Showing posts with label Infanta Leonor. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Infanta Leonor. Show all posts

Tuesday, June 24, 2014

June

A lot of important happenings in the world of royalty, well, happened last week, and I missed them all because I am a lazy writer. So I am going to go over them really quickly in what will be a much delayed and very short blog post, accompanied by a load of tweets. Go!

1. Royal Baby
Princess Amalia, daughter of Prince Felix and Princess Claire of Luxembourg, was born on the 15th of June. Amalia is third in line of succession, because her uncle and aunt, Guillaume and Stephanie, do not have any children yet, and so is technically as close to her country's throne as Prince George, but for some reason doesn't even have a Wikipedia page yet. Even Princess Leonore of Sweden had a Wikipedia by the time she was a week old. But, like with Leonore, whenever I Google Princess Amalia, I just get pictures of Catharina-Amalia, the Princess of Orange. (With Leonore, it would be Infanta Leonor the NEW Princess of Asturias. New! I'm coming to that).
But little Amalia is ridiculously cute. Look.

Another ridiculously cute royal baby is...

2. GEORGE!
On Father's Day (again, the 15th of July) HRH George of Cambridge graced the world with his presence at the annual polo match played between Princes William and Harry for charity. No one expected him to be there, so on Sunday night, I was scrolling through my Twitter feed looking for pictures of Prince Harry in jodhpurs when I saw young George, making faces at the camera. I fell off my chair.
And he can walk now! I am content. (For the next few weeks, that is, until I start wishing for a birthday picture of George.)

3. Spanish Abdication

The biggest thing last week was when King Juan Carlos of Spain abdicated in favour of his son, who is now King Felipe VI. His wife is not Queen Letizia, and his daughter Infanta Leonor, is not the Princess of Asturias! She's only eight!
This is the third abdication in the last year. It was all very grand, and ceremonial, and maybe made up for Spain's early exit from the World Cup, but I've had more than my fill of abdications. (It's not as though they're as cute as royal babies. I can never get enough of royal babies.) What I am hoping for is a wedding. I haven't seen a royal wedding in a while. Prince Harry?

Spanish abdication. Not as good as the Belgian or the Dutch (But Leonor and Sofia are AWESOME!)

You can read the full coverage on Order of Splendor.

 4. Happy Birthday Prince William

Prince William turned 32 on Saturday. Not as momentous as George's first birthday next month, and doesn't hold a candle next to an actual abdication, but a happy moment nevertheless. So many future Kings (and Kings outright) have not made it to the age of 32 in the past, and now William has.

Happy Birthday Your Highness!

~

Book review next week, unless someone dies or Prince Harry gets engaged.

N

 UPDATE: I said it and it happened. Not Prince Harry, oh no, but Prince Carl Philip of Sweden just announced (June 27th) his engagement to long time girlfriend Sofia Hellqvist (Hellquest? Hellqvuist? I don't know). Royal wedding!!!
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Monday, June 2, 2014

A Big Week For Royalty

I've been back from holiday for a while now, but when I was supposed to be writing this post yesterday, I was doing a lot of BuzzFeed quizzes instead. It was useful. I learnt that if ever a movie was made about my life, I (the main character) would be played by Emma Watson, and that if I lived in Panem, I would be a part of District 1, which is great, because then if I ever got selected in a reaping, I'd have a higher chance of survival, what with being a Career tribute and having sponsors all.

But I'm glad I didn't post yesterday, because I read some news today, which just made this the biggest week for European royalty that I have seen in a long time.


First things first: Prince Albert and Princess Charlene of Monaco are expecting their first child. Princess Charlene, of course, wore that wedding dress that I thought was the best of all ever worn by royal brides. Charlene is also one of my favourite women to marry into a royal family (My all time favourite is Kate Cambridge, obviously), because she seems like a strong woman, who stays passionate about her causes despite royal protocol's attempts to subdue her. I have no opinion about Prince Albert.

Everyone is making a big deal about how this baby is going to be a grandson for the late Princess Grace, but I think they're forgetting that Princess Grace already has a grandson. More than one, in fact, as well two great-grandsons. It must be weird for Albert to be having a child after his nephew and niece.

Prince Albert and Princess Charlene's baby will be first in line to the throne of Monaco, which is, in my opinion, great news for the principality. Because while the Casiraghis are great fun, I'm sure, they don't really seem like ruling material.

And most importantly, one more royal baby!

Speaking of royal children who are first in line to the throne, Infanta Leonor of Spain (not to be mistaken for Princess Leonore, who is from an entirely different country) is going to be the new Princess of Asturias, because her grandfather, King Juan Carlos, has abdicated. Juan Carlos' son, Prince Felipe, is expected to rule next, as Felipe VI. His wife, Princess Letizia, will be Queen Letizia. Obviously.

This is the third abdication in the past year. Previously, Queen Beatrix (the Netherlands) and King Albert (Belgium), abdicated in favour of their sons, who coincidentally, will both be succeeded by daughters, as will Felipe. The world, or the monarchy any way, is getting a lot more influenced by women, and if history has proven anything, it's that women are better rulers. I may be just a little biased.

Also, abdication seems to be the new sit-on-the-throne-even-though-you-aren't-mentally-or-physically-fit-to-rule. Could Queen Elizabeth be next?

[Probably not. She, of all monarchs, would never abdicate, because, as anyone who has seen The King's Speech knows, an abdication was what caused her father so much grief and an early death. Never.]

N

Images: Reuters

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Sunday, January 19, 2014

Run The World, Girls.

So, another technically member of the royal family who has a Twitter is Mike Tindall. Of course, that is completely unimportant, because Mike Tindall now also has a daughter.

That's right. If you haven't read already, Zara Phillips had a baby girl on Friday. So far, there is no word from the Palace on her name, but she's sixteenth in line to the throne and so she's a royal baby too. Though, and I hate to say this because all royal babies are wonderful, not half as important a one as Prince George. 

Even though they are never going to read this, my congratulations to Zara and Mike. I wish nothing but well for them and their baby daughter. Also, I wish that the entire family shows up for some royal event so we can have pictures.
When I first read the news, my train of thought went something like this: “One more royal baby? Cool! Oh, it’s a girl. Good thing I don’t bet money on these things, because otherwise I would have lost money. This is the Queen’s FOURTH great-grandchild. Her Majesty’s getting quite old. Third great-granddaughter, though. There’ve a lot of girls being born into this family. Princess Madeleine’s going to have a girl too. Lot of girls being born into a lot of royal families. Maybe they’ll call her Margaret. If I tweet about the possibility of them calling her Margaret, will Mike Tindall read it? Does Mike Tindall read posts tagged #royalbaby?” and so on and so forth.

A mostly pointless stream of thoughts, but one stayed in my mind particularly. There are a lot of girls being born into royal families. And now, with these new laws allowing succession of the first born child of the Monarch, irrespective of their gender, they can someday be Queen, no matter how many younger brothers they have. And that got me thinking; is it possible that a society that has been predominantly controlled by men for all these years could someday be ruled over by women? 

Politics are of no interest to me, so when I say 'ruled over by', I'm talking about the heads of the seven major monarchies in Europe - Belgium, Denmark, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom. 

Of the current group of rulers, the ones that existed pre-abdications, three are Queens. Two of them, Queen Elizabeth and Queen Margrethe, ascended the throne at a fairly young age, due to the unexpected circumstances their fathers' untimely death without any male heirs. Queen Beatrix, however, ascended the throne after her mother abdicated in her favour, and her grandmother had been Queen before that, so the Netherlands are no stranger to a Queen's rule. But, despite a surprisingly modern ratio of kings is to queens, the scale still tips in the favour of the men.

The next generation isn't any better. Worse, in fact. No one, apart from Crown Princess Victoria, is a woman, and most of them are going to rule because they are the elder sibling and not because the laws are biased.

It is the generation after that, the generation that consists of the grandchildren of the present monarchs (except Queen Elizabeth, whose great-grandchild is the one I'm considering, because she is OLD), who range between the ages of 1/2 and 12, that, for the first time in history, there will be more Queens of European nations than there will be Kings. Just look at the list.

FUTURE KINGS

Prince Christian of Denmark, second in line to the throne. 
The most featured baby on my blog. You should know his name and his position in the hierarchy by now.

And that's all. Two. Out of seven. Hopelessly outnumbered. On the other hand, 

FUTURE QUEENS

Princess Elisabeth of Belgium, first in line to the throne.
Catharina-Amalia of the Netherlands, first in line to the throne.
Princess Ingrid Alexandra of Norway, second in line to the throne.
Infanta Leonor of Spain, second in line to the throne.
Princess Estelle of Sweden, second in line to the throne.
That's just fantastic, isn't it? And, the best thing is, I'm not so much older than them that I won't be around to see this happen. I will! 

Oh, I can't wait. Only fifty years to go.
~

I'm doing a thing called the 100 Book Challenge on Twitter, where I try and read a hundred books in the year and chart my progress through tweets. So far, I've read one, but you can see how I'm coming along by following me @JustAsSaneAsMe. Also, participate in the challenge yourself. It's fun!

N
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