Norwegianne.net

Category: Royalty

  • How “German” is the new king?

    Because I saw this on Twitter, and it really exemplified something I’d been wanting to do, just about every time English media call the royal family German… (I’m using where the birth place is located today – since the further out we get, the more the borders of Europe changes.)

    King Charles III:

    Born in: 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿

    Parents born in: 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿💑 🇬🇷

    Grandparents born in: 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿💑🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 – 🇬🇷💑🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿

    G grandparents born in: 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿💑🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿- 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿💑🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿- 🇩🇰💑🇷🇺- 🇦🇹💑🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿

    G g grandparents born in: 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿💑🇩🇰- 🇭🇷💑🇩🇪- 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿💑🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿- 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿💑🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿- 🇩🇪💑🇩🇪- 🇷🇺💑🇩🇪- 🇩🇪💑🇵🇱- 🇩🇪💑🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 – First generation with people born in what is today’s Germany.

    When we get to the 6th step backwards, we’re also repeating people, and we’re also getting the same people on different steps. I was originally going to go back to I got to Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, but:

    One: Prince Philip’s great grandfather was Christian IX of Denmark (incidentally, born in Germany). But, because his daughter Alexandra married into the British Royal family, she and her parents are on the same step of the g g grandparents, and it would really be a mess going even further back.

    Two: The first flag on the last line of flag emojis, and the last flag – the two English flags, are two of Victoria and Albert’s children – and going another step back there would also mean they would be repeated both in the start and the finish of the line. (And then my head started to hurt.)

    In addition to that, once we get further and further back – the birth places of the less royal people in the line-up, become more difficult to track and verify.

    Eh, it amused me enough to write the post anyway. (Which isn’t anything to scoff at since it has been a whole pandemic since the last time I posted anything here.)

  • Death of Ari Behn

    Death of Ari Behn

    For some odd reason or another, it has been my Dad who has informed me of the death of the royal exes. First Diana in 1997, and now Ari Behn in 2019. Odd, because he’s really not hugely into monarchy as a concept or as a reality.

    But anyway, Ari Behn – former spouse of Princess Märtha Louise, and father to her three daughters, took his own life on Christmas Day.

    The funeral will be this Friday in Oslo Cathedral – and also be televised. I find this choice strange. Not Oslo cathedral, but the seeming necessity of having it televised.

    There have been an odd collective outpouring of sorrow in Norway, or at least the Norwegian media. The last time it felt like this, was the sorrow after the Utøya/bombing affair. Before that, I guess it was King Olav’s death.

    I never met Ari Behn. I’ve read his books. I’ve followed him in the media, by virtue of being a royal watcher and a librarian. But I think it is hitting me, and others, because it was depression. Because it was a suicide. It throws out entirely the circle of life. It is an unnatural ending to a life.

    Now, I think it is partly because it was Ari Behn, but also because it was a suicide – and that was announced. That a fairly successful author and artist and former member of the royal family went to that step, it may make it seem like the darkness of depression really can touch anyone, anywhere in society.

    And, what ultimately is left, are three girls who shouldn’t have had to face this in their lives. Three girls who should have had their father with them longer.

    (The featured image to this post is the ferry between Horten and Moss – Ari’s hometown.)

  • Education of the British royals

    Generally, it kind of feels like whenever I do a blog post in my mind about royalty now, it is usually whenever someone has said something wrong. Or… if not wrong, then just used the basic facts to imply something is wrong.

    Let’s use this example: a couple of days ago, the Daily Mail posted the story about the Duke and Duchess of Sussex allegedly having chosen an American-community school in the UK for their as of yet unborn child. The headline: they might be shunning Eton.

    Which, really is nothing wrong – except the wording in the article makes it sound like Eton is the preferred school for the young royals to attend. (Or the Daily Mail is just happy that they get to trash Eton? Because there was a similar story when Prince George started school.) Granted, it is just across the river from Windsor, and the aristocracy has had a tendency to send their sons there. But the British royal family haven’t.

    When the Duke of Cambridge started Eton (after being in day schools in London and boarding at Ludgrove after that) in the 90s – it was not a royal tradition. It was then seen as snubbing of Gordonstoun – the school William’s father, paternal grandfather paternal uncles and cousins, Peter and Zara, attended.

    (William and Harry’s maternal grandfather and uncle, on the other hand, did go to Eton.)

    And before Prince Philip joined the royal family, having attended Gordonstoun – Queen Elizabeth’s father and (most of) his brothers were also educated at home, until the time came to send them off to the Naval college as cadets when they were 13.

    Likewise their father and uncle before them went into the Navy as cadets.

    King Edward VII attended a home school, put together by Prince Albert with the idea of what a British monarch should know.

    (To be fair, Prince Henry, the Duke of Gloucester, Queen Elizabeth’s uncle did attend Eton. )

    Also, the kid isn’t born, yet, and whatever school he or she will attend, is not going to be an issue for the next couple of years. Really.

  • Mette-Marit’s continued history of ailments

    In 2013, I posted about the Crown Princess’ history of ailments and unfortunate accidents. (Some of you have supplied updates in the comments on that post.)

    Today, she, her husband and her doctor revealed in an interview (as well as in a press release from the court) that she has been diagnosed with chronic pulmonary fibrosis. They haven’t quite figured out more specifics – but she will undergo testing.

    It has been going on for a while, though they did not specify for how long in the interview.

    It is only recently that they have discovered what it is, and since she will require time for hospital appointments – both for further clarification and treatment – and have low points in her health – they have decided to share rather than have her absent without a specific reason. The illness is in an early stage.

    In March this year she was hospitalized – and had to cancel the attendance at the book fair in Leipzig.

    In November 2017 – she got benign paroxysmal positional vertigo.

    In December 2016 – she got pneumonia.

    Autumn 2015 – she was advised by her doctor to cancel the trip to Brazil because of frequent infections of the airways.

  • Royalty

    Royalty

    I was talking to someone on Tumblr the other day about the special project with royal biographies, we did over at The Royal Forums when the Norwegian monarchy turned 100.

    That was in 2005. I suddenly realised that that is 13 years ago. People are on the Internet now, joining social media (legally), who were babies when I was writing out a lot of those profiles.

    I think I have run the whole gamut when it comes to royalty as a hobby, but in the later years, it has kind of changed. The royal blogging of it – to run a successful royal blog, you do rather need pictures and an insane amount of time, petered out as life happened with studies, and later full time employment. And as for being a participant in the fora discussions…

    I’m still interested. I’m still following some Tumblrs. I’m in a Facebook group with some lovely people I’ve met on the fora over the years and do a bit of commenting. I still read a ton of royal biographies, which I will try to review.

    But in general, I think it is a matter of… learning that how much I think someone should dress differently, or act differently, it won’t matter any little bit what I say in a comment on the Internet, and I am only setting myself up for a lot of frustration if I think otherwise.

    Ironically, written as a blog post, but there you go.

  • Märtha Louise and Ari Behn to divorce – translation of official press release

    Princess Märtha Louise and Ari Behn have decided to leave each other. (press release in Norwegian here)

    Princess Märtha Louise and Ari Behn got married in Nidarosdomen in Trondheim on May 24th, 2002. They have Maud Angelica Behn, born 29. April 2003, Leah Isadora Behn, born 8. April 2005, and Emma Tallulah Behn, born 29. September 2008, together. The parents will have joint custody, and the children will still attend the same schools.

    The princess will remain living in Lommedalen. The Princess will also keep the family property “Bloksbjerg” at Hankø. Both of the properties were, and are, under her separate ownership. Ari Behn will find a place to live close by the children.

    The princess says: “Life doesn’t always go the way you plan. Both Ari and I have experienced this. But it is even more visible now, when life have done some turnabouts we couldn’t have imagined. We are separating. We are ending our marriage, but staying joint together in parenting our daughters.

    It is incredibly sad for both of us to discover that the road ahead isn’t moving the way it used to. We have, as many others, grown apart – to places where we don’t meet as we used to. It is horrible to discover that there isn’t more to do about it. That we have tried everything, over a long period of time, and we still cannot meet where we used to, makes it impossible for us to go on.

    We feel guilty because we cannot keep making the safe harbour our children deserve. But we hope and believe that we can retain our friendship through whatever lies ahead.

    We ask and hope that we can have calm in this vulnerable process. Our children need time to digest, mourn and find new footing – each and every one of them. We are only humans, we too.”

    The king and queen says:

    “Many people are wounded when a marriage fail. It is hurtful and sad, also for those of us who are surrounding them. We love Ari, and are thankful for everything we as a family have experienced together. We would like to have a good relationship with Ari also in the future. ”

    Princess Märtha Louise and Ari Behn do not wish to give further comments. They ask that the children still can be spared all press attention.

    In January 2002 the Princess established her own commercial business, and she takes hand of it herself. The princess did, at the same time, renounce her HRH-title. Today she owns and runs the company Soulspring with Elisabeth Nordeng.

  • Prince Oscar, Duke of Scania

    In a council of state, the king revealed just now that Victoria and Daniel’s son will have the names Oscar Carl Olof. He will be called Oscar.

    He will be the Duke of Scania (Skåne) in Southern Sweden. The last royal duke of Scania was King Gustaf Adolf, who died in 1973.

    The name Oscar… Well, there have been two Bernadotte kings by the name, as well as the second son of Oscar II. He married a non-royal, and renounced his rights to the Swedish throne. 

    Oscar is not as unexpected of a name as Estelle was. It is also already popular in Sweden – in 2015 it was the 4th most popular name for newborn boys.

    It works well with Estelle, but it also works well with the cousins Leonore and Nicolas.

  • Advent calendar: Catherine the Great: Portrait of a Woman

    Catherine the Great: Portrait of a WomanOne of the royal biographies I read this year was Catherine the Great: Portrait of a Woman by Robert K. Massie.

    If you are into history, women in history or royalty, I heartily recommend it. It took me some time to get through after the initial first pages, but that was more due to personal lack of time than the book itself.

    I actually think the first parts of the book is the best – when Catherine leaves her home and family to travel to Russia to marry a young man she hasn’t seen. Adopting a country that she has never been to, a religion that is foreign to her and also a language that is far beyond what she is used to.

    Catherine, and the ups and downs of her life at court, have been, in my opinion, well portrayed by Massie. If you haven’t read it yet, do.

  • Victoria expecting second child

    The Swedish court announced on Instagram that Crown Princess Victoria is expecting her second child – due in March.

     


    The announcement comes after news media and others have speculated over the summer that the Crown Princess might be expecting another child. However, such speculations have come before without confirmations… it is therefore interesting that they are true this time around.