The Royal Siblings and their work

[crisiñaki]

Hey, I was thinking that we spend a lot of time talking about the work the Kings, Crown Princes and their consorts do in their respective countries, but we usually don't dwell too much in the work their siblings do for their nations and maybe the world.

This is like the threads of who's the most professional, but I'm not able to create a poll (don't know why ) but if I could, it would go like this:

Who's the most hardworking royal sibling?

1. Infanta Elena
2. Infanta Cristina
3. the Princess Royal
4. Princess Caroline

The criteria is:
1. Royal duties
2. Work (if they do any)
3. Public disposition: are they close to their people or just appear everywhere, look pretty and then go?

My vote is for Infanta Cristina, closely followed by her sister Infanta Elena, so what do you think?

[Alexandria]

Originally Posted by crisiñaki

Hey, I was thinking that we spend a lot of time talking about the work the Kings, Crown Princes and their consorts do in their respective countries, but we usually don't dwell too much in the work their siblings do for their nations and maybe the world.

This is like the threads of who's the most professional, but I'm not able to create a poll (don't know why ) but if I could, it would go like this:

To make a poll, please contact the appropriate forum moderators -- in the case of Royal Chit Chat, it would be Ennyllorac or norwegianne.

Originally Posted by crisiñaki

Who's the most hardworking royal sibling?

1. Infanta Elena
2. Infanta Cristina
3. the Princess Royal
4. Princess Caroline

Would you mean that these are the only four options? Or could there be others? Such as Stephanie, Joachim, Martha Louise, Edward, Anne and Andrew, Laurent and Claire, Constantijn, etc..

And what about the siblings of the monarchs? Such as Benedikte or Margriet?

Originally Posted by crisiñaki

The criteria is:
1. Royal duties
2. Work (if they do any)
3. Public disposition: are they close to their people or just appear everywhere, look pretty and then go?

I think it's important to realize that the above choices are unfair/unbalanced when you consider that Princess Anne has grown children and thus does not have the kind of obligations that Cristina or Elena have to their young children. (Cristina even more so with four young children including a baby.) Plus consider that Anne's only job is to perform royal duties while Elena and Cristina both maintain jobs outside of their royal duties.

That is why Anne performs 600 royal engagements a year while Cristina and Elena combined don't perform even one sixth of that number.

Also, Caroline's role in the Monagasque court is much more prominent than the role of Cristina and Elena in the Spanish royal family.

In Martha Louise's case, not only does she have young children, a career and book tours, but her schedule has significantly been scaled back since she married and lost her HRH status so to compare her to the role that Cristina and Elena play is very unfair, not to mention comparing Martha Louise's role to Anne's role.

[crisiñaki]

Thanks for the info and the tips Alexandra!!
I'll do just that and sum your colaborations to my thread, thanks a lot:)

[Lena]

Great idea, crisiñaki!!!!
I thought about an similar thread before...because this is often a topic in private discussions with (Royal watcher) friends.
IMO hardly any Royal sibling can please my expectations. I know they are VERY high...or let´s say I measure them with "average" working standards and this means 25-50 hours a week. Practically this would mean, that I would want them to do an independent job (e.g. teacher, pilot...on a base of 25-30h a week) AND Royal work in the holidays/at the weekends. But far more often I see, that they use their Royal connections for businesses and do then a little bit, but cash an own apanage or a good piece of cake from daddy´s or mummy´s apanage. And this annoys me. I´m often surprised, that they haven´t more pride and dignity and want to try their own thing. Well, I could say a lot to this...and when I´ve structured my thoughts and/or have read other opinions, I will say more. So far I will only add, that I see good tendencies with the Spanish Infantas (esp. Christina) They are so far that, what comes closest to my ideal image of a Royal sibling.

[princess olga]

Originally Posted by Lena

Great idea, crisiñaki!!!!
I thought about an similar thread before...because this is often a topic in private discussions with (Royal watcher) friends.
IMO hardly any Royal sibling can please my expectations. I know they are VERY high...or let´s say I measure them with "average" working standards and this means 25-50 hours a week. Practically this would mean, that I would want them to do an independent job (e.g. teacher, pilot...on a base of 25-30h a week) AND Royal work in the holidays/at the weekends. But far more often I see, that they use their Royal connections for businesses and do then a little bit, but cash an own apanage or a good piece of cake from daddy´s or mummy´s apanage. And this annoys me. I´m often surprised, that they haven´t more pride and dignity and want to try their own thing. Well, I could say a lot to this...and when I´ve ordered my thoughts and/or have read other opinions, I will say more. So far I will only add, that I see good tendencies with the Spanish Infantas (esp. Christina) They are so far that, what comes closest to my ideal image of a Royal sibling.

you mean many of them behave like any good ol' trust fund kid?

Well, happily, there <are> some royal sibs who, I think, would deserve some kudo's.

To me, one notable example is Johan Friso: this sibling of Willem Alexander of Orange has always gone his own way. I have the impression that even if he wasn't Queen Beatrix's son, he'd have had more or less the same career path. He's got a degree in economics as well as an engineering degree I believe, worked hard at his job at, I believe, either Bear Stearns or Goldman Sachs, or an equivalent, and is now head of a research division at TNO, a semi-governmental R&D institute. This is a guy who has brains as well as a trust fund, and frankly, without the trust fund he'd do just fine (may not have landed Mabel though in that case

And then there's, yes, Anne of England, her brother Andrew, Margriet of the Netherlands, the Infantas of Spain. All these people put in as much time as they can spare to help the 'family business'.

And then, well, there's the ones that, well, either don't pull up their sleeves, or, and that's sometimes even more annoying, blatantly take advantage of their royal titles and exploit them for financial gain.
Two cases in point:
Edward of England. had a tv production company that made documentaries about..royals. Even pestered his own nephew William on campus in Scotland for the goal of shooting footage. Pays about $1000 a month for the monstrously huge pile he calls home. What does he do with his time? Unless the media unfairly chooses to cover him as little as possible, my conclusion is that he's just, well, retired?

Martha Louise of Norway. Nice gal but all the same..a shameless self promoter using the family business as a means to get attention and something on her bank account. She's a writer of children's books, which typically feature..stories about royal topics. Now, she can do whatever she wants of course, but these books of hers smell more like a clever marketing ploy than that they required Martha to contact her type writer for hours and hours on end. Her books feature more illustrations than text, and the illustrations are done by someone else. I guess the positive thing here is that she 'works'..