Another future Queen is born!

On February 23rd, 2012 a future queen, Princess Estelle Silvia Ewa Mary, was born in Sweden. Counting her mother, Crown Princess Victoria, who is currently the only female heir-apparent in the world, this brings the total number of future queens regnant to five. The others are Princess Ingrid Alexandra of Norway, Princess Catharina-Amalia of the Netherlands and Princess Elisabeth of Belgium. If the Crown Prince and Princess of Spain do not have a son their elder daughter, Infanta Leonor, would make it six.

Barring any unforseen tragedy or abolishing the monarchy, these little girls are changing history. Other countries have had queens regnant before but Princess Elisabeth will be Belgium's first. Should Sweden's little princess inherit the throne from her mother, this will be one of the few times, outside of the Netherlands and the United Kingdom, when the Queen of a European throne has been succeeded by another woman. Monarchies are no longer a boys only club. Should William and Catherine have a firstborn daughter, Prince Christian of Denmark will be further outnumbered by his female contemporaries.

Princess Estelle, who cannot be usurped by a male sibling, owes her position to her mother. When Sweden changed their rules of succession in 1980 from agnatic to equal primogeniture, Victoria became Crown Princess despite having a younger brother. Other monarchies followed suit, Norway in 1990, Belgium 1991, Denmark in 2009 and Luxembourg in 2011. The Netherlands, with their own history of Queens, made the change in 1983. Women have ruled the country for so long that when Crown Prince Willem-Alexander succeeds his mother Queen Beatrix, he will be the first king of the Netherlands since 1890. Although Britain has five Queens Regnant, they are currently in the process of changing the rules. If William and Catherine's firstborn is a girl, she will be the beneficiary of this change. If the fates are kind, she may eventually take her place amongst her illustrious predecessors in British history.

© Marilyn Braun 2012

Thank you for enjoying this article. If you use the information for research purposes, a link to credit the work I've put into writing it would be appreciated.

Article amended to add the name of the princess.

Swedish Royal Wedding Report

Unlike other royal weddings, the Swedish royal wedding coverage had the distinction that I didn't have a clue what the commentators were saying. Given that I'm in Canada and I have a link to watch the event online, I'm not complaining!

Despite this, you could arguably say that royal weddings have the distinction of being universal events and this one is no exception. From the Swedish public lining the streets, some imaginatively painting their faces in blue and yellow to the distinguished and royal guests in evening dress, to the stirring music, this event transcends the language barrier by the pagentry of it. And incidently was the first royal wedding since 2008, when Denmark's Prince Joachim wed Marie Cavallier of France.

Arriving by a Rolls-Royce, the Princess entered the Stockholm cathedral on the arm of her father the King, with her attendants leading the way. The pages wore sailor suits, a Bernadotte tradition.The bridesmaids wore  full-length pearl white dresses in silk organza with short sleeves and roll collars. On their feet white ballet slippers. The King and the Princess walked to the half-way point in the cathedral where the groom awaited to lead her to the altar. The groom, clearly emotional at the sight of his bride, bowed to the king and the couple briefly kissed before proceeding to the altar where the ceremony would begin.

Wearing her mother's wedding veil and the traditional cameo tiara, the bride and groom were emotional as they exchanged vows and rings. The brides dress, designed by Pär Engsheden was simple and unadorned. It is made of cream-coloured duchess silk satin, with short sleeves and a turned-out collar, which follows the rounded neckline. The dress has a v-shaped back with covered buttons. The sash at the waist is buttoned up at the back. The train is edged with a border, fastened at the waist, and has the same shape as the veil. The train is almost five metres long (about 16 feet). Her shoes matched the material of her dress and her bouquet consisted of lily of the valley, rose, phalaenopsis orchid, peony, clematis, cosmos, wax flower, sweet pea, dicentra formosa, Mårbacka pelargonium, Amazon lily, gardenia, azalea, bleeding heart and the traditional myrtle from Sofiero. All the flowers were white, and the bouquet was tied into a free teardrop shape.

During the ceremony the couple looked visibly moved. After the ceremony, the Crown Princess and the new Prince Daniel, Duke of Västergötland stood at the entrance to the cathedral, sharing a kiss, both relieved that the ceremony is completed as they awaited the arrival of the Parade Barouche from the Royal Mews to begin their cortège. It is the same barouche that was used by The King and Queen at their wedding exactly 34 years ago to the day.

The horse-drawn cortège travelled through the streets of Stockholm to the Royal Barge Vasaorden, rowed by eighteen cadets from the Naval College, taking them through Stockholm Bay, thronging with Swedish and foreign warships, flying their flags high and saluting the Crown Princess Couple with a 21-gun salute. After their arrival at Logården the couple enjoyed a choral tribute at the foot of Lejonbacken, before beginning their wedding banquet in the Hall of State at the Royal Palace in Stockholdm Sweden's finest ceremonial hall.

© Marilyn Braun 2010

All photos via PicApp website

Swedish Royal Wedding fever

Commemorative china? Check.

Official stamps? Check

Monograms unveiled? Check

Royal Barge Vasaorden on standby? Check

Only two more sleeps to go until the Swedish royal wedding and I'm about as passibly excited as I never thought I would be for a non-British royal wedding. Despite this, on Saturday June 19th I will allow myself to live vicariously through news reports about Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden's marriage to Daniel Westling. That extraordinarily photogenic couple who beat Prince William and Kate Middleton to the altar. Damn their non-receding hairlines, glorious bone-structure and progressive succession laws.

Members of various royal families and illustrious public figures will converge on Stockholm ready to take part in history; the first royal wedding of a female heir to the Swedish throne. Pint-sized future monarchs: HRH Princess Catharina-Amalia of the Netherlands, HRH Princess Ingrid-Alexandra of Norway and HRH Prince Christian of Denmark will be amongst the young attendants on hand to upstage the bride and groom. Royal wedding traditions will be upheld, the bride will look stunning and it is certain to be a memorable occasion for royal watchers.

The ceremony is set to begin at 3:30PM in Stockholm (about 9:30AM in Canada) and I will attempt to simultaneously cover it both on this blog and as a guest writer at The Royal Representative.

© Marilyn Braun 2010

Male Royal Consorts

I rarely blog about non-British royals but in honor of the upcoming marriage of Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden to Daniel Westling, I thought it would be appropriate to give a brief history of male royal consorts. Their destiny is to walk two paces behind, living in the shadow of their reigning wives. The future Prince Daniel is in good company.

Prince Albert, Prince Consort

Arguably the most famous Prince Consort in history, he his the only consort of a Queen Regnant to hold the title. He was a first cousin of Queen Victoria. They married in February 1840 and he was a devoted hisband until his death in 1861. Victoria mourned him for the rest of her life, imortalizing him in countless statues and landmarks.

Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh

Currently the longest serving royal consort in history. The husband of

Queen Elizabeth II, he was born in 1921 on a dining room table in Villa Mon Repos on the Greek island of Corfu. He was known as Prince Philip of Greece and Denmark until his engagement to Princess Elizabeth in 1947. He became a naturalized British subject in the same year, giving up his royal titles to become plain Ltn. Philip Mountbatten. Upon his marriage he became HRH Duke of Edinburgh and in 1957 he was given the title Prince of the United Kingdom. In 2007, The Queen and Prince Philip celebrated their Diamond wedding anniversary - the first for any British monarch in history.

Prince Claus of the Netherlands

The late consort of Queen Beatrix was a controversial choice for the Crown Princess. He was German and a former Hitler Youth Member. 60,000 Dutch signed a petition against the marriage and the Jewish community boycotted the celebration. They were married on March 10, 1966. On the day of the ceremony there were several attempts at sabotage, Dutch TV crews had an important cable cut. Protestors lined the route with smoke bombs. He gradually won over the Dutch public and was a popular member of the royal family when he died in 2002.

Prince Henrik of Denmark

The consort of Queen Margarethe II of Denmark. Henri Marie Jean André de

Laborde de Monpezat was born in 1934. He married the heir presumptive to the Danish throne, Crown Princess Margarethe, in 1967. Prior to his marriage he was a French diplomat. Raised as a Catholic he converted to Protestantism. At the time of his marriage his name was 'Danicised' to Prince Henrik.

© Marilyn Braun 2010

Royal Focus: Swedish Cameo Tiara

On her wedding day, Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden will continue a Bernadotte royal wedding tradition by wearing the Cameo tiara, one of the oldest jewels in the Swedish royal family's collection . UPDATE: Victoria wears the tiara at left

The tiara was made for Empress Josephine, first wife of Napoleon I, by the French Crown Jeweller Marie-Etienne Nitot in Paris in 1811. The gold and seed pearl tiara is set with seven portrait cameos.  The centre oval depicts Venus and cupid. On either side is a portrait of a man and on the other side a portait of a woman, both facing the centre cameo. The hardstone cameos are believed to have been supplied by the jeweller to the Empress Josephine in 1809. Napolean himself was fascinated by cameos and the diadem is an example of the revival of the antique style popular in France in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.

In 1823 the diadem became part of the dowry of Josephine of Leuchtenberg, who received it from her grandmother and namesake, Empress Josephine, upon her marriage to the future King of Sweden, Oscar I. She is wearing it in the portrait at right.

After the death of Queen Josefina of Sweden in 1876, her jewelry collection was divided up and the cameo diadem was bequethed to King Oscar II of Sweden who gave it to his wife, nee Princess Sophie of Nassau. Queen Sophie gave the cameo diadem to her youngest son, Eugene, who in turn gave it to Princess Sibylla, mother of King Carl XVI. She lent the tiara to her daughter Princess Birgitta who wore the tiara as her bridal crown for her wedding with Prince Johann Georg of Hohenzollern in 1961.Thus starting a tradition.  It has since been worn by royal brides Princess Désirée in 1964 and Queen Silvia, pictured on her wedding day in 1976.

© Marilyn Braun 2010

Thank you for enjoying this article. If you use the information for research purposes, a link to credit the work I've put into writing it would be appreciated.

And I turn towards Sweden..

I'm having a serious case of royal watching envy as Sweden prepares for the wedding of their Crown Princess. All of the romance, the preparation, the speculation that the British royal family should be experiencing if only Prince William would get off his regal tush and propose to Kate Middleton. Or if he already has proposed then tell the world about it already!

Sweden has what the British royals do not - a happy ending.

I've lamented the lack of royal news, it's depressing to think that the last wedding happened in 2008 and wasn't really a royal wedding at all. Sure the trappings were there, the royal pedigree was unquestioned. But when the groom, Peter Philips, was born he was plain Master Peter Philips. As a grandchild in the female line, he and his sister Zara were the first children of a royal to be born commoners in over 500 years.

William and Kate's wedding would undoubtably be a royal wedding. In fact it would be the royal wedding. As his father's first wedding and his grandmother, the Queen's had been before that. The wedding of a direct heir to the throne captures the imagination. After all there is a lot at stake. Not only would Kate become the newest Princess, she would be expected to secure the line, and eventually take her place beside William on the throne. Heady stuff but Kate has had eight years to consider it. And William has had just as much time to consider it as well. Unlike his father who was reportedly bullied into marrying Lady Diana Spencer, William is in a position where he can take his time to make the right decision. When he will let us know is anyones guess.

Sweden had a similar wait for their Crown Princess. She reportedly began dating Daniel Westling in 2002 and their engagement was announced in February 2009. I admit that until recently I didn't pay much attention to what went on in the Swedish royal family other than to note how exceptionally photogenic they are. Now on June 19th they will take their place on the royal watching centre stage - The beautiful princess and her handsome prince-to-be. Not only a glamorous and regal event but a historic one too. The Crown Princess's marriage will be the first wedding of a female successor to the throne in the history of Swedish monarchs. It will also be the largest event ever covered in Stockholm.

And all I can do is watch and sigh enviously...

© Marilyn Braun 2010