Various royals flocked to Stockholm these past two days, to attend events to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the United Nations’ Rights of the Child convention.

View the image at royalcourt.se

A private seminar on the celebration was held at the Royal Palace of Stockholm early on Thursday November 19th, and was attended by a large group of royal women: Queen Silvia, Crown Princess Victoria and Princess Madeleine, Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands, Queen Paola of Belgium, Queen Sofia of Spain, Grand Duchess Maria Teresa of Luxembourg, Crown Princess Mary of Denmark and Crown Princess Mette-Marit of Norway.

The group was joined by Crown Princess Margarita of Romania and Crown Princess Katherine of Yugoslavia for a visit to Barncentrum, a children’s centre in Stockholm. The centre provides assaulted and abused children a place where they can come and receive treatment from all the authorities which are involved in such a case (paediatricians, socials workers, therapists, police and prosecutors) in the one place. According to Swedish newspaper DN, the royals were told of a twelve-year-old girl’s story of being abused by her father, and how the centre assisted in the man receiving a ten year jail sentence for his actions.

View the image at Svensk Dam

On Thursday evening, a jubilee concert was hosted by the Swedish Ministry of Health and Social Affairs at Berwald Hall in Stockholm. All the royal visitors attended, as well as King Carl XVI Gustaf, the two Swedish princess’ fiancés (Daniel Westling and Jonas Bergström) and Princess Christina, Mrs Magnuson. Speeches were given by Queen Silvia and Göran Hägglund, Sweden’s Minister for Health and Social Affairs. The Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra performed for the event, as well as a dance performance by the Lasse Kühlers Dansskola.

The following day, Friday November 20th, a government conference had been organised and was once again attended with a large royal contingent at the Radisson Blu Royal Park Hotel in Frösundavik. The conference was organised through the framework of the Swedish Presidency of the European Union.

Click here to view the thread at TRF.

JessRulz Belgian Royals, Danish Royals, Dutch Royals, Luxembourg Royals, Norwegian Royals, Spanish Royals, Swedish Royals Children, Grand Duchess Maria Teresa, Princess Madeleine, Princess Mary, Princess Mette-Marit, Princess Victoria, Queen Beatrix, Queen Paola, Queen Silvia, Queen Sofia, United Nations

The experiences the Scandinavian heirs made during the travel to Svalbard and Greenland will be published in a book. Crown Prince Haakon, Crown Princess Victoria and Crown Prince Frederik have written an own chapter about the impressions they got during the journeys.

Click at the image to read an article at Kongehuset.no

In summer 2008 the 3 Scandinavian heirs visited Svalbard. They went aboard an icebreaker to get better impressions of the climate change in the Arctic.

In summer 2009 they went on a trip to Greenland. There they focus on the climate change and it’s consequences.

The book, which includes the Royal experiences, is called “Royal polar expedition”. It is a result of the ravels and is published in Denmark, Norway and Sweden.

The proceeds from the book will go to charity.

Click here to see a video about the Royal Arctic experiences.

Her_Majesty Danish Royals, Norwegian Royals, Swedish Royals Book Review, Books, International Polar Year, Prince Frederik, Prince Haakon, Princess Victoria

Crown Princess Victoria paid a visit to Kenya from November 11th to 14th. During the first day the Princess inaugurated the Conference of Climate Change Day, that is the biggest event during the Swedish EU presidency in Kenya.

Later the day she attended the opening of the Victoria Trade Council offices in Nairobi. There she took part in a colorful danshow with Maasai.

Click at the image to see a gallery at Svenskdam.se

Princess Victoria mainly visited Kenya to inaugurate a school built by Gundua Foundation. The Crown Princess is a patron of the school. The Gundua secondary school in ex-Lewa provides more children the chance to educate themselves, although they live poor conditions.

During her last day in Kenya Victoria met the professor and 2004 Nobel Peace Prize winner Wangari Maathai. The women planted a tree as a symbol of the friendship between Kenya and Sweden. The Princess visited a Swedish school in Nairobi. Many children wanted to meet the Princess, who recieved flowers and gifts and took the time to answer the childrens’ questions.

You can find a thread about the visit to Kenya here.

Her_Majesty Swedish Royals Children, Kenya, Official Visit, Princess Victoria

    Last Friday, October 9th, members of several royal houses descended upon the tiny principality of Monaco to attend the European Organization for the Research and Treatment of Cancer gala.

Click to see the gallery at Svenskdam

HSH Prince Albert II, the Sovereign Prince of Monaco played host to HRH The Crown Princess of Sweden, TRH Princess Astrid and Prince Lorenz of Belgium, and TRH Prince Guillaume and Princess Sibilla of Luxembourg for the charity gala, which was held at the Opera Garnier in the Monte Carlo Casino. Camilla of Bourbon Two-Sicilies, Duchess of Castro was also in attendance.

Prior to the gala, Prince Albert and Crown Princess Victoria shared a drink at the Prince’s Palace of Monaco, the official residence of the Monégasques Sovereign. Albert later described his meeting with Victoria, “wonderful and fantastic” to a Swedish reporter. Princess Victoria also stated, “it will be a wonderful evening,” upon her arrival to the Casino, while posing for photos on the red carpet before heading inside.

Speeches were given by both Prince Albert and Princess Astrid.

Click to see the gallery at Svenskdam

Princess Astrid is the Honorary Chairwoman of the EORTC Charitable Trust, which sees its headquarters in Brussels, Belgium. Prince Guillaume is also a member of the General Assembly of the EORTC Charitable Trust. The EORTC was founded in 1976 in Belgium, and is a multinational organisation which currently sees its operations underway in over thiry countries.

Click here, here, here and here for the various current events thread of the royals in attendance, where more information and pictures are available.

JessRulz Belgian Royals, Luxembourg Royals, Monaco Royals, Swedish Royals Cancer, Patronage, Prince Albert II, Prince Guillaume, Prince Lorenz, Princess Astrid of Belgium, Princess Sibilla, Princess Victoria

In November the book “Victoria – rottning med tiden” (Victoria – Queen of the time”) will be released. Author Herman Lindqvist takes the readers to a journey through the life of Sweden’s next Queen: Crown Princess Victoria. The book also deals with her struggle for love, the secret meetings and Daniel Westling’s illness and about her starting a family.

Click here to see the cover of the book

Herman Lindqvist was Victoria’s private history teacher and the Royal Family of Sweden feels confident with him. It’s a good time to release a book about Victoria, marking next year’s big wedding and also the 200th throne anniversary of the Bernadotte dynasty.

In the book you can read among others about Queen Silvia and King Carl Gustaf’s concerns for the selection of their daughter’s boyfriend. Victoria says: “They wanted to clear that I would get the best possible support and backing for my job now and in the future. How could they know that Daniel could give me that? How would he do it?”

The book “Victoria – Queen of the time” is available to buy in shops from 17 November. A thread about the book can be found here.

Her_Majesty Swedish Royals Biography, Book Review, Princess Victoria

Click at the image to see a gallery at belga

Today the Royal Family of Sweden attended the annual opening of the House of the Parliament in Stockholm. It was pened shorty after two o’clock in the afternoon. The men attended the opening in dark suits and ties, the women in dark dresses and hats. The Royal woman are always dressed in dark colours, in an intentional homage to the old court dress, which was worn until 1974 and was made of black velvet with white detailing.

The day started with a church service in the Stockholm Cathedral. At 1 o’clock the Army Music Corps played and the Grenadiers from the Life Guards paraded at the Parliament grounds. A folk dance danced inside the Parliament and folk musicians and music classes sung.

Around 2 o’clock King Carl XVI Gustaf, Queen Silvia, CP Victoria, Prince carl Phillip and Princess Madeleine arrived with a royal cortège. They were greeted by the Speaker of the Parliament. The King held a short speech and declared the Parliament open.

You can find information and pictures of the event in this thread.

Her_Majesty Swedish Royals Carl XVI Gustaf, Parliament, Prince Carl Philip, Princess Madeleine, Princess Victoria, Queen Silvia

Click to see the image at Daylife

After spending three days in Belgium for the opening of an exhibition with the Belgian Crown Prince and Princess, HRH Crown Princess Victoria has moved on to the Mediterranean. Her first stop has been Athens, Greece, for the opening of the new Acropolis Museum and the opening of Swedish Design Exhibition.

It was in Athens yesterday that the Crown Princess was welcomed by Greek President Karolos Papoulias at the entrance to the new museum, before the duo, accompanied by the Greek First Lady, posed in front of the Acropolis hill. Victoria was then given a tour of the new museum, and took an interest in ancient Greek sculptures.

The evening saw Princess Victoria officially open the Swedish Design Exhibition in Athens, where she again took a keen interest in the pieces on show. The Crown Princess was even spotted looking and pointing under a table which is apart of the exhibition, providing photographers with some humorous shots.

HRH will travel to Cyprus later this week. Her current events thread can be found here.

JessRulz Swedish Royals Exhibition, Greece, Official Visit, President Papoulias, Princess Victoria

Click to see belga gallery

Yesterday, 09 Sept., Prince Philippe and Princess Mathilde of Belgium and Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden officially opened the exhibition “It’s our Earth 2. From Kyoto to Copenhagen” at Tour & Taxis in Brussels. This is the new edition of the exhibition “It’s our Earth”,  which focused on sustainable energy and development. Because of the great demand, the original exhibition was reopened, under the new name and with new emphasis on the influence of the human presence on the Earth, biodiversity, global warming and other contemporary issues.

The royals want to show their support for the efforts that are being undertaken to make people conscious of the need to change their habits, to counter global warming, climate change, and everything entailed in it.

In the afternoon, Prince Philippe and Princess Victoria attended the conference “Climate and Jobs – The EU’s Global Agenda”. The conference was organized by Sweden. The country is currently President of the Council of the European Union.

For more information on the exhibition, see here.
For pictures and a discussion of the visit, see here and here.

LadyLeana Belgian Royals, Swedish Royals Climate Change, Exhibition, Prince Philippe, Princess Mathilde, Princess Victoria

Yesterday evening King Carl XVI Gustaf, Queen Silvia and Crown Princess Victoria attended the annual Polar Music Prize.

Click at the image to get to the official homepage of the PMP

This year’s winners of the Prize were José Antonio Abreu & El Sistema Citation and Peter Gabriel Citation. You can read something about the winners at the official homepage of the Polar Music Prize, which can be found here: Polar Music Prize 2009

After the ceremony a banquet was hosted at Grand Hotel.

Click at image to see it at Zimbio

The Polar Music Prize was founded in 1989 by Stig Anderson, the producer and manager of ABBA. The prize was named after Anderson´s record label “Polar Music”.

Every year, Laureates from a wide range of countries, cultures and continents recieve the Prize in Stockholm from the hand of the King of Sweden.

Her_Majesty Swedish Royals Awards, Carl XVI Gustaf, Music, Polar Music Prize, Princess Victoria, Queen Silvia

The Swedish Royal Court has announced the names of the four bishops who will preside over the wedding of HRH Crown Princess Victoria and Daniel Westling in June 2010.

Archbishop Anders Wejryd will officiate the ceremony, which will take place at Storkyrkan in Gamla Stan. He will be assisted by Bishop Emeritus Lars-Göran Lönnermark, Bishop Antje Jackelén and Dean [Vicar] Åke Bonnier.

According to the press release, each Bishop was asked personally by HM the King to officiate at the wedding, shortly after the couple’s February 24 engagement.

The news was released earlier than planned by the Royal Court, after Kyrkans Tidning announced the Archbishop’s role in the wedding on Saturday.

The official wedding information thread can be found here, while a thread for media musings can be found here.

JessRulz Swedish Royals Daniel Westling, Princess Victoria, Wedding