Last modified: 9 January 2022 1 December Princess Aiko of Japan, the daughter of the Emperor and Empress, turned 20 today and reached adulthood. In a statement she let know: “From now on, I would like to engage sincerely with each duty as a member of the adult imperial family and help the imperial couple […]
Continue Reading
Last modified: 1 October 2021 Later this year His Imperial Highness Grand Duke George Mikhailovich of Russia will marry Rebecca Virginia Bettarini, at least when everything goes as planned (you never know with Covid-19 still around). Already quite a bit of news has come in. Here is an overview of the first imperial wedding to […]
Continue Reading
Not that I am writing to royals too often, but I’ve sent a few cards this year. In the past months I received the following mail: 40th wedding anniversary of Grand Duke Henri and Grand Duchess Maria Teresa of Luxembourg, March 2021 (Instagram) Engagement of Prince Louis of Luxembourg and Scarlett-Lauren Sirgue, May 2021 (Instagram) […]
Continue Reading
Last modified: 8 May 2021 1 April The life and legacy of the late Diana, Princess of Wales is to be commemorated with a blue plaque of English Heritage marking her home at 60 Coleherne Court, Earl’s Court, London, where she lived before marrying in 1981. The Sultan of Brunei Darussalam received the first Covid-19 […]
Continue Reading
On 24 March Leonor, the Princess of Asturias, will undertake her first solo engagement. The Spanish heir to the throne will only turn 16 in October of this year. As far as I remember she will be the very first European (future) heir to the throne under the age of 18 to go solo. Thus […]
Continue Reading
13 May Three days after his birth on 10 May 2020 Prince Charles of Luxembourg was allowed to leave the Maternité Grande-Duchesse Charlotte in Luxembourg-City with his mother Hereditary Grand Duchess Stéphanie and his father Hereditary Grand Duchess Guillaume of Luxembourg. The family returned to Fischbach Castle. Hereditary Grand Duke Guillaume also registered the birth […]
Continue Reading
Another year has almost come to an end. Also in the reigning and non-reigning royal houses in the world there were births, engagements, weddings, divorces and deaths. We welcomed somewhat sudden a new queen in Thailand, while the crown prince of Dubai finally got married. We had to say goodbye to four former heads of […]
Continue Reading
The English charity English Heritage Trust manages the National Heritage Collection and takes care for over 400 historic buildings, monuments and sites all over England. According to their website they bring the (his)story of England to life for over 10 million people each year. They have conducted quite an interesting survey in connection with their […]
Continue Reading
(I wrote most of the article this weekend, before the announcement) Each time a royal engagement is probably nearing the intensitivity of the pre-news surprises me. Now we have Twitter the hype is even bigger than ever. Meghan Markle, the girlfriend of Prince Harry of Wales returned to London halfway November, after the last filming […]
Continue Reading
Recently I came across the archive of “Das Ostpreußenblatt”, later the “Preussische Allgemeine Zeitung” online. I started having a look at all the family announcements in the newspaper, as they include several noble announcements. Today I even found a Stolberg-Wernigerode engagement announcement, and was puzzled. The engagement announcement in “Das Ostpreußenblatt” of 14 September 1957 […]
Continue Reading
The Japanese imperial family was very happy to announce the engagement of Princess Noriko of Takamado to Kunimaro Senge today, 27 May 2014. Princess Noriko and her mother, Princess Takamado née Hisako Tottori, visited Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko at the Imperial Palace to report to them the yet unofficial engagement. A traditional rite of […]
Continue Reading
18 August 2003 After having arrived in Salzburg the day before, I decided I would go to Bad Ischl the next day to visit the Kaiservilla. After a ride by bus of more than 1 1/2 hour I arrived at Bad Ischl and pretty easily found my way to the Kaiservilla. Big was the surprise […]
Continue Reading
Madrid, 6 November 2003 The official announcement, 1 November 2003 Rumours about the Prince of Asturias having a serious girlfriend started only on October 31, one day before the actual engagement announcement that was released at 19:30 on November 1. Letizia and Felipe met at a dinner party at a common friend’s house in September […]
Continue Reading
Copenhagen, 8 October 2003 Engagement program 9:45 – 10:00 am: Members of the Cabinet arrive at Christian IX’ s Palace, Amalienborg. 10:00 am: Ordinary Meeting of the Council of State in Christian IX’ s Palace. Her Majesty The Queen presides over the Council of State which is composed of the members of the Cabinet. His […]
Continue Reading
The Hague, 30 March 2001 The announcement Queen Beatrix: For me and my husband it is a great joy to announce the engagement of our son Willem-Alexander with Máxima Zorreguieta. We, as parents, are particularly happy with their decision to spend the rest of their lifes together. We have learned to know Máxima as an […]
Continue Reading