald of Norway, Crown Prince Carl Gustav of Sweden, 17, and 14-year-old Prince Charles.

Although Harald would do well with one of the Swedish princesses,  he is "alarming royal matchmakers with his attention to a lovely commoner, Sonja Haraldsen.

Constantine's mother, Queen Frederika was determined to find royal spouses for her children.  In 1955, she organized royal singles cruise in the Mediterranean that may have led to her elder daughter, Princess Sophie's marriage last year to Prince Juan Carlos of Spain, who might or might not become the King of Spain.

The "barriers against marrying commoners are breaking down, as they must," which would prevent a "record crop of royal spinsters."  Royal parents are "anxiously scanning" a "slender list" of eligible princes.

Two of the most notable eligible princesses are Princess Beatrix of the Netherlands and Princess Margrethe of Denmark, who are in line to become queens.   Princess Beatrix was recently asked about her future marriage. She sighed:  "I will have to find a husband among a small set."

The three Swedish princesses, Margaretha, 28, Desiree, 24, and Christina, 19. have "no known suitors" at this time.  Their sister, Princess Birgitta,  married Prince Johan Georg of Hohenzollern, two years ago.

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 In the late 1950s,  Princess Margaretha was about to become engaged to a Briton, Robin Douglas-Home, a nephew of the former Prime Minister Alec Douglas-Home, the 14th Earl of Home.

Although he had aristocratic roots,  Robin was a jazz pianist in a London bar.   The Swedish palace did not offer a reason for the end of Margaretha's relationship with Robin, but  perhaps  King Gustav VI Adolf believed that "even for a democratic monarch there were limits."

 

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