Crown Prince Alexander II, Crown Princess Katherine, Hereditary Prince Peter, Prince Philip and Prince Alexander all expressed their deepest sorrow at the passing of His Holiness Patriarch Pavle. They sent their sincere condolences to the Serbian Orthodox Church and its followers in Serbia and Worldwide.

Courtesy - royalfamily.org

The Royal Palace released the following statement from the Crown Prince: “I am deeply, deeply saddened to learn that His Holiness has surrendered his soul to our Lord. The Serbian people have lost a pious spiritual leader, whose death is especially devastating at the time when the future of Kosovo and Metohija, the cradles of the Serbian Orthodox Church, remains uncertain. My family joins me in expressing our deepest condolences and sympathy to the Serbian Orthodox Church and all its faithful in Serbia and worldwide and all citizens of Serbia”.

Patriarch Pavle died on 15 November, 2009, after more than two years spent in the Military Medical Academy in Belgrade. The Government of Serbia announced three days of national mourning over the death of the Patriarch. President Boris Tadić said that the patriarch’s death was an “irredeemable loss for the entire Serbian nation.” Condolences to the Serbian church, people and officials were sent by Russian Patriarch Kirill I, Bulgarian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Bartholomew I of Constantinople, Catholicos Karekin II of All Armenians, Archbishop Ieronymos II of Athens, Patriarch Daniel of Romania and numerous others. At least 40 days must pass after his death before a successor can be elected; meantime the authority of Patriarch will be held by Holy Synod while the Metropolitan Amfilohije will serve as the Guardian of the Throne.

The Serbian Royal Family has very close relationships with the Church; The Serbian Orthodox Church in general and Patriarch Pavle in particular have openly supported the restoration of the Monarchy.

Marsel Serbian Royals Death, Patriarch Pavle, Prince Alexander, Prince Alexander Jr, Prince Peter, Prince Philip of Serbia, Princess Katherine

Fürst Franz Josef II von und zu Liechtenstein died 20 years ago, on 13 November 1989; he has been the Head of State of the small Principality for 51 years, from 1938 to 1989, leading it during its evolution from a poor agricultural Country to one of the richest Nations in the World.

Prince Franz Josef was born in Schloss Frauenthal, Austria, on 16 August 1906, the eldest of the eight children of Prince Aloys (1869-1955) and Princess Elisabeth, née Archduchess of Austria (1878-1960); his paternal grandparents were Prince Alfred (1842-1907) and Princess Henriette (1843-1931; Alfred’s first cousin), while his maternal grandparents were Archduke Karl Ludwig of Austria (1833-1896) and his third wife Archduchess Maria Teresa, née Infanta of Portugal (1855-1944). Franz Josef was named after his godfather and maternal great-uncle, the Emperor of Austria.

Fürst Franz Josef II - source: Presse- und Informationsamt, Vaduz

Prince Franz Josef was born during the very long reign of his great-uncle Fürst Johannes II (a brother of Princess Henriette); in 1923 Prince Aloys, then 3^rd in the Line of Succession, renounced his rights, and in 1929 the deaths of Aloys’ elder brother and of Fürst Johannes left Franz Josef the first in the Line of Succession after his great-uncle Fürst Franz I (the younger brother of Princes Johannes II and Henriette).

On 30 March 1938 Fürst Franz I turned over the regency to Prince Franz Joseph, and died four months later, on 25 July 1938; Franz Josef became the Ruling Prince of Liechtenstein.

His accession happened in a very negative moment: the 1928 bankruptcy of the Liechtensteinian Sparkasse left the Government without money and very close to the bankrupt, and the 1929 economical crisis worsened further on the economical situation of the whole Country; moreover in 1938 the German Nazi government occupied Austria, and several lands and possessions of the Princely Family in that country were expropriated. Read more…

MAfan Historical Royals, Liechtenstein Royals Anniversary, Biography, Death, Franz Josef II

Indian princess Gayatri Devi could have just relaxed in her life of luxury. Instead she won three elections, ran a stud farm and started schools for girls. She was also a campaigner for democracy and women’s rights. The princess died aged 90 on July 29 this year.

Raised in an opulent palace with 500 servants, she spent holidays in London and Europe. There her family mixed with the British Royal family and the social elite.

At just 20 she married Sawai Man Singh, the Maharaja of Jaipur, in a famous wedding in 1939. His family looked down on her Cooch-Behar connections and her family didn’t like his already having two wives. The handsome young man had been practically forced to marry these wives so he spent most of his time with the princess who was called one of the ten most beautiful women in the world. A writer in Vogue called her ‘a dream in sari and jewels.’

The Maharaji ruled over more than two million people until India’s independence from Great Britain in 1947. The princess set fashion trends, met Jackie Kennedy and other important people, and held extravagant parties. She was painted by Cecil Beaton.

In 1962 she won a seat in parliament, gaining one of the largest majorities in Indian history. She won elections three times but eventually she had a conflict with Indira Gandhi over Gandhi’s socialist policies. She was put in jail for five months on what many thought were trumped up charges of tax-evasion.

Her husband died on the polo field in 1970. In 1975 she retired from politics, but she continued to support charities, run her farm, and run the Maharani Gayatri Devi Girl’s School, one of the schools that she started. The talented princess also wrote books, including her memoirs, A Princess Remembers.

She tragically had to face the death of her only son, Jagat Singh, who had abused drug and alcohol in the nineteen-nineties. She remained resilient, however, still entering society. She loved cricket and riding. The princess wanted to see the Keira Knightley film, ‘The Duchess’, according to actress, Sharmira Tagore, who married the cricketer, Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi.

The princess, ‘a picture of beauty and grace’, will be greatly missed.

attaininggrace Other Mediatized Royals Biography, Books, Death, Gayatri Devi, Maharaja of Jaipur

Several days ago, “De Morgen” newspaper announced the death of Queen Fabiola on their website.

courtesy of Telegraph

The announcement read: “Sixteen years after the death of her husband King Baudouin, Her Majesty passed away at the age of 81. Her health has been frail in the last few years and the pneumonia she suffered from recently proved fatal”.

The Royal Palace was quick to deny the news and the “De Morgen” apologized for the mistake. This is not the first time Queen Fabiola’s death was erroneously declared: earlier in January, VRT and Gazet van Antwerpen made a similar mistake, issuing premature arbitraries.

This is a very unfortunate time for such mistakes as there has been an increasing concern for Her Majesty’s health; just about two weeks ago, the Palace announced that Queen Fabiola will not attend any official functions in near future because of her frail health.

Queen Fabiola is currently recovering in Spain.

For more news and information about the Queen, visit this thread.

Marsel Belgian Royals Death, Health, Media, Queen Fabiola

On Monday the 26th, the former Head of the Household of H.M. the King, Don Sabino Fernandez Campo, Count of Latores, died in Madrid. He was a very beloved man in Spain, and was 91 years old.

View the image at El Mundo

Don Sabino was born in Oviedo on March 17, 1918. After a military career, he started his work at the Royal House in 1977 as General Secretary and from 1990 to 1993, he become the Head of the Househld. He developed an important role in the Spanish life as the Head of the Household. He made main decisions in Royal Family’s institutional work, and he was a key person in Prince Felipe’s education.

He was the closest man to King Juan Carlos during the Spanish state coup on the 23rd of February 1981, when almost 200 members of the Guardia Civil stormed the Congreso de los Diputados and staged a coup while Congress was in the process of electing a new Prime Minister.

Don Sabino was great defender of democracy during those difficult moments and a very loyal person. “My role always has been secondary; it’s been characterized for being always next to someone, never above. To be secondary is never to want occupy the principal position, but to advise well and to be always at service,” he said about himself.

On 1992, King Juan Carlos granted the nobility title of Count of Latores for his “long and brilliant career of out-standing, military and civil services to Spain”.

The Count of Latores was buried yesterday in Oviedo, his homeland. Today the Royal Family will hold a funeral at Pardo Palace church, which will be attended by Don Sabino’s relatives and the Royal Family.

Paty Spanish Royals Death, King Juan Carlos, Royal Staff

Fürstin Ruth Erika zu Löwenstein-Wertheim-Freudenberg died on October 15, aged 87.

Arms of Löwenstein-Wertheim

She was born June 25, 1922 at Schloss Buggenhagen, her family seat. Her parents were Hans Detlef von Buggenhagen and Ruth Baronin von Resenberg. When her only brother died in 1941, Ruth Erika devoted herself to running their family estate. However, after World War II, the territory of the estate was annexed into the territory of the newly created German Democratic Republic, and her family was forced to flee to West Germany.

After a brief courtship, she married Alfred-Ernst, the Hereditary Prince of Löwenstein-Wertheim-Freudenber on September 9, 1950. Prince Alfred-Ernst was the son of Udo VI Fürst zu Löwenstein-Wertheim-Freudenberg and Margarethe Gräfin zu Castell-Castell. After Fürst Udo’s death in 1980, Prince Alfred-Ernst became Alfred-Ernst VII Fürst zu Löwenstein-Wertheim-Freudenberg. The couple had 5 children:

1) Ludwig Udo Hans Peter Alfred Prinz zu Löwenstein-Wertheim-Freudenberg, born May 24, 1951. He married Verena von Stulpnagel-Dargitz in 1976. The marriage was childless and ended in divorce. In 1987, he married Elisabeth Pauline von Waldburg Gräfin zu Wolfegg und Waldsee, the daughter of Ludwig Karl von Waldburg Graf zu Wolfegg und Waldsee and Stephanie Pauline Prinzessin von Schönburg-Waldenburg. They are parents to 3 children: Sophie Prinzessin zu Löwenstein-Wertheim-Freudenberg (born September 1, 1988), Amelie Prinzessin zu Löwenstein-Wertheim-Freudenberg (born August 15, 1990) and Ludwig Prinz zu Löwenstein-Wertheim-Freudenberg (born June 30, 1994).

Read more…

Marsel German Royals Biography, Death, Fürstin Ruth Erika, Löwenstein-Wertheim-Freudenberg

 20 years ago, on the 18th of October 1989, Her Serene Highness Fürstin Gina von und zu Liechtenstein died in Grabs, Switzerland, aged 67. She had been for 46 years the wife of Fürst Franz Josef II, and therefore the mother of the present Fürst Hans Adam II.

Fürstin Gina - click to see at geneall.net

Countess Georgine “Gina” Norberte Johanna Franziska Antonie Marie Raphaela von Wilczek was born on 24 October 1921 in Graz, the only daughter and child of Count Ferdinand von Wilczek and his wife, born Countess Norbertine Kinsky von Wchinitz und Tettau; her mother died when Gina was only 17 months.

The then Countess grew up in Austria, and studied at the university in Vienna to become an interpreter.

In 1942 she met Fürst Franz Josef II von und zu Liechtenstein, who was a fourth cousin of Gina, and they married in Vaduz  the following year, on 7 March 1943; Franz Josef was 36 years old, Gina only 21; together they had five children, four sons and a daughter: Hans Adam, the present Fürst von und zu Liechtenstein, born in 1945; Philipp, born in 1946; Nikolaus, born in 1947; Norberta “Nora”, born in 1950, and twelve years later, in 1962, Franz Josef Wenzeslaus “Wenzel”. All their children except Wenzel, who has tragically died unmarried in 1991, have married and have children.

Franz Josef and Gina were very loved among the people in Liechtenstein: they were the first princely couple to live full-time in the little Country, and under the reign of Franz Josef the economy of the Principality developed, making Liechtenstein a very rich contry. Moreover the two Princes were somehow complementary: while Franz Josef was a very friendly but shy person, Gina was very warm, cordial, expansive and sociable, helping the Princely Family to be more popular among the people. Read more…

MAfan Historical Royals, Liechtenstein Royals Anniversary, Biography, Death, Fürstin Gina

 Her Royal Highness Magdalene, Princess Hubertus of Prussia, died on Saturday, 10 October 2009, in Schloss Löwenstein in Kleinheubach. She was 89 years old.

Click to see at preussen.de

Princess Magdalene Pauline Reuss zu Köstritz was born at Leipzig on 20 August 1920, the eldest daughter of Prince Heinrich XXXVI Reuss zu Köstritz and his wife Hermine, née Princess von Schönburg-Waldenburg; Princess Magdalene had a younger sister, Caroline, Countess von Wedel. On 5 June 1943 Magdalene married Prince Hubertus of Prussia in Schloss Prillwitz. Hubertus was the third son of Crown Prince Wilhelm of Prussia and of his wife Crown Princess Cecilie, née Duchess of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, and grandson of the last German Emperor Wilhelm II; Prince Hubertus was previously married to Baroness Maria von Humboldt-Dachroeden, from whom he had divorced some months before the wedding to Magdalene.

Hubertus and Magdalene had together two children, both daughters: Princess Anastasia and Princess Marie Christine. The eldest, Anastasia, was born in 1944, and is married since 1965 to Fürst Aloys-Konstantin zu Löwenstein-Wertheim-Rosenberg; the youngest daughter, Marie Christine, was born in 1947, and died aged 19 in 1966 from the injuries resulting from a car accident. Prince Hubert died of appendicitis in 1950 in South Africa, aged 41, leaving Magdalene alone with their two daughters; Magdalene never remarried.

Princess Magdalene will be buried next to her husband in the St.Michaels Bastei, near to Burg Hohenzollern.

To learn more about the Prussian Royal Family look at this thread; to read the announcement of her death look at the official website of the Prussian Royal Family (in german).

MAfan German Royals Death, Princess Magdalene, Prussia

A memorial service was held today to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the assassination of King Alexander I of Yugoslavia.

View more pictures from the memorial service

The ceremony was attended by members of the Yugoslavian (Serbian) Royal Family, including Crown Prince Alexander II, Crown Princess Katherine, Prince Philip, Prince Vladimir and Princess Brigitta. Also in attendance were Serbian President Boris Tadic and Minister of Defense Dragan Sutanovac. The remembrance service was followed by an exhibition dedicated to King Alexander, named “The path of King Alexander – a statesman and a warrior”.

Earlier today, Crown Prince Alexander II and Prince Philip, along with Serbian Foreign Minister and Serbian Ambassador to France Dusan Batakovic, attended a remembrance service for the late King and the late Monsieur Louis Barthou in Marseille, France. King Alexander I was assassinated in Marseille during a State Visit to France; Monsieur Louis Barthou, then French Foreign Minister, was killed alongside the King. The official state ceremony was organized by the French Government at exactly the same location the assassination took place.

After wreath laying ceremony, Crown Prince Alexander said it was a day of sorrow and mourning for him and for former Yugoslavia. Vuk Jeremic, Serbian Minister of Foreign Affairs, also paid his respects to the late King: “King Alexander was a victim of fascism and terrorism, bullets fired at him were fired at our country and European peace. King Alexander I was a Unifier, a man with deep respect for the history of his nation and profound vision of unity and integrations, which made him the first true European leader in our history”.

The assassination of King Alexander shocked Yugoslavia and the world. Alexander I was a much-loved Monarch. He led the country though times of turmoil, including the Balkan War and World War I, and was instrumental in the unification of Southern Slavs into the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. In recognition of his efforts, the National Parliament named him Knight-King Alexander the Unifier. Hundreds of thousands of people lined the streets along the funeral route to pay their respects.

For more information about Serbian (Yugoslavian) Royals, visit this thread.

Marsel Serbian Royals Alexander I, Assassination, Death, France, Memorial, Prince Alexander, Prince Philip of Serbia

Click to read the article from BBC News

 Ertuğrul Osman Osmanoğlu, the oldest member of the Ottoman dynasty, died in Istanbul at the age of 97. Osmanoğlu had been hospitalized with renal and respiratory failure and died of kidney failure on Wednesday evening. The Prince’s wife, Her Imperial Highness Zeynep Tarzi Hanım Efendi said: “He died at around 8:30 PM. His family was by his bedside all the time”. Although no decision has yet been made concerning the funeral, it is expected to be held on Saturday in Istanbul.

Ertuğrul Osman, who is often called ‘the last Ottoman’ in Turkey, was the Head of the Imperial House of Osman, which ruled the Ottoman Empire from 1281 to 1922, and would have eventually become Sultan had the Ottoman Empire not been replaced by the modern Turkish Republic.

He was born as His Imperial Highness Prince Şehzade Ertuğrul Osman Efendi in 1912 at Yildiz Palace, Istanbul. He was the youngest son of HIH Prince Şehzade Mehmed Burhaneddin Efendi and his first wife Aliye Melek Nazlıyar Hanım Efendi, and the grandson of Sultan Abdul Hamid II by his fourth wife. At the age of 10, Osmanoğlu went to Vienna for education: it was there the 12-year-old boy learn of the collapse of the Ottoman Empire and establishment of the Turkish Republic.

A decade later, Osmanoğlu moved to New York, where he lived in a two-bedroom flat above a restaurant for more than 60 years. He was married twice; his first wife was HIH Gulda Twerskoy Hanım Efendi. After her death, he married HIH Zeynep Tarzi Hanım Efendi in 1991. Princess Zeynep Tarzi is the daughter of Prince Abdulfettah Tarzi and niece of former King of Afghanistan Amanullah Khan.

Read more…

Marsel Ottoman Royals Biography, Death, Ertuğrul Osman Osmanoğlu