Author Archives: Susan

Crown Princess Marie-Chantal of Greece

by Susan Flantzer  © Unofficial Royalty 2014

Embed from Getty Images 

Marie-Chantal is the wife of Crown Prince Pavlos of Greece, the eldest son of King Constantine II of Greece who was deposed in 1973. Marie-Chantal Claire Miller was born on September 17, 1968, in London, England. Her parents are Robert Miller, a billionaire entrepreneur and co-founder of Duty-Free Shops, and María Clara Pesantes Becerra. Her father was born American but is now a British citizen, and her mother was born in Ecuador. Marie-Chantal was an American citizen but renounced her American citizenship in 2011.

Marie-Chantal has an older and a younger sister and the trio was often referred to as “The Miller Sisters” in the newspaper society pages.

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Marie-Chantal on the left with her sisters:  Photo: www.instawebgram.com

Marie-Chantal grew up in Hong Kong, the location of the corporate headquarters of her father’s business. In Hong Kong, she attended the Peak School, an English language international primary school.  When she was nine years old, Marie-Chantal went to the Institut Le Rosey, an exclusive boarding school in Rolle, Switzerland. In 1982, she began to attend Ecole Active Bilingue in Paris, France where she continued until her senior year. Marie-Chantal then attended The Masters School, a private, coeducational boarding school in Dobbs Ferry, New York. She began to attend New York University in New York City in 1993 but dropped out a year later when Crown Prince Pavlos proposed marriage.

Marie-Chantal and Pavlos met on a blind date arranged by a friend in 1992. The marriage proposal occurred on a ski lift in Gstaad, Switzerland over the Christmas holiday in 1994. Prior to the wedding, Marie-Chantal converted from Roman Catholicism to Greek Orthodoxy. The couple was married on July 1, 1995, at St. Sophia’s Cathedral in London, England. The wedding celebrations were extravagant and expensive. The wedding ceremony, receptions, and celebrations combined reportedly cost the Miller family 8 million dollars. The wedding dress alone reportedly cost $225,000. More royalty attended Marie-Chantal and Pavlos’ wedding than the wedding of Charles, Prince of Wales and Lady Diana Spencer.

 

The couple has five children:

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Marie-Chantal with her family in 2014; Photo: The Royal Post

Marie-Chantal and Pavlos have lived in New York City and London, where Pavlos has worked as an investment consultant. Marie-Chantal has her own business, Marie-Chantal, an international children’s wear brand.

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March 6, 2014: Crown Princess Marie-Chantal on the right attending services commemorating the 50th anniversary of King Paul I of Greece’s death, with her husband Crown Prince Pavlos and his aunt Queen Sofia of Spain; Photo: Zimbio

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Queen Sofia of Spain

by Susan Flantzer  © Unofficial Royalty 2014

 

Note: Queen Sofia was named Sophia, the Latin version of her Greek name Σοφία. When she married, her name was changed to the Spanish variant Sofía and in English, it generally is Sofia which will be used throughout this article.

Queen Sofia, the wife King Juan Carlos I of Spain, was Queen Consort of Spain from her husband’s accession on November 22, 1975 until June 19, 2014, when King Juan Carlos abdicated in favor of his son, King Felipe VI. Sophia Margarita Victoria Federica was born on November 2, 1938, at Villa Psychiko, in the suburbs of Athens, Greece. Her parents were King Paul of Greece and Princess Frederica of Hanover, both descendants of Queen Victoria’s eldest daughter Victoria, Princess Royal who married Friedrich III, German Emperor.

  • Queen Victoria -> Victoria, Princess Royal -> Princess Sophie of Prussia -> King Paul I of Greece -> Queen Sofia of Spain
  • Queen Victoria -> Victoria, Princess Royal -> Wilhelm II, German Emperor -> Princess Viktoria Luise of Prussia -> Princess Frederica of Hanover -> Queen Sofia of Spain

Sofia was christened Sophia Margarita Victoria Federica on January 9, 1939, in a Greek Orthodox ceremony at the Royal Palace in Athens, Greece. Her godparents were:

Sofia. eldest of her parents’ three children, had a younger brother and a younger sister:

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Sofia in the middle with her family around 1947; Credit – www.britannica.com

In April of 1941, during World War II, Germany and Italy invaded Greece and Sofia’s family was forced to flee. The family lived in Alexandria, Egypt, and Cape Town, South Africa before returning to Greece in 1946. King George II of Greece, Sofia’s uncle, died childless in 1947, so Sofia’s father became King and her brother Constantine became Crown Prince.

While in Alexandria, Egypt, Sofia attended El Nasr Girls’ College. She finished her secondary education at Salem School in Salem, Germany and when she returned to Greece, she studied childcare and music. Sofia also studied at Fitzwilliam College, the University of Cambridge in England. In the 1960 Rome Summer Olympics, Sofia represented Greece as a reserve member of the sailing team. Her brother Constantine won a Gold Medal in Sailing: Mixed Three Person Keel/Dragon Class in those Olympics. Sofia is fluent in five languages: Greek, German, Spanish, French, and English.

It was on an August 1954 cruise aboard the Agamemnon, a 5,500-ton luxury liner owned by Greek line Nomikes, funded by Sofia’s father and reportedly the idea of her mother, that Sofia first met her future husband Juan Carlos of Spain. See Unofficial Royalty: Agamemnon, 1954: Cruise of the Kings.  Sofia and Juan Carlos met again in 1961 when Prince Edward, Duke of Kent married.

A year later in Athens, on May 14, 1962, Sofia and Juan Carlos were married in three ceremonies: a Roman Catholic ceremony at the Cathedral of St. Dionysius the Areopagite, a civil ceremony at the Royal Palace, and the last, a Greek Orthodox ceremony at the Metropolitan Cathedral of the Annunciation.

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Photo Credit – 02varvara.wordpress.com

Juan Carlos and Sofia have three children:

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Queen Sofia and her family in 1976; Credit- http://www.casareal.es

At the time of Sofia’s marriage, Spain was ruled by the dictator General Francisco Franco and her husband had no official title or position in Spain. In 1969, General Franco recognized Juan Carlos as his successor and bestowed upon him the title of Prince of Spain. Juan Carlos became King of Spain in 1975 upon the death of General Franco.

Besides traveling in Spain and around the world on official engagements, Queen Sofia has been active in several charities. She is the executive president of The Queen Sofia Foundation, which is involved with social and humanitarian assistance, benefiting children, the elderly, immigrants, the disabled, and those affected by natural disasters.

Among the other organizations, Queen Sofia works with are:

In June 2014, Sofia’s husband King Juan Carlos announced his intent to abdicate in favor of their son Felipe. On June 18, 2014, Juan Carlos signed the law granting the abdication which would take effect just after midnight. The following day, his son was formally sworn in as King Felipe VI of Spain.

On August 3, 2020, former King Juan Carlos informed his son King Felipe VI of his decision to leave Spain because of increased media coverage concerning his business dealings in Saudi Arabia which were being investigated by the Spanish and Swiss legal systems. Initially, the Royal Household declined requests to publicly disclose Juan Carlos’ location. However, on August 17, 2020, the Royal Household confirmed that Juan Carlos was in the United Arab Emirates. Queen Sofia remained in Spain, staying at her home, Zarzuela Palace in Madrid, and continued with her activities. See Why did former King Juan Carlos leave Spain? for more information.

Queen Sofia and King Juan Carlos at the funeral of Grand Duke Jean of Luxembourg in 2019

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Kingdom of Spain Resources at Unofficial Royalty

Margarita Sakskoburggotska, wife of former Tsar Simeon II of Bulgaria

by Susan Flantzer  © Unofficial Royalty 2014

Margarita with het husband Simeon; Credit – Wikipedia

Margarita is the wife of Tsar Simeon II of Bulgaria, who reigned from 1943 to 1946 as a child. Simeon was exiled from Bulgaria as a child, and never formally renounced his claim to the throne, but his wife and children never received titles from Bulgaria. Outside of Bulgaria, Margarita is sometimes styled Tsaritsa Margarita of Bulgaria, and while in Bulgaria she is usually styled Margarita Sakskoburggotska. Sakskoburggotska is Bulgarian for Saxe-Coburg- Gotha. The first Tsar of Bulgaria was Simeon’s grandfather Ferdinand of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, whose father was a first cousin of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom and her husband Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha.

Doña Margarita Gómez-Acebo y Cejuela was born on January 6, 1935, in Madrid, Spain. She was the youngest of two children of Don Manuel Gómez-Acebo y Modet and Doña María de las Mercedes Cejuela y Fernández. Margarita’s family was wealthy and her father was a lawyer involved with commercial and banking companies. In 1936, at the start of the Spanish Civil War, Margarita’s parents and her maternal grandmother were arrested by Spanish Republicans and were executed. Because of what happened to their family, Margarita and her brother José Luis received the Suffering for the Motherland Medal from Francoist Spain.

Orphaned before she was two years old, Margarita, along with her brother José Luis Gómez-Acebo y Cejuela (died 2010) were placed in the care of their paternal grandmother Doña Margarita Modet y Amalgro. After her death, the two children were placed in the guardianship of two uncles. Margarita is a first cousin of the late Luis Gómez-Acebo y Duque de Estrada, Duke of Badajoz, husband of Infanta Pilar, sister of King Juan Carlos I of Spain.

In 1958, Margarita first met Simeon as he prepared to go to the United States to attend the Valley Forge Military Academy and College in Pennsylvania. When the couple decided to marry, they were faced with some religious issues. Margarita was Roman Catholic and Simeon was Bulgarian Orthodox. The Roman Catholic Church required that the non-Catholic partner must declare in writing that the children of the marriage be baptized as Catholic. Simeon could not follow this rule without violating the Bulgarian constitution. After some roadblocks in solving the problem, the Second Vatican Council began meeting in Rome and one of the issues the Council dealt with was relations between the Catholic and the Orthodox Church. These circumstances largely contributed to the successful outcome of Margarita and Simeon’s case.

On January 20, 1962, the Roman Catholic wedding, the first of the three wedding ceremonies, took place in Lausanne, Switzerland. The civil ceremony conducted by the mayor of Lausanne then took place. The next day relatives and Bulgarians from all over the world met at the beautiful L’église russe (Russian Church) in Vevey, Switzerland for the Orthodox wedding ceremony. At the time, Margarita joked, “It is very hard and almost impossible to dissolve a triple wedding.”

After their marriage, the couple resided in Madrid, Spain where all five of their children were born.

  • Kardam, Prince of Turnovo (1962 – 2015), married Miriam Ungría y López, had issue
  • Kyril, Prince of Preslav (born 1964), married María del Rosario Nadal y Fuster de Puigdorfila, had issue
  • Kubrat, Prince of Panagyurishte (born 1965), married Carla María de la Soledad Royo-Villanova y Urrestarazu, had issue
  • Konstantin-Assen, Prince of Vidin (born 1967), married María García de la Rasilla y Gortázar, had issue
  • Princess Kalina (born 1972), married Antonio “Kitín” Muñoz y Valcárcel, had issue

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Margarita with her family; Photo Credit – http://www.styleforum.net

In 1996, several years after the fall of the communist regime in Bulgaria, Margarita visited Bulgaria for the first time, accompanied by her husband. Their stays in Bulgaria became more frequent until 2001 when the former Tsar Simeon II of Bulgaria became Prime Minister of Bulgaria when his party won 120 of the 240 seats in Parliament. Since then Margarita and Simeon have lived in Bulgaria. The couple currently resides in what was Simeon’s boyhood home, Vrana Palace, near Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria. Vrana Palace was returned to Simeon and his sister Maria Luisa by the Constitutional Court of Bulgaria in June 1998.

 

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Bulgaria Resources at Unofficial Royalty

Fabiola de Mora y Aragón, Queen Fabiola of Belgium

by Susan Flantzer  © Unofficial Royalty 2014

Fabiola

Queen Fabiola of Belgium; Photo Credit – www.telegraph.co.uk

Queen Fabiola was Queen of the Belgians from the time of her marriage in 1960 until the death of her husband King Baudouin of the Belgians in 1993. Doña Fabiola Fernanda Maria de las Victorias Antonia Adelaïda de Mora y Aragón was born to a Spanish aristocratic family in Madrid, Spain on June 11, 1928. Fabiola was the fifth of the six children of Gonzalo de Mora y Fernández, Riera y del Olmo, 4th Marquess of Casa Riera, 2nd Count of Mora and his wife Blanca de Aragón y Carrillo de Albornoz, Barroeta-Aldamar y Elío. Queen Victoria Eugenie of Spain, a granddaughter of Queen Victoria, was her godmother.

Fabiola had six siblings:

  • Doña Maria de las Nieves de Mora y Aragon married Alfonso Escrivá de Romani y Patiño, Count of  Sástago, had seven children
  • Don Gonzalo de Mora y Aragon, 5th Marquess of Casa Riera (1919 – 2006), married Doña Mercedes Narváez Coello de Portugal, had fourteen children
  • Doña Ana Maria de Mora y Aragón (1921 – 2006), married Don Jaime de Silva y Agrela, 17th Duke of Lécera, had eigth children
  • Don Jaime de Mora y Aragón (1925 – 1995), married Margit Ohlson, one adopted son
  • Doña Maria-Luz de Mora y Aragón (1929 – 2011) , married Don José Maria Ruiz de Bucesta y Osorio de Moscoso, 13th Duke of Medina de las Torres , had three children

Fabiola trained as a nurse and worked in a Madrid hospital. She was fluent in six languages: Spanish, French, Dutch, English, German, and Italian. Fabiola was also the author of a children’s book Los Doce Cuentos Maravillosos (The Twelve Marvelous Tales), a book of 12 fairy tales, published in 1955 in her native Spain. The book was later translated into other languages and made into an attraction at a Dutch amusement park. See Unofficial Royalty: Queen Fabiola’s Indian Water Lilies.

On December 15, 1960, Fabiola married King Baudouin of the Belgians, who had been king since the abdication of his father King Leopold III in 1951 The couple married at the Cathedral of St. Michael and St. Gudula in Brussels, Belgium. Fabiola wore a beautiful Art Deco tiara, the Nine Provinces Tiara, that had been a gift of the Belgian people to her husband’s mother Princess Astrid of Sweden upon her marriage to King Leopold III.

Fabiola_wedding

Photo Credit – http://orderofsplendor.blogspot.com

Unfortunately, King Baudouin and Queen Fabiola lost five children to miscarriages and upon King Baudouin’s unexpected death in 1993,  his younger brother succeeded him as King Albert II.  King Albert abdicated in 2013 in favor of his elder son King Philippe.

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Queen Fabiola and King Baudouin; Photo Credit – royalementblog.blogspot.com

Queen Fabiola was active in a number of charities including:

On December 5, 2014, Queen Fabiola, aged 86, died at her home Stuyvenberg Castle in Laeken, Brussels, Belgium. She was buried with her husband at the Church of Our Lady of Laeken, the traditional burial site of the Belgian monarchs.

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Kingdom of Belgium Resources at Unofficial Royalty

Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands

by Susan Flantzer  © Unofficial Royalty 2014

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Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands; Credit: Wikipedia

Beatrix was Queen of the Netherlands from 1980 until her abdication in favor of her eldest son in 2013. Her official title since her abdication is Her Royal Highness Princess Beatrix of the Netherlands, Princess of Orange-Nassau, Princess of Lippe-Biesterfeld. Beatrix Wilhelmina Armgard was born at Soestdijk Palace in Baarn, the Netherlands, on January 31, 1938. Beatrix was the first child of the four daughters of Princess Juliana of the Netherlands (became Queen in 1948) and Prince Bernhard of Lippe-Biesterfeld.  At the time of her birth, Beatrix’s grandmother, Queen Wilhelmina reigned. In 1948, Queen Wilhelmina abdicated in favor of Beatrix’s mother Juliana.

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The infant Beatrix with her parents; Credit: Wikipedia

Beatrix Wilhelmina Armgard was christened on May 12, 1938, in the Grote of Sint-Jacobskerk in The Hague. Her middle names are the first names of her maternal grandmother Queen Wilhelmina and her paternal grandmother Armgard of Sierstorpff-Cramm.

Her five godparents were:

Beatrix had three younger sisters:

Dutch Royal Family Portrait, 1948

Beatrix, on the right, with her family in 1948; Photo: Corbis

During World War II, three days after Germany invaded the Netherlands in May 1940, the Dutch Royal Family left for London, England. One month later, Beatrix, her mother, and her sister Irene went to Ottawa, Canada, where they would be safer. Prince Bernhard, Beatrix’s father, stayed with Queen Wilhelmina in London during the war, although both made occasional visits to the rest of the family in Canada. Beatrix’s sister Margriet was born while the family was in Canada. While in Canada, Beatrix started her primary education at Rockcliffe Park Public School in Ottawa, Canada. On August 2, 1945, the whole family returned to the Netherlands, and Beatrix spent the rest of her childhood at her birthplace, Soestdijk Palace.

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Beatrix, on the left, arrives back in the Netherlands, with her parents and sisters, on August 2, 1945; source: www.tweedewereldoorlog.nl

Upon returning to the Netherlands, Beatrix resumed her education at De Werkplaats (link translated from Dutch), a progressive school in Bilthoven, the Netherlands. In April 1950, Beatrix began her secondary education at the Incrementum, a separate classroom for Beatrix and small groups of selected peers at the Baarns Lyceum (link translated from Dutch). She passed her graduation exams in the arts and classics in 1956. Later that same year, Beatrix enrolled at Leiden University where she first studied sociology, jurisprudence, economics, parliamentary history, and constitutional law. Later she studied the cultures of Suriname and the Netherlands Antilles (both constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Netherlands at that time), the Charter for the Kingdom of the Netherlands, international affairs, international law, history, and European law. In 1959, Beatrix passed her preliminary examination in law, and in 1961 she received a combined degree in law, sociology, and economics.

On March 10, 1966, Princess Beatrix married Claus von Amsberg, a member of the German diplomatic corps, in a civil ceremony at the Amsterdam City Hall. Afterward, a religious ceremony was held at the Westerkerk in Amsterdam. The Westerkerk is a block away from the house where Anne Frank and her family hid from the Nazis for two years and the church’s chiming bells are mentioned in Anne’s diary. On the same day, Claus von Amsberg received the style and title His Royal Highness Prince Claus of the Netherlands.

Beatrix and Claus were married until Claus died in 2002, four months after the birth of his first grandchild. The couple had three sons:

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Beatrix and Claus with their three sons; source: Hello

As her mother Queen Wilhelmina had done, Queen Juliana also abdicated in favor of her daughter, and Beatrix became Queen of the Netherlands on April 30, 1980. On April 30, 2013, Queen Beatrix abdicated in favor of her eldest son Willem-Alexander.

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Queen Beatrix swearing her oath on April 30, 1980; source: Hello

On February 17, 2012, Beatrix’s second son Prince Friso was severely injured in an avalanche while on a skiing holiday in Lech, Austria. He had been buried for about 25 minutes, and the lack of oxygen had caused significant brain damage. He remained in a coma, and in March 2012, he was taken to the Wellington Hospital in London, where his wife and children lived. In July 2013, Prince Friso was brought to Huis Ten Bosch, his mother’s residence, in The Hague, the Netherlands as he was no longer deemed to require hospital care, and on August 12, 2013, Prince Friso passed away.

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The Dutch Royal Family at Prince Friso’s funeral; Beatrix, front right, with Friso’s daughters and his wife. Photo: Zimbio

After her abdication, Beatrix decided to live at Drakensteyn, a small castle in Baarn, the Netherlands. The castle was bought in 1959 and is the private property of Beatrix. She continues to undertake some royal duties and is the patron of many organizations.

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Beatrix and her eight grandchildren in 2013; source: queensconsortofengland.blogspot.com

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Kingdom of the Netherlands Resources at Unofficial Royalty

Grand Duke Jean of Luxembourg

by Susan Flantzer  © Unofficial Royalty 2014

 

Grand Duke Jean of Luxembourg was the reigning Grand Duke from 1964 until 2000 when he abdicated in favor of his eldest son. Jean Benoît Guillaume Robert Antoine Louis Marie Adolphe Marc d’Aviano was born on January 5, 1921, at Berg Castle in Colmar-Berg, Luxembourg. He was the eldest of six children of Grand Duchess Charlotte of Luxembourg and Prince Félix of Bourbon-Parma.  Jean had one younger brother and four younger sisters:

 

Jean received his primary education and started his secondary education in Luxembourg. He completed his secondary education at Ampleforth College, a Roman Catholic boarding school in Yorkshire, England. When Jean reached the age of 18, he was styled Hereditary Grand Duke, recognizing his status as the heir apparent.

The day before Germany invaded Luxembourg in May 1940, the Grand Ducal family left for Paris, France where they stayed for several weeks. They then went to the United States, where they rented an estate on Long Island in Brookville, New York.  Later they lived in Canada and the United Kingdom. While in Canada, Jean studied law and political science at Université Laval in Quebec City, Canada.

In October 1942, Prince Félix and Hereditary Grand Duke Jean left Canada for the United Kingdom to join the British Army. Jean joined the Irish Guards on the advice of King George VI of the United Kingdom. After preliminary training, Jean completed his military education at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst.  He was commissioned as a second lieutenant and later was promoted to lieutenant.  Jean landed near Bayeux, Normandy on June 11, 1944, five days after D-Day. He took part in the Battle for Caen and the liberation of Brussels. On September 10, 1944, he took part in the liberation of Luxembourg before participating in the invasion of Germany.

For his military service, Jean received the following military decorations:

Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom appointed Jean Colonel of the Regiment of the Irish Guards in 1984 and Honorary General of the British Army in 1995.

On April 9, 1953, Jean married Princess Joséphine-Charlotte of Belgium (1927 – 2005), daughter of Léopold III, King of the Belgians at the Notre-Dame Cathedral in Luxembourg City, Luxembourg.

 

Jean and Joséphine-Charlotte had a happy 52-year marriage which ended with Joséphine-Charlotte’s death in 2005.  The couple had five children:

On November 12, 1964, Jean’s mother Grand Duchess Charlotte abdicated and he became Grand Duke.  Grand Duke Jean reigned until October 7, 2000, when he abdicated in favor of his eldest son Henri.

Jean Henri Guillaume

Grand Duke Jean with his son Grand Duke Henri and his grandson Hereditary Grand Duke Guillaume; Photo: Zimbio

Grand Duke Jean of Luxembourg died on April 23, 2019, at the age of 98. His death was announced by his son Grand Duke Henri on the official website of the Grand Ducal Family: “It is with great sadness that I inform you of the death of my beloved father, His Royal Highness Grand Duke Jean, who has passed away in peace, surrounded by the affection of his family.” Grand Duke Jean had been hospitalized with a pulmonary condition.

The funeral of Grand Duke Jean of Luxembourg took place on May 4, 2019, at the Cathedral Notre-Dame of Luxembourg in Luxembourg City, Luxembourg. He was laid to rest in the Ducal Crypt of the Cathedral Notre-Dame of Luxembourg.

Grand Duke Jean’s coffin resting in the Ducal Crypt. Memorial plaques for family members are on the wall; Photo – www.cathol.lu

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Grand Duchy of Luxembourg Resources at Unofficial Royalty

King Constantine II of Greece

by Susan Flantzer  © Unofficial Royalty 2014

Embed from Getty Images 

King Constantine II of Greece was the King of Greece (styled King of the Hellenes) from 1964 until the monarchy was abolished in 1973. He was born on June 2, 1940, at Villa Psychiko, in the suburbs of Athens, Greece. His parents were King Paul of Greece and Princess Frederica of Hanover, both descendants of Queen Victoria’s eldest daughter Victoria, Princess Royal and her husband Friedrich III, German Emperor.

  • Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom → Victoria, Princess Royal (married Friedrich III, German Emperor) → Princess Sophie of Prussia (married King Constantine I of Greece)  → King Paul I of Greece (Princess Frederica of Hanover) → King Constantine II of Greece
  • Queen Victoria → Victoria, Princess Royal (married Friedrich III, German Emperor) → Wilhelm II, German Emperor (married Augusta Victoria of Schleswig-Holstein) → Princess Viktoria Luise of Prussia (married Ernst August of Hanover, Duke of Brunswick)  → Princess Frederica of Hanover (married King Paul of Greece) → King Constantine II of Greece

Constantine had an elder and a younger sister:

Constantine II_birth family

Constantine on the left with his family around 1947; Credit – www.britannica.com

In April of 1941, during World War II, Germany and Italy invaded Greece and Constantine’s family was forced to flee. The family lived in Alexandria, Egypt, and Cape Town, South Africa before returning to Greece in 1946. King George II of Greece, Constantine’s uncle, died childless in 1947, so Constantine’s father became King and Constantine became Crown Prince.

From 1949 – 1955, Crown Prince Constantine attended the Classical Lyceum Anavryton in Athens. The school was based on the educational principles of Kurt Hahn and modeled on the schools that Hahn created, Salem School in Germany and Gordonstoun School in Scotland. Attending the school gave Constantine the opportunity to associate with other children, and many became his life-long friends. Constantine participated in hockey, volleyball, and high jump, acted in school plays, and became Head Boy.

While still in school, Constantine attended military training on weekends. After graduating, he attended all three Greek military academies: Evelpidon Military Academy, Hellenic Naval Academy, and Hellenic Air Force Academy.  In 1960, Constantine went to the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens to study law.

Constantine II_Eisenhower

Crown Prince Constantine meeting President Eisenhower at the White House in 1959; Credit – Wikipedia

In 1960, Constantine became one of the royal Olympian medal winners.  In the 1960 Rome Summer Olympics, Constantine won a Gold Medal in Sailing: Mixed Three Person Keel/Dragon Class, the first Greek Gold Medal since the 1912 Stockholm Summer Olympics.

Constantine II_Olympics

Constantine after being awarded his Gold Medal; Photo source: www.yachtsandyachting.co.uk

In late February 1964, King Paul had surgery for stomach cancer but died soon afterward on March 6, 1964, and Constantine became king at the age of 23. That same evening, the devastated new king swore his oath before the Greek Parliament and his younger sister Irene was recognized as his successor until he married and had children. His elder sister Sofia had converted from Greek Orthodoxy to Roman Catholicism when she married Juan Carlos of Spain and therefore had relinquished her rights to the Greek throne.

Constantine II_oath

King Constantine II of Greece swears his oath in the Greek Parliament; Photo: Greek Royal Family

Later that year, King Constantine married Princess Anne-Marie of Denmark, the youngest daughter of King Frederick IX of Denmark. He had first met his future bride in 1959 when she was 13 years old and he was accompanying his parents on a state visit to Denmark. They met a second time in Denmark in 1961, when Constantine declared to his parents his intention to marry Anne-Marie. In 1962, Anne-Marie served as a bridesmaid at the wedding of King Constantine’s sister Sofia and Juan Carlos of Spain. At that wedding, Constantine and Anne-Marie realized that they were falling in love. Constantine proposed during a sailing holiday in Norway, but the engagement announcement was postponed for six months because of Anne-Marie’s young age. They were married on September 18, 1964, two weeks after Anne-Marie’s 18th birthday, in a Greek Orthodox ceremony at the Metropolitan Cathedral of Athens.

Embed from Getty Images

King Constantine and Queen Anne-Marie had five children:

At the 2021 wedding of Prince Philippos and Nina Flohr: left to right: Crown Prince Pavlos, Crown Princess Marie-Chantal, the bride’s father Thomas Flohr, Prince Constantine Alexios, King Constantine, and Queen Anne-Marie

On April 21, 1967, a coup d’état led by a group of army colonels took over Greece. A military junta ruled Greece from 1967 – 1974. For more information see Wikipedia: Greek military junta of 1967–74  On December 13, 1967, King Constantine attempted a counter-coup against the military junta which failed, and King Constantine and his family had to flee to Italy. The family lived for two months in the Greek embassy and then for the next five years in a house in a suburb of Rome. King Constantine remained the head of state in exile until June 1, 1973, when the junta abolished the monarchy.  In 1974, after the fall of the junta, a referendum by the Greek people confirmed the abolition of the monarchy and the establishment of the Third Hellenic Republic.

In 1973, the family moved to England, living first in Chobham, Surrey, and later in the London suburb of Hampstead. The Greek government did not permit King Constantine to return to Greece until 1981 when he was allowed to enter Greece for several hours to attend the funeral of his mother Queen Frederica. King Constantine and his family paid a private visit to Greece in 1993. After 2003, when a property dispute between Constantine and the Greek government was settled, Constantine and his family were able to make visits to Greece and purchase a summer home there. In 2013, former King Constantine II permanently returned to reside in Greece.

Constantine II_royals

King Constantine talks with Prince Harry while Queen Anne-Marie chats with the Duchess of Cambridge, now The Princess of Wales, during a luncheon at Windsor Castle; Photo: Zimbio

King Constantine was a close friend of his second cousin King Charles III of the United Kingdom, and a godfather of Prince William, The Prince of Wales. William, in turn, is a godfather of one of King Constantine’s grandchildren, Prince Constantine Alexios, the eldest son of Crown Prince Pavlos. As a descendant of Queen Victoria, King Constantine was related to a number of European royals and was regularly invited to royal functions.

King Constantine II, the former King of Greece, died at Hygeia Hospital in Athens, Greece on January 10, 2023, at the age of 82. He had been admitted to the intensive care unit at the hospital a couple of days earlier. His funeral, attended by many royal guests, was held at the Metropolitan Cathedral of the Annunciation in Athens, Greece, followed by the burial at the Royal Cemetery on the grounds of Tatoi Palace, the former summer palace of the Greek royal family, near Athens, Greece.

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Greece Resources at Unofficial Royalty

Michael Farquhar: Secret Lives of the Tsars: Three Centuries of Autocracy, Debauchery, Betrayal, Murder, and Madness from Romanov Russia

by Michael Farquhar
© Unofficial Royalty 2014

Winter Palace

The Winter Palace in St. Petersburg, Russia was the official residence of the Romanov tsars; Photo Credit – Susan Flantzer, August 2011

Author Michael Farquhar is sharing with Unofficial Royalty some tidbits from his book Secret Lives of the Tsars: Three Centuries of Autocracy, Debauchery, Betrayal, Murder, and Madness from Romanov Russia, published by Random House.

Did you know that…

  • Peter the Great had a passion for learning new trades—from shipbuilding to dentistry. He even became adept as an executioner, personally hacking off the heads of his recalcitrant subjects.
  • Once, during an anatomy lesson in Amsterdam, Peter the Great became so annoyed by his companions’ squeamishness that he ordered each of them to take a bite out of the human cadaver being dissected.
  • Peter the Great had no tolerance for dissent—even from his own son, whom he ordered tortured to death.
  • Catherine I, Russia’s first empress in her own right, was born and raised a peasant.
  • Empress Elizabeth was so vain that she never wore the same dress twice. Upon her death in 1762, an astonishing 15,000 gowns were reportedly found in her wardrobe.
  • No one was ever allowed to look prettier than Elizabeth. If a woman of the court happened to make that mistake, the empress was known to take a pair of scissors to the unfortunate’s hair and butcher the offending style.
  • Catherine the Great loved horses. She also loved sex. Contrary to popular legend, however, she never managed to unite the two passions. Still, the lusty empress brought all the enthusiasm of a vigorous ride to her extremely busy boudoir—filling it with a succession of eager young studs half her age.
  • Catherine the Great always sent away her lovers with lavish parting gifts of jewels, palaces, and cold hard cash. In 1776, for example, Peter Zavadovsky was given fifty thousand rubles and four thousand serfs for his services—prompting the French charge d’affaires to write to his brother, “You must agree, my friend, that it’s not a bad line of work to be in here.”
  • Emperor Paul was so unbalanced that upon the death of his mother, Catherine the Great, he decided to reunite her with the husband she hated—digging up the long-dead Tsar Peter III to lay in state by her side.
  • Tsar Nicholas I once toyed mercilessly with Dostoyevsky’s mind. Before writing Crime and Punishment and other classics, the acclaimed novelist was sentenced to death for subversion. Just as he was about to stand before the firing squad, however, Nicholas sent a reprieve—allowing the poor man to suffer until the very last moment.
  • Alexander II was subjected to no fewer than seven attempts on his life, including a massive bomb detonated in his own palace. “Am I such a wild beast that they should hound me to death?” he once exclaimed in despair. Another bomb, hurled directly at the tsar, finally did the job.
  • Grigori Rasputin, the Siberian mystic who advised and guided Tsar Nicholas II and his wife Alexandra to ruin, long had intimations of his own violent demise, which were often accompanied by warnings to the Imperial family that if anything happened to him they would share his fate. “When I perish they will perish,” he once predicted—accurately, as it turned out.

This article is the intellectual property of Unofficial Royalty and is NOT TO BE COPIED, EDITED, OR POSTED IN ANY FORM ON ANOTHER WEBSITE under any circumstances. It is permissible to use a link that directs to Unofficial Royalty.

Queen Sirikit of Thailand

by Susan Flantzer  © Unofficial Royalty 2014

Sirikit

Queen Sirikit of Thailand; Credit – Wikipedia

Sirikit Kitiyakara was born on August 12, 1932, in Bangkok, Siam, now called Thailand. She is the third of four children of Prince Nakkhatra Mangkala Kitiyakara and Bua Snidvongs. Queen Sirikit’s paternal grandfather Prince Kitiyakara Voralaksana was the twelfth son of King Chulalongkorn.  The Queen shares a descent from King Chulalongkorn with her husband King Bhumibol and they are first cousins once removed. Queen Sirikit has two older brothers and one younger sister: Galyanakit Kitiyakara (1929 – 1987), Adulyakit Kitiyakara (1930 – 2004), and Busba Kitiyakara (born 1934).

Sirikit_engagement

King Bhumibol and Queen Sirikit (back row in the middle) and her family in Lausanne, Switzerland on July 19, 1949, when their engagement took place; Credit – thailand.prd.go.th

Queen Sirikit began her primary education at the Rajini School in Bangkok, Thailand. She then attended St. Francis Xavier Convent School in the Samsen District of Bangkok. Her father became the Thai Ambassador to France and Denmark and finally the Ambassador to the Court of St. James in the United Kingdom. Queen Sirikit accompanied her father and was educated in all three countries.

King Bhumibol Adulyadej of Thailand succeeded to the throne on June 9, 1946, upon the death of his older brother King Ananda Mahidol from a gunshot wound under circumstances that have never been fully explained. At the time, the 18-year-old Bhumibol Adulyadej was attending the University of Lausanne in Switzerland. He returned to the university after his brother died and continued his studies.

During his university days, King Bhumibol Adulyadej frequently visited Paris and it was there that he met his future wife Sirikit Kitiyakara, the daughter of the Thai ambassador to France. Both Sirikit and King Bhumibol Adulyadej were studying at the Thai embassy and a relationship developed. In October 1948, King Bhumibol Adulyadej had a serious car accident on a road near Lausanne, Switzerland, and lost his right eye and wore a prosthetic for the rest of his life. Sirikit visited him frequently during his hospital stay and decided to attend school in Lausanne so she could get to know the king better.

The couple became engaged on July 19, 1949, and married at Srapathum Palace in Bangkok, Thailand on April 28, 1950, just a week before the king’s coronation. After the coronation on May 5, 1950, the 22-year-old king and the 17-year-old queen returned to their studies in Lausanne, Switzerland.

Sirikit_wedding

Queen Sirikit and King Bhumibol on their wedding day; Credit – thailand.prd.go.th

The couple had three daughters and one son:

In 1956, as is customary for Thai Buddhist males, King Bhumibol temporarily became a Buddhist monk and Queen Sirikit served as Regent. Because of the excellent way she served as Regent, King Bhumibol gave her the style “Somdet Phra Nang Chao Sirikit Phra Borommarachininat” which would translate to Queen Regent.

Queen Sirikit was well known for her charitable work. She was President of the Thai Red Cross Society and was active in relief work for the many refugees from Cambodia and Burma in Thailand. The Queen took an active role in the aftermath of the tsunami disaster in southern Thailand in December 2004. Tragically, the tsunami took the life of her grandson Bhumi Jensen, the son of her eldest daughter.

King Bhumibol Adulyadej’s health declined in his later years. The king resided at Siriraj Hospital in Bangkok for several years. On July 21, 2012, Queen Sirikit felt unsteady and staggered while exercising at Siriraj Hospital where King Bhumibol Adulyadej resided. Doctors determined that she had suffered a stroke. The Queen was not seen in public until August 2013 when the King was discharged from the hospital. Since then, Queen Sirikit has refrained from making public appearances.  King Bhumibol Adulyadej died on October 13, 2016, at Siriraj Hospital in Bangkok, at the age of 88, following several years of illness.

 

This article is the intellectual property of Unofficial Royalty and is NOT TO BE COPIED, EDITED, OR POSTED IN ANY FORM ON ANOTHER WEBSITE under any circumstances. It is permissible to use a link that directs to Unofficial Royalty.

King Bhumibol Adulyadej of Thailand

by Susan Flantzer  © Unofficial Royalty 2014

 

King Bhumibol Adulyadej of Thailand was born December 5, 1927, at Mount Auburn Hospital in Cambridge, Massachusetts in the United States. He was the youngest of three children of Prince Mahidol Adulyadej and his commoner wife Princess Srinagarindra.  At the time of King Bhumibol’s birth, his father was studying medicine at Harvard Medical School in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

King Bhumibol had two siblings:

  • Princess Galyani Vadhana (1923 – 2008), married (1) Colonel Aram Rattanakul Serireongrit, had one daughter, divorced  (2) Prince Varananda Dhavaj, no children
  • King Ananda Mahidol (1925 – 1946), unmarried, King Bhumibol’s predecessor on the throne

Bhumibol_siblings

King Bhumibol on his mother’s lap with his brother and sister; Credit – Wikipedia

In 1928, King Bhumibol’s family returned to Thailand after his father received his M.D. from Harvard Medical School. On September 24, 1929, King Bhumibol’s father Prince Mahidol Adulyadej died of kidney failure at the age of 37. Prince Mahidol Adulyadej did much to improve medicine and public health in Thailand and is considered the father of modern medicine and public health in Thailand.

King Bhumibol began his education at Mater Dei School in Bangkok, Thailand. In 1933, King Bhumibol, his mother, and his siblings moved to Switzerland where he attended Ecole Nouvelle de la Suisse Romande in Lausanne Switzerland. In 1934, King Prajadhipok, King Bhumibol’s uncle, abdicated and as he had no children, King Bhumibol’s 9-year-old brother Ananda Mahidol became king. The family remained in Switzerland and regents were appointed to take over the duties of the young king. King Bhumibol completed his secondary education at the Gymnase Classique Cantonal of Lausanne and received a baccalauréat des lettres (high-school diploma with a major in French literature, Latin, and Greek. King Bhumibol began studying at the University of Lausanne but returned to Thailand in 1945 when World War II ended.

In his childhood, King Bhumibol began two hobbies that would become lifelong passions. At the age of seven, he received his first camera and wherever he went, his camera went also.  Some of his many photographs are displayed at the King Bhumibol Photographic Museum. In 1942 at the age of 15, King Bhumibol became a jazz enthusiast and started to play the saxophone. He was an accomplished jazz saxophone player and composer, playing Dixieland and New Orleans jazz. The King also played the clarinet, trumpet, guitar, and piano.

 

On June 9, 1946, King Bhumibol became king at the age of 18. King Bhumibol’s brother King Ananda Mahidol was found shot dead in his bedroom in the Boromphiman Throne Hall at the Grand Palace in Bangkok, four days before he was scheduled to return to Switzerland to finish his doctoral degree in law at the University of Lausanne. The circumstances of King Ananda Mahidol’s death have never been fully explained. At the end of the mourning period, King Bhumibol returned to Switzerland to complete his university studies.

During his university days, King Bhumibol frequently visited Paris and it was there that he met his future wife Sirikit Kitiyakara, the daughter of the Thai ambassador to France. In October of 1948, King Bhumibol Adulyadej had a serious car accident on a road near Lausanne, Switzerland, and lost his right eye and wore a prosthetic for the rest of his life.  Sirikit visited him frequently during his hospital stay and decided to attend school in Lausanne so she could get to know the king better. The couple became engaged on July 19, 1949, and married at Srapathum Palace in Bangkok, Thailand on April 28, 1950, just a week before the king’s coronation. After the coronation on May 5, 1950, the 22-year-old king and the 17-year-old queen returned to their studies in Lausanne, Switzerland. The couple had three daughters and one son:

Bhumbol_and_Sirikit

King Bhumibol Adulyadej and Queen Sirikit on their wedding day; Credit – Wikipedia

King Bhumibol’s coronation was held on May 5, 1950, at the Grand Palace in Bangkok, Thailand. On Coronation Day, King Bhumibol’s consort was made Queen of Thailand.  On June 9, 2006, King Bhumibol celebrated his 60th anniversary as the King of Thailand, becoming the longest-reigning monarch in Thai history.

Bhumibol_coronation

The Coronation of King Bhumibol Adulyadej; Credit – www.phuketgazette.net

King Bhumibol Adulyadej’s health declined in his later years. The King resided at Siriraj Hospital in Bangkok for several years.  He left the hospital in August 2013 but returned intermittently until 2015 when he returned to the hospital permanently.

 

On December 5, 2012, King Bhumibol’s 85th birthday, he made an appearance on the palace balcony. Hundreds of thousands of Thais waving flags crowded around Bangkok’s Royal Plaza to witness a rare public appearance by their revered and ailing king. Queen Sirikit did not attend. She has not made public appearances since suffering a stroke in July 2012.

 

King Bhumibol Adulyadej died on October 13, 2016, at Siriraj Hospital in Bangkok, at the age of 88, following several years of illness.  At the time of his death, he was the world’s longest-reigning current monarch, having reigned for 70 years and 126 days.  The King’s son, Maha Vajiralongkorn was proclaimed King of Thailand following a period of personal mourning.   Crown Prince Maha Vajiralongkorn, did not want to be immediately named king to give the nation time to mourn his father’s death.

The King’s remains lay in state from October 16, 2016, until the cremation ceremony on October 26, 2017.  While the King’s remains lay in state, foreign dignitaries paid their respects.  The public square Sanam Luang was used as the cremation ground and on February 27, 2017, the construction of an elaborate, temporary crematorium began. The cremation took place on October 26, 2017, thirteen days after the first anniversary of the King’s death. On October 29, 2017, the royal ashes were enshrined at the Royal Cemetery at Wat Ratchabophit.

The Royal Crematorium; Credit – Wikipedia

This article is the intellectual property of Unofficial Royalty and is NOT TO BE COPIED, EDITED, OR POSTED IN ANY FORM ON ANOTHER WEBSITE under any circumstances. It is permissible to use a link that directs to Unofficial Royalty.