September 2005 Newsletter: Featuring Princess Lilian of Sweden

[GrandDuchess]

THE ROYAL FORUMS NEWSLETTER – SEPTEMBER 2005 *

Welcome to the September 2005 edition of The Royal Forums’ newsletter.


This time of year always makes me think of a particular song, if only for it’s mame, “See You in September” by The Happenings:
See you in September
See you when the summer's through
Here we are (bye, baby, goodbye)
Saying goodbye at the station (bye, baby, goodbye)
Summer vacation (bye, baby bye, baby)
Is taking you away (bye, baby, goodbye)

It was my goodbye calling to friends on the last day of school I wouldn’t see over the summer. Pigtailed and in a summer dress or shorts, clutching school projects and paintings done over the course of the year, and a report card full of A's (), I would gleefully yell out “Have a good summer! See you in September!” as I ran all the way home, thoughts of summer playing already filling my head.

As an adult, September is less of a transition for me. It doesn’t mark the beginning of a new school year, new teachers, or even a new school as it does for some people. (The one September “tradition” I do still observe however is new clothes for fall!) But it is still a transition of sorts—summer’s not quite over and fall’s not quite here yet. Although lazy weekends spent at the cottage sitting on the dock or relaxing at the beach are at an end, there are many things I look forward to as we dwell on the cusp of fall: apple picking followed by hot apple cider, the first leaves changing colours, and for some of us, a new television viewing season! And for those who live in countries that observe Daylight Saving Time (DST), an extra hour of sleep (or play!) when we “fall back” an hour in October.


For all of us here at The Royal Forums, the next several months brings forth a cornucopia of royal treats to look forward to: the birth of two royal heirs (Denmark and Spain), the birth of the Crown Prince and Crown Princess of Belgium's third baby, the Dutch baptisms of Princess Alexia and Felecia van Lippe-Biesterfeld van Vollenhoven, the Greek baptism of Carlos Morales, the Dutch wedding of Prince Floris and Aimé Söhngen, and the Japanese wedding of Princess Sayako and Yoshiki Kuroda.



We have much to look forward in the coming months—and I hope that you’ll spend that extra hour of DST here at TRF. I know I will be—and preferably sipping a mug of hot apple cider while doing it!

/Alexandria & The Royal Forums Team

PS. If there is a royal person or residence, or a special piece of jewellery you would like to see covered in a future issue of our newsletter, please let us know here. Our member comments and suggestions are always welcome.


FORUM NOTES
This newsletter, as well as the previous Summer Edition, is due to the tremendous efforts of GrandDuchess, whom in the last two months not only taken on moderating duties but has taken on the newsletter with great enthusiasm and initiative. Our future newsletters will be even more wonderful no doubt because of GrandDuchess' participation in them—so a great round of applause and much appreciate should be sent her way!

Recently one of the TRF Team’s Super Moderators, Lena, personally decided that she wanted to leave the team and take back her ordinary member status. We would like to acknowledge her by saying that we have appreciated her very much in the team, she has been a valuable member of the workforce in all and everything, and we thank her for the time she spent on moderating here on the forums. Thank you Lena!

The TRF Team is very pleased to welcome the additions of pdas1201 and Warren to our moderating team. Both have been active and respectable contributors and we know that they will prove to be a valuable asset to the managing work here on the forums.

To celebrate The Royal Forums’ 1st Jubilee, the TRF Team has issued a banner contest for the members of our forum. The banner should be no larger than 760x80 pixels, and the images feature the current monarchs (and their spouses) or future monarchs (and their spouses), and preferable it should also reflect the geographical diversity of the Royal Houses covered here on the forums. The winner will get their banner displayed at the top of the forum where the current banner now is, and will also be awarded some special member privileges. The closing date of the contest is 4 September. Click here to read more.

The TRF Team has recently done a little re-organization of the forums. We did this to make it more efficient and easier to navigate, and with this a few new main forums appeared on the front page. We hope that our members are happy with this, any comments or ideas can be left in this thread.

Administrators and SuperModerators have recently been getting a number of questions and complaints from some of the members about why their post counts sometimes drop. There are two reasons for this.

First, the Moderation Team go through older threads from time to time and delete old posts with broken links or ones containing photos that have been duplicated in other posts. We realize that this will decrease the post counts of the members whose posts are deleted, but this is a necessary piece of "housekeeping" to help conserve bandwidth and to make the threads more readable.

Second, we've recently been seeing attempts by several people to increase their post counts by posting large numbers of short posts that really don't say anything or by posting related photos or articles in separate posts rather than together in one post. This wastes bandwidth, clogs up threads with inanities, disrupts the flow of conversation, and generally reduces the quality of the threads, as well as taking a lot of time for moderators to merge or edit posts. Far from being a good thing, this tendency is liable to get a person labeled as a troublemaker. While we have tried to tolerate this in the past, it's happening on a sufficiently large scale that these posts are now being deleted.

The Administrators and SuperModerators are not impressed by people with post counts in the thousands who got those numbers by spamming the boards with hundreds of posts saying "Thank you for posting," "Got any more information?," "awwwww, isn't he/she cute?," "this is what I listened to just now" and on and on and on ad nauseam. This sort of behavior does not make a person an asset to this forum. A post like that once in a while is fine. Twenty or thirty times a day most emphatically is not.

We would like to remind people that the quality of their posts, not just the quantity, is the important thing. If people aren't posting interesting and informative posts, then they're damaging the forum, not contributing to it.

While we're glad that people enjoy the Member Titles such as Royal Highness and Majesty, the Moderation Team would appreciate if posters did not abuse the system in order to get these titles. We do NOT want to see this site descend into juvenile chat as though people were teens texting back and forth. Nor do we want to see news and photo threads reaching their ten-page limit every few days because someone has posted a dozen photos or links about the same event in different posts rather than together. If people don't have something positive or interesting to contribute to the boards, the best thing is to wait until you do.

Therefore, the Moderation Team will ignore further complaints regarding decreased post count. Members who continue to try and increase their post count with repeated abuses as described above will be subject to warning and eventual suspension.

If anyone has questions about this, feel free to PM a member of the Moderation Team.

[GrandDuchess]

THE ROYAL CALENDAR


BIRTHDAYS

Pierre Casiraghi, son of Princess Caroline of Hannover (5 September 1987)

Victoria Federica de Marichalar y Borbón, daughter of Infanta Elena of Spain (9 September 2000)

Queen Paola of Belgium (11 September 1937)

Princess Akishino of Japan (11 September 1966)

Count Friedrich von Pfeil und Klein-Ellgut, son of Princess Alexandra zu Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg (14 September 1999)

Princess Anne of Great Britain (15 September 1950)

The Princess of Asturias (15 September 1972)

Prince Harry of the United Kingdom (15 September 1984)

Crown Princess Pavlos of Greece (17 September 1968)

Princess Märtha Louise of Norway (22 September 1971)

Prince Johan Friso van Oranje-Nassau (25 September 1968)

Princess Salma of Jordan (26 September 2000)

Princess Iman of Jordan (27 September 1996)

Juan Valentín Urdangarín y de Borbón (29 September 1999)

Baroness Christina Silfverschiöld, daughter of Princess Christina Mrs Magnuson of Sweden (29 September 1966)

Ari Behn, husband of Princess Märtha Louise of Norway (30 September 1972)


ANNIVERSARIES

The enthronement ceremony anniversary of King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden (15 September 1973) (thread here)

Wedding Anniversary of Prince Kyril and Princess Rosario of Bulgaria (15 September 1989) (thread here)

Wedding Anniversary of King Constantine and Queen Anne-Marie (18 September 1964) (thread here)

Wedding Anniversary of Princess Astrid of Belgium and Archduke Lorenz of Habsburg (22 September 1984) (thread here)


DATES OF NOTE

Official Visit from Norway to Sweden (1-2 September) (thread here)

Opening of Parliament in Sweden (13 September)

Official Visit by the King and Queen of Norway to the USA (18-19 September)

Wedding of Count Rodolphe de Vincens de Causans and Princess Anna Cecilia of Bourbon-Two Sicilies in Turin, Italy (19 September)

Prinsjesdag in The Netherlands (20 September)

[GrandDuchess]

ROYAL QUICK HITS

Here are five threads we feel are of note and worthy of a look at:


In the first days of September this year, Their Majesties King Harald and Queen Sonja together with Their Royal Highnesses Crown Prince Haakon and Crown Princess Mette-Marit will travel on an Official Visit to Sweden, marking the centennial of the peaceful end of the union between Norway and Sweden. This is a very special event, and it symbolises that not every change of a country’s sovereign independence or borders has to end with war, but can be done in a peaceful way. The visit will be hosted by Their Majesties King Carl XVI Gustaf and Queen Silvia of Sweden, and joining them for the visit will be Their Royal Highnesses Crown Princess Victoria and Princess Lilian, as well as the King’s sister Princess Christina Mrs Magnuson. You can find the thread for this event here.


Did you know that there are some royals with non-royal jobs aside from their official roles? Now there is a thread here at The Royal Forums dedicated to this topic, and if you take a look at this thread, you can learn that there are for example royal teachers and authors out there. You can find this thread here.


If you could meet any royal of your personal choice, whom would you want to meet? And where would you like to meet him or her, and how would you spend the time? What are the burning issues you’d get on the table? Share your thoughts here.


Have you recently read a good book about any royal or Royal Family that you thought was good? Why don’t you share your experience with people here on the forums, recommend it and inspire others to read it. Or maybe you have a favourite book on the royal topic, one that you have read many times, and consider being a personal favourite. Then why don’t you go ahead and recommend that one too. There’s a jungle of books on the topics around royalty, so any recommendations would surely be appreciated. The thread can be found here.


The eldest son of Infanta Cristina and her Olympic-medalist winning husband Inaki Urdangarin, Juan Valentin de Todos los Santos, who became a big brother for the third time earlier this summer with the birth of his sister Irene, celebrates his sixth birthday on 29 September. A thread devoted to Juan Urdangarin can be found here:

[GrandDuchess]

Princess Lillian, Duchess of Halland


On 30 August, Princess Lillian of Sweden celebrates her nintieth birthday, making her one of the oldest living royals.

This month, The Royal Forums celebrates Princess Lilian’s birthday with a look back on her life, a Welsh-born woman who became a Swedish princess.

Lillian May Davies was born on 30 August 1915 in Swansea, Wales to William and Gladys Mary Davies. Her father was a warehouseman and stock keeper while her mother was a shopp assistant—humble beginnings for a girl who would one day become a princess.

Lillian’s home life was a less than idealic one. Her parents had been separated since the 1920s, but did not formally file for divorce until 1939, and Lillian lived with her mother and step-father.

When she became old enough, she moved to London where she changed her name—Lilian with 'l' rather than two 'l's' as she was born. It was a symbolic name change: a reflection of the new life she wa sabout to create for herself. Working as a model, Lilian graced fashion magazines such as VOGUE as well as TV commercials.

During the 1940s, the future princess was married briefly to actor Ian Craig (1912-1994). During this time, Lilian contributed to the British war effort by working in a factory that made radios for the British Navy. She later worked at a hospital for wounded soldiers.

It was at this time, in 1943, with the sound of bombs reverbating loudly throughout London and the rest of Europe, that Lilian met Prince Bertil of Sweden, who was 31 at the time, and the third son of King Gustav VI Adolf and his first wife Princess Margaret of Connaught.

On 30 August 1943, her friends threw the exuberant and friendly Lilian a cocktail party (as was the fashion at the time) to celebrate her 28th birthday. The Deputy Marine Attache from the Swedish Embassy attended the party bearing a white orchid for the birthday girl. The young and handsome Deputy Marine Attache was none other than Prince Bertil, who had been invited to the party by a mutual acquaintance of both the Prince and Lilian.

Immediately smitten with Lilian, the Prince asked her out for that very same evening. "Unfortunately I was busy that time," Lilian has said of the request for a date. Instead, they met for lunch the following day. "For me there was no immediate 'click.' It took a while before the love started growing. But it indeed became strong."

Although Prince Bertil and Lilian became romantically involved, fate and duty dealt the young couple a difficult hand. Only four years after meeting in 1947, Prince Bertil’s eldest brother, Crown Prince Gustaf Adolf, died in plane accident, leaving his one-year-old son Carl Gustaf as the Crown Prince of Sweden. Prince Bertil’s father, King Gustaf VI Adolf reigned until his death in 1973 at the age of 91, with the throne then passing to his grandson, who became King Carl XVI Gustaf.

Royal politics also played its role in keeping Prince Bertil apart from Lilian. Old fashioned beliefs of monarchies still ruled the Swedish court, and strict laws prohibited a Prince from marrying a commoner. Princes who chose to disobey this law lost their royal titles and their place in the line of succession for themselves and for their future children. As at the time, the common belief was that Prince Bertil might one day become King, he chose to stay loyal to the Crown and to Sweden rather than marrying a commoner.

With the new King in place, modernization of the Swedish royal court occurred, including a modernization of the Constitution. As part of the new and younger King’s views, Prince Bertil, who had acted as his nephew’s deputy, was granted permission to marry his war-time love.

The wedding of Prince Bertil Gustaf Oskar Carl Eugén, Duke of Halland, to Lilian May Davies Craig took place on 7 December 1976 in the Palace Church of Drottningholm Palace. The now titled Princess Lilian, Duchess of Halland, wore a full-length structured coatdress in metallic silver-blue with a matching hat designed by her long-time friend Elizabeth Wondrak. She carried a bountiful bouquet of lilies of the valley. King Carl XVI Gustaf and his wife, Queen Silvia, attended the small ceremony.

Life as the married Duke and Duchess of Halland lasted 21 years—though their relationship had lasted more than 50 years. On 5 January 1997, Prince Bertil died at the couple’s home, Villa Solbacken, Djurgarden in Stockholm, with his longtime love at his side, holding his hand.

In the darkest time of her life, Princess Lillian found support in her niece, Queen Silvia who affectionately refers to her as “Auntie Lilian.” In an August 2000 Aftonbladet interview given in honour of her 85th birthday, Princess Lilian recalls: “Who do you think camped in a bed? Yes, Queen Silvia. Night after night. We talked and talked. Every morning Queen Silvia got up, kissed “auntie Lilian,” as she calls me, on the cheek and went into the office at the Royal Palace of Stockholm … The Queen is my dearest friend.”

Today, though her engagements are limited, Princess Lilian is the patron of several associations and organizations, including the SOS Barnbyar Sverige (Children’s Villages Sweden).

Beneath the elegant suits and dresses—pastels and pistachio green are best suited for the princess according to her designer friend Elizabeth Wondrak—Princess Lilian possesses a sly sense of humour (the best way to keep young aside from working hard, she says). During American President Ronald Regan’s term in Office, Prince Bertil and Princess Lilian were guests of President Regan. At the White House luncheon, Princess Lilian, who was seated next to Vice President George H. Bush, suggested to President Regan that he needed ketchup on his lunch. She pulled out a fake bottle of ketchup she had purchased from Buttericks (a known novelty store in Sweden) and squeezed the bottle and its fake contents onto President Regan, who was quite surprised as were his secret service agents until they realized that it was a joke. The President and Vice President erupted in laughter, and Vice President George H. Bush commented that Princess Lilian was the “world’s craziest royal.”



1: Lilian as a baby, a few months old, with mother Gladys Mary, 2: A young Lilian, 3: The first meeting with Prince Bertil, Lilian’s 28th birthday 30 August 1943, 4: Lilian and Bertil at a restaurant in New York in 1956, 5: Lilian and Bertil at a birthday party and masquerade with friends in 1968, 6: Lilian accepted at Court for the first time, here at King Gustaf VI Adolf’s 90th birthday in 1972, 7: Lilian and Bertil captured leaving the hospital in Helsingborg, shortly after the death of King Gustaf VI Adolf in 1973, 8: The wedding in 1976, 9: The wedding in 1976, 10: Lilian with Bertil, “The Motor Prince”

[GrandDuchess]

1: Lilian with Queen Silvia and her parents, Walther and Alice Sommerlath, at the Nobel Award Ceremony in 1981, 2: Lilian with the royal children, to who she is like a grandmother, 3: Lilian greeting Princess Margaret, in Sweden to open the “English Weeks” at a department store in 1985, 4: Lilian with Queen Silvia on her 73rd birthday in 1988, 5: Lilian and Bertil at Villa Mirage in St Maxime in July 1991, 6: Lilian and Bertil at Villa Mirage in St Maxime in July 1991, 7: Lilian and Bertil attending the Opening of Parliament together with the King and Queen in 1991, 8: Lilian and Bertil with the King and Queen in 1993, 9: Lilian with the late Harry Belafonte and wife, 10: Official portrait of Lilian and Bertil

[GrandDuchess]

1: Lilian and Bertil at Villa Mirage in St Maxime in June 1994, 2: Lilian awarding the prizes of the Stockholm Open to Boris Becker and Goran Ivanisevic in October 1994, 3: Lilian at the King’s dinner for the Nobel Laureates in December 1994, 4: Lilian with Crown Princess Victoria at the Opening of Parliament in 1995, 5: Lilian with Crown Princess Victoria at the State Banquet from Estonia in September 1995, 6: Lilian with the King, Queen and Crown Princess at the Nobel Award Ceremony in 1995, 7: Lilian at the Nobel Banquet in 1995, 8: Lilian and Bertil in their home Villa Solbacken on Royal Djurgården in March 1996, 9: Lilian with Stevie Wonder, recipient of The Polar Music Prize, in 1996, 10: Lilian with the King and Queen at the Crown Princess’ graduation in June 1996

[GrandDuchess]

1: Lilian at the Stockholm Open with Stefan Edberg in 1996, 2: Lilian at the celebrations of King Carl XVI Gustaf’s 50th birthday in 1996, 3: Lilian and Prince Carl Philip at the celebrations of King Carl XVI Gustaf’s 50th birthday in 1996, 4: Lilian with the King and Queen at the Nobel Award Ceremony in 1996, 5: Prince Bertil’s funeral in January 1997, 6: Prince Bertil’s funeral in January 1997, 7: Prince Bertil Lying-in-State at the Stockholm Cathedral in January 1997, 8: Lilian with Bruce Springsteen, recipient of The Polar Music Prize, and the founder Stikkan Carlsson, at the award ceremony of the prize in 1997, 9: Lilian with resident children of an SOS Children’s Village in Lithuania In 1997, 10: Lilian and Prince Carl Philip at the opening of the Prince Bertil Boules Course in St Maxime in July 1997

[GrandDuchess]

1: Lilian with the King, Queen, Prince Carl Philip and Princess Madeleine at the National Day in 1997, 2: Lilian at the Opening of Parliament in 1997, 3: Lilian with Crown Princess Victoria at the Opening of Parliament in 1997, 4: Lilian with Crown Princess Victoria at the welcoming of the State Visit from Russia in December 1997, 5: Lilian and the Queen speaking with President Jeltsin via interpreter at the gala dinner for the Russian State Visit to Sweden in December 1997, 6: Lilian next to the Queen, arriving at the King’s dinner for the Nobel Laureates in December 1997, 7: Lilian arm-in-arm with Crown Princess Victoria at the King’s dinner for the Nobel Laureates in December 1997, 8: Lilian with the King and Queen at the King’s birthday on 30 April 1998, 9: Lilian arm-in-arm with Princess Madeleine at the National Day on 6 June 1998, 10: Lilian arm-in-arm with the Queen during the State Visit from Argentina in May 1998

[GrandDuchess]

1: Lilian arriving with Crown Princess Victoria for the marking of the King’s 15th jubilee as King, 2: Lilian and the Queen arriving for the gala dinner for the State Visit from Iceland to Sweden in the end of November 1998, 3: Lilian with the King and Queen at the welcoming of President Grimson and the State Visit from Iceland to Sweden in the end of November 1998, 4: Lilian with the King and Queen at the Nobel Award Ceremony in December 1998, 5: Lilian at the Nobel Banquet in December 1998, 6: Lilian with the King, Queen and Crown Princess together with President Mandela and wife during the gala dinner for the State Visit from South Africa to Sweden in March 1999, 7: Lilian with the King, Queen and Crown Princess during the welcoming of President Mandela and the State Visit from South Africa to Sweden in March 1999, 8: Lilian with Crown Princess Victoria arriving for the Opening of Parliament in 1999, 9: Lilian and the Queen arriving for a dinner in October 1999, 10: Lilian and Prince Carl Philip at the celebrations of the new millennium at the Royal Palace on New Year’s Eve 1999