Who of Royal Blood for William?

[pengolodh_sc]

--- In HPFGU-OTChatter, "Shaun Hately" wrote:
> On 1 Nov 2003 at 7:22, Steve wrote:
> 
> > Just out of curiousity, is the anyone of true Royal blood
> > anywhere in Europe who might be a likely wife for Prince
> > William? Like maybe a Swedish princess? Say any royal female
> > from 5 years younger to 10 years older that Prince William.
> 
> I'm unsure - I know the British Royal family well, but am not
> that good on the rest of Europe. Personally though, I think the
> question is moot. I doubt William is going to marry in the near
> future, and I think it most likely his future wife will not be
> of Royal background. He is not going to have the same pressure
> preceding generations of royalty have had (although there are
> people who would definitely be delighted if he happened to marry
> someone like that).

Of course, Charles didn't marry anyone Royal either - the late 
Princess of Wales was a daughter of the late Earl of Althorpe (though 
it should be mentioned that the Spencers are a very old family, and 
apparently look down on the Windsor-family as being upstarts).

As for suitable matches for Prince William, Norway has none (Princess 
Märtha Louise is over 30, and already married), Denmark has none, 
while Sweden has two - HRH Crown Princess Victoria (but she's a very 
unlikely match - she is to become Queen of Sweden, and there may even 
be Swedish constitutional limits on whether she can marry an heir to 
another nation's throne, and remain Swedish heir apparent), and HRH 
Princess Madeleine.

I think, anyway, that the public at large is going to expect that his 
spouse will not be royal nor noble, but to be respectable, well-
spoken, polite, virtuous, and with good sense - they do not want to 
see a repeat of what happened with Diana, Princess of Wales, or 
Sarah, Duchess of York.  Am not certain on how the Countess of Wessex 
is viewed these days - the Earl of Wessex apparently has managed to 
degrade himself somewhat in the public eye.  

I think what the public will really want is for him to be as wise in 
his choice of spouse as Prince Joakim of Denmark, whose wife Princess 
Alexandra has become very popular.

> > On a related subject, how many countries in Europe still have
> > offically recognised Royalty?
> 
> Are you sure you can handle the traffic asking simple royal
> related questions seems to generate on this list (-8
> 
> Belgium, Denmark, Great Britain, Liechenstein, Luxembourg,
> Monaco, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, and Sweden. I think.

Andorra is a monarchy - the bishop of Urgell and the French President 
are co-princes of Andorra.  This started with a feud between the 
Bishops of Urgell and the Counts of Foix in the 14th century, which 
was resolved with a treaty where the Bishop of Urgell and the Count 
of Foix would be co-princes of the principlaity of Andorra.   The 
title of co-prince was transferred to the French crown when the then 
count of Foix became King Henry IV of France, but the title of co-
prince was discarded in 1806, at the request of the Andorrans.  It 
was alter restored by Napoleon, and has since been held by the 
President of the French Republic in office.  The Vatican-state can 
perhaps be said to be a monarchy of sorts too.  Of course, both of 
these are very unlikely to produce an eligible match, to say the 
least.  

In addition, you have the Greek Royals - while de-throned, they are 
still recognised as being royals, and King Constantine is still 
referred to by his title, though his son will not be given that 
accolade - but they are still recognised enough to be eligible as 
matches.  There are ex-royal families also related to various Balkan 
states, also.  

Outside of Europe, one finds several other monarchies.  Lesotho and 
Swaziland are both monarchies, AFAIK, and there are recognised petty 
kingdoms within some other African states.  There are monarchies in 
the Middle East, as well - Saudi-Arabia is most prominent, but also 
Kuwait, Jordan, Bahrain, Quatar, and the United Arab Emirates have 
monarchy.  There is Bhutan and Nepal in Himalaya, the Sultanate of 
Brunei om Borneo, and Malaysia is also a monarchy - as I understand, 
there are nine states within Malaysia, each being itself ruled by a 
hereditary ruler, and these nine rulers choose one of themselves to 
be King for a five-year period.  Thailand is a monarchy on the 
traditional model, as is Japan.

--- In HPFGU-OTChatter, "Shaun Hately" wrote:
> Prince Charles' other grandmother was Her Serene Highness
> Princess Victoria Von Battenberg.  She died in 1969 aged
> around 85 - that's from memory.

Great-grandmother, actually - Princess Victoria died in 1950.  Her 
daughter Princess Alice married Prince Andrew of Greece, and they had 
several children, including Prince Philip.  To my knowledge, no 
Norwegian has married into the British Royal Family since the 1300s 
or so (and then it was actually the Scots Royal family, IIRC - and 
she died before the marriage could be conducted).  The family-link 
between the Norwegian and British Royal family is primarily through 
our first Queen after independence - Queen Maud, who was the consort 
of King Haakon VII.  King Haakon VII was born prince Carl of Denmark, 
and married Princess Maud of Britain, she was one of several 
daughters of King Edward VII, and was thus (i) the granddaughter of 
Queen Victoria, and (ii) the granddaughter of King Christian IX of 
Denmark, Prince Carl's grandfather.

[snip]
> Well, there is some longevity in the Royal Family - the Queen
> Mother was 101 when she died. Princess Alice, Dowager Duchess
> of Gloucester, is also 101. 
[snip]

But these, of course, were not born in the Royal Family - the Queen 
Mother was from a Scots noble-family, and Princess Alice was also 
born in a Scots noble-family - she was the third daughter of the 
seventh Duke of Buccleuch.  As for other prominent Royals, they 
reached the following ages:
Queen Victoria:  82
King Edward VII:  69
King George V:  71
Queen Maud of Norway:  79
The Duke of Windsor:  78
King George VI:  57
Mary, Princess Royal:  68
Henry, Duke of Gloucester:  74
George, Duke of Kent:  Killed in wartime flying-accident at age 42
Prince John:  14
Queen Elizabeth II:  77 so far
Princess Margaret:  72
Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh: 82, so far

A truncated family-tree of the Royals after Queen Victoria may be 
found at:
http://www.royal.gov.uk/files/pdf/windsortree.pdf

>From this can be seen that Prince Charles descends from Queen 
Victoria through both his mother and his father.

Best regards
Christian Stubø