ROYAL NEWS: JANUARY 1999

Last updated: February 1st, 1999

January 2nd
Anne of Great Britain, the Princess Royal, has retained her position as the royal family's busiest member in 1998. She carried out 679 engagements; the Queen herself in second place only had 574 engagements. In total the British royal family carried out 3705 engagements (all together 13 members).

January 3rd
The British Queen Elizabeth wants to open the art collection of the royal family for the public. Therefore an architect is going to design a new gallery in Buckingham Palace. The collection contains paintings of Rembrandt, Johannes Vermeer, Michelangelo, Raphael and others. It should be opened in February 2002, in the year the Queen hopes to celebrate her 50th reign anniversary.

January 4th
If necessary King Sihanouk of Cambodge wants to testify himself if the UN should establish an international court of justice to trial the Red Khmer leaders arrested for two weeks. He would even give up his royal and constitutional immunity and even accept an eventually imprisonment himself. King Sihanouk has also been King for a short while during the Red Khmer domination in the 70's.

According to some reports the British Princes William and Harry and about 20 friends celebrated a party at Windsor Castle on December 20th after Queen Elizabeth and her husband Prince Philip went to bed. It seems they played music and drank alcohol. They should have gone sleighing in the garden on serving-trays from the kitchen.

During a ski trip in Are, Sweden, King Carl XVI Gustaf and Queen Silvia of Sweden gave first aid to a Japanese tourist who lost his friends out of sight. They stayed with him until there came some help. When the friends and the Japanese man wanted to thank the rescuers they had already disappeared.

January 5th
Princess Juliana of the Netherlands (89) was taken to hospital in Utrecht yesterday, after she felt unwell at her home. It seems it goes about hart problems. After some examinations she went home in the evening today.

January 6th
The news everybody was waiting for has been announced finally by Buckingham Palace: Prince Edward, youngest son of the Queen, is finally getting married. The happy girl is Sophie Rhys-Jones, his girlfriend since at least 1993. The wedding will probably take place in the late spring or early summer, with the couple favouring St.George's Chapel at Windsor Castle. It seems Edward finally asked Sophie to marry him just before Christmas and she was fully surprised. Sophie Rhys-Jones was born in Oxford on January 20th 1965 as the only daughter of Christopher and Mary Rhys-Jones. She attended Dulwich College in Cranbrook and West Kent College in Pembury. She worked for Capital Radio and Jet Services before going into PR-business. She runs her own company now.

January 7th
On New Year's Day Prince Bernhard jr. of the Netherlands broke his left leg during snowboarding in Austria.

January 9th
In St.Michael's Church in Ghent, Belgium (and not Antwerp), Arch Duchess Catharina of Habsburg married Count Massimiliano Secco di Aragona. In 1500 the Roman Emperor Charles V (from whom Catharina descents) was born in this parish. Hundreds of guests from the European nobility, amongst them members of the Belgian royal family, joined the celebration. On December 4th the couple had celebrated their civil wedding in Woluwe, Brussels, Belgium.

January 10th
Noone will be officially blamed for the accident in which Princess Diana, Dodi El-Fayed and driver Henri Paul found the death. However the Court of Justice in Paris says they didn't finish the case yet.

One of Britains most notorious aristocrats, the Marques of Bristol (44), died in his sleep at his home Little Horringer Hall, on the Ickworth estate in Suffolk. After inheriting lots of money from his father, he drifted into drug addiction. He was jailed a few times: once for smuggling cocaine into Jersey (one year) and twice for possessing heroin and cocaine.

The Dutch government will reconsider the appointment of Crown Prince Willem-Alexander as a member of the International Olympic Committee, after speculations on fraud and members accepting bribes. Since Nagano February 1998 the Prince is candidate member for the Netherlands, and his confirmation was planned in Seoul, Corea, next July.

Sophie Rhys-Jones, the fiancée of Prince Edward of Great Britain, asks people not to compare her with Princess Diana. She is a person of her own.

January 16th
According to The Sun Edward & Sophie will marry on June 19th in St.George's Chapel at Windsor. About 500 guests should be invited for the ceremony and another 500 for a buffet wedding reception afterwards in the castle's St.George's Grand Hall, among them many many royals. Buckingham Palace says this is only a speculation. It is too early to confirm any date.

A bill abolishing the centuries old rights of hereditary peers to sit and vote in the House of Lords will be introduced into the Commons next week. It looks set to spark heated debates ass Opposition MP's and many peers have vowed to fight it at every stage.

King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden opened the biggest water sport fair worldwide 'Boot '99' in the German town Düsseldorf.

January 18th
The Mirror published two letters of Charles and Diana, Prince and Princess of Wales, written in 1983 and 1984 to some close relatives. The Mirror says they were publishing because they show that Charles and Diana have loved each other in the beginning of their marriage. Diana wrote: "I can hardly bear being separated from him", and Charles wrote: "She has a great way to mix with other people."

Today Felipe Prince of Asturia will start his five-week trainee at the European Union. It brings him to the EU-institutions in Brussels (Belgium), Strasbourg (France), Frankfurt am Main (Germany) and Luxembourg. In Brussels King Albert II and Philippe Duke of Brabant will receive him.

January 19th
King Hussein of Jordan has returned to his country after staying for six months in the USA for cancer treatment. He came from London, England, where he had spent some weeks to recover his strength. In the pouring rain hundred thousands of people stood along the road from Amman airport to the city of Amman to welcome their king. He will come back to the USA for a check-up in March.

January 20th
The leader of the House of Lords Baroness Jay said: "A fundamental anachronism can be removed as we reach the millennium. The presence of the hereditary peerage has weakened the legitimacy and effectiveness of our second chamber." About the presence of the peerage, lately a documentary on BBC told that lots of peers hardly show up at the House of Lords.

King Hussein of Jordan told on CNN that he had thoughts and ideas about replacing his younger brother Hassan as heir designate. "I have always had to take the final decisions and I will come to it in the appropriate time."

January 22nd
Buckingham Palace announced officially that Edward and Sophie will get married at St.George's Chapel, Windsor, on June 19th.

Prince Laurent of Belgium spent some days in the hospital of Ukkel, Brussels, last week with flu and a nervous collapse. He has been released today but should need some further treatment.

King Hussein of Jordan has deprived the crown prince title from his brother Hassan (who owed this title since 1965). King Hussein was not satisfied about the way Hassan reigned the country when the King was staying in the USA. The new crown prince should be one of Hussein's own sons. Most likely it will be the oldest son Abdullah (36), but Ali (25) and Hamzah (17) are also mentioned.

January 23rd
Unexpectedly Princess Caroline of Monaco married (civil) her friend Ernst August Prince of Hanover, Duke of Cumberland, in the Room of Mirrors in the royal palace in Monte Carlo. Invited were some close family members and eight friends. It was strange that princess Stephanie didn't show up. Further the rumours are that Caroline is pregnant.

It is said the relationship of the Dutch crown prince Willem-Alexander and his girlfriend Emily Bremers has never been broken up. They should have told the media so, because they were sick of all the media interest in their relationship. People have seen them together in the evening-life of Brussels and London.

January 24th
The Queen Mother has undergone a one hour-long minor operation to stop her nose bleeding at the hospital in King's Lynn, England. She later returned to her home at Sandringham. She is fine again.

Some pieces of the wedding dress of Princess Diana will be put up for an auction. Before the wedding Diana lost some weight and the dress had to be made smaller. The designer of the dress gave the pieces to her older babysitters who sell the pieces now to collect money to finance the last years of their lives. They ask an amount of about $125.000.

January 25th
King Hussein of Jordan has appointed his eldest son Prince Abdullah ibn Hussein as his heir. Former Crown Prince Hassan will serve as his deputy. Abdullah is a son of King Hussein with his second wife, the English Tony Averil Gardiner (known as Princess Mouna), and was born on January 30, 1962. He is the leader of the special picked troops, as being a lieutenant general he is very popular in the army. Since 1993 he is married to Palestinian Rania Yassine and has two children: Hussein (1994) and Iman.

About one week ago the engagement of Princess Irina of Hesse (born Munich, Germany, April 1, 1971) and count Alexander of Schönburg-Glauchau (born Mogadiscio, Somalia, August 15, 1969) was announced. Marriage will take place in May. Count Alexander is a brother of Princess Gloria von Thurn und Taxis, and since September 1998 head of the House of Schönburg-Glauchau.

January 26th
Unexpected: King Hussein returned to the USA for further medical tests. It is said he is feeling very tired.

January 27th
Jordan's new Crown Prince Abdullah is sworn in as acting sovereign of Jordan. There are fears his father's cancer has returned. He suffers from an elevated white cell count. In hospital they have stabilized the platelet count and the temperature of the King. He is to undergo tests in preparation for a bone marrow transplant.

Princess Irene of the Netherlands gave an interview on Dutch breakfast TV. She told about her close relationship with nature (trees) and animals, which she developed step by step. It is known that she 'talks' with the nature and animals. She wrote two books on this subject.

Queen Elizabeth II of Great Britain has ordered the police to expel the sausage-sellers in front of Buckingham Palace. The royals are getting crazy from the terrible smell, it is said especially Prince Andrew, whose apartments are on the front of the palace.

January 28th
The Prince of Wales and his girlfriend Camilla Parker-Bowles appeared in public together for the very first time. About 200 photographers were waiting outside the Ritz Hotel in London to shoot the photo of the year. Charles and Camilla were at the hotel to celebrate the 50th birthday of Camilla's younger sister. When they came out Charles briefly put his arm around Camilla before they stepped into the car and were driven away. The whole scene was over in about 20 seconds.

The wedding of Prince Eudes of France, Duke of Angoulême, and Marie-Liesse de Rohan-Chabot will take place in Brittany, France, on her family's estate, on July 3rd.

January 29th
Paris prosecutors have announced the end of the official investigations into the death of Princess Diana.

David, viscount Linley and his wife Serena have announced they are expecting their first child in June. The couple married in 1993. Viscount Linley is the son of Princess Margaret of Great Britain.

January 30th
King Hussein of Jordan's situation is stable. The new chemotherapy dose has come to an end and on Tuesday and Wednesday he will have two bone marrow transplants. As in December the donor will be his sister Basma.

January 31st
Last week the Saudi-dynasty celebrated the fact that they owe the throne of Saudi Arabia already since one century.

Prince Ernst August of Hanover wants back hundreds of pieces of art and antique from the German federal republic of Saxe-Anhalt. After the family of Hanover had to leave their estates in eastern Germany at the end of WW II, the government of East Germany confiscated the belongings of the family. Now Saxe-Anhalt doesn't want to give its museum treasures back.


Royal News: December 1998. Last updated: January 11th, 1999.