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Sunday, March 31, 2024

More Photos from Easter



A special thank you to Ken Stone for his super photos of King Charles III and Queen Camilla and other members of the Royal Family leaving St George's Chapel after attending the Easter Mattins service. A limited number of members of the public are allowed into the castle grounds.  The King and Queen and other royals usually walk from Windsor Castle to the chapel.  Today, all arrived and departed by car.  

The King and Queen did an impromptu walk-about greeting members of the public.  This does not usually happen on Easter Sunday.  










@Ken Stone  all photos 


These photos were taken by another friend, Ken Stone 














@all photos Ken Stone



The King and Queen celebrate Easter at Windsor

 

@Katrina Warne (all photos)


King Charles III and Queen Camilla attended the Easter service today at St. George's Chapel.  They were accompanied by the Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh, their son, Earl of Wessex, and the Princess Royal with her husband, Sir Timothy Laurence.  The Duke of York and his former wife, Sarah, Duchess of York were also at the service.

These photos were taken by a dear friend Katrina Warne who went to Windsor to see the King and other family members.

She shook hands with the King and Queen.  She told the King "I hope that you get better soon Your Majesty." The King responded: “I’m doing my best."

I have spotted  Katrina in several photos.  So happy for her!!!!!!


The King and Queen spent about 10 minutes shaking hands and talking with people in the crowd.  The King would not have made a beeline for the crowd if his doctor had not given him the green light to mingle. A cautious that Charles' cancer treatment is working.














@Katrina Warne 


Friday, March 29, 2024

QVD Beatrice Grant joins the Queen in Worcester

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The woman in uniform adjacent to Queen Camilla is Beatrice Grant, the Lord-Lieutenant of Worcester.   She was appointed by Charles III.  The Birmingham Mail noted she broke "the ultimate glass ceiling by becoming the first woman to hold a prestigious role in nearly 500 years.   Beatrice and Bishop Inge welcomed the Queen to Worcester Cathedral for the Royal Maundy Service.  Camilla represented the King, who is undergoing cancer treatment.


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 Her selection was announced in December 2022 and she took up her position in March 2023 when the previous Lord-Lieutenant Patrick Holcroft retired at 75. 

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@Worcestershire County Council





Beatrice Grant and her husband, Andrew live in Bransford Manor in Worcester.  She was "chosen for the position after a long process and was picked for her long and extensive charity work."

As the Lord-Lieutenant for Worcester, Beatrice was invited to King Charles III's Coronation.



Now here comes the fun fact.  Beatrice Grant and King Charles III are fourth cousins, as both are descendants of Queen Victoria.


Victoria - Edward - George - George - Elizabeth - Charles 

Victoria - Leopold  - Carl Eduard -  Caroline Mathilde - Victoria Adelheid - Beatrice

Beatrice Irene Helen Victoria is the second of three children of H Ill H Countess Victoria Adelheid Clementine Luise of Castell-Rüdenhausen and Sir John Miles Huntington-Whiteley, 4th Baronet.  Her parents were married on June 20, 1960, at the Queen's Chapel, St. James's Palace, London. 

She is also the great-granddaughter of former British Prime Minister, Stanley Baldwin.


Times June 21, 1960




 Beatrice was born September 6, 1962, at St. Mary's Hospital, Paddington, London.  Her birth was announced in the Court Circular.
Times September 11, 1962



 She married  Andrew William Grant on April 26, 1995, at the Church of the Immaculate Conception in London. 

Beatrice and Andrew's wedding @Catherine Moubray)



The couple have two sons, Frederik (1999) and Ludovic (2002).


Thursday, March 28, 2024

Queen Camilla hands out Maundy Money

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Representing the King, undergoing cancer treatment,  Queen Camilla handed out the Maundy money at the Royal Maundy service at Worcester Cathedral earlier today.

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Wednesday, March 27, 2024

King Harald and family

Simen Løvberg Sund. Royal Court


"The Royal Family wishes everyone a very happy Easter

The Royal Couple and the Crown Prince Family have gathered at Bygdø Kongsgård at the start of Easter week."

Look who is one today!

 

© Maison du Grand-Duc / Sophie Margue

© Maison du Grand-Duc / Sophie Margue


HRH Prince Francois of Luxembourg celebrates his first birthday today.  The little prince is the second son of Hereditary Grand Duke Guillaume and Hereditary Grand Duchess Stephanie of Luxembourg.  Prince Francois is third in line to the throne after his father and older brother, Prince Charles, who will celebrate his fourth birthday on May 10.

© Maison du Grand-Duc / Sophie Margue

https://royalmusingsblogspotcom.blogspot.com/2023/03/first-photos-of-hrh-prince-francois-of.html


https://royalmusingsblogspotcom.blogspot.com/2023/03/its-boy-for-guillaume-and-stephanie.html

Tuesday, March 26, 2024

Her Majesty Margareta celebrates 75 years

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 March 26, 1949

Queen Anne of Romania gave birth to a daughter in Lausanne, Switzerland today.  The infant princess was born at the Mont Choisi Clinic and weighed seven pounds.  She was named Margarita in honor of her maternal grandmother, Princess Margrethe of Denmark.

This is the first child of Queen Anne and her husband, King Michael, who was forced to abdicate following a Communist takeover of his country in December 1947.   King Michael went into exile in January 1948.  He married Princess Anne of Bourbon-Parma in Athens in June 1948.

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The family is now living in Switzerland.

Major Jacques Vergotti, King Michael's aide, told reporters that "the birth was normal" and that the queen and her daughter were  "in fine shape."  

It was noted that the infant princess "will have no claim on the dormant throne" as the succession descends "through the male line only."

Shortly after Margareta's birth,  the family moved into a modest rental home in Lausanne, where they stayed for several months.  It was in this house where Margarita's baptism took place. The only guests at the ceremony, apart from the King and Queen, were Queen Helen of Romania (Michael's mother), Princess Margrethe of Bourbon-Parma (Anne's mother), and Princess Irene, Duchess of Aosta (Queen Helen's sister.)  

Margareta's godparents were her maternal grandmother, Princess Margrethe, and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, who could not attend the ceremony.  The family moved to Florence, Italy when Margarita was 12 weeks old.

Princess Margareta was four years old when she learned about what exile meant.  She asked her mother why her father  was "so sad and quiet."  Queen Anne told her that her father "was upset because he lost his country."  In her memoir, A War, An Exile, A Life, Queen Anne wrote:  "Our children knew this right from the beginning, even if they had to grow up a little before they could understand the situation properly."

Her Majesty Margareta, Custodian of the Crown, is the eldest of five daughters.  She has four younger sisters:  Helen (1950), Irina (1953),  Sophie (1957) and Marie (1964).

Although the Romanian succession was based on Salic law (males only), King Michael knew that his eldest daughter would succeed him, and he pursued her "education with great attention."   After receiving her Baccalaureate, Margareta wanted to study art at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts.  Her parents were not thrilled with this plan.  They recommended she spend a year with her grandmother, Queen Helen, in Florence.

In an interview in 2014 with the Daily Telegraph, Margareta said of her grandmother: "She taught me everything I know.  Everything I am is thanks to her.  She introduced me to people -- diplomats, artists, people from the UN who were working in Ethiopia, Sudan, South Africa. "

She spent several months working in a refugee camp in Ethiopia before deciding she no longer wanted to go to art school.  She was now determined to go to university in the United Kingdom.  After looking at several schools, Margareta attended the University of Edinburgh, where she studied "political science, sociology, and international relations."

In 2011, Margareta told Romanian historian Diana Mandache: "I wanted to study philosophy, I really liked philosophy, but I realized that I had to be a little more practical. Then, in the 70s, sociology was fashionable, so I chose it alongside international law, which I wanted for the United Nations, and political science because it could be linked to international relations and offered the opportunity to know systems. This combination of studies was very interesting. Maybe now, if I had to do it over again, I'd do something more practical."

 After graduating from Edinburgh, the princess "specialized in medical sociology."  In 1983, she joined the  United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization in Rome where she remained for three years before taking a new job with the International Fund for Agricultural Development. 

Margareta left her job in the summer of 1989.  She told Diana Mandache: "I realized that something fundamental was happening in Eastern Europe and I had to return to my father."

On Christmas Day, Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceaușescu and his wife were executed on the orders of Romania's Provisional government, the National Salvation Front.   Demonstrations in Timișoara were spreading throughout the country and the Communist regime was about to fall.

On January 18, 1990,  Princess Margareta and her younger sister, Princess Sophie, arrived in Bucharest. They were the first members of the Royal Family to visit the country since King Michael, Queen Helen, and Princesses Elisabeta and Ileana, were forced into exile.    

Margareta told the press she had come to Romania to "rediscover her lost homeland."  She and her sister spent eight days in the country, visiting villages, hospitals, orphanages, and nursing homes.

It was a difficult visit due to the apparent and open hostility from the Romanian government toward the two princesses. 

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"Getting off the plane was quite emotional.  We didn't know what was going to happen to us," she told the Telegraph.   

The emotions were not muted.  Speaking to Diana Mandache, she said: "Arriving on Romanian soil, I  felt for the first time in my life a whole person!  Before, I always had the feeling that half of my being was missing."

@Alain Morven

Shortly after her first visit to her homeland, Margareta established her foundation, which helps Romanian children and the elderly.

https://www.frmr.ro/en/

Margareta became the heiress presumptive to the throne on December 30, 2007.  Her father, King Michael wanted the Romanian monarchy restored, and the Parliament amended the succession law to allow for female inheritance.  Following the King's death in 2017, Margareta has been styled as Her Majesty Margareta, Custodian of the Crown.

Today - in 2024 - Her Majesty and her husband, Prince Radu (né Radu Duda) live in the Elisabeta Palace in Bucharest. They married on September 21, 1996, in Lausanne, Switzerland.   

The best way to describe Romania is to say it is a monarchy within a republic.  

It is not every day that you run into members of a  Royal Family.  This happened to me in June 2022. 

I can say that I  ran into Her Majesty & Prince Radu as they walked out of the Buckingham Palace courtyard in June 2022.  They were coming from Clarence House where they had dinner with the then Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall.  

Her Majesty and Prince Radu had attended the Trooping of the Colour.




https://casamajestatiisale.ro/

https://royalmusingsblogspotcom.blogspot.com/2022/03/hm-margareta-most-important-woman-in.html

https://royalmusingsblogspotcom.blogspot.com/2020/05/interview-with-hm-margareta-custodian.html

Monday, March 25, 2024

An engagement under the radar

 


This engagement announcement was published in the Daily Telegraph on September 20, 2023.  No fanfare, not a society writer mentioning the forthcoming nuptials.   The bride-to-be is the second child of Don Eduardo Rodríguez y Legorburu, 6th Count of Asmir.  

Jasper Henson will celebrate his 30th birthday one day before his older sister, Olivia, marries Hugh Grosvenor, the 7th Duke of Westminister.  He received his bachelor's degree in Modern Languages and Business Studies, Spanish and Portuguese.  He is fluent in both languages.   He also attended the IE Business School in Madrid.

Since 2020, Jasper has been employed by the real estate management firm, Freo Group, as a Senior Associate in Asset Management.  He has worked in Spain and Portugal for nearly a decade.  

https://royalmusingsblogspotcom.blogspot.com/2023/04/the-duke-of-westminster-is-engaged.html

Isabel Isabel Rodríguez-Legorburu was born in Madrid on May 25, 1988.  She is Associate Director of Hotels & Hospitality for Knight Frank's Madrid office.  

She has a BA in Psychology from Universidad San Pablo CEU in Madrid and a Master's in Clinical Psychology and Health from Universidad Complutense, also in Madrid.   Isabel also attended the IE Business School.

She joined Knight Frank in 2019.  Mr Henson was the Retail Capital Markets Consultant for Knight Frank from 2017-2020.

Their wedding has not been announced but could occur after Olivia Henson's wedding on June 7 at the Chester Cathedral.


Sunday, March 24, 2024

Prince Nicholas of Romania to reburied at Curtea de Arges

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Her Majesty Margareta, Custodian of the Romanian throne, has announced that the remains of her great-uncle, Prince Nicholas of Romania and his first wife, Ioana,  will be brought from Switzerland and reburied in Royal Archbishopric Cathedral in Curtea des Arges.

Prince Nicholas of Romania was the fourth child and second son of King Ferdinand of Romania and Princess Marie of Edinburgh, Princess of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha.  He was born at Pelesch Castle in Sinaia on August 3, 1903.   Nicholas was named for his mother's first cousin, Emperor Nicholas II of Russia. 

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His first marriage to Ioana Dumitrescu-Doletti (1910-1963) caused a great scandal within the Romanian royal house as she was divorced.  She was the "girl of his dreams," according to Carol's biographer, Paul D. Quinlan.   Nicholas had supported Carol's return to the country and assumed his brother would consent to the marriage.

Queen Marie wrote in her diary: "I believe Nicky ... asked ... permission.  This, of course, Carol had to refuse.  Unfortunately, Carol last year in the pride of his return had almost promised  Nicky to allow this." 

Although Carol acknowledged that he understood "how it is to be hypnotized by a woman," he would not give permission for Nicholas to marry. It was "inadmissible to allow into the family a person of her stature," the king said.

Carol had a "lengthy discussion" with his younger brother.  If Nicholas went through with the marriage, he would "lose  his rights as a prince of the House of Hohenzollern and a member of the royal family, including all his ranks, his commissions, and titles."

The king promised his younger brother he "would respect his decision, be it for or against me. Every man is free to cut off his head."



Nicholas and Ioana were married on November 7, 1931, in Tohani, Romania.  Retribution was swift.  When Carol was informed about the marriage, he stated it should be kept secret. He also ordered for the marriage to be struck from the official records.  

Prince Nicholas would not remain silent.  He did not care if "the whole world knew he was married."  Moreover, he had a copy of the marriage license, proving his marriage was legitimate.  Carol, however, consulted several legal experts, as he wanted the marriage annulled.   On December 7, 1931, in a Bucharest county court,  Nicholas' marriage was "in violation of rules and regulations of the royal family and the Romanian Constitution."

Nicholas did not accept the court's decision to void his marriage.  The battles between Nicholas and King Carol II continued for several years as Nicholas refused to renounce his marriage.  In 1937,  Nicholas officially "ceased to be a member of the member of the royal family and forfeits all his rights prerogatives respectively." The King provided Nicholas with a monthly allowance after Nicholas left the country.

In July 1942,   King Michael gave his uncle the title, Prince Nicholas of Hohenzollern.

In July 1938, Prince Nicholas was permitted to return to attend his mother's funeral. 

Prince Nicholas was the only immediate member of his family to attend Carol's funeral in Estoril, Portugal on April 7, 1953.  He said: "I came because I felt it was my duty. Although I hated Carol more than I ever hated anyone in my life, he was my brother and my King."

 He and his wife, Ioana settled in Lausanne, Switzerland, where Ioana died on February 19. 1963. Four months later, on June 16, 1963, Nicholas, baptized in the Romanian Orthodox church, converted to the Roman Catholic faith.

Nicholas married Maria Thereza Lisboa Figueira de Mello (1913-1997), a Brazilian, in Lausanne on July 13, 1967.  They spent their final years together in Madrid, Spain, where Prince Nicholas died on June 9, 1978.   He was buried next to his first wife, Ioana, in the Cimetière Chrétien (Christian cemetery) in Prilly, Switzerland.

The reburial will take place on March 29.  Prince Nicholas will be interred next to his older brother, King Carol II.

https://royalmusingsblogspotcom.blogspot.com/2012/01/prince-nicholas-and-bride-arrive-in.html

https://royalmusingsblogspotcom.blogspot.com/2023/04/prince-nicholas-and-morganatic-wife-to.html

https://royalmusingsblogspotcom.blogspot.com/2011/11/nicholas-spurns-carols-request.html

https://royalmusingsblogspotcom.blogspot.com/2016/01/romanian-government-puts-kibosh-on.html

https://royalmusingsblogspotcom.blogspot.com/2011/11/nicholas-defies-his-brother-weds.html

https://royalmusingsblogspotcom.blogspot.com/2013/04/nichoklas-refuses-to-back-down.html 

https://royalmusingsblogspotcom.blogspot.com/2008/10/ileana-and-nicholas-visit-west-point.html


https://royalmusingsblogspotcom.blogspot.com/2012/01/nicholas-criticizes-brother.html

Friday, March 22, 2024

The Princess of Wales has cancer

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From the Church of England

https://www.bbc.com/news/av/uk-68641335?at_link_origin=BBCBreaking&at_link_id=E4244ADE-E877-11EE-BC23-48CFD9B5F045&at_campaign_type=owned&at_link_type=web_link&at_campaign=Social_Flow&at_ptr_name=twitter&at_medium=social&at_format=link&at_bbc_team=editorial


More legal trouble for Rowan Lascelles

 




 Rowan Nash Lascelles is a second cousin once removed of King Charles III, but it is unlikely that the king has ever met him.  Lascelles, 46, is the son of the Hon. James Lascelles, the second of three sons of George, 7th Earl of Harewood, and his first wife, Marion Stein.   The late Lord Harewood was the elder son of Princess Mary, the only daughter of King George V.  He and the late Queen Elizabeth II were first cousins.

It is unlikely King Charles III has ever met Rowan Lascelles.

The present Earl of Harewood - David - is James Lascelles' older brother.   The late Queen did not have a close relationship with her cousin, especially after his first marriage ended in divorce.  He married his second wife, Patricia Tuckwell, three years after the birth of their son, Mark.  

According to the Daily Mail,  Rowan is "being hunted by police after he was convicted of hurling racist abuse in a McDonald's restaurant."  

 A warrant for Rowan's arrest was issued on March 20 by a magistrate after he did not attend his trial in Willesden Magistrate Court where he was found guilty of "multiple offences in his absence."

He has "multiple previous convictions for racially aggravated" crimes.   Lascelles also "threatened to stab a homeless supporter in the face with a knife, reported the Daily Mail.

Lascelles, who has been living in a "multiple occupation house," will be sentenced after he is arrested by the police.  He has 15 previous convictions, which included "racially aggravated harassment."

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 The Hon. James Lascelles, 70, a musician, lives in London with his third wife, Nigerian-born Joy Ellias-Rilwan.   Rowan is one of two children from James' first marriage to American-born Fredericka Duhrsson.  She lives in France with her second husband,  PaddyHayter.  They co-founded the Footbarn Theatre, located in La Chaussée,  France.   

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13222737/king-charles-cousin-hunted-police-racist-homophobic-banned-sainsburys.html

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13219535/King-Charles-racist-cousin-hunted-police-convicted-hurling-abuse-McDonalds.html


https://www.jameslascelles.co.uk/

https://royalmusingsblogspotcom.blogspot.com/2021/10/council-cannot-ban-antisocial-rowan.html


https://royalmusingsblogspotcom.blogspot.com/2019/12/rowan-lascelles-sentenced-to-jail.html