Royal News Roundup

Starting where we left off last week, a new poll in Spain found that ¾ of Spaniards want HM King Felipe VI to play a greater roll in politics and would like to see him more active in pushing the parties to cooperate and come to agreements. That is definitely encouraging news, however, I have the feeling the numbers would change drastically if the parties came together on policies unpopular with the masses -and sometimes what is needed is not what is popular. The new royal couple met with members of the Social Solidarity Association at the Royal Palace in Madrid and reviewed the Spanish armed forces. In a move that will cheer some and outrage others, Felipe VI became the first King of Spain to meet officially with members of the LGBT community. Certainly a move that will not be well received by traditionalists but it should be kept in mind this was in the context of a mass-meeting with 350 NGOs. At this point, what can you really say about it? When Pope Frank says, “Who am I to judge?” it seems hard to be very critical of the King of Spain in such an instance. The group certainly has a more favorable view of Queen Letizia than of her predecessor Queen Sofia who made known her opposition to “gay marriage”. When pressed about this, Queen Letizia refrained from any criticism, saying her mother-in-law is “a woman of her time”. You know, there were days when time was not the determining factor -faith was. In other news, the litigious persecution of HRH Infanta Cristina continues with a judge concluding a 2-year investigation by saying that charges should be brought and the Princess and her husband summoned to court again. A top anti-corruption prosecutor slammed the ruling on the rather significant basis that, in the two years of investigations, absolutely no evidence has been found that the Infanta is guilty of anything. Obviously, biased and publicity-hungry litigators are determined to drag this out for as long as possible.

Moving north, in the Principality of Monaco the mother-to-be Princess Charlene has started to show some visible signs of her maternity at recent public engagements. The Sovereign Prince said that they were “thrilled” and “overjoyed” to learn that a baby was on the way for the Grimaldi dynasty. In other baby-related news, the Princely Family was gathered in full force at the royal chapel in the Princely Palace for the baptism of Raphael, son of Charlotte Casiraghi and Gad Elmaleh. What I have not seen in any of the coverage is exactly what the name of the little bundle is. Raphael…what? The couple are not married and have not given many clues that they intend to change that so is he Raphael Casiraghi or Raphael Elmaleh or what? Perhaps some reader in the know will enlighten me on that score. Anyway, all the best to the new little Christian (with the background of the father I wasn’t entirely sure there would be a christening) and pretty much the whole family was there, the Sovereign Prince and Princess, grandmother Princess Caroline, Andrea, Pierre and their significant others, little Princess Alexandra of Hanover (though she is looking quite grown up these days) and Princess Stephanie and her three children. There were, of course, also members of Gad’s family present but I prefer not to think about him more than is absolutely necessary. Moving on!

There was plenty of pomp and pageantry on display in Luxembourg last week as the Grand Duchy celebrated its National Day, which was on Monday, in honor of the birthday of the Grand Duke. The family was out in full force, there was a military parade, receptions, a Te Deum at Notre Dame Cathedral, a nice fireworks display and all the rest of it. At the Te Deum the Archbishop of Luxembourg, Jean-Claude Hollerich said, “That the cathedral is so full, is a sign, that the Luxembourg people stand by you, Monseigneur, and your family,” he told the Grand duke. “You are the symbol and guarantor of our freedom.” A Jewish rabbi, Muslim imam and Anglican vicar also offered prayers at the service because we’re all very multicultural these days. Further events in the low countries included the King of the Belgians meeting with their recently victorious football (soccer for the Americans) team the “Red Devils” and there was a royal visit by the King and Queen of the Netherlands to Poland (probably talking about how much they dislike Russia).

For northern Europe, Prince Harry was not around, going on a tour of Chile and Brazil. He also, apparently, said that his nephew Prince George looks like Winston Churchill. Sure, but what chubby little baby *doesn’t* look like Churchill? That’s an easy one. The Countess of Wessex helped the Brownies celebrate the 100th birthday of their organization and HM the Queen visited Northern Ireland, touring the set of “Game of Thrones” and, most distastefully for this monarchist, touring a Belfast jail with former IRA commander Martin McGuinness acting as guide. Would I criticize the Queen for such a thing? Never, rather I would salute her for having the dignity and self-control to endure such a situation arranged for the sake of fostering peace and reconciliation or some such pretty phrases. Later, the Queen hosted military veterans at a special garden party (much better company that) and in another display of the superiority of the private over the public, the Crown Estate (the Queen’s own property) was appraised at a value of £10 billion, up 15% from last year and generating £267 million in revenue for the Treasury since the Queen hands over most of the profits from her estates to the government in return for an allowance (the Civil List). It makes one wonder what a land of prosperity the UK might be if the Queen were in charge of the economy rather than the politicians. It also came out last week that the Prince of Wales lobbied the former regime of little Tony Blair to expand grammar schools which the Labour government had effectively declared war on. Too bad he was not listened to.

The biggest news in royal Scandinavia this week was certainly the engagement of Prince Carl Philip of Sweden to longtime girlfriend Sofia Hellqvist, former reality TV star and “glamour model” (don’t let the name fool you, she got naked folks -all kinds of nekkid!) and this was something I did not think was going to happen. Perhaps it was wishful thinking but I was convinced Sofia was just a phase Prince Carl Philip was going through and, in time, he would settle on someone more suitable. I’m sure about every guy has had some girl like that in his past (mine was named Samantha) who is like a terrible craving but who is definitely a “bad girl”, not the kind you could bring home to mother and so you move on and hopefully become a little more mature. Then again, sometimes you don’t. I don’t want to be too critical (I’m going to but I don’t really want to) and maybe Sofia is a perfectly lovely person, I’m sure she’s very nice and all that and, true, with the trendy new succession law in place it is not as though she is likely to ever be more than a princess by marriage but, but … really? It reminds me of that underwear model that Crown Prince Frederick had the red hots for but Queen Daisy (I love Queen Daisy ever so much) said that in no uncertain terms would a woman with photos of herself parading around in her knickers *ever* be Queen of Denmark and matriarch of the oldest monarchy in Europe. Not. Going. To. Happen. Crown Prince Freddie got over it and married his Australian bride who is now beloved on two continents. But then, Sweden is not Denmark, Prince Carl Philip is not (any longer) heir to the throne and, as I desperately try to find a bright side to this, I can sincerely say that I’m no more distressed by this than the marriage of Princess Madeleine to a New York investment banker. At least someone from the world of reality TV is open and honest about being a total sell-out. Anyway, I do wish them the best, and I mean that sincerely, his choice is made and I hope nothing but the best for them and every Swede should pray God that they have a long life of wedded bliss together. It just seems we’ve come down awfully fast from fellow royals or at least high aristocracy to reality TV stars who’ve bared it all for the cameras.

And finally, saving the “best” for the last in a week that seemed chocked full of stories designed to get on my last nerve, we have the news on this anniversary last week of the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand and his wife that Bosnian Serbs have put up a monument to the double-murderer Gavrilo Princip in East Sarajevo. This…this is so despicable I barely have words to describe it. I have tried to find some way to illustrate this -monstrosity- to just your average person on the street and really nothing can compare but I did come up with something. Americans certainly will be aware of the name of Charlie Manson and probably many foreign readers will have heard of him as well. He is quite possibly the most notorious criminal in US custody today (aside from terrorists or people like that). Charlie is infamous all over the world for being behind the gruesome Tate-LaBianca murders in 1969. Now, can you imagine a group of diehard environmentalist nut-jobs putting up a statue of Charlie Manson in Los Angeles? Such a thing would be unthinkable! Yet, putting up a statue of Gavrilo Princip is far, far worse. Think about it for a moment; Charlie, lest we forget, didn’t actually kill anyone himself. Gavrilo Princip did, he killed two innocent people, a loving husband and wife, orphaning their three children. Charlie was convicted for being responsible for the murders on the grounds of being part of the conspiracy, in other words, he caused the deaths of seven people even though he did not actually take part in the killings. Gavrilo Princip, with his double murder, caused the deaths of tens of millions of people even though he took no part in the actual war.

I have tried to put on my “Fox News fair & balanced” hat to look at this and there is just no way on God’s green earth that Gavrilo Princip can be seen in any sort of favorable light. Even for Serbian nationalists, why not a statue of one of the multitude of stalwart, courageous, long-suffering Serbian soldiers who fought day after day against the combined might of Austria-Hungary and Germany instead of a man whose only claim to fame is shooting down an unarmed man and woman? This also brought to mind a former post on the effort by Korean Catholic bishops to have an assassin canonized as a saint, go back and have a look at that article for my thoughts on the subject, they will be much the same as this, only, again, Gavrilo Princip is far worse (and having just had a look back at the article, I see one reader brought up this very comparison). He started a World War and sure, Serbia was lucky enough to come out on the winning side and gain all the territory it wanted, becoming Yugoslavia but Princip was long dead by that time and he was certainly no prophet. What if things hadn’t ended that way? What if Russia had refused to get involved and Serbia was just conquered by the Austrians and absorbed completely into the “Dual-Empire”? His despicable act might just as easily have brought about the total elimination of Serbia from the map. Finally, on one last note to all Serbian nationalists tempted to view Princip favorably; remember that it is exactly this same sort of attitude that has allowed Kosovo to be taken away from you. Think about it.