Archive April 2012
Hereditary Grand Duke Guillaume engaged
Cry and weep, marriageable women all over the world who had hoped to catch Europe’s last royal bachelor heir, for he is finally getting hitched. Yesterday morning a Belgian newspaper already reported it, and the Luxembourg Prime Minister confirmed it later that day at a press conference. Guillaume, Hereditary Grand Duke of Luxembourg is engaged to the Belgian Countess Stéphanie de Lannoy.
Japan’s “Princess Problem”
Conservatives Panic at the Prospect of Female-Headed Imperial Family Branches
Last Tuesday, the third of a series of expert hearings took place, concerning the issue of whether Japanese princesses should be allowed in the future to keep their titles and create new family branches when they marry. (Currently, the Imperial House Law stipulates that female members who marry commoners must abandon their imperial status.)
The Queen Mum
The Queen Mother was such a well-known member of the royal family for so much of her daughter’s reign that it’s hard to believe it’s already the tenth anniversary of her death. It seems only yesterday that she was appearing on the Buckingham Palace balcony or at a royal engagement, dressed in pale blue with one of her enormous hats, and happily occupying the limelight.