Wednesday, March 16, 2016

Crown Princess Margareta meets with Romanian President



Copyright for both photos: ©Administrația Prezidențială





Elisabeta Palace, 16 March 2016


The Press Office of His Majesty the King has been authorised to release the following communiqué:


The Custodian of the Crown, meeting with the President of Romania

Her Royal Highness Crown Princess Margareta, Custodian of the Crown, was received today at Cotroceni Palace by His Excellency Mr. Klaus Werner Johannis, President of Romania.


The President conveyed once again his best wishes to His Majesty King Michael I. Her Royal Highness and the President discussed issues related to the Royal Family's public activity in the country and abroad. They also discussed aspects related to the co-operation between the Romanian authorities and the Romanian Crown, now and in the future.

Tuesday, March 15, 2016

Update: King Michael

Elisabeta Palace, 15 March 2016


Report on the health of King Michael I
15 March 2016

The Press Office of His Majesty the King has been authorised to release the following communiqué:

The doctors at the medical clinic in Lausanne have consented that His Majesty King Michael I should be discharged, having been admitted seventeen days previously.

The King has arrived at his private residence, where he will continue to be kept under observation by the clinic’s medical team, as well as by the family’s doctors.

The King’s overall condition is stable. But given the seriousness of the diagnosis, treatment and recuperation will be of long duration and will require careful supervision.

Over the next few days, Princess Elena will remain at the side of her parents, King Michael I and Queen Anne.

A team of staff from the Royal Household of His Majesty the King have been sent to Switzerland to be with Their Majesties at their private residence.

The Custodian of the Crown is in constant contact with Their Majesties and the medical team. Her Royal Highness will continue to fulfil her public engagements in Romania and will soon return to Switzerland to be with Their Majesties.

Monday, March 14, 2016

Anastasia gets royal vistors

March 14, 1921


Princess Anastasia, the wife of Prince Christopher of Greece, is recovering from a "serious operation last week," and is now able to take solid food, reports the New York Times.

Queen Sophie of the Hellenes and Queen Marie of Roumania, who came to Athens to attend the wedding of her son, Crown Prince Carol, to Queen Sophie's daughter, Princess Helen,  have visited the patient every day.

None of the Allied Ministers have called upon Queen Marie.  Earl Granville, the British minister of Greece, is on a yachting trip, which he apparently undertook so he "could avoid any embarrassment that might be occasioned by her presence in the city."

Sunday, March 13, 2016

Princess Helen to visit King Michael

HRH Princess Helen of Romania will arrive on Monday, March 14, in Switzerland, to visit her father, King Michael, who is being treated for cancer, in a Lausanne hospital.


Princess Marie has returned to Bucharest, after spending time with her parents.


http://www.romaniaregala.ro/jurnal/vizita-in-elvetia-14-martie-2016/

Saturday, March 12, 2016

Adding again to the collection

In October 1924,  Princess Anna of Saxony, daughter of King Friedrich August III and Archduchess Luisa of Austria, married Archduke Josef Franz of Austria, son of Archduke Josef August and Princess Auguste of Bavaria.  This image is from late 1928 early 1929, and shows the Archducal couple with their first three children:  Archduchess Margarethe (1925-1979), Archduchess Helena (1927-2011) and Archduchess Anna (1928-1934).  The couple would have five more children.

Princess Alfons was born Princess Louise d'Orleans (1869-1952).  She married Prince Alfons of Bavaria in 1891.  They had two children, Josef Clemens (1902-1990) and Elisabet  (1913-2005) 

Princess Adalbert of Bavaria (nee Countess Auguste of Seefried auf Buttenheim) (1899-1978) holding her first grandchild, (Prince Leopold (1943), the first child of Prince Konstantin and his first wife, Princess Maria Adelgunde of Hohenzollern.  This  marriage was annulled in 1950.

In 1953,  Prince Konstantin (1920-1969)  married Countess Helene Khevenhüller-Metsch (1921) 
Princess Luise Viktoria Margarete Antoinette Sieglinde Alexandrine Thyra Stephanie of Prussia(1917-2009), first child of Prince Friedrich Sigismund of Prussia and Princess Marie Luise of Schaumburg-Lippe

Princess Konstantin (Helene) with her young daughter, Princess Ysabel (1954), who is married to Count Alfred Hoyos.  A year after Prince Konstantin's death in an air crash, Helene married Prince Eugen of Bavaria (1925-1997)

Thursday, March 10, 2016

Crown Prince Carol weds Princess Helen

March 10, 1921

Crown Prince Carol of Romania and Princess Helen of Greece were married today in Athens, reports the Associated Press.    This is the second "union of members of the reigning dynasties of Greece and Rumania within a fortnight."   The other marriage was between Crown Prince George of Greece and Princess Elisabeth of Rumania.  

George and Helen are the children of King Constantine and Queen Sophie of the Hellenes, and Carol and Elisabeth are the children of King Ferdinand and Queen Marie of Romania.    The two queens are first cousins.

The civil ceremony took place in the palace, and was followed by "an elaborate wedding in the cathedral."  The procession was led by the bridal couple, who rode in a golden carriage, which "proceeded through the principal thoroughfares. which were lined with cheering thousands."

Queen Marie and Queen Sophie were in the second carriage.  The "striking beauty and animated features" of Marie contrasted with Sophie's "somber, immobile countenance."

The rest of the procession was made up of King Constantine, Prince George, and the other members of the royal family.   Fourteen Princesses and seven Princes attended the ceremony.  Prince Christopher of Greece attended without his American-born wife, Princess Anastasia, who was not well.

Princess Helen wore "a white satin gown trimmed with gold."  Her veil, "which was of rare beauty," was made by the women of Bucharest, and valued at 500,000 francs. She wore a "jeweled diadem," costing 1,000,000 francs.  The diadem was a gift from Crown Prince Carol, who wore the uniform of a General.

A wedding luncheon was held at the palace after the ceremony

The newlyweds remain at Tatoi for a week before heading to their honeymoon in Sinaia in the Carpathian mountains.



The newest QVD is a girl

The Hon. Mr. and Mrs. James Tollemache are the parents of a daughter, Sylvie.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-3485062/SEBASTIAN-SHAKESPEARE-Ralf-Fiennes-sister-wed-widower-tragic-Issy.html

Mrs. Tollemache was born Princess Florence von Preussen, the daughter of HRH Prince Nicholas von Preussen and his former wife, the Hon. Victoria Mancroft.   (This was a morganatic marriage, and, Nicholas' children are not HRH.  In England, the title is used a social convenience.)

The couple married on May 10, 2014.

http://royalmusingsblogspotcom.blogspot.com/2014/05/the-marriage-of-princess-florence-von.html

James is the younger son of Lord and Lady Tollemache.

The March 11, 2016 Daily Telegraph has the announced

"Sylvie Beatrice Selina Tollemache was born as first daughter and first child to James Tollemache and his wife Florence, née von Preussen at the Guys and St Thomas Hospital on March 2nd 2016."  

Beatrice and Selina are certainly in honor of Florrie's sister, Beatrice von Preussen, and James' sister, the Hon. Selina Hopkins.


Wednesday, March 9, 2016

Crown Prince Alexander talks about forthcoming visit by the Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwll




http://www.chron.com/news/world/article/AP-interview-Serbian-prince-British-royal-visit-6879279.php?cmpid=twitter-desktop

And I know the Crown Prince is looking forward to this visit - and is perhaps excited, too.



Tuesday, March 8, 2016

Princess Marie visits her father

Princess Marie, the youngest of King Michael of Romania's five daughters, has traveled to Switzerland to visit her father, who is in a Lausanne clinic, where he is receiving treatment for leukemia.

Crown Princess Margarita and her husband, Prince Radu, returned to Bucharest, according to Romanian news sources.


http://www.cotidianul.ro/principesa-maria-alaturi-de-regele-mihai-277496/


Monday, March 7, 2016

adding to my collection

HRH Princess Marie Gabrielle of Bavaria weds H Ill H Count Georg von Waldburg zu Zeil on October 23, 1957

HRH Princess Maria del Pilar Eulalia Antonia Isabella Ludovika Franziska Josepha Rita Euphrasia of Bavaria (1891-1987), youngest child of HRH Prince Ludwig Ferdinand of Bavaria and HRH Infanta Maria de la Paz of Spain 
HSH Leopold IV, Prince of Lippe and his family.  Wish I had a better ID for this photo, but think the two ladies on the left are Leopold's daughters, Sieglinde and Karoline with young Prince Armin.  This postcard is from about 1926-28

The wedding of HI & RH Archduchess Mechtildis of Austria and Prince Olgierd Czartoryski on January 23, 1915.  This marriage was morganatic, and Mechtildis renounced her succession rights when she married. They lived in Poland until the outbreak of World War II, fleeing to Brazil.


HRH Prince Emanuele Filiberto of Italy, Duke of Aosta, with his wife, HRH Princess Helene (nee Princess of Orléans) and their two sons, HRH Prince Amedeo, Duke of Aosta (1898-1942) and HRH Prince Aimone, Duke of Aosta (1900-1948)

HRH Princess Eleonore of Bavaria with her husband, H Ill H Count Konstantin von Waldburg zu Zeil and HRH Marie Charlotte von Quadt zu Wykradt u.Isny (nee Princess Bavaria)  mid-to-late 1950s

HRH Prince Luitpold of Bavaria (1951) son of TRH Prince Ludwig and Princess Irmingard of Bavaria.  He appears to be dressed as a page at a wedding in the late 1950s

HI & RH Archduchess Elisabeth of Austria, Princess of Tuscany (1939) with her husband Friedrich Hubert Edler von Braun (1934). They married in 1965

HH Princess Claudia of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha



HH Princess Claudia died in a hospital in Grabs, Switzerland.

Sunday, March 6, 2016

Queen Sofia saddened by King Michael's health issues

Bucharest 2011  photo by Marlene A. Eilers Koenig



Queen Sofia of Spain, the mother of King Felipe VI and consort of King Juan Carlos, is very saddened by the news about the serious health problems of one of her favorite cousins, King Michael of Romania, according to the Spanish newspaper, ABC.

Queen Sofia and King Michael are first cousins, as her father, King Paul, and Michael's mother, Queen Helen, were siblings,  children of King Constantine I and Queen Sophie of the Hellenes.

Saturday, March 5, 2016

King Michael's condition - not confirmed




Earlier this week,  the press office for King Michael of Romania announced that the king had been diagnosed with leukemia and the cancer had already metastasized.  The king is in a private clinic in Switzerland, where he is being treated.  According one Romanian newspaper (said to be a tabloid)  based on am alleged conversation with someone close to the royal household,  the king cannot walk alone, and is under constant supervision by nurses and doctors.  At times, he needs to use an oxygen mask to assist with his breathing.

This has not been confirmed by the Royal Household.

Although the king only recently learned that his disease is rare and that it had metastasized, he was diagnosed last year with skin cancer, which is why he has not appeared in public for some time.

Due to his advanced age,  King Michael will not undergo chemotherapy treatments, as his body would not be able to process the chemicals.  Instead, he is receiving painkillers and vitamins, administered intravenously.   Doctors say that it would be difficult for the king to last for more than a month," according to the source in the Royal Household.

King Michael is 94 years old.

Earlier today throughout Romania and in Romanian Orthodox churches throughout Europe, prayers were said for the King. One priest in Savarsin, where the Royal Family have a home, said:  "We pray especially for His Majesty King Michael I of Romania. King is very loved by believers, not only Savarsin, and of all Romanians everywhere".

Here is a report with lovely historic footage of the King and Queen and their five daughters.

http://stirileprotv.ro/stiri/actualitate/principesa-margareta-va-primit-titlu-de-regina-dupa-disparitia-regelui-mihai-povestea-celor-5-principese-nascute-in-exil.html

http://www.cancan.ro/actualitate/veste-cocanta-de-ultima-ora-despre-starea-de-sanatate-a-regelui-mihai-medicii-spun-ca-nu-va-mai-trai-mai-mult-de.html

Prince Johann Georg von Hohenzollern's death notice


Friday, March 4, 2016

Update on King Michael

Elisabeta Palace, 4 March 2016
             
         
                      
 Palatul   Elisabeta
  
The Press Office of His Majesty the King is authorised to release
the following announcement:

Report on the health of King Michael I, 4 March 2016

His Majesty King Michael I was admitted, five days ago, to a clinic in Lausanne. Out of respect for His Majesty’s condition, the name of the clinic will not be made public.

The King is in a severe state of physical weakness and is receiving constant treatment. His condition has been steady up to now, and the doctors are of the opinion that His Majesty’s progress will be relatively stable over the next few days.

Queen Anne is at the private residence in Switzerland and the Custodian of the Crown has informed her of King Michael’s admission to hospital. The Queen’s health is stable and she is taking a course of treatment usual for Her Majesty’s age.

Margareta, Custodian of the Crown and Prince Radu have been visiting Their Majesties every day and remain in Switzerland at the side of the King and Queen.

The Princesses of Romania, Their Majesties’ daughters, are planning to travel to Switzerland within the next few days in order to be with their parents. They have been in daily contact with the family and, with hope and sadness, have been following the development of their father’s state of health.


The Custodian of the Crown wishes to thank all those who have generously sent messages of encouragement to King Michael and Queen Anne. The Royal Family is moved by people’s depth of feeling towards the King and the Crown, and likewise by the decency and respect with which the mass media has covered this sad and worrying event.